After more than two decades of calling the UK home, you'd think my relationship with English would be perfectly smooth by now. Yet here I am, in my 40s, still dancing between two languages, sometimes gracefully, sometimes stumbling over my own bilingual feet.
Having moved from France to the UK in 2000, I've spent nearly half my life navigating British culture, idioms, and those particularly tricky vowel sounds that French speakers love to wrestle with. Marriage to an English person since 2019 has added another layer to my linguistic journey – those intimate daily conversations where you want your personality to shine through, not get lost in translation.
The truth about being bilingual? It's not just about knowing two languages – it's about living in a constant state of mental juggling. Some days, English flows effortlessly, and I feel as British as afternoon tea. Other days, my French brain takes over, and I find myself directly translating French expressions that make absolutely no sense in English, much to my husband's amusement.
Take those moments when I'm tired or stressed – suddenly, the most basic English words play hide and seek with my brain. I'll be in the middle of a sentence and... poof! The word vanishes, leaving only its French equivalent floating in my mind. There I am, gesturing wildly, trying to describe "that thing, you know, le truc!" while my patient English-speaking friends wait for my brain to reconnect its linguistic wires.
The real comedy often happens in professional settings. I might be confidently leading a meeting when suddenly I'll pronounce "focus" like "faux-cus" or accidentally throw in a French word because the English equivalent is temporarily unavailable in my mental dictionary. These moments used to mortify me; now they're just part of my charm (or so I tell myself).
And don't get me started on idioms! English speakers love their peculiar expressions. "It's raining cats and dogs" makes about as much sense to a French person as "il pleut des cordes" (it's raining ropes) does to the British. Sometimes I mix them up, creating my own Franco-English expressions that leave both cultures equally confused.
The thing about being bilingual is that it's not just about language – it's about identity. After 23 years in the UK, I'm neither fully French nor fully British. I'm something in between, a linguistic and cultural hybrid. My French friends say I sound British when I speak French, while my British friends never fail to comment on my "charming" French accent in English.
Marriage to an English person has added its own fascinating dimension. There's something beautifully vulnerable about loving someone in a language that isn't your mother tongue. Sometimes emotions are harder to express precisely, but there's also a special kind of intimacy in creating our own bilingual language of love, complete with inside jokes that only work in Franglais.
The struggle is real, but it's also incredibly enriching. Being bilingual has given me two ways of seeing the world, two ways of expressing myself, and twice as many opportunities for linguistic mishaps that turn into memorable stories. It's taught me humility, patience, and the ability to laugh at myself – essential skills for anyone straddling two cultures.
So yes, I sometimes struggle with being bilingual. Yes, I occasionally miss the fluidity of expressing myself in my native French. But would I change it? Absolument pas! This linguistic journey, with all its ups and downs, has shaped who I am today – a proud French woman who has made Britain her home, one mispronounced word at a time.
And perhaps that's the beauty of it all. In a world that often demands perfection, there's something liberating about embracing the imperfect, messy reality of being bilingual. After all, life is too short to worry about perfect pronunciation when you can speak two languages, even if sometimes neither of them quite right!

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