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Meet the entrepreneur who wants to bring the best of French culture to Stockholm

"There's not a lot happening for French speakers in Stockholm at one specific place, and I want to provide that," Pauline Mialhe explains to The Local as we sit down at her co-working space in a grand old building which dates back to the 1700s in Stockholm's Old Town.

Published: 29 January 2018 06:33 CET
Meet the entrepreneur who wants to bring the best of French culture to Stockholm
Sacreblue founder Pauline Mialhe. Photo: Sacrebleu!

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Mialhe is the founder of Sacrebleu, which organizes French language cultural events and film screenings for francophones or francophiles in Stockholm, catering to both adults and kids.

Since relocating to the Swedish capital she has made sure to stay in touch with her homeland and native language, starting by teaching French in Stockholm's Saltsjöbaden, but it quickly became apparent that there were also bigger ideas that needed to be realized.

“I soon realized I had ideas for doing more than teaching grammar. I had been speaking with a lot of international parents who were a bit sad about not having enough fun with French for their kids. French is so cool – there's so much amazing French rap music, or French Youtube content, and those kids weren't getting that,” she recalls.

Mialhe decided that as no one else was making that side of French language culture accessible in Stockholm, she should be the one to do it. The entrepreneur is particularly passionate about giving a new generation of international kids access to a part of their culture which they are missing out on by being abroad.

“French rap for example is to me like poetry with rage. There's so much amazing stuff kids shouldn't miss, and a certain generation of young people here won't find out about it. So I wanted to bring all that amazingly cool stuff to them, to kids who miss that part of French culture.”

In the beginning it was a small endeavour, testing the water with small-scale screenings to see how people reacted. A nervy experience, but the feedback was good.

“I started with adults in Saltsjöbaden, then I moved on to barnfika for kids, which is a way for people to have a French moment with their kids. And French not just in the sense of the language, but French animators and directors.”

“It was so cool to be doing it, organising these screenings, which is something I really wanted to do. But I was also very stressed because I really wanted to be able to pull it off. So I thought, if five people come, great. Then in the end four times as many came. With the first one I was so sure no one would come. My boyfriend – who I have to thank, he's the best – told be it would be OK. He was right,” she laughs.


Photo: Sacrebleu!

By the time its first six months of its existence were over, Sacreblue had held 12 events. Along with barn fika and film screenings, Mialhe made sure to highlight another form she is particularly enthusiastic about: French language Youtube content.

“I want to show them the best stuff, in France we have so much Youtube content – history, biology, so much,” she notes. “And I'm hopefully going to work with a Swedish university to produce things in that area for young people learning French. If that happens I'll translate some Youtube stuff, because there's so much that's really good and funny.”

READ ALSO: Sweden is perfect fit for French fashionista

Though Mialhe loves French Youtube content, the gold standard is in her opinion a Swede: PewDiePie. Aware that he can be a divisive figure, she explains her admiration for the 28-year-old.

“He represents exactly what the possibilities with Youtube are. He has clickbaity titles, but he's actually making fun of the spirit of Youtube itself, in a self-aware way. Nothing is left to chance.”

“He's very smart. After watching too much content on Youtube, you can see the way he uses the trashy tropes of Youtubing in a deliberate way. He makes it awkward on purpose. For me it's smart to follow how he does things. He knows everything there is to know about how to use Youtube.”

Sacreblue is continuously evolving, and a recent development is the addition of workshops:

“In February I'll start a partnership with creative workshop Ateljé 4. So we start with a movie, then there's a workshop afterwards – it's a nice way to have fun with French and France that's not just grammar”.


Photo: Sacrebleu!

When The Local asks what her favourite of the events so far has been, the Sacrebleu creator has two particularly fond memories.

“The French Christmas party we did was great, so many people showed up, it was crazy. That was the first time I'd done anything in a partnership and it was amazing. Then the event I put on earlier in January showing films – a lot of people came and asked me to keep putting those things on, saying for example 'I get the same feeling as I did when I went to see films with my parents as a kid'. That's so inspiring – it's the best thing you can hear.”

READ ALSO: 'I saw a glaring gap and set up my own 3D printing business'

Looking to the future, Mialhe has a very clear idea about what her dream achievement with Sacrebleu would be: to create a one stop shop where people interested in French language culture can come and engage with it.

“The dream? To have a big building in Stockholm where we could have a French institute, a space to screen films, hold events, a library, a place you can play French videogames, a cafe, and a shop where startups from France could have popups for a month,” she reveals.

“If I could do that, have a French cultural space for people, where can show that there's also this young, living side to French culture, that would be incredible.”


Photo: Sacrebleu!

And reflecting on her time in Stockholm so far, Mialhe highlights the way the Swedish capital has given her a sense of freedom to pursue her ideas.

“I always think if you have an idea, you should do it. Worst case scenario it doesn't work. We've probably all worked in jobs we didn't like, couldn't focus on because we weren't into it. But in Paris it's not so easy to dream – you end up in those jobs, feeling stuck. Here in Stockholm, I feel more free – no one judges you, and you can do whatever you want.”

“Thinking that you would have changed the world if you'd only tried it is a much worse feeling than actually doing what you want to do, then seeing if it works or not. You have to just do it,” she concludes.

For members

WORKING IN SWEDEN

‘Reassess your cultural background’: Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

Many foreigners living in Sweden want to stay in the country but struggle to find a job, despite having relevant qualifications. The Local spoke to three experts for their advice.

Published: 7 May 2024 09:00 CEST
'Reassess your cultural background': Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

One international worker who found it hard to land her first job in Sweden is Amanda Herzog, who eventually founded Intertalents in Sweden with the aim of helping other immigrants find work in the country.

Herzog originally came to Sweden to study at Jönköping University and decided to stay after graduating.

“I thought it would take three months, maybe six months to find a job, I was prepared for that,” she told The Local during a live recording of our Sweden in Focus podcast held as part of Talent Talks, an afternoon of discussions at the Stockholm Business Region offices on how to attract and retain foreign workers in Sweden.

“What happened was it took over 13 months and 800 applications to actually get a job in my industry, within marketing.”

During this time, Herzog was getting multiple interviews a month, but was not getting any further in the process, despite showing her CV to Swedish recruiters for feedback.

“They were baffled as well,” she said. “By the time I landed my dream job, I had to go outside of the typical advice and experiment, and figure out how I actually can get hired. By the time I got hired, I realised what actually works isn’t really being taught.”

‘Reassess your cultural background’

Often, those who come to Herzog for help have sent out hundreds of CVs and are unsure what their next steps should be.

“My first piece of advice is to stop for a second,” she said. “Reassess your cultural background and how it fits into Sweden.”

Herzog, for example, discovered she was interviewing in “the American way”.

In the US, when asked to tell an interviewer about yourself, you’d be expected to discuss your career history – how many people have you managed? Did sales improve while you were working there? – while Swedes are more likely to want to know about you as a person and why you want to work in a specific role for their company in particular.

“A lot of people don’t know this, so imagine all of the other cultural things that they’re doing differently that they learned in their country is normal,” Herzog adds.

“Just start with learning, because it could be that you don’t need to change very much, you are qualified, you just need to connect with the Swedish way of doing things.”

 
 
 
 
 
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Networking is important

“Don’t hesitate to reach out for help and guidance,” said Laureline Vallée, an environmental engineer from France who recently found a job in Sweden after moving here nine months ago with her partner, who got a job as a postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

“You tend to insulate yourself and consider yourself not capable, but you’re not less capable than you were in your home country, you just need to explain it to the employers.”

Another tip is to network as much as you can, Vallée said.

“Networking is really important here in Sweden, so just go for it, connect with people in the same field.”

This could be through networks like Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s Dual Career Network, which helps the accompanying partners or spouses of foreign workers find a job in Sweden, or through other connections, like neighbours, friends, or people you meet through hobbies, for example.

Make a clear profile for yourself

Another common issue is that applicants are not presenting themselves clearly to recruiters, Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s CEO, Maria Fogelström Kylberg, told The Local.

“If you’re sending 600 applications without an answer, something is wrong. We have seen many people looking for jobs working in a supermarket, and the next application is a managing director post,” she said. “You have to decide ‘who am I? What do I want to do?’, you have to profile yourself in a clear way.”

This could be editing down your CV so you’re not rejected for being overqualified, or just thinking more closely about how you present yourself to a prospective employer.

“Which of my skills are transferable? How can I be of use to this company? Not what they can do for me, but what problem can I solve with my competence?”

Job hunters should also not be afraid of applying for a job which lists Swedish as a requirement in the job description, Fogelström Kylberg said.

“Sometimes if I see an ad for a job and I have a perfect candidate in front of me, I call the company and say ‘I have a perfect candidate, but you need them to speak Swedish’, they then say ‘no, that’s not so important’. This is not so unusual at all so don’t be afraid of calling them to say ‘do I really need perfect Swedish?’”

Listen to the full interview with Maria Fogelström Kylberg, Amanda Herzog and Laureline Vallée in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

Interview by Paul O’Mahony, article by Becky Waterton

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