Coucou les French learners,

This week in the advanced beginner class with Express Fluency, we sang a famous song by French singer, composer and actor Eddy Mitchell. This song is entitled La dernière séance and is about about a small cinema in a city’s neighborhood closing down. It is quite a nostalgic song.

I used to go to a special cinema in Paris called La Pagode. It was a beautiful Japanese building with only two rooms. Going there to watch a movie was a unique beautiful experience. This cinema is now closed.

Unfortunately, nowadays most small cinemas are now gone. Instead we have to drive outside of town to go to a multiplex cinema where all rooms look the same!

La Pagode au 57 rue de Babylone, dans le 7ème arrondissement à Paris.

Follow the lyrics of the song here. This method of memorizing the lyrics of a song or a poem has been developed by Christian Jacomino, who I interviewed for la pause café.

Christian Jacomino who was a primary school teacher in France was looking for another way to help children who struggled with reading. He developed les moulins à paroles (words mills) to have children and migrants become literate. His idea is that to want to read and acquire a language, you also have to find the beauty in the text. C’est si vrai, n’est-ce pas ?

QUOI DE NEUF ?

JOIN US FOR 45 MINS LIVE TO PLAY GAMES. It is happening on Friday, November 26!

We are meeting for la dernière séance this Friday November, 26 to get to know each other better and to have fun!

Last Friday, we had a lot of fun playing the Mafia game. Watch the replay.

This game is a social deduction game. We first co-created a story and someone died! We then had to find out who were the killers by making deductions and asking questions to each other. It was such a fun way to speak French! And it was not stressful. Anyone could speak if they wanted to, no pushing or forcing! We were all focusing on the story trying to discover the criminals, we were not focusing on grammar rules. This is ACQUISITION.

During this live event, Christine and Deb found out they were neighbors! Christine shared:

Deb & I are neighbors & we didn’t know it had it not been for being members of this wonderful family/community. Another fun game, time & excellent way for the community to bond even more.

JOIN US on Friday to play with us!

5pm UK / 6pm France / 12pm EST / 9am PST

for LA BONNE HEURE = THE HAPPY HOUR

Gain New Friends and Get Involved with the French Learners Community. #youarenotalone
Increase your vocabulary and comprehension #storyispower
Reduce your stress #relax
Communicate with real people in French #youcandothis
(You don’t have to speak if you don’t feel ready to, you can use the live chat to communicate)

La Pause Café

La pause café is back this week. And it is available as a podcast to listen on the go!

Episode #24 is a fascinating conversation with Bertrand Mourier, a French man in Brazil. Bertrand talks about how he has been living in South America for more than 20 years and what he misses from France (guess what?)!

This is French optimal input: rich, abundant and compelling input!

REVIEW OF THE WEEK

Dawn says about the Baby Stage:

I love the way you tell stories Alice! I listen to the same one at least 10 times before I move on to the next. I hear something new each time and If I don’t understand a certain word, I look it up and the next time I listen to it I understand more. I am finding myself thinking in French at 2AM about how to say “problems in sentences .” The way you do when telling a story. I can not believe how much this Membership is teaching me French! I love it .

What are you waiting for? Join us now for as little as 5 Euros/month (so the same as getting a nice drink)!

Happy French acquisition! Et bonne fête de Thanksgiving aux Américains !

P.S. Got friends, family, colleagues or clients who want to become fluent in French? Share this with them, they’ll thank you for it!

P.P.S Have you read and listen to our new eBook yet?

Marie and her dog, Médor are inseparable until one morning Marie wakes up but cannot find Médor. Where is Médor ? Marie sets out on a quest in Montmartre, Paris to find her beloved dog. Will she finally find Médor ?

It is a comprehensible story written in the present tense with unique characters and exciting twists to keep you wanting more! Rich vocabulary and structures are repeated throughout the stories to provide optimal input. They will help you acquire French the natural way.