Grace O’Sullivan – Finding Her Voice in French
“Speaking French is one of the great pleasures of my life.”
Grace O’Sullivan’s journey with the French language began in Year 7 at Peninsula Grammar in 2012. What started as a classroom subject quickly became a lifelong passion, shaped by immersive experiences, enduring friendships—and most recently, a role in a major Hollywood film.
Grace recalls the 2016 French exchange program as a pivotal moment. “It allowed me to witness and experience a second language inaction,” she says. “Learning tenses and conjugations in a classroom is helpful, but it can make a language feel really far away. The exchange made the possibility of speaking French real to me.”
Though her exchange was just two weeks, the impact was profound. “You’re in a French family’s home, eating weird foods, trying smelly cheeses, and only understanding 20% of what anyone says. It was overwhelming, incredible, crazy, and world-expanding.”
One of the most touching parts of her story is the enduring friendship she formed during the exchange. “One of the girls I met through the Peninsula/Paris exchange is still one of my close friends here in Paris,” Grace shares.
That experience planted a seed that continued to grow. Grace studied French at Monash University, and although her planned university exchange to La Sorbonne was cancelled due to COVID, she never gave up on her dream. In 2023, she moved to Paris—and now, in 2025, she’s studying a diploma of French at Paris Nanterre Université.
Alongside her academic journey, Grace has also built a career in acting. She began on the beloved Australian soap Neighbours and its spin-off Erinsborough High. Most recently, she wrapped filming on Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky, an action thriller starring Liam Neeson. The film was shot in Victoria and marks a major milestone in Grace’s rising career. It is being released on Netflix on the 15th of September.
Her story reveals some of the unexpected doors that language learning can open and she reflects on its transformative power: “People often say that when you speak two languages, you gain two personalities, two ways of seeing the world, almost two different lives—and I would absolutely agree. Speaking another language, any language, is a joy. And I’m so glad that my chosen language is French.”
