Latest / The Learn French With Alexa Podcast / EP 11 | Quel était le travail d’Alexa quand elle était plus jeune ? (What was Alexa's job when she was younger?)

Transcript

EP 11 | Quel était le travail d’Alexa quand elle était plus jeune ? (What was Alexa's job when she was younger?) · The Learn French With Alexa Podcast

• 0:00
  Bonjour et bienvenue au podcast de Learn French with Alexa.
• 0:06
  In today's podcast, I will read a short passage in French based
• 0:10
  on a fun fact about me, Alexa Polidoro.
• 0:13
  Again, if you don't know who I am, it really doesn't matter,
• 0:18
  but I am a YouTuber, and the name of the channel is Learn
• 0:23
  French with Alexa. Anyway, today's text is of A2/B1
• 0:28
  level. Which means that it is for late
• 0:34
  beginners and intermediate level.
• 0:36
  So we are going to focus on a grammar point.
• 0:41
  This one is all about the "imparfait", and I'm going to
• 0:45
  teach you a little bit about the "imparfait" while reading the
• 0:50
  text. Now, I'm going to read it once.
• 0:54
  And then I will ask you a question.
• 0:57
  Then I will read it a second time, and we will answer the
• 1:01
  question together. Okay, listen really carefully.
• 1:05
  This podcast is titled "Mon Sport".
• 1:09
  "Sport" being sport. What sport do think I did
• 1:14
  extensively when I was A teenager?
• 1:17
  Now listen really carefully. Écoutez attentivement.
• 1:23
  Quand j'étais plus jeune, je faisais beaucoup de natation.
• 1:28
  En plus d'enseigner la natation aux enfants pendant mon
• 1:32
  adolescence, j'ai aussi été maître-nageuse sauveteuse dans
• 1:37
  des colonies de vacances plusieurs étés d'affilée, ce qui
• 1:42
  m'a permis de voyager partout en France.
• 1:45
  Je surveillais les enfants, soit dans des piscines, soit à la
• 1:50
  mer. Même si c'était une activité
• 1:53
  avec d'énormes responsabilités, j'ai aimé travailler avec les
• 1:58
  enfants. So we've read the text once.
• 2:04
  Well, I have. How much of it did you
• 2:07
  understand? Did you manage to get the job
• 2:10
  that I used to do as a teenager? Now here's my first question.
• 2:17
  Qu'est-ce que je faisais comme travail quand j'étais plus
• 2:22
  jeune? So that's exactly the question
• 2:24
  I'm asking you, the one I've just said.
• 2:27
  What work did I do as a younger person?
• 2:31
  "Qu'est-ce que" means what is it that I did?
• 2:34
  "Qu'est-ce que". You always start a question with
• 2:37
  "est-ce que" or "qu'est-ce que". Now the "que" comes from what.
• 2:42
  "Qu'est-ce que je faisais?" Now, "faisais" is the imperfect
• 2:46
  of "faire." I used to do.
• 2:49
  What did I used to do "comme travail", as work, "quand
• 2:54
  j'étais plus jeune", when I was younger.
• 2:58
  So we are going to listen to the text a second time now, and now
• 3:02
  focus on what it is that I did when I was young.
• 3:06
  And this is based on a true story, a true fact.
• 3:11
  So listen to it very carefully. Try to make a full sentence,
• 3:16
  ideally in French, if not, in English.
• 3:19
  That's okay, because that means you're managing to translate the
• 3:24
  text from French to English. Listen to the text A second
• 3:29
  time. Écoutez attentivement.
• 3:32
  Quand j'étais plus jeune, je faisais beaucoup de natation.
• 3:37
  En plus d'enseigner la natation aux enfants pendant mon
• 3:41
  adolescence, j'ai aussi été maître-nageuse sauveteuse dans
• 3:46
  des colonies de vacances plusieurs étés d'affilée, ce qui
• 3:52
  m'a permis de voyager partout en France.
• 3:55
  Je surveillais les enfants, soit dans des piscines, soit à la
• 4:00
  mer. Même si c'était une activité
• 4:04
  avec d'énormes responsabilités, j'ai aimé travailler avec les
• 4:09
  enfants. Now, by the way, I don't know if
• 4:13
  you can hear the seagulls. Just here in London by the
• 4:17
  riverside, the Thames side, the seagulls are really loud.
• 4:23
  They have lots to say, especially when you come out
• 4:26
  just to look at the Thames, and then they attack you, which
• 4:29
  happens to me many times. I don't know what.
• 4:33
  It must be the colour of my shirt, whatever it is, they seem
• 4:39
  to like me, or not, for that matter.
• 4:41
  Anyway, talk about what job did I do as a younger person?
• 4:47
  "Quel travail je faisais quand j'étais plus jeune?"
• 4:52
  Now, "j'étais plus jeune", when I was younger.
• 4:54
  Here you've got a comparative: plus jeune.
• 4:58
  Que, younger than. "Plus jeune" means younger.
• 5:01
  You could start the sentence like this: Quand Alexa était
• 5:07
  plus jeune, par exemple, ou quand elle était plus jeune,
• 5:11
  when she was younger, she used to do what?
• 5:15
  What job? Now, I did a sport.
• 5:19
  Did you understand "natation"? "Natation" means swimming.
• 5:24
  Swimming. Now, what's very interesting
• 5:27
  about that is that when you look at the word and the verb, they
• 5:32
  are very different. The actual swimming, the sport,
• 5:36
  is "la natation", but the verb is "nager", to swim.
• 5:42
  "Je nage." And weirdly, swimming pool is
• 5:46
  another word completely. It's "la piscine".
• 5:50
  So if you wanted to say "I swim in the swimming pool," it would
• 5:54
  be "je nage dans la piscine." So "natation" was my sport.
• 6:00
  So what was the job I did as a teenager?
• 6:03
  Up until the age of 19, I think I did that.
• 6:08
  Yes, I was maitre nageuse sauveteuse.
• 6:13
  Now, sauveteuse comes from "sauver", to save.
• 6:17
  Okay? "maître" is master, "nageuse" is
• 6:20
  swimmer. Okay?
• 6:21
  So that's another thing as well. The swimmer is "nageur".
• 6:25
  So let's recap. "Nager", to swim.
• 6:28
  "Nageur", the swimmer, or "nageuse" if you're a girl.
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  Okay? Then "la natation", the
• 6:36
  swimming, a swimming pool is "la piscine".
• 6:40
  Okay? So quand j'étais plus jeune, mon
• 6:45
  travail c'était maitre nageuse sauveteuse.
• 6:49
  So this is your-- translation is lifeguard, in effect.
• 6:55
  So I was a lifeguard. Okay?
• 6:57
  Did you manage to get where I was a lifeguard?
• 7:01
  "Dans les colonies de vacances." Do you know what "colonie de
• 7:08
  vacances" that is? The "colonie de vacances" is
• 7:11
  your equivalent to summer camps. Okay?
• 7:13
  So I was a lifeguard in summer camps, whether it was by the sea
• 7:18
  or in swimming pools. Now, I could ask you another
• 7:25
  question. "Qu'est-ce que ça m'a permis de
• 7:29
  faire ?" What did that allow me to do?
• 7:33
  "Qu'est-ce que ça m'a permis de faire ?"
• 7:35
  Now, remember this text is of B1 level, so by that point, you
• 7:38
  know how to conjugate in the "imparfait".
• 7:41
  You know how to conjugate in the "passé composé".
• 7:44
  Now, "a permis" comes from "permettre", to allow.
• 7:47
  Okay? But in this case, it is in its
• 7:50
  "passé composé" form. So "qu'est-ce que ça m'a permis
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  de faire ?" M'a, M apostrophe.
• 7:56
  What did this allow me to do? And that's where the "me" comes
• 8:01
  from, me. Okay?
• 8:02
  "Faire", to do. So that could be an answer.
• 8:05
  What did this allow me to do? I'm going to read the text one
• 8:08
  last time and then translate it. Okay, so listen to it very
• 8:14
  carefully. Here's the question.
• 8:16
  So I was a "maître nageuse sauveteuse", a lifeguard, but
• 8:19
  what did this allow me to do? Quand j'étais plus jeune, je
• 8:25
  faisais beaucoup de natation. En plus d'enseigner la natation
• 8:29
  aux enfants pendant mon adolescence, j'ai aussi été
• 8:33
  maître nageuse sauveteuse dans des colonies de vacances
• 8:38
  plusieurs étés d'affilée. Ce qui m'a permis de voyager
• 8:43
  partout en France. Je surveillais les enfants soit
• 8:46
  dans des piscines, soit à la mer.
• 8:49
  Même si c'était une activité avec d'énormes responsabilités,
• 8:53
  j'ai aimé travailler avec les enfants.
• 8:58
  So what did this allow me to do? The fact that I was a lifeguard
• 9:03
  in summer camps, wherever it was.
• 9:06
  "Ce qui m'a permis de voyager." Did you get that?
• 9:10
  "Voyager" means to travel, like a voyage.
• 9:14
  Okay? So this allowed me to travel
• 9:19
  "partout en France", everywhere in France.
• 9:22
  Okay? So having a lifeguard
• 9:25
  certificate meant that I could actually hop on any summer camps
• 9:31
  because I had that skill that a lot of people did not have.
• 9:35
  Okay? My job was quite simple, but
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  very scary in some ways because you were looking after children
• 9:42
  that were not yours, so the responsibility was huge,
• 9:47
  especially when you're 18, 19, or 20 years old.
• 9:52
  I had to make sure that the children were safe in the
• 9:57
  swimming pool, but also the sea. I think for me, the worst part
• 10:02
  is the sea, looking after children while they are
• 10:06
  scattering in the sea, and then fearing that you may lose one of
• 10:14
  them on the way. Actually, looking back, I'm not
• 10:17
  sure I could do this job again because I would not want the
• 10:21
  responsibility again. Anyway, so it allowed me to
• 10:27
  travel as a lifeguard throughout France.
• 10:29
  Now, let's have a look at the text again.
• 10:32
  Now, here we're focusing on the "imparfait", and we cover the
• 10:37
  "imparfait" at Learn French with Alexa, the full certified course
• 10:40
  in lesson 23, if you're interested.
• 10:43
  This is me plugging in my course here.
• 10:48
  Anyway, "quand j'étais plus jeune", when I was younger.
• 10:51
  And again, "j'étais" comes from "être", and A-I-S is the ending
• 10:56
  you will see throughout the text because it's "je".
• 11:00
  So the ending of the imperfect for "je", the personal pronoun
• 11:05
  is, the subject pronoun is A-I-S.
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  Okay? So "quand j'étais plus jeune, je
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  faisais beaucoup de natation". I used to do a lot of swimming.
• 11:15
  Okay? So that's very clear.
• 11:17
  J'étais, I was. Okay?
• 11:21
  It can be translated as I used to be, but in that case, when
• 11:24
  you say "quand j'étais plus jeune", when I was younger, here
• 11:28
  use the imperfect and translate it as when I was.
• 11:31
  Okay? "Je faisais beaucoup de
• 11:33
  natation. En plus d'enseigner la natation
• 11:35
  aux enfants", so as well as teaching swimming to younger
• 11:44
  children during my teenage years, I was also a "maître
• 11:50
  nageuse sauveteuse". By the way, if you have answered
• 11:54
  that the work I used to do was teaching, I'm happy with that,
• 11:57
  too. I forgot to mention that that
• 12:00
  was at the beginning of the text.
• 12:02
  Yes, I taught swimming to children in a swimming pool next
• 12:08
  to my house. I did swimming from the age of
• 12:13
  five And for the little anecdote, I was very comfortable
• 12:16
  in water, but my brother wasn't. And do you know how he started
• 12:22
  swimming? Now, bear in mind this is the
• 12:26
  1970s, all right? And he was about seven, because
• 12:30
  he was two years older than me, or is still.
• 12:34
  The swimming instructor took his arm and his leg because he was
• 12:41
  refusing to go in the water, my brother, and he flung him.
• 12:46
  He threw him inside the swimming pool.
• 12:50
  That was it. That was his first experience of
• 12:54
  swimming. That was my brother's first day
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  at swimming. He was literally thrown in the
• 13:01
  water against his will. Can you imagine if that happened
• 13:05
  nowadays? Yeah, there would be a court, a
• 13:09
  lawsuit, or something like that here, because that would be
• 13:14
  considered as violence and abuse, I think.
• 13:16
  But anyway, saying that, he's a very good swimmer, my brother
• 13:20
  now. So, just saying.
• 13:23
  Anyway, so I used to teach, "enseigner" means to teach, "la
• 13:27
  natation", swimming, to children, "aux enfants".
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  And of course it's "aux" because "enfants" is plural here.
• 13:35
  Okay? Instead of saying, "à la", okay,
• 13:39
  "à la", which is feminine, you never say, "à le" or "à les," so
• 13:43
  you would contract that into "au".
• 13:45
  "Pendant mon adolescence", so during my teenage years.
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  Teenage years from 17, 18, 19, I did swimming a little bit in my
• 13:54
  20s as well. So, "J'ai aussi été
• 13:59
  maître-nageuse sauveteuse." Okay.
• 14:01
  I also was, okay, I also have been.
• 14:05
  Can you see here the "passé composé"?
• 14:07
  "J'ai été maître-nageuse sauveteuse."
• 14:10
  Okay, lifeguard. "dans les colonies de vacances",
• 14:13
  in summer camps. "Plusieurs étés d'affilée."
• 14:15
  So here it is of B1 level. Now, "plusieurs étés d'affilée"
• 14:24
  means several summers in a row. So "d'affilée" okay, "plusieurs
• 14:30
  hivers d'affilée" you could say, "plusieurs semaines d'affilée."
• 14:33
  So you could start with several, plusieurs something.
• 14:36
  "Plusieurs heures d'affilée." Okay, that's hours in a row.
• 14:40
  Okay. So learn this expression because
• 14:43
  it's quite good, I think to know.
• 14:47
  Now, "ce qui m'a permis", which allowed me.
• 14:51
  Now, "ce que" is actually a really good phrasal form to
• 15:00
  know. "Ce que", which, "ce qui",
• 15:03
  which, and then verb. So, "ce qui m'a permis, ce qui a
• 15:07
  permis à moi de voyager", which allowed me to travel in France.
• 15:12
  What did I do? "Je surveillais."
• 15:14
  I was looking after. Okay.
• 15:16
  I looked after. "Je surveillais."
• 15:19
  Here is another imperfect. A-I-S at the end because "je" is
• 15:22
  used as a subject pronoun. So, "je surveillais", I used to
• 15:26
  look after. "les enfants", the children.
• 15:29
  Okay? Now listen to, "soit dans des
• 15:32
  piscines, soit à la mer." Now, you heard that the first
• 15:35
  time. What do you think that means,
• 15:38
  "soit, soit"? Now, when you put "soit" and
• 15:41
  then "soit" again, it means either/or.
• 15:43
  Okay? Either in pools or at the
• 15:47
  seaside. Okay?
• 15:48
  Either/or. Okay.
• 15:50
  "Soit, soit." You can use that in any context,
• 15:52
  not necessarily in that context. Okay.
• 15:55
  "Même si c'était une activité avec d'énormes responsabilités."
• 15:59
  So even though it was an activity with huge amount of
• 16:03
  responsibility. "C'était", again, imparfait.
• 16:06
  Une activité with huge responsibilities.
• 16:09
  Okay. "avec d'énormes
• 16:11
  responsabilités." "J'ai aimé", here, passé
• 16:14
  composé, "travailler", infinitive of to work, "avec les
• 16:17
  enfants". I loved working with children.
• 16:20
  And as a matter of fact, if you don't know, that's how I started
• 16:24
  my career as a French teacher. I had a company which taught
• 16:30
  French at primary schools and nurseries here in the UK.
• 16:34
  This is from three years old to 11 years old.
• 16:37
  So that was my specialty, and that was what I was known for at
• 16:42
  the time. If you're enjoying learning
• 16:44
  French with me and would like to go even further, my certified
• 16:48
  complete French course brings everything together in one
• 16:52
  place. You'll have lessons, quizzes,
• 16:55
  and support guides to help you reach your goals.
• 16:58
  And it's all taught by me. Use code ALEXAPOD for 15% off.
• 17:04
  Now, you may wonder, I don't know, but I'm going to tell you
• 17:08
  anyway, what was the worst thing that happened while I was a
• 17:12
  lifeguard? Thankfully, nobody got hurt
• 17:16
  badly. Nobody drowned.
• 17:18
  Oh my gosh, it would have been terrible.
• 17:21
  And I think I was so vigilant because I was in charge of
• 17:25
  people's children here, and I did not want anybody to be--
• 17:31
  Actually, looking back, it was quite a responsibility.
• 17:34
  Yeah. Like I said earlier on, I would
• 17:36
  never do this job again. Too much responsibility.
• 17:39
  Anyway, I remember I was a lifeguard in the lake.
• 17:44
  And this boy, and that was a teen, like 13 or 14 years old,
• 17:49
  dived in. He dived in.
• 17:53
  He literally dived in. But he thought it was deeper
• 18:00
  than it was really. So he came out quite jolly, and
• 18:05
  he said, "Yeah, okay, it's not too bad.
• 18:08
  Did you see how I dived?" And to dive is "plonger" in
• 18:12
  French. Plonger.
• 18:13
  Except that when he came out of the water, his head was full of
• 18:17
  blood. And he basically had gone a
• 18:23
  little bit too close to the stones in the bottom of the lake
• 18:28
  and did not realize, because he was drenched in water, that he
• 18:34
  had cut open his forehead. Anyway, so at this point, we
• 18:41
  looked at him in complete shock, and he did not-- And that's what
• 18:47
  was funny in some ways. He didn't realize that he was
• 18:51
  injured until we pointed it out. At this point, there was panic.
• 18:55
  So don't worry, he's fine. Well, that was about 20, 30
• 18:59
  years ago. He's a full-grown man now.
• 19:04
  I don't know whether he remembers that.
• 19:06
  But we took him to the emergency, and he was looked
• 19:11
  after. Anyway, that was the worst thing
• 19:13
  that happened to me during my time as a maitre nageuse
• 19:17
  sauveteuse. Okay, so that's it for this
• 19:21
  little episode on the job I used to do as a teen.
• 19:24
  Hopefully, you've learnt a lot. And remember that we cover all
• 19:29
  these grammatical points in my course, which is followed by
• 19:33
  thousands and thousands of people.
• 19:36
  If you want to check the website out, it's
• 19:41
  learnfrenchwithexa.com. The YouTube channel has 2.4
• 19:44
  million subscribers. It's Learn French with Alexa,
• 19:47
  and we are on social media everywhere as well.
• 19:50
  Now, please, if you like these kind of exercises, let me know
• 19:55
  and leave me a comment, or like the podcast and share it with as
• 20:01
  many people as you can. That's it for me.
• 20:06
  Au revoir, à bientôt, bisou, bisou.