U3A - CONVERSATIONAL FRENCH

We meet at Birdwell Community Centre, Rockingham Street (S70 5TQ) on alternate Wednesday afternoons from 2.00-4.00 pm. The calendar in The Buzz will inform you of our dates. We have a coffee/tea break during the afternoon for which we bring our own mugs or cups.

Our emphasis is on speaking the language but we do also follow a text book for adults called Breakthrough 3 (this was published by Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-1-4039-1676-1) which members buy themselves. This book helps us with grammar and builds progression into our language experience. It also provides us with dialogues which we practice in pairs and the CDs help with pronunciation. As we have been meeting for some years now the group is not a group for beginners and some experience of speaking the language is important (either formal language qualifications such as a GCSE or having lived or taken holidays and spoken French with native speakers), even if your experience was well in the past. It is useful to have a French/English dictionary a notebook, pen or pencil and a folder for hand outs.

In each session we may have French jokes, discussions often on current issues (in France and for the Third Age), poems, songs - both traditional and those by famous singers, recipes articles about French traditions, festivals, places of interest and French history. We also play games such as Le Pendu (Hangman), Guess Who? Scrabble, Snatch, Happy Families, Bingo, 5 Second Rule, other number games, dice games and Des Chiffres et Des Lettres (Countdown).

The idea is to make our language learning fun; but it is also a useful way to exercise the brain and to enjoy the company of the group.- We are currently accepting new members.