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Conversational French

Author Message
Spearmint
Joined 27-03-2006
Posted on Monday, 03 April, 2006 - 05:25 pm:   

Does anyone know what happened to the conversational French group which used to meet upstairs at the Hob on Mondays? This was last year (last post 02.06.05) and I think I went the day it disbanded as only one regular attendee turned up and didn't seem to know why no-one else was there. The following week even he didn't turn up!

Did it finish because there was no interest? Would anyone else be interested in setting up a new group? Are there any native French speakers who would be willing to help?

I've been learning French for a while and would like to regularly meet up with other French speakers to keep my 'hand-in' in-between holidays to France. Anyone else interested? If you were one of the people who ran Soiree Francaise (the previous group) do you have any tips or hints?

All thoughts extremely appreciated!
Brian
Joined 18-04-2005
Posted on Tuesday, 04 April, 2006 - 03:54 pm:   

Hi Spearmint
Why worry about a small insignificant language . If you want to learn another tongue would suggest
Spanish , Portugeese , Arabic , Hindi , Mandarain or even Russian.
Calvin
Joined 20-02-2006
Posted on Tuesday, 04 April, 2006 - 06:01 pm:   

Sounds interesting. I definitely would be interested in joining a group, although I'm afraid my French is not good enough to contribute much. I hope there are some responses from native speakers.
Andyredfern
Joined 05-04-2006
Posted on Thursday, 06 April, 2006 - 09:47 am:   

I would also be interested in a local conversation group, both in French and Spanish. I do actually have a degree in French, Spanish and Swedish, but time (nine years since graduation) and other factors (living in Scandinavia for three years) have seen my French and Spanish deteriorate alarmingly.
Brian
Joined 18-04-2005
Posted on Thursday, 06 April, 2006 - 12:48 pm:   

Ah but how is your Norwegian
Andyredfern
Joined 05-04-2006
Posted on Thursday, 06 April, 2006 - 02:24 pm:   

Jeg snakker ikke så mye norsk, men jeg skjønner nesten alt.

(Sorry if I've offended any Norwegians there.)
Alij
Joined 19-04-2006
Posted on Thursday, 20 April, 2006 - 09:13 am:   

I'd be very interested in joining a French conversation group, and would happily assist with organising something. I too have a degree but never use my French, so any chance to brush up would be most welcome. Anyone else up for it?
Spearmint
Joined 27-03-2006
Posted on Thursday, 20 April, 2006 - 01:14 pm:   

Excellent! Well, that makes three of us now but none of us native speakers. Shall we wait a little longer to see if anyone else joins in?
Alij
Joined 19-04-2006
Posted on Thursday, 20 April, 2006 - 02:26 pm:   

Yes - let's give it a few days to see who else joins in. Looks like there could be 4 of us so far - me, you, Andy and Calvin (providing there are some native speakers). We need natives to correct us or we could end all speaking the same poor version of Franglais! Amusing but not very useful. I'm off to Nice in May and need some practice.
Theotherbrian
Joined 28-03-2005
Posted on Thursday, 20 April, 2006 - 06:09 pm:   

Ik denk dat Brian niet zeer nuttig of constructief is! Veel geluk met je franse groep.
Anyone fancy conversational Dutch? This is not a flippant remark either. I'm being serious.
Andyredfern
Joined 05-04-2006
Posted on Monday, 24 April, 2006 - 01:42 pm:   

Thing is, what would the native speakers get out of it? You're unlikely to attract any native speaker without payment of some kind (in beer or hard currency). I taught English as a foreign language for three years but would not have been tempted along to a pub to listen to people murdering my language. Not in my free time, at any rate.

I am completely willing to attend any local group, and even prepare some kind of informal material (articles for discussion etc.) Any such material could be sent beforehand via the miracle of the Internet. Suggest topic for first meeting: "Surrealism and existentialism in Johnny Halliday lyrics".

Theotherbrian - I suspect any interest in a Nederlands group would be limited, to say the least, and most of the Dutch I know is not suitable for a family forum. However, I do know of one such group in central London:

http://dutch.meetup.com/5/?gj=sj10

The French equivalent:

http://french.meetup.com/32/?gj=sj6
Spearmint
Joined 27-03-2006
Posted on Monday, 24 April, 2006 - 04:52 pm:   

Andyredfern - payment would be a point for negotiation if there was interest but, as you say, what WOULD a native speaker get out of it?? And many thanks for the link. Most constructive! As an aside, I think my original question of why the original conversational French group disbanded has now been answered (sigh).
Andyredfern
Joined 05-04-2006
Posted on Monday, 24 April, 2006 - 05:06 pm:   

Spearmint - what you, or I, or anyone else could do would be to set up a "South East London" (or whatever) group on meetup.com and see what the response would be.

Just a (possibly misguided) thought.
Theotherbrian
Joined 28-03-2005
Posted on Monday, 24 April, 2006 - 09:25 pm:   

Hoi Andy,
Dank u wel - heel interessant en nuttig!
Although you do have a point about people volunteering to sit and listen to their languages being murdered and all out of the goodness of their hearts. Still it is good that people want to learn and use another language rather than speaking LOUDLY and S-L-O-W-L-Y.
Spearmint
Joined 27-03-2006
Posted on Tuesday, 25 April, 2006 - 03:22 pm:   

Andy - anything is worth a try.
Alij
Joined 19-04-2006
Posted on Tuesday, 25 April, 2006 - 05:05 pm:   

Thanks to Andyredfern's link, I've decided to join the central London meetUp French speaking group. I'm joining them this Thursday in a bar in Clerkenwell. It sounds popular. There are native speakers as well as plenty of others who have different levels of knowledge of the language, so there must be some reason for native speakers to go along (I'll find out why on Thurs!)Although I'm not up for actually organising an SE Meet-Up, I would come along if someone else did (aren't I nice!) Thanks again Andy, and Spearmint, for getting me motivated.


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