Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Introduction
Virginie: Bonjour tout le monde!
Eric: Bonjour! Eric here. The Proper Way To Do Business in France.
Virginie: Hi, this is Virginie here. Hi Eric, how are you today?
Eric: I am very good. So what are we going to be looking at in this lesson?
Virginie: In this lesson, you will learn to describe someone and how things look, too.
Eric: It looks like Joe is going to be meeting an old colleague.
Virginie: The conversation takes place in the business office in Chanel in the morning.
Eric: Now, okay let’s have a listen.
Dialogue
Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel.
Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h.
Réceptionniste : Votre nom ?
Joe: Joe McFly.
Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly.
(elevator music)
Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici.
Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail !
Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis.
Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ?
Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi.
Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ?
Joe : Oui.
Eric: One more time, a little more slowly.
Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement.
Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel.
Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h.
Réceptionniste : Votre nom ?
Joe: Joe McFly.
Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly.
(elevator music)
Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici.
Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail !
Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis.
Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ?
Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi.
Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ?
Joe : Oui.
Eric: One more time, with the translation.
Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction.
Réceptionniste : Bonjour, et bienvenue chez Chanel.
Eric: Good morning, and welcome to Chanel.
Joe: Bonjour, j'ai rendez-vous avec Madame Fonta à 9h.
Eric: Hello, I have an appointment with Mrs. Fonta at nine o'clock in the morning.
Réceptionniste : Votre nom ?
Eric: Your name?
Joe: Joe McFly.
Eric: Joe McFly.
Réceptionniste: Un instant, Monsieur McFly.
Eric: Just a moment, Mr. McFly.
(elevator music)
Eric(elevator music)
Réceptionniste : M. McFly, merci d'avoir patienté. Par ici.
Eric: Mr. McFly, thank you for waiting. This way.
Directrice : M. McFly, ça fait un bail!
Eric: Mr. McFly, it's been a while!
Joe : Oui, ça fait longtemps. Trop longtemps ! Voici un petit quelque chose des Etats-Unis.
Eric: Yes, it's been a while. Too long! Here's a little something from the United States.
Directrice : Merci, vous n'auriez pas dû. Vous avez l'air en forme ! Comment ça va ?
Eric: Thank you, you shouldn't have. You look great! How are you?
Joe : Ça va bien. Et vous ? Vous avez l'air en forme aussi.
Eric: I'm fine. And you? You also look good.
Directrice: Je vais très bien. Beaucoup de travail, mais ça va. Aujourd'hui c'est chargé. Très chargé. Vous êtes prêt ?
Eric: I'm very good. A lot of work, but good. Today is busy. Very busy. Are you ready?
Joe : Oui.
Eric: Yes.
Post Conversation Banter
Eric: Well, so it looks like Chanel is a pretty big company obviously.
Virginie: It is a big company and I think Joe is going to be very stressed out. He has a very, very busy schedule, yes.
Eric: So Joe is obviously some kind of high powered executive I guess.
Virginie: He is a marketing consultant.
Eric: Wow!
Virginie: Actually and he works for Chanel.
Eric: So what is the work life like in France is compared to the US?
Virginie: Well, it seems that people tend to work less than in the US and French people have this reputation of, you know, not working a lot but they are very productive.
Eric: So the French work week is typically 35 hours a week but obviously for people who are management or a lot of other jobs, it goes way beyond that.
Virginie: Yeah definitely.
Eric: But 35 hours is still pretty nice.
Virginie: It is pretty nice and also usually people get five-week vacation per year in France.
Eric: Wow, that’s great.
Virginie: Yeah that’s the minimum they get.
Eric: I remember I once met somebody who is a gendarme, a French policeman, and he told me he got eight weeks of vacation a year.
Virginie: That’s true, yeah, public jobs are really, really good in terms of vacation.
Eric: Wow! He was telling me it was a difficult challenge to take all his vacation time.
Virginie: Yeah, that’s the challenge in France. Yeah, managing your vacation and yeah, if you work in a library for instance, in public library, you get 13 weeks.
Eric: 13 weeks off?
Virginie: Yes. Yeah, that’s really, really nice.
Eric: Why do librarians have it so good?
Virginie: I don’t know. We should ask them. I am not a librarian but they are lucky. That’s for sure. Okay, why don’t we look at the vocabulary?
Vocabulary and Phrases
Eric: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
: The first word we shall see is:
Virginie: un rendez-vous [natural native speed]
Eric: a date, an appointment
Virginie: un rendez-vous [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: un rendez-vous [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: avec [natural native speed]
Eric: with
Virginie: avec [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: avec [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: un instant [natural native speed]
Eric: a moment, an instant
Virginie: un instant [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: un instant [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: patienter [natural native speed]
Eric: to wait
Virginie: patienter [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: patienter [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: longtemps [natural native speed]
Eric: long
Virginie: longtemps [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: longtemps [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: quelque chose [natural native speed]
Eric: something
Virginie: quelque chose [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: quelque chose [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: Les États-Unis [natural native speed]
Eric: The United States
Virginie: Les États-Unis [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: Les États-Unis [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: bien [natural native speed]
Eric: well, good
Virginie: bien [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: bien [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: beaucoup de travail [natural native speed]
Eric: lots of work
Virginie: beaucoup de travail [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: beaucoup de travail [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: chargé(e) [natural native speed]
Eric: busy, in charge
Virginie: chargé(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: chargé(e) [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: un jour [natural native speed]
Eric: a day
Virginie: un jour [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: un jour [natural native speed]: Next:
Virginie: par ici [natural native speed]
Eric: over here
Virginie: par ici [slowly - broken down by syllable]
Virginie: par ici [natural native speed]
Vocabulary and Phrase Usage
Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Virginie: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is....
Virginie: Alright I would like to start with the end of the dialogue, actually.
Eric: Sure.
Virginie: Yes, after they exchanged greetings, etc, Madame Fonta asks "vous etes prets"
Eric: And that means "are you ready? or ready?
Virginie: You probably recognized vous etes
Eric: The formal "you are"
Virginie: And then pret is ready.
Eric: but if I ask Virginie if she's ready it will be slightly different, because she's a girl.
Virginie: Yes, pret is an adjective, so it agrees to the gender
Eric: It will be "virginie, tu es prete?
Virginie: OOui, je suis prete. Also note that Eric used the informal you, "tu"
Eric: Because Virginie is my friend.
Virginie: Let's take a look at Un rendez-vous.
Eric: ah this one is interesting because usually people think it only means a date
Virginie: Yes like a romantic date. Well, no! I mean, it means a date in certain contexts.
Eric: But rendez-vous can also mean an appointment
Virginie: Eh oui! For example, j'ai rendez-vous chez le dentiste
Eric: I have an appointment at the dentist's
Virginie: Or you can use it when you meet a friend, j'ai rendez-vous avec Dominique
Eric: I am meeting Dominique
Virginie: But if you say, by itsself "j'ai un rendez-vous cesoir" it sounds like it's date.
Eric: So, in the end, when you use the article "un" ibefore rendez-vous that means a date.
Virginie: Oui, and if you use it without the article "j'ai rendez-vous avec" I am meeting with
Eric: OK. Good to know.
Virginie: OK one last word maybe? which one would you pick
Eric: There are so many words here...let's talk about the phrase in our dialogue "ca fait longtemps"
Virginie: Oh yes it can be very useful. what does ca fait longtemps mean Eric?
Eric: It means "it's been a while/a long time
Virginie: Let's break it down - ca is it and then fait is makes and finally longtemps is "long"
Eric: Long or a long time
Virginie: Oui. Ca fait longtemps.
Eric: So if you haven't seen a french person in a long time, just say "ca fait longtemps. A word on "ca fait un bail"
Virginie: Oui. C'est tres bien. Very good. Let's do some grammar

Lesson focus

Virginie: The focus of this lesson is describing a person's appearance with avoir láir and the adverb très Je vais très bien."I'm very well."
Eric: So let's start with avoir l'air
Virginie: That's the infinitive of the verb avoir (to have) + l'air (spell)
Eric: That means, to look, to seem
Virginie: But also to sound
Eric: In our dialog Madame Fonta says "vous avez l'air en forme!
Virginie: If we break it down we have the expression avoir l'air conjugated with vous, "vous avez l'air
Eric: And then we have "en forme", which means great or good, when talking about a person
Virginie: Yes. Literally "en forme" means "in shape" .Vous avez l'air en forme.
Eric: Virginie tu as l'air en forme.
Virginie: Merci eric. Je vais bien.
Eric: Virginie just said "I am well
Virginie: And to do so, I used the verb aller, I said je vais literally "I go"
Eric: And then the adverb "bien", which means well.
virginie: But...there are plenty of ways to say you are well. Madame Fonta uses one of them in our dialogue
Eric: Yes she says "je vais tres bien"
Virginie: I am very well. She added the little adverb tres
Eric: And that's "very". Tres bien is very well.
Virginie: Let's see how Joe says he's doing well now.
Eric: He says, "ca va bien"
Virginie: Literally "it goes well"
Eric: Ca , "it", then "va" goes, and finally "bien", well.
Virginie: Let's have a quick recap here - Je vais bien
Eric: I qm well
Virginie: Je vais tres bien
Eric: I am very well
Virginie: And...ca va bien.
Eric: It goes well
Virginie: Woo. That's a lot of ways to say you're well.
Eric: OK now let's go back to avoir l'air, I have the feeling we're not done with it
Virginie: Yes. We're going to give you other examples of how you can use the expression "avoir l'air"
Eric: We already saw vous avez l'air/tu as l'air meaning "you look"
Virginie: Now in another context. Let's imagine a friend tells you about a movie.
Eric: ANd this movie sounds great.
virginie: You will then tell your friend" the movie sounds good"
Eric: Le film a l'air bien.
Virginie: same thing than previously. Le film is your subject
Eric: And that's the movie
Virginie: then you conjugate avoir l'air. Le film a - l'air
Eric: And finally you have the adverb "bien", good.
Virginie: again, le film a l'air bien
Eric: “The movie seems good.”
Virginie: So avoir l'air works for people and for things.

Outro

Eric: Ok, I think that about does it for now.
Virginie: Thank you for listening! Merci !
Eric: A bientôt
Virginie: A bientôt, au revoir.

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