James has led a very international life: as a child he lived in the UK, France, and Morocco. As an adult he moved across the world to China, taught English, and eventually graduated top of his class from a Chinese university. Aside from that, we also discussed the difficulty of attending school in France, accidentally eating duck heads in China, and why the visas prevented him from his dream job at Huawei!
Some of my regular listeners might notice some similarities between your voice and the first ever guest on Thinking in English.
Oh, was he the 1st guest? Can you explain why are you the better brother? To be honest, when I listened to your podcast with Tom, it was really good, and it sparked a bit of an interest again in languages. We both come from the same small town in the English countryside, and we grew up playing rugby together and, as we got older, going to the pub together. While I lived exclusively in our hometown until I was 18, you had a bit more of an international upbringing.
I grew up in our hometown until I was nine, maybe 10, and then we moved to France, near Perpignan, and I went to a French school. When I got to France, I was really at zero. I knew nothing, and was thrown straight into a French school. You had afterschool classes, but not intensive private lessons? They just threw you into this new country? We might have had someone come to help us with our French. I literally just now remembered that. You helped me unlock a memory. It was difficult.
I remember my teacher writing up on the blackboard. We had to write our names on workbooks and the teacher wrote up nom , which means name. So, I just wrote the students name on my workbook. When the teacher came up to me, he just laughed, but he was a really nice teacher. Really great teacher.
