Bienvenue à idiomatic!
Despite lifelong symptoms of Francophilia, I’ve tried (and failed) to learn French for years. Then there was a pandemic. In a moment of clarity, I started taking French lessons as a means to expand my bubble. As the dream of speaking another language became more attainable, so too did other “far-fetched” goals. Like living abroad.
Three years after my first lesson, I sold or gave away almost all my belongings and moved to France. Idiomatic is the story of how learning French rendered a seismic shift in alignment and life goals.
Want to come along?
Why should you subscribe to idiomatic? Maybe you’ve always dreamed of learning another language or living abroad. (Or both!) Or you enjoy stories about people pursuing a life they want vs. the one they were told to want. Or maybe you just want to stroke my ego. Whatever your reasons are, I encourage you to come along for the ride.
Plus, it’s free. I can’t guarantee that I won’t enable paid subscriptions someday, but for anyone who signs up now, this newsletter will remain free. Unless you want to be cool like my mom and pledge your subscription in advance.
Anyway… Salut 👋 I’m Margaret
I started my first newsletter more than 20 years ago. It was about Beanie Babies. Thankfully, my taste in pop culture evolved and after college I started an arts and literature blog with a couple of friends. Along the way, I began freelancing for the local newspaper. The highlight of my time as a small-town journalist was French-kissing a 100 lb. male wolf named Oakley.
At 27, my writing career was beginning to stagnate and I decided the thing that my CV needed was a 3,000 km hike. For six months, my dad and I hiked the length of New Zealand, and produced a media project I humbly referred to as “real-time travel literature.” It wasn’t quite that illustrious, but I did garner enough sponsorships to pay for the trip.
Eventually I went on to write for publications like BBC Travel, Sierra, and Nowhere Magazine. In 2018, I was a Film Independent Screenwriting Lab Fellow. And two years later, I was almost featured in the Best American Travel Writing Series.
It was all great fun, but never quite paid the bills. (Even with the Beanie Babies.) To fund my eating habit, I developed a side-hustle as a director of communications and content strategist. Since moving to France, I’ve begun working with international climate tech startups. Which is also fun.
Yes, but why French? 🇫🇷
I believe I was indoctrinated and groomed from a young age. My mother would play Zozo the Clown French storybooks (on cassette!) while driving me to and from ballet lessons. Her desire for me to become a prima ballerina crashed and burned, but the goal of speaking French did not.
Unfortunately, my education was spotty. We moved around a lot and changing schools every year or two made it difficult to stick with the language. By the time I got to college, I’d lost the beginner-mindset, and began prioritizing classes that would help me graduate in four years. Curiosity and learning for the sake of learning is expensive in America.
Even still, the yearning to speak French never truly went away. Every once in a while, I’d try an online class, but couldn’t stick with the instructional style. It wasn’t until I started taking private lessons that I re-learned how to learn. Then the whole thing took off. You can read more about that when you subscribe. 👇
P.S. If you’re learning French and looking for a good resource, check out my favorite Substack here.
P.P.S. Highly recommend downloading the Substack app.
