I was remembering one of my Wymondham High A-Level Spanish teachers the other day. I remember this one lesson she gave when she played us Marco Mengoni’s song ‘La Casa Azul’, which is told from the perspective of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican portraitist.

(If you know about Kahlo, you will be familiar with her famous blue house – ‘casa azul’ in Spanish means ‘blue house’.)

Good luck forgetting that song once you’ve heard it once. It’s a complete earworm. There are versions in Italian and Spanish – both are great.

This particular teacher played us the song in full and then asked us if we’d caught any words that suggested what it was about. There’s this bit where Mengoni sings ‘¿qué has dibujado para mi, chiquilla?’ And one of the girls said, ‘I heard something about Shakira’.

Fast forward several years – I’m in my final year at university, all coursework submitted (terrifying) – and I’m having dinner with one of my best friends. He asks me what I’m humming during the cooking, and I play him this song, which has remained on my playlist for all four years since I heard it in class.

It’s a weird thing, recommending a song to someone else and then playing it right in front of them. You keep scanning their face for whether they’re into it, or whether they’re about to give you a confused stare for your dodgy music taste. He listens to the whole song completely plain-faced, giving nothing away, and then says, ‘amazing – let’s listen to it again’. And then requests it again later that evening. Then he texts me at random two days later to say he’s still listening to it now.

Like I said – it’s a catchy one.

I also played him ‘La Chanson des Restos’, which was the main musical feature of my French A-Level classes and has also remained on my playlist for those four years. He was less keen on that one. He’s wrong – ‘Restos’ is also a banger. Still, one out of two isn’t bad.

It’s funny remembering teachers several years after the fact. You come across a lot of them as a young person, especially if you go to university. You meet so many different ones of such different varieties, personalities, vibes, mindsets – you name it. The ‘Casa Azul’ teacher was extremely friendly. She was pretty much always smiling and had a great sense of humour. She was your quintessential ‘nice teacher’, which was not to be confused with being bad or lax (I got an A* at Spanish).

You also come across some unbearable tutors – very rarely. That rule applies to both university and school. On one memorable occasion, I mentioned the name of a tutor I was about to go and visit, and the staff member I was speaking to mimed flicking dog muck off the end of their shoe. (I agreed with the sentiment.)

Another time, a tutor arranged to see me after class for a coffee, and when we met up, they spent two hours giving me all the gossip about their colleagues, including some embarrassing revelations about the behind-the-scenes behaviour of other tutors who had also taught me.

It was as unprofessional as it was hilarious.

But the ‘Casa Azul’ teacher was a reliable one. I remember another class where we talked about ‘los ídolos’ (idols), where we had to discuss various people in the media who we looked up to. Before getting to any Spanish, she just sat us down and had us speak about it in English.

At the time, ‘idols’ were a harder topic than they sound. I did A-Levels during a weird time for online politics – it might have calmed down now. With basically every topical issue being beset with rampant, unverified social media rumours, opinions flying left right and centre on all kinds of individuals, and Gen Z not being entirely renowned for their ability to disagree well, it was eminently possible that one student’s ‘idol’ in that classroom would be another student’s witch.

But even though this teacher was very forward about her politics – possibly more so than average – you were always sure that you would be treated well. She had lots of time for everyone. Which was a relief.

So in conclusion – most teachers are great, some are very eccentric, and most of all, go and listen to ‘La Casa Azul’.