Learn to Speak French
Do you want to learn…
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how to say hello and good bye?
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thank you and please?
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shop in a store?
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order food in a restaurant?
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have the right table manners?
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buy some postcards?
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buy some stamps?
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exchange money?
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make a reservation?
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know what to bring to the lady of the house when invited, and what not to bring?
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know how to greet different people at different levels?
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know when to initiate – or not initiate - a handshake?
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More?
Bonjour, Hello, and Welcome!
When I had my restaurant, I would often meet people who had been in France. They would all agree that French food was great, the history was overwhelmingly interesting, and the country was charming.
Most of them would tell me how they wished they had learnt a few basic French words and had known some cultural facts before going. They would have been able to connect better with the French people, and they would have avoided some faux pas, some embarrassing mistakes.
So, I started working on this course as an answer to all these questions. It is fun, practical, and informational.
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together for you.
GET READY FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP TO FRANCE
LANGUAGE COURSE
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25+ easy-to-digest language videos
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25+ travel through France videos
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25+ learn the French culture videos
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View anytime on any device
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Learn at your own pace
During each language lesson, Miss Coco covers a specific topic. Each lesson is designed to build on the concepts of the previous lesson, although the videos can be watched in any order if you so choose. It's all up to you. Learn at your own pace! Click below for more information or to purchase the language course.
Whether it is for your own interest or it is in view of your next trip to France, this is what I am offering in this online course: I want you to learn a few basic French words and know about the French culture while traveling through pictures and videos of France!
Whether you are a teen-ager or an adult, a beginner, a Francophile, a Francophone, or an Alliance Française member, I guarantee that you will learn enough to enjoy your next trip to France.
MY TIPS TO YOU
Why 30 minutes per Language Video? (Does not apply to Travel and Culture Videos)
To give you time to watch the video, pause, write notes, print the vocabulary sheets, and watch it again.
Why twice a week?
So that you can better remember the previous Video.
Why stick to the schedule?
Consistency is the key to learning.
Why start with the first video?
Not mandatory, but recommended. The language classes do have a logical sequence, and most of them are built on the previous ones.
Printable Sheets
Do not hesitate to use them on your screen or printed.
Review your notes before starting the next Language Video.
The next language video will be easier to understand if you refresh your mind by reviewing your notes or the printable sheets.
Take the course again as many times as you wish.
You can watch each video and you can repeat the whole course as many times as you wish. That is how you learn, and that is my goal: I want you to learn. That is why you have unlimited access to this course.
ALL THESE PROMISES...
A lot of websites claim that, if you sign up with them, you can learn a foreign language “on the go”, “in 20 days”, or “5 minutes a day”, or even, you will “speak French from the very first lesson”. They assure you that their method is “scientifically proven” or “fun and science based”. It sounds very convincing indeed.
They know you are busy, and they tell you what you want to hear. As a result, you sign up for the first month. You have the best intentions, even though you are not totally ready.
In the meantime, a month has elapsed, and you look at your credit card statement only to see that you were charged for a second month whereas you have not started a single class yet.
You resolve to use your subscription, and you are doing great the first week. Then things get in the way, and again one month has elapsed… You get it.
If you sign up with me, the only charge that you will see on your credit card will be $95.00, and you will have access to your class for as long as you wish. You can take the course as many times as needed. There is no monthly or yearly renewal.
MY PROMISE TO YOU
I will be honest with you:
You need to allocate some time when you learn a foreign language - any language. In the same way, it takes time to burn some calories if you want to lose weight. It also takes time to cook from scratch if you want to eat healthy.
It does not happen by itself. YOU make it happen.
So, unlike many of those websites, I will not make any unreasonable promises, because it depends on YOU. What I can tell you for sure though is, if you follow a reasonably consistent schedule when using my online course, you will make progress and you will be able to get by in France.
→ When you learn a foreign language, you start from nothing and you build up, one word after the other, very much like a rock wall … one rock at a time.
Picture the words as the rocks and the grammar as the cement. They are two separate things, but they are interconnected. The rocks need the cement, and the cement is there to hold the rocks.
In the same way, you can learn as many words as possible, but without any grammar, you will never be able to link the words together to make a cohesive sentence. The grammar is there to hold the words together.
Please rest assured: my online course is very, very light on grammar. The rocks come to you already secured by the cement, and you hardly have to handle the cement! It comes to you as a “kit”. The words are already put together for you!
→ When you learn a foreign language, you do not always intend to speak it fluently. You can learn a foreign language only with the purpose of understanding your own mother tongue better. How so?
Let me explain. When you learn Latin, it is not to speak it; rather, it is to better understand many English words that are Latin-based words. Well, when you learn French, or Spanish, or Italian, or any language heavily based on Latin, it may be just to satisfy your curiosity or shed some light on some words that you use every day without truly knowing the fascinating story that can hide behind them.
You have all heard of “PLAT DU JOUR” or “SOUP DU JOUR” – When I had my restaurant, I did have a “SOUP DU JOUR”, and I would hear the interrogative remark from some guests, “Can’t they speak English in this restaurant?!!”
Have you ever thought of what this “DU JOUR” could mean?
“JOUR”, in French, is a day. However, you do not have to know that to understand the phrase.
Always try to think of a similar word that you know… Oh, here is one: “Journal” – What is a journal? It is a diary that you keep on a daily basis. Now we get the idea! “DU JOUR” must have something to do with “day”, or “daily”…
“PLAT” almost looks like “plate”, doesn’t it? Correct! That’s what it is.
As a result, “PLAT DU JOUR”, as you see it in a lot of restaurants, is “the plate of the day”, in other words, today’s special. It is a simple as that.
Once you start scratching the surface of many words, you open the door to a captivating world, the world of words.
As you now know, I used to teach French at all levels to all ages, and I would never miss the opportunity to connect words together, compare languages, explain the etymology and how a word got to be this particular word, and my students would always leave the class with a better knowledge and a better understanding of their own language, English. Not surprisingly, my high school students scored very well in the language part of the SAT. There is so much to learn about words!
Merci et bon voyage!
Coco
CAREFUL!!!
ONE WORD MAY HIDE ANOTHER!
America is everywhere in France and in the French way of life, even in the language. So many English words have infiltrated the French language. Cool, speech, design, fun, geek, prime time, casting, best seller, thriller, scoop, buzz, spam, and so many more words… They all speak “Frenglish” over there, to the great sadness of the French Academy, a high council officially founded in 1635 whose main purpose is to defend the purity of the French language. I do not envy their job!
In the same way, we have quite a few French words in the English language, some of them can be very misleading! We will take a look at them in my online course, and we will explain them.