Arabella

About me and German:
I completed a Bachelor's Degree in German Studies at Bristol University in 2012 with Distinction in all language areas. During that time I lived in Austria for a year and following this I moved to Berlin, where I lived for 5 years. Living in Germany allowed me to deepen my cultural knowledge of the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland).
For over 10 years I have worked as a language specialist and translator for dozens of companies and agencies, including BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Sixt. I have worked for eBay and at the German Institute of Standards (DIN), translating highly technical documents. I have also translated a book on the subject of industrial production, which has been published by Beuth Verlag.
I am now based back in the UK and available for lessons.

About me and music:
I'm also a professional musician who studied at 2 conservatoires: The University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where I completed my Masters Degree with Distinction in Jazz Saxophone. I'm available for instrumental tuition and music theory.

Tutoring Experience

German:
I have taught German privately for many years, starting back in 2011. I have taught for language companies in Berlin such as Lingua Franca and have taught German as a second language to employees at Deutsche Bank. I have prepared various students privately for Goethe Institute exams (the A1-C2 system) and have obtained a lot of students through recommendation.

Music:
My music teaching experiences spans 15 years. I have taught 1-1 and group lessons in schools in Germany, and in the UK, and have run improvisation classes at Bristol University. I have prepared students for auditions for music college (who were successful) and I now run my own jazz workshop business in Sussex ('The Jazz Workshop'). My understanding and communication of theory is excellent, and I follow an ethos of empathy, working with students to ascertain what will help them progress with an instrument and what is blocking them. In my free time I read about music psychology as this is something I'm very interested in.

Tutoring Approach

German:
Lessons are very much tailored towards your intentions and I tend to start with a conversation lesson to assess your level and talk about what you need, want and like. I often break lessons down into two or three sections and prefer not to focus on one topic for too long. I've developed many of my own teaching materials for German grammar and these have proved to be very successful and popular with students.

Possible lesson types and exercises:
- Conversation only (suitable for travel and certain areas of business)
- Reading short articles and discussing them or debating about them (very good for improving oral skills)
- Grammar exercises (a short, concentrated exercise goes a long way!)
- German for business (emails, phone calls, business lingo)
- Textbook work (textbooks contain a variety of different exercises which can be very useful)
- Exam prep (GCSEs, A-Levels, Test DaF, Goethe Institute etc)
- A mixture of all or some of the above...

Music:
As with German, lessons are tailored towards your intentions. As a result, we might only focus on playing for pleasure, during which I might accompany you playing popular songs (jazzy or otherwise), or we might take a more formalised route of looking at technical exercises and preparing for exams - as well as playing for pleasure!