LESSON NOTES

Lower Intermediate S2 #6
Where to Learn About Foreign
Cultures in France

CONTENTS
2 French
2 English
2 Vocabulary
3 Sample Sentences
3 Vocabulary Phrase Usage
4 Grammar
6 Cultural Insight

# 6
COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 FRENCH

1. Vincent : Le nouveau centre multiculturel qui a ouvert à Paris cette semaine

propose de nombreuses brochures bilingues à disposition des
visiteurs.
Le Centre publie une revue bimensuelle sur les différentes cultures
présentes en France.
Cette revue est trilingue, français, anglais, et une autre langue -
arabe, allemand, espagnol, italien- qui change à chaque parution.
La couverture unicolore (verte) est très visible.
Voilà une occasion d’en apprendre plus sur la France et l’Europe !

ENGLISH

1. Vincent: The new multilingual center, which opened in Paris this week,
provides a lot of different free bilingual brochures for public use.
This center publishes a bi-monthly journal about the different
cultures in France.
This journal is trilingual, with French, English, and another
language—Arabic, German, Spanish, or Italian—that changes for
every new publication.
The plain green cover is quite obvious.
Here is a great way to learn more about France and Europe!

VOCABULARY

Fr e nc h English C lass Ge nde r

couverture cover noun feminine

brochure pamphlet, brochure noun feminine

à disposition de for public use expression NA

centre center noun masculine

bilingue bilingual adjective NA

trilingue trilingual adjective NA

bimensuel bi-monthly adjective NA

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #6 - WHERE T O LEARN ABOUT FOREI GN CULT URES I N FRANCE 2
 unicolore plain adjective NA

parution publication noun feminine

SAMPLE SENTENCES

La couver t ur e de ce r oman est Le musée pr opose des br ochur es à

biz ar r e. disposit ion du public.

"T he cover of this novel is strange." "T he museum gives free brochures
for public use."

Le musée pr opose des br ochur es à Au 19 ième siècle, Par is ét ait un

disposit ion du public. cent r e impor t ant de
commer ce.
"T he museum gives free brochures
for public use." "In the 19th century, Paris was an
important trade center."

Apr ès un an en Anglet er r e, elle est De nombr euses r evues scient ifiques

devenue bilingue. sont t r ilingues.

"After one year in Britain, she's "Many scientific journals are

become bilingual." trilingual."

Ce magaz ine est bimensuel. Il ne por t e que des vêt ement s

unicolor es.
"T his magazine is a bi-monthly
magazine." "He only wears plain clothes."

La par ut ion du magaz ine se fait t ous les mois.

"T he magazine is published every month."

VOCABULARY PHRASE USAGE

A disposition de

In this lesson, a disposition de means "for public use" because it's a cultural center. This
expression means something is available but not necessarily free. That must be written or
said.

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #6 - WHERE T O LEARN ABOUT FOREI GN CULT URES I N FRANCE 3
For example:

1. Lors de l'embauche, une voiture et un appartement seront mis à votre disposition

gratuitement.
"When you're hired, a car and an apartment will be at your disposal for free."

Here are some variants of this expression:

1. à disposition
"available, ready"

2. à votre disposition
"at your service" (formal)

3. mettre à disposition quelque chose

"to make something available"

4. rester à disposition de quelqu'un

"to remain at someone's disposal" (formal)

centre (culturel)

Cultural centers in France are common places. A centre culturel is a public place that can
include a museum, a library, a café, or an exhibition room and where some events take place,
such as concerts, lectures, and shows. The centre culturel is usually created around a topic,
like a culture (Chinese, Japanese, Italian, etc.). It's also called espace culturel ("cultural
space") in some places.

Bimensuel

This word is translated as "bi-monthly." Be careful with this one. Even though its meaning is
"published twice a month," it's usually misused in France: It's used to say "every two
months," which should be bimestriel in French.

GRAMMAR

T he Focus of t his Lesson is Numer al Pr efixes: uni/bi/tri/multi.

Le Centre publie une revue bimensuelle sur les différentes cultures présentes en France.
"T his cent er publishes a bi-mont hly jour nal about t he differ ent cult ur es in
Fr ance."

These prefixes are often used in everyday words and can be used to create new words. These
prefixes come from Latin and mean:

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #6 - WHERE T O LEARN ABOUT FOREI GN CULT URES I N FRANCE 4
- Uni: "one," un

- Bi: "two," deux

- Tri: "three," trois

- Multi: "many," plusieurs

For example:

1. Ce magazine de science-fiction est trimestriel.

"This science fiction magaz ine is a tri-monthly magaz ine."

2. Je préfère jouer à des jeux multijoueurs.

"I prefer to play multiplayer games."

Examples from this dialogue:

1. Le Centre publie une revue bimensuelle sur les différentes cultures présentes en
France.
"This center publishes a bi-monthly journal about the different cultures in France."

2. Le nouveau centre multiculturel qui a ouvert à Paris cette semaine propose de

nombreuses brochures bilingues.
"The new multilingual centre that opened in Paris this week provides a lot of different
free bilingual brochures."

Sample Sent ences

1. De nombreuses revues scientifiques sont trilingues.

"Many scientific journals are trilingual."

2. Il ne porte que des vêtements unicolores.

"He only wears plain clothes."

Language T ip

It's possible to go further than "tri":

- Quadri-: "four," as in quadricolore

- Quint-: "five," as in quintessence

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #6 - WHERE T O LEARN ABOUT FOREI GN CULT URES I N FRANCE 5
- Sex-: "six," as in sexagénaire (people in their sixties)

- Sept-: "seven," as in septembre (September used to be the seventh month of the year.)

- Octo-: "eight," as in octogone

- Nov-/Nona-: "nine," as in novembre (November used to be the ninth month of the year.) or
nonagénaire (people in their nineties)

- Deci-: "ten," as in décimal

Since French also has Greek roots, you can find Greek numeral prefixes too!

- Tetra: "four," as in tétraplégique

- Penta: "five," as pentagone

- Hexa: "six," as in hexadecimal

- Poly: same as "multi," as in polyglotte

CULTURAL INSIGHT

Melt ing Pot in Fr ance

Due to its history and its position in Europe, France has a multicultural society. First of all,
migration in Europe attracted people of a lot of different nationalities, such as Spanish, North
African, Italian, Polish, and German. There are a lot of dialects too: occitan in the Southwest,
breton in Brittany, and ch'ti in the North; and all these dialects are taught in some schools,
so there's already a multicultural society.

The second reason for France's multicultural society is wars and colonies, since France had
a huge colonial empire for centuries—as did Spain, Portugal, and Britain, for example. When
these countries declared their independence, some people decided to settle down in France.
That's why there were a lot of Vietnamese people who came to France after the Indochine
War (1946-1954) and Algerian people who came after the Algerian War (1954-1962).

All these cultures are integrated into French society, even if there are problems in some areas.
And you can find some places in Paris where these different cultures are strong, like Little
Tokyo (near Opéra Station) and Chinatown (le 13e arrondissement de Paris).

FRENCHPOD101.COM LOWER I NT ERMEDI AT E S 2 #6 - WHERE T O LEARN ABOUT FOREI GN CULT URES I N FRANCE 6