🇫🇷  Fun French Zoom 💬 Conversation 💬 sessions for intermediates to practise your French! 🇫🇷

💫  Fortnightly va va Zoom 💫  sessions to give you the opportunity to meet like-minded, keen French learners and put your French to good use. 

Who is this for?

• This is for you if you're keen to improve your spoken 💬  French and would like to also improve your understanding of spoken French. 
• This is not for people who are perfect in French - unless you're there to help because you like to chat and make friends. 
• This is not for you if you have zéro French. Check out my courses for online lessons if you're a complete beginner.

So if 👉🏻  you can 👈🏻  speak some French and would like to improve your fluency and practise your French in a safe environment with a teacher there to guide you - come and join this friendly group.

Jamie, a student of mine (he's my friend Emma's brother-in-law. She bought him a few lessons for his 40th) had spent time in France as a chef. His French was good (he just didn't know it) after a few lessons his confidence soared and this is what his wife had to say...

'Can't thank you enough for your lessons, Jamie has been so confident and happy in talking. We thought we'd lost the booking a week ago and he was straight onto the phone to the chap - previously he'd have read his phrase book for 2 hrs 😱  and had 5 ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ coffees before phoning. While we've been here he's sorted out an escaped tortoise on the balcony 🐢 .' Sally Fletcher

A year later this is what Jamie had to say...

'Thanks to your lessons I managed to get us around without any problems. Language-wise, the highlight of the holiday was winning an argument with an assistant in Intermarché after the self-checkout wouldn’t give me any change. Thankfully no car breakdowns or lost tortoises🐢  this holiday though.' Jamie Fletcher

👉  Click here to purchase the Fun French Conversation session 👈

Please note that refunds are not available.

Moulin à Paroles

💬  Un moulin à paroles 💬  literally means 'a words mill' - meaning a chatterbox - having a lot to say. Let's get you to moulin à paroles level 🚀 so that you have a lot to say in French and feel confident enough to actually have a go. 💃🏻  🕺🏻

I can read French but I find speaking tricky and struggle to understand spoken French 🤪

Most people I teach tell me they want to learn to speak French. 💬 

Many say they don't get much opportunity to practise speaking French.

Some mention they're too scared or too embarrassed to give it a go - le chat 🙀  gets their tongue. 👅  I've been there myself with other foreign languages. Really wanting to have a go but some daft mind monkeys 🙊 🙊 🙊  were stopping me! Very frustrating indeed - infuriating in fact!

I wanted to speak - I wanted to improve - I wanted to chat to locals but hesitated because I was afraid of making mistakes or not understanding and feeling stoopid. 

After reading plenty of books 📚 by wise people, about facing fears, doing it anyway, biting bullets, learning through mistakes and all that, I started to enjoy speaking 🇪🇸 Spanish and 🇮🇹  Italian even though it was nowhere near perfect. I impressed people by making the effort, got compliments (not because I was fluent but because I was just having a go - mistakes 'n' all) which I have to say felt good.

I also had a much better connection with people. The feeling of enjoying speaking, rather than feeling a fool, was so joyful I can't even put into words!

In a previous life I worked on European projects. I would travel ✈️  to different EU countries every month. One Italian partner challenged me to learn Italian. 

Roll on several months later, there I was, one evening in the hotel bar in Naples, translating someone's Italian joke into English, as best I could. I loved it and we were laughing our socks off. 🤣  😂  🧦

Here's an opportunity for you to improve your French, connect with francophones (French speakers), challenge yourself, make friends and and laugh 🤣  😂  your chaussettes 🧦 🧦 off too! 

These are online live Zoom sessions for you to practise French with me and other people keen to improve their spoken French and listening skills.

The aim is to get you feeling far more confident to give speaking French a go in a safe environment to prepare you for the big wide world. 🌍

I'll guide you and you'll be with other people in the same bateau ⛵ as you!

You will probably compare yourself to others if you're human but if you can remind the🐒  cheeky🐒  mind 🐒  monkey🐒  messages🐒  that you're there to improve your French. You can't get better at speaking French without speaking French any more than trying to get better at piano 🎹  by reading a book. I know - who'd have believed it!

These sessions are for adults who already speak some French. Note: If you're under 16 you'll need to attend with an adult. 

These sessions are not for you if cannot speak French at all. If you cannot then try the free ☠️  Da Bare Bones French Phrasebook course and then move onto the Get Beyond Tarzan 1 - Fun Holiday French & Get Beyond Tarzan 2 - Fun Holiday French - then you'll be well equipped to join these conversation sessions. I'm also planning to start new beginners courses this year so if you're not already on my mailing list - sign up so you get the notifications straight to your email inbox 📧  .

By this time next year your French could be flippin' Fan-French-tastic! 

👉  Click here to purchase the Fun French Conversation session 👈

Please note that refunds are not available.

When are the Zoom sessions?

The sessions in 2024 are taking place fortnightly (except school holidays) term time only - Thursdays 1-2pm & 7-8pm UTC (UK time). 🕐

They cost £8/session.

2024 Dates

The sessions in 2024 are taking place fortnightly (except school holidays) term time only.

Thursdays 1-2pm & 7-8pm - UK time

Here are the planned (subject to change but only in case of emergencies) dates for 2024:

• January: 11th & 25th
  February: 8nd & 22nd 
  March: 7th & 21st
• Easter
  April: 4th & 25th
  May: 9th & 23rd
  June: 6th & 20th
  July: 4th & 18th
  Aug: Summer Holidays
  Sept: 5th & 19th
  Oct: 3rd & 17th
  Nov: 7th & 21st
  Dec: 5th & 19th

Zoom link via email

Once you sign up and pay, I'll send you a confirmation email. You'll be added to my list and receive the Zoom links to your email address. 

👉  Click here to join the Fun French Conversation session 👈

Download Zoom

You will need to have downloaded and set up a free account on Zoom.

How will the session work?

We'll all say 'bonjour' and you can volunteer to talk to the group - get it over with if you're nervous! Then, you'll be assigned into pairs or small groups to get to chat to one another in French. 

There will be a few Zoom do & don'ts and a few ground rules about not talking over others, listening well, being considerate and all the stuff to make the sessions fun for everyone.

But I'm nervous, terrified, shy!

It can be very nerve-wracking 😬  at first but the nerves will pass and you can enjoy chatting to one another. Even shy people like to get to know people and have conversations - you can stay for the whole hour or leave when you've had your fill or if you have other stuff to do. The worst bit tends to be the catastrophic thinking before.

2 techniques to cope with nerves - permission & excitement

Give yourself permission to make mistakes, be rusty and concentrate on enjoying and getting excited about improving your French. Apparently fear and excitement are close cousins - so instead of saying to yourself 'I'm scared' say 'I'm excited!' Make that nervous energy into a good feeling.

Please rest assured that you are there to improve your French - if you were perfect there would be no need for you to attend. 

I overheard my daughter talking about her art class to her friend. Her friend said, 'Oh, I couldn't go - I'm terrible at art.' To which my daughter responded, 'That's the whole point - I go there to get better.' Wise words indeed! 🦉

Come well-equipped with your 😛  comedy French in order to make it better. Bring your mixed up word order, your Franglais, your words on the tip of your tongue👅, your rubbish memory, your creaky, dusty, outdated school French, your dodgy accent and quizzical befuddled looks! The whole point is to get better at French not to show off your great French skills - it's not a competition or an exam.

Simply put these conversation sessions are for you if you speak some French and you would like to put it to use and improve your fluency. 

If you find you're more fluent than someone you're paired with you can help them (not speak for them but guide them) - 'teaching' someone else is a great way to learn. If you're much less fluent that someone you're paired with ask for their help - by helping you they're also improving their own French.

👉  Click here to join the Fun French Conversation session 👈

Who is this CécileBB?

I'm Cécile Besrest-Butler and I'm a qualified bi-lingual French teacher. My mum's French 🇫🇷  (born in the south of France but the family is originally from Brittany) and my dad's English 🇬🇧  from Derby. They met in Marseille, moved to Hamilton in Canada 🇨🇦 where I was born giving me triple nationality by default!

We moved around a lot within France & England. I've been teaching languages for many years (since 1993) in schools, businesses as well as working on European funded projects - some promoting foreign-language learning.

Since 2012, I've been self-employed, teaching fun French to adults who want to learn conversational French in an informal non-textbook way. 🤪  From silly voices, to wigs, to daft associations, breaking out into annoying songs etc. All this helps to keep you engaged, coming back for more and will help you to better remember 🧠  the tricky bits. 

Given perfection is unobtainable, I encourage communication with a dollop-fulls of getting by, stumbling and fumbling your way through French. I'll be there to guide you and act like a human dictionary. I can help you with la prononciation, le vocabulaire, la grammaire, les expressions et l'argot (slang). 

What will we talk about?

You'll be free to talk about what you want (within reason - nothing inappropriate or too personal!) I'll also give you some themes to get conversations started. I'll speak to you so you can practise listening to French spoken at speed and we'll break it down so you become more tuned in. We can play games and you can make your own suggestions. 

Speaking and understanding spoken French are what many of you find tricky so this is a wonderful opportunity to improve those skills in a supportive, friendly group to get you better prepared for the French-speaking jungle! 🌴 🌴 🌴

You can join from the comfort of your own home🏡  in your chaussons (slippers) or from where ever you are in the world. I've had people join Zoom sessions from their maison secondaire en France and of course from countries near and far from Yorkshire (UK) which is where I live. That's the beauty of Zoom. Whilst face-to-face would be wonderful - I love the fact that Zoom allows you to meet people from all over the world. 🌎  🌍  🌏

Like I said before this time next year your French could be a heck of a lot better. You could be skipping the fan-French-dango in Paris, on the beach, in the Alps or right there in your front room. Imagine feeling excited about using your French! 🤗

So if you're ready to improve, revitalise, update and practise your French - sign-up ✍️  and we'll see each other on Thursday!

Grab your beret 👩🏿‍🎨 👨🏽‍🎨  and stripy top, I can't wait to meet you and have some great fun speaking le French! Youpiiii! 🎉

Merci beaucoup,

CécileBB :-)  👋