Seattle Language & Culture Meetup

Bonjour à toutes et à tous! :)

This is a semi-structured conversation group exclusively in French. You should have at least an intermediate level to be able to chat freely with a partner on a wide variety of topics.

The format of the group is as follows:
* simple questions for approximately 5 minutes with groups of 2-3 people
* slightly more complex questions for 5-10 minutes with 2-3 participants per breakout room
* in-depth discussion questions for 10-15 minutes (or longer) with 4-6 partners

This is not a lesson with a presentation or targeted activities, so there is no need to prepare. Sometimes there will be questions and resources shared ahead of the meeting. Feel free to look over those.

If you like to sing in the shower, in your car, or on the street, then come and join us to sing your heart out in the languages that you like. Singing karaoke has been found to be not only therapeutic 🙃 but it also helps to improve on the pronunciation of the new language that one is learning.

Once you have RSVPed, you will see the Zoom meeting link on this Meetup a day or so before the event. At or before the meeting, open a YouTube window and find your songs by typing in the name of the song followed by the word “karaoke.” When it is your turn to sing, share your YouTube window with the “Share Sound” option checked and you are ready to rock. Don’t worry if this is too confusing as I can also share my screen with your song for you to sing. You can also play the song on your device without sharing your screen.

Karaoke is for us “thick skin” people who don’t care what others think about our singing. We sing for fun, to de-stress oneself, and to stress out our listeners 🤪

Here are some helpful tips when participating in the event -

1. Singing in Zoom is best experienced using a laptop. Using a phone may result with lower sound quality and limited functionality in Zoom.

2. To set up Zoom for karaoke, check out this video -

https://youtu.be/xqddFGlw4Kc

3. When sharing your YouTube karaoke video, set the Youtube volume to about 25%. This volume control can be found near the lower left corner of the Youtube video. If you can’t hear the music, increase the sound volume of your device.

4. Have your song queued up in YouTube before your turn to sing.

5. Mute your microphone when others are singing, unmute when you are speaking or singing.

6. Set the “Original sound for musician” setting in Zoom to “On”.

7. You can sing solo or invite people to sing along with you.

Have fun!

Nos sentaremos adentro de 9:15 a 9:45, cerca de la entrada principal de Crossroads. Los que quieren pueden comprar café. A las 9:45, caminaremos en el parque cercano. (Si hay lluvia o humo, nos quedaremos adentro y escribiré eso en los ‘comments’.) Si llega después de las 9:30, envíe un mensaje en WhatsApp o en el chat del evento para obtener nuestra ubicación actual. ¡Todos son bienvenidos, de cualquier nivel de español!

We'll sit inside from 9:15 to 9:45, near the main entrance to Crossroads. Those who want can buy coffee. At 9:45, we'll walk in the nearby Crossroads Park. (If it's rainy or smoky, we'll stay inside and post as such in the comments.) Send a message in WhatsApp or the event chat if you arrive after 9:45 to find out where we are in the park. All are welcome, with any level of Spanish!

Bonjour à toutes et à tous! :)

This is a semi-structured conversation group exclusively in French. You should have at least an intermediate level to be able to chat freely with a partner on a wide variety of topics.

The format of the group is as follows:
* simple questions for approximately 5 minutes with groups of 2-3 people
* slightly more complex questions for 5-10 minutes with 2-3 participants per breakout room
* in-depth discussion questions for 10-15 minutes (or longer) with 4-6 partners

This is not a lesson with a presentation or targeted activities, so there is no need to prepare. Sometimes there will be questions and resources shared ahead of the meeting. Feel free to look over those.