Bonjour! Je m'appelle Madame Applin (she/her/elle)! I grew up just up the freeway a bit in Walnut Creek. My mother is also a teacher so I've always had an inkling I'd wind up in a classroom. I graduated with a degree in linguistics and language studies at UC Santa Cruz but if I could have any job in the world, regardless of my (lack of) talent, I would be either a stand up comedian or a ballerina. If you are a Yankees fan, please keep that to yourself, and if the A's are doing poorly, the same rule applies. Like many teachers, I love reading and books, but what I love most of all is words. That probably explains why I majored in linguistics, but I just find them so fascinating! You can ask any of my former students, I'm always discovering new patterns and/or connections between languages or cultures. I'm a fairly sarcastic and easy going individual and teacher, but I definitely do respect rules and expect my students to do the same.

Like many of you, my journey with the French language began in 7th grade. I fell in love with the language and multiple francophone cultures that I discovered in the classroom. So much so, that I continued with French all the way through college, and even spent my junior year in Bordeaux, France taking university courses and teaching English at a middle school. It was an incredible experience, one that helped me grow as a person, and as a French speaker. When I graduated college, I got a job in San Francisco and worked in legal translations for a while. However, I fairly quickly realized that corporate life just wasn't for me, and I decided to go back to what I loved doing, teaching. When deciding what subject I wanted to get my credential for, I thought back to how my experience with French shaped who I became as a student and as an individual, and, though French programs across the country are dwindling, my hope is to help foster a passion for a new way to look at the world as well as this beautiful (yet complicated) language and all the cultures associated with it.