The Hilltop Echo has a conversation with Madame Shannon Dalton, beloved French teacher and head of CHS French Club. 

Q:  What made you want to teach French?

“I have taught at the middle school level, so it was just an opportunity that came up.” She continues, “I definitely prefer the high school students to the middle school students, just the maturity level.” 

“I took four years of French in high school, traveled to Paris, and that’s what really clinched it, the trip to Paris. I was like (gasp) okay this is it!”

Q: Favorite part of teaching?

“ The relationships with students, it’s the most important thing to me” 

 “It’s very rewarding, especially since being a foreign language teacher very frequently I get students four years in a row. I have the opportunity to get to know my students a lot better than say a math teacher that might just have you know a kid for one class one year. ”

“We (foreign language teachers) form deeper relationships”

Q: Do you listen to French Music? If so, who is your favorite artist? 

“Stromae is my favorite” Stromae is a Belgian born French rapper “He’s so popular that a lot of people hate him just because of his success”

Q: What is your favorite French food?

“ I always tell my students, I’m the worst french teacher, (because) I don’t do wine and I don’t like cheese” But, “I do love macarons” 

Q: Favorite macaron flavor? 

“(After a pause), pistachio, but my official answer is there are too many favorite flavors to choose from.” 

Q: If you could teach anywhere in the world where would it be?

“I would actually flip the script, and I would go to France and teach English in France.” 

Q: What makes French a good language to learn? 

“It’s beautiful” to pick up the threads she said, “Language is a part of everyone’s culture and as a class, you learn a lot about the culture and history. It’s really interesting to me” 

Q: Who do you think are the best people to learn French?

“Everyone. (laughs)” said Dalton

“In all honesty, yes I would love to push the French, yes, I would love to advocate obviously for my program. But just take a foreign language, it doesn’t matter which one it is, (just) something that is going to teach you to think outside your own experience. That’s really the most important.” 

Q: What French-speaking places have you visited? 

“I’ve been to Quebec in Canada, lovely,” which is a nice 13-hour drive from Ohio. “Obviously I’ve been to France and I’ve been to Paris a few times” “Even some of the smaller cities in the south region of France, on the Mediterranean.” Such as  St. Tropez and Toulon near there. 

Q:  If you had the opportunity to do anything in Europe what would you do or where would you 

go?

“Travel and learn, and soak up as much information and see as much as I possibly could. That’s it.” 

Q: Favorite Movie? 

“Stand by Me” is a classic 1980s coming of age story based on a novel by Stephen King. You can now watch it on Netflix, starring River Phoneix 

Q: Favorite Book? 

“Even harder it changes every time I read a new book. This is not going to be surprising at all but ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” is a  gothic fiction novel written by Victor Hugo, set in Paris in 1482. Originally published in 1831.