How did I go from being a very bad student to helping thousands of French learners speak French with confidence?
Before building a language school. Before finding the best teachers around to teach French with me. Before the podcast ”le français avec Yasmine”. There was a ”bad student” girl who hated school.
I was a terrible student and I hated school and teachers in general. Actually, I finished high school 3 years after others of my same age. I even finished it later than my younger brother. When I finished high school most of my teachers didn’t bet a dime on me and any career and even less in a teaching and learning career.
I was considered as a real hopeless case with a not very promising future.
I didn’t grow up in a bilingual environment so since today I speak 4 languages fluently and learned 7 in total it is because: I collected wins along the way, tried countless courses, spent a fortune on language courses, and today I know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to learning French.I didn’t give up! I knew I could do it and I knew I could do it in a different way, with a different learning approach.
Being a rebel student, nothing in life could have predicted that I would become a teacher myself and create a school. I can’t even imagine the tears of laughter from my teachers if someone would have told them back then that I would have created a school, learned 6 languages and helped more than dozens of people speak French. As you can see, anything is possible, even miracles.
I was born in France but grew up in Brussels, Belgium where Dutch and English were taught in high school by what I qualified as the laziest teachers ever. Direct translation from sentences into the target language, writing essays about irrelevant topics and being authorized to use the verb “to do” only once, reading boring books or boring articles, … all the perfect factors to make someone hate the course, the teacher and the language altogether.
I was literally an elephant who was asked to climb up a tree. I couldn’t adapt myself and my learning to this system. I ended up being considered a pretty stupid girl, a hopeless case.
When I turned 20, I went to Madrid, Spain and learned Spanish for 4 months.
In addition, my English wasn’t very good, so I decided to take an exam in English and I started reading books in English. While learning Spanish and English after my 20’s I developed a new passion : reading.
I hated books and reading when I was in high school. I was so bored with the selection given by my teachers but when I started to read for pleasure and boost my skills in other languages, I absolutely loved it!
I had developed a real passion for learning languages and I finally found a way to skyrocket and enjoy learning that I had desperately been looking for for years. All these years, I knew I wasn’t stupid, I was just trying to fit into a learning system that was not adapted to me.
I also knew I wasn’t the only one struggling for years to learn languages. I wasn’t the only one frustrated by counting the years wasted without results from countless boring courses with indigestible content.
In 2009, one of my friends who was teaching French as a second language, needed someone to replace her for a few classes. Her student had a C1 level and she needed to practice her French to pass an official exam for the Spanish government. At first, I refused because I said I wasn’t legitimate enough, but my friend insisted. She would lose her job if nobody replaced her. So, I bought a few newspapers, Le Monde, and took some articles. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed teaching French and helping her. I was having fun.
This first class changed my life.
At that time, I was studying for an MBA, mostly to please my father, with the objective to work for a big international corporation. But the truth is, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the content and I didn’t like the image of me being a small figure in a big company.
Since the first class in 2008, I decided to take my career in a different direction. I left Madrid for Brussels where I started to develop a network to create my own school. When I got my first big client (Unilever) I decided to give up on my MBA and pursue the development of my own business.
Before my 30s I worked with clients such as Google, ExxonMobil, the United Nations, the European Parliament, and the list goes on
In 2016, Brussels became too small for me professionally speaking and I decided to go to Paris to open a branch there.
In 2020, I launched the group classes online and the podcast.
I’ve helped dozens of students become francophone and gain confidence in speaking French.
Helping students skyrocket their skills in French is a passion of mine and I can’t wait to meet you in one of my courses! Because if you are reading this , I’m sure you need a cool, modern and dynamic course to learn and see results.
My friend, you are in luck because this is exactly what I offer inside my school, I Learn French.
Whether you are a self study student or prefer Private French classes, I have everything you need to reach the next level.
———————— A little about more me
I’m the host of the podcast « Le Français avec Yasmine ».
I’m the proud mother of 3 cats.
I’m passionate about languages.
I’m a huge wine lover and a foodie.