French

Description

FRENCH

BLS Adult Spring Term Language Courses 2024: Accelerate your language learning

Beginner Level 1 Course (CEFR A1.1): [Tutor Guillemette] online course
Thursday, 6.15-7.45pm, 10 x 90 min. lessons [on 25 April & 02, 09, 16, 23, 30 May & 06, 13, 20, 27 June 2024] £155 Course Programme

French

Mention French dressing to a French-speaking person, they will probably think you are talking about fashion. Offer une assiette anglaise to an English-speaking person, they might expect to see a Blue Willow pattern… From one language to another, phrases often travel in mysterious ways. But however arcane or straightforward the route, the journey is always an adventure, a re-invention, a challenge. The challenge  of thinking in a language where anything is a he or a she, where the noun takes chronological precedence over the epithet, where an accented letter can make all the difference.

French was mainly shaped by Roman and Germanic influences over a period of about 1,000 years, and was officially born with the signature, in 842, of the Oaths of Strasbourg, a treaty of political allegiance generally considered to contain the earliest texts in a language that is distinctly French. Today, French is spoken, written and sung by an estimated 160 million people in over 50 countries across the world. Recognised as one of the three major international languages, along with English and Spanish, it belongs as much to global business and politics as to contemporary artistic and literary expression.
written by Jean-Paul Metzger