CBF 2:31 | Formation of the imperfect tense
Coffee Break French
Radio Lingua Network
4.6 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2010
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the main things learners seem to be finding difficult is the idea of making conversation with people. It’s easy enough to order a coffee, or book into a hotel, and saying the words and phrases you’ve learned at the appropriate time is great, but sometimes it’s not enough. What happens when you ask a question and you receive 30 seconds of solid French in return? In the final ten lessons of Coffee Break French we’ve created something which we think will help you develop your range of language, and allow you to get more used to picking out the key words and phrases as you listen. We’re delighted to introduce this first episode in a series of ten shows which introduce a ‘radio play’, featuring Scottish couple “David” and “Christina”, who are on holiday in Villefranche, who meet up with Jean-Jacques and his wife Sophie. Each lesson will feature excerpts from the long conversation in which David and Christina get to know their new friends.
In this first episode, David and Christina get lost on the way to the Lion D’Or, a restaurant in Villefranche. They bump into Jean-Jacques who happens to be heading the same way and they end up going to the restaurant together. They chat on the way to the restaurant. Please note that lesson 31 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 71 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.
This season of Coffee Break French features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break French in the Coffee Break Academy.
Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break French on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your French. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break French Facebook page here.
If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.
You can also check out our Coffee Break French Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Bonjour et bienvenue à Coffee Break French. Welcome back to Coffee Break French. In |
| 0:14.2 | Lesson 71 to 80, we're going to be doing something a bit different. We are going to be |
| 0:19.0 | following the adventures of David and Christina, a Scottish couple on holiday in France, and |
| 0:25.0 | they're going to meet Jean-Jacques and his wife Sophie. Over the course of the next ten |
| 0:30.0 | lessons, we're going to be following their discussion over a meal, and you'll pick up lots |
| 0:35.0 | of useful vocabulary and new expressions to help you in your journey of learning French. |
| 0:41.2 | We hope that you enjoy Lesson 71 of Coffee Break French. |
| 0:55.9 | Now, we always try to listen to your feedback and to put into practice some of the things that |
| 1:00.5 | you're suggesting. One thing that lots of you seem to be finding difficult is actually making |
| 1:06.5 | that conversation with people when you're abroad in a French-speaking country. It's all very |
| 1:12.2 | well having the phrases that you can use to achieve certain things like going to the post office |
| 1:17.4 | or ordering a drink or booking into a hotel. But what about when you're sitting in the cafe and |
| 1:22.8 | you want to talk to people or when you're perhaps traveling and you want to make conversation |
| 1:28.1 | with your fellow passengers? We've decided to give you some examples of exactly this kind of |
| 1:34.4 | conversation. And over the next ten lessons, we're going to be serialising a kind of soap opera |
| 1:41.4 | or a radio play where you can follow the characters David and Christina who are on holiday in the |
| 1:47.8 | south of France as they meet Jean-Jacques and Sophie, a couple living in Ville-Frage, the town |
| 1:55.9 | where they're on holiday. Now to explain Ville-Frage is a very exclusive holiday resort. It's about |
| 2:02.6 | six kilometres to the east of Nice, just about 20 minutes from Monton, where I used to live in France. |
| 2:10.2 | It's a very beautiful part of the world and if you ever get the chance to go there or even just |
| 2:14.7 | take the train from Nice towards the Italian border, then you'll see how beautiful Ville-Frage and |
| 2:20.3 | all the other little towns on the Cout des Ur, the blue coast, really are. Okay, enough background. |
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