Pauline is amazing. No really, she is! She has something that a lot of language teachers lack - a real talent for listening and for letting you speak. Every time I've had a lesson with her, I feel so much more ready to walk out my door and speak French with the people I encounter (instead of just saying Pardon, ma francais n'est pas bon) : -) I highly recommend her! (but don't steal my time slot!)

While Pauline always has topics for us to discuss available to me, I like to bring my own thèmes as well, whether they be from an article, a podcast, a book I am reading, or a movie. Today I hadn't prepared anything, so I told a story about my time in the Amazon. Pauline is excellent at going with the flow of whatever is on my mind. She asks clarifying questions and helps me with my vocabulary so that my storytelling becomes more fluent and more engaging.

Well, I am doing a ten-day immersion with Pauline. I watch films in French and then talk about them in French. She has taught me lots of new vocabulary and helped me to express myself with more finesse. Today I wasn't feeling "en forme" and her enthusiasm made me want to work hard and get the most out of the lesson anyway. I will miss these daily lessons after I go back to work. This French immersion has been a great way to spend a week of my grandes vacances.

So... I can tell you that I am a senior citizen living in the US. I have read articles about how language learning can maintain one's cognitive abilities. I have seen my teacher, Pauline twice in the past two days, and both sessions were heady experiences, literally. I have left the sessions completely charged up, and all my cylinders were firing. I can't recommend enough working with Pauline. She is keeping me young!

Sometimes I head into my lesson with Pauline, prepared, having read an article, listened to a podcast or watched a movie. Today, I hadn't prepared, and yet the conversation flowed like the Colorado River. It is Pauline's particular skill to keep things going when I might be at a loss for something to say. And once again, I learned a lot of new vocabulary about something I had previously known nothing about--even in English.

Pauline puts me so at ease that an hour of speaking in French went by in what felt like minutes.