Madame O. was my high school French teacher. In a school, and more importantly a world where Spanish is a more common second language, she peaked my interest and kept my attention for four years, and then some.

We chose a second language in seventh grade, when I was thirteen years old. I think the only reason I took French was because my sister was taking Spanish and I wanted to be different from her. Fortunately this was one of the best education decisions I could have made. My junior high classes were interesting. We watched a lot of videos and made a lot of flash cards, but I did not feel like I knew the culture or could readily speak the language. Then Madame O. came to visit class one day.

My class of about ten people was sitting around goofing off, speaking completely in English, when Madame O. came in and spoke to us in nothing but French. It was intimidating, to say the least. I felt incompetent and was horribly embarrassed to realize what this woman must have thought of our abilities. I vowed to make a real effort to speak French, to know it and to understand it.

When I walked into her classroom one year later everything has changed from my easy, relaxed middle school class. Madame O. said the only thing she would ever say in English to us that day. "If you speak in English you will fail this class. I say this in English just so everyone understands." She explained how she did not care if we butchered the language or had to fumble through a dictionary to finish our thoughts, this is the only way we would learn. And she was right. I did learn. And junior year of high school I joined Madame on her biannual trip to France. I lived with a host family and learned more than I could have imagined.

I entered college with a strong French background and I decided I should do something with it. I took more classes and made French my minor, but with each class I became more disheartened. No professor was anywhere near the caliber of Madame O. and eventually I dropped the minor. It is sad that my high school French teacher was the best language teacher I have ever had, but I am lucky too. Rarely do high school students become so attached to foreign language class and rarely are they able to get so much out of it.