Name
Mrs Caroline Fuchs; a lot of the children call me ‘Mrs Madame Fuchs’.
What do you do at the School?
I teach all Prep School pupils four languages. Depending on which year the pupils are in, they learn French, Italian, German and Spanish.
When did you join?
I joined in September 2015.
What drew you to Languages?
In the First Form at an all-girls independent school in Darlington, County Durham, we were taught German by the lovely Mrs Armstrong. She was a tall, kind red-headed lady who guided us through a thicket of ‘Deutsche Grammatik’, which would put many off learning that language. However, she inspired me to carry on my studies of German right through until the end of my university years. On the other hand, my French teacher, Mrs Smith, with a chignon and steely blue eyes, was different; a tight ball of nervous energy who once shouted at us: ‘It’s a rat race out there, so pull yourselves together girls!’ I managed to shield myself from bubbling anger and I seem to remember I even learnt something from her.
When leaving school, I was not grabbed by the idea of moving to the next institution immediately. I had my sights set on being a writer and I was lucky enough to get a job as a journalist. For three years, I trained as a ‘cub’ reporter at the Leicester Mercury, at the time in the top five biggest regional daily papers. I cut my teeth on the cynical nature of many of my hack colleagues, although the Editor who hired me, the gracious Neville Stack, instructed me never to become a sceptic and I never did. However, I did not pursue my journalistic career for long, as the pull to go to university was greater and a world of other opportunities opened itself up to me when I graduated. I worked in marketing and sales, using my language and writing skills, in a few positions including Oxford University Press. Having languages really helped when I moved to Luxembourg, where I worked, married and gave birth ‘in French’ twice! My sons, Edoardo and James, who are OCs, were used to a world where most spoke at least four languages. The country of Luxembourg is a linguist’s dream. You can hear all the main European languages and many more, as you walk the streets of the tiny, elegant capital city, also called Luxembourg. You quickly learn the accents of those who speak to you in English, so that you might promptly reply in the best that you know of their own mother tongue. It was an amazing experience to be living in a country where I was speaking French and German every day and other languages regularly. When my own children started at school themselves, I found a growing interest in teaching through a friend, who shared with me her experiences of working at the International School of Luxembourg (ISL). When I told her I was serious about pursuing this as a career, she advised me to get some experience at ISL and I never looked back. Being a teacher was not always easy, particularly at the beginning, when I had two young children and a household to run on my own, was studying for a PGCE and later I went on to take a Masters in Applied Linguistics & TESOL. These challenges were in fact highlights for me. It was a rare opportunity to be teaching French and German in a country where they are two of the key languages spoken. I remember the great effort and time I put into managing everything as well as possible and that I gained such satisfaction from teaching those languages, as well as EAL, and I still do. I have been teaching Languages at Cokethorpe Prep for ten years next year and adore seeing the sense of satisfaction in the faces of my pupils when they take a leap forward in their communication or when they are simply playing with language. The perspective that learning a new language gives one is immense. It goes from looking down the menu of foreign cuisine to being able to philosophise and joke about life and politics with a friend in their mother tongue. A bond is created by communicating with others in their own language and often this leads to strong friendships. I wish all of this for those who I teach and hope they gain as much of a thrill from it as I do. I have immense pride in sharing with pupils my own experience of living the languages in my past ‘other life’ and embracing the differences I encountered, the good and the bad. What I endeavour to give my pupils at Cokethorpe is delight in language learning and hope they have avenues of opportunity opening up for them by what they learn. I often say to them, that learning a language is like a long-distance race. In fact, it is a race that you never truly finish if you get hooked!
