{"id":7477,"date":"2025-04-23T18:47:37","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T22:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=7477"},"modified":"2025-04-23T18:47:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T22:47:37","slug":"professor-desmond-hosford-teaching-french-with-passion-and-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2025\/04\/professor-desmond-hosford-teaching-french-with-passion-and-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Desmond Hosford: Teaching French with Passion and Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Professor Desmond Hosford administering a quiz in his Intensive Intermediate French course. April 8th, 2025. By Alexis Profeta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An early afternoon hush settles over the classroom as students shuffle in, textbooks thudding onto desks and earbuds disappearing into backpacks. The mood is part dread, part ritual \u2014 quiz day in Intensive Intermediate French. At the front of the room stands Professor Desmond Hosford, crisp in a tailored shirt and jeans, surveying the room with the calm intensity of someone who has done this hundreds of times. He doesn\u2019t need to raise his voice; the energy shifts as soon as he speaks.<\/p>\n

The quiz ends. The students hand in their quizzes and turn their attention to the projector. Suddenly, the room feels more like a theater than a classroom. A scene from French in Action<\/i>, a vintage language series and the textbook Hosford uses, flickers onto the screen. Characters speak in rapid, colloquial French, their Parisian accents rolling. Hosford is alive now\u2014echoing the lines, pointing out grammar in real time, and jumping between English and French with a fluidity that feels more like performance than instruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrench is a fussy language,\u201d Hosford later explains. \u201cThe hardest of the Romance languages to pronounce. Some of the sounds just don\u2019t exist in English \u2014 you have to exaggerate. You have to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performance is at the heart of Desmond Hosford\u2019s teaching style. Whether he\u2019s mimicking the distinct vowel sounds of northern France or encouraging students to fully immerse themselves in a new verb\u2014by writing it out, saying it aloud, and visualizing the words in a cartoon bubble above their heads\u2014Hosford believes language learning is most effective when it\u2019s active and engaging. \u201cCulture is what makes language stick,\u201d he explains. \u201cIf you\u2019re emotionally connected, you\u2019ll remember it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, not everyone walks into his class ready to perform. Many Hunter College students are there to fulfill a language requirement, and Hosford knows the uphill climb he\u2019s against. \u201cSome of them don\u2019t even know basic English grammar,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can’t learn a pluperfect in French if you don’t know what it is in English.\u201d But his philosophy is simple: meet students where they are and push them forward, even when they don\u2019t believe in themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I enjoy most,\u201d he says, \u201cis when a student who\u2019s been struggling all semester comes to me and says, \u2018Thank you for believing in me.\u2019 They think they\u2019re going to fail \u2014 and then they don\u2019t. Not because I inflated their grade, but because they did the work. They earned it. I get to say, \u2018I told you so.\u2019 And the confidence they gain? That\u2019s everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosford lights up when he talks about these breakthrough moments \u2014 when something finally clicks. \u201cWe\u2019ll be going over this tough concept, and someone\u2019s just not getting it \u2014 and then suddenly, they do. Then everyone starts doing these complicated things they didn\u2019t think they could do, and I\u2019m bouncing off the walls. I tell them, \u2018You don\u2019t even know what you just did. You crushed it. Pat yourself on the back. Yay, you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Professor Desmond Hosford is lecturing his students about French grammar. April 8th, 2025. By Alexis Profeta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But language learning in 2025 isn\u2019t what it was two decades ago, and Hosford has seen the shift firsthand. \u201cMy book isn\u2019t online,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can read it on your iPad, fine. But now that so much coursework is through these online platforms, students don\u2019t write anymore \u2014 they type. They get three tries to guess the answer. It\u2019s not the same as writing it out, getting it wrong, and having to talk through why.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes the new systems, while convenient, often oversimplify the process. \u201cIt becomes like a video game. But language isn\u2019t a game. If you don\u2019t write it by hand, it doesn\u2019t stick. Your brain doesn\u2019t make the same connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the only tech trend he pushes back against. He warns students to avoid language-learning apps like Babbel and Duolingo, criticizing their oversimplified instruction and grammar errors. \u201cThere\u2019s an ad for Babbel where someone says j\u2019aimerais un taxi \u2014 that\u2019s literally the wrong verb. It should be je voudrais. A one-on-one mistake. And they paid real money for that campaign!\u201d<\/p>\n

His message to students is consistent: Don\u2019t rely on Google Translate, apps, or AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a student who was obsessed with ChatGPT \u2014 using it for everything,\u201d he says. \u201cI told him no. Absolutely not. Before, the problem was Google Translate. Now it\u2019s this. AI can\u2019t teach you a language. It can\u2019t capture nuance. And it\u2019s taking jobs from real people. Editors, teachers \u2014 we\u2019re being replaced by something that can\u2019t do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his critiques of the digital age, Hosford doesn\u2019t seem unreasonable. He\u2019s passionate, expressive, and deeply committed to his students\u2019 success. His classroom is a space of energy, challenge, and transformation.<\/p>\n

Even if his students don\u2019t walk away fluent, they walk away having done something hard \u2014 and done it well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you’re not a French major. Maybe you’ll never use this again,\u201d he tells them. \u201cBut you did this. And you should be proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

His students recognize that passion and drive. Brianna Marthel, a senior, shares, \u201cProfessor Hosford is a great teacher. He’s very passionate about what he does. He’s a little dictation-heavy but really cares about the students’ learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liana Chirila adds, \u201cProfessor Hosford is full of zest when he teaches. He’s immersed in what he’s teaching, making you want to learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Hosford, the real reward is the transformation he sees in his students \u2014 the quiet victories, the moments of realization when a student who struggles walks away knowing they\u2019ve conquered something difficult. That\u2019s what keeps him teaching year after year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through engaging lessons and unwavering support, Professor Hosford helps his students overcome challenges and gain confidence in learning French. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":7478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[690,691,689,184,13,192],"class_list":["post-7477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","tag-french","tag-profile","tag-romancelanguages","tag-cuny-hunter-college","tag-hunter","tag-professors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7491,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7477\/revisions\/7491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}