Let’s Speak French — French Cafe Lessons in Brisbane

If you have always wanted to learn another language and are looking for a convenient opportunity to achieve your dream, then this may provide the solution.

French Cafe Lessons are taught by French Canadian teacher Lise Mariano in the relaxed environment of a suburban (郊区的) cafe. This unique method affords the students the chance to be a part of a small group conversation where they can have that extra comfort and interest which a formal classroom cannot offer.

Lise started Let’s Speak French lessons in Brisbane about 6 years ago. The classes are intentionally small so that Lise can provide personalised tutorage (指导). There are usually 4 students in one class, and the topics are connected to everyday life. Lessons are held at places in Brisbane including Kenmore, Samford and Graceville.

The timetable of classes

• Monday 9:00 am − 10:30 am, Graceville Cafe, Graceville, Beginners

• Tuesday 9:00 am − 10:30 am, Cafe Lagarto, Samford, Intermediate (中级)

• Wednesday 9:00 am − 10:00 am, Cafe Lagarto, Samford, Beginners

• Thursday 9:15 am − 10:30 am, One table Cafe, Kenmore, Beginners

• Friday 9:30 am − 11:00 am, One table Cafe, Kenmore, Intermediate

Prices

• Block of 5 lessons $175 (60 / 75 minutes)

$165 early bird price before 10th December, 2021

• Block of 10 lessons $330 (60 / 75 minutes)

$300 early bird price before 10th December, 2021

• Block of 5 lessons $195 (90 minutes)

• Block of 10 lessons $360 (90 minutes)

If you would like to sign up for French Cafe Lessons, just head to its website at Let’s Speak French.

Tracy Garrett was the Mr Fix-it of a village where I lived for two years. I heard about mysterious doings of his late wife, Minnie. There were stories of someone who had got into trouble a proper amount of money would cure, and each ended on the same strange note: “Minnie is in hock again.”

I tried to talk with locals to solve the mystery. But at a newcomer’s spying curiosity, the villagers always avoided the issue with New England reservation. It left me completely in the dark.

Soon I began having troubles of my own. My daughter had an expensive operation, but the money I had counted on didn’t come in.

One day Garrett came to fix my sink, which never worked properly. Working silently for a while, he looked at me and said, “Understand you’ve been having a little trouble.” I was feeling bitter, but still talked it out. “Then it’s time you met Minnie,” he said decisively.

I felt a bit scared and was prepared for anything, but all that happened was that he took out a tired-looking $ 1000 bank-note. Roughly printed on it was: MINNIE.

“All you do is take Minnie to the bank and put her up for loan for any amount up to $ 1000. You pay the bank their regular rate of interest, and then Minnie comes back to me.” He continued. “Minnie loved this village, and she wanted to keep on helping people after she was gone.”

I began to understand why the town folk had been so secretive. They didn’t know whether I could be trusted with a secret so precious.

Though I moved away later, I would like to believe Minnie is still in circulation (流通). Minnie strikes me as the kind of woman who goes on for ever.

Music streaming platforms (平台) such as Spotify and Apple Music have completely changed how people listen to music nowadays. By paying very affordable prices, people can access music very easily. However, while these platforms may provide benefits for some artists, up-and-coming artists are being left behind because they only focus on big names and creating profits.

Because of COVID-19, musicians have not been able to tour or perform live in many countries, which contributes to a large part of their income. In a YouTube interview, up-and-coming Texas artist Mobey mentioned that “The majority of my income comes from playing live shows. Usually that means around 50% — 70% of what we expect to make in a year”. With these factors, small artists are finding it increasingly difficult to make it in the industry due to the lack of investment (投资) into new talent.

Small artists on Spotify and Apple Music can expect to make little to nothing. An artist on Spotify can expect to earn an average of $0.003 per stream or around $3 per 1,000 streams for one of their songs. On Apple Music, artists can expect to make a little more with an average of $0.01 per stream, or around $10 with 1,000 streams. Even if they could hit around 1,000 streams, they have to pay music distribution (分发) platforms needed for their music to be shown on the streaming platforms such as DistroKid, whose cheapest plan is $20.

A new artist would find it very difficult to promote their music outside of their social media accounts which may not even have a large amount of followers. They probably cannot get large amounts of streams on their music since it is not being promoted due to the lack of exposure (宣传) they have on social media.

With the takeover of music streaming platforms, many artists are finding it increasingly difficult to make a sustainable (可持续的) living from their love for music. A simple way these platforms can enable new artists to keep making music is to increase their payouts per stream for their music. Hopefully the music streaming industry will make similar changes to improve the situation of their artists.