(closed) Maria E

(closed) Maria E Tutor Interview

Q. Hi, Maria E please introduce yourself!

A. Hi! My name is Maria E, and I am from a small town called Uddevalla, 80 km north of Gothenburg on West coast of Sweden.

I started off my working life within the tourism industry but changed direction when I got married, and moved to the UK. I started to study for a teaching degree, something that I have never regretted. Our family (my husband and two daughters) has moved quite a few times. We spent 7 years in Belgium, 3 years in France and are now living in southern Spain. To have the opportunity to live in several countries is a fantastic experience, and I love travelling.

Q. Please tell us something about Andalucia.

A. Spain is divided into autonomous regions and Andalucia is covering most of southern Spain. Andalucia is famous for its beaches, traditions and cultural heritage. Europe’s most southern ski resort, Sierra Nevada is located in Andalucia. It’s quite strange that you within one day can go both skiing, and a couple of hours later, swim in the Mediterranean Sea.The most surreal place in Andalucia is when you go to Tarifa, on Costa de la Luz, the southernmost coast of Spain. You walk out onto a pier and have the Mediterranean to the left, the Atlantic Ocean to the right, Europe in the back and Africa in front of you. Andalucia is for me an atmosphere of constant flamenco with singing, guitar playing and dance mixed with history such as the Moors,

Palos from which Columbus left for his famous voyage.

Sevilla with Plaza de España which was used as a setting in Star Wars II – Attack of the Clones,

as well as white villages scattered on the mountain sides.

Andalucia also borders to the British Overseas Territory – Gibraltar where we sometimes go to enjoy fish & chips.

Q. What motivated you to become an Swedish teacher?

A. My children are raised bilingual (Swedish-English) and when they started school I helped them with their languages. We have not always lived in places where we have had access to schools where Swedish has been taught so we had to work a lot with Swedish at home. When we arrived in Spain I started to teach bilingual children (Spanish-Swedish) Swedish and on that way it is. I wanted to learn more about my native language and studied by distance learning at a University in Sweden and here I am. So the answer to your question would be that my children motivated me to become a Swedish teacher.

Q. How do you spend your days off? Is there anything you’ve gotten into lately?

A. Family and work take most of my time but I try to walk an hour per day to clear my head. Many people think that I spend most of my time on the beach since we live by the coast, but I can’t really remember the last time I spent a whole day on the “playa”. An hour a day for walking is fine with me.

Q. What would you say are the biggest features of your lessons?

A. I want my students to leave my lessons with a feeling that the lesson was worth their time and effort. So, it is important for me that my lessons are based on individual needs. For this to work I always ask students what the purpose with their studies are, and how they are going to use their language skills. I also like to work with real life situations where my students can recognise themselves and relate to. I don’t believe in just presenting grammatical terms on a paper without putting them into context. Structure is definitely one of the main features in my lessons. I like the student to know what is going to happen during the lesson so he/she can come with input. Humour, and laughter is important for me. This is another feature that my students will recognize when reading this. We laugh and learn, and laugh again in my lessons. Learning is great fun, so why not have great fun during the lesson.

Q. What are you most careful of when you teach your students?

A. Respect for one another is very important to me and I am very careful with how I address my students. Once I’ve got to know them the lessons become more familiar but I am always professional in my job. To be able to continue the lesson the following week I need to know that my students have understood the content we’ve been discussing. I therefore ask them to make a recap before we part. The structure of the lesson, participation and two-way.

Q. Finally, would you like to leave a message for our students?

A. First of all I would like to say Thank You to all my students. I would also like to say Welcome to New students. Use the language you are learning as much as possible. It doesn’t matter if the pronunciation is not perfect, it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand grammatical concepts, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t hear everything that was said, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know all the vocabulary – what matters is that you have given me the opportunity to help you progress with your language – it is now up to me to aid and guide you in the right direction. I hope to see you soon.
Thank you for taking your time reading this interview!

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(closed) Maria E

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