I was born in Algiers (Algeria) and left my birth country at age 4 when my parents moved to London for a few years.
This was my turning point (at 4 years old, yes!) as English became the first language I read and wrote all the while speaking French at home; this would come to define a large part of who I am today.
I lived in France, on and off in Algeria in between moves- and in Benin, west Africa for a few years before moving to the US (New York) and Canada (Montreal). I went to high school, college and grad school in North America. I majored in Economics and minored in Spanish and have a Masters degree in Economics.
After working as a data analyst for a few years in Montreal,
I decided to leave it all behind and redesign my life in France to be closer to my family and to all these different countries, cultures and languages I can never get enough of.
Today the English language has taken front stage in my career, as circumstances (and a lot of additional training and studying) led me to become a translator, an English teacher and trainer and today a Language Coach.
I also speak spanish just because I love it, some arabic to honor my heritage and some Italian (because of course!) and am learning Chinese (puzzling...still puzzling) and dabbling with greek (heard it, loved it, was intrigued).
So you see I can definitely relate to one and all frustrations you are faced with as a language learner, I have hands on real life experience :-)
Author: Feriel Temmar