French coaching for expats
You have the French. You just have no confidence speaking it.
Sound like yourself in French. And become B2-ready if your file needs it.
You understand far more than you say. I help you get that French out when it counts, so you sound like the person you are in English.
No sales pitch. We look at where you are and choose the right path together.
Proof
Some of the 460+ students I’ve coached.
460+
students80+
five-star reviews~7,500
coaching hours“What I was missing wasn't really grammar or vocabulary, it was speaking. With Yann we mostly spoke, and that's how my French really improved. I passed the DELF B2, I moved to Paris and I'm doing an internship there now.”
“I came with the goal of maintaining my language level, but in the end, I gained much more. I improved my language skills to the C1 level, I prepared for various interviews, and I even received help with writing my CV.”
“Not only did I pass the DELF B2, I'm now working towards my C1. I'm attending appointments, picking up the phone, and chatting with the other mums at school drop-off without hesitation. I finally feel included at family gatherings.”
The diagnosis
It was never a knowledge gap. It’s a confidence gap.
You freeze up, you Anglicize your French, then you switch back to English. It's not the speaking that breaks you, it's the speed of the turn. You build a sentence, correct and careful, and by the time you place it on the table everyone else has already moved three topics ahead. That's not a grammar problem but a timing one, and it trains a reflex: stay quiet, it's safer.
Do that enough times and freezing becomes the habit. It usually looks like:
- Switching to English the moment it gets hard
- Going quiet in a group instead of jumping in
- Declining invitations rather than risk the table
- Keeping every conversation shallow, on purpose
Freezing works, and it keeps the embarrassment away, but it also keeps you out of the exact moments where fluency actually happens.
How it goes
Three moments, in order.
Every student hits the same three breakthroughs, never on the same schedule but always in this order.
“I can understand and I can speak.”
I find where it actually breaks down, never "your French" but one specific habit, and I build a Safe Speaking Zone around it. Output goes up before anything else does.
“French is interesting.”
Once the fear drops, French gets room to be interesting again. Real conversations, not drills. I give you corrections after you finish a story or a thought, never mid-sentence.
“I'm funny in French.”
That's confidence going up. That French version of you that has opinions, makes jokes and tells a story with timing is back.
Oui, c'est moi, Yann
Made a career in a language that wasn't mine.
Before I was a coach (or pretending to be one), I spent 18 years in the humanitarian sector, working in English. I was experiencing the exact trap I now help students out of. Rebuilding a sense of self from zero, in foreign countries, with no safety net. After that, I started coaching French in 2022. Since then I've spent about 7,500 hours working out what actually fixes it and gives my students the confidence they need to make significant progress.
Read the full storyTwo ways in
Where do you want your French to take you?
I need B2
A deadline, a dossier, an exam. You need the level and the paper that proves it.
60 minutes to know exactly where you stand and what you need to work on to be exam ready.
Eight weeks to go from “I need B2” to “I’m ready to pass”. Two mock exams, debriefed one to one. Next cohort: 5 October to 30 November, for the DELF B2 on 2 December.
If the Bilan shows this is not your moment, you get a preparation plan and a seat in the next cohort.
Talk to Yann about the BilanI want to speak better French
No exam yet. You understand, you follow, and you still freeze when it matters.
One to one, built around your life and the conversations you keep avoiding.
What the (very patient) people I work with say.
Questions.
How good does my French need to be?
You need to be able to hold a basic conversation. If you can tell me about your weekend, your French is strong enough to get started. If you tend to freeze when it is your turn to speak, we’ll work on it. However, if you’re a complete beginner, I am not the right coach for you.
Where do the sessions happen?
On Zoom and Google Meet. I don’t use Teams because I don’t like it but I mean, if we really have to, I can do it.
Do you teach in French or in English?
Frenchsplaining is a universal language. It depends. I use both. I explain in English when it saves time and helps to nail a concept quicker. The objective is to stay as much as possible in the target language. That said, when you hear my English, you’ll be 100% sure I’m French.
I already passed B2. Why would I need coaching?
Quit running after crossing the finish line of a marathon and try running again after 6 months. See what happens. That exam measures what you can produce at a given moment, in a specific format. It doesn’t help you with the flexibility and quickness you need at a dinner table, at the coffee machine, at the weekly team meeting or the school gate. That gap is what we work on.
What happens on the free call?
You tell me where you are and what you need French for, and I tell you which of the two paths fits. No pitch. I’ll keep the blabla level to a minimum, despite my Frenchness. But I want this time to be useful, and to point you in the right direction with your French.
What if the cohort is full?
There are four seats per cohort. It is kept small to ensure top-quality attention. If this one is gone, you can take the Bilan and the next cohort.
How much time does this take between sessions?
If you’re consistent between sessions, it will take less time than you fear. Say you take one session a week. I’d recommend you use the same amount of time in self-practice, divided into small chunks. It’s easier to add on that time than to fit in 3 hours of self-study right out of the gate (and that never works). Between sessions is where you make real progress and get yourself ready for the next session. It is built to fit a working week, not to add a second job. If a week disappears on you, we pick it back up. That happens to me too.
Yann, where have you been all my French-learning life?
I know, I know... But it’s not too late! Book a call and we’ll make up for lost time.
Give it 25 minutes.
You tell me where you are, I tell you what I would do about it, and you decide from there.