After 10 years in France I’m finally ready to share my unfiltered knowledge of the language and life here, without presenting the reality in a overly positive light. I like to talk about all the beautiful things I encounter here, but I don’t hide the often-difficult reality of an immigrant. And yes, I have no issue with the word immigrant, emigrant, I don’t feel like an expat, I feel like a fulfilled migrant😊.
I’m the perfect example that you can learn a language at any age and it’s not necessary to start really early. I’m the example that intense learning by itself won’t guarantee speaking the language fluently and that the practice is skipped too often. I’m also an example that learning the language takes time and patience 😊.
Let’s start at the beginning! I was born and raised in Poland, the Lublin region, in a small village, known only to the locals.
I come from a big family, I have two brothers and two sisters. All four of us spread around the world and only one reasonable enough stayed near the home town. So, I guess you could say that being an immigrant must be coded in my genes.
I took Romance studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. It was a new course, which offered learning French and Italian from the basics. That’s how I started my adventure (full of sweat and tears) with the French language. When I started, I had no idea that you need to conjugate french verbs. I chose this course only to learn Italian… please don’t even ask what’s my current level.
After my first year, for my summer holidays I went to England, to Bournemouth where my brother lived (did I mention my family likes to migrate?).
When I left right after my exams, which wouldn’t allow me to have a normal life for a good couple of weeks, I didn’t even expect how much THAT summer would change my life.
Couple of days after I came to Bournemouth, I was offered a job as an Admin and Finance Assistant in ETC International Collage language school.
Around the same time a certain French guy from Brittany, was doing his international placement there… and that’s how I met my future husband and the father of my children, who is responsible for this while French extravaganza and me moving over 2000km away.
Over last two years of my undergraduate degree in Romance philology I took an additional course of specialist French which helped me expand my vocabulary in areas of media, politics, law, marketing, tourism, economy and banking, etc. Having planned to leave for France, I decided to finish my education after receiving my undergraduate degree.
Right after my graduation I left to live in Versailles, where I spent another six years. I started to work in Paris, right next to Galerie la Fayette and after a year I manged to transfer to Versailles (in spite of my love for the French trains I was fed up with the commute). I have always wanted to try working in a café, learn to make beautiful coffee, working with customers. Talking over a cup of coffee has always felt special to me. Therefore, I accepted the offer to be a barista, and later on a manager in a quite well-known international company with the green and white siren logo… 😉
After coming to France, in spite of 3 very intense years of learning the language, I realised I have no idea how to speak French well enough to fully convey what I’m trying to say. Sure, I had a very rich vocabulary and I knew the grammar like the back of my hand, so how come I wasn’t able to say what I wanted to say?!
I was severely lacking some practice. I couldn’t understand half of the things spoken in the everyday French, as my French was awfully academic, which often amused my interlocutors.
I needed about a year to feel truly confident. I finally managed to actually talk in French with my partner; up until that point we’d only speak English in our house.
Few years later I got married in France, neither the langue nor French administration were any longer a problem for me. And last year I even obtained the French citizenship.
I’m a mother of two little French kids and since recently we live in the most beautiful region of France, Brittany, in department of Finistere.
Do I feel at home here? I don’t feel like I have any steady place that I could call my home. But yes, I feel very good here and for now I don’t want to change where I live!
If you feel like I could help you with the practical side of studying French, click here to see my offer!