Mr. Potential 2007

Many people seem to think that the life of an English teacher in Paris is one full of potential dating opportunities. In the world of teaching English to business professionals, one would think that we come into contact with new students every week - business men who are polite, educated, funny and just dying to get to know their English teacher on a more personal level - its a lovely concept in theory - but it is entirely WRONG! All of my students are either;
a) female - thanks but no thanks;
b) 50 - they say age isn't a barrier - I say it is;
c) boring - the MOST boring people in the world learn english;
d) french - in all the WRONG ways;
e) married - not a good idea;
f) obsessed with their girlfriends - I don't want to hear about it or;
g) ugly - I shouldn't be superficial, but i have SOME standards!

So, aside from the fact that it might not be the wisest idea to have a teacher/student relationship outside of the classroom, when the students fit into the above list, it's not even something worth considering. That was of course until June 26, when Mr. Potential 2007 walked into my school.

Mr. Potential 2007 was a breath of fresh air in my working week - someone I never expected to see in my time as an English teacher - someone who could be given a number of pseudonyms;
1) Mr. Hot
2) Mr. Funny
3) Mr. Intelligent
4) Mr. Interesting
5) Mr. Multilingual
6) Mr. Well dressed
7) Mr. Experienced...

In fact, the list could keep going - which is why I prefer to call him simply Mr. Potential 2007...

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of what we in the industry call the 'restaurant class' - a phenomenal concept where you get paid a teaching rate to go to a fancy restaurant with a student so that they can practise the skill of just making social chit-chat - basically you get paid to eat. There are some people who find these classes horrible - they don't like having lunch and talking on a more personal level with students who fit into the aforementioned categories - they would rather just get a sandwich and eat it with people they like. I, on the other hand, have no problem with being paid to eat in a restaurant that i would never be able to afford on my own. So last Tuesday I arrived at work a couple of minutes late for my restaurant class - no need to rush for my boring, ugly, old man I thought - and thats when it happened - I was introduced to my lunch date - Mr. Potential 2007!

Lunch was fantastic - not only was I seated opposite a stunningly attractive man, who was very well dressed, eating good food and getting paid for it, but the man was interesting and funny as well. He had lived in England, Brazil, Rome and of course France and so was fluent in English, Portuguese, Italian and French. He assured me that English was the worst of his languages - which I found hard to believe, considering that he was fluent (there are some people we teach who speak english better than us - nobody understands why they are taking lessons - well done sales people is all I can say).

After lunch I was lucky enough to have another 2 and a half hours of class with him - which went by smoothly, despite my lack of preparation - If I had known the lesson was with Mr. Potential 2007, I would have prepared for it more (is that wrong? - the idea of giving good looking people a better class - not my use of the 3rd conditional which is clearly correct - look it up English speakers).

That afternoon I finished the class and went to the teachers room, where I was clearly envied by all the young female teachers, who like me, had begun to think that hot men didn't exist in the realm of language training. It was time to prepare for my Wednesday classes - one of which was with none other than Mr. Potential 2007.

On Wednesday I woke up feeling a little bit sick, which was strangely sudden and unappreciated. It was nothing too drastic though, so I got ready for work and made myself look glamourous. The morning classes went by slowly, and with each hour that passed I began to feel worse - how bloody unfair!! By the time my afternoon class with Mr. Potential 2007 came round, i felt like shit and looked even worse. But I wasn't going to give up this opportunity - my last class with Mr. Potential 2007 (unfortunately he was taking a one-week intensive program, and I only had 6 hours out of the 35 - although fortunately for me the other 29 hours were with male teachers). I spent the 2 hour lesson blowing my nose (i finished a packet of tissues), feeling awful and apologising for my sickness. At the end of it all, we wished each other well and he told me to go home and get some rest.

I spent Thursday and Friday at home either in bed or throwing up. So, I never even got to go to work and admire Mr. Potential 2007 from afar.

I have since googled him - but with no success - it seems all potential has been lost - I knew it was too good to be true.