English Conversation at the Boutique l'Aiguillee in Semur-en-Auxois for all who wish to practice their English by reading, writing and conversing. Come and join us.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
The best way to keep up your English is by listening to songs.
This one has nothing to do with Christmas but listening and following the words is excellent practice.
I look forward to having English conversation with you all in the first weeks of January.
Sing your way into 2019.
Here is the link:
Hello, This week we have been studying a Japanese form of poetry Haiku.
"Haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.
Here are some of my students creative writing. We didn't respect the 5 7 5 syllables but I think the meaning of these is tremendous.
"Follow your dreams They know the way" "Like a show of stars Snowflakes fall on my garden filling my heart with peace and sweetness"
"Call me back wait. The way to show your love is imperative"
And here is a poem with the 5 7 5 formula.
"Like a show of stars (5) Snowflakes fall on my garden (7) Great peace and sweetness (5)"
Listening closely to the words in
music, online broadcasts, radio, television and movies in English is a
great way to improve your listening skills in English. The more you listen, the more you will understand vocabulary, idioms and
expressions. Music helps you acquire the rhythm and stress patterns of
spoken English.
Reading is the best way to improve your vocabulary. English-language reading materials — newspapers,
magazines, books and websites — are always available. You should read
materials that genuinely interest you and are not too challenging.
Use the language every day. Each day,
you should set some time aside to communicate only in English. Listen, speak and write in English every chance you get. The more you use the language, the better you’ll become.
Keep a journal. Write down what happens in your everyday life. This is a great way to
think in English. Reading to yourself and reading out loud helps you listen to how the words sound.
Adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along
with nouns, verbs and adjectives. We use adverbs to add more
information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a clause or a
whole sentence and, less commonly, about a noun phrase.
Can you move it carefully? It’s fragile.
Quickly! We’re late.
She swims really well.
Don’t go so fast.
You have to turn it clockwise.
Come over here.
Actually, I don’t know her.
I haven’t seen them recently.
The bathroom’s upstairs on the left.
Adverbs: meanings and functions
Adverbs
have many different meanings and functions. They are especially
important for indicating the time, manner, place, degree and frequency
of something.
This week we are continuing our work with adjectives. What better way to use adjectives than in an advertisement.
Question: What would this advert read in 2018.
The word Advertisement can be written and used in several ways.
To Place an AD An Advertising agency That is an interesting Ad How did the company dream up its new Ad campaign Around the year 174 AD, his people revolted against Rome.
How important it is to describe artfully. It can get you out of a number of situations. When you can't remember a word in English just use your adjectives to make the other person understand more clearly about what you are trying to say.
Some examples of descriptions:
"She was a bold-looking girl of about twenty-seven, with thick dark
hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic movements.
____________________________
"Black-haired and slender, wearing the huge new dust-filtering glasses,
she approached his car, her hands deep in the pockets of her brightly
striped long coat. She had, on her sharply defined small face, an
expression of sullen distaste."
______________________
Anthony was a sixty-four year old man of medium height, with abundant grey crinkly hair. Today he was wearing a red cashmere polo-neck sweater under a jacket of soft brown tweed.
_____________________
"If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride
it. He was twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as
wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles
of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the
size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like
baby dolphins."
______________________________
"He was a funny-looking child who became a funny-looking youth — tall and weak, and shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola."
Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born in 1946.
From a young age he was passionate about animals and nature. When he
was 20, he became Director of a nature reserve. Aged 30 he went to Kenya
with his wife and carried out a three-year study on the behaviour of a
family of lions in the Massaï reserve. There he started photography as a
way of recording his observations.
At the same time he earned his
living as a hot-air balloon pilot and so discovered a new way to look
at what was happening on the earth. He published his first book, Lions and he likes to say that the lions were his first photography teachers.
Little by little he became a reporter, focusing on environmental issues and working for National Geographic, Paris Match, Le Figaro Magazine and others. He wrote another book, Good Breeding and Horses about the relationship between man and animals.
Then in 1991 he founded the first aerial photography agency in the world – which led to his first major project, The Earth From The Air, sometimes called The Earth From Above.
It has sold 3 million copies and the open-air photographic exhibition
that accompanied it was shown in around 100 countries and has been seen
by some 200 million people.
The idea was used as the basis of a TV
documentary series in 2006 and it then developed into a film, HOME,
which is still being watched by audiences in 2018.
On the day of
its release, World Environment Day, June 5, 2009 there were free
screenings across the world and that day alone it was seen by 600
million people. So perhaps it is not surprising he feels frustrated that
his message, relayed to so many people still is not having the effect
he would like it to. I asked him, what he felt people should do once
they had seen his films or his photos:
“It is not for me to
decide. People are intelligent enough to see that it is up to them to
act. You know, in all my films I tell people to stop eating intensively
farmed meat which are destroying our planet. Are you vegetarian? No,
well it is no use repeating the same thing over and over again. You will
see in my film I speak a great deal about eating meat.
“Everyone
can do what they can. Eat organically. It is indispensable to eat
organic food. When you see the diminishing bee population, the reduction
of insects, the effect on our biodiversity it shouldn’t be necessary to
tell everybody to eat organic food.
If everyone ate organic food
there would not be any pesticides. If there were no pesticides there
would be no threat to biodiversity.
“I am fed up of repeating the
same thing. If you do not eat organic food, you are responsible for the
effect on biodiversity in France, for example. I have to say the same
thing over and over. People do not want to change. It is a question
which is very personal and spiritual; do you want to change or not?
“If
you eat ham, if you eat chicken you are responsible, yourself, for the
loss of biodiversity. Me too, we are all responsible. I think we must
take a much more radical sense of our responsibility.”
I suggested
that not everybody thinks we are heading towards the end of the planet:
“All the scientists think we are going towards the end of the world,
all of them. So we all know what is happening. We think it is all a long
way away so we do not care. But you know it is much too late to be
pessimistic. What we need is action. Today that is my viewpoint.
“We
have all polluted, I have polluted. It is for us to change. I think
above all today we need to put a lot of humanity into our ecology;
welcome the refugees, help those around you who have less than you do.
“We need to love trees, we need to love animals, but also we need to
love our fellow humans. That is perhaps something that the ecologists
have forgotten.”
His GoodPlanet Foundation aims to give practical
solutions to help people live in a more ecological way. Among other
actions it has 41 projects in 21 countries to help people live a carbon
neutral life, for example building bioclimatic schools, giving people
access to renewable energy and working to restore biodiversity.
Last year the Mairie
in Paris agreed he could use a building, the Domaine de Longchamp, in
the Bois de Boulogne, for a 30-year period to be the first place in the
capital dedicated to energy. The general public can visit it free of
charge.
There are exhibitions, concerts, conferences, debates, a
vegetable garden, an orchard and beehives. Yann Arthus-Bertrand says it
is a “green bubble, where visitors can experience a generous and
positive form of ecology free of charge with their family and friends,
where parents and children alike are all welcome.”
As a result of
his Foundation he was appointed United Nations Environment Programme
Goodwill Ambassador in 2009. He has made two other films; Planet Ocean
in 2012, which he co-directed with Michael Pitiot and which explores
the importance of the ocean and the need to care for it; and Human
in 2015, which is a series of interviews with people of all kinds from
all parts of the world to show what it means to be human.
His latest film, Woman
will be released in 2019. It focuses on interviews with women who have
stood up in their country at all levels: “It is a film about courage,
injustice and love,” he says. “It shows above all that certain women
have the good sense to change things. Rwanda, where there are more women
than men in politics, is the country in Africa where the health service
is improving the most.
“Women look after their children, they are
like that and it shows that women understand what needs changing. It is
important – what the position of women is in this world of men.”
He
says he regards himself both as an ecologist and a photographer: “I am
still a photographer and a film maker and a director. I have a
Foundation and the Domaine de Longchamp. I am someone who tries to get
across his message using the cinema and as well I am the president of
the foundation and I try to do what I can.”
Do you think things will improve if we all make little changes?
“To
tell you the truth I do not know any more. I think all actions are
important and eating organic food every day for ever is not a little
action it is a big and important one.
Do you think there is any improvement in the state of our planet?
“I think that people have become aware of the problems now. But the
figures are worse and worse every year. That means we have not
progressed from the point of view of the environment, not at all. I
think we have left everything to associations and others to look after
the health of the earth.
“Today we talk about the fact that soon
we will have no more elephants. We talk about Green Business, but no,
what we must learn to do is to live with a decrease in growth, to live
better with less.”
He does give the thumbs up to the British who have moved to France: “I think a lot of the British come to France to live in the country unlike the French who go to the UK to put money in the bank.
“I
think the British who come to live in the countryside bring a great
deal of good vibes towards the local peasants, they buy locally and want
to live simply, so it is a good thing having the British, come to
France.” www.yannarthusbertrand.org
Adjectives describing the quantity of the noun come first. These include numbers (one, 4.5, 100) or adjectives such as many, several, few, etc.
If there’s only one of the noun you’re referring to, you can use the word a to signify a single object.
A chair
2. Opinion/Value
These adjectives communicate how the noun is viewed by yourself or others. These are subjective terms. Adjectives such as wonderful, unusual, annoying or delicious describe opinion/value.
A wonderful chair
3. Size
Adjectives
describing the size of the noun are placed next. This word tells the
reader or listener how big or small the noun is. A variety of words can
be used to explain this including large, huge, tiny and mini.
A wonderful little chair
One
exception here that you may notice is the word “big,” which often comes
before an opinion/value word. For example, “the big bad wolf” is a
character in the story “The Three Little Pigs.”
4. Temperature
The adjectives placed next in line give information about the temperature, if necessary. Cold, cool, freezing, warm or hot can describe temperature.
A wonderful little cold chair
5. Age
Age
doesn’t have to be a number. Age can also be communicated with words
that explain the time period or era the noun lived in or was created in.
Adjectives used here could be new, young, antique and prehistoric.
A wonderful little cold antique chair
6. Shape
Next in line are the adjectives that describe shape. Angular, round and square are some of the words you could use to communicate the shape the noun looks like.
A wonderful little cold antique square chair
7. Color
Adjectives describing color, such as brown, blue or silver, are positioned next. This also includes hair or fur color. Words such as brunette and blonde can be used when describing the coloring of a person’s hair or an animal’s fur.
A wonderful little cold antique square red chair
8. Origin
Adjectives
that describe where the noun came from tell the reader or listener
about its origin. Adjectives suitable here could include American, British, Dutch, Indian or Australian.
A wonderful little cold antique square red American chair
9. Material
These adjectives simply indicate what the noun is made of. Adjectives here could be wood, metal, paper, silk or rubber.
A wonderful little cold antique square red American wood chair
10. Purpose
The last adjective before the noun describes its purpose. This explains what the noun is used for. For example, a tennis ball is used for tennis. A stirring spoon is used for stirring. A diving pool is used for diving. You get the idea.
A wonderful little cold antique square red American wood rocking chair
When talking in English about enjoyable things that you’ve done or good times that you’ve had, fun and funny are
some of the words you’ll be using the most. Although these words look
similar, they actually mean completely separate things. Sometimes it can
be tricky to remember which one to use, but take a moment to understand
the rules and you’ll be using them correctly in no time at all.
Fun
Put simply, fun describes things that are enjoyable.
It doesn’t say what exactly is enjoyable about them, just that
something about them is nice to do or be around. Example: Having a movie marathon is fun.
Similarly, you can have a fun day at the beach, or do a fun activity
in class. You can even say that a friend of yours is a fun guy, if he’s
the type of person that people have a good time with.
Funny
Something that is funny, however, generally makes you laugh. A good joke is funny, or a well performed bit of comedy.
The act of going to the movies can be fun, but the movie is funny if it makes you laugh. Example: Your friend is a funny guy.An English speaker would never say that playing football or going for a walk on the beach is funny,
because there’s nothing to laugh at. (During your walk, if you happen
to laugh at your friend tripping, his falling might be funny, but the
walk itself would still just be fun!)
And, just to make things a little more difficult, funny can sometimes have other, very different meanings. Example: I have a funny feeling about this. (something isn't quite right) Example: What smells funny? (something smells strange)
To determine whether funny is a good thing or a bad thing, just pay attention to context!
The best way of learning English is to listen to a story while following along with words. This story about the house on the hill is quite simple and easy to follow. Practice listening to English and you will improve each day. Here is the link:
A “doggy bag” is an American term describing
disposable takeaway or “to go/à emporter” boxes that restaurants can use
to pack up customer leftovers, so clients can take excess food home.
Now, the Assemblée Nationale
development group, La Commission du Développement Durable, says that
adopting the practice as standard in all restaurants could halve commercial
food waste by 2025.
If the proposals go ahead, restaurateurs
would be required to offer recyclable takeaway containers to all guests, and
make it clear that asking for leftovers “to go” at the end of the meal is an
acceptable request.
Commercial food waste is a problem in France:
restaurants throw away the equivalent of 21 kilos of food waste per person
every year. Five times’ more food is wasted outside the home than within it, at
an average of 157g of food waste per person per meal.
And yet, while in other countries such as the
USA or UK, it is common to ask for your leftovers “to go”, in France the
practice is less favoured.
A 2014 trial of the idea by the hospitality
group the Union des Métiers et des Industries de l’Hôtellerie (UMIH)
suggested that its members adopt the practice, to raise awareness of restaurant
food waste.
But, according to newspaper Le Parisien, this was
largely a flop: only 10,000 takeaway boxes were used and customer response was
lacklustre, with some customers fearing they could come across as “stingy” if
they asked to take leftovers home.
Even restaurateurs have not uniformly
welcomed government enforcement of the practice.
Bocuse-trained chef Yoann Abecassis, of La
Brasserie des Arcades in Lyon, rejected the idea, saying: “In the USA, where I have
worked, it’s a normal practice, but in France, many people consider it shameful
to go home with your leftovers.”
Yet, he said that reducing food waste was
important, which is why in his restaurant, portion sizes are offered in S, M, L
and XL, with clients able to choose how much food they want ahead of time,
depending on how hungry they are.
In this way, Abecassis said, the restaurant
saves food and the customer saves money, without the need for doggy bags: a
Salade Lyonnaise in size small costs €3.50, while the large version costs €9.
Hubert Jean, president of the restaurant
branch of the UMIH, was also not in favour of the idea. He said: “It is not very wise to force
the whole profession to buy doggy bags in a regulatory way. This is more of an
Anglo-Saxon practice that is not really in French culture.”
Food sociologist Claude Fischler said: “This is an American tradition
that is linked to the [big] portion sizes over there. And the words ‘doggy bag’
suggest the extra food is for your dog, so it feels a little embarrassing to
want to take the leftovers home for yourself.”
Yet, the commission defended the proposal.
Deputy Bérangère Abba, author of the original
amendment, said: “It’s true that there is a psychological block in France about
this, but it is also because consumers often do not dare to ask, for fear of
being refused. Habits must evolve.
“The objective is to widen an
already-existing practice, and reduce food waste by half between now and 2025.”
Ssh, don't speak so loud. The other guests will want one too!
2. Waiter, waiter, there's a fly in my soup!
Don't worry sir, he's so small that he won't drink very much of it!!
3. Waiter, waiter, there's a fly swimming in my soup!
Yes sir, he's doing the crawl*. Please encourage him by giving him a cheer
or two!!
*a) a style of swimming; b) a verb used to describe the way in which insects
move on the ground and other surfaces.
4. Waiter, waiter, your thumb is in my soup!
Don't worry, sir! The soup isn't very hot.
5.Waiter, waiter, there are some tiny flies in my wine!
Don't worry, sir! They may look tiny but they're over the legal drinking
age for flies.
6.Waiter, waiter, there's a dead fly in my wine!
What's wrong, sir? You told me that you liked wine with a little body* in it!
*a) the body of a dead person (or here, fly); b) a strong (alcoholic) flavour.
7.Waiter, waiter, there's a dead fly in my wine!
Oh no! I warned him not to drink and swim*. If he had kept to soup he might have been a medal-winner in the next fly Olympics.
* 'to drink and drive' means to drive while under the influence of alcohol,
which is - of course - illegal. 'To drink and swim' therefore means...?
8. Waiter, waiter, there is a spider in my wine!
That's right sir! We've employed him to catch the flies.
9. Waiter, waiter, there's no soup on the menu* today!
That's right sir! I wiped all the menus yesterday as part of our annual
pre-Christmas clean-up. It's really encouraging to know that our customers
notice these little details.
*'on the menu' means 'displayed on the menu
as one of the dishes available'; however, the waiter misunderstands, and
thinks that the customer is referring to the lack of soup stains on the
menu.
10. Waiter, waiter, there's a cockroach in my soup!
That's right sir! He's volunteered to take over while the fly visits his
mother over Christmas. If you look carefully, you can see that he's wearing a little red hat and has a white beard.
11. Waiter, waiter, I want to complain to the chef.
I'm afraid his dinner break has just started. He'll be at the restaurant
next door as usual.
Of course, the point is that if the chef is unwilling to eat the meals
at the restaurant where s/he cooks, there must be something very wrong.
Hence the custom in some restaurants to hang up a sign saying 'Le chef
mange ici' (The chef eats here).
12.Why do waiters prefer elephants to flies?
Have you ever heard anyone complaining of an elephant in their soup? This is really an elephant joke. Of course, we know that the reason why
no one ever complains about having an elephant in their soup is because
it could never happen. However, the implication here is that no one complains
because they like having elephants in their soup, although they always complain if there
is a fly.(For more elephant jokes, click here.)
A little information about the village of Viserny where we learn English.
The village of Viserny is a small village located east center of France. The town of Viserny is located in the department of Côte-d'Or of the french region Bourgogne.
The town of Viserny is located in the township of Montbard part
of the district of Montbard. The area code for Viserny is 21709 (also
known as code INSEE), and the Viserny zip code is 21500.
The population of Viserny was 166 in 1999, 197 in 2006 and 199 in 2007. The population density of Viserny is 29.48 inhabitants per km². The number of housing of Viserny was 116 in 2007. These homes of Viserny consist of 86 main residences, 21 second or occasional homes and 9 vacant homes.
Cycle-share startup Gobee.bike has shut down its French operation
after just four months due to high levels of theft and vandalism
The
company had previously axed services in Lille and Reims, as well as
Brussels, but had hoped to keep operating in Paris and Lyon.
But
the Hong Kong-based company has now said the number of thefts and levels
of criminal damage meant its operation was unsustainable in France.
Since
it started operating, more than 3,000 of its cycles had been damaged,
more than 1,000 had been stolen, 6500 needed repairs, and 280 police
complaints had been filed, the company said in a statement.
It added: "Over the months of December and January, the mass
destruction of our fleet intensified by becoming the new pastime of
individuals, most often minors."
The easily recognisable
bright-green cycles were available to registered clients and could be
located using an app on users' smartphones.
After paying a €15
deposit, users could hire the bikes for €0.50 an hour, and once they
have arrived at their destination, leave the cycles anywhere.
The company has donated its bikes to organisations that will recycle and reuse them.
Three
similar bike hire services - Ofo (yellow bikes), Obike (orange) and
Mobike (orange and grey) - have also recently launched in France.
David Attenborough is a famous BBC journalist specializing in animals. He speaks clearly and slowly so you can easily follow what he says. If you miss something just pause and re do the sentence. Happy watching.
Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between
want and need?
Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.
Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter
of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.
Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not kind.
And
when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.
Whereas Christmas Eve is all about oysters and foie gras, January 6th is all about the Galette des Rois (King’s Cake).
French families will mark the end of the festive season on Saturday
by scoffing down a pastry fit for kings. Here's the story of the Galette
des Rois - the only tart that can make you feel like a king.
As with many festivals in France the French will mark the feast of the Epiphany on Saturday by eating...again.
So what’s a Galette des Rois? The festival takes place around Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, when the wise men visited baby Jesus. According to tradition, the ‘galette des rois’, was to “draw the kings” to the Epiphany. It goes rather well with a cup of tea or a glass or two of white wine
and is the perfect opportunity to invite family and friends or maybe
get together with those neighbours you haven’t yet met.
It’s basically a frangipane cake traditionally shared at Epiphany, on 6
January. .. a tart with a small charm, a fève hidden inside. A ‘fève‘
(originally a bean but now tends to be a plastic trinket) is baked
inside the cake and the cake is shared around the table. Whoever
receives the fève is then crowned king or queen for the
day and has the much coveted opportunity of bossing the rest of the
family about! That same person can also choose someone to be their king
or queen. It is made with puff pastry, butter, a cream made
from sweet almonds, butter, eggs, sugar and a few extra ingredients that will stretch the already
bursting waistline for one final time before the January dieting begins.
