My Story

I am Berenice, an enthusiastic native French teacher. I support expats in France to learn French from zero and be able to actual speak French to have a confident conversation with locals.

When I arrived in the UK in 2015,

I knew some words in English. I was practicing with language learning Apps and I had a good level so I thought I would manage speaking to people.

I quickly realised two problems.

First, I could not speak the language and second, I could not understand what they were telling me. I was pronouncing English words like I would do in French so communicating with British people was almost impossible for me.

I arrived in the UK 3 days before starting my new job. I was full of ambition, happy to move in a new country and soon the delusion arrived.

8000

This is the number of people in the village I was living in, in the north of England. I was cold, it was dark early in the evening. It was hard for me who is from New Caledonia, a French tropical island. My confidence was non existent.

Monday 9th of November 2015.

This is my first day at work. We had training for two weeks and there were only British people. The training was in English and very challenging to follow. At 7.30pm, bed time for me, I was exhausted by the stress and the amount of energy required to try to understand the very little information I could decipher.

Lunch breaks were not breaks. I was at the table with some colleagues, they were talking about their weekend and laughing. I couldn’t understand a single word. I felt isolated as I could not engage in the conversation. They were not asking me questions or trying to help me. I didn’t want to bother them and ask to repeat. I could not socialise with others and it was frustrating.

I was eager to learn English.

I wanted to be able to be like them, laughing. Maybe one day I was thinking. How do you keep motivated in this situation? It’s hard… So I felt lazy, I didn’t have a discipline to learn regularly after work. I didn’t have a study plan as well. Basically, zero organisation to make improvements.

My dream was to one day, be able to engage in a conversation, laugh like them and let English be second nature for me. I wanted to be like British people, speak as fast and fluently as them. I wanted to just have a normal life in England.

I must mention as well that I was very shy at that time, even in my own language.

But then I thought, being depressed like that, this is not me. I am strong, ambitious, and adventurous. I switched from watching french programs to British TV. I was trying all I could to engage in the conversation during lunch breaks. My first sentence was something like “where do you live?”. Only one sentence during the whole lunch? you will tell me. Yes, just one sentence but compared to not saying anything, it was a huge step for me.

Each day,

I was doing a bit more and the following day even more. Of course, I was asking people to repeat 3 times if needed. I didn’t mind. I wanted to learn the language and I couldn’t spend time asking myself thousands of questions, what would they think? I may not be able to finish my sentence if I do not know the vocabulary? I just went for it.

I joined a theater group where we were practicing to act in the local theatre!

In 2016, I started to teach French privately to students with different goals. (To add here what I have on my website about the students)

Now,

I teach French to expats in France. I had the same challenges as you and I overcame them. I know what it is to feel isolated and lost when locals are speaking together. I know that feeling when you are at the hairdresser and the atmosphere feels cold because we cannot have a conversation. You should enjoy and relax when going to the hairdresser but I was not.

With this experience I faced all the challenges expats can have with the language barrier when moving in a new country.

I can support you to overcome your difficulties and become part of the french community. You will finally feel like french is second nature to you and be like a french person.

My values

Supportive
Listening to my students needs
At ease with me

My mission

Supporting expats in France with your French from zero. My approach is to encourage you to speak from the beginning to grow slowly your confidence. I want you to feel like a French person when talking to locals and feel part of their community.

Who is it for?

People who already live in France or who will move in the next few months. I support beginners and complete beginners as well as intermediate to be able to actually speak French with French speakers.

Feedback…

Michele for her son from Bradford

Our son has been very responsive to Berenice’s methods of teaching French, which has a good balance between encouragement and praise, and constructive feedback. Berenice’s teaching approach is unique in that it places emphasis on a child to develop themselves, at their own pace, and is heavily centred on the principle of self-learning and development. He has grown in confidence with his language skills, both verbally and listening.

Emily from Richmond

Bérénice has helped increase my confidence in speaking French. She always takes my goals into consideration, and I believe my French has improved a lot, just in a short period of time. The lessons are challenging but not too difficult, and I really enjoy my homework tasks, where I can do as much or as little as I have time for. I would recommend her lessons to anyone who wants to learn French, from complete beginners to more advanced learners.

Mary & Davide from Leeds

When we first started, my husband and I, taking French lessons with Berenice we were a bit worried, as I am very shy and I don’t like making mistakes, etc. My husband was a totally beginner. But we were positively surprised, from day 1!! Berenice is very friendly and put us at ease!! We learned so much thanks to her lessons and her style, which give us always space for everything: reading, comprehension, pronunciation and conversation. We never felt weird to make mistakes, and she was always very smiling and fun, so the lessons are always something to look forward to.

Week by week thanks to Berenice, we increased our knowledge and glossary and now we are able to read and understand even more advanced text and to have chat of various topic. She is really knowledgeable and nice. We enjoy our lessons very much! Definitely we super recommend her!!

Richard from Bridlington

I am learning French but I don’t have anyone to practice with. I asked for a recommendation from a friend and Berenice was suggested. She is kind and patient but most of all she allows me to practice speaking in a safe environment. She is also very flexible. I have a very busy job and need quite often to move lessons (via Skype) at short notice. I have also asked for help in written French and she has suggested ways of doing this via email and text. All in all she is wonderful!

I think I have said everything about me, now you just need to contact me to express your interest in learning French with me.

A bientôt!