francais pour etrangers (part 2)

Here's a little more of what I've learned...

my trusty verb book

 I guess now would be a good time to tell you, francais pour etrangers basically means "french for foreigners". It's the name of the class I'm in here at the Institute. Which is going pretty well, but I still don't say much in class. I follow it a lot better than I did in November though. They also have basic french for french speakers that's more technical grammar stuff. 

So, another good little phrase to learn is en fait . It just means, "in fact". Using it in english makes you sound pretentious, but in french they thrown it in whenever they're stating a contradictory fact. "Tu habite dans Paris?"  "J'habite à Nogent-sur-Marne, en fait." (You live in Paris? I live in Nogent-sur-Marne, in fact). It can be added to the beginning or the end of the sentence.


Also, my latest favorite words...
quiconque- "anyone" or "anybody"
prende une douche- "take a shower" who knew, but I looked it up it's the same in english, the douche part anyway.
frapper- "to hit or strike" 
il y a- "there is" or "there are", I just like the way it rolls off the tongue.

my well-used little dictionary

What's exciting is I have had a lot of people comment in the last few weeks about how much my french has improved. Everyone says understanding comes before being able to speak, and I can follow a conversation for the most part. Understanding the gist of it, if not every word. It would be nice to be able to pause people when they talk, and ask for a definition, or look up a word. It's easier with movies that way. It'd be nice to have subtitles for life, since I do much better when I can read the french, rather than just hear it.

I saw this video and thought it was so cute, I had to share. It just makes you want to pack your bags...

note: I wasn't able to do this one on a french keyboard so I'm missing some accents and such. I figured only the frenchies would notice...