Hello and welcome! For my first blog post I thought I should probably keep it pretty simple and just introduce myself. I am Gemma. My full name is Gemma Katie Hunt. I was born in Liverpool which makes me english obviously, and more importanly it made me a scouser*. We then moved to Otley, a small town near Leeds in the county of Yorkshire when I was 10 years old. This makes me half scouser, half Yorkshire lass*.
Both Liverpool and Leeds are in the north of England. The north/south divide in England is not something to be scoffed at*. Whethere you are a northerner* or a southerner* is serious business. It tells all. I am a very proud northerner. I can delve* further into the differences in a later blog. As a quick pointer* though, don't ever mistake a northerner for a southerner or vice versa, it's a big mistake, a very big mistake.
The north of england does seem to be unknown for many French people. I quite often concede and say I live near Manchester. Thanks to football it's the way that many english cities are known. This again is not to be taken lightly* though. Manchester is in the county of Lancashire, Leeds is in Yorkshire. It is not the same thing. A quick little history lesson for you. The Yorkshire/Lancashire rivalry goes back to The War of the Roses. A pretty recent event that took place just a few years ago...1455-1487. The 'rose' refers to Lancashire (red rose) and Yorkshire (white rose). Any rugby fans should be able to work out who ultimately won. Anyway moving on.
From Leeds, I went to study law at Northumbria university in Newacastle upon Tyne which is even further north, you're now into Geordie* territory. I moved back to Leeds after finishing uni and at 27 years old I quit my office job in a law firm to move to the French Alps to start a catered ski chalet company. I lived/worked in St Martin de Belleville and Les Menuires for 12 years.
After having our children, Mathilde and Georges, it seemed mountain life as a family wasn't for us and we left the snow and moved to Caromb three years ago. I started Mon English Ecole in March of this year and voila you're all up to speed. If you have managed to follow the blog and want to continue checking in on my posts then be preprared to learn a lot more about me as I am a 100% oversharer*. See you next time...
Note : The idea of this blog is that you can practice reading english and listen to the pronuciation on the podcast, learning more about england, ways of life and culture etc along with my experience and observations as an english person living in france. What is difficult to get across and can get lost in language is that often there is humour in what is written, never take anything I say too seriously, it's tongue in cheek*. Oh and by the way * means I am deliberately using colloquial words or phrases to expand vocab so look up the explanation at the end of the blog.
*Dictionary Definitions*
A head's up - a warning that something is going to happen
Scouser - someone from Liverpool
Yorkshire lass - someone from Yorkshire, a 'lass' means girl/lady/woman
Not to be scoffed at - not to be laughed at, not a joke
Northerner - someone from the north of england
Southerner - someone from the south of england
Not to be taken lightly - not to be easily accepted
Geordie - someone from Newcastle upon Tyne
Delve - to go into something in more detail
Quick pointer - to highlight something, point it out
Up to speed - to catch up, up to date
Oversharer - to tell people too much personal information about yourself
Tongue in cheek - you intend it to be understood as a joke, light-hearted*
Light-hearted - carefree, not serious
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