Ep. 1 - The Art of Greeting

[Music] Bienvenue! Welcome to Parleaway, our new podcast for beginner French learners. I'm Caroline, language expert at Babel in Berlin, Germany. I am French, I come from North-Western France. And today I will be hosting my colleague Ted, who decided to start learning French. Hello? Bonjour Carl! Oh, you know something in French already nice. Before we get started, would you like to introduce yourself to our listeners? Sure. It's just sweet Ted. I'm from Wisconsin. I live in Berlin, and I also work at Babel because I'm a language freak. And could you tell me in our listeners why you decided to learn our beautiful language? Sure. So my girlfriend is from Paris, and her family doesn't really speak so much English. So I'd really like to improve my French so I can communicate with them better when we visit. I also think it's pretty tiring for my girlfriend to have to translate between us all the time. So I'd also like to give her a little break. Sweet! There's no better reason to learn a language, isn't it? But please, don't break up in the middle of the podcast. Oh, come on! So I will help you to get really conversational, and we will follow your progress episode after episode. We're going to talk about French language and culture, and we will learn useful expressions. Maybe a little bit of grammar, too, but not too much. For me, I promise. Ted, I'm curious. If I ask you what is French for you? Which French words come to mind? Well, probably a lot of food, like baguettes, croissant, frommage, of course. Nice. Okay, I think you really know the main words together on Paris. As it is our first episode, I thought we could start with the basics, greetings. So let's summarize the greeting words you know. When we greeted each other, and our listeners at the beginning, we said. Bonjour! Exactly. And now imagine, you have an emergency, and you need to leave the room. What would you say? Au revoir. Yes, au revoir. So you already know, "Bonjour, for hello, au revoir, for a goodbye." So these damned "R"s in these words? Yes. It's a bit difficult to pronounce for English speakers, but I think you are doing. Okay. Bonjour au revoir. That English "R" can be part of your American charm, so no pressure. But in case you want to pronounce it correctly, here's a tip. The French "R" comes from the back of the mouth, where the throat begins, and the tongue stays at the bottom of the mouth. So it's a bit like pronouncing "Q" but instead of blocking the way, you push a little bit of air through. So you can try it, Ted. Okay. "Q" and then "Q" and then "R" Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So it's at the same place. You push some air. Exactly. You also have it in Merci, thank you. Okay. Au revoir and Merci. Great job, Ted. So now that you're familiar with the basic words, let's play a game. We will listen to different situations and see what you can understand. All right. I'm ready. Bonjour Madame. Bonjour. Une baguette si vous plaît. Oui. Et voilà, un au revoir. Merci au revoir. Au revoir Merci. So Ted, did you understand the situation a bit? Do the people know each other? Where are they? It sounds like they don't really know each other. It sounds like they're in a bakery. And the one woman is buying a baguette. And the other woman tells her that it costs one euro. Oh, nice. Yeah. I think you came across this situation already. Yes, like I said, France is food for me. Thank you. So there's lots of food involved when I go there. That's the way. This is a typical situation that you encounter every day in France. So if you enter a boulangerie, a bakery, to buy a baguette or a new shop or restaurants, you would say, "Bonjour" and "au revoir." Okay. I do have a little question about greetings though. Okay. My girlfriend's friend always say, "Salut" instead of "Bonjour." Can I say that to the baker too? No. That's quite inappropriate in France. Salut is more informal. It's a bit like high in English. And you can also use it when living to say, "Bye." But if you don't know the person and it's not a friend of a friend, you should stick to "Bonjour" and "au revoir." All right. Then I'll stick with those with strangers then. Yes. Did you hear what expression the person said when she ordered the baguette, the polite word? Yeah. See if we'll play. Yeah. I used it a lot already when I was in France to order things in bakeries and cafes. Yes. You can say it to order pretty much everything. What was your favorite order when you were in Paris? Let's do a little role play. How would you order if I were the waiter? I would say, "Une biaire si vous pliez." Yes, perfect. Perfect. Or "En van rouge, red wine." I know that beer is not the friend's drink of choice, but I'm a beer guy, so. Okay. And thank you for thank you. Let's see how you get around with the next situation. [Music] [Music] So Ted, who do you think these people are in relation to each other? Well, they sound like they're pretty close friends. They know each other well because they say salut. We, they're good. And did you get how they said, "How are you?" Yeah, they say, "Sava." Yes. I'm sure you heard it a lot in Paris. Can you answer it? Salut Ted, Sava. Sava. Super. Sava is the easiest way to ask, "How are you?" It means, "How is it going?" And it can be both the question and the answer to say, "You're fine." It's really great that there's no difference between the question and the answer. Makes it so easy. Yeah, but actually there is a little bit of a difference in the intonation. Listen, Sava, Sava. Ah, I see. Okay. So in the question, the accent goes up at the end. Yeah, Sava. And in the answer, it goes down. Sava. Okay. So the question is, "Sava?" And the answer is, "Sava." Yes. Okay. I'd like to go back to the kissing sound that we heard. When I went to Paris or have met my girlfriend's friends, everybody started kissing me. And I'm always a little bit confused about this. Is this something that I do with strangers, for example? Ah, like bees. Yeah, actually, it can be a bit confusing for us too, because normally we do two, but sometimes it can be one or three or four, depending on the region. But you may have noticed it's just the chick's touching, right? It's not the lips. The lips are just kissing the air. So I don't start French kissing it. Okay. I'll try not to. All right. But can you explain this to me? For most of my female friends, I'm okay with it. But some of my male friends also go for the kiss. But some of them just give me their hand to shake. Is there a rule about this? Well, normally you shake hands with men and do the bees with women. And women also kiss each other. Hello and goodbye among each other. But there is no strict rule except that it is only something you do with friends, or friends or friends or family. So if you want to greet your new boss, don't present your chick. Okay. But I guess I'll just go around kissing everybody for fun. Okay. Let's hear our last short situation. So what's the situation here? Who are they? Where are they? Well, it sounds like they're at a party or maybe in a club or something. I think that they're strangers, but they say salut. Yes. So I'm not really sure. So yes, they don't know each other. They are introducing themselves. Charles and Charlotte. You can say salut because it's an informal situation. They are at a party. So yeah, it's really informal. And there you can say salut. Maybe they are friends or friends. And can you guess what time of the day it is? I guess that it's in the evening or at night because they say bonsoir. Yes. So they say bonsoir and also it's a party. So that's the evening. Bonsoir literally means good evening. Basically, we use bonjour during the day and bonsoir after 6 p.m. All right. Well, that makes it simple. - Je l'ai. - Et en fait, vous savez ce que nous ne sommes pas bonnes aujourd'hui, comme vous avez dit. - Oh oui. - Non, on essaye de bonjour, comme "Gudet" ou "Salut", comme un début de la journée. - All right, easy, easy. - Et tu as l'impression que vous avez l'impression de vous dire, que vous avez l'impression de vous dire, - Oui, c'est comment tu t'appelles. - Exactement. Comment tu t'appelles, littéralement, comment tu te connais, comment, comment, tu, tu, tu, "coursle yourself" Donc, si je n'en ai pas à vous et je me dis à la partie, je vais vous dire comment tu t'appelles et tu en as. "je me pèlte?" " très bien" et pour aller en reduces, vous pouvez dire "é toi" "je m'appelle Caroline, "é toi" "je me pèlte?" "great job, bien joué" "yeah" Ok, donc là, tu vas être là pour un quiz à l'aise-à-pour? Ok Donc, imagine-t-il, nous sommes à la canne festival "yeah" "I'm full of it" "yeah" "the very glamorous canne festival" et je suis mariom-co-ti-art "alright" et tu es le journalist "how do you greet me?" "with bonjour" "or salut?" "hum, bonjour" "it's a very formal situation" "yeah exactly, you wouldn't say "hey salut mariom" et "because I am mariom-co-ti-art" "I am having dinner at the very luxurious restaurant in canne" "la palme d'or" "what do I say to the waiter when living?" "salut" "or au revoir" "où revoir" "yes, it's also formal" "soi c'est au revoir" "bravo, great" "then a sweet little fan sitting at the table next to mine recognizes me and ask for not to graph" "but I don't know her name" "so how do I ask that?" "um, you would say "comment tu t'appelle?" "yes, perfect" "and finally after a beautiful party on the beach I go home and say hello to my boyfriend Guillaume Canne" "how do I greet him?" "if he's your boyfriend you can say "salut" "yeah, salut salut cheris, ça va?" "bien jouette, well done, how did you find it?" "well you're such a great teacher so I found it pretty easy" "thank you but you were well trained" "you're so good" "you're so good" Alright, that was it for today I hope you enjoyed our very first episode and you said I hope you learned something Definitely, I am feeling much more competent now I think the next time I meet some French-speaking friends I'll try to greet them in French instead of in English Cool, until then, merci, thanks for coming and to our listeners, thanks for listening, merci We hope you enjoyed and learned something too and we would also love to hear your feedback so don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] and if you want to learn more French at the beginner level you can of course check out our new comments in the Babel app Au revoir Merci, au revoir Salut t'es, salut caro