Business French Course
The Business French Course is specifically designed for the corporate world.
All the lessons are conducted by myself at your company’s premises. I travel to your premises so that your staff members don’t lose valuable working hours commuting to and from a venue.
Lessons take place once a week for a duration of 1½ hours. This adds up to either 6 hours (4x weeks) or 7½ hours (5x weeks) per month.
You might also want to consider a 2 hour session if the participants have enough time at their disposal. The amount of lessons per week and the duration of the lessons are flexible.
Courses can be held at any time during the day. However, in order to disturb the working day as little as possible, suggested times for the courses are either early in the morning (7:00-8:30am or 7:30-9:00am) or late in the afternoon (4:30-6:00pm or 5:00-6:30pm).
The size of the classes should not exceed 10 participants. Each student is given the opportunity to interact and participate in activities which simulate real business situations.
In order to conduct a class, all I need is a boardroom (full of enthusiastic and committed participants) equipped with a white board.
Course Methodology and Materials
The French language is like a puzzle that needs to be pieced together. It is my job to explain the mechanics of the language to my students, showing them how to recognise patterns, make sense of them and apply them on a practical level.
The course is specifically designed for business people and the materials used reflect this.
During the lessons, students listen to dialogues within a business context, they read, write and most importantly are given the chance to speak and recreate an interaction that mirrors the content of the lesson.

Each student receives the following materials

Textbooks such as Objectif Express, Français.com and Quartier d’Affaires are used. These textbooks are specifically designed as business French learning manuals.

The Student’s Guide to French Grammar

After many years of teaching I wrote this book in order to facilitate the learning process. The Student’s Guide to French Grammar was published by Pearson Canada in 2011. It is an extremely user-friendly and accessible manual that presents all grammatical topics in a one-page format.

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Recommended learning aids

Students are encouraged to practice their language skills on apps such as Duolingo and Babbel during the week between classes, so that when they return to class the following week they arrive with more knowledge than when they left.

The listening materials such as the Michel Thomas Method, Learn French in your Car, Coffee Break French and Pimsleur are available on mp3 format and can be downloaded onto on a USB/mp3 player/cellphone. This enables students to listen to them while they are commuting to and from work/travelling abroad. Motivated students can make great progress on their own if they use this “dead-time” to listen to the audio content.

Course Assessment

After approximately 80 hours of contact classes, students will write an exam called the DELF A1 professionnel or the DELF A1 tous publics
Each level would require + 80 hours of contact classes.
This exam is an internationally recognised diploma in French as a foreign language.
The DELF A1 professionnel exam is a diploma in business French as opposed to the DELF A1 tous publics, which is a diploma in general French.
Students will be prepped for the DELF A1 professionnel/tous publics exam by writing sample papers.
The DELF professionnel exams have a total of 4 levels A1, A2, B1 and B2.
The DELF tous publics exams have a total of 6 levels A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2.
The DELF exams take place twice a year and are done through an internationally recognised language institute.

Corporate clients (past & present)

  • Michelin Tyres
  • Renault
  • Peugeot
  • Electricité de France
  • L’Oréal
  • Risk and Co
  • Louis Dreyfus
  • MH Aviation
  • African Parks
  • Air Liquide
  • China Shipping
  • Sogea Satom
  • Ivanhoe Mines
  • Oracle
  • Strategnos

As indicated above, I work with many large French subsidiaries based in South Africa, as well as South African companies that do business with Francophone Africa.