August 2009

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Learning to listen is a deeply frustrating process. It's automatic, not intellectual. You either understand, or you don't. In the following extract, where the two teenage girls are introduced there is a bit that goes "Colline, 14 ans, et Laura, 15 ans," and I couldn't follow the next few words. When I was preparing the subtitle file, suddenly the penny dropped. "ce sont elles qui nous servent"  Strange, the way it works. This is why we just need to keep on working with examples like this

It's a beautiful country, France, and programmes about the attractions it offers to the tourist are always worth watching. Linguistically you get a nice voice-over with occasional interviews to test the ear

There is an excellent educational science programme on France 3 called C'est pas sorcier. It's interesting for us, because the presenters speak in that strange voice used for dealing with children and idiots (and people learning a foreign language). It makes a good exercise here.

Here is a film, and a corker. The Country Bears is a Walt Disney family film, but dubbed into French it is just wonderful...

For me, comedy is one of the greatest expressions of a language. France has great tradition of comedy - it is what Molière did, after all. And the tradition continues. It is astonishing how many excellent stand-up comedians France boasts today. Of course, comedy is hard to follow - there is a game played between the comedian and his audience. Have you followed me ? Do you get the joke ? Ah well, I can wait ! However, here are Chevallier et Laspalès, a comedy duo, which is quite rare in France. They use the language beautifuly, and their diction is very clear. Enjoy.

During the summer of this year, France 5 is screening a whole series of nature programmes. They make good listening practise at this level - and the images are often very beautiful

In the Anglo-Saxon world we call it the silly season. For the French it's la période creuse. For the TV journalists of Europe the interesting people have gone on holiday and they're reduced to filming publicity stunts for batteries...

There's a series on Arte at the moment which seeks to uncover the secrets behind well known events in 20th century history, such as the moon landings or, as here, the death and funeral of Kennedy. Not conspiracy theory stuff, simply what really happened

Documentaries and news reports are scripted, moderately paced and clear. Here is an extract which demonstrates the difficulty posed by unscripted 'natural' language. The problem is not that the speakers speak with strong accents, or use an unfamiliar vocabulary, it's simply the speed of the delivery and the lack of clarity.

The subject is President Sarkozy's idiomatic approach to our old friend, the subjunctive. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why he follows je ne pense pas with the indicatif - but don't follow his example.

The last extract was very difficult and perhaps more intended to show what is the target of all the hard we do to learn to listen. Here's a nice documentary extract from a series which is a filler in the regular Saturday programme Les Grands du Rire

Every so often I am going to include an extract which is above the level of this site. The idea is simply to watch, with the subtitles, and get used to the characteristic sound of fast, idiomatic French.

The links that follow are to the sonsenfrancais site, apart from the subtitles which are prepared specifically for this site.

When it comes to films, I fight a long and constant battle against the French teaching establishment.  Received wisdom among teachers of French nationality is that French films are Art, American films are commercial rubbish, and if you are learning French you can only watch French films.

But what if you don't understand them ? Other than sketches by Coluche there is nothing harder to understand than a modern French film.

So I advise English language films dubbed into French. For well understood reasons - English is slower than French, so that slows down the lip-sync'd French, and the studio sound is usually clearer.

How to get these films ? Well, there's lots available, free to air. Have a look here

And not only anglophone films, but also series are popular on French TV. Everything from Mr Bean to Desperate Housewives. Here's a short Poirot

The documentaries that one finds on France 5 and on Arte are excellent practice at this level. Here are Les flamants roses

I decided that 5 minutes of end-to-end adverts would be good. Linguistically, excellent, all sorts of registers and voices here. But my goodness, what a horror these things are! Take a deep breath and dive in....

France 2, bless them, decided to dedicate a whole evening to a popular history presentation on Henry VIII. It was bit odd - Henry as a sort of Bluebeard. But I'm not going to criticise. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the old rogue's accession to the throne, do you see the BBC doing the same thing ?

Here's the evening news again, and an interesting piece on the  month of August, where a big sign at the French end of the Channel Tunnel says 'Fermé'.
 I refrain from comment

Normally I don't watch documentaries where an English voice starts off, and then is interrupted by a French voice-over - it is very distracting.

But this documentary on Barack Obama was fascinating, and they kept the volume down on the American speakers. It's worth watching

When a very kind person sent me this clip from the French Discovery channel - which I don't have, I thought it would be a doddle to transcribe. Not so. But the voice is clear as a bell, and such programmes are ideal at this level

And from the same kind and Canadian source, here is an extract from a  lovely documentary on the origins of that country

Here is a comedy sketch in our series 'for the future' - the stuff that we would really like to be able to understand. The clever little boy asking his father difficult questions.

Here is Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes demonstrating his ability to detect crime and overact at the same time...

Here is a nice little documentary on the unfortunate Marie Antoinette

There is a subtle difference between the French treatment of (high) culture and that of the anglo-saxon world. We are respectful and elitist, while the French believe passionately in popularisation. And French public TV still shows theatre and opera. Good for them.

From the Vingt Heures of 27 August, a well written piece on the death of Ted Kennedy

Here's an extract from the film 'Finding Neverland'. It demonstrates that it is not just modern French films that are difficult. The parody of 'courtly speech' and the intimate delivery make it quite difficult

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