Guest Post: How to Learn French as a Food Lover (plus a French vocabulary freebie)

Today I'm very happy to introduce a guest post from the megacute Shannon Kennedy who blogs about her love of languages and music over at Eurolinguiste. She speaks French and English fluently and is currently working towards fluency in Mandarin and Croatian. Find Shannon on Facebook, Instagram or Youtube.

Shannon has also created a huge vocabulary list for all Fluent readers who are ready to get to the next level of their food vocabulary. Read to the last paragraph to find out how you can get your hands on it.

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Must Know French Words for Food Lovers

When I ask you to think of France, what are a few of the images that come to mind?

For me, my first thoughts might lead to an impromptu picnic along the Seine. Perhaps, a sophisticated and romantic dinner [in the heart of Paris][0]. Or maybe even sitting down to enjoy an afternoon of people-watching with un café and un croissant at one of the Hexagon's many sidewalk cafés.

As you may have noticed, the above images all have one thing in common.

Food.

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Yes. When I think of France, along with its language, rich history, renowned art, ground-breaking fashion, and striking architecture, I have images of pastries and fresh-baked baguettes from the local boulangerie floating through my head. I am surely a gourmande, and learning the words to communicate my love of food has been an enjoyable part of my language learning process.

While there is so much more to French culture beyond food, France is certainly celebrated for its fare. It is the country with the most Michelin star restaurants (aside from Japan), as well as the home of fine wines, more than 400 types of cheese, an endless supply of delicious, buttery treats, and exotic-sounding delicacies such as frogs’ legs and escargot.

With food as such a big part of France’s culture, why not make French cuisine a part of your language learning experience?

An Introduction to French Cuisine

There is a wealth of information available regarding French cuisine (and I’ve included a few resources at the end of this post), but I’d like to do a quick introduction.

A typical French meal consists of three courses. These are often a starter (l’entrée), the main dish (le plat), and either a cheese, fruit, sorbet, or yogurt for dessert (le dessert).

Meal times can last for hours. They are as much about the food as they are about the experience and the conversation. In 2010, French cuisine even made it on to the UNESCO World Heritage List, defined as "a festive meal bringing people together for an occasion to enjoy the art of good eating and drinking.”

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There are several branches of French cuisine, namely haute cuisine and nouvelle cuisine. France is also well-known for its regional cuisines. Each region of France has its own distinct style. Take for example Lorraine Quiche, Crème Chantilly, Dijon Mustard, or Salade Lyonnaise. Each of these is named for the region from which it originates.

Many of these regional dishes have since been re-appropriated into the country’s national cuisine. Just to name a few, crepes were originally from Brittany, flammekueche from Alsace, and bouillabaisse from Marseille. Regardless of how these various items found their way into the heart of France’s national cuisine, there are no doubts that France has a rich food culture and history, and thus, vocabulary.

Are you ready to become a French Vocab Chef? We have a few tips for you below. Even if you're not madly in love with learning French, think about how you can apply these steps to your own target language. I'm thinking Pad Thai, Spätzle and Nigerian Pepper Soup.

Steps to Becoming a Vocab Chef

Step 1: Learn more about France and French Cuisine

Step 2: Expand your food vocabulary with words for sauces, more popular dishes, and cooking utensils

Step 3: Try your hand at French cooking


Step 4: Share your experience as a French Vocab Chef in the comments below!

Download a Free Vocabulary List

Ready to boost your own French vocabulary? Then you should check out Shannon's fabulous list of French food vocabulary - it's several pages of expressions to help you order, eat and cook in French.

Simply click here and select the "Français" option to receive your copy by email along with an invitation to the Fluent Cool Kids Club full of free language surprises.

Podcast Episode 16: Discover languages, dialects and scripts with Lindsay Dow

In Episode 16, I'm introducing our new co-host: Lindsay Dow from Lindsay Does Languages. I’m bringing Lindsay in for more Creative Language Learning Podcast because she's just been so much fun for you to listen to. The episode is supported by Flashsticks (use code KERSTIN10 on www.flashsticks.com for a 10% discount).

podcast languages

In Episode 16, you’ll hear:

  • A discussion of the world’s many different scripts and writing systems, with Lindsay’s recent forays into Amharic and how I worked in Korea for 2 days

  • What makes a dialect different from a language, and where is the line?

  • What travelling to Europe and getting your Health Insurance card can do for your world perspectives

  • A live recording of my first ever #iglc Instagram Language Challenge video

Tips of the Week

In this episode the tables were turned and Lindsay allowed me to choose the tip of the week from three awesome creative tips she had researched. I loved it! My favourite tip ended up being tip 3, using a language in order to learn a language.

1) Open your ears and get into the exercises at listeningpractice.org

2) Learn a language with Pinterest. Both Lindsay and I love this social network and we have about how you can enhance your lessons and learning adventures with it. Here they are:

3) Learn a new language via a language that you already know

Links for Episode 16 of the Creative Language Learning Podcast

Thanks for reading this article on Fluent, the Language Learning Blog. If you are feeling able to give $1 to keep the podcast and the blog going strong, please head over to Patreon and become a supporter!

3 Useful Resources to help you improve your French (even if you last studied 10 years ago)

Mesdames et messieurs, I bet you have dreamed about the French many times. It’s the ultimate language of chatting in a streetside café or watching the sun go down over the Atlantic. But French is for more than just a fun trip, as it counts as a leading world language too.

French is the World's Most Taught Language

The French Embassy to the US delivers a fun fact about France in its list of 10 Reasons to Learn French:

French is the only language, alongside English, that is taught in every country in the world.

This means that almost all of you readers are likely to have studied French at some point in your lives. It's widely taught in Europe, in Africa and throughout Northern America. Personally, I have been learning French since I was 13, which makes it nearly 20 years now. It’s not always been easy, but throughout my journey I learnt a lot of awesome things and also realized that I can make myself understood in Belgium, Canada, Northern Africa and the Caribbean with the power of this one language. For example, the language became so much easier for me once I started explaining grammar as much as I was studying it. The French grammar can be aligned very well with that of German, my own native language. Explaining grammar became a true specialty of mine. If you check out my course Easy French Grammar for Beginners, you’ll get a glimpse of how I do it. I put the learner first and focus on outlining how things work step-by-step.

Why Study a Language on Udemy?

I often mention Udemy as a great resource for online learners on this blog, and as an instructor and student on there I do know what I am talking about. The courses on Udemy are open to a learning community of over 6 million people. In my experience, this has made for a great advantage to the learner. You get to study your language whenever you want and repeat lectures as many times as you need, but at the same time there’s a tutor available in all courses so you can ask questions and get them to add more materials.

Step 1: Review the Basics

As students join my Easy Grammar for Beginners course and progress through it, I see that many of them were using the course as a refresher. The videos allow you to rediscover older concepts that you may have learnt in school, and to reframe them if things didn't make a lot of sense first time round. This is a wonderful way of getting back into a language. You're not overwhelmed, but you get that sweet confidence of taking the second chance. I particularly enjoyed the many reviews and emails I got from the students who said that they had a little bit of confidence, but felt their French skills improved by 100% after they took these classes. Many have asked me what the next step could be, so in today's blog post I wanted to recommend three great next step resources for intermediate French learners.

Step 2: Add a Course about French tenses

Once you are confident making basic sentences about yourself, your environment and your immediate situation, I bet you'll want to grow that knowledge into something new. That's where the verb tenses come in. You’ll need tenses for sophisticated communication. In my own French grammar course, I focused on the A1 range of grammar. That only contains three tenses, but in fact there are about 11 of them to master in French. So once you have covered and understood those essential nouns, verbs and adverbs from the Easy Grammar for Beginners course, you should cast your eye over tenses.

If you like the Udemy platform then stay and try French Tenses Simplified by Scott McElroy, a fellow French teacher on the Udemy platform. Believe it or not, this one is actually his smaller course. It covers those 11 important moods and tenses you need after finishing level A1. Scott’s course would be the perfect follow-on if you are ready to move on from my French grammar explanations.

The French Tenses Simplified course is about three hours long altogether, but Scott has broken his lectures up into simple 3-6 minute videos. It features even more than just French tense explanations. He has thrown in simple vocabulary lists, a full PDF of the course contents and four downloadable Flashcard videos. So all in all, we’re talking about a nice package.

Screenshot from the course French Tenses Simplified.

Screenshot from the course French Tenses Simplified.

I tested this course on an aspect of French grammar that I’ve always found particularly difficult: the subjonctif. He approaches the topic with an awesome sense of humour right from the start. The topic is first introduced in English, with examples that demonstrate when you would use a subjunctive in French. To me, the reasons made a lot of sense here. There are clear rules saying “if this…then that” which is always something we can appreciate in language learning. The lecture could have benefited from slowing down, though. I paused it and took notes several times. Regarding the way the subjonctif is formed, Scott’s lecture was a fab refresher. I got 83% in the final quiz. Maybe you can beat me?

Instructor Quality

Right from the start, you will know that you’re in good hands with Scott’s explanations. He gives a comprehensive course overview to introduce you to French verbs and has SUCH good pronunciation.The thing that really stood out to me was the ease and friendliness in Scott’s explanations. When you take a video course, it’s always important that the instructor sounds like a nice person. You have to listen to these people for ages! Scott comes across as a friendly guy who knows his stuff right from the first second. I really liked his narration and French accent.

Beware if you’re a Beginner

If you’re a French beginner and have never come across any concept of French grammar before, then watch out. The course French Tenses Simplified goes through a few big concepts at qui[e a fast pace, so that I imagine a complete beginner would have to stop and slow it right down. For example, the course presumes that you as a learner are aware that French has three different verb groups for the regular verbs. It also skips over the fact that some verbs are irregular and introduces only three of the irregular ones.

So count yourself advised: If you are a complete beginner, start with my course Easy French Grammar for Beginners (it’s from zero) and arm yourself with a Bescherelle book before diving into the tenses.

Step 3: Analyze Content from natural French sources

In the past 2 steps, you saw options to use for getting your French grammar level up to a pretty sophisticated standard. And moving on from video courses, it is time to start working with real life content. Skip the Rosetta Stone and instructional podcasts, and start looking for simplified French sources. One of France's cultural strengths is their dedication to la bande dessinée (comics), and you'll find some awesome content in books like Astérix. I also like the TV5Monde series for French learners a lot.

The key at this stage is that you should make sure you recognise the stuff that you have learnt in the first two stages. Grammar is not abstract, it is a key to how language really works. If your goal is to speak confident and sophisticated French, then you must observe how the rules are applied in real life. That's what learning in step 3 is all about, so watch out for all those little things. Where is the speaker using an adverb? Can you spot all the -ent endings on 3 pages of comic? Challenge yourself here and enjoy playing language detective.

Do this at any Stage: Leave the Classroom, enter Life

After you have masstered the hard study and review of French grammar concepts, it's really time to break out from the classroom. If you have not done so already, start opening your eyes to natural French language content online and offline. With such a huge international community of speakers, it's incredibly easy to find a meetup of the French community. Here in Lancaster, I have practiced my French at the local language café and you can find your nearest European café at www.languagecafe.eu. The next opportunity to meet native speakers is just 3 miles away at the local university. Where is your nearest college hosting international students? If you aren't aware yet, consider contacting their student associations and meeting the French society or even the International Society. And should all those outreach options fail, there's always the language exchange option through sites like Speaky or Interpals.

For some learners, it's a confidence builder to get the grammar foundations ready before you go out.But in the grand scheme of things, I encourage you to go out and play in the real world right from day 1. You don't have to challenge yourself to do the impossible or conduct a full French conversation straight away, but I encourage you to make sure you keep an eye on the real world while you're studying the basics.

Re-Cap of the Resources in this Article

  • If you are a complete beginner in French, you'll benefit from my own online course Easy French Grammar for Beginners, which you can pick up for $19 using the code MOTIVATION.

  • More advanced learners looking for the next step should check out French Tenses Simplified by Scott McElroy. It's a fast-paced refresher course run by a positive online teacher, and contains lots of extras. For more help with the tenses and verb forms, the Bescherelle books can be invaluable. Get the course at 70% off if you use the link tiny.cc/step2french.

  • At several intervals in this process, you should work with real native content. Don't go out reading the French newspapers right away, but ease yourself in and find simplified French language resources.

  • No matter where you are at in your French study, you should also make sure that you make time to see those actual real French speakers. You can find them on each continent and everywhere around you in international hotspots like universities and meetups.

The key is to get a good balance between video or book study and real life experimentation. And of course, I wish you bonne chance with that.

Podcast Episode 15: From marrying a soldier to writing a German language blog, with Angelika Davey

My guest this month is Angelika Davey, owner of the blog angelikasgerman.co.uk. Angelika has been teaching German independently for many years.

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Listen to our interview to find out more about

  • Keeping your mind agile, and whether it really matters to anyone under 50

  • The ultimate showdown: Age vs. Attitude! Which one makes you a better learner?

  • Why learning German is your best choice for business

  • What it’s like to date someone from a different country

  • A new and innovative approach that makes even the best private teacher affordable and accessible to yo

Article of the Week

Multilingual Families: Even our Dog uses 3 Languages

Tips of the Week

Angelika chose Tip 1 as her Tip of the Week.

Tip 1: Read cereal packets, clothing labels and anything you can get (see Language Surfer blog)

Tip 2: Discover foreign culture at home

Tip 3: Use Eurovision to learn your Target Language (see Koko the Polyglot)

Tips and Links from this Podcast

Don't forget to take advantage of the special $10 German Course offer!

“If I’m selling to you, then I speak your language. If you’re buying from me, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.”
— Willy Brand

Links to Amazon and Udemy are affiliate links so they cost you nothing more but they support Fluent Language and this podcast. Thanks for your clicks. If you are feeling able to give $1 to keep the podcast and the blog going strong, please head over to Patreon and become a supporter!

 

How I came to Online Teaching: A TEFL-Free Story

Many people who find me and my work through Fluent often assume that I took the classic route of learning how to teach online after studying for a TEFL exam, but that's not actually true. In fact, I never set out to be an entrepreneur at all. In today's blog post, I want to share this awesome interview with me and Gabby Wallace from Laptoplanguageteacher.com.

It's an in-depth look at how I started out in language teaching, and how my independent streak actually helped me discover my own niche in this market. As you can see, I'm just as scared as you are when it comes to that niche challenge!

Here are the top 4 Lessons you can Learn from this Video

  1. If you work online, collaborating with your colleagues is the door to success
  2. When you blog, you start sharing your views and standing out in a wholly new way. It is one of the most fun experiences on the internet. If you want to learn more about how to start a language blog, check out Fluent's Quick'n'Easy Guide to Language Blogging.
  3. Your prices can send a powerful message to new students. I have spoken to so many language students who felt that they actually
  4. Bonus Lesson: That's a crazy hairband.

And of course, I also mentioned various ways of working with me in the video. The 50 Calls project is now finished, yes I actually spoke to 50 amazing people. It was so much fun!

The feedback I got from them helped me create the course Compass, which is now available to online teachers right here on Fluent as the (renamed) Savvy Brand Toolkit. I'd love for you to check it out, and don't forget to sign up for my newsletter so that I can send you discount codes and promotions when I run them.

Event Coming Up

Gabby and I are running a joint Facebook event on 7 May. It's called the Online Teaching Show and designed to help online teachers get the word out. All for free, so please come and join us by registering here on Facebook.