Ms Gaelle Tregoning moved to Australia in 1996 from Northern France close to the Belgium border. Before she moved to Australia Ms Tregoning was schoolteacher in France and she wanted a career overseas for a couple of years. Ms Tregoning did not want to move to Australia in particular and was open to moving anywhere in the world. When she applied, it was as a voluntary military service person and she was going to do her military service as a schoolteacher. The first posting she was offered was Colombo, but just before she left, the defence informed her that there were political problems in Sri Lanka and she was offered a job in Australia two weeks before her departure. She claims that it was ‘a fluke’ that she ended up in Australia.
To come to Australia Ms Tregoning already owned a passport but she had to fill out paperwork and get a visa. Since she had a job already in France she needed to apply for a detachment, meaning she could be detached from her job for a few years and when she…show more content… If Ms Tregoning wasn’t a French teacher, she would most likely be a dentist because she originally studied medical science. She would also love to be an interior designer.
Ms Tregoning learnt German at school and when she got the offer to work in Australia, she did a ‘crash course’ at a youth centre. She went twice a week to learn English because at the time it wasn’t compulsory to learn English in school. As a school student, Ms Tregoning learnt German and Latin. She spent six months learning English before she came to Australia and found it difficult because Australians do not have a British accent. To assist her, Ms Tregoning moved into a group house with three other people. She does not think she is fluent yet but it took her a year and a half to be more than confident in
