About your tutor
Fifteen years
in France.
Now on
your doorstep.
Living in Paris and Bordeaux since 2011. Disney's English and French voice of a well-known little blue alien for eight years. Fully bilingual through conversation alone. And a very strong opinion on how French should, and should not, be taught.
The background
I didn't plan to become a French tutor.
France had other ideas.
I was good at French at school. Decent grades, solid enough. Then I moved to Paris in 2011, and the first time someone actually spoke back to me at full speed, in real French, I froze completely. I had a couple of months where I was genuinely scared to open my mouth. So I do understand what that feels like.
What changed wasn't a course. It was one piece of advice someone gave me early on: learn the accent first. Get the sounds right, and French people will respond to you in French rather than switching immediately to English. So I worked on the accent. And it worked. Once they started speaking back to me in French, I had no choice but to keep up. That's how I became bilingual. Not through study. Through conversation.
I'm now fully bilingual in the proper sense. I can hold my own in arguments about grammar with native French speakers, and occasionally win. That didn't come from a classroom. It came from fifteen years of talking to people, in Paris and Bordeaux, mostly over a coffee or a glass of something.
I've split my time between France and the UK for years, and recently moved to Horwich while keeping my apartment in Paris. France is not somewhere I visit. It's somewhere I live.
The credentials
Not just "pretty good at French"
01
Paris and Bordeaux Since 2011
Fifteen years of full immersion in French life, in two of the country's most distinct cities. Not as a tourist, not on a scheme, but as someone who lives there, works there, and has spent a decade and a half navigating the language as it is actually used by actual people every day.
02
The Disney Standard
Disney cast Dan as the English and French voice of a well-known little blue alien for eight years. He is the only person ever given that role in both languages. The show was performed live in front of French audiences, which meant genuine cultural fluency was not a bonus. It was a requirement.
03
10+ Years Bilingual
A decade working bilingually across entertainment and finance, sectors where nuance, precision, and cultural fluency are not nice-to-haves but the actual job. The French I teach is the French I have used professionally. All of it.
On living in France
Fifteen years in France taught me what no textbook covers.
The single best piece of advice I ever received was this: learn the accent first. Get the sounds right, and French people will speak back to you in French rather than switching to English to put you out of your misery. That one insight changed everything. It's where I start with every student.
Paris and Bordeaux are very different cities with very different rhythms. Living fully in both has given me a feel for the language as it's actually spoken across France, not just the textbook version, and not just one region's version. That breadth matters when you're coaching someone for the real world.
And the method that worked for me is the method I use with students. Not a classroom. Not an app. A conversation, over a coffee or a glass of something, with someone who already knows the way through.
"Get the accent right and the whole thing opens up. People stop switching to English. They talk to you like you belong there. And then you do."
Dan, Paris and Bordeaux since 2011
Why I teach
Because the gap between "I did French at school"
and "I can speak French" is fixable.
Because I've been exactly where most students are. I was good at French at school. I moved to Paris. And the first time someone spoke back to me at real speed, I froze. I had a couple of months of genuine fear about opening my mouth. That's not a confidence issue. That's the natural result of never having learnt to hold a real conversation.
What fixed it wasn't more study. It was conversation. Getting the accent right. Getting people to respond to me in French. Then being forced to keep up, day after day, until I didn't have to think about it anymore. That's the method. It's the only one that has ever actually worked.
I teach it the way I learnt it: over a coffee or a glass of something, one conversation at a time, with no textbook in sight. Every session is one-to-one because there is no other way to do it properly.
Convinced? Let's have a chat.
Fifteen minutes, no commitment, no awkward sales pitch. Just a conversation about where you'd like to get to, and whether I'm the right person to help.
Book a Free 15-Min Chat