TALK ~ ASK ~ INTERVIEW a French speaker

TALK ~ ASK ~ INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWING A FRENCH SPEAKER: WRITTEN AND RECORDED

I INTERVIEWED MY AUNT, IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH

in English

in French

Click above for the interview

THE FRENCH INTERVIEW:

APSARA :  

Bonjour la classe,  et bienvenue!  Je vous presente Susie.

SUSIE

Bonjour Sara

APSARA

Bonjour Susie, ca va?

SUSIE

Tres bien merci.

APSARA:

Alors, nous parlons de Paris.

Vous aimez Paris?

Moi, j’adore Paris.

SUSIE:

Oui, biensur.

APSARA

Vous n’etes pas francaise?

SUSIE

Non, je suis Australienne.

APSARA

Mais vous parlez francais- pourquoi?

SUSIE

Parce que je travail en france

APSARA

Vous habitez a Paris? Vous etes-

SUSIE

Je suis comedienne.

APSARA

Vraiment? Vous etes marrante?!!?

SUSIE

Ha ha, en francais on dit ‘comedienne’ , plus que le mot ‘actrice’.

, Mais, Sara, pourquoi tu parles francais?

APSARA

Parce qu’on insiste  au lycee!!

Mais j’aime bien le francais. J’aime la France.

SUSIE

Par exemple?

APSARA

Alors, a Paris, j’aime les musees, les theatres, l’Opera,

Et biensur la Tour Eiffel.

SUSIE

Une belle vue.

APSARA

Oui, et moi, l’ascent par l’ascenseur,

Et le descent par les escaliers!!

SUSIE

Oh la la.

APSARA

Et Disneyland a Paris, c’est fantastique.

SUSIE

Tu aimes le metro?

APSARA

Oh, mais oui!

Dans le metro, moi

Je me sens bien….

SUSIE

Et les francais ont du style.

APSARA

OUI, moi ,j’aime le style francais.

Ce blouson, par exemple, regarde.

SUSIE

Ah bon? De Paris?

APSARA

Oui, et cette jolie jupe.

SUSIE

Alors, la mode a Paris.

APSARA

Et biensur.. les boulangeries, les patisseries, les pains au chocolat,

les croissants..

SUSIE

et les creperies?

APSARA

Oui, les crepes sont delicieuse.

Moi, je mange les crepes de Nutella - comme une vraie francaise!

En plus, j’aime l’histoire de Paris

C’est extraordinaire.

SUSIE

Oui. A la prochaine on parle de tout.

APSARA

D’accord.

Alors, merci Susie, et a tres bientot.

SUSIE

Oui,  au revoir Sara.

VISIT ~ REMEMBER ~ THINK : A Film Review

VISIT ~ REMEMBER ~ THINK

A REVIEW ON A FRENCH FILM

Describe it & why I chose it

THE FILM

Name:  The Sea Wall (Un Barrage contre Le Pacifique was the original title)

Year:     2009   French/Cambodian/Belgian  Coproduction

Cast:    Isabelle Huppert  (famous French actress),

Gaspard Ullielt (Joseph), Astrid Bergès-Frisbey  (Suzanne)

Director:   Rithy Panh

Language:   French

Location:   Cambodia – set in 1931 Indochina

DESCRIPTION

The Sea Wall is about the French colonial empire in southeast Asia, when from 1887 Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos was ruled by France.  It is based on the real life story of Marguerite Duras who was born in French Indochina in 1919 when her parents went there as school teachers to work for the French government in the colony. The film shows that not all French colonialists lived rich luxurious lives and that not all supported the French taking over the  locals land or forcing them to work for the French.

The mother (Ma) was running a small rice plantation because her husband died a long time ago, with her 19 year old son (Joseph) and 16 year old daughter (Suzanne). They didn’t have a lot of money and the French governor would only let her buy land which gets flooded every year by the typhoons. Her crop got ruined every year but she could do nothing about it because of the “blood-sucking proclivities of colonialism, in the tentacles of which she was hopelessly trapped.”  She was determined to give her children a legacy to live on when she died and when a “rich banana” (yellow on the outside and white on the inside) – Monsieur Jo, showed an interest in her daughter she thought the family could be saved.

The film shows the different lives the wealthy French Colonialists lived and the local Khmer, Vietnamese or Laotions.

The French Colonials drove cars, listened to records on a grammaphone, drank champagne, dressed in suits, washed in bowls, got together for parties and weekends at Clubs and the locals were their servants and workers. The locals lived in poverty and were told what to do by the French Colonials. 

Suzanne knew that if she could save her family if her daughter married Monsieur Jo, and so did her mother and brother. Suzanne seduced Monsieur Jo but when he started taking the locals land to make pepper plantations, Suzanne and her family couldn’t stand it. The French and the rich Monsieur Jo treated the locals like animals. Ma got the locals, who liked her and her determination to fight the French, to build a levee bank to protect her crops from the sea. But Monsieur Jo won by getting the French police to burn the locals’ villages and land. Ma, Suzanne and Joseph thought he was just like the French Colonials who exploited the locals to have power and money. Ma, Suzanne and Joseph were on the side of the locals and even the Viet Minh, the Communist group led by Ho Chi Minh who led the revolt against the French called the First Indochina War.  

At the end, Ma dies, Joseph goes to Saigon and makes money taking French Colonials out to hunt tigers, and Suzanne takes over her mother’s fight to keep her land. The very end of the film shows the same land today which is richly cultivated and is still known as “the white woman’s land”.  

WHY I CHOSE THIS FILM

I chose this film because I lived in Vietnam and know Cambodia and Laos and have always wondered what it was like during the French Colonial rule. Although I watched it with English subtitles, it was great to also understand some of the dialogue in French without having to look at the subtitles, like Bonjour, mange, sieze ans, vingt ans, allez, ça va, la mer, je m’appelle, deux enfants, moi aussi et merde!

CREATE ~ WRITE: Biography Coco Chanel

CREATE ~ WRITE

WRITE A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF A FRENCH PERSON

          COCO CHANEL

COCO CHANEL was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, she was a world famous fashion designer who was called one of the top 100 influential people in the 20^th century by Time Magazine.

She came from nothing and built an empire which changed the way people looked at fashion.

She didn’t want women to dress for men, but wanted women to dress for themselves by feeling free and not being tied up in a corset.

Coco Chanel in 1920s

Coco Chanel didn’t just design hats and clothes but was the first fashion designer to have her own perfume range.  Chanel No 5 is still a very popular perfume and every woman in the western world today probably has a LBD  (a Little Black Dress) which Coco Chanel created 80 years ago.

EARLY LIFE

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel was born in a small village in France in 1883. Her mother died when she was 12 and her father abandoned her and her two sisters. She lived in an orphanage run by nuns until she was 18 years old. She learned to sew there. She then went to a boarding house to work for a seamstress. She also sang in café concerts and she thought she had a career performing but her singing wasn’t good enough. This was when she changed her name to Coco!

THE BEGINNING OF COCO CHANEL – FASHION DESIGNER

Coco met a rich man called Etienne Balsan who she lived with in his mansion. She started making hats there because she believed that she had ideas and was determined to use her creativity. She left Etienne because he was restricting her. She fell in love with his best friend, Boy, and he loved her and encouraged her to be independent and start her own shop. He helped her open her shop in 1910 in Rue Cambon in Paris where she sold hats.

WW1 came and she designed clothes with cheaper fabric. She saw men wearing jersey jumpers and thought, why can’t women wear that? So she started a range of jersey clothing which became very popular.

In 1920 she created Chanel No 5 perfume, and she designed the little black dress. The LBD was meant to be long lasting, affordable and could be worn for many occasions. The LBD changed with the times but the simplicity and statement .

LATER LIFE

Coco Chanel created a fashion empire  which was known around the world. During WW2 and then the Depression she didn’t create a lot, but started again in the 1950s and changed fashion again, especially as there were many men designers she kept focusing on women wearing

                                clothes for women. There are also Chanel bags, accessories and jewellery.

She died lonely at  87 years old but left a legacy and put French fashion designers on the map.

PRETEND ~ PRESENT ~ PERFORM a SONG

PRETEND ~ PRESENT ~ PERFORM

RECORD YOURSELF SINGING A FRENCH SONG

WHO WROTE IT? 

HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU SING THE SONG? 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

Sur le Pont d'Avignon


L'on y danse, l'on y danse


Sur le Pont d'Avignon


L'on y danse tous en rond

On the bridge of Avignon


We all dance there, we all dance there


On the bridge of Avignon


We all dance there in a ring

WHO WROTE IT?

It was written in the 15^th century about dancing on a bridge, which isn’t called Pont d’Avignon but Pont St Benezet. It’s known as the bridge people dance on. In medieval times there were cafes under the bridge where people danced.

The song was composed by Pierre Certon but the melody has been changed. The song was used in 1876 for an operatta.  The bridge is actually too run down to dance on anymore.

HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU SING THE SONG?

I love the idea of dancing freely in a group, people spontaneously dancing and singing together around cafes. I can imagine medieval times in Paris, when lower socio economic people spent the nights in cafes dancing.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

It was the second French song I ever learned (also Frère Jacques). One of my preschool teachers, Mde Sophie, was French. I remember walking over the bridges in Paris and I know I didn’t walk over Pont d’Avignon  and I walked over the bridges to Ile de la Cité including the Pont Neuf which is the oldest bridge in Paris, built in the 1570s. I also had icecreams sitting on the banks of the Seine River looking at Pont Neuf eating une glace du chocolate.