Ms. Katia Taylor, a French teacher at George Mason High School, often shares her stories of France with her classes. Intrigued, I decided to dig deeper and uncover more of her life and experiences in France and in the USA.
When I entered room C108 to interview Taylor, she greeted me with a smile. Her constant smile reassured me that this interview would go smoothly. We sat down at the desks and started the interview.
Taylor moved here to the USA in 1993 when she was 23 years old. She came for an opportunity to study in Seattle, Washington. When I asked if she missed France, she nodded and sighed,
“Yes, everyday,” adding in that she longed for her family, her friends, and the culture.
I learned a lot about how different France’s pace of life was compared the USA. A normal day in France, you work for seven hours but not the entire seven hours because there are many breaks such as an an hour for lunch and a twenty minute break every two hours. In France, people necessarily don’t work for five days a week but rather four because there are half days too.
“You work but you don’t live to work [in France]. Here in the US, I feel like we live to work.” Taylor said. When she went to France for a year, she could have done something social every night such as dine at a restaurant with friends or go see a play without feeling exhausted. Not only was work less demanding, so was education.
“When we grade kids, we don’t give kids 12 or 18 grades, we give students per quarter or semester 3 or 4 grades. Here, it’s like you must gives kids 18 grades,” Taylor said.
It was interesting learning about the difference between France and the USA. When I asked her about her most treasured memory of France, her smile widened, welcoming the question. Every afternoon in the gardens by the Eiffel Tower, her mom would pick her up from school with a “pain au chocolat,” or chocolate croissant. They would often walk to the gardens and then grab the groceries and go home.
“That’s something that stayed in my mind. And also the Spring; May is the best month to be in Paris,” Taylor said.
Then comparing it to the USA, she pointed out something that I haven’t noticed here probably because I’m used to it. Taylor mentioned that we have a good quality of life in the USA, but we pay a high price for it such as our mental health. After a while, people have a lot of things but they don’t have much time to enjoy it. And when people have time off, they don’t know what to do with themselves.
“And even on Sunday, they’re always busy… Us [in France], we sit down and go visit family. Every time I go home there’s more life happening… When I asked Americans if they’re seen their family [they say] we haven’t seen our [family] members at all. It’s weird for me, it’s not something we did.”
There was a rumor going on saying that Ms.Taylor was once a model in France. When I asked her about this, it was confirmed true.
“That was when I was so skinny, I was a size 4,” she said laughing.
When she was younger, Taylor enjoyed modeling a lot because it helped her overcome insecurities. She told me about how she used to be very shy, and when the teacher called on her she would cry in front of the class. As a model, Taylor had to understand what constructive and destructive criticism is. She needed to develop judgement to know when it was constructive or destructive.
“When I did modeling, it really helped me come out of my shell. I’m still shy today but not as bad as [I] used to… It helped me build a tougher skin,” Taylor said.
With a faster pace of life, more work, and the change in culture compared to France, you may wonder why Taylor prefers life in America. According to her, there are a lot of things in France that are not ideal, such as the unemployment rate and the lodging to find a home, especially in Paris. Sometimes, you may be forced to pay three times the rent in advance and if you make $16,000 a month then you are considered to be doing well.
“I don’t know how we did it, but we did so much more with less,” Taylor said.
During this interview, I found out about her strong passion for teaching. Taylor has been teaching for almost 17 years and has been teaching at George Mason for two years.
“What I love about teaching is that everyday when I come to work … I’ve never taken the same day in my entire career. Everyday is a different day. And that’s what I love about it,” Taylor said.
She used a factory comparison to explain this. If you work in a factory you make the same things everyday, the design doesn’t change and neither does the machine until maybe three years later. You’re going to hear the same loud machine with the same colors and seeing the same people. But when you are in a school, things change. Students leave in June have changed from when they arrived in September. There’s also some drama and different stories.
Teaching helps her keep in touch with the changes through time and trends. Such as the technology, hype, and music.
“The kids are going to let me know about it. I probably would not be as able to adapt to the ever changing world around us,” Taylor said.
She enjoyed working with young kids because she enjoyed their free spirit.
“If you notice when you guys talk to me, sometimes I get all excited,” Taylor said while laughing. But it’s more than just enjoying the presence of the students, she also considers her students as her family. “My kids are my family. It’s a family that I never realized until the recent years. It’s like I made friends for a lifetime,” Taylor said.
She said many students become teachers because of her.
“But it’s funny because quite often they are the all of the kids that are not the strongest in French class. And those who are really good, they go and do other things,” Taylor said.
Overall, from this interview I learned and found out a lot about Ms. Katia Taylor than I expected. From her memories in France, to her adjustment from France to the USA, then her passion for teaching, Taylor is a model for many of us here at George Mason.
