French family dinner: Conversations for Beginners

Learn about dinner conversations and making plans in French.

French family dinner: Conversations for Beginners

Welcome back to French Conversations for Beginners; Week 2 Episode 2. Learn how to have family dinner conversations in French.

Today we’ll discuss French family dinner conversations had at the table. This is a major part of French culture, and so many things happen there. Families catch up and visit. It consists of a salad, something interesting from the market or seafood, the main courses, bread, and cheese. Lunch and dinner will last a long time.

(02:20) Dinner conversation.

(02:55) Breakdown of the conversation: “Have you ever been to the game?” (Ancestor of tennis.) The room was one of the starting places of the French Revolution. “Did you mean to say the impressionist museum?” Yeah, you know. To the right.

(04:30) Yes, you know. On the right when you enter the garden at the Louvre museum. “Yes, I think that I passed behind several times.” Do you want to go there Sunday? Do you want to go there?

(06:10) On Sunday, the museums are free in Paris. “Okay, around 4 o’clock?” When you speak to people, you don’t need to use the 24-hour clock. “It’s too late because the museums close at five. If we want to have time to see everything, we’ll go there early in the afternoon, about 1 o’clock.” That sounds great.

(07:20) Breaking it down a little more: It’s too late. The museums close at 6 o’clock. The museums close at 7 o’clock. The museums open at 9 o’clock. If we want to have time to see everything.

(08:40) To have… Let’s go. Early. In the afternoon. Morning. Noon. Afternoon. Late afternoon. Evening. Around, or about. About 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 10 o’clock, midnight. Very good.

(09:55) Discussion about picking up languages from dinner conversations and subjects people talk about during family time. When you go to a French person’s house for dinner, you could bring a nice bottle of wine or desert (cake) as a gift.

(12:05) There are tons of museums in Paris: the museum of wine, the impressionist museum, and many art museums. Art terms: impressionist, painting, sculpture, photography.

(14:25) Let’s recap some vocabulary: museum, to enter, the entrance, garden, I think that, in front of, several, free, around/about, to have the time, all, early, because.

Not sure how to start learning French? Try learning some survival tasks! Get the free guide here:

https://reallifelanguage.lpages.co/survival-language-checklist/

Want to learn a language in a fun way? Check out 20 ways to learn a language and have fun doing it:

https://reallifelanguage.lpages.co/20-fun-activities-to-learn-a-language/

Want to master a language in the next year? Check out the course here: https://real-life-language.teachable.com/p/the-5-week-linguist

French Conversations for Beginners Workbook News

We’ll be back next week. For more resources on learning and teaching languages, to get on our mailing list or to get the workbook for this course, go to reallifelanguage.com/reallifelanguageblog. Subscribe and leave a rating if you enjoyed this episode.