Sample: the first two tracks of an Interview with a French beekeeper. Slow Echoing www.fluentfrench.com Interview with a French beekeeper. Interview conducted by Anne-Sophie Martin. CONTENTS Introduction in English : Track # Echoing will teach you the oral gymnastics of the language; and you can do it in your car. Here s how. Original interview with Magali : Tracks # - 0 Magali has always had a passion for bees, and now she makes her own honey from wild flora in the Vercors mountain range. You ll love her pretty voice and precise pronunciation. Slow-echoing re-reading : Tracks # - 9 This sample will help you get started with the beekeeper interview. If you like it and want to continue with Tracks through 0, you can order the full interview at www.fluentfrench.com Re-reading by native French speakers. With these recordings, even beginners can start echoing right away. These recordings are miracle-workers for those looking to improve their accent! Copyright 0. All rights reserved. If you are a teacher and need group pricing, please contact us. David Tolman, Publisher Toll free (USA) --9-90 dtolman@fluentfrench.com
Interview with a French beekeeper www. fl uen tfr en ch.com Echoing Recordings since 00 Track Introduction to tell you how to use the recordings. If you are a beginner, start with the original interviews (the recordings on tracks through 0) and learn to understand all of the words, which should take about a month. If you want to improve your accent, use the slow-echoing recordings (tracks through 9). We are sure that echoing will quickly become your favorite way of improving your French. Track (Slow echoing version is track ) 9 0 On est ici dans votre miellerie. We are here in your honey house. Ça sent bon la cire et le miel, c est ça? It smells good, the wax and the honey, is that it? Oui, c est l odeur de la miellerie! Yes, that is the smell of the honey house! Alors, je voulais savoir, vous habitez dans So, I wanted to know, you live in le massif du Vercors, on est ici en montagne the Vercors mountain range, we are here in the mountains à quatre cents mètres d altitude et vous amenez at four hundred meters of altitude and you take vos ruches jusqu'à mille deux cents mètres. your hives up to,00 meters (of altitude.) Qu est-ce qui vous a décidé à vivre ici? What is it that persuaded you to live here? Ben, nous avons repris avec mon mari la suite Well, we took over my husband and I the continuation Alors, bonjour Magali! Vous êtes apicultrice. So, hello Magali! You are (a) beekeeper. Merci de m accueillir chez vous. Thank you for welcoming me to your place. Notice the (a) in the English translation. In French, the article is not given when stating a person s profession. Examples: Il est coiffeur. (He is a barber.) Elle est comptable. (She is an accountant.) Je suis entraineur de foot. (I am a soccer coach.) Merci de m accueillir from accueillir quelqu un = to welcome someone; to receive someone. chez vous = to your home, to your place. See other examples using chez on pages,, and 0. On. Depending upon the situation, the French use on to mean one, we, they, people, etc. This is a combination of Ça sent bon (that smells good) and Ça sent la cire et le miel (It smells like wax and honey.) c est ça? = that's it?; that's right? décider quelqu'un à faire quelque chose = to persuade someone to do something. Literally, to decide someone to do something. ben, an informal, spoken version of bien. reprendre = to take back up. reprendre une entreprise = to take over a business after the departure of the previous owner. nous... avec mon mari = we... with my husband. This construction is common in spoken French : first the speaker says nous (we) and then realizes that she needs to tell us who nous is (she and her husband.) la suite. Comes from suivre (to follow.) See an example of par la suite (afterwards, subsequently) on page 0.
Interview with a French beekeeper www. fl uen tfr en ch.com Echoing Recordings since 00 d une exploitation agricole. Ici, nous sommes of a farming operation. Here we are pendant pratiquement un an. Et comme ça, for practically a year. And like that, dans le pays de la noix, c est la noix de Grenoble, et in walnut country, it s the Grenoble walnut, and nous avons pu nous installer : c était en we were able to set ourselves up. That was in l exploitation à laquelle nous avons succédé the farming operation which we took over mil neuf cent quatre-vingt-six. 9. est située à Saint-Jean en Royans. Mais c est une petite is located in Saint-Jean en Royans. But it is a small exploitation et qui n était pas suffisamment grande farm and which was not large enough pour faire vivre une famille. Donc, il fallait développer une to support a family. So, it was necessary to develop an activité complémentaire. Et moi, j ai toujours eu additional activity. And me, I have always had 9 depuis très longtemps la passion des abeilles et for a very long time a passion for bees and 0 tout naturellement, j ai décidé de monter un petit quite naturally, I decided to set up a little atelier d apiculture. J ai donc fait une école d apiculture beekeeping shop. I therefore (took a course at) a beekeeping school une exploitation: a term often used in relation to a small farming, mining, or forestry operation. Do not make the mistake of thinking that noix refers to an indeterminate nut. The different nuts have their own names. Noix = walnut. Noisette = hazelnut. Noix de cajou = cashew nut. Cacahuète = peanut. à laquelle nous avons succédé: literally, to which we succeeded. faire vivre: literally, to make live. il fallait = it was necessary. From falloir (to be necessary). il faut = it is necessary. la passion des abeilles: literally, the passion of bees (the bee bug ). monter = ) to go up; ) to set up; to start; to put up. nous avons pu: literally, we have been able. From pouvoir (to be able). Compare nous pouvons (we are able) to nous pouvions (we were able) and nous avons pu (we have been able; we were able). Because pouvoir is used so often and in so many ways in French, you need to be able to recognize the different forms and understand their meaning. See these pages for different uses of pouvoir:,,,,, and. s installer = to settle; to establish oneself; to set oneself up. Literally, to install oneself. To help you understand the construction used by the speaker, compare it to Il a pu s installer (He was able to set himself up) or the present-tense version Nous pouvons nous installer (We are able to set ourselves up.) See another example on page 9.
Interview with a French beekeeper www. fl uen tfr en ch.com Echoing Recordings since 00 Track (Slow echoing version is track ) un aliment de croissance, mais ça n a rien à voir avec a food for growth, but it has nothing to do with Alors, vous pouvez nous rappeler un petit peu So, you are able to recall for us a little bit 9 le miel, ce n est pas du tout un produit sucré. Par contre, honey, (pollen) is not at all a sweet substance. On the other hand, comment ces abeilles font ce miel, how these bees make this honey, 0 les abeilles récoltent dans les fleurs du nectar qui est bees gather from flowers nectar, which is le B.A.-BA de la fabrication du miel? the basics of the production of honey? un liquide un peu sucré et qu elles élaborent, et qu elles a liquid (that is) a bit sweet and that they develop, and that they Alors, c est vrai que souvent, on croit que les abeilles So, it is true that often, people think that bees travaillent, et qu elles transforment en miel. En fait, refine and that they transform into honey. In fact, font le miel à partir du pollen. Le miel et le pollen, make honey from pollen. Honey and pollen, on ne sait pas, l homme ne sait pas fabriquer fabriquer we do not know, man does not know (how) to produce to produce c est deux choses différentes. Les abeilles récoltent du pollen those are two different things. Bees gather pollen le miel, c est encore un mystère que gardent les abeilles. honey, that is still a mystery that the bees keep. pour nourrir les jeunes abeilles, c est in order to feed the young bees, it is Ça veut dire que vous devez domestiquer, That means that you have to domesticate, apprivoiser les abeilles, c est ça? to tame the bees, is that it? Ben oui, quelque part, hein? En fait, les abeilles que Well, yes, in a way, you know? In fact, the bees that vous pouvez nous rappeler : literally, you are able to recall for us From vous (you) + pouvez (are able to, a form of pouvoir (to be able)) + nous (to us) + rappeler (to recall). Compare rappeler quelque chose à quelqu un (to remind someone of something, literally, to recall something to someone) to the more-often seen se rappeler quelque chose (to remember something, literally, to recall something to oneself). le B.A.-BA: the basics. This comes from one of the first lessons in reading that French children learn : the b sound plus the a sound make the sound ba. à partir de = starting from. deux choses différentes: this is the French way of saying, A and B are two different things; don t confuse the two. récolter = to harvest. La récolte = the harvest. nourrir = to feed. se nourrir = to eat; to feed oneself. la nourriture = food. un aliment = a food; a foodstuff. la croissance = growth. croître = to grow; to develop ça n a rien à voir avec... : literally, that has nothing to see with. This is the French way of saying that the two things are independent and have no tie or relationship between them. Compare sucré (sweet; sweetened) to sucre (sugar). travailler means to work, but you can also travailler a substance or material to get it ready for the next step in whatever you are making. vouloir dire = to mean, literally, to want to say. vouloir = to want. dire = to say. See other examples on pages and. quelque part, literally, somewhere. It is used here as in a way, somewhat.
Interview with a French beekeeper www. fl uen tfr en ch.com Echoing Recordings since 00 9 0 nous avons sont des abeilles bien sûr domestiques. we have are domesticated bees, of course Mais en fait, c est plus nous qui essayons de nous adapter à But in fact, it is more we who are trying to adapt ourselves to leur mode de vie, de leur reconstruire leurs conditions de vie their mode of life, to reconstruct for them their living conditions à l état sauvage. Et en fait, même si c est nous qui in the wild state. And in fact, even if it is we who les apprivoisons, c est elles qui restent maîtresses de leurs tame them, it is they who remain masters of their destinées, et nous, on s adapte. Il y a des années. destinies, and we, we adjust. There are some years. On ne comprend pas toujours le comportement des abeilles We do not always understand the behavior of bees parce que parce qu elles ont gardé le dessus, hein? because because they have kept the upper hand, you know? Je crois que c est aussi un bien. I believe that that is also a good thing. bien sûr = of course. sûr = sure. Tu es sûr? = You are sure? Bien sûr! = Of course! Note that une maîtresse is the feminine form of un maître. Remember that worker bees are female. le dessus = the top. avoir le dessus = to have the upper hand. garder le dessus = to keep control over the situation; to keep the upper hand. un bien: a good thing. un bien can also mean a possession. J ai vendu tous mes biens. = I sold all of my possessions.