Dawson’s French-language tutoring centre, CLÉO, is offering a new way to practice French and share québécois culture: The CLÉO Podcast.

The podcast (balado en français) episodes are between five to 10 minutes and are offered on an array of interesting topics, including author Gabrielle Roy, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve and Expo 67. The first one was about the classic québécois snack poutine!

“I enjoy a podcast called Coffee Break, available in many languages, for learning Italian,” said CLÉO language lab technician Catherine Côté, creator of The CLÉO Podcast.

CLÉO offers many ways to learn French

“Podcasts are a great way to get used to a language. I thought it would be useful for people working on French as a second language. At CLÉO, we like to give students as many ways as possible to learn French,” Catherine said.

The CLÉO Podcast became a pandemic project for Catherine, who is also a published author. She purchased her recording equipment over the summer and used her basic radio training, gained just before the pandemic when she wrote and produced a radio play, to create 10 episodes of The CLÉO podcast.

The podcast formula

Each podcast, a digital audio file made available on the internet, features a short text in French about the culture or history of Quebec and then an English translation of the text. Catherine concludes by sharing more about the topic covered or explaining expressions and vocabulary from the text or giving a French grammar lesson.

“I thought about topics that I find interesting and worthy of teaching students about,” said Catherine. “I am open to suggestions for the next podcasts.”

How to listen

The CLÉO Podcast is a quick and mobile way to add a little French into your day. It is available on the following podcasting platforms: Spotify, Google Play, Chromecast and Pocket Casts. Dawson students and employees can also find it on Omnivox (also called My Dawson Portal, Dawson’s intranet) after joining the CLÉO community there. It can be found by clicking the Écoute tab.

CLÉO offers a variety of resources and support to help students and employees improve their level of French.

All students at Dawson College in all programs must pass two French courses as part of their General Education credits because of the importance of the French language for living and working in Quebec. In addition, students in several technical programs must demonstrate competency in French in order to be accepted into their professional order and get a job in their chosen field.