Learn how to buy and use a pre-paid telephone card in France
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Today, we’re going to talk about telephone card. |
| When you are traveling in France, you might want to share your feelings and call your friends or your family. For that, you may need to buy a telephone card. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| First, the standard phone card in France is called Télécarte, it’s provided by the national phone company, France Telecom. |
| Time on the card is counted in units, or in French, unités. The rates are not the most competitive and you can only use them in phone booths or cabines téléphoniques. This is because they use a special electronic chip called, in French, une puce, that stores the card's number of units and is only compatible with French phone booths. |
| But there are other phone cards, the ones that you can buy that don't use the electronic chip, and have, of course, better rates, epecially for calling overseas. These are found at most of the same places Télécarte are sold, tobacco shops, and newstands. |
| So, let's see today’s question. |
| Today’s question is: Une carte à sept euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| Une carte à sept euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| If you ask this, une carte à sept euros, s'il vous plaît, the vender will assume you want a Télécarte. |
| You could also ask, Une carte à quinze euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| Une carte à quinze euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| But if you want a competitor’s phone card, you would have to ask for it specifically. The conversation will go something like this: |
| - Une carte téléphonique sans puce, s'il vous plaît. |
| - Pour appeler en France ou à l'étranger ? |
| - À l'étranger. |
| - À combien ? |
| - 20 €. |
| Let’s see more in details our today’s survival phrases. |
| Une carte téléphonique sans puce, s'il vous plaît. |
| “A phone card without chip, please.” |
| Une carte téléphonique sans puce, s'il vous plaît. |
| Pour appeler en France ou à l'étranger ? |
| “For calling in France or abroad?” |
| Pour appeler en France ou à l'étranger ? |
| À l'étranger. |
| “Abroad.” |
| À l'étranger. |
| En France |
| “In France.” |
| En France |
| Let’s take a close look at today’s question. |
| Une carte à sept euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| Une carte à quinze euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| In this phrase, you can hear une carte, this is referring the telephone card. You don’t need to mention “telephone,” obviously, it will be a telephone card. |
| Une carte. |
| Then we have à sept euros, here, I assume the card costs 7€; you can also say quinze euros, |
| à quinze euros. |
| If you want to use a card that doesn’t use an electronic chip, you can say: sans puce |
| sans puce |
| And then you add s'il vous plaît, because you always have to be polite, right? |
| So, Une carte à sept euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| Or, Une carte à quinze euros, s'il vous plaît. |
| Very very easy. |
| Now, let’s see some vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Télécarte |
| Télécarte |
| “French brand phone card” |
| Unités |
| Unités |
| “Units” |
| Cabines |
| Cabines |
| “Phone booth” |
| Puce |
| Puce |
| “Electronic chip” |
| Cultural Insight |
| Telecommunications has become big business in France since the government privatized it ten years ago. The prices can get quite competitive, which is good news for consumers, but the number of choices can be mind-boggling. If you want to circumvent the problem, either bring or rent an international cell phone, which you will learn about in the next lesson, or buy international phone cards from home, which you can find on the Internet. |
| Competitors' phone cards are also available at call centers and Internet cafés. These are easy to find buy looking for an "@" sign on the street, which are quite common in immigrant neighborhoods where people make overseas calls regularly. |
Outro |
| Well, that’s the end for today’s lesson. Merci beaucoup, thank you very much! |
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