Coffee Break French FAQ: General
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Who is Coffee Break French aimed at?
Coffee Break French is aimed at anyone who wants to acquire a basic knowledge of conversational French. Although primarily aimed at independent adult learners, the materials are entirely suitable for younger learners. Indeed, many of our listeners are high-school students who are supplementing their in-school learning with our lessons. What type of French is taught in Coffee Break French?
French is very much an international language and there are regional differences from country to country and even within French-speaking countries. With Coffee Break French we try to cover all types of French, but we concentrate on what could be seen as an international version of the French language, the standard accepted in all French-speaking areas. With Coffee Break French we aim to equip you with a grounding in the language and you will be understood wherever you go. Which topics are covered in Coffee Break French?
As Coffee Break French is a conversational course, we deal mainly in the types of language areas you need when travelling in a French-speaking area. Lessons 1-10 teach you the language you need to talk about yourself: we firmly believe that if you're travelling around and you're keen to develop your French then one of the most important things to be able to do is talk to people and make friends. To do this, you need to be able to talk about yourself, your family, your likes and dislikes, you job, etc. Lessons 11-20 will deal with transactional language, eg. finding your way around the town, buying things, ordering drinks in cafes, ordering meals in restaurants, etc. Lessons 21-30 will continue to deal with the types of situations in which you would find yourself while on holiday, and lessons 31-40 will feature dialogues recorded in France in a variety of situations. Our longer term plans aren't yet fully clear, but we intend to develop each area in more detail in future lessons, and cover a number of subjects which listeners have suggested in our forum. Can you make a lesson about a particular subject?
In the Coffee Break French discussion board a number of subjects have been suggested by listeners. We give careful consideration to all suggestions. We hope to include some of the topics in future lessons. However, for the time being our future plans at least until the end of the "transactional" units are quite firm. After we have completed episodes 1-40 we will consider creating content linked to the other topics suggested. We are also developing an additional podcast which is based on listeners' questions, the French Expresso - coming soon. Does Coffee Break French teach grammar?
Yes and no! If you're looking for a traditional learning experience involving chanting verb conjugations and in-depth discussion of adjective agreements and such like, then perhaps Coffee Break French in its current format is not for you. However, in virtually every episode we introduce some element of grammar in context, eg. adjective agreements, different verb forms, etc. We'll be continuing to do this. If I follow the course, how much French will I learn? Will I learn to speak French fluently?
It all depends on how much you're willing to put into the course and your whole French-learning experience. If you listen to the programmes once and don't do any further revision in the course of a week then it's very unlikely that you'll learn a huge amount. However, if you listen to the programmes repeatedly, practising the language and checking your pronunciation by repeating after us then you'll make better progress. Equally, if you want to get further into the language you can use our additional materials available as part of the Premium Membership. We do go into the language in much more detail in our PDF guides and there are also bonus items of vocabulary in the guide for each lesson. Given that Coffee Break French at this stage is aimed a beginners in the language it's unlikely that you'll achieve fluency from our content alone. However, you can become extremely confident in what we're teaching you by practising it and using it regularly. Fluency in any language is something which takes years and a huge amount of dedication to achieve. However there's no reason why you can't become very confident at a reasonable level. I study French in school / college. Will Coffee Break French help me?
Absolutely. If you're learning a language, the more exposure you get to it, the more confident you will be in using it for real. One thing you may want to keep in mind is that your teacher may pronounce some things differently. This doesn't mean that Coffee Break French is wrong, or that your teacher is wrong: there are different French accents and ways to pronounce certain words in different parts of the world, and teachers tend to teach what they've experienced themselves. I would suggest that you mention to your teacher that you're using Coffee Break French and I'm sure he or she will be delighted that you're eager to learn more! Who are the presenters of Coffee Break French?
Coffee Break French is presented by an experienced teacher, Mark, who teaches student Anna during the lessons. Mark has taught French and Spanish for many years and has been involved in a number of languages and technology projects. In addition to French and Spanish he also speaks Italian and Portuguese and has learned some Norwegian, German, Catalan, Japanese and Mandarin in his time! Anna is currently studying German at university and learned some French at school. Anna is "starting again from scratch" and hopes to continue her studies of French in the future. Both Mark and Anna are based in the west of Scotland. Is this French with a Scottish accent?
No! The English used in Coffee Break French definitely has a Scottish accent, but the French used is very much French French! Mark has lived and worked in the south of France and has also travelled extensively throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland. As a learner, Anna's job is to try to emulate the teacher's pronunciation and it is hoped that by listening to another learner our listeners will learn more about pronunciation and feel confident enough to try emulating the accent themselves. If Anna is a student, does this mean I'll be repeating incorrect or imperfect pronunciations?
As mentioned above, Anna is a learner of French. Listeners are encouraged to repeat along with Anna, or in the space provided after Mark says the word and before Anna repeats it. In a "real" classroom situation it would be normal for the learner to listen more to the teacher than to the accents and pronunciation of fellow students. It has to be said, though, that Anna's pronunciation has been improving as we've been working through the programmes! How long is Coffee Break French going to run for?
"For the foreseeable future!" We are very much enjoying working on Coffee Break French and although we have identified 4 units of 10 lessons each in our first section of the course, we do have plans for further lessons concentrating on different types of language and grammatical concepts. It's impossible to say if we'll still be doing this in 2010, but if you're reading this and it's 2010 then I guess we are! How often is Coffee Break French published? When will the next programme be available?
Coffee Break French is normally published on the weekend. It's published every week, in seasons of ten lessons. There are sometimes exceptions to this if things are very busy, but we do try to get each episode out at the weekend of each week. In between units there is normally a 2-3 week break. If your question is not answered here, please
contact us and we'll get back to you.