It’s “Book of the week” time! Well, E-book to be precise.

This week, we decided to apply a 50% discount on a French story, by choosing a special one among the many available on our catalog.

 

‘Le ciel libre‘ is an ‘easy reader’, a simplified ebook for learners. It’s made of 8 short, easy-to-finish chapters, accompanied by online audio, and a glossary and exercise to go with each chapter.

As you know, we have a wide selection of ‘easy reader’ ebooks in our online shop, at different levels, on different topics, and in varying ebook formats.

But we think ‘Le ciel libre‘ is perfect for these days. In fact, how important it has become to look at the sky during the pandemic?

The story is about Romain, who works as an electrician for the municipality in a small French city. One day, his kid asks him why there are so few stars to be seen in the night sky…

The level is A2 (pre-intermediate) but you’ll get a better idea of whether it’ll be suitable for your current level in French by downloading the free sample chapter (where you’ll find the link for listening to the whole story on SoundCloud).

Here’s an extract for you:

“Vraiment?” dit Nicolas, “On peut? Quand?”
Romain regarde Hélène et sourit: “On peut même aujourd’hui. Allez, ce soir on va tous les deux à l’observatoire astronomique. C’est un endroit merveilleux!”

Before buying it at HALF PRICE, see the product details:

• .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
• .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request
• 8 chapters to read and listen to
• Comprehension questions to check your understanding
• French/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level

P.S. Remember, the half price offer is good until Sunday 11th April 2021, but why wait?

‘Le ciel libre‘ just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog

The EasyReaders.Org 2021 ‘Spring Sale’ started on Monday. There are just a few days left!

Don’t miss the chance to save 20% on ebooks for learning French and/or on one-to-one lessons with our team of expert online native-speaker teachers.

The coupon code you need to get the discount is:

Spring-Sale-2021

Need help using it?

• Select the materials/online lessons you need from our online shop
• View the contents of your cart
• Copy and paste the coupon code Spring-Sale-2021 carefully, where it says ‘Coupon Code’. Then press the blue button
• Scroll down to check that the cart total has been discounted by 20%
• There’s no minimum or maximum spend
• Pay with a credit card, your Amazon account, or PayPal

If you have a question or encounter a problem, email us.

So what are other people saving money on this week?

For example, ten thirty-minute online lessons with a native French teacher would normally cost you £180 (just £18 a lesson).

But with the Spring-Sale-2021 coupon code, that’s reduced to just £144 (£14.40 a lesson), which is like getting two free lessons!

N.b. Remember, the coupon is only valid until midnight on Sunday 28th of March 2021!

The next promotion of this type at EasyReaders.org isn’t until July, so shop now!

An ‘easy reader’ is a simplified book or ebook for learners. You get short, easy-to-finish chapters, accompanied by online audio, and a glossary and exercise to go with each chapter.

We have a wide selection of ebook ‘easy readers’ in our online shop, at different levels, on different topics, and in varying ebook formats.

And this week, we have one story available at JUST HALF THE USUAL PRICE!

“Le jongleur” is the story of a student who loses something that’s precious to her:

Un soir comme tous les autres, Christine prend le bus pour rentrer chez elle. Le
bus est rempli de gens, les uns collés aux autres. Et quand Christine arrive chez
elle, elle se rend compte que…

The level is A1/A2 (elementary/pre-intermediate) but you’ll get a better idea of whether it’ll be suitable for your current level in French by downloading the free sample chapter (.pdf).

Too easy? Too hard?

So check out our catalog page, where you’ll find all of our ebooks listed by type and in level order, all with free sample chapters to download!

The half price offer is good until Sunday 14th March 2021, but why wait?

“Le jongleur” just £3.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog

Correct. On EasyReaders.org you can freely download two different types of e-books at a cost of ZERO.

These are two stories written by French authors specifically for students who are learning French, just like you:

‘Le restaurant‘ is an ‘easy reader’, a simplified story with exercises and audio. It’s IDEAL for beginners!

‘La surprise‘ is a French/English parallel text, also intended for beginners. You get the original French story, and an accompanying English translation, so you can compare them line by line.

Which one is best for you? Well, we recommend that you try them both (it costs you nothing!).

With ‘La sorpresa’ you can go faster and help yourself with the translation to immediately immerse in the story of Élise and Julien, a couple who lives a long-distance relationship (perhaps it sounds familiar to you?).

‘Il ristorante’ allows you to take your time to better understand each phase of the story. With the help of some exercises and the story’s audio recording you’ll be able to understand what happens to Nick, a Londoner who seems to have everything in life, except for…

… find it out! Download ‘Le restaurant‘ – and, if you like, ‘La surprise‘ too.

Here’s a quick reminder: this week at EasyReaders.Org we’re giving away 150 FREE ONE-TO-ONE FRENCH LESSONS (the offer is for new students only.)

There are the just two opportunities each year to try an online lesson (via Skype) with one of our native-speaker teachers – for FREE!

You don’t have to buy anything or provide credit card details – all we need is your email address, so our teaching management assistant can contact you to organise your lesson.

This promotion is for new students only and is limited to one FREE lesson per person.

Here are the links you need to ‘order’ your free trial French lesson:

Free French Lesson | Catalog

N.b. The offer ends on Sunday night, though that’s the deadline for responding to the offer, not for actually doing the lesson.

• The Free Trial Online French Lesson offer ends on Sunday 14/02/21
• You don’t have to DO the lesson this week, just ‘order’ it
• This offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY and is limited to one FREE lesson per person
• If you ordered a free trial last time but didn’t take it – try again!
• But if you’ve already done a free trial in the past, sorry but this isn’t for you
• After your lesson, you’ll get a 15% discount coupon valid for your first purchase of one-to-one French lessons

Follow these links to ‘order’ your FREE trial French lesson:

Free French Lesson | Catalog

It’s February, so time for our semi-annual ‘FREE One-to-One French Lesson’ offer!

This week at EasyReaders.Org we’ll be giving away 150 FREE ONE-TO-ONE FRENCH LESSONS (the offer is for new students only.)

This is a promotion we do twice a year when things are otherwise quiet – the last one was in November 2020 and the next one will be in November 2021.

Twice a year we aim to give away a hundred and fifty free online French lessons, normally priced at £20 each.

Try an online lesson (via Skype or Zoom) with one of our native-speaker teachers, at a cost of exactly ZERO.

You don’t have to buy a lesson to get one free, we won’t even ask for your card details – all we need to organise your lesson is your email address, so our teaching management assistant can contact you to organise your lesson.

It’s a genuinely-free offer!

N.B. This promotion is for new students only. The free trial lesson offer is limited to one lesson per person.

To claim your FREE trial one-to-one lesson, follow these links to our online shop:

Free French Lesson | Catalog

Once we’ve received your order (there’s no payment stage, don’t worry), our teaching management assistant will contact you to find out what your needs and preferences are and, importantly, WHEN you’d like to do your free lesson.

That could take a few hours, or as long as a day or two, so be patient. If you don’t see an email from our team in your inbox, please check the spam/junk folders before writing to us. 

N.b. There’s no rush to do the free trial lesson, which doesn’t have to be this week – the offer ends on Sunday night (Feb. 14th 2021), but that’s just a promotional deadline, not a limit for actually doing the lesson.

• The Free Trial One-to-One French Lesson offer ends on Sunday, 14/02/21
• No need to actually DO the lesson this week, just ‘order’ it
• Remember: this offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY
• If you ordered a free trial last time but didn’t take it – do try again!
• But if you’ve already done a free trial in the past, sorry…
• After completing your lesson, you’ll be sent a 15% discount coupon

Ready to order your FREE trial one-to-one lesson?

Free French Lesson | Catalog

It’s February, so ALMOST time for our semi-annual ‘Free Trial Online French Lesson’ offer on EasyReaders.Org!

The next promotion of this type won’t be until November 2021, so why not take the chance to try an online French lesson (via Skype or Zoom) with one of our friendly mother-tongue teachers, at a cost of exactly ZERO?

Note that our free online language lessons are normally priced at £20 each (you’d pay less per lesson for packs of ten, twenty or thirty 30-minute lesson credits – see prices.)

N.b. You don’t have to buy a lesson to get one free, we won’t even ask for your card details – all we need to organise your French lesson is your email address (which you see, we already have…)

When we receive your order, we’ll email you a brief questionnaire to find out your existing level in French and whether you have any particular needs or preferences for your 30-minute trial.

Be assured – this is a genuinely-free offer! But if you’re uninterested in hearing more about next week’s promotion, SCROLL DOWN NOW and click the unsubscribe link – it takes just seconds to permanently remove your email address from our database.

Offer details:

• The Free Trial Online French Lesson offer begins on Monday February 8th and ends on Sunday February 14th 2021
• There’s no need to actually DO your free lesson that week, just ‘book’ it
• This offer is for NEW STUDENTS ONLY
• After completing your online French lesson, you’ll be sent a 15% discount coupon which gets you a one-time discount on additional lessons, to incentivize you to continue (view prices)
• Besides that coupon, we have four 20%-Off promotions each year (in the spring, the summer, the fall, and at New Year), so most of our regular students pay 20% less than the prices you see in the shop, here

Browse our catalog of French lessons and ebooks, where you’ll also find free ebook downloads for learners of French and certain other languages.

You’re getting this email because, at some point in the past, you joined the mailing list at OnlineFrenchClub.com.

But perhaps you’re no longer interested in learning French, and so won’t want to hear about next week’s FREE Trial Lesson offer (online, 30-minutes one-to-one with a real French teacher, normal price £20!)

In which case, we’d really prefer not to bother you. Please SCROLL DOWN and click the ‘unsubscribe’ link, which you’ll find at the bottom of this article.

You’ll be given the option to permanently remove your email address from our mailing list. It takes just a second or two.

Still here? Excellent!

There’ll be more about the FREE Trial Online Lesson offer next week, when we have everything ready…

In the meantime, though, here’s a reminder about some of the free resources we have for learning French that you might have forgotten about:

• This website, OnlineFrenchClub.com, has FREE material for learning French at any level
• DontSpeakFrench.com is a FREE online beginners’ French course comprising fifty or so pages of grammar explanations, exercises, vocabulary lists and listening practice… It’s also ours!
• And not to forget our online shop, which features ebooks for learning French and online lessons with a friendly native-speaker teacher (you can try one FREE, details next week, remember?)

À la semaine prochaine!

Learning French?

Then you’ll need to write French characters on your various devices – computer, tablet, smartphone and so on – even if it’s only for instant messaging!

And that can be a pain.

I’m writing this in English, on a computer with an Italian keyboard.

That doesn’t present a problem, as I’m used to it.

But when I switch to the FRA (French) keyboard option, via the icon in the Windows 10 taskbar at the bottom of the screen, what is printed on the computer keys doesn’t match what I need to type.

Like hardly at all!

This is so weird…

Where have they put the numbers?

Typing anything is impossible, let alone finding the e’s with the accents on, and getting the right-way-around one.

Oh dear!

Where are the French characters on my keyboard??

OK, what I need is a MAP!

First I have to make sure that I’ve added the French keyboard to whichever device I want to use to write with.

If you haven’t, Google how to do that…

Then I make sure I’ve actually selected the right keyboard, which isn’t usually hard but is easy to forget.

What I should see then, when I type (irrespective of what’s actually written on the keys), is something like this:

And now?

Now let’s consult the map and find out which way we’re going!

Look at the top row of keys. The first line is with the shift key pressed, the second line without.

Which means…

If I press the numbers on my keyboard, I won’t get what I expect…

(I give up, I’m going back to typing this on my Italian keyboard as the M, the A and the comma are all in different places, too.)

Got it!

The accented characters are mostly where the numbers are supposed to be….

é = 2
è = 7
ç = 9
à = 0

Oh, and where it says M on my keyboard, THAT’s the comma.

,,,,

And the M is a line up from where it usually is, to the right of the L.

mmmmmm

Wow, that’s perverse…

OK, so what I plan to do is print out the above image and keep it by my computer. Or tuck it in the cover of my smartphone.

Then, whenever I switch to FRA I can use it to find the characters I need!

Like a lot of British people, I studied French at school for what felt like years and years.

But again, like a lot of people, I stopped learning French (or any foreign language) at the age of sixteen and never took it up again.

For a few years, I could get by in the language, based on youthful enthusiasm and on what I remembered from school. I even, briefly, had a French girlfried, who didn’t speak English. We got on just fine.

But, as I got older, what I thought I knew just faded away.

That said, I now live in Italy, and have more or less mastered Italian, which is very similar to French, in many respects.

So similar, in fact, it seems a shame not to go back and have another go, especially now there are so many great resources on the internet.

So as I try again wth the language, I’ll post links to useful stuff I find out there.

Perhaps there’ll also be the occasional article with helpful tips…