French native giving personalised French lessons adapted for any single one of you reading this.

Find out more about Mathieu

• Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  I am a native French speaker, I was born and raised in France. By definition, I speak it fluently due to my origins.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  I could name a lot! But since I have to choose one, I would say Victor Hugo. Everyone knows Victor Hugo through the numerous pieces of work he published, including the famous Les Misérables. He not only wrote books but was also engaged politically and fought for any form of freedom and against censorship

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behaviour in the language that you particularly like?

  If there's one thing that I particularly like in the French language, it is the way of changing the tone of the speech you give by using more or less formal and unusual terms. We even sometimes make fun of it by 'translating' very well-structured phrases with high-class words into ones with the same meaning but using bad and informal ways.

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  It is important to me because first, it is essential not to lose our native-speaking skills; and second, because French is a very rich language that you can improve throughout all your life and it is important to enrich your vocabulary and eloquence.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  I know that despite being a beautiful language or 'the language of love', French is probably the most challenging European language to learn. How come? Because of its numerous pronunciation and grammatical rules. That may sound like any other language, but writing French is way harder than it seems. Also, you probably learn French in the most proper way to learn it. But when it comes to understanding speakers or speaking the language, it may sound difficult to you or you may sound awkward to us because there exist more fluent ways to say things. And this is what I want to teach you as well because it feels better when you know that you speak like any French speaker and not much as a 'learner anymore. Once you understand how it works, you will feel more confident.
  What can help the process of learning, of course, is watching and listening as much as you can to French movies, series, and podcasts with FRENCH subtitles if needed. Or, I would actively urge you to adopt me as your teacher and you'll see how much I can help.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  My language learning, speaking of English, has always been effortless. I mean that I always had outstanding marks and I used to be uninterested in the lessons given by the teachers because I knew they could have been giving classes more adapted to the level we all should have gotten, so I was like standing out from my classmates. One thing that may be funny is that I remember once when I corrected the teacher over his English grammar mistake; he even let me give the rest of the class, I can say I was proud.

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  I haven't travelled a lot so far. Of course, while I'm in my Erasmus exchange year I am confronting English every single day in many circumstances, so I guess that helps. Otherwise, before taking off from France, I already had amazing English skills but if I had to add up something that I didn't mention before, I'd say that it is also important to have contacts with French natives through apps that exist where you can meet plenty of them, and even other learners if you want to help each other.

• What makes you a Superprof in language?

  There's nothing that makes me a Superprof, I've always been one. So the only thing I can suggest you do is to drop me a message and have an hour-and-a-half lesson test with me (I offer the extra half). I am a very confident person so I know we'll get on well, and there's no reason to have the fear of making the one step forward to let your adventure begin! My price may impress you but I am very serious about my job and I know how much it's worth; it's very hard work being a teacher and I love it.