French Instructor

Daniele A.

When I first lived in Nederland, CO, in the mid 80’, a former John Hopkins Institute professor told me that I should become a French teacher.

At the time, I was still not sure of what I should do after receiving an A.A. in Marketing Management in France where I lived for a long time being a French native and thereafter being involved in the entertainment industry in southern California for several years. I gave it some thought and made up my mind almost instantly: I am going back to school.

It is then with plenty of enthusiasm that I decided to acquire a B.A. in French literature at CU Boulder, CO. I still did not quite know that I would become a French teacher, but when I got my degree from the university, I was offered a job assignment as a teaching assistant at CU Boulder: it is then that it finally clicked in my mind that teaching French would be my true career. I knew that because I was so proud to be already offered my first teaching assignment while tutoring clients on a private basis outside the university.

At the time, I also applied to graduate school at UCLA and I was then offered a teaching assignment as a teaching assistant as well. I made the choice to go to UCLA instead.

Everything I know about teaching came from my years as a graduate student at UCLA learning about the technique of teaching, how to make a personal impact with students when you daily interact with them, proving to them that being at least bilingual will always make you stand out from the crowd, and following my supervisor’s guidelines. I, of course, always add my personal touch as a French person also: my humor, my jokes and sharing many facts of French culture that you don’t always find in books. I followed this philosophy of teaching with my tutoring sessions in Los Angeles with private clients going to their homes or students coming to my home, too.

My first full-time teaching position was at Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad, CA where I taught French and Spanish for 2 years. Thereafter and since the mid 90’, I have been