Je deteste...

This semester I'm taking French. I took three levels of it between middle school and high school. Level one was divided between sixth and seventh grade, level two was taken in eighth grade and level three in ninth grade. My high school required three years of one language or two years of two languages, so I was done with my foreign language requirement by ninth grade. So, I haven't taken French in over four years.

Every French teacher I have had has always been the following:

short
middleaged
female
paunchy
frumpy
permissive
self-righteous

My class is a part two course, part one was not offered this semester. I figured I'd be alright considering I have taken the equivalent before, and so far I've been able to keep up.

This class, it's divided into two groups, those who had my teacher last semester and in the same class and those who did not. It's apparent when you walk into the room which side is which. The loud, rude side is the former. And there is one loud, rude person in particular. I'll call her Denise.

Denise is one of those people who watches a lot of sports, is a huge Redskins and Capitols fan, but has never played a sport in her life. Though, she does wear cheerleading t-shirts frequently. This baffles me as she is about four times the size of anyone that was on my high school's cheerleading squad. But, she is loud. Very loud. Everything she does is done with maximum loudness.

When I walked into the class the first time, she shouted, "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEIIII!!!!!!!!!!" from across the room while standing up. I was new, and I was a couple minutes late, but really? Who does that? She does. Since that day she has proceeded to interrupt class on a regular basis. If she sets her cell phone down, she doesn't set it down. Setting something down is a task that require no noise. She slams things down, her pen, pencil, phone, notebook, textbook, purse, everything.

The past two classes were spent watching the movies "Au Revoir les Enfants" - a movie based on a true story about World War II. We had the English subtitles on. Denise managed to ruin the film. She was constantly texting, on her computer, walking around, "whispering," etc. Only once did our teacher (permissive, not at all assertive) ask her to be quiet.



It took everything in me to not say anything. I mean we're all adults, at least legally, and most of us are able to exercise some level of self-control, manners. Denise has no regard for those around her and no concept of what is polite. This week a boy came into class and explained that he was having trouble with the drink machine, but it finally worked and gave him three Cokes. Denise, blithely volunteered to take one off his hands. He being a better person than I am, conceded.

By the end of the movie she had finished her Coke and exclaimed that she didn't understand anything that had gone on in the movie, especially the ending - a part that had me crying. She of course did this loudly. And I of course politely explained that perhaps if she had been paying attention instead of texting or facebooking that maybe she would have known what was going on. She looked at me as though I had just slapped her in the face.

Perhaps I was the one being rude. Perhaps it would have been better to not say anything, but people like her need to be educated in the ways of what is and is not appropriate behavior and in what setting. And perhaps it's not my place to be that person, but I kept my cool, didn't raise my voice, and politely expressed my opinion. I have the feeling that her actions are all to cover up her insecurities, everyone does that to some degree, but most keep it at a reasonable volume.