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Do you have stereotypes of France and French people! You're not the only one, but that doesn't make them true :)

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When you get frustrated learning French, remember that in a lot of ways, it's more "normal" than English! You can do it! Bon courage!

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So what's the deal, yo, with nouns being masculine or feminine and why do I need to know what's what?

In linguistics, grammatical gender is a specific form of noun-class system in which the division of noun classes agree with other aspects of the language, such as adjectives, articles, or verbs. This system is used in approximately one quarter of the world's languages, so it isn't really as weird as it may seem.

It's important to simply MEMORIZE the gender of your vocab as you study each unit. There are a few patterns that help determine whether a word is masculine or feminine (see below), but usually it's just a matter of memorization. After awhile, you'll have "an ear" for it... trust me!

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If you're ever somewhere French speaking, one of the first things you're going to want to do is say hello and introduce yourself.

C'est facile! It's easy!

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In France, friends and acquaintances don't often hug, but instead to greet one another they do la bise. This can be pretty uncomfortable for most américains, since we're not used to having someone right in our personal space to greet us.

Check out these articles to learn more about LA BISE!

http://www.annieandre.com/2013/06/how-to-faire-la-bise-the-french-kiss/

http://blog.francedc.org/get-cheeky/

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LISTEN: It's important to listen carefully in French. class. I know it's tiring to be immersed in a foreign language, but don't tune me out! (At least not for too long..) Keep in mind that it's only 42 minutes and it will get easier!

SPEAK: Don't be afraid to take make a mistake. Your mistakes will help you learn and identify issues with your language acquisition.

EXPAND: It's 2015 and it's SO easy to do something fun and French related outside of class. There is a whole host of French movies (ask me to borrow one or check out Netflix!), songs, cartoons, children's books, magazines, etc. that will help you expand your skills. You'll be amazed how much the "extra" things will help your French. You don't have to know every word!

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Check out these links to songs that help you practice your pronunciation and remember your ABCs and numbers.

L'alphabet- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkFXGlHCn_o

Les numéros- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIUr8omTpCs

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Where in the world is French actually spoken? And what am I supposed to say when people tell me French is useless and I should have taken Spanish? (Disclaimer: Spanish is also a wonderful and useful language! It was my minor at college, and I love when I still have opportunities to use it.)

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Use these flashcards to practice your vocab! If you haven't used Quizlet before, it's a helpful site that's much more than flashcards. You can play games with your vocab, hear it pronounced as you flip through the deck, practice your spelling as you hear the word pronounced, etc. Check it out! The password to access all the sets is WHShornets

Intro vocab: https://quizlet.com/_1hi1eg

#s 1-20: https://quizlet.com/_1cv852

Accent marks: https://quizlet.com/_1cv8lc

Classroom commands: https://quizlet.com/_1cv9gn
Classroom objects: https://quizlet.com/_1cv9qt

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French can be intimidating to learn because the phonetics seem so different than English.

The chart below explains some of the common phonetics combinations in French. This is a really good way to start to "decode" French pronunciation. It's really not difficile!

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Use this powerpoint from class to review "les objets de la classe" vocab.

(Other vocab can be reviewed using the links to the right hand side of this page!)