Claudia Tutor Interview

Q. Hi, Claudia! May I ask about your background first? You are originally from Germany, and grew up bilingually with English?: A. Yes, I did grow up with English and German. My parents had many friends who did not speak German and so it was common in our house to hear other languages. English and German were the most commonly spoken though. In the beginning, when I learnt to speak, it must have been quite confusing for the people to understand me. At the time we lived in Spain, we had an English Au-pair girl and my best friend was French. Add German to the mix from my parents and you can imagine what my first sentences were like! But it soon sorted out naturally and I became fairly fluent in all of those languages. Sad to say – having not used Spanish and French in almost 25 years, I lost most of my ability in those languages. English was easy to keep up, as I lived in English speaking countries and was working with teams from the UK and other international groups.
Q. You were an archaeologist!!What made you be an archaeologist? What particular area (or age) do you specialize in?: A. One of the first books I read as a child was a description about the discovery of the stone-age cave of Lasceaux, which has beautiful drawings and paintings. The cave had been found by 3 boys and a dog and this story started my interest in archaeology. Finally, while I was studying I started to concentrate on the Early Bronze Age and my research areas were India and Sri Lanka.I have started to work there while I was still a student and continued after I graduated with a Master’s Degree.
Q. You have taught to Japanese students for 20 years. What made you start? Is there any particular reason why you decided to teach students from Japan?: A. In Sri Lanka I met a colleague from Japan and fell in love with him. We got married and continued to work in Sri Lanka for another year. Sadly, our contracts ran out and as the political situation was rather unstable, no one wanted to finance a research there. We had to find a way to support ourselves, and as my husband did not want to learn German, we decided to go to Japan. We moved to Gunma and started a language/prep school there. It became quite successful, but when we were offered to go back to Sri Lanka after 12 years, we took the chance. Then I started to teach online.
Q. Your popular lesson is prep for various tests. Can you tell me some of the features of those lessons?: A. Well, it depends really on the test and on the ability of the student. Often it is not so much a question of English ability, but to understand and getting used to the requirements of the test. Time-management tends to be a major issue. Most of my students are looking for help with the speaking and writing parts, as you need a feedback to find out, where you can improve.
Q. You give German lessons as well. If you’re a beginner of German what should you learn first?: A. Again, it depends on what you want to do with the German. If you just want some traveling German, then we would start with phrases and vocabulary to exchange in those phrases. – We would learn situational language. If you are looking to learn German proper, though, then you would have to learn the basic verb and noun changes to build sentences. They are the equivalent to the Japanese は、が、に、で、を. Knowing them you are able to build many sentences and the rest is not difficult any more. Most people are worried about the separation of male, female and neuter nouns. But that tends to be no problem, if you have the correct learning technique.
Q. Could you leave a message for our students?: A. Learning a language is like learning to use a tool. It cannot be a target in itself. Have fun with whatever language you want to learn. You will get better the more you use this ‘tool’ and the more you have fun handling this tool. And never forget – Nobody is perfect! Not even in one’s own language – do not even try to be perfect in a foreign language, it is impossible. Try to communicate. People appreciate that you try and mostly do not mind when you make a mistake. Just go for it!!