In the first hallway on the second floor of NASH, a host of flags from different countries give students a warm welcome. In this hallway, room 214, is the French classroom belonging to Madame Butler, the sole French teacher at NASH. She began her journey by walking these same halls and graduating NA in 2000.
But why French? What exactly led Madame to choose her career?
Though Madame is not a native French speaker and has no French ancestry, the subject came easily to her when she was an NA student.
“For some reason, everything just clicks in French for me,” she said.
But upon reflection, her answer shifted into a different one. Madame acknowledged that her supportive French teacher, Madame Barbara Zaun, played a significant role. Because of her exemplary grades in Zaun’s classes, Butler was encouraged by her teacher to pursue French.
“No one in my family really understood the idea of language study,” she said. “They work mostly in finance.”
Zaun’s encouragement lit up a path for her that Butler feels eternally grateful for. French has brought unique experiences to Butler’s life and led her to embrace a profession that she loves, even though a career in the humanities was not the initial route she had planned.
Madame achieved a Master’s degree in French literature and considers it her “first love.” She recalls her first college French literature class and being introduced to famous French authors – an important one that stuck with her is the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. She was immersed in her studies, noting that she “never stopped.”
She also holds French music dear to her heart.
“Last year, I went to a Stromae concert in Washington, D.C., which was a great experience,” she said. “Most of the people there did not speak French fluently, but they all sang every word – it was so neat.”
Of course, as a French teacher, Madame has traveled to France multiple times, saying that she “feels home” whenever she has a chance to visit.
Now, as NASH’s sole French teacher, Madame finds her job to be extremely rewarding. She loves teaching and watching her students grow. She said she loves her job even more when her former students come to visit and share that they continue their study in French.
This year, she looks forward to her first trip with her own children to France and is excited to see soccer games in the 2024 Olympics, adding that her kids are “very excited to eat real French bread.”
