Search results for ""Author Jean-Benoît Nadeau""

After more than a decade of travelling throughout France one important lesson eluded married couple Julie and Jean-Benoit: how to communicate comfortably with the French, even when you speak their language? In The Bonjour Effect, they chronicle the lessons they learned after returning to France to live, for a year, with their twin daughters. They offer up all the lessons they learned and explain, in a book as fizzy as a bottle of the finest champagne, the most important aspect of all: the French don't communicate, they converse. To converse in French, one must understand that conversation runs on a set of rules that go to the heart of French culture. Why do the French like talking about "the decline of France"? Why does broaching a subject like money end all discussion? Why do the French become so aroused debating the merits and qualities of their own language? Through encounters with school principals, city hall civil servants, old friends and business acquaintances, Julie and Jean-Benoit explain why, culturally and historically, conversation with the French is not about communicating or being nice. It's about being interesting. After reading The Bonjour Effect, even someone with a basic understanding of French will be able to hold their own the next time they step into a bistro on the Left Bank.

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Hydro-Québec manages one of the largest power grids on the continent. It is among the most profitable, the least expensive and the greenest. With a stunning renewable energy rate of 99.8 percent, Quebec has two-generation advance on places like California and Ontario. Combining a reporters’ style with thought, philosophy and a touch of humour, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow look into Hydro-Québec’s future – with an eye also on the past – as the public utility marks the 75th anniversary of its founding. The future is now and it is electric. It spans widely diverse fields such as big data aggregation centres, exports to the United States, acquisitions in Mexico, Chinese buses, mega-batteries, bitcoins, charging stations and much more.Between now and Hydro-Québec’s 100th anniversary, the challenges will be vast. As our habits and expectations change radically everything will be on the table, from solar panels to rates, from remote heating control to underground power lines, and from the environment to relations with the indigenous peoples.

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