Why you should learn French with me, Aurélie.
Hello!
I'm Aurélie, a French native born and raised in Moorea, a small island in the Pacific Ocean.
I've always loved learning and speaking different languages, I feel like I can have multiple personalities and endless possibilities!
At 19, I moved to Paris to pursue my master's degree in cross-cultural communication, management, and translation. This was the start of my love affair with languages.
Despite being French, I experienced culture shock
Despite being French, adapting to the bustling French metropolis from my small island of 18,000 inhabitants was a real cultural shock.
I couldn't comprehend
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The lack of time
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The lack of enthusiasm
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Proper cheese-cutting etiquette
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The prevalence of smokers, and
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Unfamiliar French expressions and lingo.
I lacked the codes of Parisians and struggled to understand their psychology, including subway rules and sidewalk etiquette.
Despite my French background, I lacked insight into certain cultural specifics in metropolitan France and Paris.
I got my second dose of culture shock in Russia
The second shock happened when I studied in Moscow for a semester, having learned basic Russian before departure but not enough to fully communicate.
I vividly remember miming for five minutes to a saleswoman while searching for stockings as I’d forgotten the word.
There was one moment I’ll never live down when I asked my classmate "ti konchil?" instead of "ti zakonchil?". I thought I was asking “have you finished your assignment?”.
Turns out, I was asking if they’d had an orgasm.
Despite book exercises, I lacked real Russian practice.
You can learn a language from a textbook, but you’ll miss a lot of nuance.
The third memorable experience was meeting my English in-laws. It was challenging as I concentrated hard on following conversations in British English with a British accent, since I'd learned American English.
There are plenty of words and sayings I’d never encountered before, or words I thought had one meaning but could then have a completely different subtext depending on the context.
For example, I told my in-laws about excellent raw fish on my island and received a response of "ah, that's interesting". Only much later did I realise that while I thought it was meant in a positive way, it was actually said with a great deal of scepticism.
Despite speaking English from a young age, I wasn't accustomed to different accents and struggled to read between the lines when Brits spoke.
These are only a few moments from years and years of making embarrassing mistakes and cultural faux-pas. There were plenty more, from feeling left out during dinners with Italians to learning teamwork with Ukrainians.
All of these experiences led me to develop my own method of language learning.
Having had the privilege of studying and working in various global cities—London, Sydney, Moscow, Kyiv, and Monaco—I've always loved adapting to new environments and cultures. Despite this passion, I'm well aware of the challenges one can face during the expatriation process or while travelling to foreign countries.
This led me to want to help others who are trying to integrate into a new country, or just to visit and make new friends and connections.
The method I developed focuses on getting you speaking, quickly and like a native. It includes all of the cultural nuances that I wish I had when I first arrived in Paris.
So, if you're eager to brush up on your French or already advanced and looking to take it to the next level, you’re in the right place.
By combining my active listening skills with engaging topics, I guarantee one thing: You'll finally feel comfortable speaking French the way it's actually spoken.
Be prepared for:
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clear grammar explanations when needed
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enriched vocabulary
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cultural insights
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amusing (sometimes quirky) anecdotes about the French language
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and effective ways to progressively integrate French practice into your busy personal life.
Want a little taste of my French method?
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