Kwiziq French Chat #1 Transcript

2 September 2016

10:01:11 Laura
Bonjour tout le monde !

10:01:19 David
Bonjour!

10:01:32 Aurélie
Bonjour Laura ! Bonjour tout le monde, et bienvenus !

10:01:39 Joe
Bonjour !

10:01:46 Aurélie
Bonjour David et Joe !

10:02:00 David
Bonjour, Aurelie.

10:02:14 Gareth
Bonjour!

10:02:14 Aurélie
Comment allez-vous aujourd'hui ?

10:02:26 David
Je vais bien, merci.

10:02:35 Joe
Très bien, merci, et vous ?
On peut parler, ou seulement envoyer des textos ?

10:03:46 Laura
Cette fois, seulement des textos
On verra pour la prochaine fois :-)
Bonjour Claude, bienvenue !

10:04:25 Claude
Bonjour Laura!

10:04:40 KwizBot
Is everybody ready for the first question?

10:04:47 Aurélie
je vais très bien merci ! Prête à répondre à toutes vos questions :)

10:04:50 Gareth
Oui! Vas y!

10:05:10 KwizBot
Q: What's the difference in the meaning of descendre with avoir vs être?
Aurélie, I believe this is one of your favorite questions.

10:05:31 Aurélie
Tout à fait !
descendre is part of a group of a few verbs which in Le Passé Composé can take être OR avoir as auxiliaries, depending on their meaning
David, Joe, Claude, are you familiar with such cases?

10:06:59 Joe
Vous, les profs, vous êtes tous â Londres ?

10:07:01 David
Oui

10:07:13 Laura
Joe, non, je suis en Guadeloupe.

10:07:21 Aurélie
Moi je suis à Londres

10:07:28 Gareth
Mois je suis à Londres

10:07:57 Joe
Yes, I am familiar with those verbs

10:08:29 Aurélie
Great, then can you give us an example of each with descendre? Ensuite ce sera mon tour ;)

10:08:53 Joe
J'ai descendu la rue.

10:09:02 Gareth
We don't mention it primarily in the lesson but in the usage distinction is technically whether it's used in its transitive or intransitive form, right?

10:09:19 Laura
Yes, exactly Gareth. For grammar geeks like me, that makes it easy.

10:09:34 Aurélie
Super Joe ! Indeed Gareth, but we do mention it at the end of the lesson

10:09:43 David
Il est descendu de l'autobus.

10:09:52 Joe
Je suis descendu du train.

10:10:07 Laura
Nickel chrome, tous les deux !

10:10:15 Aurélie
Thats great guys, an example of each!

10:10:31 Gareth
it's the presence or absence of the preposition that's the usage clue...

10:10:47 Laura
Absolutely.

10:10:55 David
But the choice of preposition also changes the meaning slightly, correct?

10:10:59 Aurélie
So as Gareth pointed out, descendre uses avoir when it is transitive, meaning followed directly by a noun (direct object): I went down <something>

10:11:01 Joe
Yes, that's the clue for me ... whether it takes a direct or indirect object.

10:11:25 Aurélie
yes definitely, David, in some cases
do you have an exmaple in mind David?

10:12:23 Joe
Is it ever reflexive?

10:12:29 David
Well, "J'ai descendu de l'autobus" is "I got off or come down from the bus"

10:13:08 Aurélie
tu veux dire, "Je suis descendu de l'autobus" ?

10:13:25 David
but "Ils sont descendus dans la rue" is sort of "they took to the streets"
oui, merci.
Yes, Je suis descendu de l'autobus.

10:14:11 Aurélie
"être descendu de" means to get off

10:14:21 David
*brain not fully functioning yet this morning*

10:14:39 Aurélie
yes literally "ils sont descendus dans la rue" means "they went down into the street"
:)
obv, then the translator's touch enters the game ;)

10:15:29 Gareth
presumably this is one of those cases where "dans" could be a little confusing in that it could act as a preposition with respect to the verb
or join another clause?
so you could e.g. have something like "J'ai descendu les déchets dans..."

10:16:07 Aurélie
the confusion here is with street: in French we say "dans la rue" to say "on the street"

10:16:18 Laura
Yes, but in that example dans does not directly follow the verb

10:16:27 Aurélie
exactement

10:16:43 Laura
les déchets does, so that should be your signal that the verb is transitive.

10:16:49 Gareth
j'ai descendu... dans cinq minutes... les déchets?
lol

10:16:51 David
Sure, the presence of the direct object tips off the usage.

10:17:05 Laura
en cinq minutes, Gareth :-)

10:17:10 Gareth
rats!

10:17:40 Aurélie
if you mean in the future Gareth, then you wont need the passé composé .... Problème résolu!!!

10:17:42 Gareth
or rather, zut!

10:17:53 David
I think in one of your grammar lessons you had Jack getting off the beanstalk

10:18:06 Aurélie
je descends les poubelles dans 5 minutes

10:18:25 David
Il est descendu de l'haricot magique (I think it was).

10:18:27 Aurélie
yes indeed David... do you have a question about that?
du haricot magique (as here the h isn't mute)

10:18:53 David
I was a little confused about "climbed down" vs. "got off" the beanstalk.
right, sorry.

10:19:16 Gareth
if I recall that was contrasting the use of avoir for "he cut down the magic beanstalk"

10:19:23 Aurélie
You're not the only one! This sentence has been more confusing than I intended it to be

10:19:32 David
:^)

10:19:34 Aurélie
basically, its a matter of perspective

10:19:44 Gareth
one of those case where avoir / etre ended up being the main difference in meaning

10:20:18 Aurélie
if you say "Il a descendu le haricot" , you mean he went down the bean, i.e. along it towards the floor
where Il est descendu du haricot considers the action of getting off it, i.e. jumping off it, not being on it any more

10:20:56 Joe
Can it also mean that he cut down the bean?

10:21:00 David
not "he took down the bean"?
doesn't "il a descendu le géant" mean he killed the giant?

10:21:57 Gareth
colloquially, yes. or "he took the giant down" something
"Il a descendu le Parrain."

10:22:32 Aurélie
no, and that is an aspect that I clarified in the lesson as well: take down <something> here means to take it down <something>, like a shelf, down <somewhere>, or downstairs for example
whereas to take down <SOMEONE> with descendre means to shoot them down, i.e. kill them

10:23:26 Joe
Does "il a descendu le haricot" also mean he took down the bean?

10:23:56 Laura
Joe, not as in "knock / cut down"

10:24:03 Aurélie
no, because here it's not an animated being

10:24:04 Laura
it would mean you took it downstairs

10:24:17 Aurélie
or to come down it

10:24:22 Joe
But it could mean he took it down from a shelf

10:24:35 Laura
Yes, to physically move something to a lower location
but not to knock it down

10:25:14 David
but "il a descendu le géant" does mean "he killed the giant"?

10:25:26 Laura
yes, because the géant is an animate being
that's the difference: with a person, animal, etc, it means kill

10:25:41 David
ok

10:25:43 Laura
with a physical object, it means to lower

10:25:45 David
got it.

10:25:50 Laura
cool

10:25:56 Claude
It's interesting that "to take down" and "descendre qqn" both work in the same idiomatic sense in both languages

10:26:16 Laura
yes, good point
but in English, we can say, e.g., we took down that organization

10:26:30 Aurélie
Oui!

10:26:45 David
There are definitely idiom cognates.

10:27:08 Laura
Joe, do you understand?

10:27:20 Gareth
yes! I like the bird in the hand two in the bush idiom in french

10:27:26 Joe
Oui, je le comprends.

10:27:34 Laura
formidable

10:28:11 KwizBot
Unless there are any objections, let's move on to a question asked by our very own David  today

10:28:27 David
Merci beaucoup.

10:28:34 Aurélie
Avec plaisir!

10:28:46 KwizBot
Q: When does one use the article after "de" and when does one not? For example, from the front page of Le Monde this morning. "un durcissement de la politique pénale" but then "le risque d'attentat"

10:29:23 Laura
Ouf.

10:29:33 David
Oh oh.

10:29:35 Aurélie
Wow! Merci pour cette question ! C'est un point particulièrement délicat!

10:29:35 Laura
This is tricky, because there are a lot of different factors at play.

10:29:51 Aurélie
délicat = tricky

10:29:54 David
It trips me up more than anything else in the language, I believe.

10:30:12 Joe
Or J'aimerais encore de l'eau or j'aimerais un verre d'eau

10:30:16 Aurélie
I myself still struggle with it in English ;)

10:30:31 Laura
Joe, in your example, the difference is relatively simple:
with a vague quantity, you need the partitive article: je veux de l'eau

10:31:02 Aurélie
I want [some] water

10:31:11 Laura
after an adverb or other expression of quantity (beaucoup de, peu de, un verre de, etc) no article

10:31:49 Aurélie
because you're literally saying "a glass of [..] water", so no article in both language
languages

10:31:59 Laura
right

10:32:09 Joe
I understand in theory but in practice it's hard to remember

10:32:19 Laura
Practice makes perfect :-)

10:32:31 David
Tout à fait.

10:32:34 Aurélie
remember that de or d' is simply "of" or "from" on their own
when you don't use a "the" afterwards
Thats a first trick to avoid most of these issues ... then obv there are David's cases ;)
in the case of "un risque d'attentat" , you're talking about something general, not a specific attack
if you said "le risque de l'attentat" = the risk of THE attack

10:35:09 Laura
Bonjour Melody !

10:35:23 Joe
I suppose it would be the same in English?

10:35:37 David
right, but would you never say "risque d'un attentat"?

10:36:16 Melody
Hi Laura- I've been reading along from the beg. - will this chat be posted as a whole for review?

10:36:35 Aurélie
yeah, actually in English you cd also possibly turn "attack" into an adjective of "risk" -> an attack risk (this is obv a wrong example, as you wdnt do it here, but can you think of other cases?)

10:36:38 Laura
Great idea, I'll see if that's possible. It should be.

10:36:44 Gareth
Bonjour et bienvenue Melody!

10:37:01 Laura
livre d'histoire

10:38:08 Aurélie
David, yes you could say it as well, but it wd already make it more specific - you'd usually add an adjective or some precision to the noun -> le risque d'un attentat perpétré par IS ...

10:38:37 David
OK.

10:39:11 Aurélie
when you say "un risque d'attentat", it's as if the noun "attentat" was qualifying the noun "risque" : what type of risk = an attack risk
again not the best example lol

10:39:34 David
Yes, I have thought of it that way.

10:40:09 Aurélie
I hope thats helpful!
Bonjour Melody !

10:40:37 David
It is. I am sure there are other cases I've run into that confuse me but I'm not remembering them at the moment.
But this helps.

10:40:58 Aurélie
Ive got an easy example: un magasin de bonbons
here it gives the type of shop, in a very general way
and in English: a candy store, or a sweets shop

10:41:43 David
That's good for another reason.
Why the plural "bonbons" rather than singular "bonbon" in this sort of adjectival use?

10:42:24 Aurélie
because you sell more than one in your shop :)
dont forget that in French they are still nouns

10:42:54 Gareth
hmmm - that reminds me of the translation of "Star Wars"

10:42:59 Aurélie
linked to the previous noun by a preposition

10:43:06 Gareth
which, rather oddly is singular in English

10:43:13 Aurélie
looool Gareth - worst translation of all times!
well, clearly, the French translator read it backwards

10:43:39 Joe
From my childhood in England I would say "a sweet shop" not "a sweets shop"

10:43:47 Gareth
Maybe, or maybe we got it wrong. There was one war and many stars, after all!

10:43:52 Aurélie
Star Wars = La Guerre des Étoiles

10:44:04 David
In English, FYI Aurelie, we would say "of all time". :^)

10:44:04 Laura
Joe, as an American, that sounds to me like the shop is sweet (as opposed to sour) :-)

10:44:20 Aurélie
yes David, I wasnt sure, you're right, here its my Frenchness failing me ;)

10:44:24 Gareth
We say sweet shop in the UK

10:44:45 KwizBot
Everybody ready for a new question?

10:44:52 Gareth
Now we're translating English to American... ;)

10:44:53 Aurélie
lol, décidément, je suis un peu fatiguée aujourd'hui!

10:45:09 Joe
Yes

10:45:31 Aurélie
Do you have a question Joe ?

10:45:36 KwizBot
Next question from our newcomer Melody:

10:45:37 Aurélie
or Melody?
ok cool!

10:45:58 KwizBot
Q: When is it "le francais" and when is it "français"- I've seen "j'étudie français" but "je suis ici pour apprendre le français".

10:46:24 Aurélie
you cant say J'étudie français
it wd be j'étudie le français

10:46:46 Laura
I believe the only time you can leave "le" out is with parler

10:46:49 Aurélie
but you cd have je parle français OR je parle le français

10:46:52 Laura
Je parle français, je parle le français

10:46:59 Aurélie
lol

10:47:01 Laura
et voilà !
otherwise, you always need le

10:47:16 Joe
I do have a question. In one of your kwiziq tests you had an answer that used the third person plural form for a verb where the subject included "et moi". I think it should be the first person plural form in this case, no?

10:47:47 Laura
Melody, does that answer your question?

10:48:05 Melody
Yes!

10:48:07 Laura
Joe, that was a mistake, which we fixed recently

10:48:29 Aurélie
when "français" is the language or the school subject, you need LE. In other cases, it's simply the adjective, so no LE = Je mange français

10:48:29 Joe
Thanks ... just so I know what is correct.

10:49:17 Aurélie
Sorry about that Joe, I indeed fixed it a few days ago

10:50:03 Gareth
What's everyone's motivation for learning/improving their French?

10:50:08 David
I have a sort of odd question if you want another question from the field.

10:50:35 Laura
Sure

10:50:35 Aurélie
Vas-y !

10:50:51 Joe
To answer Gareth's question: to atone for not learning French from my French grandmother when she was alive!

10:50:58 Laura
aww

10:51:00 Aurélie
aaaww

10:51:00 Gareth
aww

10:51:05 Melody
Gareth- motivation- I want to be able to speak French with French people

10:51:26 Aurélie
Thats a great motivation! Similar to mine with English at the time ;)

10:51:29 David
In DuoLingo they have an idiomatic expression that they give as the translation for "She is going to win hands down". It is "elle va gagner les doigts dans le nez"

10:51:34 Gareth
Is everyone based in an English speaking country?

10:51:39 David
is this a legitimate french idiom?

10:51:56 Laura
lol, I've never heard that

10:52:04 Aurélie
Oui!! It's the perfect equivalent

10:52:18 Laura
that's a good one

10:52:21 Gareth
I thought doigts dans le nez was idiomatic for nose picking?

10:52:22 Aurélie
Si si! Je vais gagner les doigts dans le nez!

10:52:26 David
Yes, I have a French native friend with whom I speak French and she says she's never heard it either.

10:52:36 Aurélie
thats the literal meaning Gareth

10:52:41 David
So, Aurelie, legit?

10:53:01 Aurélie
YEs, it's definitely legit@

10:53:10 David
OK, good to know. Thanks.

10:53:14 Gareth
so it means to win easily - if you can win whilst picking your nose you're not having to try hard?

10:53:26 Aurélie
I cant believe your friend and Laura have never heard it before!

10:53:32 Gareth
or does not have that sense?

10:53:34 David
to answer the two question above. 1) Yes, I'm in an English (sort of) speaking county - USA

10:53:41 Gareth
lol

10:54:03 Aurélie
Exactement Gareth! If you can do it with your fingers in your nose, I mean...

10:54:05 Laura
I'm adding it to my to do list right now, Aurélie!

10:54:20 Aurélie
you can also use "les yeux fermés"

10:54:28 Laura
that one I've heard

10:54:28 David
2) I was (maybe) bi-lingual as a French student in Paris many years ago and then let my French decline. I am trying to recover it because I love France, French and visiting France.

10:54:31 Aurélie
Je vais y arriver les yeux fermés

10:54:37 Gareth
ah yes, we have that in English too

10:55:07 Joe
Or with both hands tied behind my back

10:55:13 Aurélie
You can even use "Les doigts dans le nez" on its own, as such:

10:55:15 Laura
or standing on my head

10:55:27 Aurélie
Tu penses que tu peux le faire ? - Oui, les doigts dans le nez!

10:55:33 Gareth
I can see an idiomatic theme here

10:55:39 David
Nice.

10:55:44 Aurélie
lol
we're a very elegant people, nous les Français

10:56:04 Gareth
lol

10:56:17 David
Bien sûr!

10:56:46 Aurélie
;)

10:57:19 Gareth
Does anyone have any questions about Kwiziq, the system or features etc?

10:57:23 Joe
Je dois partir. Merci à tous pour une excellente séance !

10:57:30 Gareth
or any more language questions

10:57:36 Aurélie
FYI as for Gareth's remark, you can also use it to say picking one's nose : Arrête de mettre les doigts dans le nez!!!

10:57:39 Laura
Merci Joe, bonne journée !

10:57:43 Gareth
Merci Joe - à la prochaine!

10:57:44 David
Au revoir, Joe.

10:57:48 Aurélie
Merci Joe ! BOnne soirée!

10:57:56 Joe
A la prochaine ...

10:57:57 Aurélie
or journée!

10:58:12 David
et weekend

10:58:20 Laura
et mois

10:58:20 Aurélie
:)
et vie!

10:58:33 Laura
lol

10:59:05 David
I have a couple of questions about Kwizbot.

10:59:13 KwizBot
Yes?

11:00:02 David
Is Kwizbot a general purpose skill development system (perhaps based on a SRSS) which Laura et al then "loaded" with French examples?
Or was it more specifically developed around this French language program?
(I'm a technology person and endlessly curious about technology)

11:02:07 Gareth
Kwizbot is really just a friendly-face for the AI that's behind Kwiziq

11:02:33 KwizBot
What? Brain the size of a planet and you reduce me to "a friendly face"??

11:02:58 David
OK. So then is Kwiziq a general purpose system or very specific to this French program?

11:03:04 Gareth
there will be aspects to the service that don't involve his planet-sized brain

11:03:14 Laura
lol

11:03:32 Gareth
It's a second language learning system - we'll be launching Spanish next year

11:03:41 David
great. How about Italian?

11:04:09 Gareth
I'd love to be able to do that quickly too- it's a beautiful language
we're doing another fund-raising round soon

11:04:23 Melody
Looking forward to listening exercises returning. I need much help!

11:04:27 David
I am working on Italian now along with my French.

11:04:30 Gareth
and that will determine what we can build
Yes, dictée is very high on our list

11:05:06 David
Well, you have a vote for Italian from me. :^)

11:05:12 Gareth
we'll be implementing both the written challenges and dictée very soon on the site

11:05:18 David
Great.

11:05:25 Gareth
Perfetto David!

11:05:26 Aurélie
Oui!

11:05:48 Laura
Melody, have you looked into our recommended links in the meantime? /blog/french-listening-links/

11:05:52 David
I would just like to say that I am really enjoying the French system and finding it very useful.

11:06:06 Gareth
We're also planning to add the ability to listen to correct answers soon

11:06:16 Laura
David, you can vote for real here: https://www.kwiziq.com/my-languages

11:06:18 Gareth
which hopefully will allow you hear the correct forms after each kwiz
That's great to hear David. thanks.

11:06:34 David
Will do, Laura.

11:06:34 Aurélie
Actually I'm always open to suggestions as for the writing and dictée challenges: topics, specific vocab...
:)

11:06:56 Melody
Laura- not yet- Just got back from trip w/o internet access, but will do.

11:07:08 Gareth
Melody are there specific topic or themes for listening that you'd especially find useful?

11:07:38 David
I wonder if you might want to consider adding a kind of French book club feature. You could assign a book for the month and then conduct one of these chats around the book.

11:07:58 Gareth
that's an interesting idea!

11:08:04 Aurélie
Thats a great idea

11:08:26 David
(full disclosure - I'm in a French book club but I suspect I could fit in another)

11:08:55 Melody
Gareth, the types of conversations that will help in ordindary interactions in France- but above the typical "how to check into the hotel".

11:09:09 Aurélie
noted Melody!

11:09:18 Gareth
the tricky thing there is that books tend do be C1 or higher - especially because of the passé simple

11:09:27 David
yep

11:09:27 Gareth
I always found that the hardest thing about French
You can't read to learn unless you're already advanced
catch 22

11:09:50 David
Most of the folks in the book club are either natives or French teachers.

11:10:09 Aurélie
yes, thatd definitely be for higher students

11:10:09 Gareth
I wonder if we could do something less onerous though

11:10:15 Laura
That's not entirely true... you just need to study the passé simple sooner than you would if you weren't trying to read classic literature

11:10:16 Gareth
perhaps around an online article

11:10:24 David
Yes, that might work well.

11:10:39 Gareth
maybe current affairs or some current theme

11:10:44 Laura
good thinking

11:10:47 Gareth
ideally with audio
might be something we could do with one of our reader text

11:11:06 David
Yes, the newspapers rarely use passé simple.

11:11:07 Aurélie
opinion chats can be a good way to use your vocabulary in any case, doesn't have to be books

11:11:18 Gareth
yes

11:12:02 David
There might be some kind of teen literature in French that is fun to read but does not use passé simple.

11:12:08 Laura
No
it all uses passé simple
my husband reads that kind of stuff

11:12:18 David
Interesting.
:^)

11:12:26 Laura
he's B1, and has just learned ps on the way

11:12:28 Gareth
Even Harry Potter?

11:12:31 Laura
yes

11:12:31 Melody
I've listened to Radio France facile on line- daily news broadcast, but I gave up on it because it was just too depresseing- so if it's current events

11:12:34 Aurélie
yes of course

11:12:57 Gareth
that's true Melody
we'll always do something upbeat if we can though

11:13:16 Laura
maybe just more of a theme

11:13:24 Aurélie
yes or a film
or a song / artist

11:14:53 Gareth
Bonjour Teresa!
I think you may have got the time an hour out?

11:15:10 Laura
Bonjour Teresa, bienvenue !

11:15:39 Gareth
Laura, next time we should link to a timezone calculator perhaps?
Since we have students all over the world

11:15:50 Aurélie
Bonjour Teresa!

11:15:55 Laura
Yes, good thinking

11:16:09 Gareth
We're actually running over our scheduled hour

11:16:09 Teresa
Bonjour

11:16:29 Gareth
I'm happy to stay and chat a bit longer but I Aurelie has to leave I think

11:16:33 David
If possible, perhaps you could send a calendar invitation for iCal and Google Calendar. Those things usually will do the timezone adjustments.

11:16:48 Laura
Thanks David, I'll check those out

11:16:48 Gareth
That's an idea
Do you have a question you'd like to ask Teresa?

11:17:12 Teresa
I got the time wrong. I'm sorry

11:17:24 Laura
No worries :-)

11:17:28 Aurélie
Oui, je dois y aller, mais merci à tous pour vos supers questions et votre participation! À bientôt j'espère!

11:17:36 Gareth
No worries, we'll make it easier to calculate next time

11:17:43 Laura
À+ Aurélie

11:17:44 Aurélie
et Teresa, j'espère à la prochaine fois!

11:17:46 Gareth
Yes a very interesting session!

11:18:20 Laura
I'm going to export the transcript when we're done and email it to everyone

11:18:22 Teresa
thanks guys, no wit was my bad Love the site though

11:18:26 David
A bientôt
Super.

11:18:58 Gareth
Great, what's your motivation for learning French Teresa?

11:19:41 Teresa
Merci. I fell in love with the language while a French lady was temporarily my neighbor.

11:19:53 Gareth
aw
that's great
are you in the US/UK? somewhere else?

11:20:28 Teresa
I know Spanish bur resources for French are so much harder to come by.
Yes, in northern Florida

11:20:53 Gareth
ah cool

11:21:27 Teresa
I am a chemist by profession. Nice to meet you all.

11:21:42 Gareth
Cool!
I trained as a physicist.

11:22:31 Teresa
Wow, cool. Usually people groan when I say chemistry.

11:22:48 David
You're among friends here. ;^)

11:23:03 Laura
(crawls under a rock)

11:23:20 Teresa
Haha
Formulas are easier Laura, they aren't as ever changing

11:24:05 Laura
Actually, I really liked chemistry in high school, especially when stuff changed colors

11:24:50 David
I think it's safe to say that most people who are interested in multiple languages are some kind of nerd or other. So, we tend to understand neediness in general.
nerdiness

11:24:58 Laura
right

11:25:02 David
(damn spell check)

11:25:25 Teresa
You know, I play a video game and I am amazed at how many people I learn English just through being in our alliance

11:26:08 David
A lot of folks report learning English after coming to the US by watching lots of television.

11:26:12 Teresa
I've seen Korean, Egyptians, etc. go from barely speaking to quite fluent

11:26:38 Laura
I met a French guy in his 20s that spoke *beautiful* English, which he learned entirely through pop music (e.g., Madonna)

11:26:45 Teresa
I learned much of my Spanish from music and tv

11:26:47 David
Ha!

11:27:41 Teresa
There are few French tv stations. TV helps because it is real spoken language

11:27:51 Laura
sure

11:28:27 Teresa
I'm amazed at how many of the French speak English so well
My neighbor could almost speak without an accent due to an American school she said
Anyway, I will get the hour correct next time. I don't want to keep you. Thank you again

11:29:52 Laura
No problem, Teresa, thanks for coming by!

11:30:02 David
They emphasize it more in elementary schools than we do (emphasize other languages).

11:30:15 Gareth
Okay, thanks everyone - I think we need to wrap up

11:30:16 Laura
yes

11:30:25 Gareth
we'll organise another though

11:30:29 Teresa
Bye guys

11:30:31 David
OK. Merci beaucoup.

11:30:34 Gareth
it's been great to chat to everyone!

11:30:35 David
Au revoir

11:30:37 Laura
Bye David, thanks for your great questions - hope to see you again

11:30:45 Gareth
à la prochaine!

11:30:47 David
You will. I'm a total nerd.
a la prochaine.

 

Thanks everyone! Here are lessons for everything we talked about: Chat #1 Notebook

Clever stuff happening!