Notes from the first meeting on 16 February 2010

One of the reasons I started Café Français was because I wanted to brush up on the French language skills I had picked up during my early academic life. I had studied French since the fourth grade and continued until first year of university. Life moves on and now I have a son in Grade One French Immersion and I'm trying to keep up with him while helping with his homework. Now I find my French skills are very rusty. I thought maybe other parents are facing the same situation as me. Why not start up a meeting where other parents like me can practice our French and learn from/with each other? And Café Français was born...with the help of other parents we pulled this idea into reality. The following are some notes that I put together for the first meeting on 16th of February 2010.
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Welcome/Bienvenue

Thank you for attending the first meeting of Café Français.

-align:justify">The objective is to provide an opportunity for parents of French immersion students to practice their conversational French.

A set topic will be discussed every week. The experience level will be from basic to advanced. The next meeting will be held on March 9^th.

· General rules

o Don’t worry about making mistakes. We all make mistakes sometimes.

o Try to speak mostly in French unless you get stuck, then use English or equivalent.

o Practice

o Be patient with yourself and other participants

· General information

o Free French websites

§ www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca

· Free online lessons but must register, not sure of the exact requirements.

§ www.lingq.com

· Registration is free, lessons are free and online. Consists mostly of recorded conversations with translated transcripts.

§ Babelfish.yahoo.com

· Good, for translation but doesn’t check grammar

§ www.bonjour.com

· Basic, with sound and pronunciations

§ www.cpfchapters.ca/toronto_west/

· Canadian Parents for French (Ontario) formerly FIPA (French Immersion Parents Association)

· Great resource

o French Camps

§ Camp Tournesol

· www.camptournesol.ca

§ Camp Baby Point en Français

· www.experienceauthentique.com

· This week’s topic: Introductions & Greetings

o Objective to introduce oneself and recognize common questions.

Bonjour	Hello/Good morning/Good afternoon
Salut (informal)	Hi
Bonsoir	Good evening
Á bientôt	See you later
Au revoir	Goodbye
Q: Comment ça va? (Ça va?)	How are you? (How is it going?)
A: Ça va bien.	It’s going good.
Très bien.	Very good.
Pas mal	Not bad
Bien, merci. Et vous/toi?	Fine, thanks. And you?
Q : Comment vous appelez-vous? (formal)	What is your name?
Comment t’appelles-tu? (informal)	What is your name?
Quel est ton nom?	What is your name?
A : Je m’appelle …	My name is …
Je vous présente …	I’d like to introduce you to …
Enchanté(e) [m/f]	I’m pleased to meet you.
Parlez-vous anglais?	Do you speak English?
Vous habitez ici?	Do you live here?
Ça vous plaît ici?	Do you like it here?
Ça me plait beaucoup ici.	I love it here.
Formidable!	Great!
Pas de problème.	No problem.
D’accord.	Sure (I agree.)
Peut-être.	Maybe
Pas question	No way!
C’est bien.	It’s OK.
Bien	OK.
Combien d’enfants avez-vous?	How many kids do you have?
J’ai … enfants.	I have … kids.
Vos enfants, en quelle année sont-ils?	What grade are your children?

· Final practice

o Introduce yourself, tell how many children you have and what grade they attend, then present the person to your left.

o Bonsoir, je m’appelle {Jacques}, j’ai {un} enfant(s), et il est en cinquième année. Good evening, my name is Jack, I have one child, and he is in grade five.

· The end/Fin