la bise or how to get confused when saying hello!

Last Thursaday, I talked about "la bise" (kissing on the cheeks). I must say I never noticed it was so complicated before having to explain it!
In France, you basically kiss on the cheeks to say hello and goodbye.
If you're a woman, you will usually kiss on the cheeks people that you will meet (i'm speaking here of friends, relatives, friends of friends,...but not about people that you will meet just once in your life!). If you are a bussiness woman having an important job, then you would rather shake hands like men do.
Men will shake hands to everybody but people from their family (in that case they will perform the ritual of "la bise"!).
With friends, there are no specific rules. For example with my close french friends, I will just make a cuddle...

The tricky part of doing "la bise" is that you never really know how many kisses you will have to do. For example if you are from Paris, you might do 4 kisses whereas if you are from Lyon you will do 2 and if you are from where my parents are living (near Geneva) you will do 3.
It can get a little confusing when for example I'm meeting an old friend coming from my parents' region in Lyon...How many kisses do I have to make in that situation?!? (3 because we are both coming from a region when you do 3 or 2 because we are in Lyon and I'm living in Lyon since 3 years and am used to doing 2 now?)
Well...you never know but usually you will just do 2...it's enough to be friendly enough but not too friendly!

être élève en France

Here is the first little "cultural" intervention I made about schools in France.
The normal day for a pupil is going to school from 8.30 to 11.30 and from 13.30 to 16.30. (with breaks at 10.15 and 15.15 for nearly 20 minutes each). Pupils are usually going to school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday mornings, Thursday and Friday (sometimes the Wednesday morning is replaced by Saturday mornings.).
Basically during those days they will study French (a lot of grammar and how to conjugate, "la dictée",...) Maths, History and Geography, a little of english, Art, and Music (jut a few hours per week).
Here are the classes that you have:
Maternelle, consisting of 3 years
petite section: starts are 2 or 3 depending on the number of places the school has.
moyenne section
grande section

Cours Préparatoire (CP) where you learn how to read.
Cours Elémentaire (CE) The "Cours élémentaire" is in two years:
CE1
CE2
Cours Moyen (CM) here again in two years:
CM1
CM2

After the CM2 you go to the "Collège" (Secondary school).
That's a bit tedious but i thought it was important to introduce the general context of "les écoliers en France"!

Tuesday 30 October

We did more on colours, did ages and where I live. Had a look at PowerLanguage CD rom from Richard Tallaron aka le Français en Ecosse. We particularly liked the French kids' voices and the songs.

I've uploaded notes on colour, age and French Christian names in case you want to give your class French names.

PS Found this on french about site in the subject of French names.

Resources

Thanks to Marie, I have uploaded her colour dominoes, colours cars and happy familes in colour.

Anne recommended SparkleBox for display material. I have alreay downloaded some stuff after doing a search for French. I also liked Dress the Bear - no words.

Thursday 25 October

Salut encore!
Hope those of you who are ill are on the mend!
Today we did colours, family, and flashcard presentation.
We played happy families en français. I have modified the game to 5 families and uploaded files.
Laure has recorded family, and the NASAL vowels we did last time. They are in the Pronunciation folder.
C'est tout pour ce soir.
A mardi!

Halloween Ideas

The MFLE site has a page with lots of Halloween ideas for all languages (including English!)

Confusion reigns

In a previous post "date change" I wrote November when I meant October .

This week the class is not Tuesday 23rd but Thursday 25th October!

Désolée!

Registration

Salut! J'espère que vous profitez de vos vacances! La France était formidable!

If you get a letter saying send money please ignore that. It is a standard letter. East Ayrshire will pay your fees of £150 a module.

But do return the completed form!

Today's class

We looked at polite language. Try this exercise to practise "have a nice day"

We went over the alphabet and names.

We spent a lot of time on nasal vowels.
I got the ipod working again and will ask Laure to record today's stuff.

Notes are in "my teaching files"

Date change

Note next class is Thursday 25 November.

Class on Tuesday 6 November is cancelled as I am on a course. Extra day on end , Tuesday 25 March!

DAY TRIP TO BEAUVAIS?

Proposed day trip to Beauvais, a very nice French town for some shopping, food and a bit of culture.
Ryanair flights for this date are currently 1p making the trip with no luggage £24 return!
Click on comments if you are up for it!
Sat, 08 Mar 08 Flight 62
06:40 Depart Glasgow Prestwick (PIK)
09:10 Arrive Paris Beauvais (BVA)
Sat, 08 Mar 08 Flight 65
22:50 Depart Paris Beauvais (BVA)
23:20 Arrive Glasgow Prestwick (PIK)

Podcasts

For personal use there are free podcasts to download to your computer or mp3 player.
Learn French with Coffee Break French created in Ayrshire is an excellent example.

North Ayrshire Programme of Study for Primary French

North Ayrshire have recently posted their programme of study. You can download it from here.

Name

What’s your name?

Asking a child, family member or equal
Comment t’appelles-tu?
Comment tu t’appelles?
Quel est ton nom?

Asking an adult or more than more person
Comment vous appelez-vous?
Quel est votre nom?

Quel est ton/votre nom de famille? What’s your surname?

Quel est ton/votre prénom? What’s your first name?

Je m’appelle … I am called
Mon nom est … My name is
Mon nom de famille est … My surname is
Mon prénom est … My first name is

Alphabet song

Meant to do this one too, to the same melody as we sing alphabet song in English. (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!) We'll do it on Tuesday.

a b c d e f g
h i j k l-m-n-o-p
q r s t u v doublev
q r s t u v doublev
x x i grec z ok
ça, c’est l’alphabet français

Mon merle a perdu une plume

une chanson : Mon merle a perdu une plume

(to practise “u” sound)

Mon merle a perdu une plume
Mon merle a perdu une plume, plume plume
Il ne chantera plus, mon merle
Il ne chantera plus.

Mon merle a perdu deux plumes
Mon merle a perdu deux plumes, une plume, plume plume
Il ne chantera plus mon merle
Il ne chantera plus.

Mon merle a perdu trois plumes
Mon merle a perdu trois plumes, deux plumes, une plume, plume plume
Il ne chantera plus mon merle
Il ne chantera plus.

etc

Thursday class

We practised more numbers and number activities, looked at Edpax number activities, sang mon merle a perdu une plume.

We learned the alphabet and practised spelling our names.
Notes and audio files in "My teaching files" (soon)

On Tuesday Ann McDaid and Teresa Muir of Paisley University will be in attendance to deal with registration. Please bring your GTC number.