Using linking words
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 11:44AM Linking words are an important part of fluid written expression. They are also important to understanding written texts.
Today's writing activity will be focused on using linking words to express cause, results, contrasts and more.
The subject of your writing will be this YouTube video entitled "How to Fake French...when you don't really know how to speak it.". It's quite funny, but you may or may not agree with the image of stereotypical young French woman, or the French in general, that is presented.
STEP BY STEP:
1. Work in pairs
2. Watch the video once or twice. Make sure you understand the English titles.
3. Write about the video. The objective is to use as many linking words as possible without being ridiculous!
4. There is no pre-established format for the writing. You can try to write a unified summary/reaction, or simply write separate sentences using a selection of linking words from the list presented.
5. This is an in-class activity and should not turn into "homework." So, during the last five minutes of class, submit to me everything you have done, either as a comment here or via my Gmail account for your class.
Reader Comments (5)
Linking Words - How to fake french when you don't really speak it
This video has been published by ericaguaca the 30 July 2011. It talks about advice to fake French when we don’t speak French in order to show French language’s defects.
In my opinion, there is a stereotype which is particularly true:
Make sound with our mouth to show our agreement is a phenomenon which is really typical to French people. Sometimes, french people use noises to be understood. Currently, it is a practical which is admitting in our customs and I think it’s really interesting to show foreigner’s point of view because it’s an aspect which is really noticed for them.
Then, there are several stereotypes which are not really false but which are deformed:
First, show enthusiasm for wine is a good thing to gratify French people because they are really proud of their wine which is unique. Nevertheless, I don’t really understand why in the video we see a woman who doesn’t stop to drink wine as if French people like alcohol. Obviously, we are proud of wine but it’s not a reason to considerate that we are alcoholic.
Then, use swear words to emphasize approval, in my mind, is false but it is true that French people are often grumpy.
Finally, there are stereotypes that I don’t agree: “eat to avoid having to speak“and “try to blend in”. These aspects show that french people don’t really have reflection and make a point ironic a point which is false.
In short, I think this video is a good thing for French people because we can see aspects about our customs because it’s easier for foreigners to see it contrary to french people.
I think that this video is a kind of humoristic caricature of the French behaviours. The author who is doubtless an american person (in collaboration with a franch girl) wants to show us the differents tics, that french people are using every day. At the beginning of the video we can see the presentation of the step 1 and so on to step 5.
In any case, I'm french and I found this video very funny because this is a good caricature of the french tics although the context and the place are not very original I think. In my opinion the tic which is more funny and true than other it's the fact that franch people said everytime "putain" or "merde" in a discussion.
In the future, In my opinion it coulb be very interesting that the two same girls do a caricature of american peopole. Besides, I think that American have some interesting habits even if they are more mixed.
How to fake French.
This humorous video talks about stereotypes. The two protagonists are women and they are trying to show what our defects are. In fact, they are discussing in a coffee restaurant, and they explain how to fake french when you don’t speak french. The first advice is to show an enthusiasm for wine. So, at the beginning, the actresses are drinking wine in big glasses. Obviously, french are very proud of their wonderful wine, and as a result, this video is a way to make fun of the fench people. Furthermore, according to the author, if you want to seem being french, you have to make sounds with your mouth to show signs of agreement. In conclusion, I would like that some french realize some video about American defects...
This funny video entitled « How to fake french…when you don’t really speak it » resumes in five steps some tics of language done by french people.
Two women are speaking at a table at lunch time. One of them is French and is speaking without interruption whereas the other is Anglo Saxon and doesn’t seem to know the language of the person she’s speaking to. Despite her lack of vocabulary, the english woman will use several tics of language in order to not stop the conversation.
First of all, the Anglo Saxon woman drinks wine, a representative product of french gastronomy, and pretends to like that to avoid to say a word. Later, the woman will produce different sounds with her mouth to show her agreement ans as a result the french person won’t stop her talk. Then, after the wine it’s the food which is used by the Anglo Saxon woman as alibi to not pronounce something. In the end, the person will say a serie of swear words to give an other proof of her agreement and her comprehension.
In short, here is an ironical but terribly realistic video about french tics of language !
Linking words are words that link a sentence to show equality or a relationship. They are also known as discourse markers or sequence markers.