Sample : the first two tracks of an Interview with a French beekeeper
Transcription
Sample : the first two tracks of an Interview with a French beekeeper
Sample : the first two tracks of an Interview with a French beekeeper. Slow Echoing www.fluentfrench.com Interview with a French beekeeper. Interview conducted by Anne-Sophie Martin. CONTENTS Introduction in English : MP3 track # 1 Echoing will teach you the oral gymnastics of the language; and you can do it in your car. Here’s how. Original interview with Magali : MP3 tracks # 2 - 10 Magali has always had a passion for bees, and now she makes her own honey from wild flora in the Vercors mountain range. You’ll love her pretty voice and precise pronunciation. “Slow-echoing” re-reading : MP3 tracks # 11 - 19 This sample will help you get started with the beekeeper interview. If you like it and want to continue with Tracks 3 through 10, you can order the full interview at www.fluentfrench.com Re-reading by native French speakers. With these recordings, even beginners can start echoing right away. These recordings are miracle-workers for those looking to improve their accent! Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. If you are a teacher and need group pricing, please contact us. David Tolman, Publisher Toll free (USA) 1-888-259-9601 [email protected] Interview with a French beekeeper 1 2 w w w . f l u e n t f r e n c h . c o m – Echoing Recordings since 2001 On1 est ici dans votre miellerie. We are here in your honey house. MP3 track 1 Introduction to tell you how to use the recordings. If you are a beginner, start with the original interviews (the recordings on tracks 2 through 10) and learn to understand all of the words, which should take about a month. If you want to improve your accent, use the slow-echoing recordings (tracks 11 through 19). We are sure that echoing will quickly become your favorite way of improving your French. Ça sent bon la cire et le miel,2 c’est ça ?3 It smells good, the wax and the honey, is that it? Oui, c’est l’odeur de la miellerie ! Yes, that is the smell of the honey house! Alors, je voulais savoir, vous habitez dans So, I wanted to know, you live in le massif du Vercors, on est ici en montagne the Vercors mountain range, we are here in the mountains à quatre cents mètres d’altitude et vous amenez at four hundred meters of altitude and you take vos ruches jusqu'à mille deux cents mètres. your hives up to 1,200 meters (of altitude.) Qu’est-ce qui vous a décidé à4 vivre ici ? What is it that persuaded you to live here? Ben,5 nous avons repris6 avec mon mari7 la suite8 Well, we took over my husband and I the continuation MP3 track 2 (Slow echoing version is track 11) Alors, bonjour Magali ! Vous êtes apicultrice.1 So, hello Magali ! You are (a) beekeeper. 1 2 3 Merci de m’accueillir2 chez vous.3 Thank you for welcoming me to your place. 4 5 1 2 3 Notice the “(a)” in the English translation. In French, the article is not given when stating a person’s profession. Examples: Il est coiffeur. (He is a barber.) Elle est comptable. (She is an accountant.) Je suis entraineur de foot. (I am a soccer coach.) Merci de m’accueillir… from accueillir quelqu’un = to welcome someone; to receive someone. chez vous = to your home, to your place. See other examples using chez on pages 25, 28, and 30. 6 7 8 On. Depending upon the situation, the French use on to mean “one”, “we”, “they”, “people”, etc. This is a combination of Ça sent bon (that smells good) and Ça sent la cire et le miel (It smells like wax and honey.) c’est ça ? = that's it?; that's right? décider quelqu'un à faire quelque chose = to persuade someone to do something. Literally, to decide someone to do something. ben, an informal, spoken version of bien. reprendre = to take back up. reprendre une entreprise = to take over a business after the departure of the previous owner. nous... avec mon mari = we... with my husband. This construction is common in spoken French : first the speaker says nous (we) and then realizes that she needs to tell us who nous is (she and her husband.) la suite. Comes from suivre (to follow.) See an example of par la suite (afterwards, subsequently) on page 30. Interview with a French beekeeper 3 4 w w w . f l u e n t f r e n c h . c o m – Echoing Recordings since 2001 d’une exploitation1 agricole. Ici, nous sommes of a farming operation. Here we are pendant pratiquement un an. Et comme ça, for practically a year. And like that, dans le pays de la noix2, c’est la noix de Grenoble, et in “walnut country,” it’s the Grenoble walnut, and nous avons pu1 nous installer2 : c’était en we were able to set ourselves up. That was in l’exploitation à laquelle nous avons succédé3 the farming operation which we took over mil neuf cent quatre-vingt-six. 1986. est située à Saint-Jean en Royans. Mais c’est une petite is located in Saint-Jean en Royans. But it is a small MP3 track 3 (Slow echoing version is track 12) exploitation et qui n’était pas suffisamment grande farm and which was not large enough Alors, vous pouvez nous rappeler3 un petit peu So, you are able to recall for us a little bit pour faire vivre4 une famille. Donc, il fallait5 développer une to support a family. So, it was necessary to develop an comment ces abeilles font ce miel, how these bees make this honey, activité complémentaire. Et moi, j’ai toujours eu additional activity. And me, I have always had depuis très longtemps la passion des abeilles6 et for a very long time a passion for bees and tout naturellement, j’ai décidé de monter7 un petit quite naturally, I decided to set up a little 1 fait une école d’apiculture atelier d’apiculture. J’ai donc beekeeping shop. I therefore (took a course at) a beekeeping school 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 une exploitation: a term often used in relation to a small farming, mining, or forestry operation. Do not make the mistake of thinking that “noix” refers to an indeterminate nut. The different nuts have their own names. Noix = walnut. Noisette = hazelnut. Noix de cajou = cashew nut. Cacahuète = peanut. à laquelle nous avons succédé: literally, to which we succeeded. faire vivre: literally, to make live. il fallait = it was necessary. From falloir (to be necessary). il faut = it is necessary. la passion des abeilles: literally, the passion of bees (the “bee bug”). monter = 1) to go up; 2) to set up; to start; to put up. 2 3 nous avons pu: literally, we have been able. From pouvoir (to be able). Compare nous pouvons (we are able) to nous pouvions (we were able) and nous avons pu (we have been able; we were able). Because pouvoir is used so often and in so many ways in French, you need to be able to recognize the different forms and understand their meaning. See these pages for different uses of pouvoir: 10, 12, 13, 14, 21, and 28. s’installer = to settle; to establish oneself; to set oneself up. Literally, to install oneself. To help you understand the construction used by the speaker, compare it to Il a pu s’installer (He was able to set himself up) or the present-tense version Nous pouvons nous installer (We are able to set ourselves up.) See another example on page 29. vous pouvez nous rappeler…: literally, you are able to recall for us… From vous (you) + pouvez (are able to, a form of pouvoir (to be able)) + nous (to us) + rappeler (to recall). Compare rappeler quelque chose à quelqu’un (to remind someone of something, literally, to recall something to someone) to the more-often seen se rappeler quelque chose (to remember something, literally, to recall something to oneself). Interview with a French beekeeper 5 6 w w w . f l u e n t f r e n c h . c o m – Echoing Recordings since 2001 le B.A.-BA1 de la fabrication du miel ? the basics of the production of honey? travaillent,1 et qu’elles transforment en miel. En fait, refine and that they transform into honey. In fact, Alors, c’est vrai que souvent, on croit que les abeilles So, it is true that often, people think that bees on ne sait pas, l’homme ne sait pas fabriquer… fabriquer we do not know, man does not know (how) to produce… to produce font le miel à partir du2 pollen. Le miel et le pollen, make honey from pollen. Honey and pollen, le miel, c’est encore un mystère que gardent les abeilles. honey, that is still a mystery that the bees keep. c’est deux choses différentes.3 Les abeilles récoltent4 du pollen those are two different things. Bees gather pollen Ça veut dire2 que vous devez domestiquer, That means that you have to domesticate, pour nourrir5 les jeunes abeilles, c’est in order to feed the young bees, it is apprivoiser les abeilles, c’est ça ? to tame the bees, is that it? un aliment6 de croissance, mais ça n’a rien à voir avec7 a food for growth, but it has nothing to do with Ben oui, quelque part,3 hein ? En fait, les abeilles que Well, yes, in a way, you know? In fact, the bees that le miel, ce n’est pas du tout un produit sucré.8 Par contre, honey, (pollen) is not at all a sweet substance. On the other hand, nous avons sont des abeilles bien sûr4 domestiques. we have are domesticated bees, of course les abeilles récoltent dans les fleurs du nectar qui est bees gather from flowers nectar, which is Mais en fait, c’est plus nous qui essayons de nous adapter à But in fact, it is more we who are trying to adapt ourselves to un liquide un peu sucré et qu’elles élaborent, et qu’elles a liquid (that is) a bit sweet and that they develop, and that they leur mode de vie, de leur reconstruire leurs conditions de vie their mode of life, to reconstruct for them their living conditions à l’état sauvage. Et en fait, même si c’est nous qui in the wild state. And in fact, even if it is we who les apprivoisons, c’est elles qui restent maîtresses5 de leurs tame them, it is they who remain masters of their 1 le B.A.-BA: the basics. This comes from one of the first lessons in reading that French children learn : the ‘b’ sound plus the ‘a’ sound make the sound ‘ba.’ 2 à partir de = starting from. 3 deux choses différentes: this is the French way of saying, “A and B are two different things; don’t confuse the two.” 4 récolter = to harvest. La récolte = the harvest. 5 nourrir = to feed. se nourrir = to eat; to feed oneself. la nourriture = food. 6 un aliment = a food; a foodstuff. la croissance = growth. croître = to grow; to develop 7 ça n’a rien à voir avec... : literally, that has nothing to see with. This is the French way of saying that the two things are independent and have no tie or relationship between them. 8 Compare sucré (sweet; sweetened) to sucre (sugar). 1 2 3 4 5 travailler means “to work,” but you can also “travailler” a substance or material to get it ready for the next step in whatever you are making. vouloir dire = to mean, literally, to want to say. vouloir = to want. dire = to say. See other examples on pages 16 and 27. quelque part, literally, somewhere. It is used here as “in a way, somewhat.” bien sûr = of course. sûr = sure. Tu es sûr ? = You are sure? Bien sûr ! = Of course! Note that une maîtresse is the feminine form of un maître. Remember that worker bees are female. Interview with a French beekeeper 7 8 w w w . f l u e n t f r e n c h . c o m – Echoing Recordings since 2001 destinées, et nous, on s’adapte. Il y a des années…. destinies, and we, we adjust. There are some years.… Donc vous êtes très occupée, en ce moment ? So you are very busy now? Voilà, c’est ça. Ben c’est là1 que tout se joue, 2 un peu, Yes, that’s right. Well, success depends on this period, in a way, On ne comprend pas toujours le comportement des abeilles We do not always understand the behavior of bees parce que…parce qu’elles ont gardé le dessus, 1 hein ? because… because they have kept the upper hand, you know? hein ? Aujourd’hui, on n’a pas une météo3 très favorable, you know? Today, we do not have a very good forecast, Je crois que c’est aussi un bien.2 I believe that that is also a good thing. c’est vrai qu’on espère que ça [ne] va pas durer parce que it is true that we hope that it is not going to last because c’est vrai que c’est à cette époque-là que les abeilles… it is true that it is at this period-now that the bees… récoltent les plus grosses quantités de miel, c’est là que gather the largest quantities of honey, it is now that se joue ou non la récolte. Mais en fait, elle a été préparée the harvest is made or not. But in fact, it has been prepared déjà bien en amont.4 C’est ce qu’on fait au mois d’avril et already well in advance. It is what we do in the month of April and au mois de mai, pour s’assurer d’avoir dans nos ruches in the month of May, to assure ourselves of having in our hives 1 MP3 track 4 (Slow echoing version is track 13) En ce moment, c’est une des périodes Right now, this is one of the periods (which is), les plus intenses, c’est la récolte du miel, c’est ça ? the most intense, this is the harvest of the honey, is that right? 1 2 le dessus = the top. avoir le dessus = to have the upper hand. garder le dessus = to keep control over the situation; to keep the upper hand. un bien: a good thing. un bien can also mean “a possession.” J’ai vendu tous mes biens. = I sold all of my possessions. 2 3 4 It can be surprising for students, who learn that ici means “here” and là means “there,” but the French often use là to express “here” or “now.” See other examples of là used to mean “now” on pages 8 and 17 and an example of là used to mean “here” on page 30. See also the foot on là on page 26. c’est là que tout se joue: It is right now that everything is playing out, from, c’est là (it is now) + que (that) + tout (everything) + se joue (is decided, literally, is played, is wagered). jouer = to play; to gamble. la météo : from La prévision météorologique (the weather forecast.) Je n’ai pas vu la météo = I didn’t see the weather forecast. en amont = in advance, beforehand, literally, upstream. Compare en amont (uphill, upstream; in advance) to en aval (downhill, downstream.) To help you remember these, note that amont is related to “mountain” and aval is related to “valley.”