The topics we have studied this year in the French Intermediate group have included: talking about ourselves and our hobbies, families and activities, where we live, asking the way and giving directions, shopping, eating and cooking, travelling and visiting places, finding and describing accommodation, and expressing opinions on different lifestyles.

During lockdown periods we continued group sessions on Zoom and were fortunate in having contributions from a French friend who brought many interesting topics such as the restoration of Notre Dame, updated us on the pandemic situation in France and corrected our vocabulary. We practised conversations in pairs and wrote short passages to share with the group.

We have used text books such as “French Experience 2”, listening to CD and watching videos on Youtube, and “La Grammaire en Clair” for grammar exercises. We are now beginning to read passages from a novel “La Gloire de mon Père” by Marcel Pagnol which is quite challenging and introduces more literary expressions and the use of the past historic tense.

As we have now finished "French Experience 2" I hope to introduce more general interest texts from websites, newspapers and magazines. Grammar exercises will be taken from various text books and sent by email and printed copies will also be available. For those who can access it the BBC Bitesize website will be useful and YouTube videos for listening comprehension. As there is no wi-fi at the venue these will depend on members being able to access them at home. We will discuss how this can work for everybody at the beginning of term. Conversation in pairs and small groups will also be encouraged.

We meet in the Beechill room at St James’ Church, Norton, which is very light and pleasant with excellent facilities and has room for up to 20 people so I hope to welcome new people in the next session as well as some familiar faces.

Bonnes vacances et à bientôt!

Hilary Wallace