3 others French podcasts I'd like to share 3 others podcasts that I listen to in French : 1. Les agités I’m happy when I can find resources that can help me teaching French. This podcast is addressed to (French) teachers. I really like it but it won’t be your cup of tea unless you are interested in learning process & kind of behind the scene of teachers. If you are interested, give a try to this one which is about pronunciation: https://agi.to/podcast/la-phonetique-en-jouant/ 2. Libre Antenne on Europe 1 This one is a radio program and you can listen to as a podcast as well. I haven’t listen to this one for a while now, but there was a time where I listen to it almost every day. After fews months, I’ve been a bit bored of it, but I’m sure you can make good use for your French. People call the radio host (which is a psychologist) in the evening to speak about their problems. I think it can be useful for intermediate learners because : -it’s about everyday stories of people, they use everyday vocabulary ; -the psychologist pays attention to the words she uses, so it can be easier for you to understand her ; -the program is divided in several stories, so even if the podcast lasts more than 1 hour, you can listen to only one or two stories. Here is the link of the website : http://www.europe1.fr/emissions/libre-antenne 3. Soft Power on France Culture This one is also broadcast on French radio (France Culture). That program is about the mutation of the world (technologies, news habits,...). As I really like bookstore, I can’t help but put down the link of this episode : https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/soft-power/soft-power-dimanche-24-decembre-2017 but you’ll find other episodes here : https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/soft-power/saison-28-08-2017-08-07-2018 .

My 2 French favorites podcasts My 2 French favorites podcasts As I work quite far away from my home, I need to commute 2 hours a day (it’s quite common living in Paris). It gives me plenty of time to listen to podcasts. Because of the noisy metro I need something that doesn’t require some much focus on and so, I mainly listen to French podcasts instead of English one. Here, is the list of 2 French podcasts I like to listen to. If you are at an intermediate level of French, it could be quite hard to understand them as they are address to native speakers. But don’t be discouraged, if it’s hard, it means your are improving. If there is one podcast that you like, I’ll be happy to help you to understand it. 1. Nouvelle Ecole by Antonin Archer As the title suggest, this podcast is like a “new school” with the goal to learn something from interviews. I really like this podcast and never miss one episode. Antonin interviews every week a person who inspire him. He is really good at, I like the way he formulates his questions and the flow of the interviews. If you want to know who is Antonin, you can discover here while practise your french reading: http://nouvelleecole.org/a-propos/ If you don’t know which episode listen to first, you can start by this one : http://nouvelleecole.org/44-mathieu-nebra-comment-trouver-ce-quon-aime/ It’s an interview of Mathieu Nebra who has created an online school “OpenClassrooms”. ; and as I’m really into online learning, I like this episode. To help you, first read the introduction on the page and go through the summary , so that you know what to expect. 2. Transfert - podcast from Slate, by Charlotte Pudlowski This podcast is really different from the previous one but I’m also keen on and I don’t miss an episode. It’s about ordinary people telling their stories, all are real, some are sad, some are fighting, some are weird but all have the goal to make you think. I’m not really into listening books on Audible. I’ve tried several times, but the voice of the narrator are always too much inexpressive. However, in this podcast, the editing is perfect and make you want to know the end of the story. Music is also perfect. I can’t imagine the crazy work behind each episodes. If you don’t know where to start, try this one : http://www.slate.fr/podcast/154508/mal-gerer-stress-degenerer-mensonge

My last reading The first time I heard about Anne-Dauphine Julliand was on YouTube. A young woman - who created the channel “Les Gracieuses” has made a video about her, in the categorie “the prodigious”. Here is the link (in French) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPiH6ZQOucg&t=5s . The story of Anne-Dauphine touched me. When she was pregnant of her third child, she discovered that her second child had an incurable disease. The baby to come had 1 risk to develop the disease as well. When I watched that video, I wanted to learn more about that woman and I looked for interviews. She is very calm and she tries to find positivity everywhere. Her daughters teach her to live in the present time. I learnt that she wrote a book about her story. It was in my list of the books that I want to read until I find it in my apartment last week, by chance, the previous tenant has left it. I read it in just one day. I couldn’t stop reading it. I recommend to you to read it.

Eating of everything I don’t know if we can say that in English : “to eat of everything”. It’s a literal translation of French, that we use, to say that someone eats various things, like vegetables, meat, pizza, whatever,...in other words “to be omnivorous”. I’ve always perceived that as a quality. That would mean I’m not picky. It has been in my education that is good to eat different things. That perception is now changing for me. Depending of the culture, people eat meat, maybe cows, maybe rabbits or maybe dogs ; or derivative products from animals. Now, I wonder why I eat meat. Except the fact that it’s in my culture, why do I eat an animal that was killed for me ? I had some answers that fallen out: Explanation 1 : I need protein, so I need meat. “Of course”, I need meat, otherwise, why I’d have eaten meat for years? After some researches, I found out that I can have protein from other kind of food. Explanation 2 : humans have eaten meat for ever and animals eat each other, so why we wouldn't ? But we are not animals, we’ve evolved. Things change. Actually, for me, it’s not so hard to not eating meat anymore. Even though I loved the smell of a roasted chicken, I loved seafood, I used to eat my meat the bloody way, but now just as the thought of the animal, it disgusts me and I’ve no effort to do to stop eating that. Moreover, I really like other foods, houmous, lentil, pasta,... I still eat of everything. I just excluded product from animal. My brain wave was when I was at table for lunch with a coworker. We were speaking about cows and I naively asked how long does a cow live. He told me quite naturally that cows don’t reach their life expectancy. And at that moment I remember we ordered beef for lunch. When plate arrived I was disgusted. After that I made a lot of research, I find an article about the way fish die, and I stop eating animal who’d suffer for my taste.

How I’ve started teaching French as a second language I moved to Dallas in 2015. At that time, my goal was just to improve my English, and hopefully to find a job in a few months in accounting, the area in which I’m certified. After looking for face-to-face English classes in Dallas, I discovered the “fabulous world of Edtech” and websites as Italki. I took an English class and thought that I could teach French. I’ve no specific diploma for teaching French (although I’m really interested by taking an exam to be certified in this area ) but I love teaching since I’m a child - starting by playing school with my 7-years-younger brother and above all, I design French classes as I’d love someone teach me English at school. First thing, learning a language is not easy and it takes time. So I do my best to be really patient while taking care to telling you every little mistake you do. Actually, it’s the way parent do with their child :) I would like someone tell me all my mistakes. Okay, maybe 80% of them - as the Pareto rule works : 80% of the mistakes that require 20% of your efforts. I left the 20% of mistakes that requires 80% of efforts out. Secondly, pronunciation is neglected during collective class. So, I take the advantage to be one-to-one with you to focus on your pronunciation. That can be done by correcting your speech during casual conversation, or by practicing reading or tongue-twister. Last but not least, I mainly use French during the class, even if you are a beginner. To do that, I use an interactive document ; so that, if you don’t understand what I’m saying, and after giving you synonyms in French I would write it down instead of translating it. Of course, I will explain it if it happen to be a new word for you. Finally, I’ve find out that I love teaching French online ; it’s a perfect combination of teaching, culture and digital. I’ve continued to teach after leaving Dallas, but unfortunately I have now less time for it.

How I learn English I’d like to share with you how I’m currently learning English. Although we all have different kind of learning, I hope you could find some ideas you could use yourself. Idea 1 : for each class that I book, I consecrate at least one hour of study by myself I try to have 4 hours of classes of English each week. I book one class each day that I don’t work, which is on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Actually, it’s a bit unrealistic, but nevermind, it’s my goal, because 4 hours a week is only 2,3% of the week ! Also, for each class (which are conversational classes) I try to consecrate 1h of studying by myself : Just before the class : I devote 15 min to review the vocab of the previous class Just after the class : I take 15 min to review the new vocab (I look for it in the dictionary, I take time to be sure I understand how to use it with sentences) During the week : I need at least 30 min for preparing a topic that will be the subject of the class. Idea 2 : LIVE in your target language As I said, 4 hours a week, is only 2,3% of my week and even if I double that time by working by myself before and after the class, it’s still only 4,6% of the week. I really don’t think that could be enough to improve language skills.. I noticed that I took the “bad” habit to do all my readings on internet or my binge watching of Youtube videos in French. I’ve started to change it and switch it for English. I’ve bought books in topics that I like, I’ve saved videos in my favorite on Netflix and I’ve subscribed to English speakers on YouTube and on my application for Podcast. Idea 3 : Try different materials / teachers / hours I used to take my English classes early on the morning because it was more convenient for me. Once, I had to change and I took a class on the evening. It was actually more useful because my brain worked on it during the night. When I take a class on the morning, I quickly have other activities to do and all the “benefits” of the class are replaced by other thoughts. I also try to have different teachers because they have different ways of teaching and their specialities. But… now it’s the holiday season and so, my plan is hindered in December. I’ll get it back in January. Key points: 1 For one class (of speaking) I devote one hour of self study 2 I do the most that I can in my target language 3 I use different materials, speak with different teachers & work at different time of the day

About the movie "Room" Today is August 31st. I would like to practice my English writing skill. I watched a Canadian-Irish movie yesterday, called “Room”. I will reveal some details of the movie below, so don’t read it if you want to watch it. It is the story of a woman who was kidnapped and enclosed in a “room” seven years before the beginning of the plot. By this time, she had a child, who is 5 years old and enclosed with her in the shelter. As her child is 5, she thinks is big enough to understand there is a life outside of the walls and she decides to escape with him. She teaches him to fake death, so that the kidnapper (who also is his father) will take him outside of the room to buried him. She explains her child that he will have to jump from the truck and he has to give a note that she has written to anyone he will see in the street. The scene in the truck is very frightening. Fortunately, the plan succeed and the police also found the woman thanks to the explanation of the boy. The next part of the movie describes how they acclimate themselves to the world after all this years captured. It is a very beautiful movie, extremely touching, showing the relationship between the mother and the child. By the end of the movie, we can see than the mother have more difficulties than her child to return in the real life. But her child helps her with very simple children words to go through this time and to continue life.

Using slang when we speak another language than our native one In France, parents try to teach their children a "correct" French. For example, they correct their children when they say "Ouais" instead of "Oui". They correct them when they say "Hein ?" or "Quoi " instead of "Pardon ?". When I hear french learners overusing "ouais" to seem cool, it looks weird for me. It doesn't sound natural when a non native speaker use (too much) slang. I think, it is important to know slang in a foreign language because you will hear it and you have to understand it but I don't think that using it is good. Is it the same thing in other languages ? For example in English, if an English learner always says "yep" instead of "yes", do you think it is weird ?

Just one or two sentences If you want to ask someone if he or she agrees at the end of a sentence, you can say "isn't it" ? For example : "what a beautiful day, isn't it ?"