Une peinture dit une mille mots

Mandana Radmanesh, or Madame R. to her students (like yours truly), has been teaching French at Armijo High School for thirteen years. She teaches French I, II, III, IV, and IB French. After graduating from l’Ecole de la Cambre, an architectural school in Belgium, and San Francisco State for French Literature, she started her career by tutoring. Not too long after, she was hired to work as a full-time French teacher at Armijo.

Before initially going back to college, though, Madame R. got married and had two kids. Once they started middle school, she went back to school. Now, her son is 26 and her daughter is 22. As a family, they like to take walks together, go out to eat, and go to cafes. Monsieur Radmanesh goes to the cafe every Sunday to have his cafe latte and pastry. “It’s like a ritual,” she said.

In her own free time, Madame R. likes to paint. If she weren’t a teacher, she would want to be an artist and paint all the time. However, teaching French combines two of her passions in life. “My mom was a teacher,” Madame Radmanesh said, “and she actually encouraged me... When I put her advice and my love for the French language together, I decided to become a teacher.”

In the future, she isn’t sure exactly what will come, but she does want to travel a lot more. “And I want to maybe, when I retire, live somewhere in Europe. Italy, France, somewhere,” Madame Radmanesh said, “That’s my plan.”

Radmanesh, M. (2020, February 19 & 28). Personal Interview.