If you think learning one language is hard, imagine learning four languages and knowing all of them fluently. French teacher Philipp Buhler’s first language is not English. His first language is actually German. 

He also knows English, French, Italian, and a little bit of Spanish.

 “I had a knack for languages,” Buhler said. “ I was horrible at math and I learned them very easily, so that's really how I got into it. Also, when you learn one and then a second one it becomes a lot easier to learn other languages.”

Buhler grew up nowhere around here. He actually grew up in Basel, Switzerland for the first 24 years of his life. Then, Philipp moved to the U.S He first moved to New York and after that to Massachusetts. 

Buhler never wanted to be a teacher when he was younger. 

“Teaching was the furthest thing from my mind. I actually went into pre-med and did not like that at all. Then I ended up going to a hotel management school where I got my bachelor's in hotel management. I worked in a hotel for a number of years, then a stay-at-home dad for about 5 years, and then I got into teaching.”

Buhler is a beloved teacher here at Norwood High. Whenever you walk past his classroom or you are in his class you are surrounded by the laughter circulating around.

 Let’s look and see what motivated Philipp to become a teacher.

“So once I left the hotel business and I was at home for five years, I did not want to go back to hotels. I was looking for something else and my mother-in-law used to be a Catholic school principal and teacher and she was like “You should be a teacher.” You get along well with kids and you speak four languages fluently, I also like that my sons [go to school] and [our] schedule[s] are the same!” Buhler explained. 

Buhler was not always a Norwood High teacher. His first year teaching he was actually at Franklin High School and then he did two years at Canton Middle School. 

He taught for three years at Norwood’s Coakley Middle School and the rest of his teaching years here at NHS. 

Philip Buhler might not have taught here his whole entire career but he has been teaching for 19 years total and is very good at what he does.