DARE SPEAK FRENCH

With Sophie, your “French Whisperer” 😉

My Story

I was not born yesterday… but I am not going to make it too long if I don’t want to put you to sleep!

Born in a Franco-French family, I mean monolingual French, English became an “add-on” in my life, quite early, in fact!

The good thing about having literary parents – and especially a literary dad – is that my French got straightened up very early. I have so many awful memories of being sent to fetch the dictionary and read aloud definitions for words poorly employed… and, today, I can only bless my dad for having been so strict and remedied to any wrong usage of the French language, being vocabulary or grammar.

Mind you, with the years I discovered a fondness for grammar, etymology, spelling, semantics and an extended vocabulary… all aspects of language. I love French!

The funny thing is that I am not the same literary person as my parents were… I am more on the scientific side, by liking! More practical down-to-earth science, not so much abstract science. So my fields of study have been genetics and psychophysiology and later psychotherapy 😉

Okay, what about the English part in me?

I am not going to develop the whole scene, suffice it to say that after having property learnt English in school and beyond, I got married in a half-American family. Then my husband and our two daughters spent years abroad, in the Netherlands and in Ontario, Canada.

This is when and how I developed “The Switch.”

Our decision had been made that we would raise our children in the opposite language from the one spoken in the country we lived in : French in an English environment and English in a French environment. This teaches you the Switch pretty fast… to the point that you can’t tell in which language you read until you have verified, after the question is asked. In a bilingual environment the Switch is automatically fired and anything that comes in one language goes out in the other one… which did put me in funny situations now and then… with a good laugh!

Back in Europe since a number of years, it is quite matter-of-factly that I became a translator. From English to French because my English is far from being as accurate as my French. And if you haven’t seen any video from me in English, you will very fast realise that I have some sort of an accent 😉 Which is excellent, in some ways, because it’s going to “de-shy” anyone who is too self-conscious to dare speak French… I didn’t tell you ? I’m an expert at fabricating words, too!!! It’s my unbridled creativity…

I’m presently a resident in Portugal, away from the business world in France that we ended up abhorring (my husband and myself) and already fully embracing a transmission career of all the good things I learnt to master so far.

My Values & Beliefs

I like it simple

I cannot not simplify anything I touch, learn, teach, …
It’s in my DNA and I can’t help it.
Is it going to help us here? You bet !!!
French doesn’t have to be difficult !

I like it pragmatic

Does it work… or not ?
If it works, fine.
If not, just forget it… what next ?

I like it fun

I’m not here in life to get bored… I like having fun.
Not the wild fun and the crude jokes, no !
More the lightness of life and a good laugh, as often as possible.
And a smile on the face…

I like it friendly

I guess it comes along with the fun… but there is more caring and friendship, here. I tend to stay away from people who gnaw at my good energy.

I like it full of energy

I was born an optimist : I know there is light at the end of the tunnel.
I love to learn.
Life is a riot!

My Approach

Having lived in different “foreign” countries, I always learnt at least the basics of the language. To be able to get by and not die of hunger… joking !
You have no idea how thankful and touched people from your new country can be when they realize your efforts to reach them.
That being said, about French, it doesn’t have to be difficult !
The problem is that we, as students, all learned in books, with teachers who mostly learned in books too… yet the spoken language is VERY different from the written language !
My goal here is to let you listen… soak… in French and to help you with the special and simplified notions that apply to spoken French. I have pruned everything useless to let you have the best and most simple, practical French there is !