It was my first day at a new school and I was heading to my French class. Printed on my schedule was FRENCH, 315, ARMOUR. Learning a new language is never easy, and it was made doubly hard by the fact that I was about to get a new teacher.
The first thing I heard when I walked in was, “Bonjour! Comment ça va, aujourd’hui? Comment tu t’appelle?” I was immediately put back by her instant warmth and friendliness that I stumbled over my response, which I’m sure equated to “Hi, I’m…uh…Sarah…uh. I’m, uh, ok?”
Over the next semester and a half, Mademoiselle made my first year of French the best yet. She continually pounded new verbs into our heads and made sure we understood how to use them effectively, both in writing and speaking. Every day of that class was a new adventure. Mademoiselle made what could’ve been a potentially boring and tedious subject into something fun and entertaining. Through French magazines, interactive games, and educational, yet hilarious, videos, French suddenly became an easy language to learn. I almost never left that class without a smile on my face.
Mademoiselle was more than just a teacher. She was a friend. She took an interest in her students’ lives and would always ask us, in French of course, how everything was going. We knew we could always tell her our melodramatic teenage stories. Then we’d listen, sometimes clueless, as she responded in French.
She was like the Energizer bunny; she would never quit until she was positive the class understood the material being taught and she always offered help when you didn’t. To this day, she’ll pass me in the halls, and even though she’s not my teacher anymore, I’ll always, without a doubt hear, “Bonjour, Corrine! Ça va?”