Hello! My name is Alina Kondratiuk. I am from the Volyn region, in the west of Ukraine. I spent my student years in Lutsk, where I studied at the faculties of foreign languages and tourism. 

Once, in the Carpathian Mountains, a French tourist was looking for a restaurant to have dinner. I ordered him a deruny (a traditional Ukrainian dish) and … we got married two years after :)

After my arrival in France, I continued my studies. I like to learn something new and to improve myself. That is why I have decided to broaden a little bit my philologist profile. I analysed my skills, knowledge and plans for my future career and chose Cultural Studies and International Relations. This direction perfectly fulfilled my desire to:

• deepen my overall culture and to realise my professional project.
• participate in the general development of Ukraine,
• promote lifelong and quality education access, culture and education spreading in the world (SDG4)
• use and improve the knowledge of foreign languages I speak at different levels. ( English, French, Polish, Spanish and Russian.)

At the age of 29 I obtained:

• 4 diplomas in higher education in Ukraine and in France in Philology (СНУ Лесі Українки, Луцьк), Tourism (ВМУРоЛ "Україна", Луцьк), Cultural Studies (UVSQ, St-Quentin-en-Yveline) and International Relationships (Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 4), Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2).
• more than 5 years of professional experience in Ukraine in  administrative management, teaching, translation, copywriting, and video journalism.
• an internship at UNESCO.
• 7000+ clients and colleges from more than 40 different countries.

Currently, I am working as a Program Assistant of one of the Executive MBA Programs at HEC. If you want to read a detailed description of my professional career you can consult my LinkedIN

I have two professional goals: 

1. To promote the lifelong and quality education access, culture and education spreading in Ukraine and the world (SDG4)
2. To create digital learning resources to study foreign languages, adapted to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. These training courses will not only help to overcome the language barrier but also will help with the adaptation to a foreign country, finding friends, professional development, and personal security, etc. I want to give special attention to the learning and self-development opportunities for mothers who are caring about their young children and often stay at home unemployed.

I noticed that the first impressions of some events or passed experiences are erasing from the memory over time. One of the reasons why I created this site was to save the first feelings, and impressions about my living in France and share them with you. In my blog, I will share my experiences, and pieces of advice with everyone who is staying in France, its culture or foreign languages. I also want others to discover the Ukrainian culture. That is why the site is trilingual. For those interested in learning French, English, or other European languages, translation assistance, visit this page.

Фото : Volodymyr KOVALIUK