Herzlich willkommen! Welcome to German! I am really looking forward to supporting you in your German learning, and I wish you well with your studies at Wolsey Hall.
I love languages and they (particularly German) have always played an important role in my life. I am German on my mother’s side and have relatives in Berlin and Leipzig with whom I have close contact. I also have good friends in Hessen where I spent my year as a Language Assistant and, later on, from leading Exchanges there as part of my job as a Languages Teacher.
I speak French and Portuguese too and am very grateful that I learned Portuguese at the age of seven when we lived in Brazil as a family for 5 years. I took it up again when studying for my A levels and subsequently chose to do a degree in German with Portuguese at Newcastle University.
Since completing my PGCE in German with French I have taught in two comprehensive schools. Being a Languages teacher is very rewarding and I have learned a lot from it. I am used to dealing with the huge varieties in students’ ways of learning and I have seen how the assessment and marking of students’ work have developed and become much more “student friendly” in recent years. Students need to know how they have done, but also more crucially, how to improve and to be encouraged by praise and positive feedback.
Currently I am taking a break from full time teaching and working for Wolsey Hall is part of a new and exciting chapter in my life. I am working part time as a private Tutor which I find is an interesting alternative to teaching full classes. It is fantastic to be able to give students one to one attention and seeing progress happening instantly. Not working full time is also giving me the opportunity to have more of a work/ life balance. I enjoy being physically active: running, walking and doing exercise routines. I love knitting, reading and watching thrillers, travelling to Germany and to the Caribbean and baking cakes. I am also considering learning a new language, Italian.
So I hope you’ll join me in finding language learning a hugely enjoyable, rewarding and useful experience. Who knows one day, it might not only give you the chance to travel and meet all sorts of new people, but it might even provide you with a fulfilling career!