Business French Lesson/ Intermediate Level

3 blue skyscrapersDo you need to speak French for your job or are you planning to work in France or in a French-speaking country? Then this course is for you!

This course aims to enable you to strengthen your knowledge and introduce new structures and vocabulary gradually. You will build up your confidence in all four skills with the emphasis on speaking and listening.

What topics will we cover?

Here is what you might cover over a typical course. It is flexible rather than prescriptive, in that it would be adapted to your specific level, aims and interests.

Topics & Vocabulary:

  • Ordering/ buying something
  • Describing a product
  • Describing chronological events
  • Asking for the bill/ the price
  • Asking a favour/ opinion
  • Describing your job/ company
  • Talking about the company’s history
  • Talking in details about the company’s activity
  • Explaining a product’s making process and the different stages
  • Expressing duration of an action
  • Giving/ asking for directions
  • Describing professional competencies and qualities
  • Writing a CV
  • How to write a French cover letter
  • Talking about your professional experience
  • Talking about work conditions
  • Describing work routine
  • Understanding and expressing instructions and ban on doing something
  • Explaining a future project
  • Simple business correspondence
  • Making suggestions
  • Understanding and giving bank details
  • Naming body parts and describing symptoms
  • Explaining how something works/ how to deal when something breaks down
  • Talking about past events
  • Describing a person

Grammar:

  • Indefinite articles
  • Demonstrative adjectives
  • Questions with « lequel/ laquelle/ lesquel(le)s etc »
  • Comparatives
  • Questions with « qu’est ce que/ quoi »
  • Savoir/ connaître: how to use them.
  • Other type of questions
  • Time indicators (il y a/ depuis/ pendant)
  • Past tense: imparfait
  • Nouns
  • Relative pronouns (qui/ que/ où)
  • Indefinite pronoun « on »
  • Direct pronouns when using the imperative tense.
  • Reflexive verbs
  • Future
  • Impersonal forms
  • Indirect pronouns
  • Pronoun “y”
  • Present continuous
  • Conditional (polite request)
  • Pronoun “en”
  • Past tenses : passé composé/ imparfait compared
  • Gerund : «  en chantant = while speaking)

Skills Work:

  • Lots of speaking/active practice
  • Role-plays
  • Lots of listening
  • Pronunciation (key sounds, liaisons, rhythm)

Cultural content:

  • Business lunch etiquette
  • Do’s and don’ts when invited by a French person
  • Salaries in France
  • Working hours in France
  • Working time/ Free time
  • Different type of companies in France
  • Ritual and social codes in a French company
  • Dress codes
  • TIPS
  • The French healthcare

The topics/ vocabulary or grammar won’t be studied in this order.

Material: teacher’s own material, selected texts & newspaper articles, real life documents, comic strips, online material, PP slides. It is possible to use a textbook if you wish to do so, we can talk about it.

All the lessons are truly tailor made courses and customisable. I will listen to you and adapt and modify them where and when appropriate. 

To discuss your needs or course content, please contact me.