{"id":454,"date":"2014-04-04T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=454"},"modified":"2016-11-11T13:52:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T18:52:25","slug":"siri-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/04\/siri-french\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird French Learning Things, Thanks Siri!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Maison<\/a>
Or you could go to Strasbourg. Which would be better.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Three weird ways to practice your French:<\/p>\n

1. Siri!<\/strong>\u00a0 Ideal for pronunciation practice.\u00a0 Change the language setting to French (or whatever you want to practice, I suppose).\u00a0 You get a double-confirmation of your pronunciation, because you can see what Siri thought you said (results may amuse), and you get an attempted answer, because Siri\u2019s so helpful that way.\u00a0 Works great for Siri-genre everyday phrases, like Quel temps fait-il, Siri?<\/em> or J\u2019ai faim, Siri.<\/em>\u00a0 Plus she\u2019s so much fun to talk to, and you can hear what she says back, so, ear-training.<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Poirot<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 Now streaming on Netflix, thank you generous in-laws.\u00a0 Something people tend to overlook: To train your ear, it is useful to hear your own language (presumably English, in this case) spoken with the accent of the language you are trying to learn.\u00a0 I kid not, it helps.\u00a0 Plus Poirot sprinkles in tons of little French phrases.\u00a0 Good edutainment fodder for the first-year student.<\/p>\n

Parents & Teachers, please note these are murder mysteries adapted by the BBC, preview accordingly.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t say they were good moral training, necessarily.\u00a0 For g-rated, a DVD series that uses the native-accent thing to good effect is Bonjour Les Amis!<\/em><\/a> Oh, Moustache! Non, Moustache!<\/p>\n

3. Les Malheurs de Sophie<\/a>, now free on Kindle and at Project Gutenberg<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 19th century set of morality tales about a very naughty little girl.\u00a0 Wikipedia tells us<\/a> it\u2019s been used by English school girls for translation practice ever since, and yes, it\u2019s ideally suited for just such a task.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t read the whole thing, so I can\u2019t tell you just how weird it gets, but assume: Weird.\u00a0 And look, YouTube has the animated adaptation up<\/a>.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t make myself watch more than a few minutes, but if you\u2019re looking for Lenten penance and those horrid Anne of Green Gables cartoons are too much for you, Sophie<\/em> is the same genre but not quite so painful.\u00a0 Nettles-lite, or maybe the Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em> of g-rated French language learning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, I know, this is an odd subject to resume blogging after the recent bout of radio silence.\u00a0 Well now you know how I\u2019ve spent the forced rest.\u00a0 Poirot, yes, Sophie, no.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to blog on something controversial soon, though I\u2019m sure my readers have strong opinions about weird foreign language things.\u00a0 Yes?\u00a0 Have I pegged you accurately?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo credit:\u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Maison_Kammerzell.jpg \u00a0Maison Kammerzell, via Wikimedia CC 3.0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three weird ways to practice your French: 1. Siri!\u00a0 Ideal for pronunciation practice.\u00a0 Change the language setting to French (or whatever you want to practice, I suppose).\u00a0 You get a double-confirmation of your pronunciation, because you can see what Siri thought you said (results may amuse), and you get an attempted answer, because Siri\u2019s so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-homeschooling"],"yoast_head":"\nWeird French Learning Things, Thanks Siri!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three weird ways to practice your French: 1. 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