If you like French music, you'll love the new online course 100 French Lyrics Lectures. Every weekday, robot professor Binary Bob Botley will send you an audio lecture explaining the lyrics to a top French hit, along with the printed French lyrics and English translation. Classes start on 3 September - visit the website for more details and to download the songs before the course starts.
More: French music
More: French music
Comments
Has anyone followed this course before?
Lisa – no, it’s brand new.
I absolutely adore French music, and am listening to ABC classic FM radio in Australia , every day, because this month it is Claude Debussy’s 150th birthday, and the radio station is celebrating his anniversary, plus also running a competition to rate the top 100 favourite pieces of French music. It is a veritable feast of wonderful French music and culture,
Je l’ adore !!!
I would be so interested in the lecture series, but would not be happy to pay for a course, will check it out and see
merci beaucoup
Ian
I like the concept, but would need to be convinced that the $20 course cost plus the $100 cost for the audio files is justified. The sample lecture on the site was unconvincing.
An interesting and attractive concept for which I’d probably pay $ 20 but I agree with Ron, one has then to pay $ 100 for the songs which may not all be the music I’d like to listen to normally.
May I just say in defense of my course that there is no $100 fee for the music, although my course advertisement may have given that impression.
My assumption was that most students would already be familiar with a certain percentage of the songs, and therefore already own them or at least have access to the music without having to buy every last song on the Top 100 list. If this were not the case, then they would presumably not be interested enough in French-language music to take my course in the first place. It is not a shortcoming of the course that these songs cannot be legally accessed free of charge: it is the nature of copyright law. The best that I can do under the circumstances is to provide my students with a chance to legally obtain those songs with which they’re not familiar at the lowest price available, and that’s what I’ve done. If they can find them elsewhere for less (or, alas, for free, thereby shortchanging not so much myself as the original artist), more power to them.
As for the sample lecture being “unconvincing,” there are those adults who simply do not find my robotic banter to be amusing. Fine. This class is not for everybody. It’s chiefly for kids — and for adults who “grok” the humor in my voice synthesis and sound effects manipulations. If this is not you or if you’re looking for a sober, straightforward analysis of French-language song lyrics, by all means, save your money (though I know of no other course that is going to provide you with attractive graphic presentations of the French and English song lyrics to every song discussed, lyrics that can otherwise be obtained in text-form only on those notoriously spam- and ad-filled lyrics sites).
I think it looks really neat! The robot is alright, I would be happy to see a lecture without the robot since it does seem like more adult francophiles will take the course.
But I am still signing up. Also if you are upset about the charge of music you can always stream the music on sites like spotify, grooveshark and youtube although you will not be able to keep the songs, but you can listen as many times as you wish.
I signed up tonight and I have already found the first 15 songs to listen to for free by doing simple google searches. If I learn the songs and enjoy them then I would most likely purchase them as mp3′s. [unless I find a way to download them for free or at low cost].
I am looking forward to starting although I will never get through 5 songs in one week. LOL It might be nice to have a chat area for students?????? N’est pas?