Beginner Season 1 S1 #13 - Do You Wear Spandex To Work?
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Bonjour, je suis Céline. Et moi, c'est Sylvain. Sam here. Do you wear spandex to work? In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask informally about a third-person job and the feminization of profession. The conversation is between Aurélie and Daniel. Daniel's brother caught Aurélie's attention in the family picture. Speakers are friends, therefore they will be speaking informally. Et ton frère, il fait quoi ?

J'y crois pas. S'il te plaît. OK. Mon frère est artisan ébéniste. Il a sa propre entreprise. Ah ouais? Et il joue à la guitare. La guitare? Moi aussi. One more time, slowly. Encore une fois, lentement. Et ton frère, il fait quoi? J'y crois pas. S'il te plaît. OK. Mon frère est...

Ah ouais? La guitare, moi aussi. Encore une fois, avec l'anglais. And your brother, what does he do? J'y crois pas.

I don't believe this! S'il te plaît, please. OK. Mon frère est artisan ébéniste. Il a sa propre entreprise. OK. My brother is a cabinet maker. He has his own compagnie. Ah ouais? Oh yeah? Et il joue à la guitare. And he plays the guitar. La guitare? Moi aussi! The guitar? Me too!

So guys, do you play any instrument? No. No? No. L'accordéon. L'accordéon? L'accordéon. No. Oui, mais l'accordéon, c'est très français. Accordéon is really French. How do you say accordéon in English? Accordéon. Oh. Okay, there's a famous woman. Do you know her? I'm listening. Yvette Horner. Oh, Yvette Horner. Who's that? Who's that?

Yvette Honner is a famous, famous, famous accordionist. Oh, yeah, I have her. I don't have her. No, you don't have me neither. But you remember that was a long time ago. Gauthier. Gauthier. Jean-Paul Gauthier dressed her. I don't think. I don't remember. She's a rousse. Redhead? Yeah. Yeah.

Me too. No, no, red hair, not red head. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. It was another joke. Oh my God, today there are a lot of jokes. It's in shape. So, yeah, but some people play it. Ah, some people play it. Yeah. Do you play? Me? Oh, no, not at all. Why? It's really difficult to play. Maybe. And do you know the balmusettes? Balmusettes, but that doesn't exist anymore. Oh, that's... No, but it's very French. It's the accordion. Okay, okay. What is it? Can you explain? Balmusettes? Okay, let's...

Sylvain, what is a balmusette? Normally, for the 14th of July, the French national... Holiday. Holiday. At the night, you...

He's laughing at me. That's not to be confused with the 4th of July. That's a different day. Oh, yeah, 14th. On the night of the 13th, there is organized popular party. Like a block party. Yeah, a block party. Yeah. Block party. Yeah. Where everybody dance on the sound of the accordion. It sounds good. Oui. Voilà.

Oui. Eh bien, parlez-moi de votre enfance. I was thinking about how great that party must be in France on the 13th. We should go. Yeah. It's a little bit far from here, but yeah. That's okay. We can make you our...

block party. Yeah, and we can have it, let's have it between the 4th and 14th. That way we can celebrate Independence Day and Bastille Day. That's great, a party for 10 days. Yeah, lots of hot dogs, soda, cheeseburgers. Yeah, and cheese. And wine. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese.

Les Américains. Oh, les Américains. Les Américains. Alors, Sam, on va... Yeah, I'm American, yeah. Oh, sorry. I know you're American. It's so obvious. I mean, you don't have to mention it. Okay, let's move on to the vocabulary. Yes, vocab, vocab, vocab. Yahoo! Vocabulary. Everybody put down your hot dogs after the vocabulary. Arrête avec les hot dogs. Tu as faim, hein? Tu as faim? Always. The first item? J'y crois.

I believe it. J'y crois. J'y crois. Next. Artisan. Artisan. Artisan. Next. Ébéniste. Craftsman. É-bé-niste. Ébéniste. Next. Propre. Own or clean. Propre. Propre. Next.

Enterprise. Enterprise. Next, jouer. To play. Jouer. Jouer. Next, guitare. Guitare. Guitare. Guitare. And lastly, moi aussi. Me too or me also. Moi aussi. Moi aussi.

Let's look at some vocabulary usage. Our first word is croire. A verb. Of course. Meaning to believe. We use it to talk about opinions and beliefs. Je crois aux extraterrestres. I believe in aliens. Oh, me too. Do you believe they're going to land on the Eiffel Tower too? Yes, they're already there. Sure. Oh.

I don't know about you guys. I'm a little bit skeptical, though. Moi aussi, je suis sceptique. They are living with us, I'm sure. Where? Near us. Oh, mon Dieu. Are we the aliens or are they the aliens? That's a question we can answer later. Okay. Yes. The next word is propre. Clean. Propre comme un sous-neuf. Clean is a new coin. Propre is an adjective which has two definitions. This one is used...

In order to say something's clean. However, in the dialogue, it is used as own to indicate ownership. J'ai mon propre appartement. I have my own apartment. Or I have my own flat. J'ai ma propre opinion. I have my own opinion. We noticed that already. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Okay, the next word is ébéniste. A craftsmanship.

A craftsman? Oui. Are they popular? Of course. It's handmade. It's not the cheapest way to get furniture. But everywhere in France, there's an appreciation of handcraft, even though not everybody can afford it. That's a rare job now. But it pays. It pays and it's respect also. Okay. I'm sure each region has its own furniture style. Interesting. Can't wait to discover some old traditional houses and furniture. Oui. The next word is jouet.

This is an easy verb to conjugate. The main reason is because it's a regular verb from the first verb group. Par exemple, j'aime jouer aux mille bornes. C'est quoi mille bornes? It means 1,000 kilometers. It's a card game where each player is a driver and you have to stop them to reach 1,000 kilometers. I wonder if that's like Tonk. But anyway, that sounds neat. Yeah, no, it's really fun. Well...

Well, you can play with family too. Easy to play also. Maybe. Oh, wow. Like poker. No, poker is more like adult games. And you play money. Yes. You can play for cookies too. Also, you can say, Je joue au football. Je joue au football. I play soccer. Exactement. Oh, I'm sorry. I play football. Oh.

That's right. For all you American listeners, they're talking about soccer and not football. Yeah. Did you know, Sam, that in France, every town and every village has its own soccer field? Football field. You see, I'm becoming American. Oh, that's a good thing. Yeah. So each town or village has its own soccer field to American listeners or has its own football field. So enough with the jokes. Let's move on to the grammar, but we'll still keep it fun. Hmm.

So as mentioned in the dialogue, we will study occupation and how to name them for women and men. Pay close attention as there are seven categories to form the feminine and masculine form respectively. Great. So what would be host in French? Animateur. Merci, Sylvain. All the profession in French end in « terre ».

or in trice, the former for masculine items and the latter for feminine items. Donc, un animateur, une animatrice. Ah, so all the professions in French and then tre or trice. How about professor? Good question. Some occupations are identical in both genders. Un professeur ou une professeure.

Oh, I'm really confused. But not so confused. I have a simple question. Is there a way to know which profession doesn't change? That's a really good question. That's a killer, actually. No, only with practice and exposure to the language. That's right. So that's too bad there's no exact science to it. Our profession, ending in a silent E as comptable, are identical at the feminine and masculine form. Ah, perfect.

So anything ending with E is identical. Oh, okay, that's easy. Okay, let's say you're still studying. You are an étudiant. As étudiant ends with a consonant, just add the feminine mark, the letter E, to make it feminine. So a lady who is a student, that would be une étudiante. Then there are professions that end in EUR as vendeur. If you find one in EUR,

heure, preceded by the consonant other than T, the feminine is heureuse. So, un vendeur, une vendeuse. How many more? Are you bored now? Okay, we are moving on, right? Oh, pipe down. I guess I better be nice to the French alliance here. Where were you, Céline? Talking about occupation ending in heure? Yes, in ER. As for un cuisinier, a chef, add an

If you got lost during any of that, check out the grammar bank in our lesson. The last two are the easiest, I think. The occupation ending on I-E-N. As...

un musicien, the feminine form is musicienne. That's right, Sylvain, you just add ne and you have it. I'll stop the tottering soon and this is the last one. The profession ending in e, the e with the accent aigu. Just add the letter e. Concerning the accent and for more information, check the notes section in the grammar bank of this lesson. I think it would be a good idea to review everything.

Okay, thank you guys. Okay, now let's practice. I was thinking about the STEM thing. Oh, les grands esprits se rencontrent. Great minds think alike. Or at least one. Sam, vendeur, féminine? No, masculine. But let's... No, no, no, no, guys. That's too easy. Let's recap. How would you ask about someone's job? Do you remember that lesson? Oh.

I don't. I don't either. Come on, you're French. You know that. Okay, for example, Sam. What's your profession? Qu'est-ce que tu fais? Or qu'est-ce que vous faites? So, Sam, qu'est-ce que tu fais? What's my job? Je suis animateur.

C'est un travail intéressant. And Céline, what's her job? Céline. Oh. Pouvez-je poser une question, Céline? Tout à fait. May I ask you a question? Qu'est-ce que tu fais? Je suis chômeuse. You're out of work? Exactement. C'est dommage. Mais oui. Désolé. Et vous, Sylvain, qu'est-ce que vous faites? Je suis professeur. You're a professor? Fantastique. Bravo, Sylvain. Tu es très intelligent, n'est-ce pas? Non.

Plus ou moins, non ? Plus ou moins. Until next time, au revoir. À bientôt. Au revoir, Monsieur l'Américain. Et ton frère, il fait quoi ? J'y crois pas. S'il te plaît. OK. Mon frère est artisan ébéniste. Il a sa propre entreprise. Ah ouais ? Et il joue à la guitare. La guitare ? Moi aussi. Hum...