DUOS BILINGUES, un lien dynamique pour échanger en Français et en Anglais, entre Grenoble et Oxford.

From OGA newsletter, Summer 2024.

“… since then contacts have been fewer and considerably lower-profile. However, the surge in the use of video-call during the pandemic years did give rise to a brilliant new initiative – French/English conversation links between OGA and AGO members wishing to practise their language skills. Mel Houldershaw and Marie-Christine Simiand, chairs of Oxford-Grenoble Association and Alliance Grenoble-Oxford. Despite the pandemic, OGA has maintained long-lasting friendships with Grenoble. Françoise Miquel from the Alliance GrenobleOxford sent us an enthusiastic review of her experience: Have you ever dreamed of being fluent in both English and French? May your dream come true! Thanks to the conversation duos you’ll widen your horizons, giving you access to many aspects of culture, history and identity, and you’ll boost your creativity and self-esteem. Researchers have shown that the bilingual brain can have better attention and task-switching capacities. En fonction de vos goûts et de vos passions vous trouverez un(e) correspondant(e). La conversation se module au gré des sujets de prédilection et n’excède pas une heure. My bilingual duo started two years ago and forged bonds of friendship. And from this side of the Channel Colin Bloxham adds his assessment: Having an online buddy is a great way to improve your French. I’ve been enjoying Zoom meetings with Laurent for over a year and we discuss all sorts of things: news of political developments in the UK and France, cultural events and inevitably the weather too. We don’t get too hung up about grammatical errors, we try to keep the conversation flowing, to have a laugh and keep things relaxed. So if you’ve not yet taken the plunge, don’t hesitate. Being part of a duo is both fun and, in my case at least, educational.”