Our tutor Gwendoline asks me 8 questions
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 6:10 am
Johan: Hello everyone! Thanks for joining us for this new video. Again, I say "we" because I'm not alone, Gwendoline is going to join me today. Hello, Gwendoline!
Gwendoline: Hello!
Johan: Thank you for being with us. Well, you've already appeared on this channel, the members know you. Today, we're going to turn the tables a bit. You're the one who's going to ask me questions in Authentic French. So, it's going to be a dialogue. I'm going to answer your questions. But before that, I invite you, if you want to iraq whatsapp number data take your French to the next level, if you want to access a platform that is complete, in which you access authentic content and you can talk with French-speaking tutors, like Gwendoline and others, eh. You have seven colleagues.
Gwendoline: That's it.
Johan: So, you have all the resources to practice and progress with us. Registrations are closed 90% of the year, so, they are currently closed. And you can follow the first link in the description to join the waiting list and discover everything the academy can do for you. I'll let you speak, Gwendoline. I'll let you ask all your questions.
Gwendoline: Are you ready?
Johan: I am 100% ready.
Gwendoline: Let's start.
Johan: Well, I hope so. Let's start. We'll see.
Gwendoline: So, Johan, you speak three languages…
Johan: More or less.
Gwendoline: German, English and Italian.
Johan: Hm-hm.
Gwendoline: My first question is: Do you want to learn a new language? And if so, which one?
Johan: Well, first of all, I'll clarify. So, I speak English and German. I learned English at school and I had the opportunity to practice it a lot. German, I lived in Austria for 6 years, I worked in Germany for a little over 3 years, so for 10 years, I spoke German every day. Italian was more of a personal challenge. I learned it a little bit from scratch by myself, but I didn't have the opportunity to really practice it in fact. So, I can understand it, but I don't speak it.
And of course, actually, I'm interested in languages. Authentic French gives me the opportunity, the opportunity, to meet a lot of people from all over the world. And I would really like to learn a language that would be completely different from the languages I've learned, and I would like to learn Arabic. So, I don't know when I'm going to learn it, because it's a difficult language for us French or...
Gwendoline: Yeah, sure.
Johan: or for Europeans, but I think I will learn it, one day. There are different reasons for that. One reason is that it is very complicated, and from a personal point of view, saying to yourself: "After 40 years, I am learning a completely different language", it can be a nice personal challenge to try to work on my memory as well. The second reason is that I would also like to inspire my children, to show them: "OK, dad learns languages, dad tries to develop himself no matter his age". And I would also like to use that to inspire the audience, those who watch the channel, to try to show them that I am in the same boat, as they say in French, I do the same thing as them. And I know that Arabic is spoken by… I may be mistaken because I'm not sure of the number, but it's in the order of, I think, 200 million people in the world, so, a lot of people speak it, and I think I'll have the opportunity to practice it, so… there you go. It's a project, but I don't have a specific date for it yet.
Gwendoline: A great project in any case.
Johan: I think so.
Gwendoline: Indeed, Arabic is a very useful language more and more, so, great project. And we hope that there will be success in this project.
Johan: Yes. So, we have to start from the principle that we succeed, so, I think I will succeed. Now, that's precisely why I don't want to get started on it now, it requires a time investment that is quite significant, especially because it's a different language in fact.
Gwendoline: So, we talked a little bit about your experience in foreign languages. A question that often comes up is: can you learn two languages at the same time? What do you think about it?
Johan: So, yes, this question comes up very, very often. I get asked it almost every week in fact. If I had to summarize and synthesize, I think that we are all capable of learning two languages at the same time. There is nothing in our brain that prevents us from doing so. So, learning two languages at the same time is entirely possible. On the other hand, you have to ask yourself the first question: do I have the time? For me, that is the key. If you ever have 30 minutes a day, it is difficult to learn two languages at the same time. If you have a lot of free time and you can allocate 3-4 hours a day to language learning, I would tend to say "yes, you can do it".
Gwendoline: Hello!
Johan: Thank you for being with us. Well, you've already appeared on this channel, the members know you. Today, we're going to turn the tables a bit. You're the one who's going to ask me questions in Authentic French. So, it's going to be a dialogue. I'm going to answer your questions. But before that, I invite you, if you want to iraq whatsapp number data take your French to the next level, if you want to access a platform that is complete, in which you access authentic content and you can talk with French-speaking tutors, like Gwendoline and others, eh. You have seven colleagues.
Gwendoline: That's it.
Johan: So, you have all the resources to practice and progress with us. Registrations are closed 90% of the year, so, they are currently closed. And you can follow the first link in the description to join the waiting list and discover everything the academy can do for you. I'll let you speak, Gwendoline. I'll let you ask all your questions.
Gwendoline: Are you ready?
Johan: I am 100% ready.
Gwendoline: Let's start.
Johan: Well, I hope so. Let's start. We'll see.
Gwendoline: So, Johan, you speak three languages…
Johan: More or less.
Gwendoline: German, English and Italian.
Johan: Hm-hm.
Gwendoline: My first question is: Do you want to learn a new language? And if so, which one?
Johan: Well, first of all, I'll clarify. So, I speak English and German. I learned English at school and I had the opportunity to practice it a lot. German, I lived in Austria for 6 years, I worked in Germany for a little over 3 years, so for 10 years, I spoke German every day. Italian was more of a personal challenge. I learned it a little bit from scratch by myself, but I didn't have the opportunity to really practice it in fact. So, I can understand it, but I don't speak it.
And of course, actually, I'm interested in languages. Authentic French gives me the opportunity, the opportunity, to meet a lot of people from all over the world. And I would really like to learn a language that would be completely different from the languages I've learned, and I would like to learn Arabic. So, I don't know when I'm going to learn it, because it's a difficult language for us French or...
Gwendoline: Yeah, sure.
Johan: or for Europeans, but I think I will learn it, one day. There are different reasons for that. One reason is that it is very complicated, and from a personal point of view, saying to yourself: "After 40 years, I am learning a completely different language", it can be a nice personal challenge to try to work on my memory as well. The second reason is that I would also like to inspire my children, to show them: "OK, dad learns languages, dad tries to develop himself no matter his age". And I would also like to use that to inspire the audience, those who watch the channel, to try to show them that I am in the same boat, as they say in French, I do the same thing as them. And I know that Arabic is spoken by… I may be mistaken because I'm not sure of the number, but it's in the order of, I think, 200 million people in the world, so, a lot of people speak it, and I think I'll have the opportunity to practice it, so… there you go. It's a project, but I don't have a specific date for it yet.
Gwendoline: A great project in any case.
Johan: I think so.
Gwendoline: Indeed, Arabic is a very useful language more and more, so, great project. And we hope that there will be success in this project.
Johan: Yes. So, we have to start from the principle that we succeed, so, I think I will succeed. Now, that's precisely why I don't want to get started on it now, it requires a time investment that is quite significant, especially because it's a different language in fact.
Gwendoline: So, we talked a little bit about your experience in foreign languages. A question that often comes up is: can you learn two languages at the same time? What do you think about it?
Johan: So, yes, this question comes up very, very often. I get asked it almost every week in fact. If I had to summarize and synthesize, I think that we are all capable of learning two languages at the same time. There is nothing in our brain that prevents us from doing so. So, learning two languages at the same time is entirely possible. On the other hand, you have to ask yourself the first question: do I have the time? For me, that is the key. If you ever have 30 minutes a day, it is difficult to learn two languages at the same time. If you have a lot of free time and you can allocate 3-4 hours a day to language learning, I would tend to say "yes, you can do it".