Dear señor, frau, monsieur, etc…,

I would like to start this letter by saying that I would write this in the language that you taught me, but that would probably cause you agony and want to break out the red pen and correct this entire thing, which is why this is being written in English.

With that aside, let’s talk about the real reason why I’m writing this. I’m writing this to thank you for what you have done for me.

Now, in our school, we only had to take one credit of a foreign language. I could’ve stopped taking a language but my interest was sparked the first year. It was different from your traditional classes because you were actually learning something that was new. I continued taking the language not only because I loved it, but because I knew I would have you as a teacher eventually.

In our school, each teacher taught a certain class. I knew in order to have you as a teacher, I needed to continue with the language. I already loved learning about the language so I wanted to continue anyway, but I couldn’t take the language and not have you.

In every school, there is typically that teacher that upperclassmen say you need to have. You were one of those teachers and they were right.

This is where the thank you starts.

First, thank you for dealing with my horrible pronunciation of words. I know that listening to 50 or more kids a day mispronounce a word or even try to pronounce a word was probably torture to your ears and made you question why you became a foreign language teacher. I thank you though for sitting through those interviews and us trying to read aloud and helping us pronounce the word right even if it made you want to pull your hair out in the process.

Secondly, thank you for teaching me English. Now this one might be weird, but in order to teach a foreign language you have to teach it in English first. I had no idea what the subjective was until I had your class. You taught me what the present perfect was and after learning it I had realized I use it more than I thought I did. Your class was like a grammar class all over again and I loved it. It helped to learn what English grammar rules. It’s always good to have them in the back of your mind so you don’t sound like a complete fool, in person or through writing, so thanks for reintroducing it.

Third, thanks for making class fun. It was fun starting the day off listing to a song from the language that you taught or making fun of how weird a listing activity was and how outdated the tape was. The classes that you taught usually had some type of “you had to be there” moment, which you couldn’t explain if you tried. You would also tell the weirdest stories about things that happened to, and the ones about when you studied abroad were the best. It was also fun hearing you come up with songs to help us remember the rules for a verb tense or the conjugations for a verb.

The thing I want to thank you most for though is sparking my interest in the language and the culture. You would tell us things about the language, like how the alphabet is different depending on where you are in the world. Different countries might speak the same language but they all change things. Thank you for teaching what words to use when I travel somewhere so I don’t get looked at like a freak. You were so passionate when you talked about the culture and how those who spoke the language and that transcended to me. I loved hearing about how each different part of the country varied in how they used the language or how they had thicker accents (which we may have made fun of a bit when we heard it on a tape). I loved hearing you talk about the history of the country and why we were learning the version of the language we were learning. You sparked this interest in me of wanting to learn more about different cultures and languages.

Though I may not be majoring in the language you taught, I will forever have an interest in the language. This everlasting interest is thanks to you, and I’m grateful for that.

Thank you,

Your former student