Learn how to use adjectives related to countries or cultures
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Bonjour chers auditeurs ! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Writing A French Letter To Your Pen Pal! |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est fle sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use the adjectives related to a country or a culture. |
| Gabriella: This conversation is written by Laure to her American penpal. |
| Jeremy: C’est donc une conversation familière. |
| Gabriella. Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Laure: Cher John, |
| Je te remercie pour ta lettre du mois dernier. Tu me décrivais le melting pot de New York et me demandais comment était la France. |
| Eh bien, la France est aussi un melting-pot. |
| Il y a eu beaucoup d'immigration après-guerre, portugaise, italienne et espagnole. |
| De plus, la France a eu beaucoup de colonies, comme en Afrique du Nord et en Asie ; c'est pourquoi nous avons beaucoup de population vietnamienne et maghrébine. |
| Encore aujourd'hui, la France a des départements et des territoires dans le monde entier. |
| On peut dire que c'est un pays multiculturel ! J'espère que tu viendras bientôt découvrir tout ça. |
| Bien à toi, Laure. |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Laure: Cher John, |
| Laure: Dear John, |
| Je te remercie pour ta lettre du mois dernier. Tu me décrivais le melting pot de New York et me demandais comment était la France. |
| Thank you for your letter from last month. You were describing to me the melting pot in New York and asking me how France was. |
| Eh bien, la France est aussi un melting-pot. |
| Well, France is also a melting pot. |
| Il y a eu beaucoup d'immigration après-guerre, portugaise, italienne et espagnole. |
| There had been a lot of immigration after the war--Portuguese, Italian and Spanish. |
| De plus, la France a eu beaucoup de colonies, comme en Afrique du Nord et en Asie ; c'est pourquoi nous avons beaucoup de population vietnamienne et maghrébine. |
| Moreover, France used to have several colonies, such as in North Africa and Asia; that's why we have a lot of Vietnamese people and Maghrebis. |
| Encore aujourd'hui, la France a des départements et des territoires dans le monde entier. |
| France still has overseas territories all over the world, even nowadays. |
| On peut dire que c'est un pays multiculturel ! J'espère que tu viendras bientôt découvrir tout ça. |
| It's true to say that it's a multicultural country! I hope that you'll come to discover that soon. |
| Bien à toi, Laure. |
| Take care, Laure. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: I’ve noticed that France has a lot of different cultures. C’est très intéressant! |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais certaines personnes n’apprécient pas. C’est dommage. |
| Gabriella: I’ve sometimes heard slang words to talk about foreigners, like rital. |
| Jeremy: It’s a slang word to talk about Italians. It’s quite pejorative to use these slang words, so we don’t recommend using them, but you might hear them. |
| Gabriella: Je vois. Mais lesFrançais utilisent parfois “Gaulois” to talk about themselves. |
| Jeremy: “Gaulish”, c’est vrai. It’s used to talk about someone rude, chauvinistic, and not well educated, |
| Gabriella: Donc il faut éviter de les utiliser. |
| Jeremy: Right, but it’s good to know them. Sometimes, they're used among friends in a friendly and ironic way, and you can find them in literature too, as in the famous “Les Ritals”, de Cavanna. Since he's Italian, this title is not that pejorative. It just emphasizes that it's a community in France. |
| Gabriella: Ok, j’ai compris ! Tu as d’autres exemples ? |
| Jeremy: Ricains for the Americans; Boche for the Germans; Rosbif for the English… |
| Gabriella: Je les ai déjà entendus dans des films! |
| Jeremy: Oui, in "Taxi," for example. That’s why it’s good to know these words! |
| Gabriella: Got it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: immigration [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: immigration |
| Jeremy: immigration [slowly - broken down by syllable] immigration [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: après-guerre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: postwar period |
| Jeremy: après-guerre [slowly - broken down by syllable] après-guerre [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: colonie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: colony |
| Jeremy: colonie [slowly - broken down by syllable] colonie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: c’est pourquoi [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: that's why |
| Jeremy: c’est pourquoi [slowly - broken down by syllable] c’est pourquoi [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: département [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: district, department (company) |
| Jeremy: département [slowly - broken down by syllable] département [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: territoire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: territory |
| Jeremy: territoire [slowly - broken down by syllable] territoire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: multiculturel [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: multicultural |
| Jeremy: multiculturel [slowly - broken down by syllable] multiculturel [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: découvrir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to discover |
| Jeremy: découvrir [slowly - broken down by syllable] découvrir [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: portugaise [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Portuguese |
| Jeremy: portugaise [slowly - broken down by syllable] portugaise [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Jeremy: maghrébin [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Maghrebis, north African |
| Jeremy: maghrébin [slowly - broken down by syllable] maghrébin [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Okay, quel est notre premier mot? |
| Jeremy: Immigration, which is the same in English. This one is important because it’s often used in newspapers. |
| Gabriella: I see, political matters, right? |
| Jeremy: Oui, la France est un pays multiculturel, donc il y a beaucoup d’immigration. The word is composed of in and migration; it’s quite simple. |
| Gabriella: What are people called? |
| Jeremy: They are called immigrés. And when the French go to live in another country, they're called émigrés. |
| Gabriella: Je vois! Et donc, c’est de l’émigration! |
| Jeremy: You got it! But be careful, both can be used in a pejorative way. |
| Gabriella: Okay! So, what’s the following word? |
| Jeremy: après-guerre. This word is used to describe the period just after the Second World War, until 1960 or so. |
| Gabriella: It translates as “post-war period” or “post-war years”. |
| Jeremy: Right! La période d’après-guerre a été difficile. |
| Gabriella: “The postwar period was harsh.” |
| Jeremy: It’s used both as a noun, d’après-guerre, and adjective, après-guerre. |
| Gabriella: It’s less tricky than it seems. |
| Jeremy: Il est né après-guerre. |
| Gabriella: “He was born during the post-war years.” |
| Jeremy: To tell the difference, we have a way in French to know whether it’s an adjective or a noun. Just replace the word with an adjective. If it works, it’s an adjective! |
| Gabriella: C’est génial! Ok, let’s see the last word, maghrébin. |
| Jeremy: It’s used to talk about Arabic people in France. It comes from Maghreb, which is "North Africa." |
| Gabriella: It sounds politically correct. |
| Jeremy: C’est exactement ça. On peut dire “arabe” mais souvent, les gens pensent que c’est raciste. |
| Gabriella: Pourtant, je l’ai souvent entendu. |
| Jeremy: Yes, it’s quite delicate to use it. |
| Gabriella: Je ferai attention, alors! Et comment dit-on pour une femme? |
| Jeremy : We say maghrébine. |
| Gabriella: Okay, that’s simple. Now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the nouns and adjectives related to countries and continents. |
| Jeremy: That’s right! There are two ways to say where someone is from. |
| Gabriella: Je suis brésilienne or Je suis du Brésil. |
| Jeremy: “I'm Brazilian” or “I’m from Brazil”. That’s perfect! |
| Gabriella: Thank you! And what about the nouns. |
| Jeremy: Cet homme est un brésilien qui voyage beaucoup. |
| Gabriella: “This man is a Brazilian who travels a lot.” |
| Jeremy: I think you got it! C’est facile, non? |
| Gabriella: Oui, très facile! |
| Jeremy: So imagine you're Russian, what would you say? |
| Gabriella: Je suis russe. |
| Jeremy: “I'm Russian.” Bravo! And what if you're Japanese? |
| Gabriella: Je suis japonaise, ou je suis nippone. |
| Jeremy: "I'm Japanese." Both are correct, but the second is not natural. Nippon would be used mainly for cultural matters or things. |
| Gabriella: D’accord! “C’est une poupée nippone”. |
| Jeremy: “It’s a Japanese doll”. C’est parfait! |
| Gabriella: And how would I say I'm from a continent? Such as Asia, for example? |
| Jeremy: Tu dirais “asiatique”. |
| Gabriella: Je suis asiatique. And what if I come from North America? |
| Jeremy: Je suis Nord-Américaine, or je suis américaine. |
| Gabriella: “I'm North American” or “I'm American.” |
| Jeremy: c’est ça! |
| Gabriella: And what if I use it as a noun? |
| Jeremy: Ces asiatiques ont ouvert un excellent restaurant dans mon quartier. |
| Gabriella: “Some Asian people opened a delicious restaurant in my neighborhood”. |
| Jeremy: You couldn’t do better! |
| Gabriella: Woaw, il suffit donc d’apprendre les mots et c’est tout? |
| Jeremy: Oui, mais il n’est pas utile de tout apprendre. |
| Gabriella: I see. When you know twenty of them, you can build upon that by yourself easily. |
| Jeremy: Yes, and even the French don’t know all of them, so don’t worry! |
| Gabriella: Ok, il faut juste s’entrainer un peu. |
| Jeremy: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
| Gabriella: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
Outro |
|---|
| Jeremy: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Jeremy: Salut! |
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