French - The Present Tense

I am a true linguist and language lover and also a true believer in speaking accurately.  I do get the current trend that, as long as you are understood, it is ok, but I still think that you do sound better if you are speaking grammatically correctly.  I also think that understanding the grammar helps you understand what you are saying and therefore, express yourself better and feel that you are actually conveying the right message.  Miscommunication and misunderstanding are cause of all sorts of trouble so let's work on actual communication and understanding.  This is why I decided to start building courses online here and why I started Frangliche, the bilingual podcast (it's free to listen to on all your favorite podcast platforms, see link under my picture).

My whole life has been around learning and teaching foreign languages and it has taken me around the world. For over twenty five years now, I have passed on my passion for languages and foreign cultures to students of all ages, in five different countries. 

Growing up in France, with a grandmother who spoke fluent German, I was soon attracted to understand what she was saying and felt very frustrated that I couldn't.  That's all it took for me to pay close attention to my older brother when he was doing his German homework and to quickly join in with my grandma's summer review sessions.  When it was time to start secondary school and pick a language, I chose German and was ahead of the game.  A couple of years later, I had to choose another language and I naturally picked English:  it was of course essential to know English and a lot of the music I listened to was in English, making it even more essential.  When it came to the "baccalauréat", I achieved excellent scores in both languages and followed on with a degree in English language and literature, with a minor in German.   While studying, I took a Portuguese class (although I have to admit there is not much left due to lack of use) and later on in life, I also learnt Spanish and became close to fluent in it.

My studies and teaching career took me to the UK, to Kenya, to the Cayman Islands and to the US. I taught all the languages I know over the years and have been concentrating on French and Spanish in the last few years.

As mentioned above, I do like to insist of sounding exact rather than approximate, so I'll be focusing on grammar on Udemy.  My knowledge of different languages allows me to make connections not just with English but with other languages, which is often useful for learners to get a different perspective.

The courses are thorough and broken down in small steps.  If you ever feel you already know something, you can skip it and still progress.  I will welcome any feedback to make any course more productive for you.

I look forward to helping you develop your French skills.