Intermediate French: Traditions and Celebrations

Explore traditions across French-speaking countries

On this four-week course, you’ll delve into the traditions that matter to people who live in France, Belgium and Morocco. You’ll learn about the public holidays that are celebrated in France and the festivals that play a key part in people’s lives throughout the year.

Learn about special dates and celebrations in French culture

You’ll continue your virtual travels, this time with Mohammed who will talk about the traditions from his childhood in Morocco, and Mahon, who describes a carnival in Belgium. You’ll also focus on French traditions and rituals associated with Christmas and Bastille Day.

The activities, based on video and audio material, will continue to help you develop the skills you need to understand authentic spoken French.

Grow your ability to use language more effectively

You will learn vocabulary and structures to describe traditions and celebrations and to talk about the feelings they evoke.

You’ll practise using language to give instructions, revise the rules for the position of adjectives and work on your pronunciation of nasal vowels. You’ll also focus on the language and structures used to talk about traditions celebrated in the past, revising and extending your knowledge of the two most important past tenses in French: the passé composé and the imparfait. Finally, you’ll learn to use the past tenses to talk about memories of traditions that are important to you.

Develop your skills to put pen to paper

At the end of the course, you’ll have the skills to produce a written account of a tradition you have celebrated, which will be enriched by your new ability to read and understand a wide range of authentic source materials. You’ll further show off your new skills by researching and writing about a tradition in France or a French-speaking country of your choice.

This course is designed for those with a good basic knowledge of French (fully at Level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference ‘Elementary’) who want to improve their French language skills and deepen their knowledge of French culture.

• La Francophonie: Traditions et Célébrations, Fêtes du Monde Francophone
• Bienvenue à Intermediate French : La Francophonie : Traditions and Celebrations
• Fêtes au fil des saisons
• Décrire des célébrations
• Bonne fête! Bon appétit!
• La Fête nationale en France
• Révision
• Les Traditions
• Bienvenue à la semaine 2
• Les traditions: Manon et Mohammed
• Le français oral; la position des adjectifs.
• Décrire une tradition
• Révision
• Souvenirs de fêtes passées
• Bienvenue à la semaine 3
• Mohammed: les traditions d’enfance
• L’imparfait
• Le passé composé
• Révision
• Explorer les traditions
• Bienvenue à la semaine 4
• Imparfait ou passé composé?
• Raconter une tradition: production écrite
• Explorer les traditions
• Révision