It’s awesome to expect excellence from your students, but it needs to be practical.

This story is a perfect example.

See how this student used the teacher’s rule against her.

No English allowed? D’accord.

I used to take a beginner level French course at a local community center.

It was a chill class small group, older folks, travelers, a few professionals and our instructor, Mademoiselle Claire.

She was a lovely but very serious Frenchwoman who believed in total immersion.

She had one strict rule: “No English in class.”

It wasn’t working out.

This made sense in theory, except this was day one, and most of us didn’t even know how to say hello properly yet.

Still, she made it crystal clear, speak any English and you’d be punished.

(Said it in English.)

One evening, about three weeks in, she asked us to write short dialogue in pairs.

My partner was completely lost, and kept whispering to me in English for help.

Claire overheard and swooped in like a linguistic hawk.

No English. Not one word.

I tried to help but she cut me off.

Silence, French only.

As you wish, teacher.

For the next week, I followed her rule.

No English, not even when she herself lapsed into English to explain something complex, I’d just blink and say, “Je ne comprends pas,” which means, “I don’t understand.”

When she emailed homework instructions in English?

I pretended I didn’t understand them.

During oral drills, I deliberately answered everything in broken, overly literal French, even when it made no sense.

Eventually, after I raised my hand and asked, in French, what “homework” meant again for the fifth time, she sighed and said in English: “Okay some English is allowed.”

Merci beaucoup, Claire.

Here is what folks are saying.

LOL what a loophole.

You need a foundation!