top of page
Writer's pictureVirginie Paradis

Listen to Slow & Clear French

Do you wish French people wouldn’t speak so fast? Of course you do.

Even my best private students who speak beautifully and understand me perfectly, say they struggle when they hear “normal” French people speak, in real life, au téléphone, dans les films, à la radio, etc.

So, if you too wish us Frenchies would slow it down a tad, I have something super duper exciting to share with you! And you can thank my private student Jo from Ireland for this parce que j’ai trouvé ces petits bijoux grâce à elle! During our last online class, she asked for philosophy / history material, en français bien sûr, for us to discuss during our next session. Évidemment je suis allée directement sur ma beloved radio station France Culture (we are so lucky to have this French oasis of erudition for free, well, pas exactement gratuit car nous payons des impôts bien sûr but that’s such a good reason to pay taxes, n’est-ce pas?) et j’ai trouvé plein d’émissions très courtes (seulement 3 minutes) donc pas du tout overwhelming et le présentateur parle LENTEMENT et CLAIREMENT, il articule si bien, c’est un vrai bonheur!

Discussing every day issues… en Français

Lots of people think philosophy is way out there et extrêmement difficile. I won’t lie, it often is, mais pas toujours! Il y a un aspect pratique de la philosophie qui nous vient tout droit de l’Antiquité, when the way a philosopher spoke matched the way he lived his life, and potentially the lives of others who had decided to follow his ideas.

La philosophie est très populaire en France. We enjoy philosophers on TV and on the radio where they either have their own shows ou alors ils sont invités dans les émissions de leurs confrères. Nos philosophes stars nationales écrivent aussi des best-sellers, parlent dans des théâtres pleins de spectateurs qui viennent les écouter, leur poser des questions (I used to do this every Monday aux conférences de Charles Pépin qui j’aimais beaucoup!) échanger des idées avec eux.

Par conséquent, je n’ai pas été surprise de trouver ces mini émissions de 3 minutes qui répondent à des questions de la vie de tous les jours to help us deal with universal and timeless human issues.

Listen to slow & clear French

You can click HERE pour accéder à toutes les mini émissions de 3 minutes, OR, if you feel overwhelmed by le choix, like me when I go shopping dans un magasin qui est trop grand, j’ai fait une petite sélection ici qui j’espère vous plaira. Il n’y a pas que des penseurs français mais peu importe! Pour écouter just click on the photos below and it will take you directement there! Je commence avec mon chouchou… Nietzsche!

Comment triompher d’un problème?

Devant une situation d’agression, éviter à tout prix l’affrontement. Pourquoi? Parce que croyant nous défendre, nous restons prisonniers de ce à quoi nous nous opposons.

(Click on the image below to listen to 3 minutes of slow of clear French woohoo!)


—————————————–

Il faut accepter une certaine forme d’incertitude pour bien écouter l’autre

Toutes les enquêtes récentes montrent que le temps où nous pouvons maintenir notre attention est de plus en plus court, de l’ordre de 9 à 10 secondes! Nous espérions que le numérique allait étendre nos capacités de connaissance et de relation, il est en train de les restreindre.

(Click on the image below to listen to 3 minutes of slow of clear French woohoo!)

—————————————–

Le narcissisme est-il vraiment une mauvaise chose?

Ce dont l’homme d’aujourd’hui manque, c’est de narcissisme. Et c’est ce manque qui le rend si faible, à la merci hier comme aujourd’hui, de toutes les formes de manipulation.

(Click on the image below to listen to 3 minutes of slow of clear French woohoo!)


—————————————–

Comment se crée une vraie relation

Quand je suis fixé sur mon but, le chemin devient fastidieux. On a qu’une envie : qu’il soit fini, que l’on soit arrivé enfin à destination. Quel dommage! Je manque tout ce que je pourrais y apprendre!

(Click on the image below to listen to 3 minutes of slow of clear French woohoo!)


—————————————–

Alors?

What did you think?

Did you find the pace of the présentateur slower than what you are used to?

Quel est le pourcentage de ce que vous avez compris?

Do share your impressions and tell me how that worked for you!

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Learn French online with Virginie

Join French Truly’s online school, either by buying the French online course(s) of your choice or by becoming a monthly member. 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

  1. It should take you about 30 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 10 lessons

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  1. It should take you about 20 to 2 hours to complete this course, which is made up of 11 lessons

  2. 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.

  3. 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 

In the FRENCH DICTÉES online course you will find 20 videos + 10 audio files to help & accompany you every step of the way throughout the course. Why 20 videos? Because there are 10 dictées in total, each focusing on one particular topic, and for each dictée I have prepared 2 videos. Let’s say the video focuses on both French past tenses called imparfait & passé composé. The first video will go though the grammar, the conjugation, and all the tips on these two past tenses to help you understand and remember how and when to use them. The second video will be the actual dictée, a short story written by me, describing everyday life situations conveniently packed with imparfait and passé composé verbs! Boom! Efficient! The dictée will also be read by me, slowly first and then a little faster, with a close up on my face so you can more easily recognize the words and copy the shapes I make to improve your own pronunciation.

Become a French language expert

How do you become an expert at anything? By focusing on one thing at a time.

I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic per dictée, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

Here’s what you’re going to learn

What grammar & conjugation points will each dictée focus on?

Dictée # 1: Present tense

Dictée # 2: Past tenses – imparfait & passé composé

Dictée # 3: Future tenses – futur proche & futur simple

Dictée # 4: Conditional, imparfait, asking questions

Dictée # 5: Imperative form

Dictée # 6: First group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 7: Second group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 8: Third group verbs all tenses

Dictée # 9: Numbers

Dictée # 10: Prepositions

Each dictée is a short story written by me about practical everyday life situations. This means that not only do you get to work on conjugation & grammar drills, but you also improve your conversational skills at the same time: a magic combination for your next trip to France!

Grow your confidence talking about practical everyday topics

The dictées will refer to common topics that you are very likely to hear or very likely to use to express yourself such as:

-Traveling to France

-Socializing

-Childhood memories

-Family dynamics

-Everyday life routines

-How to express your ideas, opinions, and dreams

Two videos per dictée

First video: key grammar and conjugation reminders explained very clearly so you feel prepared and confident entering each dictée.

Second video: the actual dictée. I’ve made sure to categorize and isolate either a verb tense, a verb group, a grammar or vocabulary topic, so you can effectively focus and interiorize concepts separately, which makes it a lot easier to remember them.

And for you challenge lovers over-achievers?

Yes I have prepared something just for you! I have also made 10 audio files, 1 per dictée, so that if you wish to, if you want it extra difficult, if you want to test yourself more deeply, you can solely rely on sound. Indeed there are many occasions in life where we hear a language but we don’t see it: speaking to someone on the phone or listening to the radio for instance.

20 videos? 10 audio files? What else?

This new FRENCH DICTÉES online course also comes with written files with both the French text along with the English translation, so that you can evaluate yourself when you’re done taking notes.

To summarize, you’ll be able to use video, audio, and written material.

Dictées worked for me, they’ll work for you!

Let me tell you, I LOVE dictées because THEY WORK. And clearly you realize this too and that is smart of you. So now let’s see how something as simple as a dictée can truly help you become a little bit French! 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.

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!

1 view0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page