Today, I’ve had the pleasure to speak with Steve, who is a retired American engineer from Vermont, and a very motivated, hard-working, and diligent French student. When he is not reading about history, traveling through Europe, hiking in the magnificent landscapes of his North-Eastern state, or volunteering at Ronald McDonald House, Steve enjoys studying Molière’s language in its minutiae. Indeed, he can tell you all the differences between French from France, and French from Canada, and dig even further into the regional differences of both countries.
In this podcast, Steve shares with us in detail about his experience of learning French in a Canadian school, and in a French school, and everything he has done to become fluent in French, which helped him to face quite a critical situation on one of his trips to France, during which a pickpocket stole his wallet with his passport in it – just a couple of days before flying back home.
He also tells us the story of his childhood and his family, more specifically about his mother and how she met his father – an injured soldier – in the first half of the 20th century. Steve provides a fascinating window into the way of life of many people in the United States right before the modern world as we know it today. You won’t help but feel moved by the many anecdotes and life stories he shares with us.
This episode will be of interest to anyone who enjoys travel, biographies, and learning about life in the US in the first part of the 20th century.
French Chatter 