How I've Helped Professionals Speak French
in Real Work Situations
This article is regularly updated with new real-life professional situations.
Last update: July 17, 2026
New case study added: Helping a Freelance IT Project Manager Communicate a Complex Project in French.
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Since I started helping professionals improve their professional French, I’ve discovered that every client faces different communication challenges at work.
Some need to prepare for a job interview in French. Others have to present products to customers, lead team meetings, write strategic emails or get ready for an important business trip in a French-speaking country.
Although every situation is unique, most of my clients have two things in common: they usually have an urgent deadline, and they often don’t know where to turn because they are the only person in their company facing that challenge.
This article brings together real professional situations I’ve helped my clients prepare for. It will be updated regularly as I continue supporting professionals working in French-speaking environments.
Job Interviews in French
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More and more expats want to relocate to French-speaking countries, to have a new international experience or to find a better job than in their own countries.
But they quickly face the reality, because bringing precious skills and speaking only English is not enough:
- Professional French is required.
Case Study: Preparing a VP Engineering for a French Job Interview
When I started working as a French teacher, I had the chance to be contacted by interesting and diverse profiles.
My first professional request came from a very highly qualified professional profile from Germany:
- VP Engineering and Technology of a large pharmaceutical site.
His objective:
- Prepare for an interview in an French-speaking company for a similar job.
What a challenge! As a former engineer in Electronics and Computer Science, I had the background to help him, but I never worked in the pharmaceutical industry.
My client had already studied French for many years, so his French was fluent.
So his request was specific:
- He hadn’t practiced French for a while, so he needed to refresh it.
- He needed to practice the presentation of his resume in French.
As he had managed engineering and technical projects, he needed a French teacher who:
- Knows the technical vocabulary.
- Had already worked in French-speaking industries.
During our sessions, he practiced his presentation many times so that it becomes fluid, while I corrected the small details in French and shared them with him through a Google Doc.
As the sessions were intense, so we switched to more casual conversations as a break, and we continued correcting the small mistakes in French at the same time.
Business Trips To French-Speaking Countries
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Most of my clients working in international companies come to me with urgent requests and tight deadlines:
- Visiting customers or attending the booth at a big exhibition in a French-speaking country.
They mostly already speak French, but haven’t practiced it for a while.
As they are sometimes the only French-speaking one in the whole company, they are obviously chosen if there is an opportunity with French-speaking customers.
Case Study: Helping a Key Account Manager Prepare for a French Trade Exhibition
This time, I had a new request and faced a new challenge:
- Help a German Key Account Manager present the products at a professional exhibition in Paris, France.
The challenge was quite original, as the products to promote were healthy food for animals.
But the main challenge was not the products I wasn’t familiar with:
- It was the deadline.
We didn’t have much time and I had to help her efficiently to be ready to present the products at the booth.
I already had experience in attending a booth for an international company in Belgium, where I had to present the GIS products in English and French.
As a native French speaker, I just had a bad experience during a pre-sales presentation in English with the same company, I wish I was helped with English before the presentation.
So I knew perfectly how my client felt before this important business trip, as I had felt the same in Belgium.
Here is what I did to help her efficiently:
- Studying the products from the website and summarizing them in French, to have a clear presentation at the booth.
- Helping my client practice a clear presentation in French.
- Practicing specific questions about the products.
- Preparing all the French phrases to welcome visitors at the booth (coffee, sitting at the booth etc).
Team Meetings in French
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Some of my clients are expats in international companies where two or three main languages can be spoken:
- The international language (English).
- The official languages of the country where the offices are.
- The official languages of the company’s home country.
As international companies are growing while hiring both locals and expats, some jobs as team leaders can evolve over time, especially when it comes to speaking multiple languages.
Case Study: Being Leader Of Bilingual Teams in Switzerland
My client is from the Philippines and already speaks English as well.
She’s a team leader of a big Sports company in the French-speaking Switzerland, and usually speaks English with her team.
As a leader, she organizes team meetings, but she quickly noticed something:
- French-speaking employees who are part of her team are more comfortable speaking French between themselves.
- She feels that she lacks connection every time she speaks English with them.
So the problem observed here is cultural, if she wants to communicate better with the French-speaking part of the team:
- She needs to speak a professional French and learn more about the local cultural codes of the company.
She has always expressed herself in English, but she feels that it’s time to speak more French at work.
She has already studied French, she can have a daily conversation, she has a high level of French and she’s been living for several years in Switzerland.
She already has very good French skills, so what blocks her from speaking French naturally within the company?
The main reason is confidence.
Speaking French in a professional context is a bigger challenge than speaking in a daily life:
- Because our work can depend on our language skills.
- Because we can feel that locals can judge our work and skills based on our language skills. And this feeling becomes even stronger if the locals are part of the team we manage.
The objective for my client was simple:
- Gain confidence to manage team meetings in French.
Here is how I helped her step by step:
- We first practiced French while talking about her job position, the organization of her team, and the colleagues she usually talked to.
- After knowing more about the company, I encouraged her to practice French with French-speaking colleagues outside of her team.
- When she felt more confident, I asked her to have short conversations with French-speaking members of the team, starting by questions prepared beforehand.
- Then when an online team meeting was planned, I suggested starting with a short introduction if the topic was not too difficult to manage in French.
She followed the steps:
- She had lunch a couple of times with a French colleague, and at the same time it was a good opportunity for her to know more about the French culture through her colleague.
- She found excuses to ask short questions in French to some of the team members she was comfortable to talk to.
- When an online meeting was planned, she began with French and simple sentences to start the meeting.
Professional Presentations in French
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As an expat or an independent professional working on challenging projects, you may sometimes need to deliver a presentation in French at short notice to clients or suppliers.
I help my clients prepare by practising their presentations and engaging in realistic professional conversations in French, so they can communicate with confidence during meetings.
Case Study: Helping a Freelance IT Project Manager Communicate a Complex Project in French
I was contacted by a freelance IT project manager who had two specific requests for upcoming online meetings:
- Introducing himself in French by talking about his professional background and his role in the project.
- Leading technical discussions in French throughout the different phases of the project.
His French was already very good, but he hadn’t used it professionally for a while, so he needed to regain confidence.
Moreover, he was managing a large-scale IT project with a significant budget in the transport sector, so I could feel the pressure he was under. He really needed to be ready for the upcoming meetings.
I suggested keeping the introduction simple:
- Starting with his name, where he came from, followed by his role in the project.
- Briefly mentioning a similar project he had previously worked on to highlight his experience.
- Ending with a sentence expressing his enthusiasm about being part of the project.
The second part of our work was more challenging because it involved much more improvisation than the first meeting:
- He first explained the different phases of the project to me using his detailed Excel spreadsheets.
- We worked on the technical vocabulary he would need during the meetings.
- We also reviewed essential Excel vocabulary in French.
I challenged him by asking technical questions about each phase of the project.
In the end, I was able to help by bringing an outside perspective to the project.
I really appreciated the trust he placed in me by openly discussing the challenges the project could face.
Having a French teacher with an IT background also made a real difference. Beyond language, we were able to have meaningful professional conversations about the project’s challenges, making our practice sessions as realistic as possible.
Do you have an urgent request where you have to speak French in a professional context?
Do you need to practice your professional French for a job interview, a business trip, or a meeting?
Book your Professional French Assessment to prepare your next work situation in French.
I will assess your professional French and help you understand the local workplace cultural codes, and together we will define clear objectives for your upcoming challenge.