My name is Joania and I’m a French Teacher for expats and immigrants.
I’m in the process of developing and improving my program that helps English speaking expats and immigrants learn French so they can make the most of their stay in France. I’m really excited about it and I want to make it as effective as possible.
For this reason, I’m currently looking for some expats and immigrants willing to learn or improve their French speaking skills to interview them in order to have a better understanding of their needs.
If you are interested to participate, you can book a 30 minute call with me using this link:
I could also offer you a free lesson or flashcards on the topic of your choice to thank you for your time.
Thanks in advance to those who will participate!
*(I contacted Catharine Higginson before I write this message and she has okayed)
If you have any questions about the interview or learning French in general, feel free to ask
On the terminology, I think many of us here would see ourselves as immigrants rather than expats. We’ve put down far deeper roots than an expat would It’s a bit like the traditional English breakfast, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed
“ Expatriate: someone who lives outside of their native country . Immigrant: someone who comes to live permanently in another country .
I too wish you well Nia, especially after embracing the suggestion of @John_Scully , which I endorse. But I am often complimented on my French and the problems I do have are largely age and hearing related, both of which inhibit my conversation in English as well, so I doubt I would be much use to you or the other way around.
Thank you for your answer David I’m so sorry for your hearing problems…
Regarding the word “expat”, I thought that this word included both those who are in a foreign country temporarily AND those who want to stay there indefinitely (immigrants), but maybe I was wrong…
Do you know any word that includes people of both categories? (I’m French so English is not my first language )
The purpose of this sentence is to specify that this program is made for people who want to live in France, temporarily or permanently.
There are other French learning programs for English speakers who do not specifically want to live in France (for example, those who are learning French to pass an exam, for their work or for their general knowledge).
Or maybe I could have written something like “English speaking people who want to live in France temporaily or permanently” but I was looking for a shorter sentence…
Hi Nia,
Welcome to the forum. I too wish you well.
There are many people living here in France, learning French from internet platforms and many others looking to become residents. I’m sure your one to one approach will insight interest.
If you’re looking for the shortest term, I’d use anglophone.
The problem with the term anglophone is that it’s very general, so I’m also going to attract people who live in their native country and want to learn French for exams, work or other purposes, which is great, but it’s not the purpose if my program.
This program does not teach general grammar rules or French exams (DELF, DALF) but it teacher French for daily life: (for example how to communicate with doctors, dentists, for administrative tasks, or how to have more in depth conversations with people, how to make friends, etc).
I don’t think that it would not helpful for every anglophones, only those who intent to live in France for a short or a long period.
You will need to teach them all the same so that structures are understood and learners can become independent enough to say new things suitable for different contexts.
Maybe my sentence wasn’t clear. I should have written: this program does not FOCUS ON teaching grammar rules.
Of course I do teach grammar to my students. But grammar is NOT the purpose of my program, it’s just a way for them to improve their communication skills.
For example, they learn the past tense not only to do exercises or to pass an exam but to be able to have a conversation with their friends and to tell a story using the past tenses.
This program is goal oriented instead of being grammar oriented or exam oriented.
I started teaching in 2010 and I specialized to teach French to English speakers in 2020.
There are different French learning programs because learners have different goals. These objectives can be classified into 4 main categories:
General French
Exam preparation (DELF, DALF, TEF, TCF)
Conversation
French for Specific purposes (courses geared towards a specific objective, for example helping immigrants learn French in order to improve their communication in their everyday life)
The problem is that some learners choose a type of course that is not adapted to their goals and they end up not being able to communicate as well as they would like. For example, some students stress about going shopping, asking to change their order at the restaurant or communicating with the plumber who comes to change the boiler. Other students find it difficult to make friends because they can make basic sentences but find it difficult to express their thoughts in depth, find their sense of humor in French.
This is exact reason why I started this “French for immigrants/expats” program in September 2022. It works really well and students are really happy about it. Since I want to improve it and to extend it to more people, I’m looking for more immigrants who are currently trying to learn French to interview them in order to have a better understanding of their struggles and their needs.
We would love to help. Morris and I moved here permanently in 2020/2021 and our French is very bad (basic beginner level) and we really want to improve it. Our children who were 2 when we arrived are speaking really well and most of their conversation is in French after attending Ecole Maternelle for the past 3 years. They certainly have left me well behind. We’d love to book some time with you.
We had a pleasant free half hour conversation with Joania this afternoon and I’d like to thank her and feed back on it for her benefit and possibly that of others, and inaddition to try and repay Joania for her time with some possibly useful info.
But first a bit of background - for about ten years I taught wholly online for the Open University, a large part of which consisted of giving live lectures to undergrad students spread across Continental Europe (the lectures were also recorded so they could be viewed later. Having a Visual Arts background and several decade’s experience in computer graphics, I paid a lot of attention to the visual and audio quality of my presentations and today am still fairly anal about audio and lighting quality on even an informal Skype or Zoom call.
This afternoon, I felt the audio feed could be improved - too much echo, particularly as my main problem is listening to fast conversational French. The video was a bit fuzzy, not HD but this was less important and might be rectified in Preferences.
Lastly, for me conversational French involves speaking about things that I’m interested in or feel strongly about, so one needs a suitable conversational partner. My most successful longer conversations occur in our multi-national walking group, where one can converse about anything while walking - it might be the steepness of the path or some profound aspect of philosophy, but it’s a naturally shared subject, rather than the slightly contrived, formally didactic teacher/learner. Not knocking the latter but perhaps it doesn’t engage or enthuse me as much as less formally trying to converse about something in which I’m genuinely interested.
No doubt, horses for courses and I’m probably not an ideal student!
It’s a bit like the traditional English breakfast, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed 
I’m so sorry for your hearing problems…
