So is there something you are really good at? Many of us have skills or talents we’ve acquired over time and its fun when we get to show them off, no? They’re like little impressive habits! Check out the article below for some awesome habit-building tricks and watch the video for some French worth acquiring! (This week: the verb ACQUÉRIR – to acquire)

This is Leo Babauta‘s blog post shared from zenhabits.net.

Lyrical Learning, & Why We Learn Habits Wrong
Post written by Leo Babauta.

When we learn song lyrics, we don’t just look at the written lyrics and know them, nor can we listen to a song just once and immediately sing it.

Learning the lyrics of a song is a process that often goes something like this:

1. Listen to the song, maybe look at the lyrics if you want.
2. Try singing the song a second time, but mess up a lot; when you mess up, you hear the correct version and so you know you messed up and know the correct way at the same time.
3. Repeat Step 2 a bunch of times, correcting as you go, learning more each time.
4. Try singing it without the song, and realize there are still holes in your knowledge.
5. Listen to the song again, filling in your knowledge holes.
6. Repeat Steps 4 & 5 until you can sing the song perfectly on your own.

For some people, this process comes faster than for others, and needs less repetition, but the process is usually something like this.

Other people don’t repeat some of the steps enough times to really get the song, but the process remains true — it’s just they only do part of it.

So this is how we learn lyrics.

How do we learn habits? It usually goes something like this:

1. Create a habit plan.
2. Try it.
3. Fail at some point.
4. Feel bad about it, feel like we aren’t disciplined. Give up.

If we compare it to the lyric-learning process, we can see that with habits, we give up at Step 2!

Other people try a few more times, but they’re really only at Step 3 or 4. Barely anyone persists until they finish Step 6.

The key is to keep repeating until you finish Step 6, and you have it down. Use other people who do the habit right as your example as you’re learning. Compare what you’re doing wrong to what they’re doing right, and correct yourself.

And keep repeating, filling in your knowledge gaps, until you get it right and can do it on your own without help.

Then go sing your song.

Now it is your turn!

Tell us in the comments below, what is your best habit when it comes to French?

Make sure you watch the Learn Parisian French – verb ACQUÉRIR (to acquire) on Youtube! While you’re there, and if you like it, please click the ‘Like’ button!

Don’t ever give up on your dream to become bilingual – Learn Parisian French on Skype and travel the world!

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Welcome to Français Sunday!
The one Secret of the French language that half of the francophones are fighting over

BUSY THIS SUNDAY? Register anyway 
This way, even if you don’t win the prizes or qualify for the Special,
I can still send you the recording by email.

Register, and you will qualify for a great offer that I’ll announce during the webinar.

Participate, and you will qualify to win a FREE Skype class with me.

Share it with your friends, and you will win yet another FULL hour on Skype with me.

Sounds good?

Here is what you have to do.

1. Register for the free webinar by typing your email address in the form below.

2. You will receive an email with the details and the link. Click that link at least 5 minutes before the webinar – you never know when I’m going to announce the great offer I have for you, so be there early!

3. Prepare your question or think of a lil’ story you’d like to tell in French and I’ll coach you through it – you’ll be amazed how easy it will be for you – I know it will open your appetite to know more!

Now CLICK on the link below, and I’ll see you on Sunday! :)

https://llyane.wufoo.com/forms/q1atu3cc1fx4s7k/

On Monday is my birthday :)

And I’m so excited about my gift.

Now I was so shocked, and you will see why, on Sunday.

I would like to invite you to my birthday at the Français Sunday webinar – we’ll have a contest, and a special offer – during a live event on Ustream.

I’m also super excited about these lil’ events, because everybody loves a discount – don’t you?

But, you can only get it if you register for the FREE webinar this Sunday, so do this:

Register, and you will get a great offer that I’ll announce during the webinar.

Participate, and you will qualify to win a FREE Skype class with me.

Share it with your friends, and you will win yet another FULL hour on Skype with me.

Sounds good?

Here is what you have to do.

1. Register for the free webinar by typing your email address in the form below.

2. You will receive an email with the details and the link. Click that link at least 5 minutes before the webinar – you never know when I’m going to announce the great offer I have for you, so be there early!

3. Prepare your question or think of a lil’ story you’d like to tell in French and I’ll coach you through it – you’ll be amazed how easy it will be for you – I know it will open your appetite to know more!

Now click on the link below, and I’ll see you on Sunday! :)

https://llyane.wufoo.com/forms/q7x2w5/

À dimanche,

Llyane

Welcome to Français Sunday!

Register, and you will get a great offer that I’ll announce during the webinar.

Participate, and you will qualify to win a FREE Skype class with me.

Share it with your friends, and you will win yet another FULL hour on Skype with me.

Sounds good?

Here is what you have to do.

1.Register for the free webinar by typing your email address in the form below.

2. You will receive an email with the details and the link. Click that link at least 5 minutes before the webinar – you never know when I’m going to announce the great offer I have for you, so be there early!

3. Prepare your question or think of a lil’ story you’d like to tell in French and I’ll coach you through it – you’ll be amazed how easy it will be for you – I know it will open your appetite to know more!

Now CLICK the link below, and I’ll see you on Sunday! :)

http://llyane.wufoo.com/forms/q7x2w5/

Word Of Mouth

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~ Nathan

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When was the last time you had to throw something away that you didn’t want to?   Perhaps you felt like it would be a waste and you were having second thoughts? Well, in western society, throwing things away is almost a staple, where now waste is becoming a problem. Check out the article below for some amazing tips on turning waste into delicious treats, and check out the video for some French you’ll never have to throw away! (This week: the verb JETER – to throw)

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZuFMh_IjQ

This is a blog post shared from Cécile Delarue’s Frenchandparfait.com/.

Stop the gachis! Eat some hachis!
My dear, poor, non French people,

I’m so sorry. Désolée, vraiment. But once again, I have to tell you that we French people are superior… You know me, I don’t like to brag… It’s not my fault if French people always know better!

Take recycling for example. I find it funny to see all the media attention nowadays on waste and how to not put everything in the garbage bin. Rien de nouveau sous le soleil! (Nothing’s new under the sun): French cooks have been doing it for ages.

My grand-mother Georgine (84 going on 85 and still cooking) is the perfect example. When you’ve been a farmer all your life, you know how precious a “fruit of the earth” is: you don’t throw easily a vegetable you gave time and sweat to make it grow… Especially when you get the miserable wages a retiree farmers’ widow get in France.

“Je jette rien”, she always says… From the water to the leftovers, she never throws anything. I guess she would be very proud of this recipe: stop the gâchis (the waste), eat some Hachis!

Le Hachis Parmentier

2 pounds Meat
2 pounds Potatoes
1 cup milk
4,5 oz of butter
A pinch of grated cheese
Salt, pepper, and Nutmeg

Many French delicacies are actually re-use from leftovers. Hachis Parmentier is one of them: for this one I used the Boeuf Bourguignon leftover I had from last video recipe.

But you can also use ground beef meet, or duck confit for example…

This recipe bears the name Parmentier in honour of a great French man: Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.

Right before the French Revolution, this pharmacist discovered the way to prevent the numerous famines that were so recurringly happening in the country: to grow and eat potatoes.

At that time, people were totally disgusted with this strange root that was only fed to the pigs. It was even forbidden to grow any at some point, because it was believed potatoes could cause leprosy!

But Antoine-Augustin Parmentier discovered that it was of a great help to fight disentry, and went on a fight to make it legal and developped all over France.

After many years of lobbying, he managed to convince Louis the XVIth (yes, the one we beheaded, but that’s another story).

But nobody wanted to eat potatoes.
Food for pigs? Non merci!
So they changed its name into “Pomme de terre” : apple of the earth, so romantic!
But non.
Toujours non…
So they asked the king to set up a new “potato trend”, by wearing a potato flower “à sa boutonnière“, at his buttonhole.
So if the King said it, did the French follow?
Non non non!
They had rather die of hunger than eat it..

And that’s when Parmentier showed that he had genius.
He asked the King for a small piece of land North of Paris.
He grew potatoes there, and surrounded the field by armed guards, as if what they were protecting was very valuable…
Parisians grew suddenly very interested in this precious plant, and started to steal it at night when the guards were not looking…

Et voilà!

That’s how the love between France and Potato started, and how French Fries were born…

La recette

• Preheat the oven at 350°F
• Grind the leftover meat of the bourguignon
• Boil the potatoes for at least 20 minutes, then peel them and mash them with milk and butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Spread a layer of potato purée in a large casserole dish, then spread the meat
• Then spread the rest of the purée on the meat.

   

• Add some grated cheese, and hop, au four! To the oven.
• Cook for at least 45 minutes.
  Et voila!

   

  

  Now have a piece of this delicious French comfort food…
  Isn’t it great to recycle? Merci encore Mr Parmentier!

  Bon appétit les amis!
  Cécile

  PS: If you happen to go to Paris, you should visit the Père Lachaise cemetery.

  Not because you’re a strange and morbid Goth, or a big Jim Morisson fan (Yes, he is buried there, even if some pretend that the casket was smaller than he was): but to go to Mister Parmentier’s tomb.

  Notice the wild flowers all around. The gardeners of the cemetery never touch them: they are potato flowersplanted by fans all over the world who want to pay him an hommage.

Now it is your turn!

Tell us in the comments below, what do you do when you have a guilty craving for French fries?

Make sure you watch the Learn Parisian French – verb Jeter (to throw) on Youtube! While you’re there, and if you like it, please click the ‘Like’ button!

Don’t ever give up on your dream to become bilingual – Learn Parisian French on Skype and travel the world!

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