Touchon brings language and world culture to French class
Manteca High French teacher Clairelyse Touchon speaks with her class. Touchon has taught French at Manteca High for more than 30 years. (Hanna Palacio/The Tower)
By MAGGIE RIVERA
The Tower
Clairelyse Touchon, a Switzerland native, came to California for a new life and great opportunities, eventually settling in the Family City.
Touchon is the Manteca High School French teacher – the only French teacher in the Manteca Unified School District. She has taught at Manteca High for more than 30 years.
As a youngster, Touchon lived her favorite memory in Spain along with her family. There, she experienced different delights that weren’t familiar at home, such as eating shrimp.
Touchon, who enjoys cooking and quilting, ventured to the United States at 19 as an au pair (nanny) for a family. She helped take care of the children and performed household chores while learning the English language.
Manteca High French teacher Clairelyse Touchon helps a student with her work. Touchon has been teaching French language and culture at Manteca High for more than 30 years. (Hanna Palacio/The Tower)
Touchon later worked in a bank, collecting on loan payments that were passed due. Despite making a favorable income, the financial world wasn’t her passion. Instead, she enrolled at Delta College in Stockton and Sacramento State, finding her calling: Teaching French.
Manteca High Spanish teacher Stephanie Albor said she and Touchon are friends and colleagues.
“Ever since I met her, she has been very supportive, and she is the person that I rely on the most,” Albor said. “That's why I consider her my friend, and I'm glad I get to work with her.”
The Tower caught up Madame Touchon to discuss her past and who she is as a person.
THE TOWER: How and why did you come to America?
CLAIRELYSE TOUCHON: I came from Switzerland when I was 19, and I had an opportunity to be an au pair. ... It's like being an exchange student, except you're not a student. I would work six days a week, and they had a baby, they had a 12-year-old, and they had a 10-year-old who had muscular dystrophy. That's how I got to be here.
TT: What are your favorite hobbies?
CT: Oh, my hobbies? My pastimes? I learned to sew in school when I was in the ninth grade. I'm very happy that I learned that, because I love to quilt. ... I used to think it was very stupid, because you have a beautiful piece of fabric, and you can spend a long time cutting it, and they spend hours putting it together a different way. Why? Now I get it, and so if my students take AP, if they have four years of French ... I make them one, always personalized. It's their favorite colors. There's always something French, like an Eiffel Tower.