# mingler (group exercise)



## Wodwo

I'm wondering if there is a French equivalent of the term "mingler" used to mean a group exercise where everyone has to talk to everyone else, or to lots of other people. Such exercises are often used as ice-breakers at the start of a course. For example, everyone is given a list of activities and has to find someone who does each one.


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## TheAlien

Sorry, I tried to find something, but I failed. Perhaps the person in charge of mingling into a group could be called in French "un médiateur" ? Or a "coach", why not ? Dans "un groupe de parole". I found also "gestionnaire du relationnel". Hope that helps.


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## Hildy1

That kind of activity is sometimes called a "brise-glace", at least in Canada.


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## TheAlien

Could works, but "brise-glace" first means "the boat in charge to cut the ice" in the ocean. Perhaps "briseur de glace", with the helping of the context...


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## Maîtreaupôle

En français tout à fait comme en anglais, j'ai entendu parler assez souvent d' "exercises pour briser la glace". Ce serait un type de "mingler", au moins - mais apparemment pas ce que vous cherchez. Est-ce un calque - "briser la glace"?  Peut-être, mais je ne pense pas.


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## Hildy1

Yes, the first meaning of "brise-glace" is a ship that breaks ice. The context makes it clear whether a particular brise-glace is a ship or an exercise to get people acquainted. I have experience with the latter kind, but unfortunately none with the former.


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## mirifica

des exercices qui facilitent un premier contact


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## petit1

Des exercices brise-glace. Ce dit aussi en France dans le domaine de la pédagogie. Peut-être devons-nous l'expression à nos cousins canadiens.
http://tenseignes-tu.com/idees-pour-la-classe/brise-glace/


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## sorry66

You also say '_break the ice_' in English - to do something (maybe play a game) to break down the barriers between people.
_Ice-breaker_ (noun) names the actual activity (mentioned in the OP).


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## Wodwo

Thanks for all of these. As I say, we do use "ice-breaker" in English, but it's a broad category that covers many different types of activity. I guess the specific idea of a "mingler", where everyone is given a task that makes them talk to everyone else, is either not used in francophone situations, or called a "mingler"…

I wanted to find a French word to use with the students I oblige to carry out this activity, but I guess until someone can come up with something I'll just go on saying "maingleur" or "meengleur" in a cod French accent...


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## petit1

There* is* a French word which is "un brise-glace".


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## Wodwo

I know, and it has been much discussed above, but I'm fairly sure that the French "brise-glace" is a direct equivalent of the English "ice-breaker", which can take many forms including, off the top of my head, pair interviews, "two truths and a lie", or each individual in turn telling the group what their favourite dessert is. A "brise-glace" is a catch-all term for all kinds of activities designed to get people in a group to open up a bit about themselves and relax with each other.

A mingler is a particular kind of "brise-glace". It involves people getting up off their chairs and, preferably, standing together in a space and having as many one-to-one conversations with other members of the group as they can in the allotted time. It's a specific activity that we use a lot in language teaching because it makes people have many different but fairly similar conversations in a short space of time around a particular theme or set of questions, so it is a way of reinforcing vocabulary and phrases by repeating them for the purpose of communication. As my teaching is done in French, I would like to have a particular term for this specific activity which, in language teaching, has a specific educational purpose, rather than being primarily an ice-breaking and team-building activity.


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## Wodwo

Here I am, back again, still hoping someone can help me with a French term for a "mingler". I want to use this practice method in my next class. My students all know each other, it's not an ice-breaker. I am going to get them to devise a problem, for which they are then going to seek answers. They will all come into the middle of the room (they sit in a horseshoe shape) and talk to as many of their fellows as possible in the time, asking for and offering answers. At the end they will give us the best answer to their particular problem. This method is called a "mingler" because it involves mingling with each other and talking to lots of their fellow students.

I can't believe that this method for getting students to talk to each other, which is usual in language classes in the UK, is not also used in French-speaking countries. Surely there must be a term..?


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## TheAlien

Lu sous un autre intitulé du forum : mingle


archijacq said:


> activité de rencontre ?
> 
> _" Imagine you walk by a classroom and see this: students walking around the classroom, speaking to each other in pairs, then walking away, then forming new pairs, talking, then splitting up again… you’ve just witnessed a mingle, one of the best-known activities in ELT. The British Council – Teaching English website ... defines a mingle as “a short activity where learners walk around the classroom and talk to each other.” That’s it: movement plus interaction_."





Cecilly said:


> ça doit être ça, mais cette méthode n'est pas encore arrivée en France



Il va vous falloir inventer l'expression !

Note de modération : balises de citation.


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## iuytr

The equivalent activity of the post #1 is named _"mini-rallye communicatif"_ on this site http://tenseignes-tu.com/idees-pour-la-classe/brise-glace/
and _"bingo de la connaissance"_ on this one https://www.theatreanimagination.com/fr/jeux-pour-se-connaitre.html

I think there is no established french name and I would use simply the perfectly clear _"mélangeur"_ to stay close mingler, if you're OK to invent a term.


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## Wodwo

Thanks very much TheAlien and iuytr. I am very surprised to hear this method isn't used in France, but if you think "mélangeur" is clear and will work I'd be happy to use that. I think it's better for my case than "activité de rencontre", which is probably more appropriate to the "ice-breaker" version of the mingler, but it's very useful to have both for future ref.


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## TheAlien

Unfortunetaly, Wodwo, iuyt, I'm afraid "mélangeur" to be incomprehensible for Frenchspoken persons... Remember that a "mélangeur" is used to talk about a double tap designed to mix up cold and hot water (and its one tap version, the "mitigeur"). "Facilitateur d'échanges" ou "interactionneur" (neologism !) would be more fun. And what about acting as a mingler, asking to someone or another to think about a new French expression for "mingler" ?


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## Wodwo

I don't think you can act as a mingler. You can be a mingler - someone who likes to mingle - as in the phrase "he's a good mingler". That means someone who finds it easy to chat with lots of others at a party, say. But it has nothing to do with my context of a classroom exercise, where it is the form of group organisation itself that is the "mingler".

I take your point about "mélangeur" being a tap (although as an "ice-breaker" is both a ship and an exercise, maybe a "mélangeur" could be two very different things as well?). I like "interactionneur", though I wonder if it would be any more comprehensible to the uninitiated than "mélangeur"...


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## petit1

conversation interactive ?


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## TheAlien

If it's the group itself to be referred to as a mingler, name it "mélangeur" as an allusion to mixing cold and hot water, i.e. different opinions and points of view ! But explain it before... A friend of mine named a platform of exchanges *"l'échangeur"*. A way for you, why not ?


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## petit1

Il faudrait rendre l'idée de "brassage".


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## Wodwo

That's interesting petit1, I like the idea of "brassage", which sounds more active and energetic than "mélangeur", though the mixing hot and cold idea is nice too. Are you suggesting something like "brasseur"? Isn't that maybe a bit too… rough?


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## petit1

I can't suggest anything now but it is the idea.


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## Topsie

Wodwo said:


> Are you suggesting something like "brasseur"? Isn't that maybe a bit too… rough?


... or beery! 
Mingling (like socializing and making small talk) seems to be a foreign concept for the French!
I (try to) do "getting to know each other" ice-breakers involving standing up and actually circulating around the room at the beginning of a new training-course, but I've never given the activities a French name... I'll think about it and try to come up with something suitably pompous-sounding that French pédagogues would appreciate!


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## TheAlien

Pay attention, "brasseur" is a trade name (Who produces beer).


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## Wodwo

Yes, I know it's a brewer. It's not a "trade name" though, as that would be a name for which a company has copyright.

I don't personally think there's a problem with using words that have literal meanings (bride-glace, etc.) metaphorically. So I'd be happy to go with "brasseur" if I thought it had the right connotations, but I'm not sure it does. At the moment I'm more keen on "mélangeur", because the tap metaphor is rather apt in my context.


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## petit1

Alors, un truc bien pompeux:
pratique orale entrecroisée
stratégie entrecroisée de la pratique orale


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## TheAlien

Just a detail, Wodwo. Our Canadian friends are using the expression_ trade name_ for _nom de métier_ : "New trade name: Oil Heat Systems Technician" (http://www.buildforce.ca/en/pdf/CSC_LF2010_ATL_e.pdf).


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## Topsie

petit1 said:


> stratégie entrecroisée de la pratique orale


Oooooh! I just _lurve_ that! (j'adoooore!) Do you think adding "_interactive_" is a bit too much?


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## petit1

Never too much for the French Pedagogues.


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## Wodwo

That sounds great for the teacher training manuals, particularly with "interactive" added on, (and yes, we have this kind of thing in the UK too), but I'm actually after something simple to use with my London-based, and mainly British students who are still struggling with things like gender, pronouns, past tenses, you name it… Can't really say, "OK, maintenant on va faire une stratégie entrecroisée de la pratique orale (interactive)" and expect their little faces to light up.

So I'm going with "mélangeur" unless anyone comes up with anything more convincing. It's either that or back to "meenglare".

Thanks all for your entertaining and imaginative efforts.


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## petit1

un exercice oral interactif / une activité orale interactive


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## Wodwo

Yes, but a pair interview and report back would also be une activité orale intéractive. In fact, my classes in their entirety consist of activités orales intéractives, since students don't write much - they can do that at home - but are expected to listen and speak in French throughout.

The thing about the mingler is that they talk to as many others as possible, in brief conversations, thereby practising some phrases over and over, while also having a bit of freedom in other aspects of what they say.


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## petit1

de la communication croisée


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## Wodwo

Not sure about "communication croisée". Googling suggests it is another way of saying "dialogue bilingue" in which two people communicate in two different languages, each understood by the other. At least this is what it says in a book that is online but from which I can't copy and paste and to which I can't post a link...


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## didierpitre

Termium gives "*Prise de contact*" as an equivalent for "mingle" (along with socialisation, réseautage, etc.), so maybe _exercice _or _activité de prise de contact_. That might be better as a translation for getting-to-know-you activities, which are not necessarily all too different than an ice-breaker, but it may still serve as a working solution.


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## petit1

If you have to invent a name for this type of activity: *un méli-mélo* ???


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