Donald Teuma-Castelletti
OTTER LAKE
March 26, 2018
There’s a little-known service available to adult Anglophones looking to enhance their French in Otter Lake, with students giving their teacher an A+ for her work.
Esther Dubeau has been teaching French lessons to small groups of people out of her home since 1993, in a stress-free, encouraging environment.
“I had a hard time learning English and now I’m paying it back,” said Dubeau.
Every Monday, from 9:30 till 11:30 a.m., Dubeau welcomes a small group of Anglophones into her home for her weekly French classes. Here, the group works together on a variety of exercises meant to stimulate their French-speaking abilities.

While some students are new to the class, others have been attending for a few years, and they all have their own reason for joining. Whether it be to communicate with customers or better understand their competition at darts, the students say the group has been invaluable for their progress with the language.
“What I go for is what they have trouble with,” said Dubeau.
Though she’s never kept track of how many people she’s worked with, she does remember it’s been a steady group of at least five since the beginning. Never advertising her classes, all of the attendees hear of the class through word-of-mouth.
Her current group said they look forward to attending every week, and despite returning to the good old days of having homework, the work is fun and challenging.
“From my perspective, Esther does a lot of prep for the classes,” said Robin Zacharias. “It’s the work she puts into it.”
Others in the group highlighted certain portions as key to their learning.
“At the end of class, she encourages us to have free speech in French,” said José Paulo. “It takes a bit of guts.”
All of the group agreed the class is valuable to them because of the lack of judgment from their teacher and peers.
“Most are disappointed when they miss a class,” added Paulo, to which everyone agreed.