Improve your French listening comprehension with this quiz and clip from the Inner French podcast. It’s 39 words in 20 seconds. How many can you follow?
This clip is from the Inner French podcast Episode 001. Listen and fill in what you hear below. Read more and find a translation below. Find the full podcast here.
Press play and take the transcription quiz to practice your French listening comprehension.
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The above audio sample and transcription is from the Inner French podcast episode 001. We do not own the content. Listen to the entire episode here.
Of course
I love this passage, it seems my thinking about my own language learning lines up with a tenured professor at a big school. Of course, that doesn’t mean anything. 1) There’s no new ideas, am I right? And 2) maybe I got this from teachers who got it from him first. I won’t toot my own horn, after all, everything can be traced back to something else, even this website.
I do have to say, watching my daughter learn to speak and now speaking two languages has helped cement my views on learning a language. But it hasn’t changed them. Even in the past, if someone asked me how I learned Chinese, or how they can learn English, my answer was always “stop worrying about making mistakes and open your mouth”. That’s what my daughter is doing.
Now, this site doesn’t give you many opportunities to open your mouth, unless your mimicing and mirroring what each clip has. I hope you’re finding opportunities to speak! This site is all about getting to a point where I can understand French in the wild, French in real life. Something that always blows my mind when I’m in France.
What’s opening up for you in this clip? I’m open to any and all feedback, as always. Let me know.
The snippet in English
Find a translation of this snippet here, how much of this did you hear?
Ça, évidemment, ça ne fonctionne pas très bien. Donc, pour résumer cette première hypothèse, Stephen Krashen dit qu’il faut apprendre une langue de façon plus naturelle, un peu de la même façon dont les enfants apprennent leur langue maternelle.
That, of course, doesn’t work very well. So, to summarize this first hypothesis, Stephen Krashen says that we need to learn a language in a more natural way, much in the same way that children learn their mother tongue.
The above translation from Deepl. Source
What does “évidemment” mean?
“Évidemment” is a French word that means “obviously” or “clearly.” It is an adverb used to emphasize that something is self-evident, evident, or known to everyone. Here are some examples of “évidemment” in use:
- Évidemment, il pleuvait quand je suis sorti de la maison. (Obviously, it was raining when I left the house.)
- Évidemment, j’ai oublié mon portefeuille à la maison. (Clearly, I forgot my wallet at home.)
- Évidemment, le chien aboie quand il voit des étrangers. (It’s obvious that the dog barks when he sees strangers.)
In spoken French, “évidemment” can also be used as a filler word to indicate agreement or affirmation, similar to the English word “of course.” For example, someone might say “Évidemment, je suis d’accord avec toi” to mean “Of course, I agree with you.”
What does “ça ne fonctionne pas très bien” mean?
“Ça ne fonctionne pas très bien” is a French phrase that means “it doesn’t work very well” in English. It is a common expression used to describe something that is not operating properly or efficiently. Here are some examples of “ça ne fonctionne pas très bien” in use:
- J’ai essayé d’imprimer ce document, mais mon imprimante ne fonctionne pas très bien. (I tried to print this document, but my printer isn’t working very well.)
- Mon ordinateur portable ralentit beaucoup, ça ne fonctionne pas très bien en ce moment. (My laptop is very slow, it’s not working very well right now.)
- La connexion internet dans cette zone n’est pas très bonne, ça ne fonctionne pas très bien. (The internet connection in this area is not very good, it’s not working very well.)
Overall, “ça ne fonctionne pas très bien” is a useful phrase to indicate that something is not functioning optimally, and it can be used in a variety of contexts.
What about the verb “résumer”?
“Résumer” is a French verb that means “to summarize” in English. It is used to describe the act of presenting the main points or ideas of a longer text, speech, or discussion in a concise and condensed form. “Résumer” is a regular verb and belongs to the first group of French verbs, meaning it follows the regular -ER verb conjugation pattern.
“Résumer” is not a false friend in the sense that its meaning in French is very similar to its English equivalent “to summarize”. However, it’s important to note that the spelling and pronunciation of the word differ from the English word “resume,” which means “a brief account of a person’s education, qualifications, and previous experience,” in French “CV” or “curriculum vitae”.
Here are some examples of “résumer” in use:
- Pouvez-vous résumer les conclusions de cette étude ? (Can you summarize the findings of this study?)
- J’ai résumé le livre en une page. (I summarized the book in one page.)
- Pourriez-vous résumer brièvement votre projet ? (Could you briefly summarize your project?)
Overall, “résumer” is a useful verb for both formal and informal communication, and can be used in various contexts, such as academic writing, business presentations, or casual conversations.
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