My Method
No generic textbook. No one-size-fits-all syllabus. No app pretending to know you. Your lessons are built entirely around your life, your projects and your mistakes. And it starts with a proper diagnosis.
“Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir à point.” It's not about rushing; it's about starting right.
Step 1 · Always
Before we open a single exercise, I take stock: your real level (not the one an app guessed), the blocks that keep you silent, your projects (a move to France, travel, work) and what you genuinely love talking about.
Your entire programme is built from that diagnosis. It's why lesson one already feels like it was written for you: it was.
The balance that keeps you talking
Grammar is there to structure what you want to say, never to bury you under abstract rules before you've said a word.
Why people “do French” for years and still freeze. And what I do instead, with real examples from actual lessons. Each one is bridged back to the WA ATAR, because the habits that make you fluent are the ones examiners reward.
Textbooks teach the "safe" version of French and rarely tell you what people actually say. I teach both, side by side, every time. So you always know which one to reach for.
Je n’ai pas de petit ami. Correct everywhere, exam-safe. · J’ai pas de copain. What you’ll actually hear, and say, with friends.
Why it beats the standard
Most courses teach "correct French" and leave you to pick up the spoken version by accident, years later, usually by embarrassing yourself first.
↳ For your ATAR
WA’s oral exam marks students down for using tu and ouais with an examiner. Knowing both registers means you never slip.
Nobody remembers an idiom from a definition. They remember it because they used it to describe something true about themselves. So my students write their own examples.
Être à l’heure au travail, c’est écrit dans la pierre. Quand je rencontre mes amis pendant la semaine n’est pas écrit dans la pierre.
Why it beats the standard
Apps give everyone the same five generic examples. Your brain doesn’t file those away as meaningful. So they fade. Personal examples don’t.
↳ For your ATAR
Idioms used correctly in context are on the examiners’ “extra points” list. Yours will sound natural because they’re actually yours.
When a student is bilingual or trilingual, I use their strongest other language as a genuine test. You can fake a multiple-choice answer; you can’t fake a translation.
Ich habe keine Geschwister = Je n’ai pas de frères et sœurs. · Ich trinke keinen Kaffee = Je ne bois pas de café.
Why it beats the standard
A lot of exercises test recognition ("does this look right?"), not real understanding ("can I produce this from scratch?"). Translation exposes the difference instantly.
↳ For your ATAR
The written paper answers comprehension in English. Precise translation of meaning (not word-for-word) is exactly the skill it rewards.
Not every skill deserves equal coaching time. If you’ll be reading and writing French constantly anyway, we don’t drill reading. Sessions focus on what’s hardest to build passively: speaking fluency and natural phrasing.
A student starting university gets French "for free" through immersion. So our limited time goes to spoken fluency, not comprehension drills.
Why it beats the standard
Generic courses move through a fixed syllabus at a fixed pace regardless of what you need. Effort where it counts gets you fluent faster.
↳ For your ATAR
We target your weakest exam component. Often the oral or the ~150/200-word written pieces. Instead of re-drilling what you’ve already got.
Instead of conjugation worksheets, grammar gets practised through questions you actually have to think about. You’re generating language to answer, not filling in blanks on autopilot.
Si tu devais être un animal, lequel serais-tu ? Si tu pouvais changer une habitude, laquelle changerais-tu ?
Why it beats the standard
Drills test whether you can conjugate. Conversation-style questions test whether you can use the grammar under the same conditions as real speech. The actual goal.
↳ For your ATAR
This is the C → B jump on the rubric: spontaneous, flexible language instead of memorised answers, drilled with the conditional you need anyway.
You don't need 1-on-1 lessons to apply these principles. Here's how to run it yourself:
Learn two versions of everything. Whenever you learn a phrase, ask: “what’s the casual way people would actually say this?” Look it up, don’t assume.
Audit your own week. Where are you already getting French “for free” (shows, social media, coursework)? Spend deliberate study time on whatever isn’t covered by that.
Turn grammar drills into real questions about yourself. Instead of “conjugate être in the conditional,” ask a genuine “what would you do if…?” and answer out loud.