Personal becomes Professional

If you just want to see the courses and topics, you might want to skip this page. But I hope you will not, and then we might actually end up working together.

I am a native speaker of American English. I graduated from Stanford Law School. I am a member in good standing of the State Bar of California, and I am a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. I worked at the Office of Legal Affairs at the United Nations in New York among other places.

I have litigated class action federal civil rights cases. I have tried hundreds of cases before a jury, before the bench, and handled appeals, both direct and collateral. I have dealt with probably every major U.S. government agency.

I am who I am not because I am a lawyer. Rather, it is because of who I am that I am a lawyer.

In Houston, I was a hospital administrator in a 900-plus-bed tertiary-care private hospital. I ran a multimillion-dollar business in Southern California and Nevada. I know fully well what it means to have a frenzied schedule, too many clients to see, too many professional and court obligations, and always too little time. I will always be respectful of that reality in your own life.

If you want a more detailed presentation of my professional history, please click the following link.

Letter of Introduction and Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

France?

I have spent a substantial portion of my life in France. All over France. I have been watching and interacting with French people almost my entire life. I see differences, great and small. The French person might casually say revenons à nos moutons without realizing the American has no idea what is happening.

I want to help you when you may be unaware you risk going off the rails. Maybe you want to be a provocateur just for fun? Maybe it is simply inadvertence. Maybe you just want a good laugh. Be careful when you say pants, are you speaking with an American or a British person? The goal always is just be yourself. SamBen will work to ensure you know what you are doing in English and that you make informed decisions while doing it.

Absolutely!

Oh, la belle France. Et ces amerloques! Surely we can all just use Google translate and be done with it?

Are we at war?

At the start, it seems my new (French) students write down almost everything I say. Ils notent, ils notent, ils notent. I notice what they are doing. It is very respectful and I am in impressed. Still, In my experience, that is not what a typical American student will do.

The American tends to listen, and judges. Only occasionally does the average American write something down.

Why does this difference occur over and over? Does this tendency influence how each will handle interpersonal matters, even business transactions?

While the French student is respectful and focused, the American tends toward the disbelieving, almost disrespectful. I start to think of Jules Ferry, and mandatory French schooling that starts at age three and I wonder . . .

I hear the French admonition: “ça ne se fait pas comme ça” and I instinctively contrast it with the American: “well, let’s try that and see what happens.” Then I am reminded of the famous quip:

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.”

Neither approach is right; neither approach is wrong. What is, is. Why is French so fond of la litote? Why is American English less restrained than British English?

When you want to bridge a gap between different concepts –between different styles of learning– a barrier can stop you unless you recognize what you are facing and use it to your advantage or work to remove it. Please continue to learn new words, and synonyms. Just do not stop there.

Or are we just having a jolly old time?

I frequently ask my French students to start each class by telling –in English– a joke. It seems at first this panics and confounds a great many of them. With time they settle into this, and then find it allows more space to develop where we can all meet and exchange freely, teacher and students.

That freedom offers us a jumping-off point for endless cultural comparisons: why does that joke work in English but not in French? Or vice versa.

What if you are not dealing with an American, but a Brit? Hmmm. Does that make a difference?

Teaching –and learning– are not as straight and narrow a path as some people like to think they are. I tend to see them rather as part of the joy of life. If you are with SamBen you will always be learning. And I hope you will fully enjoy the path.

I choose to live in France. J’adore la France. En fait, j’adore tout ce qui est français. Depuis les lais de Marie de France jusqu’aux contes de Rabelais, et bien plus encore. I want France, and the French, to reach ever greater heights. Especially when dealing with the other group I know really well, Americans. I want to I help you be an ever better communicator in English while ensuring you never renounce even one ounce of votre gaullisme.