Spoken French • Le goût des autres
Practice your listening comprehension and prononciation
Last week’s podcast was about Le Goût des Autres, Agnès Jaoui’s 2000 film. As promised, here is a scene to practice your listening comprehension and pronounciation.
No subtitled video this time because the film is blocked on YouTube US for copyright reasons. But that’s actually fine. It forces you to really listen. And that’s where the work happens.
Each line comes with its analysis and a short audio recording for shadowing. And if you make it to the end, the English lesson scene is waiting as a bonus. Your chance to have a little fun at the French characters’ expense.
How to watch it
Watch the scene once just for the atmosphere. Then listen again and try to write down what you hear. Replay as many times as you need. The goal is to catch as much as possible and get a feel for the meaning. Then compare what you wrote with the analysis below. The more time you spend listening, the more you’ll get out of it.
Use the audio recordings to practise shadowing: repeat each line out loud, as close to the original as you can.
Where to watch the full film? It appears to be available on France Channel (Prime Video) and Apple TV.
If you’re in France or if you have a VPN, you can rent it or buy on Arte Boutique (the best place to find most of the French movies) : https://boutique.arte.tv/detail/le-gout-des-autres
Found it somewhere else? Let us know in the comments — legal links only, to help other readers track it down.
Analyse
Vous comptez rester là encore longtemps ?
Do you plan to stay here much longer?
Compter + infinitive is the conversational way to say “to plan to do something” — more natural than avoir l’intention de. Notice the vous: these two men use the formal register with each other, even though they spend every day together.
J’sais pas.
I don’t know.
Je ne sais pas in real life. The ne drops, the je collapses to j’. You’ll also hear chais pas or just sais pas with no subject at all.
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Parce qu’il fait un peu froid là, nan ?
Because it’s a bit cold here.
