Information About Anna - Battersea teacher -

(6 reviews)

Personal Description:

I am a 36 year old native German/Austrian with 21 years of teaching experience. I hold a Master's degree from the University of Aberdeen and currently work at the Houses of Parliament and as part-time German and Latin tutor.

I have always had a love for languages and teaching. For that reason, I started tutoring when I was 15 years old and have done it ever since. I get a massive buzz out of my students' progress and them having fun at the same time. I have worked with executives to prepare them for their move abroad to Germany, but also with students preparing for their A Levels. I have achieved excellent results with all my students and seen their knowledge (and my experience!) grow immensely throughout the process.

What sets me apart from the crowd?

Living as a foreigner in London and having established a career here, I know first hand of the challenges people face when using a language which is new to them in a foreign country. For that matter, I also know what it means to learn socialising in a new language!

Lastly, having learned Latin for over 10 years and graduating in it with excellent results, my teachers spotted my talent for explaining the language very early on and asked me to tutor some of their less successful students. I know that learning Latin can be hard due to the fact that we do not practice it in the real world. However, it being a very meticulous language, it strengthens logical thinking beyond measure and is of course the mother of all roman languages, which are much easier to learn with the knowledge of Latin.

Teaching Experience:

21 years, all levels business and private.

I have been teaching for 21 years, starting with Latin in secondary school to help younger students improving their grades. When I moved abroad 17 years ago, I started teaching my native language German for business customers and private clients on a self-employed basis. Some of my students have successfully moved abroad and taken on leading roles in their professions.

Teaching Approach:

I enjoy teaching and want my students to get the most out of the learning experience. Since learning a language takes time and effort, staying motivated and enjoying it is the key to success. I therefore combine grammar and vocabulary lessons with a lot of conversation and fun exercises.

I teach very individually, meaning it depends whether the goal is to pass an exam or to survive in a foreign land, so to speak! In my experience, it is important to explain things in a way students find things easy to remember, but also awaken their own logical thinking and curiosity around a language. Both German and Latin have a few fun elements to their characteristics, and I strive to bring them out as well to make the lessons more exciting and engaging.
For children, I use a lot of "language games" to stimulate their brains, mixing them with the more serious exam preparation exercises and therelike.
For adults, remembering things can be a little trickier (given that we learn easier when we are younger), however, there are many ways to challenge this and awaken an adult learner's confidence around remembering and speaking, even for a tricky language such as German!