LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST

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1 LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Lesson 32 How are things going for your new colleague? Plus Publications Bramley Douglas Road Cork Ireland (t) 353-(0) (f) 353-(0) (e) [email protected] (i)

2 Hello and welcome back to Learn French by Podcast. My name is Hugh Nagle and here with me is Amélie Verdier. Bonjour, Amélie! Bonjour! In this lesson, lesson 32, we re going to hear a chat about a new colleague at work, from Poland. Before we begin, don t forget the accompanying Lesson Guide, available from As you re listening, try to figure out the answers to the following questions: 1 When did Amélie s new colleague join her staff? 2 Why is Marie out of work at the moment? 3 Before working with Amélie s company, what did her new colleague do, back in Poland? Ah si! [= Ah, yes! (there is something, now that I come to think of it)] We met this form of Yes in a previous lesson. It is unlike Oui in that it is used when one is contradicting oneself. Ah bon! That s Oh, really? or Oh, is that so? Alors, quoi de neuf? Bof, pas grand-chose. Ah, si! J ai un nouveau collègue depuis hier! Ah bon? Oui, il remplace Marie qui est partie en congé de maternité. Et il s occupe de quoi? Il fait les plannings pour l ensemble du personnel. Ça se passe bien? Oui, il a l air sympa comme gars. L ennui, c est qu il est Polonais! C est bien, ça, non? C est un bel exemple des bienfaits de l Union Européenne! Oui oui. C est très bien. Seulement il ne parle pas très bien français! En Pologne, il était chargé du recrutement dans une petite entreprise de province. Il a appris le français sur le tas! C est courageux, non? Oui, mais il mélange tout, le français, le polonais, l allemand L allemand? Oui, sa mère est d origine allemande. C est un atout pour l entreprise d avoir un employé trilingue! remplacer [= to replace] Watch it! It s remplacer that is, with an m, in French. Marie est partie = Marie has gone (on maternity leave). Partir (to leave) is one of those key verbs which require the auxiliary verb être in the passé composé (the Perfect tense). In these cases, the past participle must agree with the subject (Marie, in this case). (Refer, again, to lesson 21, for more information on these verbs.) Il a l air sympa comme gars = He seems to be a friendly guy. (Literally, He seems friendly, as a guy. ) The key expression is: avoir l air [+ adjective]. Il est Polonais. That is, He is a Pole. Watch it! We have une majuscule a capital letter at the beginning of the noun in the sentence above. On the other hand, if we had Il est polonais, we would be saying that He is Polish! l Union européenne. Note that the noun (l Union) is capitalised, but the adjective (européenne) is not. L ennui, c est que = The problem is that l ennui a masculine noun can refer to boredom, in a general sense or, more specifically a problem or a nuisance, as is the case here.

3 Let s listen to the dialogue one more time. Alors, quoi de neuf? Bof, pas grand-chose. Ah, si! J ai un nouveau collègue depuis hier! Ah bon? Oui, il remplace Marie qui est partie en congé de maternité. Et il s occupe de quoi? Il fait les plannings pour l ensemble du personnel. Ça se passe bien? Oui, il a l air sympa comme gars. L ennui, c est qu il est Polonais! C est bien, ça, non? C est un bel exemple des bienfaits de l Union Européenne! Oui oui. C est très bien. Seulement il ne parle pas très bien français! En Pologne, il était chargé du recrutement dans une petite entreprise de province. Il a appris le français sur le tas! C est courageux, non? Oui, mais il mélange tout, le français, le polonais, l allemand L allemand? Oui, sa mère est d origine allemande. C est un atout pour l entreprise d avoir un employé trilingue! Now, the answers to those questions were: 1 Amélie s new colleague joined the staff yesterday that s depuis hier since yesterday. 2 Marie is on maternity leave that s en congé de maternité. 3 The new colleague used to work in recruitment for a small business in the country. He was L ennui, c est que Note this combination of : [noun,] + c est que It s the equivalent of: [The problem] is that This is very common. Note also: Le problème, c est que [The problem is that ] L ironie, c est que [The irony is that ] Ce qui est sûr, c est que [What certain is (the fact) that ] etc. il parle français Almost without exception, this has become the spoken form. To be grammatically correct, however, it should technically be: Il parle le français Il parle bien le français Tu parle l anglais? Je ne voudrais pas qu un jour tout le monde parle l anglais il a appris le français sur le tas Here, we have the verb apprendre in the passé composé. The past participle is appris. chargé du recrutement dans une petite entreprise de province. The verb apprendre is conjugated in exactly the same way as prendre : Now, we heard about a new male colleague. That s: un nouveau collègue un nouveau collègue If it had been a female colleague, we would have heard: une nouvelle collègue une nouvelle collègue nouveau / nouvelle apprendre to learn / to teach j apprends tu apprends il / elle / on apprend nous apprenons vous apprenez ils / elles apprennent past participle : appris You asked What does he do? or, put another way, What is he in charge of? The key verb is s occuper de to look after or to be in charge of. Let s listen again: Il s occupe de quoi? Il s occupe de quoi? s occuper de une petite entreprise de province That is, a small provincial (or rural) business. In other words, a business located away from an urban centre. Don t confuse this with la Provence, a region in the south-east of France.

4 Let s take another couple of examples with this useful verb s occuper de : She looks after the children would be Elle s occupe des enfants. Elle s occupe des enfants. We look after Tom s cat at weekends : On s occupe du chat de Tom le week-end. On s occupe du chat de Tom le week-end. Moving on, we heard that the new guy seemed friendly. Now to seem is avoir l air de. Let s hear it in context: Il a l air sympa. Il a l air sympa. What about: She seems sad? Elle a l air triste. Elle a l air triste. Or, They seem tired : Ils ont l air fatigués. Ils ont l air fatigués. We can use this expression with a verb, too. We might say, for example, about Tiger Woods that he seems to possess a supernatural gift. In this case we d follow our expression with the infinitive posséder : Il a l air de posséder un don surnaturel. Il a l air de posséder un don surnaturel. We heard another interesting expression that this new employee had learned his French on the job. Let s hear that once again Il a appris le français sur le tas Il a appris le français sur le tas sur le tas on the job. avoir l air [+ adj] avoir l air de [+ verb] On s occupe du That s We look after Once again, we have the pronoun on which, in this case, is like a casual nous and refers to we. In other situations, it can mean one or people.

5 Let s make a point, too, about the verb apprendre which, in this case means to learn. But strangely, this same verb, depending on the context, can mean to teach, also! About an interesting teacher, we might say: Elle m a appris tant de choses intéressantes that is She taught me so many interesting things. Once again: Elle m a appris tant de choses intéressantes Elle m a appris tant de choses intéressantes So, watch it! Sometimes the verb apprendre will be to learn and sometimes it will be to teach. We ll have to figure it out from the context. We heard that, in effect, the new employee was trilingual as his mother was a native of Germany. In relation to his mother, we heard Elle est d origine allemande. Elle est d origine allemande. That s the expression être d origine, plus the adjective relating to the particular country. We could also hear Francesco est d origine italienne. Francesco est d origine italienne. apprendre être d origine [allemande / polonaise] tant de choses That s so many things Consider also: tant de joueurs [so many players] tant de difficultés [so many difficulties] tant d espoirs [so many hopes] or John est d origine irlandaise. John est d origine irlandaise. To finish, this new employee was quite difficult to understand because he mixed different bits of three languages. The verb to mix is mélanger and can be used in a variety of situations : mixing ingredients, mixing with gangsters, mixing success and failure, and so on. Let s hear the expression from our dialogue once more il mélange tout, le français, le polonais, l allemand mélanger un nouveau collègue Don t forget the grave accent on the è! il mélange tout, le français, le polonais, l allemand Now that we ve looked closely at the dialogue, let s hear it once again in its entirety. Don t forget that you ll find all this information, and a lot more, in the accompanying Lesson Guide, downloadable from www. learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Here s that dialogue, once again Alors, quoi de neuf? Bof, pas grand-chose. Ah, si! J ai un nouveau collègue depuis hier! Ah bon? Oui, il remplace Marie qui est partie en congé de maternité. Et il s occupe de quoi? Il fait les plannings pour l ensemble du personnel. en congé de maternité That is, on maternity leave. In spoken French, the de is frequently omitted. We ll also hear of: (un) congé de maladie [sick leave]

6 If you understood our lesson, then you should be able to translate Now it s your turn Any questions? Any comments? Ça se passe bien? Oui, il a l air sympa comme gars. L ennui, c est qu il est Polonais! C est bien, ça, non? C est un bel exemple des bienfaits de l Union Européenne! Oui oui. C est très bien. Seulement il ne parle pas très bien français! En Pologne, il était chargé du recrutement dans une petite entreprise de province. Il a appris le français sur le tas! C est courageux, non? Oui, mais il mélange tout, le français, le polonais, l allemand L allemand? Oui, sa mère est d origine allemande. C est un atout pour l entreprise d avoir un employé trilingue! Amélie, we ve covered a lot in this lesson. Until next time! A la prochaine! 1. He has a new colleague. Her name is Claire. 2. Joe and Caroline are looking after our dog. 3. Is it going well? 4. She seems friendly. 5. The problem is that it s too far away. 6. He speaks Japanese well. 7. He learned Russian when he was young. [ quand il était ] See the answers at Submit them to us at Vocab extra! air, avoir l ~... to seem allemand (m)... german atout (m)... asset bel... good bien... well bienfait (m)... benefit bof... (I) dunno c est... it s chargé, ~ de... in charge of collègue (m)... colleague comme... like, as (a) congé (m)... leave courageux... courageous dans... in ennui (m)... problem ensemble (m)... whole, entirety entreprise (f)... enterprise, business espoir (m)... hope exemple (m)... example faire... to do gars (m)... guy, bloke joueur (m)... player maladie (f)... illness, sickness mélanger... to mix neuf... new nouveau... new occuper, s ~ de... to look after parler... to speak, to talk passer, se ~ bien... to go well personnel (m)... staff planning (m)... planning, scheduling Pologne (f)... Poland Polonais (m)... Pole polonais (m)... polish province, de ~... rural quoi... what recrutement (m)... recruitment remplacer... to replace seulement... only, but sur... on sûr... sure, certain sympa... friendly tas (m)... pile, heap tout... everything trilingue... trilingual Submit them to us at