In this episode of Walking With Pete I give a shout-out to the Français Authentique Podcast and its creator Johan, without whom my French would be much worse and the Aussie English podcast would have never been created.

Walking With Pete – A Shout-Out To Johan & Français Authentique

Hey guys. Welcome to the second episode of Walking With Pete for the night, or for today, for this week, whenever it is that you’re listening.

I thought I would make another episode quickly because I was listening to the French podcast, Français Authentique by Johan, as I was walking around the park and… and getting a bit of exercise tonight, and I thought I would mention and give a shout-out to Johan and his podcast for… one, for helping me so much with my French, as I’ve listened to his podcast for probably the better part of a year. So, more than a year. And, it has really really helped me with my French. And not just my French but helping me with my day to day life, and being less stressed, being able to deal with… with um… with stress in a… in a… in a better manner as well as just making the most of my time. So, if you don’t know and if you’re not learning French I’ll give you a bit of background. Johan has a podcast called Français Authentique where he teaches authentic French as the Français Authentique means in French, and he teaches you expressions. He… he gives you a lot of insight into his life. So, I really enjoy the podcast from that aspect. And, two, he… he talks about how to… how to stress less, you know, how to get the most out of your day with regards to time, and have a healthy life, you know, do exercise. Um… he’s got a blog called Pas De Stress, which is um… “Don’t Stress”, effectively, or “No Stress”, and as well, it’s a podcast, as well as Français Authentique. And Français Authentique was actually the reason that I started Aussie English. So, I kind of based the framework of Aussie English off of what Johan does with Français Authentique because, firstly, I… I absolutely love how he has it set up. So, I think we… we often say in English that mimicry or to copy someone is the ultimate form of flattery.

I don’t know how this wind is going to be out here. It’s pretty windy. Um… what else did I want to say? I might sit down and see if I can get out of the wind.

Um… and I guess, I had a lot of friends in Australia. So, I was… last year when I first started listening to Français Authentique I was doing a lot of French and learning a few other languages on the side as well, you know, getting the… the basics down for Portuguese at the same time. And I had a lot of friends who I would help learn English in exchange for help learning French and a little bit of Portuguese, and they would often tell me how difficult it was learning… learning English. Particularly in Australia. And then I would always tell them about this podcast Français Authentique by Johan, and how good it was, and that it was such an organic way of learning the language where you get to just hear someone talk and… and chat as if you were there with them, you know, as if you were next to me, chatting to me, like a friend. And, I did a big search trying to find the kind of equivalent for English learners, whether it was in English English or American English, and I couldn’t find anything. And on top of that, I had these same friends, especially the ones that obviously lived in Melbourne and in Australia, that I would see on a regular basis, they would tell me how difficult it was to learn Australian English in particular. So, not only was there no real podcast like Johan’s for learning um… more common dialects of English, I guess, like English English and American English, but there was absolutely nothing for Australian English. And so, this was one of the biggest, or these were some of the biggest reasons for starting Aussie English, to try and help you guys get your head around and… and improve your spoken English, whether it was specifically the English dialect spoken in Australia, and you wanted to copy my accent to some degree. Or if it was just that you wanted some kind of material similar to the way that Français Authentique is set out for learning English. And so, that’s why I guess I wanted to do this quick episode. I was listening to Français Authentique as I was walking around the park tonight, you know, I like to kill two birds with one stone. So, I get two things down in the same amount of time. So, I do that each day. I listen to Français Authentique as well as a few Brazilian Portuguese podcasts pretty much any time I’m walking. But that’s why I thought of it. And that’s why I thought I would make this quick second episode of walking with Pete just as a shout-out, as a special mention to Johan. I’ve listened to his podcast for a very long time. If you’re learning French I absolutely thoroughly recommend it. It’s probably for intermediate to advanced learners of French, but he has transcripts up. I’ll link you below to the Français Authentique website, so that you can check it out. He has tons of YouTube videos. All sorts of things. It’s a really really good organic um… fun way to improve your French. So, if you go and check it out I’d absolutely love for you to get back to me and let me know what you think, and definitely say hello to Johan if you go over there to his Facebook page. And yeah… get involved in the community of Français Authentique, it’s awesome.

So, that’s probably enough for today guys. I think I’ve bombarded you with quite a bit of Aussie English recently. So, I might finish the episode here and hopefully chat to you guys soon. Have a good night!

Vocabulary list:

A shout-out

Definition: A special mention.

The better part of something

Definition: The majority of something.
The better part of the year is the majority of the year.

To make the most of something / To get the most out of something

Definition: To use or enjoy something as much as possible.

To do something on the side

Definition: At the same time.
I was learning other languages on the side whilst primarily learning French.

To get the basics down

Definition: To get a good understanding of or to master the basics of something.
I was trying to get a good understanding of the basics of Brazilian Portuguese.

On top of that/this

Definition: Furthermore; moreover.

To get one’s head around something

Definition: To understand something; to work something out.

To kill two birds with one stone

Definition: To achieve two things in a single action.
I was able to record the episode of Walking With Pete whilst going for a walk.

To bombard something with something

Definition:
- Literal: To attack with bombs, shells or missiles
- Figurative: To overwhelm someone with questions, criticisms or information.