Maria

Certified Tutor

I am a recent graduate with a B.A. in German and a Minor in Writing and 4 years of tutoring experience. I became self-taught in German from 2008 - 2010, Goethe-Zertifikat and have a C1 fluency as of 2013. I have produced online language learning content for an international audience for 6 years. I have particular expertise in autodidactic learning methods, translation and at-home immersion. I tailor my tutoring sessions to the language learning needs and goals of each individual student.

If there's one thing I've learned throughout my tutoring experience, it's that repetition just doesn't cut it when you're trying to achieve fluency in a foreign language. Or at least conventional repetition doesn't. In my tutoring sessions, I expose my students to a plethora of resources that use the vocabulary they need to ace their German classes in a way that provides each student with shades of meaning, a working knowledge of synonyms/antonyms and the ability to produce spontaneous speech, rather than a focus on one-to-one translations that don't always make sense. I help my students learn to understand, speak and produce texts in context, while using hands-on activities with music, literature and film to explore grammatical concepts and get a strong understanding of German culture. During our lessons, the focus lies not only on those areas that the student needs to improve upon to have academic success, but also provides them with the information they need to explore their own favorite subjects in the German language. In short, part of what makes me a great tutor is my sheer dedication to the language goals and interests of each individual student.