A Word About Pronunciations...

A few people have commented to me about the pronunciations I've been providing. I realize that when I speak french it is not with the exact pronunciations that some words require. I know I will be sounding like an American speaking french. I don't mind sounding that way, I just want to be understood somewhat if & when I go to France, & be able to read signs, directions & such. But I don't want to instill the wrong soundings for people who would later have to unlearn the sounds I have been teaching. So I will continue to post phrases & lessons for reading & writing, but I will only post the phonetical sounds (as if you were reading them from many of the French teaching books. If you want to know how French should really sound, I encourage you to buy any of the audio lessons available in bookstores, or listen to the many french podcasts available on I-tunes.

Once again I will give you the main reason for this site:

1. For me to keep studying my French.
2. For you to learn with me at a relaxed & non structured pace. (No grades or report cards :)
3. I will not teach unnecessary phrases or words that you will probably never use if you visit France (such as drain-pipe, soil, grasshopper, oboe, etc). We will only concentrate on words & phrases that we might need if we go on a vacation to France.

I will not dwell on grammer, or thousands of verbs and every possible past present and future combinations that they teach in the books. My purpose is to learn needed words and phrases so we will not stumble around Paris trying to find someone who speaks English. We will not be fluent in french from this site, but we will be able to somewhat communicate to people when we get there. Where I work we have thousands of tourists visit our store, and they do not speak perfect English, but I can understand what they are trying to communicate to me. That is what I want to be able to do if and when I ever go to France.

How to use this site:

Write down or print out each lesson or Phrase Of the Day posts. keep it with you all day. Look at it whenever you can. Keep saying the phrases to yourself (don't worry if people think you are crazy talking to yourself). Keep a notebook or a blank piece of paper so you can repeatedly write the phrases & words over & over. Repetition is the key here. Don't worry if you miss or skip a lesson or phrase. There is no order to the things I post here. It is not like a book where you have to start from page 1. All we are doing here is trying to keep adding to our own vocabulary of the french language. Also, do check the day after a post, as we have a few people from France (most notably our friend Isabelle) who help keep this site accurate, and who also advise us on better ways of saying certain phrases.