MY STORY: How Culture Shock Inspired Me To Create Comme une Française

Summary

Geraldine, a French-Mexican engineer, shares her journey of adapting to British culture and language after moving to Leeds for work. She empathizes with foreigners struggling with French, inspired by her mother's experience as a Mexican in France. Geraldine's passion for helping others led her to teach French at the Red Cross and later create online lessons to assist people worldwide in understanding French language and culture, amassing over 8 million views on her YouTube channel.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Geraldine Repair, the speaker, shares her personal journey of struggling with understanding and speaking English in Britain, despite being proficient in the language.
• 🎓 After completing her engineering degree in France, Geraldine moved to Leeds, England for a job, where she experienced cultural and linguistic challenges.
• 🏡 Geraldine's mother, originally from Mexico, faced similar struggles with language and culture when she moved to France, which inspired Geraldine to help others.
• 👩‍🏫 Geraldine began teaching French at the Red Cross to asylum seekers, which was her initial step towards helping others integrate into French society.
• 🌟 She found fulfillment in teaching French, which led her to start creating online content to help a broader audience understand and speak French.
• 📈 Geraldine's online French lessons have been a success, with over 8 million views and nearly 500 videos, showcasing the demand for her content.
• 👥 Her lessons aim to help learners not only with the French language but also with understanding French culture and customs.
• 🌟 The video script highlights the importance of community and support in language learning, as Geraldine's friends encouraged her to create online content.
• 📚 Geraldine's story emphasizes the value of sharing one's culture and language with others, as she did through her YouTube channel.
• 💌 She invites viewers to share their own stories and motivations for learning French, fostering a sense of community and engagement.

Q & A

What was Geraldine's initial struggle when she moved to Britain?

Geraldine struggled with understanding and speaking everyday spoken English, as well as comprehending the culture, jokes, and local customs.

Why did Geraldine decide to move back to France after living in Britain?

Geraldine decided to move back to France because she realized that working as an engineer in a big company was not her true passion.

How is Geraldine connected to Mexico?

Geraldine is fully Mexican as her mother was born in Mexico and moved to France. Geraldine herself was born in France to a Mexican mother and a French father.

What did Geraldine's mother experience when she first moved to France?

Geraldine's mother experienced difficulty in speaking and writing French, and also faced casual racism, but she managed to understand the culture and customs and made France her home.

What inspired Geraldine to start teaching French?

Geraldine was inspired to start teaching French after experiencing her own struggles with language and culture in Britain and seeing her mother's experiences as a foreigner in France.

Where did Geraldine initially start giving French lessons?

Geraldine started giving French lessons at the Red Cross, teaching asylum seekers who had a good level of French.

What was the response from Geraldine's friends when she proposed the idea of helping people online to understand French?

Geraldine's friends responded enthusiastically to her idea, expressing that they needed such help and encouraging her to start doing it.

How long has Geraldine been creating content to help people learn French?

As of April 2022, Geraldine has been creating content to help people learn French for over seven years.

What kind of content has Geraldine produced to help people learn French?

Geraldine has produced over 400 videos on YouTube, which have garnered over 8 million views, to help people learn French and understand the culture.

What is Geraldine's goal with her French lessons?

Geraldine's goal is to help people speak French, understand the culture, customs, and all the little things that are often missed when learning a language, so they can feel at home in France.

How does Geraldine feel about teaching French and sharing her culture?

Geraldine loves teaching French and sharing her language and culture, as it allows her to help others in a way she would have liked to be helped.