Pourquoi does STATION F only speak in English?

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STATION F

4 min readOct 22, 2018

Let me tell you a story.

Ten years ago, I got accepted to an exchange program in Boston. I was 20 years old and my English was not that good. Right after I landed on the continent, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond (you US citizens know what I’m talking about), I stepped right up to a salesman wanting to ask for bedsheets. Only I didn’t know how to say “bedsheets” in English. I had studied International Relations and was able to write a paper on geopolitics in Central Asia but I had zero idea about forks, cupboards, or comforters.

There I was, fidgeting on my feet trying to explain I needed something that would “go on a bed” (the poor salesman thought I was hitting on him) and pointing all around me like a crazy person.

Anyway, this is one of the first feeling I got from moving to the U.S: ridiculous and estranged.

Same goes for foreigners in France. I cannot count the number of times I heard people making fun of my mother for her accent or oral grammar mistakes. She’s Hungarian, moved to France to become a University Professor and wrote a thesis (with honors) about linguistics. Anyway: huge smart ass. Yet people would reply to her questions as if she were an imbecile, just because she had an accent.

A *ton* of people think that when you’re not perfectly fluent in their own language, you’re useless. According to them, it is your job to adapt, and until you’re perfectly fluent, you’re going to be made fun of.

With time, I figured: it doesn’t matter what people think. What matters is how people feel.

Moving to another country, even for a few months, takes courage. And this is the kind of courage that we praise at STATION F.

The fact that foreigners don’t master our local language when they arrive has zero importance to our eyes, but we care about how they feel.

Don’t get me wrong: foreign entrepreneurs who come to STATION F are happy to adapt to the French environment, and to learn French — after all, they are the ones who chose to explore the world!

Because we are so proud they chose to come here, when foreigners move into STATION F, we are willing to take the first step and facilitate their acclimatation: we speak to them in the most common universal language, English.

This is a screenshot from our internal Slack. We have a channel dedicated to learning French, and an other to learning other languages :)

But why the need to write this post in the first place?

We receive a surprisingly high number of remarks about STATION F communicating mostly in English. A lot of people just feel weird about it — we assume they just need a bit of explanation (there you go). Some other people tell us: it is wrong to communicate in English while STATION F is in Paris.

STATION F’s answer to that is: it is even worse to create an environment that ostracizes entrepreneurs for not speaking French.

The many business benefits of speaking English at STATION F

OK now we’ve played the “nice” card. But in reality, having English as a common language has way bigger business reasons:

First, speaking a world-common language sets the example for our entrepreneurs: we tell them all day long to have an international ambition. This start by being able to close deals everywhere in the world!
Second, we feel having an international community at STATION F brings value to the ecosystem: foreigners bring along with them different views, uses, opinions, and they foster open-mindedness.
Finally, how to best to find new market opportunities than having a local representative here at STATION F? Our international entrepreneurs are a gateway to new geographical markets. French residents: don’t miss out on this opportunity :)

In other words: from STATION F’s point of view, speaking English brings karma and business :)

How STATION F makes foreign residents’ lives a bit easier

It all starts with communicating in English, but STATION F’s willingness to have an international community goes way beyond that. We help with visas thanks to la French Tech, soon we’ll be able to provide housing… This is a whole philosophy.

You can learn more about this on our blog:

By the way: we love the French language ❤

From reading this post you might feel we are a bit emotional with this issue. It’s true, but in no way it means we are against the French language. And we encourage everyone who is interested in learning this beautiful poetic melody to our ears. Our website is even available in both languages!

Let’s keep French the language of love and of warm welcome, not the language protecting ourselves from the otherness :)

So, to all international entrepreneurs who end up reading this: