Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Atteindre [présent] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - Obey your body - verb OBÉIR - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Prévoir [plus-que-parfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Prévoir [futur simple] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Prévoir [passé composé] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

J'Ouellette® - Look at or look for? verb REGARDER - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Éteindre [conditionnel] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Éteindre [plus-que-parfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Éteindre [imparfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

J'Ouellette® TV - French proverbs - verb SE PLAINDRE - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Éteindre [futur simple] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Éteindre [passé composé] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Souper [conditionnel] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Souper [plus-que-parfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Souper [imparfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Souper [futur simple] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Souper [passé composé] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Register for the Parisian Summer Contest 2014

By Llyane, on July 8th, 2014

Let’s celebrate the 14th of July together!

Hey, hey!

Welcome to J’Ouellette® Concours d’été! :)

We started a new year, with our fifth contest, and the more popular this contest gets, the more people are coming to participate. We had 4 contests so far (one every season), and today we prepare to celebrate the Bastille Day that is next week, so I am attempting to get you in the mood for some French fireworks ;).

So, how is this summer contest going to work?

Every day, between July 7th and July 13th, I’m going to add a Q that you have to A.

We will have 7 questions from different areas of French culture, language and trivia.

If you have one right answer, you will be rewarded with a FREE class with me by Skype* – YAY!!!

Now there is a $399 GRAND PRIZE – The J’Ouellette® VIP French Immersion Value Pack , given to the person who answers ALL the questions correctly and on time.

You have to register, in order to see what is in the treasure chest.

After you register, you will be redirected to the page where the questions are posted, and they are announced via email or social media.

The Summer Contest ends July 13th, 11:59 pm EDT.

Register NOW to be the first to answer the questions and up the odds of winning! :)

All you have to do is to enter your email address in the form below*.

Bonne chance,
Llyane

______
* we will not spam, sell, rent or lease your information
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY
(This will also subscribe you to my weekly newsletter.)

Why you can’t date the French

By Llyane, on July 8th, 2014

So do you date? It may be an obvious question, but you’d be surprised to find that the French don’t even have a word for it! How are they to find the love of their life? The answer may surprise you! Check out the article below to find out, and watch the video for some French worth finding! (This week: the verb TROUVER – to find)

This is a blog post shared from Daniel’s ZenPolitics.

Did you find the ‘click’?

Post written by Daniel, from ZenPolitics.

There was a time when people actually fell in love. There was a time when chemistry was a thing. Sparks and magical moments weren’t mythical. Finding the love of your life was actually a possibility. Etc. etc.

For most of North America, it’s been a thing of the past for a very long time, if it ever was a thing at all. We don’t do it, we don’t believe in it, it’s a subject of ridicule, really. It’s the stuff that pipe dreams are made of, the fodder for the young and stupid, the naïve.

No, we don’t do that sort of foolishness. We just date.

What is that?

It’s when you’ve made a habit out of dehumanizing your fellow human being, specifically the opposite sex. They’re a little less than human. They’re a resource for sex, security and perhaps financial interdependence.It’s when you’ve built an entire culture complete with its own vocabulary behind this inhuman exercise. It’s what happens when socializing is grotesquely gender exclusive. From guys’ night out to girls-only slumber parties, the sexes have become worlds apart. Going out with friends is so rare that dating, a word whose meaning is so relentlessly implied but never understood, has become the near-exclusive way to even meet anyone from the other side.

And it’s anything but casual. Dating is a job interview on steroids and, predominantly, in restaurants. Any attempt at removing expectations or interview-style back-and-fourth is effectively eliminated. God forbid there be any relaxation or fun or anything recognizably human about the whole experience. No, you’re supposed to put on your best outfit and your best face and try to impress the other person into falling in love with you, or at the very least, giving you a kiss goodnight and a follow-up phone call over the next 3 days. Oh, and it’s not an “exclusive” relationship until it’s somehow explicitly determined.

That’s right, there is this step from “a date” to the process of “dating”. This is the only casual element to the cacophony of dating. It’s sort of like a “test” relationship, and you can have more than one at the same time, which surely favors the misogynistic elements of society. Gone are the days where a kiss is more than just a kiss. Nowadays, such acts have lost all intimacy.

The rest of the world seems to know better.

The French don’t do any of this, for example. To them, human beings are equal. They can go out together in groups and have a great time. They can have sparks and find love without having to date and kiss random strangers until they figure out who is actually worth their time and heart. They don’t even have a word for dating, because they don’t need one. They’re not afraid of each other’s opposite sex to the point where they need to have exclusive nights out just to be social. They build their relationships based on the reality of each other’s humanity, not based on how perfect they can pretend to be or how perfectly they can answer their way out of check-mate interview questions.

That’s probably because they take human relationships a little more seriously there. Intimacy still has value, kisses still mean something. Actions still speak louder than words, so the exclusivity of a relationship is implied and self-evident.

…Oh, and nobody has to be asking themselves “Where is this relationship going”.

Daniel @ ZenPolitics

photo credit: A.G. Photographe

Now it is your turn!

Tell us in the comments below, did you come across any of these cultural differences, and how would/did they impact you? :)

Make sure you watch the Learn Parisian French – verb TROUVER (to find) on Youtube! While you’re there, and if you like it, please click the ‘Like’ button!

Don’t ever give up on your dream to become bilingual – the world needs your enthusiasm when you go to Paris and fully enjoy it!

LIKE this post? Then SHARE it with your friends!

p.s.
For new ways to work with me, click here!

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [conditionnel] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

J'Ouellette® TV - French don't date: Did you find the one? - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Trouver [passé composé] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [p-q-parfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [imparfait] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [futur] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Is this why you’re learning French?

By Llyane, on July 1st, 2014

So have you ever wondered what will you do once you speak French? Many of us dream, but few of us actually allow ourselves to name it! Maybe we don’t even know what plans we will have as the new person we become, until we try it on, like a pair of magic shoes! Check the article below for some surprising introspective insights, and watch the video for some French you should allow into your life! (This week: verb PERMETTRE – to allow)

Did this ever cross your mind?

I’m in my backyard, sitting at the old glass table with way too many memories, on an old plastic yellow chair (why don’t they make the chairs in yellow, is this perhaps a forbidden color? Oh, well, I’ll wait for Ikea to come up with their next yellow chair… until then…) and I am wondering when will my noisy neighbors will come back home.

Meanwhile, I’m taking advantage of the chirping, soothing sound of the air conditioning (not mine, but man, is it loud!) and the soft breeze of this wonderful Friday afternoon to write for you.

I’m reflecting on my lifestyle.

Coming all the way to Canada from Europe, in a culture that felt so different from home that I was comparing to Mars versus the familiar Earth for the first year.

What made me change the earth I was stepping on, the food (so differently tasting and, forgive me, dear Canadians, but not in a good way), the water which felt so much harder on my hair and skin, the culture that was foreign and people more distant than I thought they would be?

I did come to a sky that I never thought can be that majestic, a wilderness and beauty of the nature that can take your breath away, art in the street and people helping me more than I could imagine it would be possible.

I came for the opportunity of proving myself that I can conquer the unexpected.

I came for the lifestyle.

But the changes didn’t stop here. After many years of many adventures and many challenges, I am now headed to a lifestyle involving travel and choice of my land depending on the season. I can now work from anywhere in the world and, guess what? I do just that.

So what was the motivator for my change of roots?

Lifestyle.

I wanted to taste the lifestyle that I was reading about. I’d love to taste a little bit of everything that fascinates me and, eventually, find or create the place that I can call ‘home’.

But perhaps that ‘home’ is not a special place, not even a special person, it is more who I become in the process.

Which is what I believe that you do too. It could be the one thing that you and I have in common.

French is probably that something that you need in your life in order to feel good, to feel more expressive, to feel yourself.

French is probably something that gives you the feeling that you are creating the lifestyle that you are supposed to have.

The adventurous you who doesn’t have an outlet in your society, dreams that one day you’ll be in Paris as romantic as one can be. To try this lifestyle on like a new shirt and magically be able to be the you that can sing in the rain and walk at night by the Seine.

That you who didn’t practice this lifestyle since teenage or young adulthood, now claims the space.

At least for an hour a week, or a week in the year, we can dream to be what we are supposed to – a fully expressed, bigger than life soul testing the places and the people for familiar fragrances.

Because if not now, then when?

Next step: learn French and design your lifestyle – then come back and tell us one insight from your adventure.

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [p. composé] - Learn to Speak Parisian French

Daily Minute with J'Ouellette® - verb Petit-déjeuner [présent] - Learn to Speak Parisian French