Learn and speak French in North London

About Me

My name is Pierre and I have been teaching for 5 years now. Concurently to my teaching activities I am also involved in Desktop Publishing, IT and web development assignments requiring my bilingual skills.

I received my formal qualification, the TFLA- Teaching Foreign Languages to Adults in 2006. But my teaching career started earlier due to the encouragement and experience gathered with my first students. I have lived in Britain for over 18 years and taught some French lessons only sporadically before 2004. My career in Graphic Arts, Web Design didn't leave me much time to engage in any other pursuit. Also my native language gave me the opportunity to conduct multilingual assignments (I have participated in design projects incorporating more language than just English & French).

In 2003, I helped my employers (clickcreations.com - an excellent web design and interactive creation solution service based in Devon) in their attempt to settle in France. I am still traveling to Devon providing them more advanced French tuition (to 2 adults and 2 teenagers). I also act as their bilingual liaison 'officer' as well as helping them with web design assignments in French and English.

2004 - launch of voulez-vous-parler.com. This was created in an effort to create a working frame and online presence to help my growing student base. This enterprise was in combination with my work in Graphic and Web design (most particularly with clickcreations.com). It allows me to manage my occupations in both teaching and IT so that both activities exist side by side.

A year before family reasons brought me back to France. It is during this stay that I was approached by people of the region for English tuition.
So, I started teaching English before starting the tuition of French. Thanks to 2 wonderful publications: Teaching english as a foreign language by David Riddell and English for the Real World by Living Language. The latter being a good and simple method and the former an excellent didactic work that explain all the techniques encompassing the whole Communicative Approach. Regardless of the language taught, I'd recommend this book to all language teachers!

From this moment on, I was hooked! Moreover, by the enthusiasm of my students.
Still working for clickcreations.com I contacted friends in the language teaching profession (French, Spanish & others) for advice on this new path. I advertised amongst my vast network of colleagues in my former design profession and started to get quite a few students. Many of whom had already approached me in the past for tuition but I wasn't able to reply favourably due to my involvement in computing.

After a course in South Putney College where I obtained the TFLA last year I made this career move definitive and accredited. This is how I came to advertise and focus on teaching French in London and beyond since learning language is in great demand in the whole of Britain.

Finally, why teaching? Teaching is a wonderful occupation that constantly challenges me. From beginner to advanced, the subjects discussed and studied are so varied. It is an opportunity to know others and enjoy them discovering. Moreover, I decided to teach French in its many colours, its many countries and cultures. France and Paris are only one country, one city of the 'Francophonie'.

OK, so why learning? Learning is an incredible experience. Through learning a language you don't only learn words, verbs, vocabulary and so forth. You don't only learn how to shop and talk with SNCF (French railways) employees. You also learn about a people, a sense of humour, another way of seeing and tasting life. But most of all, through learning another language, you rediscover your own and through this maybe yourself.