New Year, new language

Welcome to 2014 Fe-liners, well we are already five days in but I feel like today is the day that life returns to normal and we knuckle down and get back to work! The beginning of the year is all about resolutions and this week the Fe-line team and myself will be bringing you a week long series of New Year’s Resolution posts.

My own New Year’s Resolution is pretty simple this year: learn to be a Mum. I have other objectives and goals for my businesses but motherhood is the theme of 2014 for me. My due date is now only four weeks away and I am very excited.

For others their New Year’s Resolutions will be to start their own business or learn a new language, so I thought I would interview one half of the brains behind language school, Cours French/anglais en Dordogne, Emilié Millinship  who could tell us all about both of these things.

The business is run by Emilié and her identical twin sister in the Dordogne in the South of France. They teach English to French people and French to English people. I know the twins pretty well as they just so happen to be my cousins (the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in our blood). I am always impressed with the way their business is changing and the way they adapt quickly, for example introducing Skype lessons to their menu, so that they can teach people from outside their region and outside of France.

Why did you decide to go out on your own and start Cours French/anglais en Dordogne?

For various reasons but it was obvious after working abroad for some years as French teachers to try to do it here as many foreigners were settling in our region and the airport of Bergerac was developing. Nothing was being done in terms of language schools so we decided to have a go!

What is the best thing about what you do?

“Socialising with different people from different cultures and languages, it’s also very rewarding to see the progress each of them have made, that’s why we are here: to make their life in France easier.”

A lot of people try to learn a language but fail, what are they doing wrong?

“We think it’s a question of what interest they put in their apprenticeship, and in this field we are trying our best to make the class as enjoyable as it can be by varying different activities and adapting these activities according to the student’s interests in life and needs. This is exactly what makes the difference from a group class, our one to one classes are totally adapted to the student according to personal needs. It’s difficult for our students to do wrong actually!”

You have dual nationality and you have lived in France and the UK, do you think there are any differences for French and British women when it comes to running a business?

Well, being men or women is not what makes the difference. However, the big difference is in how businesses are considered in France. Building your own company is definitely not as common and exciting as in the UK, it’s not the first thing French people would think about, that’s something which is slightly changing with new generations though…

How would you help someone to keep their New Year’s Resolution and stay motivated to learn French?

We would encourage them to watch films in French with French subtitles, read French magazines and listen to French songs! That definitely helps! And if you can, come and experience life in the Dordogne!

You now teach via Skype with people in the UK, is this as effective as face-to-face?

The more we do Skype classes and the more we think it’s a very good way for the following reason: we concentrate totally on the lesson, it’s like a window, we open it to practice French and nothing else can interfere. It’s different from face to face but we find it very comfortable! New technology has its advantages!

If you fancy packing your bags and heading down to Dordogne for a language learning holiday (I can’t recommend the area enough) or if you would like to find out more about Skype lessons you can contact you can contact Emilié via , visit their website or like them on .

Love and learning new skills,

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Much More than Sweat and Tears – my brief journey with Hot Yoga

Yoga has been in my life, in one form or another, since I was 15, when my mum decided it would be a wonderful antidote to the pressures I was feeling as a teenager in turmoil, adolescence spinning me in one direction and GCSEs hammering me from the other…

On paper, that makes me an old pro.

In reality, I’ve never quite found “the one” style or teacher that I’m so desperately looking for to complement the chaos and noise of my so called modern life. The yoga shaped hole remains.

And so I keep trying. I’ve done yogalates, pilates, tai chi, online yoga, hatha, vinyassa, power… all with the dream of one day being “one of those people” who gets up at 6am, with only the birds twittering for company, and starts my day with a salute to the sun and mantra of peace and love to the world.

This month, my journey took me to “Hot Yoga”, and a 5 day journey of ups and downs that I never could have imagined…

And so it was that I paid my hard earned money to spend a series of 90 minutes yoga classes in 40 degree heat, head to toe with around 30 sweaty, dripping people in a 5x3m loft space in East Oxford.

I went into the experience with great intention. The “trial period” being two weeks, I was convinced that I’d be able to do the first five days with back to back classes, as I’d heard from a number of people was the recommended approach. The reality for me was three classes across five days, as I couldn’t have believed before I set myself the challenge, that I’d experience such wild swingings of emotion as part of this experience.

So, first hurdle was to initiate myself into this new group of bendy, sweaty people who knew the rules when I didn’t. In my first class I was over-dressed, alongside the regulars in their tiny Lyrca outfits. It felt like the playground. These were the cool kids. Then, in my relentless rush of new enthusiasm for the class I invested in very some very small and psychedelic wisps of lycra so I would “fit in” next time I was on the mat.

Then there was the physicality. It is hard. But not the poses, just the heat. I was determined to last the 90 minutes though, battling the urge to fall out of “tree” or sit down when I felt a little dizzy. By the final “relaxation” at the end of each class I would be lying exhausted, in a heat hazed, endorphin drenched blissful state, teetering on the brink of (emotional) tears.

Then it struck me on the third day; hesitation, doubt, and the mid-week wobble. I felt compelled to scour the internet and read up on the good bad and ugly of Hot Yoga. I hungrily consumed article after article issuing warnings – kidney and adrenal strain, over-stretching, dangers of heatstroke, a cult-like practise, the lies of detoxification. Hang on a minute, I’m not supposed to be punishing my body, what’s going on?

After having a couple of “rest days”, researching on the internet my mind was in a spin – had I just experienced a near miss? Was this not only going to consume all my cash but wreck my body and brainwash me along the way? Words such as competition, repetitive, dehydration, kept floating through my brain. But at the same time it completely transforms lives, makes people feel great about themselves, and perhaps I was mistaking challenge and suffering for discipline, something I’ve never been particularly great at.

My initial enthusiasm and elation after the first couple of classes had rapidly transitioned into a fear of rushing in too soon, and the few days I’d spent researching I think I was testing myself, allowing myself to be swayed by differing opinions and it took a couple days for me to realise that deep down I had the choice to listen to my own body and my own mind. I am a grown up (!) and can trust my instincts and experiences here. It was time to get back in the saddle.

My last session was the hardest session so far. As a “third-timer” I was still a newbie and the now all the poses and heat were triple whammy-ed with the fact that I was carrying new mind-baggage – the “helpful” knowledge I had discovered with my dash through the internet. The poses felt deeper, we had to hold them for longer, the temperature felt hotter, my neighbours were closer. I became more aware of time and the fact that it was now a challenge to hold those poses and the balances and get through the class to the other side.

When the 90 minutes of my final class was up I lay, panting on my soggy towel, that warm sweep of elation moving through my body and tugging at my tear glands. My first thought was of relief and achievement. Yes, I’d done it, completed my own, unique five day journey with Hot Yoga. I experienced highs and lows, both challenging and fascinating, and although I wasn’t sure that I’d be one of those people who were up for the “30 day challenge” (or even longer), I think I will be back, once in a while, to sweat it all out. For some people, 3 classes in 5 days may seem like a “slow week”, but this experience was so much more for me. The five day journey was less about the Hot Yoga and more about me, and my ability to listen to myself and not to be swayed by the opinions of others. My body knows what I need and what feels good. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my brief flirtation with Hot Yoga, but it’s not my life-partner and won’t fill that hole. The search continues…

Love, sweat, and tears,