Well, here I am, in Seattle! You’ve known about this for over 3 months (when I bought my tickets) so it seems only be fair to share my American month with you! However, since this blog is here to help you practice your French, I will do so in French! If you have any questions and find the dictionary to be uncooperative, leave a comment below so we can all help each other! But don’t worry I’m purposely keeping it simple, simple words, simple verbs (mostly present tense), simple sentence structures. C’est parti!
Vendredi 1er février
Après trois vols, me voici finalement à l’aéroport de Seattle! Je vois tous les signes “Welcome to the US” et j’ai envie de sauter partout! La dernière fois que je me trouvais dans cet aéroport, c’était le 10 septembre 2017. Et me revoilà! Le douanier regarde mon passeport américain (je suis devenue citoyenne américaine en janvier 2016) et me dit “What brings you home?”, love it. Ma très chère amie Hildie m’attend là comme prévue et j’insiste pour conduire sa voiture pour aller chez elle, d’abord parce que j’adore conduire, ensuite parce que conduire aux États-Unis me donne l’impression viscérale d’être chez moi. Je suis née française mais mon coeur est tout à fait américain aussi.
Arrivée chez Hildie, c’est comme si je n’avais jamais quitté cet endroit si familier. Évidemment elle a tout préparé, ma chambre est prête, et le dîner aussi! Elle est une amie et une cuisinière vegan incroyable, et moi j’ai beaucoup de chance! Nous papotons jusque tard dans la soirée et puis… au dodo Virginie!
Samedi 2 février
Je me réveille à cinq heures du matin, pas mal pour un décalage horaire de 9 heures! Je décide de ne pas perdre mon temps (je déteste perdre mon temps!) et j’installe mes cours de philosophie dans la cuisine avec un bon thé bien chaud et mes notes. Le cours que j’étudie en ce moment est “Initiation à l’éthique médicale”. Avec mes examens en mai, j’ai intérêt à me dépêcher et à utiliser n’importe quel petit (ou long) moment que je trouve.
Un peu avant midi nous partons (oui je conduis encore ha ha!) pour mon ancien quartier, qui est aussi mon quartier préféré, Madison Park, où nous allons déjeuner entre amies: Hildie, Jenny, Paola, Karin, et moi! Que d’émotions de me retrouver dans mon ancien “chez moi”. Je connais chaque rue par coeur, chaque signe m’est familier, j’ai l’impression de n’être jamais partie et en même temps je ressens une immense nostalgie. Seattle est la ville de ma renaissance et elle reste à jamais dans mon coeur.
Après une après-midi de rigolade entre copines, tout le monde rentre chez soi, et moi je reste chez Jenny, qui fut ma colocataire il y a 6 ans! Elle habite toujours dans le même petit immeuble adorable le long du Lake Washington, et, une fois de plus, mon coeur se serre en me dirigeant vers cet immeuble qui était le mien. Une des mes activités préférées à Seattle est de marcher partout et pendant des heures. Et je veux vraiment dire, des heures. Jenny et moi commençons notre marche à 18h pour ne rentrer chez elle qu’à 1 heure du matin! Ha ha ça c’est une grande promenade comme je les aime!
Dimanche 3 février
Oh la la c’est déjà dimanche! Le temps passe vite! Bon il faut bien travailler un peu donc, pendant que Jenny dort, je vais travailler dans le petit café local Madison Kitchen. Puis je retrouve Jenny pour une autre promenade géante et un autre petit café adorable où nous travaillons toutes les deux mais surtout elle. J’ai du mal à me concentrer. Je me sens trop émotive parce qu’évidemment, nous allons à chaque fois dans tous mes endroits fétiches (fétiche here means favorite by the way!) donc je ne tiens pas en place!
Puis le soir nous retrouvons d’autres amies (Sharie & Linda) dans un restaurant thai et vegan, où Jenny et moi avons marché bien sûr! En fait, ça fait des années que Sharie et Linda se connaissent et ça fait des années que je les connais, mais je ne savais pas qu’elles se connaissaient quand j’habitais à Seattle! C’est fou! Sharie a participé à ma semaine immersion en France et Linda est l’avocate qui s’est occupée de mon divorce!
Lundi 4 février
Apparemment la neige aussi avait envie de visiter Seattle… pas très pratique mais très joli!
Et maintenant Virginie au boulot! Je passe le matin et le déjeuner avec mon amie, étudiante, et life coach Marilee! Nous travaillons bien et avançons beaucoup, l’une et l’autre, dans nos domaines respectifs. Bravo les filles! Sauf que j’étais tellement concentrée et prise par notre mission que j’ai totalement oublié de prendre des photos. Zut! Flûte! Crotte! (watch my polite French swear words video here: https://frenchtruly.com/politely-swear-french/)
Après-midi et soir: travail, philo, et étudiantes! Comme c’est bon de les revoir et de pouvoir les serrer dans mes bras plutôt que de faire classe sur Skype!
Mardi 5 février
Vous connaissez la plage de Alki à West Seattle? C’est sublime! La vue sur le Puget Sound est absolument magnifique et j’avais oublié ce sentiment d’immensité et d’espace. Bon c’est vrai il fait super froid mais tant-pis! C’est trop beau! Hildie suggère un thé pour nous réchauffer et nous trouvons un petit café adorable où elle commande un vin chaud et moi un chocolat chaud. Mais il y a un petit (ha ha) problème avec la hauteur de la chaise de Hildie… c’est vrai que mon amie n’est pas exactement grande mais tout de même, elle n’est pas si petite……..
Elle se propose de devenir ma vieille enfant hahahahahaha! Elle dépasse à peine la table et c’est tellement drôle que nous rions, nous pleurons même, pendant 15 minutes, et tout le café partage notre expérience parce que nous manquons un peu de discrétion…
Allez ça suffit les bêtises, on retourne travailler à la maison!
Depuis, c’est un mélange de discussion avec elle, beaucoup de travail, d’étude et de lecture, des classes avec mes étudiants, et puis aujourd’hui jeudi 7 février, je me prépare à aller rencontrer d’autres amies puis à emménager dans ma nouvelle maison temporaire: chez Paola! Elle habite dans un autre quartier de Seattle et se trouve très près de l’endroit où je vais enseigner mes week-ends immersion donc ça sera très pratique!
Et voilà!
I hope this was a good French reading comprehension exercice for you and look forward to sharing more next week!
Oh one last thing, if you are in Seattle come see me at SIFF for our French Valentine’s Day event! More info and tickets HERE.
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WANT TO JOIN MY NEXT FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE?
All my Seattle French Immersion Courses are sold out but you can still join on of them in France this July! Here’s a short video that will show you what to expect along with testimonials from all participants!
100% French Experience
What inspired me to create this French Immersion Course? C’est très simple: how best to improve your French conversation skills than by being in France, surrounded with French culture and French people who will ONLY speak French to you? Yet so many times I have heard visitors express their disappointment at not really being given the chance to practice their French. Why? Because more & more French people, especially in big cities, speak English fairly well and are just so excited to practice their new skills with you! This ends up being nice and comfortable for you but not so satisfying or helpful for improving your French speaking ability! So to fix this and make sure you have the most enjoyable, and at the same time profitable, French learning experience, I decided to create the perfect environment for you by organizing this hands-on French Immersion Course.
2019 July 8 to 14: This French Immersion Course is designed for intermediate level students 2019 July 22 to 28: This French Immersion Course is designed for beginner level students
If you’re unsure, contact me to schedule a free Skype call
Daily French Classes & Activities
This is the reason why I have created this 7 DAY FULL FRENCH IMMERSION COURSE for you, filled with daily classes & enriching adventures with French people who will only speak French with you. No English! It’s amazing how much you can learn and retain in such a conducive atmosphere in as little as 7 days. Mornings will be dedicated to French language classes and afternoons will be filled with interesting activities such as: visiting local artists or entrepreneurs workshops, meeting with local wine makers and farmers, guided hike in nature, cooking class, painting class, cinema, & museum… all in French!
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WANT TO TAKE YOUR FRENCH TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
RECEIVE VIRGINIE’S FREE COURSE to Help You Become a little bit French in 3 Steps.
Learn French Online with Virginie via the French Truly Online School
Learn French in France with Virginie via the Full French Immersion Courses in France & in the US + soon coming to the UK 🙂
Watch Testimonials from Virginie’s Happy Students!
Learn French online with Virginie
I launched French Truly’s online school in August 2018 and so far it’s a huge success! You can join whenever, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French Truly Online School from $10 / month. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page
Each French online course is packed with video & audio files along with written material, to make it as fun, easy, and user friendly as possible for you! Come and learn French online with me!
In this course, you will find 15 videos (+ 10 bonus ones) to help & accompany you every step of the way through the course + for each word, each sentence, each expression, each conjugated verb, I have created an audio file of my voice, slow and slightly faster speed. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
Did you know…
You can converse (speak + understand) in French with only 600 WORDS?
The average French person only uses between 300 & 3,000 WORDS?
This means that if you can master a relatively short list of words, you’ll be able to express yourself like the average French person! Plus you’re much more likely to understand the French when they talk back to you!
This course will teach you…
1- How to speak French
2- How to pronounce French
3- How to make French sentences
4- How to conjugate all the most common French verbs
5- How to polish your results
6- How to self evaluate your French
More info HERE
It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons
This course is designed for a beginner / intermediate level. If you are intermediate but feel like you could really reinforce your foundations, you will love it.
You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership at the bottom of this page
In this course you will find 11 videos + 150 audio files + 92 pages PDF format to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. In some parts of the videos, my face will appear close up and profile so you can easily see how I make these sounds with my mouth. The 150 audio files are composed of the 100 most popular French words and the 50 most common French phrases. They are recordings of my voice, speaking slowly enough so you can easily grasp every syllable. Your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
NB: if you are the proud owner of my previous French online course 600 WORDS, don’t worry, this is not a repeat as we are now exploring 1 letter words and up, whereas in 600 WORDS we began at 4 letter words and up.
Combine knowledge with confidence…
For you to be able to have a pleasant and efficient conversation with a French person, one thing is key… can you guess what it is? Confidence! How well do you think you will communicate in French if you don’t feel confident about your accent? If you are scared that people won’t understand you? Or even worse if you think someone might make fun of you? Without a minimum of confidence there is no room for communication. Yet if you feel confident, you can afford to make a few mistakes here and there because people will still understand you. What prevents a conversation from happening isn’t just a lack of knowledge, it’s also a lack of confidence. You need to have both to make it work, not to mention, to make it fun!
This course will teach you…
1- How to pronounce every letter of the alphabet
2- How to pronounce every digraph & trigraph
3- How to make every French sentence flow
4- How to pronounce the 100 most popular French words
5- How to pronounce the 50 most popular French phrases
6- How to avoid the pronunciation mistakes everyone makes
More info HERE
It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons
This course is designed for a beginner level. If you are intermediate but lack confidence when it comes to talking and feel like you could really benefit from focusing on pronunciation, you will love it.
You can join whenever, either by buying the course or by becoming a monthly member giving you access to my French online courses from $10 / month. See more details about the membership below
Become a monthly member!
My goal is to transform your French language learning experience. This is why I’ve decided to offer you a new way to learn French online and gain access to the French Truly Online School! Actually, more than 1 new way, you’ll have 3 plans to choose from so come and learn French online with me!
Whichever you pick, FOCUS at $10, HORIZON at $15, or IMMERSION at $99, you will always be free to either upgrade or downgrade, stay or leave.
Not a membership kind of person? Don’t worry! Every course can still be bought separately at the normal price and be yours for ever. Whichever format you choose, your French language learning experience has never been so easy, fun, and fruitful. You can learn French online and benefit from the flexibility working at your own pace offers, while having me with you the whole time.
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