To our circle of French Story Listeners,
Something lovely happened this week — we quietly crossed 100 members on our Telegram community. 🎉
That’s 105 story lovers choosing to learn French through stories, not grammar charts.
Each one of you matters to this little circle, and I’m so glad you’re here.
This Week’s Challenge: L’histoire d’Ommi Sissi 🌺
This week’s story comes all the way from Tunisia and it has everything: a mischievous cat, a pot of couscous, a mother named Ommi Sissi, and her daughter Fatima.
Your challenge this week is wonderfully simple: imagine one thing that could have happened differently.
Just one sentence. Here are a few examples to spark your imagination:
- Si le chat ne mange pas le couscous, Fatima et sa maman déjeunent ensemble. — If the cat doesn’t eat the couscous, Fatima and her mother have lunch together.
- Si Fatima rentre plus tôt, elle arrête le chat. — If Fatima comes home earlier, she stops the cat.
- Si le chat demande poliment, Ommi Sissi lui donne un peu de couscous. — If the cat asks politely, Ommi Sissi gives him a little couscous.
You can share your sentence in writing, as a voice note, or even a short video.
Whatever feels right to you.
Share it in our Telegram group before Sunday, March 8th.
I personally respond to every single contribution. 💛
📖 Read the story here: aliceayel.com/resources/lhistoire-dommi-sissi
📲 Join the challenge on Telegram: t.me/+kj7F0mWZ8Uo4OWE0
What Members Are Already Sharing 💬
Look what’s already happening in our Telegram group:
Helen wrote (in French, no less!): “If the cat hadn’t stolen the couscous, he wouldn’t have learned from the river that stealing a little girl’s lunch was a foolish thing to do.” — What a complete moral arc, Helen!
Barry went in a completely unexpected direction: Fatima goes to the kitchen and discovers the cat… dead on the floor. He had eaten the fish — but the fish, it turns out, was spoiled. And in Barry’s version, the cat becomes a hero. “Bravo monsieur chat. C’est notre héros!” 😿🏆
This is exactly what stories do, they open up a hundred different doors. There is no wrong door.
A Simple Tip This Week 🌿
When you write your sentence, don’t worry about getting the French perfect.
Write in your mother tongue if you need to.
What matters is that your imagination engages with the story.
That’s the first step, and it’s the most important one.
You’re not being tested, you’re telling back what lived in you. Let it be messy. Let it be yours.
You’ve got this. See you in Telegram! 🐾
Alice 💕
P.S. Our community live session is happening Thursday at 11am EST, and this past Thursday, Barry kindly invited everyone to come talk about Ommi Sissi’s story together. These live conversations are one of the most nourishing parts of membership, the kind of thing you can’t get from a textbook or an app. All the details are here: aliceayel.com/members-community-live — come join our community!