Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé de pire pour toi la semaine dernière ? 😓

What is the worst thing that happened to you during the past week?

Coucou ☕️🇫🇷🥐 I'm Amélie Laurent and this is my French newsletter. I supercharge your progress from A2 to B2 through colloquial dialogues.
If you've received this, then you either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
If someone forwarded it and you want to subscribe, then you can click on this handy little button:

Bonjour à tous et à toutes ! 👋 It's great to have you here for another edition.

I’m back in France atm, is it for a break, is it for work? Am I quite sure? 🤷🏼
But being in France is always a blessing, trying to squeeze the last few late August evenings out of this summer.

Part of French with Amélie’s whole style is an upbeat—someone recently called it ‘breezy’ (which I took as a huge compliment)—way of going about things. We stay optimistic, about life and about learning French.
There’s far too much seriousness and stress in the language-learning space, so we try to avoid that.

But bad things happen in life, so if you want to use a language, you gotta be able to talk about bad things happening in the language. Falling in love in French might be beautiful, but saving someone’s life because you knew French is just as beautiful in my book!

So today—in a change from our normal billing—we’re talking about bad things happening. Namely, the worst thing that happened you this week. 👎🏼

You can be enjoying your summer holidays when all of a sudden…. 😂

We all secretly know the only way to truly learn a language are real-life conversations and experiences. Lessons and grammar can only take us so far.
While real-life experiences are difficult to recreate, my colloquial conversational dialogues help you learn authentic French in context. They’re how real French people actually speak.

If you have any questions or concerns - comment below or simply reply to this email.

Gros Bisous! A x

Dialogue Audio 🎧

Dialogue du Jour

Maxime : Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé de pire pour toi la semaine dernière, Lilou ?

Lilou : Oh, Maxime, j'ai eu une semaine affreuse. Mon vélo a été volé. J'ai tenu pour acquis ✪ qu'il serait en sécurité dans le garage.

Maxime : Ah non, c'est vraiment pas de chance ✪ ! Moi, j'ai oublié de réveiller pour un examen important. J'étais vraiment à l'ouest ✪ ce jour-là.

Lilou : Oh non, ça c'est vraiment le pire ! Qu'est-ce que tu as fait ?

Maxime : J'ai essayé de parler avec le professeur, mais il m'a dit d'aller me faire cuire un œuf ✪. Il n'a pas accepté mon excuse.

Lilou : C'est vraiment injuste. Parfois, les choses ne se passent pas comme prévu.

Maxime : C'est vrai. Mais bon, on apprend de nos erreurs, n'est-ce pas ?

Lilou : Absolument, Maxime. La prochaine fois, je ferai en sorte de bien verrouiller ✪ mon vélo.

Maxime : Et moi, je vais mettre plusieurs alarmes pour m'assurer de me réveiller à temps ✪.

Lilou : Bonne idée. Espérons que la semaine prochaine sera meilleure pour nous deux.

Maxime : Oui, croisons les doigts ✪, Lilou.

♡ 𝕃𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕨 👇

---

✪ Notes

tenir pour acquis = take for granted Ex. ’L'immortalité est une chose facile à tenir pour acquise’ (fyi can also be used with prendre.. pour acquis)

pas de chance = quel manque de chance ! = no luck / unlucky. See my dialogue from a few weeks ago for all things *luck*. Alt. pas de bol ! ✨(colq)

être à l'ouest = ne plus très bien savoir ce que l’on fait ou dit = not be with it/be spaced out. Dig deeper here🔗

va te faire cuire un œuf 🧩✨ = get lost / take a running jump. Another great French phrase in today’s conversation. Stronger and more vulgar: aller se faire voir (sod off)

verrouiller = to lock/bolt. un verrou = a lock/bolt (as on a bathroom stall)

me réveiller = to wake up. rater/louper le réveil = miss the alarm Ex. ‘Désolé, j’ai raté le réveil.’

croisons les doigts = 🤞🏼

*✨ = especially ‘Frenchie’ words/phrases you should try and use more
*🧩 = ‘canned’ expressions or phrases that are best learned as a whole, like puzzle-pieces.

Writing Prompt ✍️

The worst thing that happened to me was getting caught in a heavy rainstorm without an umbrella or any shelter nearby. I normally pride myself on always being prepared! I was drenched from head to toe, and it made getting through the day quite uncomfortable. Like it was so bad, the baker man laughed at me when I walked in!

Alors, qu'est-ce qui s'est passé de pire pour toi la semaine dernière ?

All answers are welcome. One word.. or one sentence.
Write me your answer in the comments. I can’t wait to read them! 👇🏼

---

Translation

M: What was the worst thing that happened to you last week, L?

L: Oh, M, I had a terrible week. My bike was stolen. I took it for granted that it would be safe in the garage.

M: Oh no, that's really bad luck! I forgot to wake up for an important exam. I was really out of it that day.

L: Oh no, that's the worst! What did you do?

M: I tried to talk to the teacher, but he told me to get lost. He wouldn't accept my excuse.

L: It's really unfair. Sometimes things don't go as planned.

M: That's true. But you learn from your mistakes, right?

L: Absolutely, M. Next time, I'll make sure to lock my bike.

M: And I'll set several alarms to make sure I wake up on time.

L: Good idea. Let's hope next week will be better for both of us.

M: Yes, fingers crossed, L.

Exercise - Fill in the blank 💪

Quickly test your comprehension, accelerate your learning. 🚀

1. Ce n'est vraiment ___ que tu aies raté ton bus.
   It's really unfortunate that you missed your bus.

2. Quand mon chef a commencé à crier, j'ai voulu lui dire ___ .
   When my boss started to yell, I wanted to tell him to go take a running jump.

3. Il ne faut jamais ___ les bonnes choses dans la vie.
   We should never take the good things in life for granted.

4. Il est difficile de ___ tôt le matin pour faire du jogging.
   It's hard to wake up early in the morning to go jogging.

5. ___ pour le beau temps demain pour notre pique-nique.
   Let's cross our fingers for good weather tomorrow for our picnic.

If you’re struggling the ✪ Notes section is always a good place to look. 😉 The answers are all in the dialogue or notes section.

[NO PEAKING] Answer Key: 1. pas de chance 2. va te faire cuire un œuf 3. tenir pour acquis 4. me réveiller 5. croisons les doigts

👑 Comment of the week

Quelle est ton équipe de sport préférée ? 🏈⚾️ Laura a répondu:

Cet dialogue m’a rappelé que pendant mon voyage au Irlande, nous avons pris un « hitchhiker » sur la rue. Elle s’appelle Jacqueline. Elle était un médecin français et elle habite à Marseille. Elle avait 70 ans et elle a juste commencer d’explorer le monde après une vie du travaille dur. Très inspirant!

(I know my conjugations are probably a mess here but I’m rolling with it)

"Rolling with it" est littéralement la meilleure (et peut-être la seule) façon d'apprendre véritablement une langue. Continuez à rouler, tout le monde ! Et j'adore cette histoire, c'est vraiment une source d'inspiration. Allez Jacqueline !

⏪ Catch Up On Recent Dialogues

• Le Tour de France 🚴🏼🚴‍♂️🚴‍♀️

• Quels sont quelques-uns de tes objectifs à court terme ? 🎯✅

Une Façon d'utiliser ce Dialogue

These dialogues are a very simple tool. Yet this allows them to be versatile and endlessly flexible to you and your learning style. 
Here’s one way you could use the dialogue this week:

• ✏️ Print out the dialogue, and highlight or underline the most difficult parts.

This can help to freshen things up 🍃 Having physical paper and pen creates new connections in our brains. You can then make flashcards or add the new content to your language journal [guide🔗, inspiration🔗].

Check out my quick guide🔗 for different ways you can learn with these dialogues. Perfect if you’re finding them too easy or too hard. 🙌🏻

---

Private French Lessons

If you’re a serious intermediate student, and would like a private lesson, you can book one here →. Please note there are limited spots available, it is '“first-come first-served” as you say in English.

✉️ Votre invitation à Paris

coutureculttt

𝔻𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕠 ♡ 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕠𝕟 𝕊𝕦𝕓𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜👇

If you want a link to message someone or share on socials (this is the biggest thing you can do to help me grow! 🌱) here it is:

If you have any type of feedback please let me know in the comments. Or you can just reply to this email.

À bientôt pour de nouvelles aventures en français! 🇫🇷

Amélie x