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Welcome to ListenToFrench.org, the sister site to sonsenfrancais
Because learning to listen is so hard, the level here is intended to be intermediate, that is to say extracts up to the starting level in sonsenfrancais. It's about the same as the magazine
You might also want to check out another excellent magazine What I want to do here is use the experience gained over four years of listening to the French language through radio, tv and films, as well as of editing the sonsenfrancais site, to present some exercises that will be useful to students at an intermediate level.
The other thing I want to do is use video rather than the audio that is still the norm even with the best of the audio magazines. Video helps enormously. Body-language, the movement of the lips, the context of the images. Traditionally we've always used radio - because it's easier. Video is better, much better. Not to mention that TV gives us interesting and varied content
At this level, the content will be news and documentaries, with some discussions. However, I like to laugh, and I'm going to add some comedy clips, not as exercises, just to cheer us up from time time. The clips are accompanies by subtitle files, so I hope that you will find even the most difficult clips useful. Learning a language is hard. email me : David Archer
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I use subtitling a lot on this site, and regularly I receive emails from people who think - reasonably - that they should be able to play any subtitled video with Windows Media Player which comes bundled with Microsoft Windows. Sadly, no. I suggest either AlShow or GomPlayer. They both play subtitles and allow you to rewind a few seconds |
If you like this site and want to help publicise it with Google - please click on the +1 button. It's free and helps the site !
This is the French TV programme guide I use. Essentially the chaînes principales and TNT.
If you see a programme coming up that would make a good extract - email me !
2012
| 2012. The format of video files has changed from .avi to .flv This is 'Flash video' - the sort that YouTube uses. It means that you can download the video and the subtitle files separately from the text links as before to watch and study on your own PC. However, in addition, if you click on the picture, you will be able to watch the video in your browser, with subtitles and the ability to go full-screen. |
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If you're new here - here's a good place to start |
03 January The first video for the New Year arrived in my email. A nice little documentary on how kittens grow up from someone who is obviously a cat lover.
05 January We don't hear much about the clown and comic actor Pierre Etaix, but I very much liked his film Le grand amour
16 January It's a relief to have this site back after more than a week. I always enjoy updating it. Off we go with a nice little documentary narrated by Jane Birkin on the portrait studio La maison Harcourt
18 January The best listening exercise is very often a good American film dubbed into French. So here is Tom Cruise in La Firme
20 January Too long without Signé Furax, and I suffer withdrawal symptoms. So here is Les grosses caisses, now in Flash format
22 January Here's a classic comedy broadcast at Christmas - La Grande Vadrouille
24 January A big contrast with the previous clip - the French dubbed version of the British series, The Tudors
26 January Meet the cheerful lock-keeper Philippe Hubert and his wife Babette in this extract fro Des racines et des ailes
28 January From canals to trees, and another happy man who spends his life climbing them and giving them a cuddle in Douce France
30 January Not the most original film ever, but Nicolas Cage's Knowing has all the familiar ingredients - and makes a reasonably easy listening exercise
02 February In the series L'ombre d'un doute, here is the story of Jeanne d'Arc
Another bunch of Picks from September 2009. Someone asked me if I am correcting my mistakes as I go along. No .. this site has never been about perfection, but about slowly... slowly... improving our ear for spoken French. But there are some classic clips here. Raymond Devos on ouïr (un verbe très difficile à conjuguer), the classic and quite naughty Félicie from Fernandel, Florence Foresti with her scatterbrained Brigitte and even Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a lady who is anything but scatter-brained
04 February Here's a documentary called La guerre des fromages qui puent, which offers a strange contrast between go-ahead Americans selling good quality cheese to the French, a French cheese farmer labouring under the restrictions of appellation contrôlée, and ordinary French people who eat the same plastic cheese as we do
Picks from October 2009, including my favourite, Un bombardier nommé Libery Lily. I'm going to look out my recordings of this five-part series and make another clip
If you need the video in format .avi, that is also possible
AVI Page
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Clips by type
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Documentaries 1 | |||
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Clips by level of difficulty
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What does 'level of difficulty mean ?' Level 1 should be very clear and immediately comprehensible - typically documentaries with voice-overs. Level 2 gives the ear more to work on - often news items where interviews are inserted, or anglo-american films dubbed into French Level 3 is to aim for in the future - often comedy sketches which can be followed with the text or subtitles | ||
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Level 1 Page 1
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If you want to watch French TV at home read this
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Thank you !