A Great Breton, that is, I come from Great Britain but my adoptive country is Brittany!
I’ve been living on the Pink Granite Coast for over 12 years now, a really beautiful place that absolutely deserves a visit. I’m perfectly bilingual in English & French, and also have a pretty good grasp of Breton. Passionate about languages, I’m learning Spanish in my spare time and am thinking of trying a new language but haven’t decided which one yet or when I would do it!
My other past-times are my daily Wordle, baking cakes, tending to my vegetable patch, walking with friends, playing board games with the family, and holidays through home exchange. But more than anything else in the world, I love to snuggle up on the sofa with a good book, a cup of tea and some chocolate!
How did a Yorkshire lass end up in Brittany, speaking Breton?!
Biskoazh kemend-all! (Never seen before!)
I studied French from secondary school all the way through to university. During my degree in European Business & French, I had a sandwich year in France as an intern in a company. It was this year at Alcatel in Lannion that changed my life forever.
To cut a long story short, it’s here that I really learned how to speak French, not the school French from textbooks, but the real stuff! It’s here that I made friends for life, and the cherry on the cake, it’s here that I met my other half, who is now my husband and father of my 2 children!
In 2002, once I’d finished my degree in Salford, I joined my other half in Bath where he was working. I worked in Bilingual Sales Administration, always working with French companies, and this is where we started our family.
Fast forward to 9 years later, it’s 2010 and we land in Brittany, back in Lannion! My husband working in Photonics, and I stay home to look after our 2 young kids.
Meanwhile, we send the kids to the Diwan school in our neighbourhood, they are schooled in Breton and speak English & French at home. We spend many happy years in this family-oriented school.
I train to become an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Teacher and teach classes at the Diwan school and Business English at Nokia (formerly Alcatel) for the next 7 years.
In 2018, I return to work in manufacturing as a production planner, but in 2020 after a burnout and the first lockdown, I decide that it’s not the path for me.
I now finally have the time and the opportunity to follow the 9-month intensive Breton language course with Roudour that I’ve wanted to do for years. At the end of this course, I obtain a C1 level, something I’m obviously very proud of.
As it wasn’t so easy to find work in Breton and as I still wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do, I went to see Véronique Gallet from Lumania Coaching who helped me revisit everything from A to Z. What came out in the wash is that I wanted to be my own boss, manage my time as I see fit, and do something meaningful that matches my values: helping, communicating and sharing knowledge.
An idea started to form based on my know-how & experience: Translation, Communication & Training.
My coach advised me to follow a training course for creating your own business with “Entreprendre au Féminin Bretagne” (an organisation for female entrepreneurs). During this course I fine tuned my ideas and decide to become a French and Breton to English translator.
I had to wait a few more months for my French identity papers (thanks Brexit) and that was it.
I created my own business: MC Translations.
How did a Yorkshire lass end up in Brittany, speaking Breton?!
Biskoazh kemend-all! (Never seen before!)
I studied French from secondary school all the way through to university. During my degree in European Business & French, I had a sandwich year in France as an intern in a company. It was this year at Alcatel in Lannion that changed my life forever.
To cut a long story short, it’s here that I really learned how to speak French, not the school French from textbooks, but the real stuff! It’s here that I made friends for life, and the cherry on the cake, it’s here that I met my other half, who is now my husband and father of my 2 children!
In 2002, once I’d finished my degree in Salford, I joined my other half in Bath where he was working. I worked in Bilingual Sales Administration, always working with French companies, and this is where we started our family.
Fast forward to 9 years later, it’s 2010 and we land in Brittany, back in Lannion! My husband working in Photonics, and I stay home to look after our 2 young kids.
Meanwhile, we send the kids to the Diwan school in our neighbourhood, they are schooled in Breton and speak English & French at home. We spend many happy years in this family-oriented school.
I train to become an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Teacher and teach classes at the Diwan school and Business English at Nokia (formerly Alcatel) for the next 7 years.
In 2018, I return to work in manufacturing as a production planner, but in 2020 after a burnout and the first lockdown, I decide that it’s not the path for me.
I now finally have the time and the opportunity to follow the 9-month intensive Breton language course with Roudour that I’ve wanted to do for years. At the end of this course, I obtain a C1 level, something I’m obviously very proud of.
As it wasn’t so easy to find work in Breton and as I still wasn’t sure of what I wanted to do, I went to see Véronique Gallet from Lumania Coaching who helped me revisit everything from A to Z. What came out in the wash is that I wanted to be my own boss, manage my time as I see fit, and do something meaningful that matches my values: helping, communicating and sharing knowledge.
An idea started to form based on my know-how & experience: Translation, Communication & Training.
My coach advised me to follow a training course for creating your own business with “Entreprendre au Féminin Bretagne” (an organisation for female entrepreneurs). During this course I fine tuned my ideas and decide to become a French and Breton to English translator.
I had to wait a few more months for my French identity papers (thanks Brexit) and that was it.
I created my own business: MC Translations.
