Private French · Cannes · 10+ years

I'm Mickael. I'm from Cannes, and I've taught French for ten years.

I'm French, from Cannes in the South of France, and I have taught French privately for more than ten years — sometimes full time, sometimes alongside other work. Lessons are one to one and online, anywhere in the world, from complete beginner to upper intermediate — A1 to B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the Council of Europe's scale that French certificates are measured against. Twenty-eight students have written a review, averaging 4.8 out of 5.

Watch me say hello, just over two minutes2:17

How I started, and why I kept going

I started teaching out of curiosity, with no plan for it to become anything. What kept me was not the language — it was that every few weeks I was talking to somebody from a country I had never been to. Ten years later that is still the part I would miss.

I did not set out to be a teacher. I was curious about what it would be like, so I tried it. The surprise was the people: a new student arrives, and with them a place, a reason for learning, a job, a family, a plan to move. Discovering that, over and over, turned out to be genuinely fun — and that, rather than any decision, is why there are ten years behind this.

Some of those years have been full time and some part time. It has never stopped.

Why I teach spoken French and not the textbook kind

Spoken French is more entertaining than a textbook, and that is a practical argument rather than a romantic one — people continue with what they enjoy and quit what they dread. French should bring joy, not fear. A learner who is having a good time comes back next week, and coming back next week is most of what learning a language is.

The French in a textbook and the French on a terrace on a Friday are close to two different languages: the second one is faster, the words run together, and it is far friendlier than it looks written down. Most people who plateau have not run out of vocabulary. They have only ever met the written one.

So that is what we work on. Real situations, real speed, and the register that belongs in each room. It is also, not by accident, the more enjoyable half.

What a lesson actually looks like

Every lesson runs in a shared Google Doc: what we cover, the corrections and the homework all go into it as we go, and it stays yours. It is simply the most practical way to teach online — you leave with the lesson rather than with a memory of it, and you can carry on studying from the same page during the week.

The lesson itself is on Google Meet, so there is nothing to install. Materials are chosen for you rather than worked through in order — a film scene, a song, an article, a situation you are about to be in. I correct what you say and how you said it, which is the part that is hard to do alone.

The other thing I do

My Master's degree is in IT, not in languages, and I still work in it — it became a second craft rather than a former one. It is not what qualifies me to teach French; ten years of teaching French and twenty-eight reviews are. But it is true, it is half of how I spend my time, and this website was built by the person writing on it.

What students have said

Twenty-eight students have written a review across several platforms, averaging 4.8 out of 5 over more than ten years. Seven of them are below, in their own words. The rest live on those platforms rather than here, where I cannot edit them.

Read all twenty-eight reviews