Today, I have a guest. Leanne is exactly the kind of person I have in mind when I record the podcast. That’s the strange thing about podcasting, I’m talking to you, but I don’t know who you are. Leanne is typically the person I imagine listening to it.

She is from Malaysia, so she grew up in a multicultural country surrounded by several languages. She went backpacking for a while after finishing her studies, crossed path with a man and eventually moved to France to be with him. She has been in France for almost ten years now. I’ve had countless conversations with her about what it feels like to be a foreigner and about the duality of nationalities. So, I said to her, let’s just switch the mike on and record some of it… Unfortunately, I didn’t plan it very well on the day that I recorded and the sound for my voice is quite poor. So, I edited out quite a bit of my questions, but in the end, it doesn’t matter, because we get to hear Leanne’s voice clearly and you’ll get to enjoy listening to her accent which I personally love. 

QUESTIONS:
02:44 Why are you here in France ?
03:25  Tell me about Malaysia and your family
05:00 What languages do you speak?
05:35 How is Malaysian English different from other English?
07:12 Where do people think you are from when they listen to your accent?
08:35 How long have you been in France? How Malaysian/French are you today?
10:50 How does having a Franco-Malaysian son feel like?
12:00 What languages does your son speak?
14:50 How connected are you to French language?
16:10 How do you feel about remaining in France?

Quick reminder, the transcription is on my website connect2languages.com And, if you’re learning French, then go to my website connect2french.com

Today’s episode is sponsored by Story Learning. Olly Richards just launched his new INTERMEDIATE French uncovered course! Finally! If you enjoy reading, then you’ll love the Story Learning courses, they are based on short stories and you get to learn the language within context. All the info are available on my website connect2french.com

I recommend Story Learning courses! I worked several times with Olly Richards to create French courses, so I know they’re good!

What a topic today: Brooklyn  (2015)   

Have you seen it? It’s one of my favourite movies. 

Apart from the language barrier, this movie incorporates pretty much all the topics I talk about in this podcast.

Eilis, a young Irish woman, has to move to New York in 1951 because of the recession in Ireland. She feels desperately homesick for several months before adapting to her new life. A tragedy happens back home in Ireland and so she’s confronted with a question we’re all familiar with: Should I stay or should I go (back home)?

In this episode, I want to talk about some of the scenes and explore the topics a bit further. There will be mild spoilers, I won’t reveal anything that’s not in the trailer, so you can listen away even if you haven’t seen it. I do recommend you to see it.

A quick reminder, all the transcriptions are available on my website connect2languages.com This episode is in my native language: en français. If you’re interested in learning French, visit my website connect2french.com.

We’re speaking Spanish today, and you can find the transcription on my website Connect2languages.com where you can also find information about my language courses.

Today, we’re gonna talk about a topic that I find deeply interesting. We’re gonna talk about how in France and in many other cultures I guess, we tend to put people in boxes. An example of it is our relationship with work and professional careers. In France, we tend to specialize in one field. We become experts in one field and according to the field you should project an image that matches that field.

I’m saying, if you’re a serious journalist for Le Monde, this serious newspaper, it might come across as strange if you’re also a stand-up comedian. 

Dedicating your time in two different jobs or careers may even make you lose credibility in your Main occupation.

Today, I want to talk about the fact that things are different in Argentina. You can have different jobs and dedicate time to various occupations and it’s actually valued. Experience matters, or should I say experiences matter.

Let’s talk about that in my absolutely beautiful Spanish, that’s my British dark humour here, I’m not confident in Spanish anymore, so this podcast is a great way to challenge myself. 

Before learning to speak my second language fluently, I was wondering what it must feel like to think in a different language without having to translate first from your native language, because that’s what you do at first, you do tend to translate from your native language.

When I reached the intermediate level in English and that I was fluent, I started to ask myself a different question: How do you think with gestures? How do you think in Sign Language? How do you structure your thoughts?

In 2008, I decided to learn a sign Language. As I was living in the UK, I took a course to learn the British Sign Language. 

In this episode, I want to talk about my motivation to learn BSL and what came out of that experience.

I want to talk about my experience of adapting to teaching at University in France after having taught at a University in Argentina for 4 years. 

In teaching, the years of experience count, of course, still, the reason why this job is fascinating is that you’ll have to adapt your teaching style to the students. But, sometimes you forget you have to adapt, or you think the gap is not going to be that big.

That’s what I thought when I started teaching at a University here in France, I started confidently, but quickly realized I had a totally different crowd in front of me from the one I was used to in Buenos Aires.

In this episode, I want to talk about the 5 main differences, plus an extra one actually, so really it’s 6 differences or six aspects, often cultural aspects that differed significantly from my groups of students in Buenos Aires to the ones I had in Nantes.

Let me state that there is not a better crowd. No one is better or worse. But understanding these differences meant I had to adapt my teaching style and strategies so that I could connect with my students in France. 

 I always say, we have a unique relationship with each language, and for me, Spanish is really a language that I like to reflect and think in. I guess, it’s part of Argentinian culture to reflect on topics related to psychology and philosophy. 

Knowing languages is rich because it allows you to have access to a wide variety of sources of information. A language is also a window on culture; by knowing a language, you're more able to understand how people think. It gives you perspective on the world in general. But what are the downsides? I’ve talked about that in previous episodes, but I want to specifically talk about, I guess what I could call the opportunity cost of being a polyglot. 

Th title in Spanish is: ¿Ser políglota, es doloroso?  - Is it painful to be a polyglot?

 I want to do a series of episodes on schools such as how do foreign children adapt to French schools, but first I want dedicate this episode to describing the French school system.

My typical student at the moment is a foreigner in a relationship with a French person and moved to France with their partner. Some of them have children who obviously end up joining the French school system.

I’ve noticed something, it’s that they can almost never tell me in what grade their kid is. I always end up explaining how the French school system works because they find it confusing. 

So today’s episode is a bit different from the others, because I simply want to describe the French school system and compare it with the British school system. I selected 15 facts about our school system that are different from British schools and maybe from the schools in your country.

Today’s episode is in French, I’m going to talk about how I learnt my second language: English.

Remember, you can access all the transcriptions on my website Connect2languages.com

French people often ask me how I learnt English. They are generally quite surprised to hear my accent which is funny when I think of it, because, trust me, it wasn’t an easy-going journey. I don’t have any particular talent for languages. 

Note, that I’m going to list the 8 things that were the most significant in my learning journey of English. This is personal; I’m sharing my experience. I can’t share every single strategy obviously, because there are hundreds of them. Again, I’m gonna list the 8 most significant events or strategies for me.

For more episodes on how to learn a language, I recommend Episodes 14: 5 things to consider when learning a language and Episode 11: Afraid to lose your second language when you move back home? 

In short, my 8 points are:
- Watch movies in original version (original version)
- I forced myself to think in English
- At first when I came to Ireland I said whatever went through my head
- I surrounded myself with English speakers
- I learned English "sur l'oreiller" (literally "on the pillow" meaning through a romantic relationship
- I worked on my writing 
- I studied pronunciation

Today's episode is in French !
Learning a language is no easy task and many describe it, rightfully I think, as stepping out of their comfort zone.

Having to speak in a foreign language can be very intimidating, and especially when you’re a beginner.  What is it we actually feel when we step out of our comfort zone? 
I haven’t been in the position of learning a new language from scratch for a while, so I’m going to use my recent experience of stepping way far out of my comfort zone when I started practising Wing Chun last September. Wing Chun is a martial art and I joined a Self-defense system Wing Chun club. 
The emotions I encountered were very similar to what I felt when learning languages, so today’s episode is in French and we’ll talk about: 5 uncomfortable emotions we feel when  we step out of our comfort zone.

Now today’s episode is in English and I want to speak about a topic that is not easy to talk about. The reasons why it’s not easy to talk about it are because I’m going to share personal experience, and also because it’s not politically correct. At least, it’s a topic that I don’t feel comfortable talking about.

I want to talk about being “posh”. My question is: Am I posh only in my native language?

I explore how learning foreign languages and dating foreigners allowed me to escape from some social pressure. I also talk about how much more inclined I am in French to have prejudice as I'm more able to perceive the language subtleties related to social backgrounds.