The Foreign Mum Podcast

In this episode you are going to fall in love with Dr Kiran Rahim, a British-Pakistani paediatrician based in London. She told me that having to do a few cleft lip procedures meant she learnt to love both the doctors who took care of her as well as the profession. Dr Kiran also explained about her background and how proud she is to wearing her hijab and to empower other women through her Instagram account. 

Show notes

https://www.instagram.com/themunchingmedic/?hl=en 

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In episode 36 you are going to meet my second American and fellow podcaster Jill Wrenn. Jill is a former CNN journalist and a freelancer for the BBC and many other outlets. She is also the host of the podcast How to Build a Village so she knows exactly what goes on behind the scenes of podcasting (and the amount of work too). 

We spoke about her career journey which is the reason why she ended up in London. Jill also spoke being happy to raise her four children with her English husband and get British citizenship whilst he got American citizenship.  Jill also gives some useful tips to anyone interested in becoming a freelancer and pitching stories to editors. 

Show notes

https://jillmartinwrenn.com/

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In this episode you are going to learn why Catherine moved from France to London. We spoke about her birth experience in England compared to France and how her motherhood journey encouraged her to switch her career from IT to becoming a bespoke designer of fine ethical jewelry. 

You are going to discover where she studied, where she started to sell, which fairs she prefers to take part in and what other people think about her designs. Catherine also explains what happens with jewellery when people bring her old pieces from family members. This is a very interesting episode to everyone interested in France, jewellery and career changes.

Show Notes

https://www.catherinemarche-designs.com/

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To donate for my #walkforwater challenge on behalf of Cafod, please go to https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/eve-on-a-mission

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

On episode 34, you are going to meet Emmy, a sweet Hungarian who decided to make Brazilian sweets for a living! Emmy first fell in love with a Brazilian to who she got married to then she fell in love with brigadeiros, a Brazilian sweet made out of chocolate. She loved them so much that she even decided to make a business out of it. She produces gourmet brigadeiro and sells it all over the UK by post.

You are also going to learn how she moved to the UK and her background which includes being born in Romania but her family still speaking and treating her as a Hungarian. Emmy also explains what the fusion of a marriage between a Brazilian with a Hungarian is really like.

Show notes

https://www.emmysbrigadeiro.com/ 

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To donate for my #walkforwater challenge on behalf of Cafod, please go to https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/eve-on-a-mission

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode, you are going to learn about Aly, a mum from Romania, who moved to the UK to study but eventually turned herself into a blogger/Instagrammer. She starts the episode by telling us about her life back in Romania and how much that influenced her in her own motherhood.

She then explains how her Instagram works around her children and what she needs to do when she needs their cooperation. She told me how she started her blog. Initially she was working at the famous Langham Hotel in London, then when on maternity leave she considered opening a coffee shop. Naturally proactive, she instead used the skills she already had launch her blog “All Mums Talk” and to put on events for new mums, She also managed to increase a bridal shop’s Instagram from 600 to 30,000 followers!

Aly is going to explain what it takes to get where she is today, making money from social media, having an engaging audience, making interesting content, the photo and video editing apps that she use to make her images stand out. If you think it is easy, let me tell you, this girl works really hard for everything she has. She almost doesn’t switch off because she understands that her work depends on her content. So this is a great episode for anyone interested in becoming an influencer (although Aly doesn’t like the word) but also a great eye opener to respect all the work that goes behind the scenes.

Show notes

https://allmumstalk.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/allmumstalk/

https://www.facebook.com/allmumstalkhere

Please follow me on:

To donate for my #walkforwater challenge on behalf of Cafod, please go to https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/eve-on-a-mission

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode, you are going to meet Nalini, a luxury children’s party planner from India. Nalini, who grew up in Mumbai, explains beautifully some of the cultural differences from Indians to English people, such as why Indians prefer to remain within Indian communities whilst living in the UK. Nalini also explains how shocked she was as a new parent in this country when she received a prejudiced comment whilst with her baby at a cinema! Nalini revels that the most of the Indian food we eat here are all fake!

This mother-of-two has always been a career woman. She worked in advertising but with motherhood, she decided to step back for the sake of her boys. That’s when she decide to embrace her new passion, children’s party planning. Nalini launched her business literally overnight and has since managed to even make mothers cry! In a good way, of course! Unfortunately with coronavirus, her industry has been affected, so press play to learn about what Nalini has achieved and her hopes for the coming years.

Show notes

https://party-genie.com/ 

@partygenieuk

Please follow me on:

To donate for my #walkforwater challenge on behalf of Cafod, please go to https://walk.cafod.org.uk/fundraising/eve-on-a-mission 

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode I spoke to the lovely Paola from Bogota who moved to London 11 years ago. She started working in London as a waitress but she worked her way up and now works as credit controller for the luxury fashion brand Joseph (which I realised why I wasn't familiar with it as it is totally out of my league ££££). After maternity, Paola managed to get back in shape six months after giving birth to her boy! With her friends commenting on her great shape, she decided to set up an Instagram account where Paola shares fitness tips in Spanish to encourage fellow mamas to look after themselves and stay fit. 

Paola also mentioned how she met her Scottish partner and the differences she finds in both cultures. Luckily one of her favourite British dishes comes from Scotland too! To find out which one, just press play and happy listening ;-). 

Show notes

Instagram - @pazatips

For great Colombian coffee, Paola suggested - www.mrtinto.co.uk/shop

Please follow me on:

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

Episode 28 is here for everyone but particularly for those interested in veganism. I spoke to Belinda, a mum from Ghana. She moved to London when she was three with her family. They kept the culture in their household which involved lots of chicken stew. Growing up in London, she was always interested in the environment and tried to cut down her meat consumption from a young age, but it was hard when there weren’t many alternatives available.

We start the podcast learning about Belinda background. Unfortunately it involves losing both parents to cancer, which made her wonder if what they consumed was responsible for their diseases. She then told me about her career path, which started in fashion working for famous labels. As a buyer, she saw enough on the production of garments and jeans that didn’t agree with her ethics. In 2016 she decided to become fully vegan. Last but not least, we spoke about her desire to be her own boss and to make something for the world. That’s when she created her Marli’s kitchen, a 100% plant based cuisine which reproduces fried chicken KFC style. She started off at food markets – where she even disclaims how much she need to start the business – but due to lockdown restrictions, she had to adapt and now she works from an industrial kitchen where she prepares food kits to ship all over the UK!

Belinda’s story is a true example of wanting to change not just herself but also make the world a better place. So even if you are not vegan, I am sure you will be fascinated about this lovely lady.

Show notes

https://www.marliskitchen.co.uk/ 

https://www.instagram.com/marliskitchen/ 

Please follow me on:

https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode you are going to meet Sergei, a father of two from Latvia who moved to the UK with his wife. After he became a dad, he started doing activities with his children at home and decided to post them on social media. When one of his videos went viral, his luck changed over night and he instantly became an internet sensation! He tells us how he went from 0 followers to the millions he has today.

In this chat you are also going to learn what goes on behind the scenes. Sergei opens up about his childhood, life before he became a father, where he gets all his ideas from, what are the children really like when they are filming and one thing I learned which is probably going to be a surprise to everyone: he doesn’t own a TV! Head to the 49th minute of our chat to understand his decision not to. He also explained to me a fantastic way of doing treasure hunt and get the kids excited to leave the house.

As two good Russian speakers, Sergei and his wife are making sure that the children will only speak in Russian to them and even take them to Russian school. All the English they learnt was at school or from previous baby classes. Alex, Sergei’s first son, even says he prefers to speak in English to Russian, even though he spent the first eight years of his life speaking the latter! To learn more about this and everything else, just stick around until the end, I promise it won’t disappoint.

Show notes

In this episode, you  are going to learn about Shikha, a lovely Nepalese lady who is currently on maternity leave from her job in technology. Instead of using this time to just look after her baby, Shikha decided to use it to also open two new businesses: a baby boutique and an ethnic wear design.

This Nepalese is one of the luckiest foreigners I have met through this podcast. She moved to London when she was 14 with her mum, dad and sister and eventually her uncle and her best friend when their families moved. This helped her to be able to continue having all her loved ones nearby. Although it was her first time in the country, the cultural shock wasn’t too great because she was already used to having English teachers staying at her house in Kathmandu or exchanging letters with English people. She decided to go to Uni where she studied business development but ended up working in technology. She met her also Nepali husband on Facebook 11 years ago. Together they travelled the world and are now parents to one of the most gorgeous babies ever.

So press play to listen about the story of this hard working woman who is also a doting mum, businesswoman and an Instagram influencer.

Show notes

@fourhappyfeet

www.cocoandco.uk

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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theforeignmumpodcast 

Hello every one! 25 episodes in and I finally found an Italian to interview! I’ve always bonded with Italians so couldn’t wait to have my first! Over Zoom one afternoon, I met the fabulous Giorgia Ceccone, from Rome. We started talking about her first impressions of London and the stereotypes that both cities have.

We then spoke about how she started working in real state. She realized that the long hours were okay when she was still single and child-free. She actually quit working in the industry after becoming a mum but decided to return once she was offered a flexible part-time job.

She was working the long hours in her early years in London when she met an English man, got pregnant but then decided to break up with him (you will have to listen to the podcast to understand why she was right to do so). Giorgia shares how strong she had to be as a woman by deciding to look after her son by herself . Nevertheless, her Italian family made a big drama out of it, but she managed to overcome it all, look after and support her child independently. She was even super kind to the father of her son, as she allowed him to be there by her side when she gave birth and to let him continue seeing her son regularly. She is the best proof of love for her son. Giorgia is a great role model to any women who is doing it solo, as she shows that everything is possible and that love, kindness and compassion is the best thing a woman can give to a man who hurt her.

Last but not least, we also spoke about Giorgia becoming an entrepreneur and how the idea of developing a gluten free food delivery business came about. Surprisingly she says once you have the food and hygiene certificate, it is much more straight forward to opening up a business here in comparison with Italy. She was lucky to have her mum as her business partner and the business is now fast growing! So press play to learn how this incredible woman managed to succeed solo. 

Show notes

Follow @1990glutenfree.homemade on Instagram and Facebook 

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

In this week’s episode, you are going to listen to the story of Naila from Baku. When she was 10, Naila wrote in a piece of paper that she wanted to become an artist because she loved drawing and painting. She went to university and graduated with honours in Arts and was told by one of her most admired professors she had incredible talent and that she was going to be successful. Life was good in her country as she had a job, got married and had two children. Unfortunately, a tragedy changed everything when she lost her husband in a car accident. That’s when Naila decided to move to London and try a new life in 2010. Although she had to work first as a babysitter and a nursery worker, in 2017 Naila finally managed to land a job as an arts teacher and to start selling her art. Press play to learn how a single mum managed to pursue her dream in a different country.

Show Notes

Instagram @nailazell

www.nailahazell.com

Naila mentions https://kitestudios.org/ on the show

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Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Welcome to the first episode of the year!! I am so happy you are here! Thanks for keeping coming back for more! This week I have a wonderful guest from Argentina! My guest this week is a fellow South American and a sweet heart. She told me about the New Year traditions that Argentinians have such as the celebration of the Three Wise Men on the 6th of January..

For any foreigner considering a career change, this is a great episode. Jaquelina is an English-Spanish Chartered Translator. She told me how she developed her career and she also gave some pretty precious tips to anyone interested in becoming a translator or interpreter.

We also spoke about the Argentinian tea (mate), steaks, wine (one of  which unfortunately doesn’t agree with me) and a lovely message from Jaqui to all mums who have young children and are feeling a bit lost in motherhood and their career journey. Jaquelina was certainly the right person to interview and start the year on the high! Press play to hear that apart from football, a Brazilian and an Argentinian can be friends in everything else.

Show notes

Show Notes:

Where to learn to buy the book: https://phillyandfriends.com/ 

Instagram: @phillynfriends 

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

In this episode you are going to meet Alina, who was born in Russia. Alina moved to Israel with her family then again to London when she was eight and actually feels more English than Russian! She has a beautiful British accent which means you can't tell she is a foreigner!  Nevertheless, growing up in a bilingual environment made Alina realise the importance of it. Alina has a eight-month-old baby and is now making sure she only speaks in Russian to him. I also told her all the strategies I used with my children in order to get them to successfully talk back to me in Portuguese. 

Alina also recalled episode number 15 with Joanna Fortune in which she mentioned the true reality of being the kid of foreign parents and the determination you have to be more successful than the usual English child born and raised here. Alina was told by a teacher she was never going to write well but managed to do English literature at university to prove her teacher wrong. She now works with SEO, has a podcast and also a You Tube channel. 

Alina also described what is Christmas like in her family. Different and celebrated twice! Press play to find out why ;-)

Show Notes:

Alina's website https://aghost.co.uk/

Alina's youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6jS5yMO77RlCdLVaT2tmEQ 

Alina's podcast SEO with Mrs Ghost 

Alina mentioned episode 15 Better ways for foreign parents to help their children to grow up in a different culture with Joanna Fortune

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Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

In episode 20 you are going to learn Kuo-Fang’s story. She was born in Taiwan but moved to London when she was a teenager to study arts at university. Unfortunately (or fortunately), this was because she wasn’t very “academic”. In her culture, if a woman isn’t doing well at school, her only route is to study arts then get married. However, Kuo-fang proved she was stronger than this and managed to develop a career in fashion working for brands such as Anya Hindmarch, Stella McCartney and Nicholas Kirkwood. After the birth of her second daughter, she decided to quit and start a business helping working mothers to set up their business and pursue their dreams, as well as help people be more sustainably conscious.

In this episode you will also learn about the things Kuo-Fang didn’t appreciate from the luxury industry, some funny food stories from her early days and how she is raising two strong bilingual girls.

Show notes:

https://kuofioconnor.com/

@kfyangoconnor

For you to buy a World Gift from CAFOD, go to https://cafod.org.uk/Give/World-Gifts

The Taiwanese restaurant Kuo-Fang recommended - https://www.dintaifung-uk.com/

Please follow me on:

Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

Episode 19 is here with a lovely Lithuanian lady. It is a story for those interested in learning more about how nutrition can improve someone’s life in everything single aspect. Dainora moved to London to join her then Lithuanian boyfriend and now husband. After becoming a mum, she decided to start a course in nutrition in order to improve her own Auto immune condition. She discovered stress and eating a lot of bread triggered her condition.

Her other aim when she started the course was to be a good mum and teach her children how to eat healthily.  She found she enjoyed not just improving her own health but that she could turn it into her career by helping other people through nutrition as well.

Coming from a country that eats a lot of meat and fermented vegetables, Dainora decided to be vegetarian and posts lots of plant based suggestions in her Instagram account. However, she still encourages everyone to continue eating meat.

Dainora has a 10 and a 5-year-old. The first eats everything and the second is a bit picky but she knows a few techniques, and shares one with us on how to help children to eat their vegetables. We also talked about her sons understanding her language but only speaking back in English and how she thought she would want to move back to her home country once she became a mum. She now realizes that more than ever, she prefers to stay here so her children can have better education and choices compared to Lithuania.

Show notes:

In this week’s episode, I had the pleasure to speak to the Japanese lady Haruka Kuroda, also famous for playing Noodle in The Gorillaz. She was also the star of CBBC’s officially Amazing show. From a very young age Haruka had shown signs that she was going to be an artist.

When she was 16 she moved to England to attend a boarding school. After three months feeling homesick, she had the magical click moment when she realised she could understand what was being said to her. She also gained a lot of weight since she had begun to eat dairy in significant quantities for the first time, something they don’t do in Japan! At the beginning she was happy to try new food but now she misses Japanese food more than when she first came!

Haruka is also going to explain the route that anyone interested in becoming an artist in this country should follow. She tells us how she managed to get her part in Gorillaz and how her incredible career developed after that. However, Haroka explains that the industry can be cruel to foreigners due to their accents and is now training to become a Transformation life coach.

Haruka has a beautiful 4-year-old to who she is still breastfeeding and discusses the cultural differences she encountered for occasionally drinking whilst doing so. She also tells us some other Japanese cultural behaviors compared to the Brits.

Show Notes:

In this week’s episode, I spoke to American Joy Foster. Joy is a successful businesswoman from Colorado who moved to the UK after living in Switzerland with English Olympic Gold medallist husband Tim Foster MBE and their two children.

You are going to learn why Joy lived in seven different states in the US before moving abroad and the lessons she learned from moving around so many times, such as speaking other languages.

You are also going to hear that even the wife of a Olympian has to deal with all the visa faff that us wives of normal English men have too.

Joy has strived in her career and is a now a business owner of the successful company TechPixies. She tells us how her entrepreneurial skills started and how she is managing to run a business and yet, have more hours in her day, something she took a while to learn.

Joy will tell us also a funny story about when she met Prince Harry and her sensible points of view on the US election. So press play and learn a thing or two from this amazing lady.

Show notes:

https://techpixies.com/

Instagram - @techpixies

Joy's Podcast - Sparkle and Thrive

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Instagram: @theforeignmumpodcast

This week I decided to have a different episode for my podcast. Instead of having foreign mum, I decided to welcome the lovely Joanna Fortune from Ireland. Joanna is a clinical psychotherapist, an attachment specialist and the best-selling author of the super helpful series of books, ’15 Minute Parenting’.

Joanna’s experience working with families from all cultures and walks of life helps her explain how foreign parents should deal with situations such as:

- How to help foreign parents to feel confident in approaching headteachers with issues they disagree with. Also the benefits of choosing a less rigid school so children are exposed to ‘healthy risks’

- How to understand our children’s behaviour based on our cultural background

- How to overcome cultural beliefs such as ‘hitting’ as a normal thing to do with children to parenting them positively

- How to empower our children to be enough and not push them too hard for being born from foreign parents and “having to do better than everybody else”

- Parents from two different nationalities what they need to do before settling a child who doesn’t speak English yet into a new school

- And last but not least, a strong message to teach our children on how to prevent prejudice from being from a different nationality or being born from foreign parents

My goal is that this episode helps many families out there with the wonderful words of wisdom from the amazing Joanna. If you like this episode, please rate us five stars on itunes. This way we can reach many more families that need to hear our message. Also, leaves us a comment on Instagram and share this post with your friends.

Show notes:

What were you doing at 24? This week’s guest Lea left Arusha in Tanzania to come to study in London when she was 18. Now that she is 24, she has already got married, opened a business and had a baby! This incredible young woman was originally born in France where her French dad and mother from Madagascar used to live. When she was six, they decided to move to Tanzania, which she now calls “home”. After all, she spent most of her life there. Her husband is half from Madagascar and half from Germany but used to live in Finland! Now they have a four-month-old English baby!

When Lea moved to London, she felt a bit of a shock because of the speed of the city and even though she was educated in English, she struggled with the accent and new terms. She got used to that but continues missing the fruit and veg from Tanzania and is not a big fan of British food.

Lea explained about her incredible new business called CocoRio Creative Childcare. She explains to me exactly how it works and you are going to love it! As a new mum, Lea gave birth at the end of the pandemic. She told me that although she did NCT online, it was still helpful and she has now met her fellow mum friends in person.

This is a lovely story that I hope all multicultural families, young mums and new business owners out there might relate to. If you like this episode, please share it with friends. You never know who you can inspire by putting it out there to.

Show notes:

In this episode, meet Oraina, a Pakistani mother of twin boys from the blog and Instagram account "Oree and her Explorers". 

Oree, as she is known on her accounts, gives her followers fantastic tips on healthy eating and the best spots in London to take children to. 

Our chat includes her telling me why her family has moved so much, it even meant that her boys were born in Barbados! Now that they call London home, she tell us why she became so obsessed with feeding her children healthy food and how much fun they have exploring London. 

Oree also opened up about her family praying routines, her career, what she likes and doesn't about the UK and much more.

Show Notes - Places mentioned on this episode

In this week’s episode, I have the best Portuguese person ever. It is Maria Monteiro, the creator of Brook Green Mums, a blog and Instagram account created based on a  little hidden neighbourhood near Hammersmith and High Street Kensington.

Maria tells us her story on how she moved to London to pursue a diplomatic position within the Portuguese embassy but decided to stay after her contract was up. She now works happily in a school within her neighbourhood and carries on giving great tips on products and places around her area to anyone who is interested in the place.

So if you want to find out more about how Maria does shows her daughters on Instagram, What she likes most and least about England and much more, download this episode and happy listening!

Here are the Portuguese restaurants Maria mentioned in this episode:

Toca - https://www.atoca-restaurant.co.uk/

Madeira - https://madeiralondon.co.uk/

In this episode, you are going to learn the other side of the story, what it feels like to being a daughter of foreigners! My special guest is Dana Taylor who was born in England but from Jamaican parents.

Dana told me what it feels like being raised in the UK but in a household with a different culture. However, in an attempt to protect her from prejudice for speaking with an accent or eating things too different, her mum didn’t teach her the Jamaican language Patois and used to cook for her mostly British dishes with only occasional curry goat.

At 15 Dana decided to learn her parents native language by asking her grandma to teach her. It proves that later in life, some children will still want to learn their parents mother tongue.

Dana demystifies the view that Jamaicans are laid back. With both parents being super hard working people, she learnt to appreciate their efforts but also to ignore the parts she didn’t like in order to create her own business. Dana used all her heritage knowledge in positivity and herbs plus a lot of studying in order to become a Motivational, Healing and strategy coach.

So if you would like to find out more about Dana, who is by the way, currently single, and with lots of funny stories to share, press play now or download the episode to fill your commute and happy listening!

Show notes:

What happens when you move to the UK as a dentist? Gina from Mexico tells us what she had to do so she can now even own her own dentistry, how having a child minder who also spoke Spanish benefited her and how she overcame missing her children first steps.