My junior year in high school means that I'm almost at the finish line. The previous year I had started my required foreign language study by taking French. I did pretty well and was looking forward to advancing my knowledge. Unfortunately I was in a classroom of lazy asses! That year we had a new French teacher, Madame Teaver. The previous teacher, Madame Turner didn't come back that year. Madame Teaver was from Germany. What she was doing in Georgia is beyond me! Anyway, because she was A. a new teacher, and B. from Germany, the majority of the class decided to act like we didn't learn the basics in French I. Because of that fact, French II was just a rehash of French I. Of course it was an easy A for me, but I didn't want an easy A. I wanted to continue to add to my knowledge base, but that's just another example of the substandard education I had to deal with.
That was also the year that I decided what college I wanted to go to. Because of its music program, I wanted to go to DePaul University. I figured I'd major in Music Business so that someday I could have my own record label. My best friend in high school was an artist and she decided that she wanted to go to the Art Institute in Chicago. It would've been the perfect set-up. We could've been in Chicago together. Also, she has family that lives right by the Indiana/Illinois border, near Chicago. As luck would have it, I got to go with her to visit them during spring break of junior year. Her mom and her mom's boyfriend drove us from Georgia to Indiana and we all stayed with her grandparents. They were the nicest people. I really enjoyed my time there. We went to Chicago twice while I was there and that cemented my desire to want to attend college at DePaul. Ever since I was a small child I always knew that I would leave rural Georgia to see what another part of the US had to offer.
Man, a re-hash of French 1. That's pitiful. It really is. I'm glad my boys all had French's 1, 2 and 3. They still speak it when they want to make me mad. :-)))
ReplyDeleteWhata the Sam Hill was a German doing teaching French? Did she speak with a German accent? This is getting muy interesante; if I may use some 7th grade Spanish. I always thought you went to college in Boston.
ReplyDeleteTypical high school behavior. Take advantage of the new teacher. Most of them aren't like you, learning is anthema to them. I've heard of DePaul, it has a good reputation. And if you'd owned a record label you'd be rich and I'd never haven gotten to know you. that's intended to be a silver lining to a cloud).
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame that you didn't get any more of the French that year. My daughter (age 40) is taking Italian right now and has been for the past 4 years (just for fun). Anyway, her professor is actually from Russia, but lived in Italy for quite a long time. Go figure.
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