A word about us - Mission Statement

Why French will bring you more than a language

When I started college/university at age 34, it was without any sort of preparation or knowledge of what awaited me for the next 5 years.

I only knew I wanted an education of some kind and chose to major in Linguistics and Literature.

My major was English to which I quite foolishly added German because I thought it sounded interesting.

The 5 years that followed were the most dark, stressful and anguish-ridden years of my entire life.

It turns out that there was no gradual German course at all. We were thrown straight into a real novel and were expected to be close to fluent in the months that followed.

The university had deceived us by saying we would be taught German and the professors did not enjoy our presence in class at all. Having no experience of university, I and others thought it was normal.

It was only years later that we joined the dots together and understood what had happened. We also learned that one of our two main teachers was suffering from heavy psychological strain, which explained why no two classes ever seemed to be connected by any logic

Before long, German stressed me so much that the slightest mention of it sent pulsating pain through my Arnold nerve and split my cranium in two.

It was a dark atmosphere that was made worse by the presence of native speakers of German who made the beginners look as if they were preventing the good students from moving forward.

And yet in the midst of all this came an unexpected benefit which I propose to share with you today.

I promised myself that whatever the university threw my way, they would not prevent me from learning German. Nor would they diminish my taste for it.

In the end I got through my degree and finished with Distinction. I had done it all alone, without the slightest help from anyone.

I don’t propose to teach you French in the same unnecessarily conditions but I do propose to see French as a challenge that has the potential to make you grow.

Learning German alone revealed me to myself. The real life benefit was much bigger than the language. It built my character and gave me a sense of pride. This type of feeling is the one that stays with you for the long run.

I learned that in Life there is always a Bigger Lesson that carries more benefits than the small one. I also learned that the achievements we do by ourselves are those that matter most.

If you close your eyes and think of the 2 or 3 key events that made your life matter, it will mostly be from obstacles you overcame.

The pursuit of happiness and meaning is never in the things we buy, the parties, the vacations, the food or the films we watch. Instead, we must be involved and it has to be about us.

These victories build up our “spiritual ID”. They give us balance, they tell us what we’re about and they give certainty in moments of doubt.

French can give you a stronger self-belief. A taste of victory. That is what the Big Lesson all about.

Are you ready to start?