Ecoutez bien??

[banditk]

 I know the French board has been pretty quiet for the past few months hahah but I'll still post and see if I can get any replies
I was wondering if any of you have used Ecoutez Bien (the website)? I want to practice my listening comp, but I'm not sure if it's worth subscribing to?
Thank you! 

[howlingwisdom]

Hey banditk!

I've been subscribed to Ecoutez-Bien for two years and I find it quite useful in developing my vocabulary as they have a variety of topics (depending on the year-level) and I've noticed that it has improved my listening skills quite a bit (which has been a weakness for me in the past.)
The practice that they offer is quite useful because they have exam-style questions as well as your basic multiple choice and the questions/listening podcasts vary in difficulty and speed. Though, I understand that the yearly subscription is more on the pricey side (imo) but pretty much every French teacher has recommended it and I personally think that it is worth it if you are struggling with listening.

[catnus]

Useful if you struggle with listening. If you are an advanced student, it is nigh useless.

[Vermilliona]

Only if you have money to burn on a service that you can easily find equivalents of online for free? TV5monde have an excellent range of listening exercises for various levels (they go by CEFR framework, the equivalent level to VCE is A2 or B1), just google 'apprendre le francaise avec TV5 monde'. Le Journal en Francais Facile from RFI (google dat) is good too, and comes with exercises, you can also just write summaries (in french or english) of the news items to practice. I've used both in the past, and they really help you progress quickly (provided you do them regularly), so now I'm just listening to podcasts of french radio shows. There's a great variety, and I end up listening to about an hour of french per day. I can recommend some podcasts if you like!

[banditk]

Thank you for everyone's replies! 

I can recommend some podcasts if you like!

That would be super if you could! Thanks 

[Vermilliona]

Thank you for everyone's replies!  :DThat would be super if you could! Thanks 

So probably try Journal en Francais Facile podcast first, and if you can understand most of that, then try these out. Otherwise, if you jump into them straight away and don't understand a lot of it, it's really discouraging + boring. And look, it depends on what interests you, coz I listen mostly to news/culture/history podcasts, but you can find ones that suit your interests. The ones I like most are:

- Grand Reportage (every day there's a new 20 minute show about a wide variety of subjects, they're kind of like small versions of foreign correspondent, but also with reports about domestic French stuff. So the type of topics are 'afghan youth and the elections' 'mental health in france' etc.)
- Paranthese (this one is about ideas, they usually interview an author of a recent book about things like 'personal vs collective happiness' or human vs animal rights etc. About a quarter of this podcast is devoted to the two female hosts mocking the male bcz he is uncultured, but he is very good-humoured about it, but I still feel sorry for him)
- Le journal de 8h (just a morning news podcast)
- La marche de l'histoire (history, half-hour eps)
- Cosmopolitaine (this is one of my favourites, they interview the coolest people, like they had an interview with Spike Jonze (with french voiceover) and one with Wes Anderson and Selden Edwards and it's just great)
- Terre a terre (environment-focused, so good for the enviro unit you do in vce, but I find some episodes a bit boring, it just depends what you're into. But terre a terre taught me that the properties of tree bark change with the phases of the moon, so I guess it's worthwhile?)

So I mean try these out if you like, but ultimately you'll only listen to things regularly if you understand them and if they interest you, so try looking around for things that suit your level and interests. Bonne chance!

[catnus]

Except for Terre a Terre, I used those same podcasts! Podcasts about things that you're interested in are great for listening.

[banditk]

Thank you Vermilliona and catnus! I'll look into them now 

[the girl at the rock show]

Salut banditkid,

Si tu trouvais ces podcasts un peu difficile, et qu'ils parlaient trop vite, (comme moi, je ne pense pas que le journal de RFI en français facile soit tout à fait "facile"...) je te conseillerais le podcast de français authentique. Cette personne parle assez lentement je trouve, et il a une voix claire et compréhensible.
http://www.francaisauthentique.com/category/podcasts/
Ses episodes qui expliquent des expressions françaises sont utiles, je les recommande

(Sorry if you notice any mistakes in my french, I probably made some haha)