The Foreign Mum Podcast

In episode 20 you are going to learn Kuo-Fang’s story. She was born in Taiwan but moved to London when she was a teenager to study arts at university. Unfortunately (or fortunately), this was because she wasn’t very “academic”. In her culture, if a woman isn’t doing well at school, her only route is to study arts then get married. However, Kuo-fang proved she was stronger than this and managed to develop a career in fashion working for brands such as Anya Hindmarch, Stella McCartney and Nicholas Kirkwood. After the birth of her second daughter, she decided to quit and start a business helping working mothers to set up their business and pursue their dreams, as well as help people be more sustainably conscious.

In this episode you will also learn about the things Kuo-Fang didn’t appreciate from the luxury industry, some funny food stories from her early days and how she is raising two strong bilingual girls.

Show notes:

https://kuofioconnor.com/

@kfyangoconnor

For you to buy a World Gift from CAFOD, go to https://cafod.org.uk/Give/World-Gifts

The Taiwanese restaurant Kuo-Fang recommended - https://www.dintaifung-uk.com/

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum

Episode 19 is here with a lovely Lithuanian lady. It is a story for those interested in learning more about how nutrition can improve someone’s life in everything single aspect. Dainora moved to London to join her then Lithuanian boyfriend and now husband. After becoming a mum, she decided to start a course in nutrition in order to improve her own Auto immune condition. She discovered stress and eating a lot of bread triggered her condition.

Her other aim when she started the course was to be a good mum and teach her children how to eat healthily.  She found she enjoyed not just improving her own health but that she could turn it into her career by helping other people through nutrition as well.

Coming from a country that eats a lot of meat and fermented vegetables, Dainora decided to be vegetarian and posts lots of plant based suggestions in her Instagram account. However, she still encourages everyone to continue eating meat.

Dainora has a 10 and a 5-year-old. The first eats everything and the second is a bit picky but she knows a few techniques, and shares one with us on how to help children to eat their vegetables. We also talked about her sons understanding her language but only speaking back in English and how she thought she would want to move back to her home country once she became a mum. She now realizes that more than ever, she prefers to stay here so her children can have better education and choices compared to Lithuania.

Show notes:

https://www.my-nutrition.co.uk/nutritional-therapist-east-london/

Instagram: @autoimmunehealth.uk 

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum 

In this week’s episode, I had the pleasure to speak to the Japanese lady Haruka Kuroda, also famous for playing Noodle in The Gorillaz. She was also the star of CBBC’s officially Amazing show. From a very young age Haruka had shown signs that she was going to be an artist.

When she was 16 she moved to England to attend a boarding school. After three months feeling homesick, she had the magical click moment when she realised she could understand what was being said to her. She also gained a lot of weight since she had begun to eat dairy in significant quantities for the first time, something they don’t do in Japan! At the beginning she was happy to try new food but now she misses Japanese food more than when she first came!

Haruka is also going to explain the route that anyone interested in becoming an artist in this country should follow. She tells us how she managed to get her part in Gorillaz and how her incredible career developed after that. However, Haroka explains that the industry can be cruel to foreigners due to their accents and is now training to become a Transformation life coach.

Haruka has a beautiful 4-year-old to who she is still breastfeeding and discusses the cultural differences she encountered for occasionally drinking whilst doing so. She also tells us some other Japanese cultural behaviors compared to the Brits.

Show Notes:

www.harukakuroda.com

Instagram - @kurodaharuka

The book we mentioned about Haruka's friend - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Food-Made-Easy-Nishimura/dp/1911632779

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum

In this week’s episode, I spoke to American Joy Foster. Joy is a successful businesswoman from Colorado who moved to the UK after living in Switzerland with English Olympic Gold medallist husband Tim Foster MBE and their two children.

You are going to learn why Joy lived in seven different states in the US before moving abroad and the lessons she learned from moving around so many times, such as speaking other languages.

You are also going to hear that even the wife of a Olympian has to deal with all the visa faff that us wives of normal English men have too.

Joy has strived in her career and is a now a business owner of the successful company TechPixies. She tells us how her entrepreneurial skills started and how she is managing to run a business and yet, have more hours in her day, something she took a while to learn.

Joy will tell us also a funny story about when she met Prince Harry and her sensible points of view on the US election. So press play and learn a thing or two from this amazing lady.

Show notes:

https://techpixies.com/

Instagram - @techpixies

Joy's Podcast - Sparkle and Thrive

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum

On this episode, you are going to laugh and love listening to this incredible English/Greek lady's story. Olga, also known as the @big_fat_greekmother  on Instagram, is an inspiring woman.

After being bullied as a child, Olga realised that making people laugh was her biggest strategy to overcome all the cruel people. By the time she went to uni, she was already looking fabulous and felt like she had found her tribe. She then became a school teacher and got married at 28 to an English meat-eating man (you'll have to listen to find out why I mention that!)

After having her third child, Olga had a breakdown and she realised that comedy was her way out of her personal drama. She now entertains almost 22,000 followers (to date) on her account with her funny videos and parodies. Her goal is to attend the Edinburgh Fringe next year.

To hear also about who is actually the funniest in her house, about her big fat Greek wedding, what does her family actually think about her, just press play 😉 !

Show notes:

Instagram - @big_fat_greekmother

The Bollywood movie Olga mentioned - Chandigarh Amritsar Chandigarh

The kofi link we also mentioned on the show

https://ko-fi.com/bigfatgreekmother

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum

This week I decided to have a different episode for my podcast. Instead of having foreign mum, I decided to welcome the lovely Joanna Fortune from Ireland. Joanna is a clinical psychotherapist, an attachment specialist and the best-selling author of the super helpful series of books, ’15 Minute Parenting’.

Joanna’s experience working with families from all cultures and walks of life helps her explain how foreign parents should deal with situations such as:

- How to help foreign parents to feel confident in approaching headteachers with issues they disagree with. Also the benefits of choosing a less rigid school so children are exposed to ‘healthy risks’

- How to understand our children’s behaviour based on our cultural background

- How to overcome cultural beliefs such as ‘hitting’ as a normal thing to do with children to parenting them positively

- How to empower our children to be enough and not push them too hard for being born from foreign parents and “having to do better than everybody else”

- Parents from two different nationalities what they need to do before settling a child who doesn’t speak English yet into a new school

- And last but not least, a strong message to teach our children on how to prevent prejudice from being from a different nationality or being born from foreign parents

My goal is that this episode helps many families out there with the wonderful words of wisdom from the amazing Joanna. If you like this episode, please rate us five stars on itunes. This way we can reach many more families that need to hear our message. Also, leaves us a comment on Instagram and share this post with your friends.

Show notes:

To buy Joanna’s books: https://www.amazon.co.uk/15-Minute-Parenting-Quick-Connect-Child/dp/0717180913

Instagram: @joannafortune

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Theforeignmumpodcast

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theforeignmum 

This week's episode coincides with two very important events. First, Black History Month and secondly with the revolution currently happening in Nigeria and which will hopefully improve the country's situation. For these two reasons, I decided to invite someone who isn't a influencer, but who will certainly influence you with her story of resilience, perseverance and determination. 

Gbemi is a Nigerian who moved to London at the age of 11! She tells us good stories about her initial cultural shock. She also tell us how she became a solicitor, the reason behind her children's name choice, how she met her also Nigerian husband and how she became a cake maker. It is a very funny story that you will find at the 47 minute Mark of the show. I will also tell what my baby shower cake actually looked like and the story behind it. (I promise it will be worth it waiting until you get there). 

And last but not least, Gbemi tells us her point of view on the current situation in her home country. This is the longest episode but I promise it will be worth it. Please share, subscribe and review it! 

Show notes:

https://www.cilex.org.uk/ - the course Gbemi used to cover the route she to be able to work as a solicitor. 

Instagram - @mycakemaker

What were you doing at 24? This week’s guest Lea left Arusha in Tanzania to come to study in London when she was 18. Now that she is 24, she has already got married, opened a business and had a baby! This incredible young woman was originally born in France where her French dad and mother from Madagascar used to live. When she was six, they decided to move to Tanzania, which she now calls “home”. After all, she spent most of her life there. Her husband is half from Madagascar and half from Germany but used to live in Finland! Now they have a four-month-old English baby!

When Lea moved to London, she felt a bit of a shock because of the speed of the city and even though she was educated in English, she struggled with the accent and new terms. She got used to that but continues missing the fruit and veg from Tanzania and is not a big fan of British food.

Lea explained about her incredible new business called CocoRio Creative Childcare. She explains to me exactly how it works and you are going to love it! As a new mum, Lea gave birth at the end of the pandemic. She told me that although she did NCT online, it was still helpful and she has now met her fellow mum friends in person.

This is a lovely story that I hope all multicultural families, young mums and new business owners out there might relate to. If you like this episode, please share it with friends. You never know who you can inspire by putting it out there to.

Show notes:

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/CocoRio_CreativeChildcare/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/CocoRioUK

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/cocoriouk/

Website:cocorio.co.uk

You can also find me on Instagram @theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode, meet Oraina, a Pakistani mother of twin boys from the blog and Instagram account "Oree and her Explorers". 

Oree, as she is known on her accounts, gives her followers fantastic tips on healthy eating and the best spots in London to take children to. 

Our chat includes her telling me why her family has moved so much, it even meant that her boys were born in Barbados! Now that they call London home, she tell us why she became so obsessed with feeding her children healthy food and how much fun they have exploring London. 

Oree also opened up about her family praying routines, her career, what she likes and doesn't about the UK and much more.

Show Notes - Places mentioned on this episode

Paradise Wildlife Park – https://www.pwpark.com/

Peppa Pig Bus Tour - https://b-bakery.com/london/bus-tours/peppa-pig-afternoon-tea/  

Zippos - https://www.zippos.co.uk/ 

@oreeandherexplorers 

https://www.oreeandherexplorers.com/ 

In this week’s episode, I have the best Portuguese person ever. It is Maria Monteiro, the creator of Brook Green Mums, a blog and Instagram account created based on a  little hidden neighbourhood near Hammersmith and High Street Kensington.

Maria tells us her story on how she moved to London to pursue a diplomatic position within the Portuguese embassy but decided to stay after her contract was up. She now works happily in a school within her neighbourhood and carries on giving great tips on products and places around her area to anyone who is interested in the place.

So if you want to find out more about how Maria does shows her daughters on Instagram, What she likes most and least about England and much more, download this episode and happy listening!

Here are the Portuguese restaurants Maria mentioned in this episode:

Toca - https://www.atoca-restaurant.co.uk/

Madeira - https://madeiralondon.co.uk/

Pico - https://madeiralondon.co.uk/location/pico-bar-grill/

To Follow Maria

W: https://brookgreenmums.wordpress.com

Instagram: brookgreenmums

FB: https://www.facebook.com/brookgreenmums/

Twitter: @mlpmonteiro