Can you please explain the Gérard Depardieu news?

Hello, welcome to the first French video of the year.

I wish you a wonderful 2024 and hope that among your good resolutions, you have decided to continue progressing in French with me.

I wanted to get the year off to a good start with a little video chat between you and me.

So I suggested you ask me some questions on YouTube and Instagram, and I'm going to answer them today.

These questions are also an opportunity to learn new vocabulary. So, as usual, you can download the free vocabulary sheet that includes all the main words in this video by clicking on the link in the video description.

I wanted to apologize to you because I'm not feeling very well today. I'm a bit sick with a very sore throat, so if I stammer or cough, I hope you'll excuse me.

Before I begin, I would also like to thank you for the year 2023 we have spent together.

Thank you so much for all your comments, for all your really nice messages.

I know I'm very lucky.

This year, hundreds of you have also taken my online courses.

Thank you very much, and thank you to all those with whom I've had the chance to exchange views on video.

It's always extremely rewarding to accompany you, to see you progress in French conversation. Really, thank you so much for choosing me.

Here we go!

We'll start right away with your questions.

What kind of videos would you like to make but haven't had the chance yet?

So that's a good question, and one that's sure to interest you too, because these are videos you'll be able to watch.

I've only done a few vlogs on my channel and they were mainly vlogs that allowed you to come with me to a region of France.

So I did it in Provence.

I did it in Marseille specifically, and it's true that these videos take up a lot of time, but I'd love to do more of them, because I think they're interesting for you, both in terms of vocabulary, but also allowing you to discover a little more, to learn a little more about French culture.

So soon, in March, I'll be going to Strasbourg for a few days, and I really think I'll be filming, so it'll be interesting for you too to discover some words that are perhaps particular to Alsace, to this region of France, and also some culinary specialities, because there are a few.

So if I had to answer that question, I'd say this. I'd like to have the opportunity to make vlogs, but vlogs in different regions of France so that you too can discover them, and see just how rich French heritage really is.

What are your plans for next year? So for this year.

At the end of 2023, we worked hard with Mathieu on a new project, in line with what we've been doing for the past few months and even years.

We're releasing it now, so maybe it'll interest you. Let me tell you a little about it. Up until now, we've essentially been offering online courses and conversation classes that anyone could take, but which were aimed more at private individuals.

Mathieu and I came up with a new offer, a new service for companies. It's a French language course subscription service that companies can take out for their employees.

So for you, if you work in a company.

I don't know if this is the case in the company where you work, but it's becoming increasingly common for companies to offer their employees other benefits in addition to salary, such as sports classes. In France, it may be English lessons.

In the startup where we used to work, with Mathieu for example, there were boxing and yoga classes at lunchtime that we could take and which were free.

It's with this same logic in mind that we've imagined French courses that companies could offer their employees.

For companies, it can be interesting because they can deduct expenses and it also enables them to retain their employees, so that they want to stay because they have other advantages.

But what is this subscription we've created?

Well, it's unlimited French conversation classes, you heard right.

This means that at lunchtime, for example, when you take your break, you can reserve half an hour or 1 hour of conversation in French with a French speaker, with a French teacher to exchange ideas.

Of course, this subscription also includes unlimited access to all my online courses. If you'd like to take advantage of this, and you know that your company might be open to creating benefits such as French courses for its employees, please don't hesitate to put me in touch with your company's human resources department or works council, for example, so that we can explain this offer to them in detail.

To do this, you can click on the link, the form I've put in the description. That way, you can contact me easily.

If you're a business owner and would like to offer French language courses to your employees, you can also contact me.

So I've included the contact form in the description, as well as a link to all the information on this offer for businesses.

So next question. Is journalism a passion for you?

I think you're very capable and talented for this too.

Thank you, that's very kind.

So if you've been following me for a while, you might know... I think I've said it before, I studied journalism and worked as a journalist for two years.

It's true that I don't work in this sector anymore, but I'm still really passionate about current events and news in general in the different sectors.

I'm a pretty curious person by nature, so it's true that I always like to watch documentaries, news reports and really follow current affairs in general.

In fact, as you saw a few months ago this year, I launched the "Learn French with News" formats, which you really seem to like.

And for me, it's also an opportunity to reconnect, as we say in French, with my passion for journalism, because I'm explaining current events to you.

And by the way, the next question is related: are you planning to continue the "Learn French News" series?

So of course yes, really, these are my favorite videos to make along with the conversation videos.

Because even for me, it allows me to learn new things and once again to keep up with current events.

Like last year, I'm going to try to do at least one a month, because as you can imagine, it takes up a lot of time.

There's a lot of vocabulary. The index cards are quite substantial, but of course I have no intention of stopping.

Next question still related to that.

Can you please explain the Gérard Depardieu news?

Stp in French means "please", it's the abbreviation.

And if you want to write more formally, you can put please.

So yes, and that's the theme of the next video, so I'm sure you've heard about it at home.

It's the hot topic in France at the moment, and it's getting a lot of media coverage.

This is the case of actor Gérard Depardieu, who is accused of rape and sexual assault. It's quite long, so I'm going to devote the next video, next week's Learn French News, to the Gérard Depardieu case.

So, next question, which I found very interesting.

When a foreigner speaks French, can you tell from the accent what their mother tongue is?

So sometimes yes, sometimes no. It all depends on what your mother tongue is. It can also be a matter of habit.

For example, I speak with a lot of Americans and it's true that now I recognize the little American accent more easily when you speak in French.

The same goes for the German accent. I think you can hear it quite well, or an Italian accent. Or the Hispanic accent, but that's not always the case when I'm talking to you in conversation classes.

I say to myself "ah, I think this person is from such and such a country or has such and such a mother tongue".

And sometimes I'm wrong, but sometimes I'm right too.

It depends a little.

It's also a question of habit, but like you, for example, very often, if you hear a French person speaking English, you'll immediately think ah c'est sûr, he's French.

But that's not always the case either, there are too many words to memorize, but I just can't do it. Is there any way I can memorize vocabulary and expressions once and for all? It's a pain.

So I understand you completely. Sure, it's a pain. There are so many words in French and so many exceptions, but unfortunately it's hard to memorize everything once and for all.

On the other hand, there are things you can put in place, that you can all put in place to memorize vocabulary over the long term.

Repetition is really something that's very important when you see videos you like with themes you like, so don't hesitate to watch them several times, but not several times in a row, really several times with a certain distance, so that the words enter your brain naturally.

The more they come in naturally, the more you'll learn them in context.

Really, I tell you, don't study lists and lists of vocabulary.

You'll feel like you know a lot of words at a given moment in time, but over the long term, you'll forget them.

You really need to learn them in sentences or situations that make sense, because that will really help you remember them.

I'm sure you've already noticed that when you learn a new word, for example in a series, you'll already understand it better, even if you didn't know it before, thanks to the context, thanks to the other words you already know, and above all when you review this word, you'll think back to this sequence, this moment in the series.

So obviously, it's impossible to learn everything at once.

But really, try to do this repetition mechanism where you actually watch programs, maybe TV programs on a specific theme, where you'll have the same type of vocabulary coming back frequently, that will really help you assimilate it and retain it forever.

You can also do it with my videos, which you may enjoy.

For example, the "Learn French with News" videos.

Feel free to watch them once, then a second time a week later, then again two weeks later, until you really understand everything, as if it were in your own language.

So a question that's really related to YouTube how did you get started? Was it difficult?

So for those of you who have been following me for a long time, I started with podcasts on current affairs.

I would do a press review where I would explain in a podcast the five news items of the week and then explain the vocabulary.

So that was before YouTube. There may be a few of you who remember. Jose L, if you watch the video, maybe you remember. I know you've been here a long time. In fact, I'd like to say hello.

So that's how I started, because it can be a bit difficult at first to expose yourself, to show your face on YouTube or on social networks.

But very quickly, I launched my first video on YouTube and is it difficult?

Yes, in the beginning it's very difficult because you post videos and they're seen by 30 people, 50 people.

So you still have to be resilient, motivated to keep posting and accept that in the beginning you have to make content that probably nobody will see.

But hard work pays off, and so does resilience.

And today I'm very proud because there are quite a few of us on this channel and I'm glad that my work helps you and that... And I'm glad I persevered.

So more questions about me.

So I was asked, how old are you?

So I'm 32.

Where will you be spending the year?

In Paris. Mathieu and I had made a video. We were talking about our dream of moving to the South of France and we were hesitating between Marseille and Aix en Provence.

But for now, we've decided that for maybe the next two years, we're going to stay here in Paris.

Because it's true that it's quite central to our families.

It's easy for me to go to Belgium to see my family, and it's just as easy to go to the South to see Mathieu's family.

So, for a few more years, we're going to take it easy and stay in the Paris region.

But maybe things can change, because it's true that sometimes with Mathieu, we can make decisions on the spur of the moment. But this year, in principle, we should stay in Paris.

Somewhat related.

What do you miss most about Belgium?

So my answer will sound strange to a lot of people, because I know we're obviously talking about French gastronomy, but apart from my family and friends who miss me enormously, I still manage to exchange a lot with them.

We send each other lots of voicemails and messages, we call each other, it's pretty simple. But what I miss most in my daily life is food.

And in supermarkets too, there are a lot of things, products that I could easily find in Belgium, but which are harder to find in France or even simply not sold.

It's true that the food, well, every time I go back to Belgium, I give myself a real treat, as they say.

I always eat a lot when I'm in Belgium.

French fries, lots of them. Pastries, too.

I prefer... Maybe it's a question of habit, but I prefer Belgian pastries, so I'd still say the food, even though I think some French people will... Won't like that answer much.

That's it, I've tried to answer as many questions as possible without making this video too long either, because I don't want to knock you out at the start of the year.

Of course, you can also download the free vocabulary card to review all the words in this video.

And don't forget if your company is open to offering benefits to its employees, such as French lessons, you can contact me by email or fill in the form in the description to send me the contact details of your company's works council or the person in charge of human resources.

See you next week. As I said, it will be a "Learn French News" video on the Gérard Depardieu affair.

See you soon.