Download La France at La Francophonie (DVD): Conversations with Native Speakers eBook

Very pleasant, helpful resource for learning spoken French.

After studying French for several years, my time in France was severely hindered by my unfamiliarity with the "um"s, "ah"s, "you know"s, stutter patterns, and slang used by the people I ran into in Marseille. While I could read many things without a dictionary, my speech was stilted and I had trouble understanding the emotions expressed by the people I talked to, since I couldn't understand the rhythm of their colloquial register.

French register has many levels, and most textbooks teach "Formal" and "Literary" French. This style of speech is simply not useful for building relationships or interacting with people on the street. Constantly pronouncing the "t" in "c'est un" or the "e meut" in "ce que" makes the spoken language easy to follow. Newscasters usually speak Formal French, giving the impression to student listeners that people speak clearly and in a way closely related to writing.

However, people don't really talk like that. I was constantly frustrated trying to have conversations with people who squished all the "e meut" syllables together with other words that aren't supposed to be squishable. Some people said "quoi" every other word and I didn't know how to match their level of informality without making blunders and using idiotic slang in the wrong places. In short, my time in France was marked by shallowness of relationships and most of the time, after a conversation, I was left scratching my head.

That's where a book like this comes in so handy. It transcribes every word on the DVD- including stutters, false starts, and slang- and explains vocabulary like "filler" words (ben, quoi, ban, etc) as you go. This is SO USEFUL and I am so grateful that I can finally improve my spoken French to the point where I will be able to talk like a real person and not like a grammar book, an academic poet, or a newscaster.

The DVD is not exactly "state of the art" in its presentation (it reminds me of something from the early 90s on PBS), but it gets the job done. The interviews are a little bit boring but they show a range of accents, including immigrants, teenagers, and children, and introduce you to how people from all walks of life really talk.

Fantastic. Over ninety interview clips each transcribed en francais and a few select phrased/words are translated a la the champs elysee audiomag. Interesting speakers from various countries. Really well done. Nearly as good as Speaking Irish. Somewhat advanced

The book came quickly and was exactly in the condition that it was advertised as. Thank you!

Excellent service. I would patronize again.