FTE? FrenchTastic? Marie?

What's the story of FrenchTastic? FTE?

You might be wondering how and why I started YouTube, why I decided to create two channels, and what happened to FT. You may be curious about me and my 'background'. I will address these questions in this brief history, providing some background to help you understand me better.

To clarify, FT stands for FrenchTastic, which is my first channel.

FTE, on the other hand, stands for FrenchTastic Explorations, my second and currently active channel.

I grew up in a rural area of France, where I spent a lot of time in nature. I remember I would go on 'expeditions' around the house or in the woods, with a backpack containing a book on how to recognize flowers and animal prints.

The explorations began early on.

These three animated series have a couple of things in common: they show how those kids were impacted by their explorations, the people they met, and the differences they experienced and how it helped them grow into such admirable characters with strong values, open-mindedness, and compassion.

The different cultures and different people they meet are shown positively and they greatly inspired me to see differences in a positive way in my world. Those kids showed bravery in facing difficulties, and that has always inspired me. Always kind and helpful to people they met along their explorations.

My environment was the base of my thirst for exploration.

Belle & Sébastien tells the story of a boy who crosses the Pyrenees to find his mother in Spain, accompanied and protected by Belle, a Pyrenean Mountain dog. Now you know why it's my favorite dog :)

When TV became more of a thing at home, I watched cartoons that greatly inspired me to explore the world.

Heidi tells the story of a young girl who moves in with her Grandfather in the Swiss countryside. Heidi is a happy and kind girl who quickly makes friends and helps those around her find joy in their lives.

The adventures of three kids who embark on a voyage to the New World in search of the lost Cities of Gold. I learned a lof about the Mayas through this animated series.

Fast forward to my teenage years, I became passionate about Asia, its different cultures, languages, and food, which brought me to study business and Japanese in college. The goal: becoming a businesswoman in Asia.

Everything changed in my second year of college, in 2018. I was majoring in International Business, which included classes in English and Japanese.

No, I didn't learn English in college- classes had lower levels than the ones I had in high school. How is that possible? I'm still wondering that myself. It's well-known in Europe that France has the worst level of second language learning. Something that apparently the National Education hasn't worked on yet.

It was the same for Japanese- we were taught the basics of the language, which I had learned by myself long ago during high school. I had excellent classes, about the history of Business in Europe for example, or marketing courses that taught me a lot about our society. The rest was ok; it was quite boring, to be honest. I definitely had higher expectations when I entered college.

Thanks to my parents, I was always a good student. My thirst for learning came along with the good education I received at home and the praise I got for coming home with good grades. I majored in science in high school, so I had challenging classes like advanced mathematics, physics, and biology. I remember taking a history class taught in English. My teacher was awesome. After thrilling and challenging classes in high school, college was a big deception and it felt like I was regressing. Well, I was actually regressing, it wasn't just a feeling. I quickly started to do my own English and Japanese classes at home. Nevertheless, I decided I should finish my degree and planned on studying for two more years to get my Master's degree.

However, during the second semester of my second year of college, our Japanese teachers were fired and our director of faculty quit. We felt completely abandoned. If that wasn't enough, a couple of days later, we learned our degree wasn't entirely recognized by the government, questioning our future about the potential consequences of this big news. What about the credibility of our degree? Did this mean we had been in college for almost two years for nothing? How far will it impact us when being recruited? Many questions we had zero answers to, starting with why would they fire our (hard-working and sweet) Japanese teachers. Why did our faculty director quit right after that? We never got to know the truth, but from what I heard we suspected cuts in the subventions, leading to 'letting go' of the teachers, which seemed ridiculous for us students, who enrolled in the "LEA English-Japanese" degree, and extremely unfair for our teachers who came from so far away and had already built new lives in France. I still can't believe this was allowed. Tensions between different representatives were definitely in the air, and it seems like our director, disgusted by the situation in which he didn't have any power over this terrible decision, preferred to quit this ugly environment. I would have done the same.

But I was a student, on the other side of the country from home, who got into the so-called best university for this specific language/international business degree. I was so proud at first. My parents were so proud too. But at that moment I felt lost.

This all happens too late in the second semester for us to enroll in another college. We were forced to take a sabbatical year. I was revolted by the situation and completely lost faith in the National Education. I started hating it. As soon as summer came, I decided I should take this 'opportunity' of a sabbatical year to work. To experience what it's like in the 'real world'. I got tons of jobs. During the days, during the nights, working double shifts... I quickly understood one thing: as much as I was a great employee like I was a great student in school, listening well and getting the work done, I just didn't like it. It felt so limiting.

The reason why I chose this International Business degree in the first place was to get a job in which I could travel and get to meet people from different cultures. Well, the business side of it quickly revealed itself to be absolutely not suited for someone like me; too honest, too naive, too sensitive.

So during my third year away from home, when I should have been finishing my degree, which then didn't exist anymore at that college (they forgot about us very easily), while I was taking on a bunch of different jobs in different fields to get experiences and put money aside, I started thinking this whole situation wasn't going anywhere. I was completely against enrolling in another college, having lost all hopes and faith in the Education System (and probably fearing it would be all for nothing again). Back then I also noticed I could learn by myself, at my rhythm, as most resources were available on the internet, and later on, pass the exams as an external candidate. I was working, but it wasn't what I had planned. I was lost. So I kept working, kept studying, and started thinking of a way I could live the life I wanted, and feel fulfilled. I did a lot of research and found some interesting paths I could take. But they all had limits. I wanted freedom.

I thought that if none of the jobs I was aware of could make me fulfilled, I should just create mine, my own job. Somehow, YouTube came into the picture. On YouTube, I saw the potential, the freedom, and the solutions it could offer to my three main goals: getting really good at English, exploring the world, and making friends internationally. After months and months of reflection, 'Should I appear on video?' and other privacy questions, 'What would be my niche?', 'what about the financial part?', 'how do you make videos?', 'What about the equipment?', how do I travel internationally?', channel name, etc etc...I decided I should just...try it. Just give it a shot! I was scared, I was ignorant of so many things, but...I didn't want to stay stuck.

On October 11, 2019, I created my first YouTube channel, which I called: FrenchTastic. On October 23, 2019, I posted my first video: 'How are French people really like?'. I toured my college town looking for foreigners and asked them this question. It was my first attempt to 'explore' those cultural differences. Then I went on and made videos about France, with my broken English. I talked about my country, interviewed people, and challenged my language skills.

FrenchTastic Profile Pic

Right when I was planning my first trip to another country since the creation of the channel, taking my first 'big step', COVID-19 happened.

Borders were suddenly closed, people were forced to stay home, and everything shut down. My dreams of travels and explorations were wiped out. COVID-19 in France was terrible. We were locked in our homes, strictly forbidden to cross our region's borders, and only had an hour a day to get out and go grocery shopping (what was left of it at least). It was a tough time. I stayed locked in my tiny college studio for months, far away from my family and friends. It was lonely, I wasn't always eating my fill. Fortunately, technology was there. I kept in touch with my folks through many calls and video calls.

Also, I had YouTube. I remember thinking, 'If I can't explore cultural differences physically, I might do it virtually". Hence, the first 'reaction video'. Believe it or not, I had no idea reaction videos were a thing back then. I was naive enough to think I was starting a new thing, and I had this 'brilliant' idea while showering one day (I noticed I get great ideas when in the shower...). I was curious about Kazhakstan and decided to react to a brand new 'Q-Pop' group. I loved it, and so did you. People started to find my channel, writing down ideas and suggestions in the comment section. I took them into account and started 'exploring' the American culture through wonderful music. My community grew quickly, I learned a lot, and going through Covid became easier.

who remembers Framboisette?

After something like a year and a half, this whole pandemic became a bit better. Borders reopened. Finally, I had a chance to get out there and start exploring, this time in the real world.

But by that time, FT had become a reaction channel and the few tries I made of posting 'cultural' videos that weren't reactions didn't attract many people. I had to face it: the community I had built during COVID-19 wasn't interested in my primary goal. I was a bit sad, as I loved this community so much. But I wasn't getting closer to my goal. So I decided I had to start over. I created a second channel on October 9, 2021, two years after my first one. On October 21, 2021, I posted my first video on my new channel: it was about trying to understand your accents, as some of you sent me recordings. It was fun. From then on, I started traveling around France, and then Europe. I interviewed people and documented the WW1 & WW2 memorials. A year later, I crossed the ocean for the first time and made it to America.

...And here we are, three years later. I've been to many places in different countries, met amazing people and made fantastic friends, had memorable experiences, some life-changing ones, my English is good (...at least better than when I started). I'm successful in all of my goals, and I keep working toward them.