Listen to some French!

The first four resources are available on Culturethèque, our Digital Library, to which our members have free access:
https://www.culturetheque.com/EXPLOITATION/US/accueil-portal.aspx Not a member yet? Check out our website! 
https://www.afwestchesterny.org/membership/

Music

For Toddlers

“Bulle et Bob dans la cuisine”

By Natalie TUAL, songs, 2013 - 18 minutes

Learn vocabulary and practice French with elements around you! As you may be stuck at home, it’s time to listen to French in the kitchen. Bulle and Bob are 2 children, and they are making a cake at their grandmother’s. You can listen to 6 pieces of music, with a narrator talking at the beginning of each song. This is a good way to hear French language while cooking, and you can sing along with them!

https://www.culturetheque.com/EXPLOITATION/US/doc/1DTOUCH/fd5221e24db2c54ef75688539dda5bc6/bulle-et-bob-dans-la-cuisine 

For all 

“Pili Pili sur un croissant au beurre” 

By Gaël Faye, 2013 

Gaël Faye is a French-Rwandan writer, singer-songwriter and poet, who fled the civil war in Burundi, his native country, and the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. This hip-hop album is full of musical influences from his native region, and emphasizes the cultural mix he has experienced between France and Rwanda/Burundi, and, as a consequence, the difficult sense of belonging. The title shows this by mixing a typical French meal (“croissant au beurre”) and Pili Pili, a variety of african red chili pepper. 

https://www.culturetheque.com/EXPLOITATION/US/doc/1DTOUCH/df0a90f8015491235e319d6574f28e89/pili-pili-sur-un-croissant-au-beurre

Stories

For toddlers

“La petite sirène”

By the “Ensemble Agora” and Nathalie DESSAY, musical audiobook, 2008 - 1h05 of listening

Listen to an audio recording of the famous tale “The Little Mermaid”, written by Andersen, on “Divercities'' website. The narration is very poetic, and features different voices. This is a good way to listen to French language while discovering classical music. Indeed, there are a lot of musical interludes. For example, you can hear Tchaikovski’s pieces of music from The Nutcracker. Listen to 16 chapters, that lasts between 2 and 7 minutes each.  

https://music.divercities.eu/albums/201655

For older teenagers and adults

“Salina”

By Laurent GAUDÉ, read by Guillaume GALLIENNE, audiobook, 2019 - 3h20 of listening

“Salina” is a play divided into three parts, which was published in 2003. The place and the date of the story are not known, but it probably takes place in Africa. Salina is adopted by the Djimba clan. Eventually, she is forced to marry a man she doesn’t love, and she is humiliated and brutalized. This is an epic story about pain, revenge and struggle, inspired by myths. This is also the portrait of a woman, written as an ancient tragedy. The narrator is an actor from the theatre “La Comédie Française”. 

You need to borrow the MP3 streaming of this audiobook. Don’t forget that only 5 resources can be borrowed at the same time on Culturethèque. 

Oral-comprehension exercise

For B1-level individuals

“Star Wars, l’aventure se termine”

By “RFI Savoirs”, quiz, 2019

RFI (Radio France Internationale) is a French radio whose mission is to teach French language through the news. Click on the following link and listen to a 2-minute excerpt of radio news about the “Star Wars” saga. Then, answer a 13-question quiz and test your oral comprehension. Find a glossary and a transcript of the recording. It is possible to change the language setting of the website.

https://savoirs.rfi.fr/en/apprendre-enseigner/culture/star-wars-laventure-se-termine/1

We hope that these selections will entertain you and will keep you motivated to carry on learning French! 

These resources were part of various previous Culturethèque newsletters, our weekly selections of self-learning resources. To subscribe and receive our upcoming newsletters, please send an email to pauline@afwestchesterny.org.

Take care and stay safe,

L’Équipe de l’Alliance Française du Westchester