Anne-Sophie ZIKA
About me :
I have now been living and working in Edinburgh for just over 5 years. After several trips to Scotland, I landed here one day in June 2018 with the desire to try my luck. Is it because I come from Brittany (from Brest precisely) that I now feel at home there? Who knows… Before Scotland, I worked for a few years as a French as a foreign language teacher in Istanbul and also in Lyon. And before that, in another life, I was an independent photographer, a job that fascinated me for almost 10 years before returning to the equally exciting path of teaching.
Why am I proud to teach French?
Rather than telling you “why ”, I would prefer to tell you how teaching French gives me a lot of joy. I feel more lucky than proud to accompany those who choose to devote a few hours of their precious time to coming to the Institut français d’Ecosse one or more times a week. Some have been coming for years, to learn and speak this beautiful and complex language. It’s a chance to be able to share my taste for the French language and my love of words, of texts, with you who open the door to my classes. Whatever your journey with French, there is always something magical and joyful about playing with words, discovering weird expressions and learning, together. And what joy then, to be able to slowly, gradually express oneself in a language other than one’s own, to discover oneself differently and then to be able to open oneself to a new world.
Catherine IVIC
About me :
I grew up in Alsace between two cultures and two languages: French and Germanic. When I moved to Canada to study English, I realised the value of learning another language. It was like a gateway to knowing other cultures and thereby a way to better understand mine, my identity. By discovering a country in its plurality and not as a homogeneous entity… I taught in primary schools in Canada, in a public and private university in the United States. I taught French to immigrants in France and now I am in Scotland where I first worked in a high school, then at the Institut français where I teach adults, adolescents and children. I specialise in early childhood language learning.
Why am I proud to teach French?
I am proud to teach because I like to introduce students to the diversity of the French language through the Francophonie, through the fine arts (describing a painting, landscapes, a face), theater (miming a scene, a situation), literature (a poem, an extract of text), songs, debates, current events, so that learning the language becomes real. I like teaching because teaching a language is not static but always in motion, bringing up new situations which allow me to develop new learning methods and provide me with enriching experiences.
Chloé GUILPIN
About me :
My name is Chloe. I come from the Paris area but have lived in Stockholm, London and now Edinburgh. I have always worked with children, in the “lycée français” in Stockholm and then in nursery schools in the United Kingdom. I also taught French to adults. I love traveling and discovering new cultures and civilizations. I love nature and in my free time I like to do sports.
Why am I proud to teach French ?
French is such a beautiful and yet complicated language. Teaching it is like passing on part of one’s heritage. French is a language that is rich, complex and poetic. It is spoken in many countries around the world with different dialects, accents and even complementary words. It is a language that reflects the country: diverse and at the same time very anchored in traditions.
Claire PORTET
About me :
I left France 6 years ago to settle in Edinburgh. When I arrived in Scotland, I decided to give up my first job and become a French as a Foreign Language (FLE) teacher to stay connected to my country and my cultural identity. I feel deep satisfaction and great joy in teaching my mother tongue to learners at the Institut français d’Ecosse, each more motivated and interested than the last. They appreciate French culture in all its forms as well as the “beautiful music” of our language, as they say.
Why am I proud to teach French?
Teaching French allows me to deepen my own knowledge of my mother tongue and paradoxically to learn the language of the public to whom I teach. It is a powerful way to communicate, of course, but also to better understand each other and accept others in their diversity.
Eva WISEMAN
About me :
Embracing teaching is probably the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me, a choice of the heart and a love story… Making my modest contribution to the influence of France abroad, helping to spread our language, our culture, our values is a real joy. Because whether we like it or not, imperishable humanist values remain attached to our country: it was in French that we first recognised and proclaimed that individuals were free and equal. The freedom to think, to speak, to act for the good of humanity: French will always retain a remarkable symbolic dimension on this subject. Transmitting the love for the French language means discovering the notoriety of our thinkers, writers, artists, all those who have illustrated it. French culture is my roots, my identity, my passion. And what could be more beautiful than sharing your passion with others, with joy and openess?
Why am I proud to teach French?
Teaching French is for me the surest way to always be close to France, wherever I go, and to meet people who share my passion. I am infinitely lucky to have a job that relies on human relationships. I go to work every morning with the joy of finding my students who have become, for the most part, good friends. There are so many beautiful things, exchanges and satisfactions that bring us closer… It is wonderful, after several years of teaching, to still experience such great pleasure from it. What I love so much about this job is that I never get bored because every day is an adventure and brings its share of beautiful surprises.
Fanny LYET
About me :
I was born in the heart of the Alps where I grew up between lakes and mountains, in communion with nature with which I quickly fell in love. The desire to explore the world, to discover other cultures and other languages was not long in coming, and after having studied and lived in France, Switzerland and Australia, it is in Scotland that I decided to settle. Unsurprisingly, I instantly fell under the spell of this country with its breathtaking landscapes.
Why am I proud of teaching French?
Teaching French as a foreign language is a deeply rewarding experience for me. It is the opportunity to open doors to French-speaking culture, to give learners the keys to communicate, to promote intercultural understanding. This profession is a fascinating intellectual and human adventure. I hope to motivate and inspire students like some teachers did for me.
Franck MAGLOIRE
About me :
Will we ever know who we are, even after more than half a century of life? I am undoubtedly what I have lost and gained, succeeded and failed. Above all, I follow the questions, the encounters, the people I cross on my path, with or without words, surreptitiously or over the years. The others are my missing part. I make them my faithful allies, travel the roads with them, communicate beyond ruts and doubts. I listen to them, support them as best I can; they do the same with me. Fight together, assert yourself alone then forget yourself, and start again.
Why am I proud to teach French?
When learners discover the language, I rediscover it with them. At first naked, it gradually dons new, strange, exotic, sometimes flickering and luminous accents. It is an invitation to travel, here, elsewhere, differently. There are no longer any barriers, boundaries or limits. The syntax flourishes and the grammar is cheerful. To teach a language, one’s own language, is to inhabit a territory which does not belong to any tutelary order, does not rely on any higher authority, except that of the mind and the heart. A new home, a new community, the largest of homes.
Jean Christophe DENIS
About me :
Quite a difficult introspection exercise! I have lived in Edinburgh for over 15 years. Very curious by nature, I have very diverse interests and passions: science, from research to science mediation (my main job), sociology, music and dance, particularly traditional and folk, art in general, ecology, cycling, cooking, hiking, reading, etc. The list is very long, I never get bored!
Why am I proud to teach French?
I love teaching because I love passing on my passions to people, and I love learning from theirs, who they are and what motivates them. French language and culture are a part of myself, which I only became aware of when I started living outside France. I am proud of my French identity, which complements my more recent Scottish identity, and I am proud to share it with people who wish to discover it. The exchange of cultures, of which language teaching is a part, is for me one of the most beautiful things!
Julie GROSCAUX
About me :
My name is Julie and I have been teaching at the Institut français d’Ecosse for a little over 3 years now! I grew up in France, more particularly in Brittany, Reunion Island and Dordogne. Bordeaux is the city where I studied and where I met most of my friends, so I always say I’m from Bordeaux, even if it’s not totally true. I love video games, I did my Master’s thesis on this subject.
Why am I proud to teach French?
I am proud to teach French because it obviously allows me to pass on my culture, but also learn more about those of others. It also gives me the opportunity to build relationships with my students, to see them evolve and become more confident in French during the term, it’s very rewarding.
Marie DARIDOLE
About me :
I grew up in the southwest of France, in a small surfing village on the edge of the Atlantic – the most beautiful beach in the world in my opinion! I have always had a passion for languages and as soon as I could, I went to live abroad. I had ants in my pants and wanted to explore the world! And a few years and several countries later here I am in Scotland, where the diversity of regional languages and accents fascinate me. For such a small country there is such great variety!
Why am I proud to teach French?
Learning a language is more than learning a bunch of grammar rules and vocabulary lists. To learn a language is to discover otherness and embrace it; it’s about questioning yourself and your own culture and habits; it’s (re)discovering your own identity under a new filter and understanding it in a new way. For me, teaching my beloved mother tongue means exchanging with my students. It’s difficult to hide my pride when you grow in confidence and overcome difficulties to, finally, succeed in sharing, in French.
Sarah GRIOT
French teacher, me?
Knowledge broker, debate facilitator, idea brewer, researcher and content creator, meticulous organiser, delicate mediator… Isn’t being a French teacher a little bit like that? A bit of a poet, a bit of an artist, but hopefully fluent in grammar! Much to the chagrin of our students! We chat, we talk, we harp a little too and we articulate a lot but we laugh, right? It’s a nice job to be a French teacher, so, yes, although we are so poorly recognized! Thank you dear students for allowing me to keep my culture and my language alive. Thanks to you my French language does not fade and yours is developing. We learn together about a culture that brings us together. Thanks to you I stay connected to my country and I try to connect you to France too.
Why am I proud to teach French?
I was asked if I was proud to be a French teacher: proud, no, just happy to share.
Sophie SAMALENS
About me :
To be a teacher. A vocation that has not left me since I entered 6th grade in that small Pyrenean college. This teacher who had such an impact on me, gave me the desire to learn and today to pass it on in my turn!
Why am I proud to teach French?
To rediscover yourself by sharing your culture and your love of words, enriching yourself with this diversity that is available to us. Hoping to create that same trigger and then seeing once, then another time, that the message has been sent and seeing the bridges being built between us.
Valérie LAPLANCHE
About me :
I have worked at the Institut français d’Ecosse for many years, too many to count. A journey during which I had several opportunities to receive further training. These different training courses allowed me to diversify my teaching, avoid too much routine and participate fully in projects and training courses, such as those for primary school teachers in Scotland, which I value.
Why am I proud to teach French?
For me, teaching is linked to the desire to exchange, to bring students to discover the language, to share what the French language brings me and strive to associate pleasure with lightness.
Virginie BRODIE
About me :
Tossed around in my childhood and adolescence between Normandy, Provence, Quebec and Corsica, I have always had this thirst for discovering new places and new cultures. My first experience of living abroad was in Sheffield in 1999 thanks to the Erasmus program. After 5 years in Paris, my husband and I decided to move to Beijing in 2006 where we lived for almost 6 years. We settled in Scotland 11 years ago, with a short year in Bilbao in 2021. I really like Edinburgh but who knows if one day I won’t move to another country, that’s so tempting!
Why am I proud to teach French?
Between the Algerian author Yasmina Khadra, the Cameroonian writer Djaili Amadou Ama, the Franco-Rwandan author Gael Faye or the comics of Quebecers Régis Loisel and Jean-Louis Tripp, I enjoy reading books by French-speaking authors from different horizons. In addition to the cultural aspects of French-speaking countries, I like to encourage my students’ taste for travel, to discover emblematic places like Mont Saint-Michel but also little, more unknown places like the Jura. My experience as a teacher has been very varied, since I started by teaching English in a ZEP middle school in Seine Saint Denis before teaching 5 years at the “lycée français” in Beijing. Since my arrival in Scotland, I have taught French to children, adolescents and adults. I love this diversity and these exchanges with a varied audience. I find teaching fascinating and am always looking for new materials and new ideas for teaching.
Yannick RUAULT
About me :
I am an independent filmmaker (screenwriter, director, producer) and art teacher (painting, drawing), French, originally from the southwest of France (Pau, Nouvelle Aquitaine). I have lived in Edinburgh since 2022 and find here a great open-mindedness, a strong inclusiveness, a fraternal kindness, next to a tender, luminous, light nature, in an intimate relationship with the fantastic, bringing a certain peace.
My website: myfilmstravel.com
Why am I proud to teach French?
I love the French language because it powerfully carries within it the spirit of freedom, at the same time a gentle and tender musicality, a precision of words and the invitation to have fun. I experiment with it and share it through the writing of scenarios and dialogues, loving to share it and for it to live and evolve in various ways, in this great family of the French-speaking world, beyond borders and deep in people’s hearts.