… real beginners or the truly terrified. This course starts with the basics: hello, goodbye, what’s your name; but builds up quickly to short conversations based on your real life. By the end of the course you will be able to:
Bonjour! I studied French at the University of Manchester which included a year spent working in Clermont Ferrand among the volcanos of the Auvergne which is where I really fell in love with France and all things French.
After my degree I taught English at the University of Dijon for a couple of years before returning to the UK and obtaining a Modern Languages PGCE from Goldsmiths, University of London. I then spent 10 years teaching French in secondary schools in Kent, Sussex and Guernsey.
I took a break from teaching in 2005 and used my language skills in the corporate world for a couple of years. While working for a law firm in the City I met my now husband and we decided to move to France.
In 2007, on the day after our wedding, we set off across the channel in an ancient Triumph with a rather leaky tent and very little luggage to find a house. A few months later we settled next to a boulangerie in a village on the river Vienne near Poitiers. Our son was born the following year. We taught English and made a lot of French friends who we were very sad to leave when we came back to Sussex in 2013.
On our return I started teaching at a local Prep school which I left in July 2025. I have taught learners aged from 4 up to 84 from all sorts of backgrounds each with their own story. I love sharing my linguistic and cultural knowledge, getting to know my learners, building their confidence and seeing them progress.