Coucou les French learners,
Do you still remember the lines from your favorite movie? Well, you can do the same with a French movie.
Watching a movie in French gives you lots of input, although not all comprehensible! Watching French movies helps you experience the culture and French as it’s actually spoken by real French speakers. You are immersed in French without having to travel to France or a francophone country!
French movies are also a great way to acquire informal language and jargon that French speakers use all the time. I still remember when I started to watch Coronation Street when I was studying in England. I couldn’t understand anything although I could follow Friends because I was used to the American English! Well, I got to understand British soap operas at the end. It was also a real eye and hear opener!
While French movies on their own are helpful, French movies with subtitles allow you to follow along and understand what’s happening in each scene and the movie as a whole.
You can watch with subtitles in your mother tongue first to make sure you understand what is going on. Remember that it should be a joyful experience, not a chore! As you are watching, you will hear and notice words or expressions you already know. It will feel good!
Then you can watch with French subtitles. They allow you to be exposed to written French as well as spoken. Here are 5 French movies I liked.
QUOI DE NEUF ?
The series of videos to motivate YOU to acquire French toute l’année, all year long is now over. All video scripts are available here!
But fear not! We are still active on YouTube with new videos about… French movies!
I give you 3 reasons to watch ” Illusions perdues “, a beautiful film adapted from famous story written by Honoré de Balzac about a young ambitious poet who goes to Paris to become a famous writer. This film is a must-watch.
To help you understand a French movie, I have got your back!
The Baby Stage and the Infant Stage help you understand the most frequent structures used in everyday conversations. You get to watch exclusive videos with comprehensible stories and you acquire the French foundations effortlessly.
In the Teen Stage, you get to write a diary in French, how exciting!
In each session, I answer a question about myself like where I live, what I do during the day, things I love and things I hate… I type my answer on a document and comment it as I go along. When I type the sentences, you can copy them in your most beautiful handwriting. Your hand is the extension of your brain so handwriting will help you develop fluency.
When the session is over, you can write down your own answer about yourself. You will be impressed at how much you can write in French already.
Dawn wrote:
The Teen stage really opened my eyes to how much I know already! The Baby stage and Infant stage really prepares you for this next stage. I am not only writing everyday in my journal but I even started to write my weekly grocery list in French.
There are already 15 sessions with videos, scripts and audio. More are coming!
This week, Angus commented in the Community Chat:
Sometimes when you sit down and really take the time to think about the stories, some of them are quite sad, like the Le bûcheron et l’ourse. I very much like that there are so many fables and old stories to read on the site within the Stories section, as they have a timeless appeal. I was listening to an episode of a children TV program that was recommended in this chat quite some time ago. I was very much surprised and delighted that whereas when I first listened to it and I found there was a lot that I could not understand or it was too fast to follow, now I understood everything except a few words and because I am not translating in my head the speed is not an issue for me. I am finding now that although I do not write or speak in French yet in the way that I can receive it, my brain is sending out French words into my mouth when a thought comes into my head.
What are you waiting for? Join us now.
Happy French acquisition!
P.S. Listen to the NEW audio book written by Theresa Marrama, Le Château de Chambord – Deuxième partie – Les découvertes incroyables. This story is perfect for advanced beginners. It is written in the present tense and the vocabulary and structures are simple and comprehensible.
P.P.S If you are a language teacher or learner, join us at the Conference in the Cloud in July. I will be presenting about Story Listening and there will be French classes too (and other language classes)! Register here.