From France to Belmont: A French Journalist Shares The Importance of Speaking Up and Life/Work in the U.S.
“In school, I used to raise my hand and burst out saying “I disagree!”. My classmates were ducking on their desks, sometimes begging me to shut up, but my teachers smiled.” Today’s woman dreamer, Frederique Rigoulot, is the News Director of the Belmont Media Center. She shares her story behind her journalism career in the U.S. and France and some fascinating anecdotes about French and American culture.
I started out as a print journalist in France. I’m now a news producer at the local Belmont community TV in the United States. I chose this career when I was 16 while I was listening to a radio show about journalism. It was my calling.
I graduated from High school, went to Law School (option political sciences) and then to journalism school. What drew me into it was the possibility to ask questions to anybody. I was a very discreet teenager but never afraid to speak up. In French class in high school, I used to raise my hand and burst out saying “I disagree!”. My classmates were ducking on their desks, sometimes begging me to shut up, but my teachers smiled.
When my husband, our four kids and I moved to the U.S. five years ago, I realized how learning was at the core of my being. I could barely speak English then, but I was eager to seize the opportunity to better understand the American way-of-life and culture. I concentrated on learning the language (how else to ask questions otherwise?). I don’t know a more thrilling experience!
For example, while I was driving my kids to school, I was listening to the radio. At first, it was just a continuum of blurbs to my ears. I just let the flow go into my brain. And then, suddenly, I realized I could pick words, then, suddenly, the full meaning!
Discovering the American way-of-life was (and continues to be) an exhilarating journey. From another country, your understanding of another culture bears assumptions. Being immersed, you decipher them.
French people tend to consider American as arrogant. On the contrary, I’ve found here a very caring community. In the midst of the pandemic, it didn’t take long for a group of women to create a non-profit organization “Belmont Helps” to give supports to people in need (from snacks to essential workers, to grocery shopping for people in quarantine, and purchase of gift card to help seniors and small businesses).
I volunteered at different places like my children’s school, a farm, and ended it where I’m working now. Community TV are amazing places, where you can learn everything on TV production, and give a try to podcasts as well. I’ve learned it all to become the station news producer… and finally keeping up with my initial thrill : asking questions!
My biggest professional dream would be writing a book about democracy. I’m a politics addict, and I’m compelled by how different French and American democracies work. I would like to write a new “Democracy in America”, following almost two hundreds later, the masterpiece of the French Diplomat, Alexis de Tocqueville, and analyse what has changed over the years and decades (and centuries).
The downside of a life-time learning experience is that you’re never proud of yourself. You’re never quite there, too aware of the rest, yet to learn compared to what you’ve mastered.
The beauty is there is always something for you to try, to dig into, to understand.
My advice would be: don’t be afraid by the journey, explore and push the doors. You might never be proud of what you’ve done, but you will be excited by what it’s next. And this is the salt of life.