Hello everyone !
I moved to Dublin, Ireland
for a year. Iâll be there till august 2023. So happy about it
. I wonât have the exact same schedule as in Mexico, but Iâll be available still.
Hope to see you around soon !
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Bonjour les amiâ§es !
My name is Sylvain. Born in France, grew up in Switzerland until I was ten and then back in the south of France
. I studied literature, linguistics and English starting in a lovely town called Aix-en-Provence and then I graduated in Paris and in Lyon with a Master degree in Teaching French as a foreign language
. As part of the Erasmus exchange programme, I studied a year in Brighton UK
, one of my best experience abroad, very much similar to the intercultural experience Cédric Klapisch shows in the movie
Lâauberge Espagnole.
I also lived 2 years in India in Hyderabad where I participated in the design of an e-learning university project. Living in India with a European background was quite a shock at the beginning but it soon became such a nurturing experience
. I even managed to learn a few Hindi expressions that I still remember after so many years like âthik heyâ (ok), âdjaldiâ (quick). Iâm not sure of the spelling though
Teaching and relating with others is my great passion . I started teaching when I freshly began University and I havenât stopped since then. Iâm 44, currently living in Mexico, in a city called Cuernavaca, the very one where Malcolm Lowryâs novel Under the Volcano takes place. If you know that novel, donât worry, my daily life is far from the dark atmosphere that smoulders in it
. Actually, Cuernavaca is a really nice place to live in. It is known as the City of Eternal Spring, guess why? Because itâs never cold and never hot. If the weather can influence someoneâs mood sometimes, here you cannot have any reasons to be moody. Shiny weather
, shiny mood
!
On the top of Pico de Orizaba, the highest volcano in Mexico

Cuernavaca is located at the hub of many volcanoes that I enjoy climbing (the active one apart obviously
). Hiking and mountaineering are among my dearest hobbies. I go to the mountains with friends, with my family and with my students. Each time I climb a mountain, I feel the experience as a metaphor of life: you have to be prepared, ready to face the unexpected and when itâs getting harder, you have to be resourceful, resilient and trustful with your companions, and at the end when finally reaching the summit, you experience a pure feeling of satisfaction, the same as when you achieve great deeds at work, in personal life or in relationships
A photo I took of the active volcano Popocatepetl starting a day work. What a fantastic view, isnât it?
I also like doing sport in general: I play football and volleyball
, but also handball
, badminton
and tennis. When I was in France I loved doing rock climbing
, horse riding
and snowboarding
.
I like dancing Salsa . In my stay in India I had the weirdest idea
to offer the student on the campus a salsa workshop. It was quite a bold cross-cultural project: a French guy teaching salsa to Indian people in a country where men and women where not used to public physical contact. Quite a challenge indeed but I wonât forget the way my students enjoyed that new experience
!
Iâve always liked cinema, literature, especially thrillers and SF novels. In musique , Iâve got quite eclectic tastes: I love listening opera when Iâm working; electronic and techno musique while doing the housework; but also Slam and pop musique in different languages.
I love to play cards and board games. Ultimately, Iâve been playing a lot Catan. My favourite with my students is the Werewolf role play.
Iâve been working in Cuernavaca as a French teacher for the past 14 years; the first 7 years in the cultural center Alliance Française teaching mostly to adults, and for the past 7 years in a Swiss School teaching to 12-19 years old students. Iâm working with an international team of colleagues where you can hear in the same hour Spanish, French, English, German, Italian and even Chinese. Languages, cultural identities and interactions is what I like exploring with my colleagues and students. I love my job, I enjoy that with each new group, with each new person, itâs a new adventure starting again even though the language itself does not change much. In my class, I often use games and role play as a learning dynamic. I procure making the students feel confident and, most important, that they enjoy their learning.
Iâll be happy to know you and help you master French language!
French is my first language. I speak fluently Spanish and English. I have also learnt german as a kid and later at school, and a bit of russian when I was teenager.
Ich kann noch gut Deutsch verstehen, viel besser als ich Deutsch sprechen oder schreiben kann. Ich verstehe auch ein bisschen Schweizerdeutsch. Ich war mehrmals in Deutschland und Schweiz und könnte zimlich gut kommunizieren, aber ich habe lange nicht geĂŒbt. Deshalb bin ich sehr froh dass ich wieder mit die Sprache verbinden kann und dir kennenzulernen.
Querid@s amig@s que hablan español. EmpecĂ© aprender español cuando vivĂa en la India. A lo mejor no suena como el lugar idĂłneo, pero tuve una maestra hindĂș fenomenal y conocĂ a muchas personas de AmĂ©rica central y del sur que me dieron ganas venir por aquĂ. AsĂ es que lleguĂ© a MĂ©xico. Me encantarĂa poder conocerte y acompañarte en el aprendizaje del francĂ©s.
Cherâ§Ăšre amiâ§e qui veut apprendre le français, je serai enchantĂ© de pouvoir te connaĂźtre. Le français est une langue merveilleuse forgĂ©e dans lâhistoire et au croisement dâautres langues. Comme toutes les langues, elle vit et Ă©volue, câest pourquoi elle peut paraĂźtre parfois si irrĂ©guliĂšre. Apprendre le français reprĂ©sente un dĂ©fi certes, mais surtout un vĂ©ritable plaisir tant pour lâenseignantâ§e que pour lâapprenantâ§e. Je serai enchantĂ© de pouvoir tâaccompagner pour relever ce dĂ©fi et pour partager ce plaisir avec toi !