Learn how to say some witty French proverbs, and the meanings and origins of these clever French sayings
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sam: Learn how to set a friendly atmosphere during a meal. But before we get into this, as a nice cross reference to this lesson, I’d encourage our listeners to have a listen to our culture class #6, about the do’s and don'ts of French dinner. So while listening to this lovely lesson, keep that in the back of your mind. But anyway, I’m joined here today by… |
| Celine: Celine. |
| Sam: So welcome back! |
| Celine: Welcome back. |
| Sam: And tell us about today’s idioms and proverbs lesson. What are we going to learn about? |
| Celine: We’re going to learn about idiomatic expressions to set a friendly and informal atmosphere at parties or dinner. |
| Sam: Oh, sounds good. |
| Celine: Oui. And the conversation is between the hostess, Geneviève and her newly arrived neighbor being a shy guest. |
| Sam: This conversation is between Genevieve and her neighbor, Celine stated earlier, just one line ago, hahaha. |
| Celine: Hahaha. |
| Sam: The speakers are friends, so I think they’ll be speaking casually this time. |
| Celine: Not really. At first, they will speak formal, and they will use casual afterwards. Sam: Okay, so they’ll kind of transition here. |
| Celine: Mm. |
| Sam: Mm. Shall we start? |
| Celine: Allez. |
| DIALOGUES |
| A: Bonjour, Madame. |
| B: Oh, appelle-moi Gene. Geneviève quoi ! |
| A: Des fleurs pour vous. |
| B: Ben non... tutoie-moi. Ne cherche pas midi à quatorze heures. Et merci pour les fleurs. |
| A: D'accord, Gene. |
| B: Ici pas de chichi ! C'est à la bonne franquette ! |
| A: Ok. Alors, une bière Gene. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sam: So Celine, when you introduce yourself to your neighbors for the first time, age withstanding, is it okay to launch into casual French or does it depend on the situation or…? |
| Celine: No, no, don’t use casual. Use always the polite form, except if the person is younger, but really younger like kid or teenager. |
| Sam: So what if your neighbor opens the door and they just start chichatting, hey, thanks for coming over. If they’re using casual French, is it okay for you to also use casual French, no? |
| Celine: No, if they use casual French, it’s rude. Even if it’s a nice atmosphere, you have to use polite French always for the first time. |
| Sam: So, the first time, you start in the formal style of French and then after you get more comfortable… |
| Celine: Yeah, maybe it can last for just 5 or 10 minutes, but you have to use polite French, first, always. |
| Sam: That’s a good tip for our listeners. |
| Celine: Yeah, neighbors in France, it’s really complicated because sometimes when you get to know them very well, after that, they just come over without calling you or… |
| Sam: Oh really? |
| Celine: Yeah. |
| Sam: I don’t know. From my experience, I felt like it was great when they would just come over unexpectedly and… |
| Celine: Sometimes it’s okay, but I mean if you want to be alone or if you’re busy, it’s just like it’s annoying, I think. |
| Sam: Or if your neighbor is kind of, I think in America, they say a bugaboo, somebody who’s kind of annoying. |
| Celine: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But old neighbors are like that. |
| Sam: Really? |
| Celine: Yeah. You know, it happens every day in France that at first, you’re really friends, and suddenly, I don’t know why, you just fight, but fight. |
| Sam: Oh wow. |
| Celine: Yeah. |
| Sam: It’s quite a digression then. |
| Celine: Yes. |
| Sam: Now, let’s look at the vocabulary and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sam: The first item is… |
| Celine: chercher [natural native speed] |
| Sam: to look for, to get |
| Celine: chercher [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Celine: chercher [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Next |
| Celine: midi [natural native speed] |
| Sam: noon |
| Celine: midi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Celine: midi [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Next |
| Celine: franquette [natural native speed] |
| Sam: simply, without ceremony |
| Celine: franquette [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Celine: franquette [natural native speed] |
| Sam: Next |
| Celine: chichi [natural native speed] |
| Sam: fuss |
| Celine: chichi [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Celine: chichi [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sam: Now, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Celine: The first word is chercher. |
| Sam: “to look for, to search for, or to seek” |
| Celine: It’s a verb from the first group. This is the most famous word in the petites annonces “the ads.” If you want to look for an apartment, a house, a lover, you would use “je cherche” or “je recherche”. |
| Sam: “I seek” |
| Celine: Uh, that reminds, Éric Klapisch you know Éric Klapisch? |
| Sam: Of course! |
| Celine: Yeah, he’s a director, and one of his movies is Chacun cherche son chat. |
| Sam: Oh yes! I saw this one. I think the title in English is “When the Cat’s Away” but the French title means “Everybody is looking for his cat,” right? |
| Celine: Exactly. Oh, you watched it? Okay, so you should watch it again. |
| Sam: Okay, I will. |
| Celine: Okay, next, we have midi. |
| Sam: “noon” or “12:00 pm” |
| Celine: Right. If you put an article in front of midi as in “le midi”, you are talking about the South of France. For example, “Je veux vivre dans le midi”. |
| Sam: “I want to live in the South of France.” |
| Celine: Midi also stands for “lunch” or “lunch break.” It’s called midi, but we usually eat lunch later. For example - “Qu’est-ce que tu as mangé à midi?”, “Qu’est-ce que tu as mangé à midi?”. |
| Sam: “What did you eat for lunch?” |
| Celine: “À midi, j’ai mangé une salade”. |
| Sam: “I ate a salad for lunch.” Ah! |
| Celine: Lunch break is also called “entre midi et deux” between 12:00 and 2:00 as in “Tu fais quoi entre midi et deux ?”, “Tu fais quoi entre midi et deux ?”. |
| Sam: “What do you do between 12:00 pm and 2:00?” “What do you do for lunch break?” |
| Celine: “Je mange mon repas de midi”, “Je mange mon repas de midi”. |
| Sam: “I eat my lunch.” Wow! What’s our next word? |
| Celine: franquette |
| Sam: “simply” |
| Celine: Yes, in opposition to “française”, franquette means in a friendly way, really laid back, à la bonne franquette. |
| Sam: What’s the next word? |
| Celine: chichi |
| Sam: “fuss” |
| Celine: Yes, fuss, but chichi is also the nickname for Chirac, Jacques Chirac. |
| Sam: Chichi? |
| Celine: Oui, Chichi. You know Chirac, right? |
| Sam: Of course! |
| Celine: Former president of France. But here, chichi means “fuss.” We can also say “manières”. For example, “Caroline fait beaucoup de chichi”. |
| Sam: “Caroline fusses a lot.” |
| Celine: “Caroline fait beaucoup de manières.” |
| Sam: “Caroline stands on ceremony.” That’s because she’s French. |
| Celine: Ah ah, n’importe quoi. |
| Sam: Yes! Hahaha. |
| Celine: Okay. Let’s then close out today’s varied French phrases then. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Celine: So, our first phrase is Pas de chichi. |
| Sam: “No fuss.” Again, we could have said no French attitude. |
| Celine: Oh, Sam, you’re in trouble. Okay, let’s go back to chichi. Chichi means fuss. So, pas de chichi means “no fuss.” You use this expression when you want to heat the atmosphere, be friendly. An example, you are at a dinner and you have this tasty chicken leg on your plate. You want to eat with your fingers, but you can’t because you think it’s inappropriate. The host looks at you and then would say - Sam, pas de chichi, tu peux manger avec les doigts. |
| Sam: “Sam, no fuss. You could eat with your fingers.” Great! I can’t imagine eating a chicken leg with a fork and a knife, you know. |
| Celine: Yeah, moi non plus, me neither. |
| Sam: Or without ketchup. |
| Celine: Oh! Okay. That leads us to the other expression, which is - À la bonne franquette. |
| Sam: “Without ceremony.” In other terms, not French. |
| Celine: Well, that’s true. But you know that in France now, the must is the à la bonne franquette attitude. It’s a mix of trendy and laid back attitude. You know, drinking Tariquet with George in the afternoon and drink champagne with François at the VIP section at night. |
| Sam: Wow. So, the first item you mentioned, that’s like a sweet wine. |
| Celine: Tariquet? |
| Sam: Yeah. |
| Celine: Yes. We talked about that before. |
| Sam: Oh, yes. |
| Celine: So you know, that’s really cool, like a mix of everything posh, style, and like more bohemian style. |
| Sam: Oh, kind of posh and casual and laid back mixed together. |
| Celine: Exactement. |
| Sam: So, in France - À la bonne franquette is really friendly. I can find à la bonne franquette places and it’s not always chic and cold. |
| Celine: Exactement. Actually, there are many bars and restaurants named À la bonne franquette in Paris and all over France. |
| Sam: Interesting, interesting. So, what’s the last phrase? |
| Celine: “Chercher midi à quatorze heures”. |
| Sam: “No complications.” Don’t make things complicated. |
| Celine: Exactement. “Exactly!” There’s no logical explanation for this sentence, but before, people were saying “chercher midi à onze heures” which cannot be logically explained either. In our dialogue, Geneviève tells the guest, “Ne cherche pas midi à quatorze heures” means “don’t complicate things.” And after that, she adds “Ici c’est à la bonne franquette, pas de chichi”. She really wants the guest to feel comfortable and to lighten the atmosphere. But Sam, what’s the literal translation of “chercher midi à quatorze heures”? |
| Sam: “Don’t search for 12 at 2 o’clock.” Mm, that’s an interesting phrase. What does that really mean? |
| Celine: Exactement. “Exactly!” But there’s no logical explanation for this sentence. But before, people in France were saying “chercher midi à onze heures”. |
| Sam: “Don’t search for 12 at 11 o’clock”? |
| Celine: Yes, but this sentence cannot be logically explained either. |
| Sam: I think in English, we say it’s a figure of speech. |
| Celine: Ah! |
| Sam: Sounds very interesting and useful. |
| Celine: Oui, tout à fait. |
| Sam: Okay. So, Celine, at your home, is it à la bonne franquette? |
| Celine: Yes, of course! If you want, we can go to my mom’s place for a nice and cool dinner tonight. |
| Sam: Fantastic! Shall I bring red roses? |
| Celine: Well, you know the meaning of red roses, right? |
| Sam: Oh, that’s right. |
| Celine: Oh, so no. |
| Sam: Okay. I’ll bring chocolate instead. |
| Celine: Oui. |
| Sam: Okay. |
Outro |
|---|
| Sam: So, I think that’s a good place to end up and I’ll grab those chocolates before the dinner. So, until the next time! |
| Celine: Au revoir. |
| Sam: Merci beaucoup, bye-bye! |
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