French 5: Barbara: une chanteuse, une chanson, une vie
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- Start Date: 11 Nov 2025End Date: 18 Nov 2025Tue (Daytime): 14:00 - 16:00OnlineFull fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00
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What is the course about?
This course will enable you to discover the life and career of this celebrated and well loved French artist whose songs keep resonating down the years. You will also consolidate your knowledge of French using the four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing through a variety of communicative activities.
What will we cover?
The course will focus on discovering the artist and her life through the lyrics of her songs, as well as a few all too rare TV interviews she agreed to give. We will analyse the texts, and subtexts, of some of the songs and see how they explore all facets of human emotions.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- identify key dates in the artist's biography
- analyse song lyrics and appreciate their differences in styles and intentions
- appreciate the importance of this iconic artist in French popular culture.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
Students should have a fairly high level of French and should have studied French for at least 4 to 5 years in order to take part in all activities.
If you are not sure about your level, please contact Languages on languages@citylit.ac.uk or check our level assessment chart on: http://www.citylit.ac.uk/self-assess-your-level
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
This course will be taught via tutor presentations, as well as group and pair discussions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
No.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Any French 5 course or workshop. If you are unsure about your level, please contact Languages on languages@citylit.ac.uk.
Pierre studied towards a "Licence de Langue, Littérature et Civilisations anglo-saxonne" at Grenoble University in the early 1980s. He moved to Paris in 1986 where he worked in the field of Corporate and Financial Communication, first as an editor-in-chief for a specialised publishing company, and later as an executive in charge of Corporate and Financial Communication for a large national financial institution. In the early 1990s, he gave it all up and moved to the UK (an ambition since I was a teenager) and started teaching French in a private language school, then as a secondary school classroom teacher. He then went on to study and in 2010, he gained the Dip Trans IoLET (the Chartered Institute of Linguists Diploma in Translation). In 2013, he decided to resume his teaching career, albeit choosing to do so in the Life Long Learning sector. Pierre believes that learning and teaching a foreign language is (but not limited to) about having fun, expanding personal communication skills, seeing and understanding things from a different cultural perspective.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.