 "Photo: Ted Copeland/The Olympian")
 "Photo: Alex Vincent/The Olympian")
Olympic College French professor Magda Krall’s early education was in a French Catholic school in Alexandria, Egypt in the days when nuns sill wore their full habits in the classroom.
Now, many years later, Krall finds herself still in the classroom as an adjunct French professor at OC as well as teaching Arabic and Middle Eastern culture to deploying servicemen at Bangor Naval Base.
Krall recalls her early years in the classroom as different from the overbearing stereotypes of nuns teaching in Catholic schools.
“They were never allowed to hit us,” said Krall.
According to Krall, she was an outgoing child who was often chosen to act in plays or sing for school events.
In her school, they spoke French all day, and at home it was French and Arabic. Krall’s Greek mother also taught her hundreds of Greek words.
In addition to French and Arabic, she learned to speak and read Italian from a cousin and began learning English in school in the 3rd grade.
Krall’s father worked at the British Council in Egypt, so all of her knowledge of English was in the British manner.
“Until I got married, I didn’t know the difference between American and British English,” said Krall, who married her American husband Ron in 1981.
When it came time to move on to a university, the way the system worked in Egypt was students were told what to study based on their grades. When Krall’s results dictated that she be an accountant, she returned to school and re-did her last year of high school in order to improve her grades and thus her area of study.
Krall’s hard work paid off when she qualified to study medicine. She studied pediatrics at Alexandria Medical College and worked as a physician.
After geting married, Krall relocated with her husband to Saudi Arabia where she worked in a hospital.
Her husband was an American working for the US Corps of Engineers, so Krall needed to become an American citizen.
Because they lived and worked overseas, they had a limited amount of time in the US to do so and went through an expedited process.
Krall’s husband called his local congressman, Bremerton’s Norm Dicks, for assistance. His office was instrumental in getting the process done as fast as possible, and her interview for naturalization was scheduled for the day after she first arrived in the country.
Krall still holds a special place in her heart for Dicks and his help.
“Whenever Norm Dicks is running for something I have to write his name down,” said Krall.
Naturalization was a harrowing process for Krall because she went through it faster than some of the paperwork could be done.
“I’m standing in court on the 14th (of December). Everyone has a green card and what do I have? A copy of my naturalization papers,” said Krall. “I thought ‘this is not going to work.’”
Over the years, Krall has lived in Alexandria, Cairo, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United States. Whenever the opportunity arose, she and Ron traveled.
“When you start traveling, you can never stop,” said Krall.
She took her Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates test in the US, but did not pass, so she has not practiced medicine in the states.
Krall has been in the Bremerton area since 1988 after she and her husband built a home in Allyn. Ron died from an ocular melanoma in 1997.
Shortly after, Krall found herself looking for reasons to do something different.
“I decided to get out, so the first thing I did was volunteering at Belfair Elementary tutoring children to read,” said Krall.
Krall still volunteers at the school as well as at the naval hospital. At one point she was translating a WWII memoir into French for the father of a friend. Word spread about her language skills, particularly Arabic, to former OC Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities Ed Palm.
Palm interviewed Krall for the possibility of teaching an Arabic and Middle Eastern culture class to deploying Marines.
“It was the first time in my life I heard the word syllabus,” said Krall.
According to Krall, written Arabic and spoken Arabic are very different. She began the class with no books or pre-made teaching tools.
“I didn’t have a book. Everything in Arabic I was hand writing,” she said.
Wrangling 18-year-old Marines was an adjustment for Krall, but she said she has become adept at it.
During winter quarter of 2008, Krall was asked to cover for the current French professor, who was on vacation. Right after, the professor quit and Krall was asked to take over permanently.
Whether she is teaching Marines or at OC, Krall knows what she likes.
“I really, really love French more than Arabic teaching,” she said.
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