Jean II Makoun is happy he joined Aston Villa.
The Cameroon midfielder quit the stability of Lyon for a move to Villa Park in January.
"I'm nervous about making mistakes but I always force myself to speak," he told Villa's website. "I spend as much time as possible with the English players because that's the only way I'm going to learn.
"If I meet the manager in the corridor, he speaks to me in French but when we are training, it's English all the way.
"I'd never worked with him before because he left Lyon before I went there from Lille. It was great that he wanted me to come here because Gerard has such a good reputation."
