We credit Sam with a lot of things here at Lingua Franca. Among others, Sam’s suggestion we do her lessons via Skype when she moved back to Perth made the wholesale switch to Zoom relatively painless during the pandemic. Another student says it was Sam who inspired her to get her French ‘r’s under control (Sam’s are great!). So it’s lovely to see that learning French brings a lot to her life, too. Merci*, Sam!

I started French at school – and loved it, although never thought I was particularly good at it. There was always someone else who seemed to have a better accent, a better understanding of the pesky grammar and the teacher at school was particularly scathing if she didn’t think you would get good grades. But I loved it, so I kept at it….

Over the years, I kept returning to studying French – at Alliance française in my 20’s, for work in early 30’s – always with enjoyment and a love of anything French but an underlying belief that it wasn’t something that I would ever be ‘good at’. I was lucky enough to have amazing opportunities to work and travel in France and Canada, with colleagues who would insist that I use my French whenever I could (they also told me that if I would only date a French man, my French would improve no end!)…. But still, I always believed that I would never be anything other than a basic French speaker, with a bad accent, who could get by…

All that changed when I walked past a sign on a Teneriffe Street in 2016 – a very chic sign for some place called Lingua Franca. I must have walked past it for a month before garnering the courage to call and book in for classes. From the moment I walked in, I felt very French and very comfortable…. The classes were different from anything that I had done before – they were fun, the materials were engaging and so stylish, the topics were real (no more ‘où est la librarie?’!) and all the other students shared my love of Francophilia….

When I moved back to Perth in 2017, I begged Katrina to set up a Perth school, or at least let me do lessons via Skype. Once a week, I’d be up at 6am Perth time to fit in a lesson before work. I jumped at the chance to travel with the team on their first set of France trips (and even took my mother, who had been traumatised by French at school, but who loved her daily classes so much that she took up lessons for a while too). I’d never travelled with a tour before, but this was amazing – a group of like-minded people who got to visit fantastic places, eat great food and never have to worry about the logistics of where we were going next.

Over the years, even though I don’t live in Brisbane anymore, I’ve been lucky enough to have wonderful teachers to support me virtually. I’ve read my first novel in French, I can stumble through a TV show without subtitles, I’ve enjoyed the weekends away to see fashion exhibits and I’ve loved the discussions on French culture and world events (all in French of course!). And, with the support of these great teachers, I’ve gone from thinking that I would only ever be ‘ok’ at French to just savouring all things Francophile. To anyone considering trying something new, I say do it!

*Thanks

My French Adventure: Sam Rees