Food, like many other aspects of daily life, lends itself to the use of a more informal, vivid, flexible, and fun language: slang. In the recipe—presented here in a humorous way—there are three such words: “bidoche,” “gnôle,” and “des plombes”; I’ll add the article’s title, “la bouffe.” "Bidoche": this refers to meat in general, whatever […]
How about we talk about food? Read More »
Alma and Alfred Hitchcock sent this rather cryptic message to a French-speaking friend, François Truffaut, who had just arrived in Beverly Hills in late 1973. This is, in fact, a coded message that you can decipher by carefully examining the alphabet right before your eyes…. Look closely… A letter is missing… And since it’s not
The Christmas Riddle Read More »
To start the year off right, here’s a high-level activity that’s in tune with current trends—but above all, one that reflects the excellence of what you’re about to read… Reading Comprehension, Level C1/C2: Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 and the Art of Haute Cuisine.
In 2022, it's champagne!!!! Read More »
Some Activities to Make Learning French More Engaging / Levels B2–C1 Here’s a song performed by Jo Dassin, a perfectly bilingual singer. The French version is particularly useful for practicing verb tense agreement with our students: “Si + imperfect / present conditional.” Here’s a video of this song so you can hum along: As a
What if you didn't exist… Read More »
From lovesickness to plain old sickness, here’s a quick dive into a linguistic world that’s very useful in everyday life. Songs are an important tool for language learning because they draw on the musicality of language and specific prosody. You’ve probably noticed that some of our learners have better pronunciation when they sing than when
"I'm sick…"; yeah, but what's wrong? Read More »
