# French websites



## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

I'm looking to improve my French skills and thought about surfing French websites. I know there are some francophones here-- are there any sites you can recommend? I don't mean websites where I can learn French, I mean any site on any topic of interest-- any cool, interesting site.

Preferably a site from French Canada but anywhere else is fine, too. Hm... I wonder if there are any French podcasts?


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

OSX and Macs

http://www.macquebec.com/
http://www..vnunet.fr/
http://www.macgeneration.com/
http://www.macgamezone.com/
http://www.frtracker.com/
http://www.osxfacile.com/rub_liens.html
http://www.mac4ever.com/

Podcasts:
http://www.micronuit.com/
http://www.arteradio.com/home.html
http://www.blogotheque.net/radio.php3
http://www.blogotheque.net/

If you give me topics of interest, I will help.


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## miguelsanchez (Feb 1, 2005)

"...topic of interest-- any cool, interesting site":

http://www.playboy.fr/


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

miguelsanchez said:


> "...topic of interest-- any cool, interesting site":
> 
> http://www.playboy.fr/


Tell me, miguelsanchez, how do you know that Sketch is a guy?


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## iMatt (Dec 3, 2004)

Newspapers are often a good place to work on language skills.

You can get a sampling of a range of them from both Canada and abroad by selecting "Canada français" at news.google.com, which has the added bonus of being customizable so that you can make the page show more of what interests you.


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## ThirtyOne (Jan 18, 2003)

I'm in a similar situation. Having a francophone wife, and trying to raise a bilingual child when I am an anglophone with poor french skills can get a bit tough. I've been trying hard to work on my French. iMatt's suggestion is a good one, and one that I often use. If a website has a French-language option or version, like Google News or Gmail, opt for that. You can quickly switch to the English version if you need a rough translation, since there's no point in reading something you're not understanding.

I also suggest listening to Radio-Canada if you can. I often just leave it on in the background just to absorb the sounds of the language.


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## Carex (Mar 1, 2004)

ThirtyOne, you and I are in the same situation. Quebecoise wife, bilingual child in kindergarden (maternelle) and me the dumb anglophone from the prairies. I can understand conversations well enough, but not having been immersed much, except for the once a year or every other year that we visit family, I still have trouble becoming part of a conversation with more than a rudimentary answer. I'm sure my inlaws think I am a deaf mute with no opinions sometimes.


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Carex said:


> I'm sure my inlaws think I am a deaf mute with no opinions sometimes.


I am sure they don't think that!
That is unless you are a no-opinion self-contained carbon based life form...
A large number of families in Quebec have relatives west of Ottawa and in the US. Mine included.
And each time I remember the social gatherings that put us together, I can still feel all the fun we had, adults and children together, in trying to understand each other and agree on something. These are only pleasant moments.


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## Carex (Mar 1, 2004)

DP004, I should have posted a smiley with that. My tongue, which you can't see, was firmly planted in my cheek. 

I am self contained though?


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## Moscool (Jun 8, 2003)

The daddy of all French Mac sites is macbidouille.com

Get your news (including RSS) from lemonde.fr

Get your European sports news from lequipe.fr

And if you are into photography: photim.com

Any more?


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Photography: check also: http://www.megapixel.net/
Bilingual, prices in can.$

Didn't know Photim.com. It is great!
Thanks Moscool.


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## JAGflyer (Jan 10, 2005)

I sometimes read Le Presse ( www.Cyberpress.ca ) from QC. They also have several different newspapers from smaller towns (Le Droit?). Check it out. It is excellent practice for people trying to improve in French.


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## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

*merci!*

Thanks everyone!
These are great suggestions and I'm going to try them. megapixel sounds interesting. I listen to Radio-Canada-- especialy Friday nights-- great music! 

DP004: other interests I have besides the usual (tv, movies, music) include: cartooning, web design, bodybuilding, astronomy, techno, recording, shortwave radio, environmental issues, and um... strange how it's hard to think up everything you like! When I surf the web, it's usually for entertainment's sake. I mean, funny sites such as engrish.com. 

P.S. Yes, I'm a guy


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Quick tool: If you set-up your Preferences in Google for:"Search only for pages in -French- by ticking the box and unticking the -English- box, all your results will be in french. If you enter an english word, you can even get web sites in french with this set-up.
Good luck!


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## Willy Z (Oct 25, 2004)

JAGflyer said:


> I sometimes read Le Presse ( www.Cyberpress.ca ) from QC. They also have several different newspapers from smaller towns (Le Droit?). Check it out. It is excellent practice for people trying to improve in French.


Je veux preciser que l'adresse n'est pas la bonne.

il faut ecrire www.cyberpresse.ca

pourquoi ne pas commencer un forum en francais ?

A bon entendeur, salut


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Willy Z said:


> J
> pourquoi ne pas commencer un forum en francais ?
> 
> A bon entendeur, salut


Bien que la décision finale appartienne au maire d'ehMac, je crois que mes questions ou mes points de vue seront vus et partagés par beaucoup plus de membres si ils sont exprimés en anglais. Il est indéniable que ce qui fait l'utilité d'un forum, c'est la force du nombre.

Rien ne m'empêche d'aller à MacGénération ou MacQuébec pour m'exprimer en français.

D'un autre côté, et j'espère que vous êtes d'accord sur ce point, je crois sincèrement qu'il n'y aurait aucun problème si un membre d'ehMac exprimait des diffilcutés à écrire en anglais et demandait l'aide des membres francophones du groupe pour répondre à son problème ou encore pour traduire son message et ainsi pouvoir bénéficier de l'expérience des membres d'un bout à l'autre du pays.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

Nous avons eu un forum français brièvement en 2003. Malheureusement, il y avait peu de participants. Peut-être ce serait un bon temps pour demander au maire si le forum pourrait être ressuscité. Même sans un forum spécial cependant, je suis certain que les membres d'ehMac feraient bon accueil à des discussions en français, dans les forum existants...


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## GWR (Jan 2, 2003)

EhMac en francais?!?! Je suis totalement d'accord!!! Ca ne peut que faire du bien à tous les anglophones du Canada de lire des messages en francais.  
Plus de Francais sur EhMac!!!  
Pöur répondre à la question qui a été demandé, je crois que le lien suivant pourrait être utile: 
http://www.canoe.com/


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## SINC (Feb 16, 2001)

Well, you guys just left us non french speaking people out of the loop.

Kind of feels just like Ottawa does to us.


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

From a regular follower of your interventions in "Joke du jour" ( I am a real fan), Iet me share the loop.

The original thread was diverted to the possibility of having discussions in french in ehMac.
To my surprise, I learned that it started back in 2003 but was stopped due to lack of players.
Some of us appear to be very interested, if approved by the mayor of course.
The format was very briefly discussed and so far the discussions in french would be part of the regular forums. I guess more discussions would occur if this idea is developped in its own thread.
In my humble personal opinion, it would ease the resolution of problems of french members having difficulties in expressing them in english by either answering them in french or by translating the questions or the answers and still allow the use the pool of coast-to-coast members. 
Dat's about it.


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## ArtistSeries (Nov 8, 2004)

DP004 said:


> In my humble personal opinion, it would ease the resolution of problems of french members having difficulties in expressing them in english by either answering them in french or by translating the questions or the answers and still allow the use the pool of coast-to-coast members.


In my experience some french members will not post on an english site for fear of having their written english laughed at or derided. 

Instead, why not post your questions in French, why not have French threads (ask the mayor of course). There are a lot of good resources on this site and in the end having a bigger pool of people that can help with questions and have a different point of view may help this site grow.


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## Carex (Mar 1, 2004)

Why not ease into it with a thread en Francais to start off with. As participation grows, you can bolster your support for a French section. It could start out as an alternate Shang in the other official language.

My hope, being a reader of french, but one who cannot form sentences well or spell well, is that I would be welcome to respond in English if the subject matter was interesting or important to me.


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## Willy Z (Oct 25, 2004)

As a French guy who immigrated here some 7 years ago, it makes sense d'utiliser les deux languages in the same phrase.
so why not demander in french pour avoir une answer in english.

I guess most of le monde est bilingue 

Who said it sounds like Ottawa ?  Montreal is pareil


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Willy Z said:


> As a French guy who immigrated here some 7 years ago, it makes sense d'utiliser les deux languages in the same phrase.
> so why not demander in french pour avoir une answer in english.
> 
> I guess most of le monde est bilingue
> ...


Je comprends maintenant la référence à Jar-Jarbinks!
Le type le plus incompréhensible du cinéma parlant...
 

Je vais essayer de trouver le temps de partir un fil en français.
On doit centraliser la discussion.


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## Carex (Mar 1, 2004)

Franglais?


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## sketch (Sep 10, 2004)

Willy Z said:


> As a French guy who immigrated here some 7 years ago, it makes sense d'utiliser les deux languages in the same phrase.
> so why not demander in french pour avoir une answer in english.


Je le like cette idea!  Although je suis sure it can be confuse-ing  

A little off topic: How come the radio never plays French or Aboriginal songs? There was a time when we had Kashtin and even Mitsou were played in the radio here but there are lots of Quebecoise artists today (even Franco-Ontarien) that are played on MusiquePlus.


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## DP004 (Mar 9, 2005)

Local radios cater to their local markets.
Check
http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/page?page=provs
or make search: Stations radio


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## Ingenu (Jun 4, 2003)

To the original poster : you can also listen to Radio-Canada radio on the Web (WMV format only) at this address : http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/ (choose "Première chaîne" then "Écoutez en direct" on the following page).


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