The Idiosyncratic Life of One of Redlands Very Own, Mr. Cose

By MATT KRISTOFFERSEN

Scenic beaches surround your view, an almost panoramic longing for a vacation fills your mind. You can practically smell the salty ocean air. Planes of all shapes and sizes soar above wispy clouds, their destination unknown. Long shafts of light blind you, their full force blocked by the same clouds. You drop your hand, blindly searching for your sunglasses, yet all you find is a number 2 pencil. Confused, your dream fizzles away, and you are left staring at your Vocabulario Test for Spanish III.

Fortunately, dreams like that are commonplace amongst those sitting in room H106, and the man behind those ubiquitous posters of beautiful islands and planes is none other than Brian Cose, known to students as Sr. Cose. A graduate of USD with a master’s degree in International Relations, Sr. Cose spent his earliest years in beautiful San Diego, meeting various characters such as Zeno and Xyxisis, who he frequently uses as translation examples for homework. Sr. Cose is fluent in a multitude of languages, including Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Armenian, Chinese, and Spanish, and is currently learning Finnish, among others. His talent in learning new languages certainly rubs off onto his students through his use of fun phrases like “flip it real good” to explain rather difficult grammatical concepts, a technique proven to help tremendously on exams.

“I don’t know how I’d survive AP Spanish,” claims senior Jessica Ngo, who had him for Spanish II, “without knowing how to ‘flip it real good.’” Fun phrases are characteristic of his class, as are elaborate poster assignments that go along with nearly every chapter, the best of which serve as added backdrops to the foreign language department’s ocean villa.

Sr. Cose once reminisced about his clandestine travels to Russia before the fall of the Soviet Union and surprised his captivated period 1 audience by recounting a time when a Russian man broke into his hotel room and offered to buy the Levi’s that he was wearing. Such voyages are common for Sr. Cose, as are the remnants of his time as a cargo pilot, evident through his navigator lingo like “lock on” and “niner-niner,” along with his great respect for native American culture with phrases like “you speak with wind in your hair” and “wandering spirit.”

His odd adventures and acquisition of numerous languages have created a devoted following among his students:
I think he’s a spy!” claims junior Matthew Whiteley, a two-year veteran of Sr. Cose’s class.
“Hands down, no doubt about it, he’s a spy!” Natalie Zander, who is in the same class period as Whiteley, corroborates the claim.

As for the source? A shy grin is the only answer he gives.