That’s a good question and it depends greatly upon where you are in France.
It’s a fundamental part of living in France that can leave foreigners a little flummoxed.
“La bise” is the way people greet each other by exchanging kisses on the cheek.
In France, cheek kissing is called “faire la bise”.
A popular French joke states that you may recognize the city you are in by counting the number of cheek kisses, as it varies across the country.
It is very common, in the southern parts of France, even between males, be they relatives or friends, whereas in the north, it is less usual for two unrelated males to perform ′la bise′. The custom came under scrutiny during the H1N1 epidemic of 2009. Generally speaking, women will kiss both women and men, while men will kiss women but refrain from kissing other men, unless they are close friends or relatives, instead preferring to shake hands with strangers.
However, it depends where you are in France as to how many kisses are given – from one in Finisterre in Brittany up to 5 in Corsica.
Where does this beloved tradition come from? And what are the rules? Genie Godula and Florence Villeminot teach you the basics of “bise etiquette” and how to avoid giving an unintentional French kiss.
Incidentally, La Bise is also the name of a cold, dry wind in Switzerland which blows through the Swiss Plateau from the northeast to the southwest.
England’s third pool match at Rugby World Cup 2019 will be against the Argentina at the The Tokyo Stadium on Saturday October 5.
England look the stronger of the two sides and know that a victory against Argentina will put them through into the quarter-finals.
The Pumas were impressive in the second half against France but struggled in the early stages. If England’s pack can assert dominance with its power game then victory should follow.
Pumas talisman and former captain Agustin Creevy lit the fuse for the Pool C collision in Tokyo by declaring Eddie Jones’ team play “boring” rugby and should be ready for a “war”.
England ran in 11 tries in their convincing wins over Tonga and the USA and George, the Saracens and Lions hooker, does not recognise Creevy’s view of the nation’s playing style.
“I don’t think we play boring rugby. I’m not overly surprised that he’s tried to say that, but he’s entitled to his opinion and hopefully we’ll prove him wrong on Saturday,” George said.
“In my opinion I don’t think it’s very justified. I’m sure he’s just trying to rattle us a bit. He’s more than welcome to try.”
When reminded that boring is an accusation that has been made against his club Saracens, George replied: “It’s trophies in the bag. We are used to it!”
Try your hand at this short quiz before the England v Argentina rugby match on Saturday 5 October 2019.
How much do you know about the teams and the game?
England v Argentina Rugby Quiz
This is the third match for both teams in the pool stages of the 2019 Rugby
World Cup.
England look the stronger of the two sides and know that a victory against
Argentina will put them through into the quarter-finals.
The Pumas were impressive in the second half against France but struggled in
the early stages, finally losing due to a bad day at the kicking tee from
Nicolas Sanchez.
If England's pack can assert dominance with its power game then victory
should follow.
Try your hand at the following quiz to see how much you know about the two
teams.
This is just a bit of fun and is in no way meant to be political and does not represent any political views of the site, as we hold no political views..
At the time of recording, the colourful character, Boris Johnson was / is the prime minister of The UK.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer, and former journalist serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party since July 2019.
He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015 and was MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008.
He also served as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016 and Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018. Johnson identifies as a one-nation conservative.
Born in New York City to upper-middle class English parents, Johnson was educated at the European School, Ashdown House, and Eton College.
He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1986.
He began his career in journalism at The Times but was dismissed for falsifying a quotation.
He became The Daily Telegraph‘s Brussels correspondent, and his articles exerted a strong influence on growing Eurosceptic sentiment on the British right-wing.
He was an assistant editor of The Telegraphfrom 1994 to 1999, and edited The Spectator from 1999 to 2005.
He was elected MP for Henley in 2001, and served as a Junior Shadow Minister under Conservative leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron.
He largely adhered to the Conservatives’ party line but adopted a socially liberal stance on issues such as LGBT rights in parliamentary votes.
Resigning as an MP, in 2008 he was elected Mayor of London, and was re-elected in 2012.
During his mayoralty, he banned alcohol consumption on much of London’s public transport, oversaw the 2012 Summer Olympics, and introduced the New Routemaster buses, cycle hire scheme, and Thames cable car.
In 2015, Johnson was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, stepping down as Mayor the following year.
In 2016, he became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leavecampaign to support “Brexit”, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.
He then served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs under Theresa May’s premiership.
After May resigned in 2019, he was elected Conservative leader and appointed prime minister.
Pursuing Brexit, he unlawfully prorogued parliament and suspended 21 Conservative MPs who opposed his approach to leaving the EU.
Johnson is a controversial figure in British politics and journalism.
Supporters have praised him as an entertaining, humorous, and popular figure, with an appeal stretching beyond traditional Conservative voters.
He has been criticised for using racist, sexist, and homophobic language, and accused of dishonesty, elitism, and cronyism.
Johnson is the subject of several biographies and a number of fictionalised portrayals.
Why are listening skills important, both for everyday life and for language learning?
Well, if you don’t listen, then you will never learn, as simple as that.
Listeners, and especially good listeners are the best learners, as the Dalai Lama said, “When you speak you are repeating what you already know, but when you listen it gives us an opportunity to learn.”
So here are the 7 Tips to improve listening that we discuss in the podcast :
Listen to silence, focus on yourself and what is around you. Interestingly the word, ‘Silent’ includes all of the letter in the word ‘Listen.’
Listen to backgground sounds, those sounds that we usually try to ignore or block out.
Focus and get relaxed, open your ears (although this is not really something we can do) as you need to be able to hear before you can listen effectively and finally understand what you are listening to.
Listen form differing perspectives and change the perspective by taking different standpoints – agree, disagree, criticise, empathise etc.
Listen to emotion in the listening – happiness, excitedness, sadness, seriousness, anger etc.
For language learners, try to skip over and ignore what you don’t understand and listen globally and not in detail.
Enjoy listening, don’t see it as a chore, do it often and vary the way you listen.
England’s second pool match at Rugby World Cup 2019 will be against the USA at the Kobe Misaki Stadium on Thursday 26th September.
England previously met the USA during the pool stages of the 1987, 1991 and 2007 editions of the tournament. England won those matches 34-6, 37-9 and 28-10 respectively, but will this time be different in a 2019 RWC that is clearly one of the most open World cups since the tournament began.
Overall, England and the USA have played each other on five occasions and England have won every match.
Head coach Eddie Jones is confident his reshuffled England team will cope with their short turnaround as they prepare for Thursday’s game against the USA, four days after battling past Tonga.
Only five of the team from Sunday’s 35-3 win in their opening World Cup game are keeping their starting places.
“We’ve done a fair bit of homework for this turnaround,” Jones told BBC Sport.
“We trialled a four-day turnaround against Japan last autumn, to make sure the players have experience of it.”
George Ford captains the side at 10, with Billy Vunipola selected again at eight and there are World Cup debuts for wingers Ruaridh McConnochie and Joe Cokanasiga plus centre Piers Francis.
Try your hand at this short quiz before the England v USA rugby match on Thurday 26 September.
How much do you know about the teams and the game?
Rugby World cup England v USA quiz
Try your hand at this short quiz before the
England v USA rugby match on Thurday 26 September.
How much do you know about the teams and
the game?
How many bises according to region in France