All About Us
Bonjour, I’m Adrien from France! I started All About French in 2019 to help people learning French online in a friendly and authentic way.
But before we take a deep dive into this topic, let me introduce myself…
I was born in 94′ in France and always lived there since. (In Paris, Toulouse, Limoges, Brive and I will move to Lyon soon!)
I have always been a “book nerd” and dreamed of becoming a teacher or work in a field related to literature / languages.
But (somehow) I ended up becoming an… engineer…
So I started working for few years in engineering but, to be honest, something was missing. A part of me still wanted to achieve what I dreamed as a child, what I truly love, so I took a bold decision.
I quit “the perfect job” in Paris and decided to focus entirely on a French learning project. But, at this point, what this project would be precisely was still unclear, until I met…
In a rush?
My daily source of inspiration
(update!) Just married!
Because we plan to live in France, my girlfriend wife had been learning French intensively and helping her during this process had been truly eye-opening.
I realized that, despite thousands of different French courses existing, not much focus on explaining in details the day-to-day expressions and sayings we use all the time, why and when to use them depending on the context.
So, after listening to a conversation in French, she would often ask me: “Why using this word/saying and not the one I just learned online?“. And with few explanations, things would be clear…
But honestly, how frustrating is it when you don’t have a native French teacher to tell you that?
Imagine: you just learned something new, yay! But when you use it in a conversation with a French person, he/she answers one of these things:
- “Nobody says that”
- “It’s not used anymore”
- “This is not an appropriate saying”
- “I have no idea of what you are talking about”
- “This is way too formal”
- “It’s slang, don’t use that here”
- “That’s an expression from Québec”
- “You just insulted my sister”
- “Which language is that?”
- “Who the hell taught you that?”
- “Are you drunk?”
There is nothing better to ruin your confidence, frustrate you and eventually make you quit learning French…
That’s why, among many ideas I have for the future of All About French, creating a complete repertory of all the useful French words, sayings and expressions accessible online is one of my top priority.
I like to think of it as an online-friend, always available when you need it and I sincerely think it can ease your learning process.
So, I made myself few promises, let’s call them “missions”…
My missions
Teach you authentic and useful French
Your time is precious, you don’t want to waste it by learning things that French people don’t really use. I lived my whole life in several parts of France and I try to select only the most useful content based on my experience and what I hear every day.
Teach you like a friend
Yes, sometimes I might miss a comment on Instagram, Pinterest or Telegram. And no, I won’t write your 10 pages French essay that your teacher assigned you or I wouldn’t sleep anymore…
But I will try my best to help you, teach you and answer your questions like how a friend would. And I will try my best to create new content & features for All About French’s website while keeping it a human friendly place.
Show up everyday
I sincerely believe that our habits define us. So I want to help the ones among you who want to build the habit of learning French everyday, of making progress everyday, by providing you daily content. (So far I didn’t miss a daily post since the beginning in May 2018)
Be committed on the long run
For me, this project isn’t just a thing that runs in the background and that you end up forgetting about and will never be. For me this is the beginning of something bigger, something that I’m passionate about and committed to on the long term.
To conclude I have few questions for you:
- How can I help you to learn French?
- What features or content would you like to see on this website?
- What can I do better?
Feel free to tell me about it on the contact page or to send me a message on Instagram, Pinterest or Telegram!
And if you know someone or a group of people (example: school class) who might be interested in All About French, why not sharing it with them?
Let’s grow all together and help people around us!
See you soon,
Adrien