Voulez-vous chanter avec moi? - J'ai demandé à la lune

ericat says
May 23, 2008

J’ai demandé à la lune
Et le soleil ne le sait pas
Je lui ai montré mes brûlures
Et la lune s’est moquée de moi
Et comme le ciel n’avait pas fière allure
Et que je ne guérissais pas
Je me suis dit quelle infortune
Et la lune s’est moquée de moi

J’ai demandé à la lune
Si tu voulais encore de moi
Elle m’a dit "j’ai pas l’habitude
De m’occuper des cas comme ça"
Et toi et moi
On était tellement sûr
Et on se disait quelques fois
Que c’était juste une aventure
Et que ça ne durerait pas

Je n’ai pas grand chose à te dire
Et pas grand chose pour te faire rire
Car j’imagine toujours le pire
Et le meilleur me fait souffrir

J’ai demandé à la lune
Si tu voulais encore de moi
Elle m’a dit "j’ai pas l’habitude
De m’occuper des cas comme ça"
Et toi et moi
On était tellement sûr
Et on se disait quelques fois
Que c’était juste une aventure
Et que ça ne durerait pas

alexthurgood says
May 24, 2008

If this is a beginner lesson then IMHO then it goes well over the average capacity of someone having never encountered French or just having started. Lots of complicated grammatical constructions, prepositional phrasing, personal pronouns, plus lyrical expressions and poetic construction !!! While I can understand the attraction of using a modern rock song to convey vocabulary and interpretation, and make a lesson interesting, I'm not sure that the target audience is being catered for, unless that is, the target audience is a group who is already comfortable with French grammatical construction and a certain degree of vocabulary knowledge.

 

I assume, as a professional language service offering pay lessons over the web that the authorisation for reproducing the lyrics and streaming the music was obtained in advance ;-) (sorry, got my IP lawyer hat on here).

songyian says
May 24, 2008

Here's a link to the music video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzf2d2pfAgA

mei9 says
May 25, 2008

HI SONGYIAN:MERCI ,THANK YOU ALOT:))

luhmann says
May 25, 2008

hmmmm.... I suppose that the moon is his "aventure" and the sun his wife.

mishmish says
May 25, 2008

Hello FrenchPod,

I just want to thank you for this series. La Vie en Rose is one of my all-time favorites and this song is a pleasant new discovery. I am looking forward to many more. (Also, these are holding me over until Intermediate lessons come out -which is soon?)

Back when I was in school, my German teacher always incorporated songs and poems that were a little beyond our level but we had fun and learned a lot--not just language but culture also. Fifteen years later I still know Erlkoenig by heart.

One suggestion-- Could you provide audio for the song in entirety for us to hear after the lesson? Or post it separately?

Thanks,

Michelle

amy123 says
May 25, 2008

sorry - I meant mnemonic - not pneumonic - oops!

mlandau says
May 26, 2008

I really like lessons with songs. I studied French for seven years in college, but very often I still have a difficult time understanding song lyrics. Would it be possible to leave audio comments on this web page? I am physically disabled, and it is difficult for me to type in French. However, I can speak French, so it were possible to leave audio comments, I could speak to you in French.

Mike Landau

billkaulitzlover says
May 26, 2008

Oops i just realized that the video link was posted previously by someelse. ^^

christof says
May 27, 2008

Hi mlandau,

Audio comments would be a great feature, it would be easier for you and nice for everyone to have their voice in the comments.
I don't see any easy way to do that in the current site version but I already added it to our "Nice to have" list.

ewong says
May 28, 2008

this is what i think of the song

1. the broken hearted

2. the moon is a good friend of the broken hearted whom he seeks for counsel

3. the sun is a former lover who broke his heart

alexthurgood says
May 31, 2008

Hi Cornelia,

Hmm, my comments might have been misunderstood, or perhaps I didn't fully explain my thoughts. I received an e-mail link to the lesson after having subscribed for the trial period, and the link said "Introductory lesson" (or something of that ilk).

French happens to be my second language, and it has been my daily working language for the last 15 years, so I have no problem understanding the lessons ;-) nor did I feel excluded. Indeed, my kids played this song incessantly on the car radio when it came out, so also knew it pretty well anyway.

The surprise or criticism I expressed was in relation to the marketing of the lesson. Of course, there must be subjects or themes that cater to all levels, as pburns has quite rightly pointed out, but I do feel that it would be unfair to consider such a lesson as an "introduction". So therein lies my gripe. Target potential customers by all means, but without knowing the target audience's capabilities, it comes as rather a surprise to be invited to listen to fairly advanced lesson material (song analysis of this type is always fairly advanced), "en guise d'introduction" as one would say in French.

Alex

pokkpokk says
May 31, 2008

Hi cornelia, speaking as a former "advocate and solicitor" (but only in a "common law" jurisdiction), FPOD probably can't afford to supply the song lyrics in a pdf without paying for them.

That would pose a real risk, because while the rights holders are probably not going to bother to go after some teenager or housewife who uploaded the video or the lyrics to the Internet, Praxis is a fairly "juicy" target to go after (in a lawyer's mind) because the company is an established one which can't simply make itself vanish. I ask myself the same question that alexthurgood posed about whether it is even legal to reproduce the complete song track in the lesson podcast...

My sympathy is also with alexthurgood on the promises being made by FPOD, including the implicit promise (articulated by Ken Carroll) that "output" means so much than "input", if only because I think that they are coming close to "under-teaching" the newbies and Eles...

 

ericat says
May 31, 2008

We are not reproducing the complete song track, auntie68. We never play the entire song on the podcast or too long of a section of the song.

 

We are also giving helpful exposure to the artists that are being spotlighted, because most of our users would probably not have known of their existence without these shows and maybe now will go out and buy the CD or tell their friends about them when they otherwise would not have.

alexthurgood says
June 3, 2008

Bonjour Ericat,

Il importe peu la manière dont vous justifiez la reproduction partielle des paroles, elle est interdite sauf autorisation du titulaire des droits d'auteur. On pourra toujours discuté sur le point que la représentation qui a été faite soit une courte citation ou non ;-)

Le site est accessible aux français, donc cette reproduction tombe aussi sous la compétence des tribunaux français, qui, comme vous le savez sans doute, se font une joie d'appliquer des sanctions importantes à des prétendus (et réels) contrefacteurs des droits de la PI à la simple demande d'un détenteur de ces droits, tant la France s'est donnée l'étendard de la lutte contre la contrefaçon.

Mes commentaires étaient faits pour vous alerter à une situation potentiellement délicate et engageant la responsabilité de la société qui diffuse le contenu, sans parler même de celle de l'hébergeur (également engagée en cas d'inaction après sommation - LEN oblige).

C'est un débat qui n'en finit plus, j'en suis conscient, entre l'accès à la culture et sa diffusion à des fins pédagogiques, et le respect des droits d'auteur. Il se trouve que je suis Conseil en Propriété Industrielle en France, voilà pourquoi j'ai souhaité apporter ma pierre à l'édifice, et attirer votre attention aux dangers potentiels de la poursuite de cette activité ô combien intéressante d'un point de vue culturel. Je ne représente pas (en tant que mandataire) le détenteur des droits d'auteur dans cette chanson.

Très sincèrement, il vaudrait mieux que la société prenne conseil (si ce n'est pas déjà fait) auprès de ses propres spécialistes. Ce qui est autorisé en matière de diffusion en Chine, ou aux US, ne l'est pas forcément ailleurs en fonction de l'évolution du Copyright ou du Droit d'Auteur dans le pays où le site est accessible. La France est le pays champion du monde dans la défense du Droit d'Auteur (en tout cas, elle fait tout pour). Ce serait dommage que l'on vienne vous embêter pour quelque chose qui aurait pu être gérée à l'avance.

 

 

pokkpokk says
June 3, 2008

Since alexthurgood has been principled enough to stick by what he said and even explain it in very good and clear French, rather than hiding behind an "Asian-style" whimper-apology like I did, I feel obliged to say to Erica and Praxis:

My "sorry" was because I had (wrongly) implied that you reproduced the entire song. But I hope that you and Praxis do get good advice regarding your legal position in jurisdictions outside China or the US, where cleverly missing out a few stanzas may not be an adequate defence if the IP holder sues you. Of course, you may well have sought this advice already, and received a good opinion. So please don't take offence from me. You are in the business, I am not; so you probably know better.

For what it's worth, I can tell you firmly that you could easily have a problem in Singapore if the rights holders were so inclined. It's not a case of my being "negative" or difficult, it's just the law.

ericat says
June 3, 2008

First, it is important to point out that we do not charge for nor make anything at all off of voulez-vous chanter avec moi - it is completely free of charge and there is no paid content at all connected to this show's podcast, which through explaining the meaning of the lyrics through short clips of the song, gives free and priceless exposure to French language musical artists who find it generally impossible to get any fans, exposure or recognition outside of the French-speaking world.

Most of the course material on the Praxis pods' websites is free of charge to all learners, because we truly do care about learning first, and making the learning of these foreign languages accessible to all people. The daily podcasts, the central feature of the method, as well as the extra shows and participation on the discussion boards cost nothing to use and there are thousands of users throughout the world who are learning the languages through them without ever having had to pay anything at all.

ewong says
June 3, 2008

about the sun & moon, what do they signify? I really like this song :)

poissonnoir says
December 28, 2008

HERE'S A LINK TO THE MUSIC VIDEO

the others have been removed:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_vYYb7S6qI

(just copy paste into your url box.)