Paris insolite

Envie de rencontrer des Parisiens hors du commun ? 

Rendez-vous sur www.brevesdetrottoirs.com 

Réalisé par le journaliste Olivier Lambert et le photographe Thomas Salva, ce travail a été spécialement conçu pour Internet.

Sur le site, vous trouverez un plan de Paris avec des portraits. Cliquez sur l’un deux* pour découvrir un petit film sur un personnage étonnant. Entre Katja, la coiffeuse de 78 ans, Léo le libraire, Caroline, l’exploratrice de saveurs, François le marionnettiste ou bien encore Daniel, conducteur de bus improvisant une visite guidée de Paris pour ses passagers, vous découvrirez la capitale française avec un autre oeil. Poétique et dépaysant !

www.brèvesdetrottoirs.com

Bonnes rencontres parisiennes,

 

* l’un deux = any one of

Fête des Lumières

Every year on December 8th, the city of Lyon becomes a sparkling jewel as houses, businesses and apartment buildings are lit by millions of small votive candles on all their windowsills. The Fête des Lumières originated as a celebration of Mary, Jesus's mother. But over time, it has become for many a simple celebration of light and its beauty.

It's a fun way to really get into the Christmas spirit, with lights, candles, hot chestnuts and hot, spiced wine to drink in Lyon as well as in many of the little towns and villages surrounding the city. This year the celebration starts on December 8th and continues through the weekend. 

There is no way to describe in words Lyon's fairy-like quality during the festival, so I wanted to share it with a photo-tour.

...and Fourviere during the festival

Many of the little squares (les places) and churches become canvases for light displays. Some tell stories and others are more abstract. All the shows run idependently from one another throughout the festival. Each light show runs on a continuous loop, with a soundtrack. Some even include narration. Festival-goers are able to then vote online for the 'Best of Festival' award.

Lyon Opera House, before its show.

Walking along the streets on la presqu'île (presque= almost, île= island, so presqu'ile means 'almost-island', or, peninsula) there are lights of all kinds hung from almost anything, like this: 

 Have a light-filled holiday season!

Faire le tour du monde - en France !

Savez-vous qu’on peut rester en France et faire le tour du monde ? Voici des noms de villages français qui rappellent d’autres contrées plus lointaines !

- Allemagne-en-Provence, dans les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence

- Argentine, en Savoie

- Barcelonne, dans la Drôme 

- Les Déserts, en Savoie

- Montréal, dans le Gers

- Saint-Affrique, dans l’Aveyron

- Suisse, en Moselle

- Soudan en Loire-Atlantique

- Venise, dans le Doubs

- Vienne, dans l’Isère

Bon voyage !

Learn a foreign language!

"What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bi-lingual. What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Tri-lingual. What do you call someone who only speaks one language? American."

 

Americans are often criticized by people in other countries because to be honest, we aren't all that great at learning foreign languages. But, to be fair, people usually rank their activities in priority order, giving greater weight to those things we feel we 'need' to do. In general, Americans don't feel a strong need to learn another language. Why?

 

The main reason is due to geography. Canada is mostly English-speaking, and Spanish, remains largely restricted to regions near the Mexican border (which is changing rapidly). The other reason is that English is quickly becoming the global language of science, commerce, and diplomacy (a title that used to be held by French). But it's different in other parts of the world. For example, here in France, my son is a Junior in high school. He started English classes, along with German, in 6th grade. He switched to Spanish in 8th grade. Most student learn at least 2 foreign languages (one of which is English), and it's not uncommon for students to pick up a third and sometimes even a fourth foreign language. Granted, Europe has many language zones packed into a relatively small space, so much of the language learning is done out of necessity. But we can learn an important lesson from the European language-learning model: if they can routinely learn additional languages, so can you!

As America becomes less isolated through travel and the Internet, geography will be less and less important. The sooner we understand that, the better. End result? We will see more and more of people learning new languages. What do you think about Americans and foreign languages? Do you feel that there are other countries, such as the UK, who are in the same linguistic 'boat'? Let me know in the comments section.

 

You can get started by going to www.languageroutes.com to pick up resources for learning French, Spanish and even English (for those of you teaching ESL/ESOL).

Vive la carte postale !

À l’heure des mails et des SMS, la carte postale a toujours le même succès en France ! Il s’en vend 332 millions chaque année et la plupart de ces cartes sont envoyées pendant l’été.

Choisie avec attention en fonction du destinataire, la carte postale a toujours la cote dans l’Hexagone. Ce petit bout de carton de 165 centimètres rassure les parents, fait plaisir aux personnes âgées, fait rêver les copines et rigoler les copains…

Au dos, les mots sont toujours les mêmes : « Une petite pensée de ……où nous passons nos vacances », «  Gros bisous de ….. où nous sommes pour une petite semaine », « Ici, tout se passe bien, le soleil brille et la mer est chaude … ».

Pour information, sachez qu’on ne peut pas écrire tout ce qu’on veut sur une carte postale. Vous risquez jusqu’à 1500 euros d’amende pour une injure par exemple.

À part ça, bonne écriture !

Speaking English makes you more likely to blame others

I was reading an article the other day about Anglophones and found out something interesting. If my friend Liz is at my house and stands on my coffee table and it breaks (I have no idea what she's doing up there- she'd never actually stand on a coffee table), if someone asks me what happened, I, as an English speaker am likely to say, "Liz broke the table," even if it was an accident. 

Scientists have done studies that determine that speakers in Spain or Japan would probably simply say, "It broke." At Stanford University, scientists showed videos of two people breaking eggs, spilling drinks and popping balloons - both intentionally and accidentally. The viewers, who were speakers of English, Japanese and Spanish, were later given a memory test in which they were asked to describe the events. Surprisingly, the English speakers remembered equally the accidental and intentional events. However, while the Japanese and Spanish speakers remembered the intentional events as well as the English speakers, they had a significantly more difficult time remembering the accidents! Why? Because the English speakers assigned blame to the person who popped the balloon, spilled the drink or broke the egg, no matter if it was an accident or not. This helped them to encode the incident in their mind. So is this a cultural difference or a linguistic difference? One more study points more toward the linguistic...

Remember the Super Bowl halftime show when Janet Jackson had her 'wardrobe malfunction', showing viewers more of her than she intended? Two groups of English speakers were shown the video of the incident and then given a written report of the incident and told to come up with a suitable punishment. The reports were worded slightly differently: in one, the end said 'the costume ripped' and in the other 'Justin Timberlake ripped the costume'. Even though the entire group had watched the same video, those who got the report that said 'the costume ripped' determined a punishment only half of that of the other group (who had a person to blame)!

Moral of the story? For English speakers, there has to be a scapegoat - someone to blame.

 

Petites pensées de la France en vacances …

Français ou anglais ?
Savez-vous qu’en visitant la France, les Anglophones ne se sentiront pas dépaysés avec le nom de certains villages au nom bien anglais ! Quelques exemples :

Brain : situé en Bourgogne, Brain compte seulement 26 habitants : les grands cerveaux sont rares !

Busy : petite commune du Doubs, Busy compte juste 530 habitants… : pas vraiment animé comme le laisse entendre le nom de ce village.

Condom : située dans le Gers, cette commune fait depuis longtemps sourire les Anglophones qui la visitent. Le maire de cette commune ne veut cependant pas assimiler sa commune aux préservatifs. En mars dernier, il a fait interdire la vente de préservatifs sous la marque « The original condom from Condom, France », refusant que le nom de sa commune soit utilisé à des fins commerciales. Les deux aristocrates français qui avaient lancé cette marque de préservatifs de luxe sur le marché américain ont dû en arrêter la fabrication. Pour la petite histoire, le siège de la société était basé à Condom, mais les préservatifs étaient fabriqués en Malaysie !

Cuts : commune de l’Oise, de 1 000 habitants…peu d’habitants pour un village au nom si court !

Hunting : situé près des frontières du Luxembourg et de l’Allemagne…D’après ce que l’on sait, les habitants de ce village ne pratiquent pas la chasse plus qu’ailleurs en France.

Noisy : c’est en fait le nom de six communes de France. Dans certains cas, ce sont des communes très tranquilles. D’autres au contraire, comme Noisy-le-Sec, près de Paris, sont entourées d’autoroutes… vraiment noisy !

Silly : plusieurs villages de France commencent par Silly : Silly-sur-Nied près de Metz, Silly-Tillard et Silly-le-long, dans l’Oise. Leurs habitants ne sont pourtant pas plus stupides que les autres !

En connaissez-vous d’autres ?

Have you read English Now n°56?

Issue 55 of English Now magazine is in the newsstands! (Of course, it's also available from our website.) English Now is different from any other language learning magazine in that it its articles are written specifically for French-speakers learning English who are at beginner to intermediate level.

Each page has keywords translated into French. No need for a dictionary here - we've done it for you. Also, the feature articles are available in CD format with 60+ minutes of audio read by native English speakers from Britain, the US and Australia to help the learner tune their ear to different accents.

So what's in this issue?

- learn about coffee culture in the US and UK.
- discover London behind the scenes!
- get key vocabulary for an American summer trip.
- find out where English-speakers meet up with friends.
- ask for recommendations for the weekend in English.
- read about bestselling author Agatha Christie.
- get key phrases for shopping in the UK and US.
- learn about American dollars and cents.
- meet a British artist, an American scrapbooker and a British chex boxer.
- keep up-to-date on the latest news from English-speaking countries.
- test your comprehension with exercises!


Find out more here, or join us on Facebook.

July 4th - needs editing

4 fun facts about the 4th of July!

To most Americans, the Fourth of July is probably the most patriotic event of the year. Time to get out flags, fireworks, candy, and any kind of object that makes noise, because it’s time to
P-A-R-T-Y! And while we’re at it, don’t forget to stop and watch the parade go by! There will be dancers, bands from the various high schools in the area, and, depending on the size of the city, anything ranging from the prize sheep of the local town fair to a VIP.

Did you know?

- The 4th of July originates from the 4th of July 1776, when the Declaration of Independence from the British was signed!
- The citizens of Greeley, Colorado, celebrate with the nation’s largest rodeo, the ‘Greeley Stampede’. It attracts 400 000 visitors each year!
- Although there is no traditional meal on the Fourth of July, it isn’t uncommon to see families get together for a barbecue outside, eating hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken, ribs, garden salads, potato salad, chips and watermelon.
- 11 cities in the States are called ‘Independence’ in memory of the famous day of Independence.

NEW issue of Bien-dire is here!

Bien-dire n°76

mai-juin 2011

Une partie à la française

Le Beaujolais : la Toscane française
France : où en est l’égalité des sexes ?
Connaissez-vous bien Paris ?
La vache qui rit, fromage historique
Pique-nique à la française
Des amours de Périgord
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, le favori
La presse française
Comment corriger une erreur ?
Entre président et Premier ministre

Bien-dire is a magazine that is written for you, and remains the only magazine written and created in France for learners of French. Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (prices in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (prices in €)

NEW issue of Go English magazine is here!

Go English n°48
May-June 2011

Simply English!

A Royal event
Fun in the USA
A British picnic
American culture
Popular expressions
British festivals
10 words to know
Let’s talk money!


Also inside: Tongue Twisters, Grammar Pages, Business Matters, British Humour, Numbers Talking...

Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (payment in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (payment in €).

NEW! Magazine for children learning English

J'apprends l'anglais n°31
May-June 2011
Recipe – butter
Farm animals – What do they say in English?
Vocabulary – farm animals and their babies

J’apprends l’Anglais is a bi-monthly magazine for French-speaking children learning English. Order this issue from Editions Entrefilet and download its free MP3 audio files here.

Bonus: Free interactive English exercises for children - with audio!

Have you read English Now n°55?

Issue 55 of English Now magazine is in the newsstands! (Of course, it's also available from our website.) English Now is different from any other language learning magazine in that it its articles are written specifically for French-speakers learning English who are at beginner to intermediate level.

Each page has keywords translated into French. No need for a dictionary here - we've done it for you. Also, the feature articles are available in CD format with 60+ minutes of audio read by native English speakers from Britain, the US and Australia to help the learner tune their ear to different accents.

So what's in this issue?

- learn about the famous British sense of humour!
- prepare for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
- get key vocabulary for talking about your family.
- find out how the Britons and Americans are alike – and how they are different!
- read about expressions of length and area.
- get key phrases for requesting time off.
- learn about Sarah Palin.
- meet a modern-day knight, a beekeeper and a sushi chef.
- learn the most annoying words in the English language.
- keep up-to-date on the latest news from English-speaking countries.
- acquire vocabulary for the dinner table.
- test your comprehension with exercises!

Find out more here, or join us on Facebook.

NEW issue of Bien-dire magazine is here!

Bien-dire n°75

mars-avril 2011

Jetez-vous à l’eau !

Chez les libraires français
Le vocabulaire de 2011
Prenons le TER !
Réserver une chambre d’hôte
Carrefour, histoire d’une réussite
Accros aux jeux, les Français ?
Les interjections
L’Assemblée nationale et le Sénat
Le monde du travail en France

Bien-dire is a magazine that is written for you, and remains the only magazine written and created in France for learners of French. Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (prices in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (prices in €)

NEW issue of Go English magazine is here!

Go English n°46
March-April 2011

Read all about it!

The best American souvenirs
Louisiana tour guide
Roman Britain
British customer service
Scarlett and Rhett in Atlanta
Visiting National Parks
British inventors
Generation Y in debt

Also inside: Tongue Twisters, Grammar Pages, Business Matters, British Humour, Numbers Talking

Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (payment in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (payment in €).

Have you read English Now n°54?

Issue 54 of English Now magazine is in the newsstands across France! (Of course, it's also available from our website.) English Now is different from any other language learning magazine in that it its articles are written specifically for French-speakers learning English who are at beginner to intermediate level.

Each page has keywords translated into French. No need for a dictionary here - we've done it for you. Also, the feature articles are available in CD format with 60+ minutes of audio read by native English speakers from Britain, the US and Australia to help the learner tune their ear to different accents.

So what's in this issue?

- celebrate Valentine’s Day like the British and Americans.
- learn about the best London pubs and pub history.
- explore an American living room.
- get key vocabulary for greeting a visitor.
- read about expressions of quantity.
- test your knowledge of pub grub.
- learn about Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
- meet a consulting fashion director, juggling brothers and a veterinarian.
- keep up-to-date on the latest news from English-speaking countries.
- acquire vocabulary for going to the post office.
- learn to play a game with pub signs.
- test your comprehension with exercises!

Find out more here, or join us on Facebook.

Music & language

The link between music and language has been well-established. Speakers of tonal languages are much more likely to have perfect pitch, for example.

But let's look at it from a different angle, or tune, if you will. How can music be used to help learn a language? Listening to music in your target language helps build your vocabulary, but singing along also helps you match your pronunciation, intonation and speech rhythm to that of the native speaker (or singer, as the case is here). Also, a recent study found that singing words, rather than speaking them, improves the listener's ability to distinguish the end of one word from the beginning of the next. (Anyone who has ever heard a string of unending French can identify with this challenge!)

NPR's World Music is a good place to start discovering music in your target language. (This is where I first heard Malian singer Rokaya Traoré, one of my current favorites.)

Thanks to the Matador Network, I've also been listening to Souad Massi, an Algerian woman who sings in her native Arabic, as well as French and Spanish.

Shifting musical style gears, but staying within the French language, Benjamin Biolay is offering a free download of his song 'La Superbe' until October 19th. Sounds like a good (free!) place to start to me.


What about you? Do you use music for language learning or as part of cultural immersion? Who do you recommend we listen to? Merci d'avance !

Global wisdom

Is maith an scáthán súil charad.
A friend's eye is a good mirror. (Irish)

Dëgg, kaani la.
Truth is a hot pepper. (Wolof, spoken in West Africa)

Aki másnak vermet ás, maga esik bele.
If you dig a hole for someone else you'll fall into it. (Hungarian)

An áit a bhuil do chroí is ann a thabharfas do chosa thú.
Your feet will bring you to where your heart is. (Irish)

Делать из мухи слона
To make an elephant from a fly (Russian)

Ăn có nhai, nói có nghĩ
Eating needs chewing, talking needs thinking. (Vietnamese)

Η καμήλα δεν βλέπει την καμπούρα της
The camel does not see her own hump. (Greek)

Un jour sans vin est comme un jour sans soleil.
A day without wine is like a day without sunshine. (French)

Benn loxo du taccu.
One hand can't clap. (Wolof)

A fehér liliomnak is lehet fekete az árnyéka.
Even a white lily can cast a black shadow. (Hungarian)

Đường đi hay tối, nói dối hay cùng.
Lies have short legs. (Vietnamese)

Now, don't you feel wise in the ways of the world?

NEW issue of Bien-dire is here!

Bien-dire n°74
janvier-février 2011

Allez plus loin en français

La SNCF, géant du rail
Jacques Chirac, retraité
Chic ou pas ?
Voyage en francophonie
Marie-Antoinette, reine de la France
Les mots-clés pour le marché
Une escapade à Saint-Malo
Arrivée en station de ski
Un quiz sur les accents
Les goûters d’enfance
Le salon de l’agriculture

Bien-dire is a magazine that is written for you, and remains the only magazine written and created in France for learners of French. Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (prices in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (prices in €)

NEW issue of Go English magazine is here!

Go English n°46
January-February 2011

Where is English going?

Language: Estuary English
Travel: London’s livery companies
Insights: Car boots and yard sales
Profile: Michelle Obama
News: London’s 2012 Olympics
Vocabulary: Coffee talk
Food: American snacks
Tourism: American Civil War sites
Tips & Techniques: Talking about the weather
Business: News and a donut

Also inside: Tongue Twisters, Grammar Pages, Business Matters, British Humour, Numbers Talking

Order this issue and its audio CD from Language Routes (payment in $) or from Editions Entrefilet (payment in €).

NEW! Magazine for children learning English

J'apprends l'anglais n°29
January-February 2011

Craft – make an envelope out of a letter
Story – Josh is sick
Vocabulary – at home

J’apprends l’Anglais is a bi-monthly magazine for French-speaking children learning English. Order this issue from Editions Entrefilet and download its free MP3 audio files here.

Bonus: Free interactive English exercises for children - with audio!