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| Mery | Saturday 01st of January 2005 09:08:45 PM |
| Comments about French forum - Bonjour à tous,
Tout d'abord, j'aimerais vous souhaiter une bonne année 2005, en espèrant que celle-ci vous apportera tout ce que vous désirez :) (briefly it means Happy New Year to all of you). Now I'd like to post some questions people often ask me. Then I'll ask you a few questions about what you exactly want in this forum (what kind of lessons, games etc). Please try to read everything ;) First, here's a list of the questions people ask me over and over again. Before contacting me, please check if the answer to your questions isn't written here :) 1) 'hi, I wanna learn French, can u help me?' ==> please try to avoid such messages. It's my job to help you, so of course you'll receive an answer such as 'yes sure, what do you need help with'. Please save your time and mine as well. Tell me more about you, about your level in French and the reasons why you want to learn French. 2) 'I sent you a message but you haven't replied' => I have problems to send messages via Phrasebase. I can only send one message / day. So, if you want to contact me, please use my hotmail address (see my profile). 3) 'Can I add your MSN address or AOL screen name to my contacts?' => sure, I'd be very happy to talk to you when I have time. 4) 'Why are you often busy or absent while you are on MSN?' => simply because I have more than 100 contacts and I don't like talking to more than 3 people at the same time. 5) 'Can I disturb you when you are absent or busy (on MSN)?' => no, busy = busy, absent = absent. If you don't respect that, I might not answer :( 6)'Where are the French lessons?' => there isn't any yet. I'll have to post them at the end of January. While almost everyone on this planet seems to be on holiday, I have to cram for my exams. Lessons will be found in this forum from the 21st of January. 7) 'Do you agree to do a voice Classroom with me?' => if you really need help to pronounce some words etc, sure it's possible to have a voice Classroom with me, but you have to tell me that in advance. 8) 'Can I phone you?' => please, don't waste money on me ;) I'd only accept that kind of invitation if I know the person well. I think I'll stop posting questions here, otherwise it'll take too long. I just want to mention a few things briefly: - Phrasebase isn't a dating website - Please remain polite when you're talking to me (or to other people of course) - Don't write unpleasant comments everywhere - Only write to me if you're motivated to learn French - No, I can't teach English, German, Dutch etc, just French :D Now I have a few questions to ask you ;) 1) Do you want lessons similar to those found in the other forums? Or can you make do with the expressions found in the 'Phrases' section (when you look at the top of the page where it's written 'Phrases'). I still have to complete about half the sentences and add audio files. 2) Do you think we need more games? 3) Can the games help you in your learning or not at all? 4) Do you want me to organize lessons in the Classroomroom? Who would be interested? 5) Do you need some posts about French grammar etc? 6) Do you have general advice to give me to improve this forum? Feel free to express your opinion, either positive or negative. Please don't be too critical lol, I know that the French forum is less developed in comparison with some other forums, but it's not my fault if the previous French Administrator didn't do his job well... Sorry to write so much :) I hope you'll take time to reply to some of my questions. I'll take all your comments into account. Thank you very much and once again Happy New Year to all of you. | |
| Anya | Saturday 01st of January 2005 11:48:26 PM |
| - Mery,
What an excellent summary Post! 1) I will convert what you've posted into a French Specific FAQ and when that is done we will have new students directed there first so that they will better know your preferences in being contacted. (*I will also do this for all of the other languages, so Admins, get ready for emails!) 2) I didn't know there was a PM issue again...it has happened in the past. I have let Jeff know and hopefully you'll be able to use PM's again. For future referece, if there are any issues with messages, please let me know and I will get right on it! 3)-8) These will be added to the FAQ. Very excellent points Mery!! Thank you for your valuable feedback! | |
| Mery | Monday 03rd of January 2005 08:28:40 PM |
| - Hi Ulven and Anya,
Thanks for your quick reply :) Anya, I think I'll add other points to my long list. I've forgotten to mention some elements. I have so many ideas to improve this forum :) but unfortunately I don't have much time now to do all I want to. I'll send you a PM in a few days because I have some requests to submit. I should also email Jeff, I haven't written to him for ages. I also wanted to thank you because thanks to you my PM problems are solved :D Ulven, don't worry you'll get answers to all your questions (including to your other post about the 'er' and 'ier' endings). Briefly (without doing any research), I can tell you that I don't think there are rules to know whether you have to use 'se' in front of a verb or not. You just have to learn those verbs by heart. As far as know, most of the time when a verb is reflexive in French, it is also in English (e.g. = se laver = to wash oneself). Of course, there are exceptions, so I'll try to look for some of them and post them in the forum. 'En', I can give you a few examples in which 'en' is used. => j'en veux (I want some) => il n'en reste plus (there's none left) 'En' can also be used as in 'en soirée' => in the evening => se promener EN forêt = to walk in the forest => être bon EN français = to be good at French etc. 'Ce' => ce matin = this morning => ce Classroom = this cat You can find 'ce' in some expressions such as 'en ce qui concerne' => concerning / as regards 'Le' can either be a definite article: le lapin (the rabbit) or something else. => e.g. = je le vois ( I see him) Concerning the apostrophes, I can give you an easy rule. You use an apostrophe because two vowels can't follow one another in French. => e.g. = le avion * = l'avion (the plane) => je veux que elle parte* = je veux qu'elle parte (I want her to leave) => elle t'a donné son livre (she gave you her book) Sometimes you can also have an apostrophe when a 'h' is preceded by a consonnant. => e.g. => l'homme (the man)(homme is a word from Latin origin) BUT la hâche (the axe)! because 'hâche' is a word from Germanic origin. I can't really tell you when a word is from Latin or Germanic origin. This characteristic is also noticeable in the plural form. => les hommes (you have a liaison between the 's' and the 'h'), in this case the 's' is pronounced as a 'z'. BUT => les hâches (you don't have a liaison, so first you say 'les' and then 'hâches'). I'll give you more complete answers very soon :) Don't hesitate to contact me if you have further questions. | |
| Caramelicious | Tuesday 25th of January 2005 08:19:27 AM |
| - Hey Mery
If you need any help organizing or using anytype of HTML or DHTML Just ask I know about both. The only things I don't know about are. Java Programming and Flash Type Things. Otherwise I can do alot of things. If you would like me to make any type of game for the Forum or anything like that I have some ideas. It might take like a week or two to get everything perfect (as I like verything I do to be perfect.) but I can probably do it. And if I can't I can find out how. :) | |
