What is your teaching philosophy?

I believe teaching should be an interactive and fun activity; no one learns anything under pressure, and each person has a different learning pace. So, a teacher/tutor has to be considerate of each student's learning pace and ability.

What might you do in a typical first session with a student?

I'd ask the student to tell me about him/herself, their background in the subject, what they expect from the tutor and what they hope to accomplish at the end of each session.

If a student has difficulty learning a skill or concept, what would you do?

I would try to incorporate something fun in that concept; for example in French grammar, the subjunctive is a nightmare for students. But there are a lot of interesting songs that use the subjunctive. These songs are the kind that appeal to middle or high schools students. So in this case, I’d encourage the student to listen to the songs over and over again, and that way, they'd have a better understanding of when to use the subjunctive.

How do you help students who are struggling with reading comprehension?

I'd advise them that the key to understanding a reading comprehension is not to understand every single word in the passage. If they try to go to the dictionary to find the meaning of every single word, they'd lose interest in the passage before getting to the end. The best thing to do is to try to deduce the meaning based on the other words in the passage they are familiar with. One-time reading is not always sufficient; it helps to read it at least three times to have a better understanding of the passage.