My Story

I’m David, and ever since I can remember, I’ve been enchanted by faraway lands, different cultures, and foreign languages. I was born and raised in the UK, where I would often fantasise about life in neighbouring France. Perhaps it was inspired by childhood memories of camping holidays on its northern shores, which were also my first encounter with people who didn’t speak my mother tongue.

 

At that young age, learning the lingo felt like a game and I jumped at every chance to play with the locals. I was eager to ask for the baguette in the boulangerie, but anything beyond my limited repertoire was like a secret world to which I didn’t have the keys.

 

As I grew older, and despite my enduring wanderlust, the dream of one day speaking another language faded into oblivion.

 

Then, in my mid-twenties, a twist of fate changed the course of my life dramatically. A chance encounter with a French tourist one sweltering summer sparked a whirlwind romance and reignited my desire to make sense of la langue de Molière.

 

Little did I know at the time, but I was about to embark on a lifelong endeavour that blossomed into a love affair in its own right.

​

Unfortunately, my only recollection of learning French from my school days was dreading class, so I knew it wasn’t going to be plain sailing. I started over with the humbling basics, but this time it felt different. Enamoured and motivated, I studied verb tables on the morning metro, excitedly tackling tenses and tricky terms.

 

I was in unchartered territory, but before long I could commander un croissant, and I still had a taste for adventure. So, armed with little more than the basics, and the belief I could pick up the rest on the fly, I took a leap of faith and left London for France.

 

After soaring across the Channel, I quickly came back down to earth with a bump as I stumbled into the rural heartlands of La France profonde.

 

Far from living the chic European lifestyle I’d imagined, I found myself entangled in a world where I was unable to communicate and fumbled my way through the simplest conversations. I felt like I had no voice, out of sync and never quick enough to catch the joke. I’d mimic others by laughing when they did, trying my best to blend in.​

 

From the outside I was living the dream, but my delusions quickly clashed with the reality on the ground.

 

Fast forward 20 years and I can now boldly claim to be bilingual, although I’ll never finish finetuning my French. Despite the trials and tribulations, the journey has been deeply rewarding, sustained by an unrelenting desire to integrate authentically into a foreign way of life where language is the gateway.

 

En route, I’ve discovered that there’s far more to learning a language than translating words. It’s about deciphering our linguistic heritage, hacking into how we communicate as humans, and developing a cultural awareness that has changed how I think, how I perceive the world around me, and even who I am.

 

Now I want to share my insights with anyone else who’s passionate about French, who’s curious about the language and culture or who wants to hear more about my experience of life in a foreign country.

 

Sign up to my newsletter for unique insights and information about new posts.