About

I moved to the region of Dordogne, France with my husband and our two children in 1990 to a country that I didn’t know, but I loved straight away, even though the language was totally alien to us all.

It was our experiences, our work and, most of all, our French friends, that helped us to learn and enjoy our new lives and embrace the French customs.

During the following years our French language skills grew as did our confidence and our love for the French way of life. It is difficult for me to imagine a life anywhere else – especially with our children, now grown up and still living in France.

Due to my husband’s work experiences in England as an electrician and plumber he soon established himself as an Artisan. To this day he remains working in both these fields of expertise.

I was not so lucky because my work experience in England as a secretary didn’t accord me the opportunity, because of the French language, to find employment. Then some years ago, to my surprise, I had the opportunity to learn accountancy, yes went back to school, but not an English school, no I had to learn this in French!! I have to admit that at first I was nervous.

In 2009 I joined my first accountancy course. It was a struggle, I have to be honest, but in 2010 I took and passed my exam. Finished, I thought, but no I then enrolled with the same teaching establishment and started a professional course which took the accountancy a stage further. This course covered French, English (oh yes!!), computer subjects such as Publisher, Excel, Word, Access and CIEL, as well as maths, finance, administration, law, economy and, of course, accountancy.

I think you have probably guessed by now, I was hooked! The more you learn, it seems, the more you want to learn.

After my studies I started helping friends with some of their bureaucratic problems something I found very rewarding. This helped me to improve my knowledge of the language and the French system – which I am still learning. It is through my experiences that I found the confidence to start a small business of my own which I have called French Hiccups.

My next studies, yes I couldn’t keep away, actually took me away from the above subjects completely because, thanks to the encouragement of a good friend in France, I decided to take an online TEFL course, teaching English as a foreign language. This subsequently lead me to starting a second small independent business where I can teach English from home.

I have called this small business English Enseignante