At Les Petites Pommes, we are constantly amazed by the incredible people who join our French-learning community. While the majority of our students are young, we also have adult Petites Pommes who over the years have ranged from Members of Parliament, to orchestra conductors, to entrepreneurs and creatives—our adult students bring such rich, inspiring stories into our classrooms! Today, I am are thrilled to celebrate one of those stories.
Meet Anastazja – Professional Pokémon Player, Small Business Owner & LPP French Student!
One of our adult learners, Anastazja Clappison, recently travelled to Lille, France to compete in an international Pokémon Trading Card Game tournament. at the Lille Grand Palais! Anastazja is not only a competitive player—she is also the owner of Dark Fox TCG, a thriving Pokémon and trading-card game store here on Upper James in Hamilton.
Knowing that she would be competing in France, she joined our individual tutoring program to build her French confidence—specifically the vocabulary and expressions she would need to play Pokémon in French! Our amazing teacher Carla worked closely with her, teaching her gameplay terminology, card vocabulary, and conversational skills so she’d feel fully prepared for the tournament setting abroad.
We are incredibly proud of her dedication and courage in bringing her passion across the world—and doing it en français!
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Inspiration for Our Young Learners
Many of our younger students are huge Pokémon fans, and Anastazja’s experience is such a fun reminder that French can take you into unexpected places. Whether it’s travel, art, leadership, science—and yes, even professional Pokémon competitions—French opens doors in amazing ways.
And personally… as many of you know, I also love Pokémon! (See my maternity photo and subsequent photo of baby Maxey below LOL) Watching our French program and Pokémon collide sparks great joy for me! It’s a beautiful example of how language learning weaves into the hobbies, careers, and dreams of our community. I couldn’t ask for a better example of our LPP core value of BIG DREAMS!
Please join us in celebrating Anastazja’s incredible accomplishment. We love seeing our students—big and small—use French in creative and meaningful ways, and we can’t wait to see what adventures she embarks on next!
Baby Maxey aka Baby Snorlax!
As you can see Pokémon creatures spark great joy for me so much that baby Maxey’s first photoshoot début featured him as a little baby pokémon! I’m lucky Charles just goes along with my whacky photo theme ideas! 🙂
À plus tard mes amis!