I was one of those kids that were raised to believe that there is no mountain too high to climb. At the age of 14, my parents divorced, and I grew with my mum. My mother taught me that it is never too late in life to succeed in life if it is your passion. My mom led by example. At the age of 50, she went back to school and trained as a caregiver for the disabled. By doing so, I saw her reach new levels that I didn’t think were possible at her age. Watching her do this, I learned to follow my heart, especially when choosing my profession. My passion has always been to help people and bring out the best in them. I followed by desire and became a teacher of German.
My Journey as an Employed German Teacher
I started my career working for different institutions and settings. I worked hard and landed a job in the UN. I taught large and small groups, leading intensive courses that were aimed at helping students learn German in the shortest time possible. Within the many years of teaching, I saw how hard it is for people to learn German. Naturally, as a trainer, I wondered what I could do to make it easier for them. I was often disturbed because I felt like I wasn’t fulfilling my passion in life. After quite some pondering, I realized that intensive courses are not the ideal way of teaching German. The courses try to force knowledge into the students in the shortest amount of time. The institutions, through the courses, try to force the students to learn fast no matter the costs. I found that most of my students would complete the course and still not be able to communicate in their everyday life. There were too many gaps in the base, and the students could hardly put the lessons into practice.
So I found out that the best solution would be to take more time. However, this wasn’t a guarantee that the students would learn better. With trial and error, I found it to be a misconception. Even after keeping the students in a class for longer and lengthening the courses, the results were not as good as I had hoped for. To me, the most important thing was to follow my heart, which at the time wanted to help people learn German. I find my greatest joy in seeing people from diverse backgrounds speak their first German sentences as a result of my hard work.
Deciding to take my time with the students and not allow them to move to the next level if they were too weak resulted in conflicts in the workplace. The most important thing for me was the success of my students, while the institutions were only keen on the profits. Refusing to let the students move to the next level made it impossible for the institutions to admit more students in their place. My employers did not take this lightly. They wanted students to move fast and pave the way for new admissions, but I would not conform to their demands. The conflicts increased, and eventually, I decided to leave the institutions and go into business for myself.
My Journey to Self-Employment
In 2018, I started my journey as a self-employed German teacher. I wanted to help and motivate my students to learn German in the way that I deemed fit. I wanted to take as much time as needed and pay more attention to my students, something that no institution would let me do.
Even while working for myself, I still had a hard time teaching my students successfully. In my quest to find the solution, I discovered that the students only concentrate on the subject and not the people behind it. Most of my students were new to the country. They were facing a lot of emotional challenges that kept them from learning. In my opinion, this is what made learning German so challenging. The fears of being in a new country and false beliefs hinder the students from making any progress despite the amount of effort put in.
By considering these factors in my teaching, I found a lot of success. People that were struggling for a long time to learn could now speak German freely and fearlessly. With that, I have found great fulfilment in life, having helped people learn and start a new journey.
Learning from me will help you feel relieved, revitalized, and strengthened. I make it a point to help my students concentrate on themselves, their careers, and their lives without worry or fear. You do not have to sit alone at home frustrated about being in a new land where you cannot get anything done because of a language barrier. After working with me, you are certain to see more doors open and develop an attitude that you can achieve anything you want in life.
What Are My Strengths?
- Passion- My greatest strength as a German teacher is my passion for my job. My passion drives me to work hard and make sure that every student that learns from me leaves with a success story to tell. The success of my students is fulfilment for me.
- Competence and extensive knowledge- I have worked as a German trainer for many years. In those years, I have garnered a lot of experience and expertise that I use to the advantage of my students.
- Intuitiveness- in my years of practice, I have found that trusting my intuition has earned me more good than bad. I have faced several challenges, including the conflicts at work, and trusting my intuition is the reason for my success.
- Sympathy and Empathy- I take pride in my ability to sympathize and put myself in the shoes of my clients. By doing so, I was able to come up with a plan that has helped me teach a lot of students successfully.
- Helpfulness and service orientation- my greatest desire in life is to serve my students and help them better themselves.
- Joy and positivity- my greatest joy in life are seeing my students succeed. I was brought in a positive environment, and I believe that there is nothing impossible to achieve in life.
- A deep desire to do good- I desire to change the world and make it a better place. I believe that change starts with the things that some people would consider to be trivial, like teaching.
- Strengthening women- being raised by a single mother throughout my teenage years to adulthood and seeing my senior mum achieve heights I never thought were possible instilled this passion in me.