Sophomore Melissa Long is enrolled in French 3-4, and she has had to face new challenges this semester.           

Recently French teacher Erica Davis had her second child; she is now on maternity leave and has left a sub in her place. This is no ordinary sub, however.

“Class is harder now because we hear and speak a lot more French now,” Long said.

This has had a profound effect on the students as the sub, Nathlie Laborde, is a native of France.

Long said that Laborde expects students to know more than they actually do sometimes.

This may make Laborde seem like a hard person to learn French from, but many students are excited to learn from her.

“She is very nice and will always help you,” Long said.

Some students find her heavy French accent a distraction and hard to understand.

“She is fluent but hard to understand a lot of the time,” Long said.

Laborde moves at a faster pace than Davis did, and this has allowed the students to learn more in one day, but it is sometimes confusing, she added.

A new person is teaching French, but it doesn’t change the fact that the class is fun for the students.

“She teaches new things every day,” Long said. “Class is always fun.”

Sophomore Jade Motschenbacher has a different opinion of Laborde.

“It seems like a normal day,” Motschenbacher said, adding that class hasn’t changed much. She agrees with Long in that Laborde goes more in depth with the language.

Many students find her accent distracting, but not Motschenbacher.

“It gives you an idea of how to pronounce the words accurately,” she said.

She also said that Laborde teaches more about the culture.

“We get more of an insight into French culture and what Paris is like,” Motschenbacher said. “It’s a very fun and interesting class. It gives you a chance to explore French culture.”