CUBE29

Head to stories to play our Wednesday Curiosity Quiz!🦜
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You’ll also find that the Quiz highlights feature our quizzes from previous weeks.

Some days are just meant for downtime 🍁

As promised, a summary of our previous lively discussion is here!
https://www.cube29.com/resume-le-meilleur-ami-de-lhomme/
“Le meilleur ami de l’Homme: Pourquoi notre lien avec les chiens est-il si fort?” - this was the theme of the previous Salon.
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Happy reading, stay tuned for more, and join us next time! 🦜

This week’s Wednesday Curiosity Quiz is live! Head to our stories to play ⬆️
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Check out the Quiz highlights in our profile for the games from before 😉

Sally West, Beach Study 1
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It makes me want to dive. How come? 🌊

The idea of launching ZE FRENCH SALON, like many great ideas, popped out of a crisis situation. The world has sunken into a pandemic frenzy, and we got stuck between the endless work calls ever more longing to finally mingle with the like-minded others. The physical events have ceased to be an option for the months to come.
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In my life, I’ve been starting to learn French times and times again. With the same challenge looming each time - a lack of space for practising to speak. This time around, I didn’t want to give up at last. Hence, was born, called to connect curious speakers of français, those learning the language, and keen on taking to smart discussions on the topics beyond the ordinary (unlike those “Hi, I work for a bank and love to hang out with my friends, what do you do in your spare time?” sort of conversations, you know).
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This is an homage to the 18th-century Salons, the social gatherings that provoked thought and welcomed sharing of opinions. We take matters seriously here and join events with favourite drinks at hand to make the conversations even cosier and freer. The playful attitude is welcome! We are online, but only for now.
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The Salon inspiration is to come from art, technology, literature, history, societal norms and standards, and all the things that make us human in the modern sense. We like to unpack and analyse, observe and discuss, reflect and share. This is a place to meet the worthy conversationalists in French, as well as to express your observations with no shame!
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An ever-growing range of Salons is yet to follow, look out for announcements.
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Merci de nous rejoindre. Bonne discussion!

: “Le Meilleur Ami de l'Humain” is happening today already! 🇫🇷
Time: 7:00 - 8:30 pm
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Don’t forget to register if you still haven’t - tap the link in our profile bio ⬆️ (swipe for instructions).
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À bientôt!

Why do we like Museums? 🏺
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I recently went to ROM with my friends to see the Winnie-the-Pooh exhibition, which was followed, in my case, by gazing at the Indian painted and printed cottons, glancing through the rows of ancient armour, Greek statues, inspecting a 16th century Cameo set in gold, examining a plethora of the 18th-century floral patterns, visiting my favourite bizarre-looking fish in a glass box  - all of this living under the same roof along with the First Peoples’ art & culture artefacts, a mad collection of minerals, Chinese architectural pieces, remnants of dinosaurs, and 20th century Art Deco furniture. I wondered, what does actually bind this load of stuff in our heads, why do we place all this in one place, and come to marvel at all this for hours on end?
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Perhaps, this helps us travel between distinct worlds. The worlds we imagine, the others we remember from our childhood, from the books read and the stories told, or the worlds we can’t help but build in our imagination the minute we see the unexpected, something we didn’t know existed.
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As even with the Winnie-the-Pooh exhibition - it’s not specifically aimed at young children, really. Most of the visitors seem to be those remembering the little naïve bear from when they were young. Isn’t he bringing you back the sense of utter comfort allowing for some childish silliness?
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All the museum artefacts, irrespective of their background and initial purpose, are portals to the past, or to the future if you will. They tell multilayered histories. This is why you also get a different experience each time, visiting the same museum time and time again.
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Some might say that museums only revolve around the past, but they do look to the future as well. How can you look forward to the way things will work in the future if you don’t know how they worked in the past? How else can you get marginalised voices and stories heard and integrated into history?
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So, what can be considered “museum-worthy”? Literally, anything, in my opinion at least. If it has the potential to make you wonder and ignites the imagination.
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I’m an avid traveller, but it’s just now I realised I love to travel between worlds.

Today's inspiration - rugs by F**g Ahmed from Azerbaijan.
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Looks like an intricate digital art. Wrong!
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These pieces are entirely hand woven rugs, and represent a perfect example of the artist's ambition: the intersection of the artistic tradition and modern art. Intertwinning the conventional and conceptual, traditional and hyper-contemporary, timeless and instantly changing, flamboyant and minimalistic, local and, yet, so global. These rugs just make you want to stop and stare - they are so much like some of our own lives.

We’re entertaining ourselves with curious facts on a variety of subjects, and sharing some of them in the Wednesday Curiosity Quiz 🦜
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Tap our stories ⬆️ to play this week’s Quiz! And check out the Quiz highlights for from before.

7 indispensable tips for learning a language 🥐
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What's the best way to learn a new language to really make it happen this time?
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◽️Turn learning into entertainment. You don’t want to invent yet another chore in your life. Seek out fun activities that will help you learn the language simultaneously.
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◽️You need to talk in the language. A conversation sees you go back over things you've learned, structure them in your mind, and apply them to appropriate real-life situations.
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◽️Do it regularly. The repetition makes knowledge stick in your mind, so that at some point you’ll start speaking with the flow of your thoughts.
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◽️Read in the language. Start with the news or articles, and move on to books later, but reading tends to be essential in grasping a language’s construction.
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◽️Watch and listen too. Listening and observing facial expressions and emotions of fluent speakers will help you pick things up quickly, and better understand the language intricacies. So, we recommend switching to films in their original language.
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◽️Attend gatherings. Events, physical or virtual, where you can talk to a variety of language speakers can help drastically expand your perception of the existing language styles and accents.
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◽️Make mistakes. This is indispensable. Once you’ve been corrected you won’t repeat that mistake.
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If you, by any chance, are seeking an entertaining way to practise your conversational French, connect with other learners through a virtual event, and make some mistakes while engaging in a smart discussion for FREE, do join CUBE29’s on Sept 29 ✨
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Tap the link in our bio ⬆️ to register.