Brussels French classes for Expats
Hi, I'm Chris. Head teacher at OuiCommunicate.
We're home to speakers of English who need a step up from one-sided French classes.
Native speaker of French is no longer enough.
Your teacher needs to be twice that.
This is what we do.
If your French teacher doesn't quite "get" you
If you need flexible bookings
Try an English-to-French bilingual school
We can make your life easier!
Who are we?
How does it work?
A problem we can solve
Are you looking to integrate better in the Belgian landscape? Have you been living in Belgium for a number of years and starting to think it may be time to learn one of the National languages?
Easier said that done. It isn’t always so simple to “boldly step forward” and sign up for classes as an expat. For a start, the teaching methods might seem a bit “foreign” to one who was schooled in the UK or US.
And what if the teacher only has a basic understanding of English? Could they even possibly know what it feels like to have English as a mother tongue and to approach French?
What if everyone else in the class is more advanced? What if they have a language that is closer to French and that allows them to speak without an accent
Even worse…what if no one had any clue about HP sauce, Bisto, Guy Fawkes, Thanksgiving, mac ‘n cheese and all the rest??? Perish the thought!
These fears are very natural and understandable. You’re in a foreign country and you are stepping into a field you don’t know much about: language learning.
But what if there was a kind teacher who had “walked that walk” long before you did? What if this same teacher had lived for 20 years in Ixelles as the son of an expat Mum from the UK and a Belgian father?
What if this British/Belgian teacher left Belgium, lived in the UK for several years, married an American lady and had relocated in the US?
And best of all: what if this teacher had founded a language school called OuiCommunicate that specifically teaches French to learners who have English as a first language?
It would almost seem that the stars had aligned to make any expat’s journey into French as easy as it could ever be. But we’ll let you be the judge of that!
About the classes
Thanks to the Internet, there is no more need to be present in the same room to conduct a successful language class. There are actually many reasons why in-person classes are less effective, slower and quickly lead to becoming “hobby-classes”.
Probably not the best approach if you want to learn French with intent.
OuiCommunicate is a coursework-based language school. We have the French language available for you on our website in the form of worksheets, videos and quizzes.
You only pay for the 20-minute meetups with your teacher, in which we assess your understanding of specific parts of French.
Speaking French will gradually be integrated as you develop better tools. French will be taught to you as a speaker of English, with full understanding of your background.
As a result, you can expect to build strong foundations in French to become a confident speaker. You will have all the tools to grow and develop as an independent speaker of French.
Become our next "success story"!
The lady in this video is originally from NY and wished for us to help prepare her move to France.
Today, she is fluent and happily lives in France where she meets new people and uses French daily.
The “secret” to her success is nothing more than what we offer you: the same learning material and the same approach.
But don’t take our word for it: read the review she wrote for our Google Business page!
Book a free Q&A !
No preparation needed
Wish to know more? Phone Chris now or send a Whatsapp message to +1 860-339-6480.
You can book a trial class with no preparation through the booking calendar.
No French skills needed!
Classes are on Skype for reasons of convenience.
Find us on Skype at:
live:reulandchristopher
Me and Brussels...
This page would not be complete without a word about what brought us here in the first place: Brussels. Home of the EU, beer and rainy skies!
I first moved to Brussels when I was around 22 years old, some 20 years ago. Earlier still, I went to school in Brussels for 15 years. I claim to know Brussels as well as any.
It may be hard to imagine, but there was a Brussels before the EU that some of us still remember. Not so many buildings around Schuman and Luxembourg and less international also.
In my father’s “memoirs” he has anecdotes about there being very few cars in the streets and people rushing out to shovel up horse manure in the streets that they could throw on the garden. It was more of a village than a city and not so long ago either.
French is spoken as a main official language. In the absence of official numbers, I can say that I have not once been addressed in Dutch in Brussels.
You can sometimes get by in English but it is far from guaranteed. People speak “school English” mostly and understand the basics if the context is easy enough. It would be wrong to assume that Brussels is an international hub in which we can just use English.
French therefore imposes itself as a useful language to know if you have the intention of settling there for a while. But where to learn it?
What we offer here is 30 years’ experience living in Brussels as a native speaker of French. We also offer native speaker level of English to make your learning easier. We can do online classes and the beautiful thing is that all our classes/lectures are pre-recorded. You just log in, learn, download a worksheet for some written exercises and meet up with your teacher when you feel ready to talk about your progress.
Let yourself be guided by an expert teacher who’s as much a speaker of French as of English. Bilingual teaching at its finest.
I hope to meet you soon! Chris
