The response to the second issue of French Accent has been overwhelmingly positive and extremely gratifying. We have received glowing comments from readers throughout France and from as far away as Thailand, Norway, Mauritius and Canada. Our choice of subjects for articles has obviously struck a chord, as various readers have written to express their appreciation for a wide range of the material in the magazine, especially for the scenarios, the vocabulary lists, the audio files, the cultural analyses and even for the dictations. We thank you wholeheartedly for your feedback. It is vital for us as we continue to strive to make French Accent something that will be an integral part of your lives. We also appreciate the one or two readers who have sent their suggestions for future articles, and we encourage more of you to submit suggestions and/or comments on your own experiences with the French language and culture.

In this, the third issue, we continue to focus on both language and survival skills with new scenarios that should be helpful to you in the cold, winter months, and our hearts are always tuned to environmental problems and solutions. We have also dared venture out onto the thin ice of consumer advice in our article on Internet service providers and their willingness, or lack of such, to provide service to non-French speaking customers. The results of our enquiry with the major providers were somewhat disappointing, even laughable, at times. In fact, one of the letters from a reader expressed his frustration in trying to deal with his ISP through their very expensive toll help lines.

When we first began brainstorming about the project of creating an online magazine, our primary objective was to provide a new and valid means of helping others adapt to living in France or to learning the language through the use of new forms of technology now available through the Internet. A secondary, but very important, consideration was the economic viability of the project. Our initial plan was to make French Accent available only to paid subscribers. However, very shortly after we put the first issue on line last December, and even after the initial subscriptions began to come in, we realized that the readership potential would be considerably greater, as would the potential for benefiting a wider spectrum of people, if the magazine were freely available to anyone worldwide with an Internet connection. The result, therefore, is that both the web site and the pdf versions now contain advertising. While we realize that certain aspects of the advertising scene can be objectionable, they are a necessary element in the financial well being of French Accent and can even be quite useful if they make our readers aware of a needed service or product. We will make every effort to avoid ads for questionable products or from disreputable firms. At the same time, we encourage our readers to support the magazine by patronizing its advertisers when possible. For example, purchasing items online from Amazon, FNAC, etc. through the links on the magazine’s website will not cost you any more and will provide a small contribution to the magazine.

Your participation is precious to us!

Please send us your comments, criticisms and suggestions. The main purpose of this magazine is to help you adapt better to life in France… Help us to help you! We will be pleased to publish your letters. Don’t hesitate to write to us! editor@frenchaccentmagazine.com