A French teacher for Belgium!
Specialized classes for your move to Europe.
Hi, I’m Chris – we already met on the Home page. I’m the creator of this website as well as of OuiCommunicate LLC and all the learning contents in this French course.
On this page, I will outline some of my personal history and how I came to be one of the foremost authorities on Belgium in the USA.
We will go through my cultural origins, my linguistic background, and the reason I built OuiCommunicate. You can also learn more about me in the blog section of this website.
How can I help?
If you are looking for French language classes along with the necessary accompaniment for all practical and cultural questions, you are quite literally in the best place. Perhaps even in the whole of the USA.
With over 30 years’ experience as a Belgian and a lot of my family still living there, Belgium is my backyard in Europe.
Our teaching of French will also be your best accompaniment towards your new life. It fosters personal growth, curiosity and independence.
Our classes will not hold your hand until we let go, rather give you the tools to learn on your own and become a confident user of French.
The sooner you make French your own, the sooner it will feel like your own. Our method of teaching prepares you for the necessary self-reliance you will need in Belgium.
Give up the expat role as soon as today – aim to dazzle those Belgians instead. Here we come!
Book a trial Class now!
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:
live:reulandchristopher
Skype is free!
Step 1: It all started in England!
The little boy in this photo is my good self along with my English grandfather. He was a farmer in a tiny village in Nottinghamshire from a family line going back to the 1700s. His name was Tom Marsh.
Summer holls were truly something special in England in that time and we used to cross the Channel from mainland Europe to go over every time we could. This is when England stole my heart!
In this photo, I didn’t yet speak French: it was all English at home until my brother and I were old enough to go to school at 5 years old. Only then did we become bilingual.
Step 2: A family of expats !
These two kids are my brother and I at the Belgian coast. It seems funny to imagine that we only spoke English to each other despite being surrounded by French and Dutch.
My mum was determined that we would know English as natives. During this time, we were exposed to all the traditional English songs like Little Jack Horner, Humpty Dumpty, but also the 1980s English cooking like steamed leaks, boiled potatoes and lamb with mint sauce!
This part of our family history is central to my becoming a linguist and language teacher. Without knowing it, I became deeply attached to the English language and started to experience bi-culturalism.
Step 3: The school years
This photo symbolizes our emerging bilingualism. On the one hand we celebrated Santa Claus on the 25th, but then we learned that He had a French-speaking counterpart under the name of Saint Nicholas on the 6th December!
Utterly confusing perhaps, but being kids we fast understood the advantages: twice the presents ! Oui, oui merci!
At this stage, we were both perfectly fluent in French. After an initial scare around 7 years old in school, I quickly caught up with my classmates and used French as a true native from then on.
Step 4: The American youth culture years
At age 14 I discovered a new facet of English-speaking culture that came all the way from America: skateboarding, rock music, urban wear, hip hop and all the rest.
I read the skate magazines religiously and collected clippings of anything American. This passion exposed me to a slightly different version of English and added depth to my understanding as a future linguisist.
That year, my father went on a trip to America. He saw New York, Utah, the Grand Canyon… He brought us back USA license plates and flags that we put up on our wall. I started to read National Geographic to discover anything I could about this mysterious land where everything seemed so modern!
Step 5: A Bilingual family
This is our family in England at my cousin Chloe’s wedding in Norfolk. We are a well-seasoned bilingual family: exchanges were always in French and English at home, school was in French, I had been to the British scouts, TV was in two languages…
While my mum represented the English side, my father was the pillar of all things francophone. The name Reuland can be traced back to the town of the same name. He is a Belgian and Luxembourger which explains my 3 citizenships.
My brother is married to a Peruvian and speaks Spanish fluently on top of his knowledge of Dutch which he shares with myself and my father. Perhaps it runs in the family!
Step 6: The Linguist years
These could be called my college years. At age 34, I had the opportunity to embark on a Master’s degree in English and German. My impulse for doing so were a desire to better myself and to claim knowledge of a more literary side of my heritage.
It was a rough 6 years but in the end, I graduated with distinction. After my Masters, I completed a PGCE to be a qualified teacher. I also started to collect all the TEFL certificates I could find!
I completed my Bachelors at a French-speaking university, my Masters at a Dutch-speaking one, and then back again to French for my Diploma in Education.
Step 7: Back to England !
We have come full circle. It was time for me to renew ties with my origins and go back to whence we came! For the following 5 years, I got to see my family everyday, and of course enjoy the simple fact of being in England.
I stayed between Derbyshire and Leicestershire and worked for several language schools. It was during this time that I started to build OuiCommunicate teaching both English and French.
This period was marked by a high musical activity as well as analog photography. It also allowed me to perfect my skill as a Master mince pie maker!
Step 8: Off to America!
