Mais was the instructor for the very first French course I took at the Institut Francais in Amman. She is a fantastic teacher but what I remember best about that course is how comfortable she made her students feel.
Learning a new language can be very intimidating as many people feel self-conscious about participating in class for fear of making “silly” mistakes in front of their peers, but Mais created a safe yet cheerful and fun atmosphere in the classroom, encouraging all her students to participate in the reading and oral exercises with confidence and to take part in class activities. Of all the courses I took, that course was probably the one with the highest participation rate thanks to Mais’s talent of putting people at ease and bringing out the best in them.