Most know Mr. Ware as the outgoing new language teacher who plays piano during Chapel every once in a while, but there is so much more to him than most people know. Here is an inside look at Mr. Ware’s career, passions, and eccentricities. 

• Spanish was actually his first language of choice. 

Until recently, I was unaware that Mr. Ware taught Spanish in addition to French, so imagine my surprise when I learned that Spanish was actually his second language! As a third grader, he spent hours in the library –  “because back then we didn’t have Duolingo or any of the other fancy websites” – and pored over any Spanish book he could get his hands on. “That,” he says, smiling through his mask, “is what led to my love for languages.” 

He pursued Spanish up until high school when, after learning that all the Spanish classes were full, he began taking French, and he’s been trilingual ever since. (Well, actually, he knows German as well… and Hungarian… and who knows what else). 

• This isn’t his first teaching job.  

        Mr. Ware first worked as an English teaching assistant in France in 2015, where he utilized his linguistic skills whilst spreading his passion for communication. This position enabled him to refine his French and develop an understanding of how language could be taught and absorbed. Shortly after, he worked at Floyd County High School in Virginia, where he assumed his first full-time teaching job. After gaining experience as both an English teacher in France and a French teacher in the U.S., Mr. Ware came to Christ Church with a deep grasp of the importance of linguistics and effective teaching methods. He remarks that Christ Church’s atmosphere is really different, having a “broader sense of community that’s really emphasized”, which manages to make him feel welcomed despite the current circumstances.

•  His teaching method doesn’t fit the traditional mold 

         Mr. Ware is many things, but conventional is not one of them – at least when it comes to his teaching. Like many of us have experienced in the past, he grew up with the antiquated method of filling out worksheets and memorizing vocabulary to regurgitate for a test. “And while I think that has its time and place”, he says, “what’s the ideal environment for a human to acquire language, as opposed to memorizing grammar rules?” His formula for learning a foreign language involves conversing in that language until the rules and nuances become second nature. Of course, he believes intrinsic motivation is the key to mastering anything despite the method used. 

• He’s traveled to several countries 

         Aside from teaching in France, Mr. Ware has been quite the world traveler. One of his favorite travels took place in Hungary, where he visited landmarks such as the parliament house in Budapest and took in the natural beauty of the Danube River, both of which contributed to a former desire to move there. Of course, he had to elaborate on his love of studying languages here, touting Hungarian as both “mystical and intriguing”.

He has also visited Sweden twice to see one of his closest friends living there. One of his favorite memories revolves around preparing Swedish meatballs at Christmastime while camping next to the clear Lake Väsman for a kräftskiva (crayfish party). Other notable travels include Belgium and Côte d’Ivoire, where he immersed himself in the area through his love of chocolate. 

• He is a chocolate enthusiast (and he’s got some strange taste) 

        Upon meeting Mr. Ware on our first Blue day, I learned that his favorite food is dark chocolate. One hundred percent dark chocolate. I have long since been puzzled over his peculiar (and some might say crazy) taste, so naturally I sought some answers. Apparently he went on the keto diet a few years ago, the object of which is to restrict your carb intake. He needed to have some sort of chocolate “fix”, so he tried the darkest of the dark and never went back. As to his various chocolate travels, while in Côte d’Ivoire, he tasted fermented cocoa beans, and another time in Belgium he visited an entire museum dedicated to chocolate and tasted nearly everything they had. Yum!

• His music tastes extend back hundreds of years

Mr. Ware describes himself as “an old soul,” which his music preferences definitely reflect. Music serves as a window into different cultures, and thus Mr. Ware’s music tastes are diverse in both genre and time period. He tends to appreciate pre-2000 songs, his favorite genre being Motown, with legends such as Anita Baker, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin in his roster of top 10 favorite artists. He’s also somewhat of a classical connoisseur, as he listens to Chopin, Rachmaninov, Debussy, Mozart, Rokofiev, and several other composers, noting that he is “not really picky when it comes to music, as long as it sounds good and fits the mood”.

• His philosophy on goals is simple, and matches that of Christ Church 

  “You have a common goal regardless of what your background is, regardless of what might be bothering you…  you know that there’s a mission, and you’ve either got to get with it or do something else. Because that’s what life is. You find your niche, and you make it work (hopefully). And I feel like there’s an energy here, that is very positive.”