20 French Phrases for Survival
Again, decided to post part of my French assignment up to the benefit of all others who are interested in going to France or pick up a little French along the way ! Here are what I deem as survival 20 French phrases you might need in a Francophone country. Pardon the mistakes if any !
P.S : Obviously, you probably need more than these to survive or perhaps some of the following phrases don’t seem to be as important but no harm learning ! =)
1. Bonjour, parlez vous anglais? Je ne parle pas français!
Hello, Do you speak English ? I don’t speak French!
2. S’il vous plait/Merci beaucoup
Please/Thank You Very Much
3. Nous sommes perdus
We are lost.
4. J’ai faim
I’m hungry
5. Ça va? Ça va.
How’s it going ?/How are you doing?/Fine.Ok
6. Combien ça coût?
How much does that cost?
7. Où puis-je trouver un taxi?
Where can I get a taxi?
8. Je voudrais aller à...
I would like to go to
9. Comment vous applez-vous? Je m’appelle…
What is your name ? I am…
10. Pouvez-vous m’aider?
Can you help me ?
11. Êtes-vous sur Facebook?
Are you on Facebook?
12. Répétez s’il vous plaît?
Please repeat.
13. C’est bon
That’s good
14. De quel pays venez vous?
Which country are you from?
15. Je suis fatigué.
I’m tired.
16. J’ai raté mon train (probably because of une grève – a strike)
I missed my train
17. Quel est le prochain arrêt?
What is the next stop ?
18. And if you happen to meet an eyecandy… Voulez vous diner avec moi?
Would you like to have dinner with me ?
19. I read this idiom somewhere “Il n’y pas le feu au lac” – it literally means ” The lake is not on fire” but it’s a clever way of saying
No need to rush
Last but not least, the most important question of all…
20. Où sont les toilettes?
Where are the toilets?
Alternatively, you can have a few laughs over this site that teaches ‘better’ French phrases – perhaps you might need to equip yourself with some of those. Just don’t be surprised if you get whack in the head. Haha!
Top 10 Francophone Websites To Share
As many of you who will know via following my updates, I have been taking French in school this term. One of my assignment is to come up with a list of Top 10 French Websites and explain why it is a good site to visit. After looking at my word document,I was thinking to myself – why not I just post it as a blog entry with pictures so that more people can know about the French culture too ? So here we go !
This is a French music blog that features bands and artists in the French music scene. The site is regularly updated with interviews and the latest gigs in town. They have an interesting podcast segment ‘CONCERT À EMPORTER‘ (Take Away?) whereby they will film a session with an artist or band.
2. SkyRock
One of the top 10 social networking sites in France. With a high penetration rate in France, Skyrock is like the French-Facebook. It allows people to post blog entries, exchange messages with other members and a specific space that show cases original music compositions. It is said to be the most popular French social networking site.
3. Chronic Art
Chronicart.com is a web magazine that talks about the Arts and Culture as well as latest happenings – ranging from movies to music to books. It also has its own Chro.TV which is mostly band interviews conducted in Paris.
4. Not exactly a French website per se but it helps alot if you’re stuck at the language or trying to get your message across to a French. Just type in whatever you want to say and Voilà!
5. Le Notepad
As you know, there are several accented letters while writing in French. This website saves alot of trouble from switching the codes on your computer. Simply just type and paste the text into your word processors. Easy as A-B-C. Definitely a must-visit site for students learning French with a troublesome keyboard problem like me!
6. Voila
Think Voila as your Google/Yahoo/MSN or any other search engines, but in French. It provides similar services like searching on the entire www or wikipedia or getting the latest news updates. ‘Nuff said.
7.Le Point
Le Point is one of the weekly local news magazine in France. Pretty much like the French version of Time Magazine and Newsweek. You can find them on iPad too!
8. Aufeminin
As suggested by its name, this is a French portal dedicated to women. It consists of forums and blogs and articles that is targeted at the female population. Curious males are welcome to browse and there’s a “Nos hommes” (Our Men) section too!
9. Something French every other day. They have podcast and interesting pictures of daily French life. Makes you feel like a local French while reading the blog (provided I actually understand most of it…haha)
10If you’re a geeky person or a HWZ/tech65 fan, you’ll love this in French. A website featuring gadgets and geeky things. Pretty neat stuff though I have to say, our local product launches seem to be quicker than them ?
On a side note, The French Corner is a lovely read for people interested in the language and France (It’s in English) but it seems to me that it’s no longer updated. If you have any more recommendations, do drop a comment ! =)
RockMelt Browser – Productivity Killer
As you can tell, I’m pretty excited over the new RockMelt browser – thanks to @wilfredphua, I am now having fun trying the browser out !
First impression : Clean, sleek and user-friendly interface. Very thoughtful in fact. On the left, firstly you have your own profile picture that allows you to update your Facebook status or tweet. Below,we have your Facebook chat friend list which you can customize to view your ‘favorite friends’. The browser works mainly like how Chrome does with the tabs and history browser. In addition, there’s a ‘Share’ button that allows you to post links directly to your Facebook wall or a message to friend or even as a tweet. On the right you have 4 main buttons – one to send out RockMelt invites and share the love, second is your Facebook News feed, third would be your Facebook notifications, last but not least – you have your Twitter feeds. How cool is that ? Very !
Unlike Flock, which personally I thought was a instant failure when I first tried it, I think RockMelt caught my attention as it’s like the polished product of Chrome+Flock. The only concern I have is security (RockMelt ask for access to almost everything for Facebook) and speed. I’m not that much of a geek to test out the browser speed and do an comparison but so far, I am satisfied the speed for my daily browsing habits. Oh, did I mention they directly shorten URLs as well ? Awesome.
Totally a productivity killer as well, what do you think ?
Blessing In Disguise
This whole #WCI experience has been a blessing in disguise – how so ? As much as I’ve always known I have the awesomest friends around, I must say that during the past week since I’ve joined the WCI challenge- I am so so touched in many ways (now don’t start thinking otherwise. Hehs.) It is currently week 12 (2nd last week) in school and every SMU student will understand how heavy the workload gets – project submissions, essay deadlines, presentations. Obviously that applies to me as well -seriously putting my time management into use- and I was practically dying (blame it on not paying attention in class all the time..), but the support I’ve received from my friends is just amazing – be it online or offline. Power of Social Media eh ?
Let’s just talk about this video alone – I was totally in panic mode when I realized that I need to submit a video since I had 3 papers due by Friday as well as my own French project video (and totally in a PMS-y mode.) My friends willingly (or not) stayed behind, despite this week 12 madness, to help me with the filming (original concept) and taking photos (new concept) and post-production (It’s been 4 years since I last touched the technical side of film making ! You can’t blame me for that, can you ?!) I had overseas help as well from friends who are currently pursuing their degrees there. I felt really loved by everyone ! Like what I said in the video, even without the coolest internship, I think I am happy with the coolest friends around. =)
Not forgetting the online friends (old or new) who tweet-supported me with/without being asked! Although some of the reasons are pretty strange *coughs* but Thank You ! It’s not that easy to find people who are willing to be take time off AND a picture for you ok!
So here’s the video,as promised ! Better late than never ? (-panic- Am I the last ? Am I the last? Am I the last?!)
Concept : I wanted to do something like a Barney Stinsons Awesome Resume video but that requires alot of time and footages. So I ended up recording a segment to talk about what a coolest intern should be like, suit up! Pretty much putting my Emcee/Campus Radio DJ skills into good use. Was pretty clueless of what to say and it felt really weird to be shamelessly selling myself on the video as that’s not the Ingrid people knows. In the end, my awesome friends and I came up with this idea of walking around school to get my fellow SMU friends and staff (since they know me best) to describe their first impression of me/why I should be the coolest intern…Pretty much sums it all up ? Hope you enjoyed it – afterall, this is the first time my ‘coolest-uncool’ friends actually said such nice things about me! *SNIFF*
Special thanks to my SMU Broadcast & Entertainment ‘family’ who did not want to be listed individually, love you guys loads ! I have to say, they are more ‘kan cheong‘ (Translate: 紧张/Nervous in Cantonese ) than the one who’s taking part (aka me) ! XOXO
Additional thank you to my anon video editor who was stuck at ‘But According…’ for an hour just to get the perfect timing while I kept going ‘ITS OKAY.JUST LET IT BE!! MOVE ON NAOO‘ in a panic mode. (lol) And the rest of MYY secret WCI marketing team for the one hour photo hunt and 8pm-4am studio madness…I really appreciate it. 
Friends on Twitter : Please tweet to “@stanchartbreeze -inserts reason why @iammyy should win- #WCI”
Thank You ! (Random Pictures can be found here !)
Blog A Trend: Forging Our Future Friendship
I forgot where I’ve heard this being questioned : ” Who on earth still receives mails in their mailbox from friends anyways ?”
I still do ! But that’s beside the point – it’s just so amazing to see the ‘revolution’ of friendship with the help of technology. I still remember writing letters and notes to keep in touch with friends, say 10 years back. It was a regular thing to do with my overseas friends and funny enough, I still keep most of them since I’m pretty sentimental. But with the introduction of emails, IM and mIRC in those days, writing and snail mails are long forgotten.
One thing that really allowed me to make more friends was those mIRC days in secondary school. Who can possibly forget the numerous nights you spent infront of the computer at various #, ‘fighting’ to become @op/+v randomly having people asking you “a/s/l?” Surprisingly, I’ve met several friends on mIRC and we’re still friends even though mIRC is like, dinosaur era for us.
Not forgetting social networking sites like friendster and facebook ! Many ‘old friends’ are found when everyone starts using facebook and looking up for eachother via the internet. I’m happy to have found most of my friends back in primary school and of course those who are overseas, facebook really made everything more convenient for us to keep in touch.
Having friends overseas is a huge problem back then, because it takes weeks to exchange letters ! Now we can just skype or call directly from computer-to-landlines to keep in touch. I really survive on skype with my friends on exchange although my current dinosaur laptop doesn’t have a webcam *coughs* (haha). But it’s almost like we’re at the same place when we do get to ‘see’ eachother…perhaps next time it’ll be a 3D-call ! Who knows, that might just be the new trend in years to come.
Moving on, now we have Foursquare which is a mobile app to ‘follow’ your friends when they are out. I don’t know if I want to let my friends know whether I’m a few blocks away from them or ‘stalk’ me virtually. But I see the advantages for those who are around the area and wants to meet up for a short gathering. In fact, if you’re adventurous, you can probably meet new friends if they happen to be on Foursquare too ! Mobile is like the next important thing now, I definitely think we will be relying on the mobile platform to keep in touch – and not just via calls and smses.
It’s probably a good thing that we have so many various platforms to keep in touch with our friends and technology has indeed make things alot easier. However, I think having such ‘virtual relationships’ still can’t be compared to a ‘real friendship’. Worst of all, now we have robotic friends/pets that keep the next generation company. Will our future generation forget how to interact with a real human being and just maintain such virtual/digital relationships in the future ?
It’s rather sad to see couples or friends sitting at the same table with their faces plastered to their mobiles/laptops. As much as I appreciate the technology, I truly agree with this quote I’ve found off the net,
“True friendship isn’t about being there when it’s convenient; it’s about being there when it’s not.”
So spend time with your loved ones, not because it’s ‘convenient’ but because you love them and want to be with them. Technology can only help you that much, it takes your individual effort to keep in touch afterall !
Speak and Listen to your consumers !
More and more businesses are getting on social networking platforms, especially Twitter. I’ve come across many (in fact, way too many) company accounts that are either pretty much inactive or can be classified as ‘spammers’. Sure, 140 characters is good enough for business advertisements, quick and cost-effective. What’s more ? It’s free ! But doing it the wrong way can actually backfire your plans and destroy all potential relationships you may gain.
From personal experiences, I think it is important for business to bear in mind a few tips before starting to reach out to your crowd on social networking sites, IMHO :
1) Know your audience, listen to their needs !
Recently there was this email spam from a certain property agency that pissed most tweeples off. As for me, I think it’s quite silly to email me (of all people!) who have yet to pay off my university debt to check out the new apartments in town. Seriously, do some research and know who are your target audience ! Obviously I don’t need a condo yet?!
I think it’s a good and important thing that companies are starting to ‘listen’ online to their consumer’s needs too ! I tweeted about looking for a short term rental apartment in Hong Kong just yesterday and I got a reply from @Ascott_Ltd recommending their serviced residences. Perfect example of listening to what your customers need and responding to what they are looking for, without sounding too pushy.
2) Don’t just be yet-another-brand, be personal !
It’s no longer about how ‘BIG’ your brand is but consumers need to be ‘entertained’. It’s nice to know there are ‘real people’ behind the online presence too. We like to see behind-the-scenes after a movie is out, so same goes for brands online. We’re not talking to bots afterall !
I personally like @standingsushi even thought I have yet to try their food. Mainly because I read about them on their blog and I really liked how they bring their concept across. And when I mentioned to my bestie that I want to visit @standingsushi someday, I immediately received a personal message to welcome my future visit. It certainly makes me want to go down and check it out personally (real soon!).
3) It’s about profit BUT more about relationship !
Be a ‘friend’ rather than an annoying salesman. You need to build a relationship based on trust, sincerity and constant interaction. Sure, not everyone can buy your products all the time but hey, no harm retweeting or spreading the message to others who can possibly do so if I like you. Don’t just follow everyone and expects to be followed back instantly. It’s not about the numbers either.
I like @thegardenslug alot as you can see from my tweets if you’ve been following. I started off not knowing what they have to offer but I don’t feel that their main objectives of being online is to force people to visit them but instead, to build a relationship with their customers. That’s definitely a (Popsicle) brownie point for me and when I visited them, I knew it won’t be the last time I’m going over because The Garden Slug won my heart with their friendliness and awesome food.
4) Don’t act like a naggy old fart. Stop repeating the same messages!
This is spamming. Quality over quantity. 987123415623 tweets about the same product isn’t going to get you sales. We get your message but we may not like it. In fact, count yourself lucky if you still have 1 follower at the end of the day.
5) Reach out – help – contribute !
Sometimes it’s not just about your brand. No one really cares about you on twitter since it’s such a huge community unless you reach out to them individually. Introduce yourself at the right time – don’t be too money-minded aka not too eager to sell your product/services. Promote others or retweet their messages is a good way to start, it’s not just about you afterall. It’s all about the charm and making people genuinely interested in you. Share interesting relevant links or include pictures or videos in your messages. People will follow you if they enjoy reading your tweets.
6) Customer is always number 1. (not entirely true but that’s the saying)
(Almost) Real-time customer service is probably the best thing that one can get from social networking sites. I like how @Starhubcares try to answer to everyone’s enquries and drop direct messages to assist you when you are getting pissed holding on to the phone for half an hour listening to that awful waiting tone. Sometimes it just takes a tiny effort to pacify your angsty customers and we like it when you are willing to listen to our feedback and improve. It’s a 2 way communication afterall.
—
Of course I’m no expert and I may be wrong but at least that’s how I feel as a consumer. Any good case studies or examples that you can think of ? Or any other tips you can think of to share ? Open to discussion =)
BlackBerry Storm – The Aftermath.
Thanks to Ripplevox/Starhub and BlackBerry, I had a chance to play with the BlackBerry Storm here’s what I think about it after being in a storm for a month. Despite the fact that I refused to join the iPhone craze (or rather, because Starhub refuses to bring iPhone in), the BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone…not even close.
Just like every other BlackBerry, the Storm is no wannabe for business clients. You have the usual BlackBerry highlights such as email-on-the-go, BlackBerry IM and its own app store. It looks smart and professional (though the Storm looks alil too fat, I almost thought it was a flip phone). Don’t get me wrong, fabulous features but most of the time I feel like it’s taking a long while to load. Quite laggy responses as compared to how I “abuse” my N82 or iPod Touch.
With the feature of accelerometer like iPhone, it was much easier to type on the touchscreen with the SureType keyboard than when the phone was in horizontal, full Qwerty keyboard mode since the buttons are bigger. I really could not get used to “punching hard” on the touchscreen instead of the usual “clicking” of the keypads or just “gliding” my fingers over the iPhone touchscreen.
Instead of comparing Storm to the iPhone or even other smartphones (and getting whiney and providing solely negtive feedbacks), consumers should compare it to other BlackBerries. In which they may like what the BlackBerry team has put together for them: A big touchscreen, a 3.2MP camera that takes video with a proper flash, a respectable Web browser and a touchscreen typing system that is uniquely BlackBerry. (Although personally I think the trade-off is Big Screen vs “proper” typing system aka keypad between the BlackBerries)
Personally I liked the screen as well and the camera is definitely better than iPhone’s, I thought the apps were rather limited but I believe the BlackBerry team is building on it. I like the twitter app most (duh) and if not for the lagginess, the maps feature is rather useful for direction blind people like me. I have to admit that holding the Storm makes you look “professional” and you have envy eyes stealing glances at you while you type on your BlackBerry (with much struggles).
More on the Blackberry Storm and starhub’s data plan soon !
Stayin’ Alive : Grooveshark Attack !
The boyfriend told me about Grooveshark some days ago and I was hesitating about signing up for “another social networking site” but no regrets at all ! In fact, I would have stabbed myself (just kidding) for not checking Grooveshark out !
Yet another internet radio site but one of the main draws of Grooveshark is the breadth of their library, which covers almost everything from indies to your usual A-songs. Unlike blip.fm which certainly has its flaws on streaming, you can stream songs from the web interface easily and so far I have yet to come across any broken links. It’s like having an iTunes online, free of charge !
It is evident that the Grooveshark team spent a lot of time creating an interface that users would find intuitive even though new users will probably take awhile to figure it out. I love how sleek the design looks and the 3-col layout is easy to navigate. It is even easier to conduct search in Grooveshark as compared to other internet radio sites. Just type in the name of a song in the interface and you’re provided with a small url that you can paste into any of your favourite social media services, like twitter and facebook. You can do a user search to add your friends and share your playlists too ! I like the fact that I can create several playlist to suits my mood, that’s probably something that blip.fm doesn’t offer.
I have been using Grooveshark almost a week now, and I am loving it ! Grooveshark proves to be a formidable player with its user-friendly interface and much lesser downtime/broken links. Its library and social media-friendly elements are probably the key factor why I’d switch from blip.fm to them. If you can’t tell, Grooveshark has already totally win my heart ! It’s keeping me alive at work everyday without fail.
you can add me @iammyy to check out my playlist (will be adding more)
P.S : The boyfriend just told me that Grooveshark is facing lawsuit from EMI, I hope they will survive it and continue their service. C’mon record labels, *this* is the new way to promote your music and artistes…learn to embrace technology and live with it already !
PC Show 2009 Hype
Despite the economic downturn AND H1N1 saga, PC Show 2009 at Suntec was flooded by people. You practically have to squeeze and push (or in my case,being pushed) your way through the human jam. I guess the fact that I went there on the last day explains the crowd as well. However it didn’t take me long to notice that the down-escalators were packed with quite an amount of people who left empty-handed.
Question for all consumers out there : Why do you go down for PC Show ?
If you wanted to do market research, online is probably the best place to do so I believe. The entire price list is being uploaded and the leaflets were even scanned by kind souls out there. The price won’t be much of a huge difference on the spot as well, so isn’t it easier to find your “potential” buys before heading down for an aimless stroll with the smelly crowd in that stuffy hall ?
Another thing worth mentioning is the amount of leaflet littered on the floor – do these companies even need to print these leaflet outs ? I appreciate the people who shared the information online and taking the trouble to scan them in. I did my own research with those digital leaflets before heading down, that saves me alot of time and the hassle to go through the papers on the spot. Eventually these leaflets are of no use and it just contributes to the big hoohaa about “recycling” and “global warming” issues.
IF employment is the key factor here, then why not hire those part timers and train them properly to promote your products instead of getting them to stand around to hand out paper that are to be thrown on the floor after a few steps ? Kudos to this promoter at the S-brand booth for sharing his insights about the ext.hdd that I was planning to get. He was so sincere and honest about how their competitor ext.hdd is probably a more suitable choice for my usage instead of desperately trying to con me into buying their item. I actually felt like I’ll buy the ext.hdd from him instead if I’m less practical/logical ! I almost had a sorethroat from the “yelling” conversations because of the various sound setups. (haha)
My dad was complaining about how they should hold the PC Show at EXPO instead of Suntec after enduring the not-enough-parking-issue,the human traffic madness and poor air ventilation of the halls. From an event organizer’s point of view, I guess a centralized location matters most. However, I do agree on the poor air ventilation issue especially with the H1N1 paranoia, I was actually surprised to see no signs of any mask-wearers !
I guess it just annoys me alil when there are people who are there just for the sake for “yes,i’ve been to the PC show” or er…”experience the PC show hype” when they are not there to buy anything or without the intention to ? It causes people who really wanted to buy things alot of inconvenience and the crowd may not be necessary if not for these random aunties/kids/window-shoppers. In addition, after comparing prices online, I believe that Simlim or Funan provides the same offer etc. In fact, we got our webcam at the creative shop itself instead of PC Show which was pretty empty and better service provided.
Can you imagine if just 1 or 2 people were H1N1 carriers ? Sheesh. PANIC SINGAPORE, PANIC !!!
but of course I didn’t go there just for a “site visit” and I didn’t do my online research for nothing. (hur)
Loots : Seagate 1TB ext.hdd xtreme , creative live webcam , 2 HP printer ink
picture source : square75@blogspot
Your own radio station ? Holy Blip !
I’ve joined blip.fm since 17th Sept last year and so far, I’m really loving it.
I meant to blog about blip ages ago and go into details but let’s just keep it short and simple.
8 reasons why i love blip.fm :
- It is like the best bit of last.fm+twitter all rolled into one.
- It has a realtime feed of what other “DJ”s are listening to.
- It is personal/interactive because you pick the music for your playlist and you get to reblip others.
- It encourages “value-system” – it requires contributions from its members in order to benefit from the others in the society.
- It has an idiot-proof interface and system – just search and *tadah*, there you go!
- It has a built-in virality and a good feedback system.
- It has alot of “undiscovered” artistes, oldies and radio hits shared by others.
- It is addictive – it’s almost becoming a habit for me to share my music pick everyday.
What I really liked about blip is that it directly updates my tumblr and twitter to allow others to see what I’m listening to.
Most of the time I’ll also plurk about my blips as my “music of the day” plurk. I guess it’s a good way to share great music found online and so far I spend at least half an hour on blip.fm to look for good songs and am getting props/positive feedbacks on my music taste – which really is quite an ego booster. (HAHA) 
Sure, there are many music sharing sites out there and probably better ones. But Blip.fm is still my favourite as of now. Do give it a try (c’mon, it’s not like you don’t have 9867545122 different accounts out there already) and let me know what you think about it ? 
Speaking of music, I’m planning on adding a new “element” to this blog. Keep a lookout for my little project! =)
