SBS Easy French #259 : comment apprendre à parler couramment français ?
·9 min
The episode begins with an advertisement and host Marianne Murat introducing the show as a learning companion in partnership with the Alliance Française de Melbourne. Murat announces that this week's episode is an interview rather than a news journal, featuring Frances Egan, a professor at Monash University and translator. Egan explains that translation is not her primary activity; she works in global studies, bringing cultural and linguistic perspectives to topics like migration and inequality. She describes translating Colette's 'La Vagabonde' as a happy accident, despite three existing English translations, and notes it took about two years, including a translator residency in Arles, France. Egan shares her language learning journey, starting with French in school but not mastering it until she moved to France at age 23 on a working holiday visa, working as a waitress in Strasbourg and Paris. She recalls a key moment in a sushi restaurant where she learned 'baguette' could mean chopsticks or a magic wand, not just bread, highlighting the cognitive shift of bilingualism. After her visa expired, she returned to Australia, completed a master's in translation and a PhD co-supervised between Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III and the University of Melbourne. In the interview, Egan advises French learners to immerse themselves in Francophone countries, find fellow learners for support, and integrate French into daily life through media and device settings. The episode concludes with host sign-off and additional advertisements.
