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Bonjour!
My name is Virginie.
I've been teaching French as a Foreign Language since 2006 (already!!) and since 2016 entirely online by videoconference.
I help expatriates working in France - in another language - to improve their level of French and to integrate successfully in France so that they feel confident and at ease in their new host country.
BUT WHY?!
I met by chance - when I was at the English faculty - Grégory who was teaching French as a foreign language.
I was just coming out of a sabbatical year just after the baccalaureate.
I had spent a year in Ireland and England, taking English classes and working in a restaurant.
I had met so many people during that trip... Australians, Colombians, English, Venezuelans...
So when Grégory told me about teaching French to foreigners, it was a revelation!
After obtaining my Master's Degree in French as a foreign language, I started teaching in France, in an international school.
Very soon, I’ve wanted to go abroad again.
I got a job at the Alliance Française de Madrid where they were looking for an assistant in the language studies department.
I can never thank enough the people who trusted me, even though I had to communicate with clients by email, by phone, face to face and I didn't know ONE word of Spanish at that time, which - often - led me to big misunderstandings, but I'll tell you more about that later because it deserves an article 😅
After a few years in Madrid, I wanted to go beyond European borders and thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I became a teacher of General French and FOS Tourism at the University of Bethlehem in Palestine.
A wonderful life experience that will remain engraved in my memory forever.
I became an examiner and head of the DELF/DALF centre, I organised a theatre-forum on human rights, Franco-Palestinian meetings, the Francophonie festival...
On my return to France, I validated my Masters in Linguistic Politics and I started to multiply my audiences; French courses for teenagers, for companies in Monaco, and for expatriate adults on the French Riviera.
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And then in 2016, I decided to be free.
I wanted to work wherever I wanted from France, Spain... I still had a desire to travel, and I decided to create my own company, entirely online.
Former students followed me and I gave many courses in Swiss companies.
In recent years, I have trained more than 70 German-speaking students in DELF/DALF and I have become responsible for the exams.
Among all these professional experiences, I would say that the most enriching, the one in which I feel most useful, is when I give courses to expatriates living in France.
Because I am still an expatriate myself in Spain, I understand you SO much, I have lived and continue to live through all the problems that can arise when living abroad.
Believe me, with all the experiences / misunderstandings / administrative and linguistic horrors that I have lived through, you will feel less lonely. 😅
Appart from that, in life, I love... (among many other things) yoga, French and English comedies, food, - good - red wine and annual trips to Mauritania.