Hi,

my name is Nadin and I'm a new tutor here on Cafetalk. I'm teaching English and German, and I will also offer basic French in the near future. As this is my first teacher column, I'd like to introduce myself to you and say a little bit about what I do in my free time.

Learning foreign languages was always a passion for me. When I was 12, I was super excited about the prospect of being able to learn Russian; an entirely new world for me, with its cyrillic alphabet. I started to learn it by myself, with the help of CDs (yes, they were a big thing at the time!) and a book, which I borrowed from the local library. I then started a Russian course, Russian having been my second foreign language after English. I really loved diving into something new and exciting, learning not only a language but also expanding my knowledge about a culture that I hadn't known much about before. This awakened my appetite, which would, in 2007, take me abroad.

I left my home country, Germany, to study English and Journalism in Scotland. I had wanted to become fluent in English and thought that it would not be a very good idea to try to do this in Germany. The French call foreign languages the "langues vivantes", which is fitting: living languages, lived languages. One needs to surround oneself with a language in order to learn it fully. Hence, my stay in Scotland taught me a lot. I not only became fluent in English, I learned Scottish specialties. I learned about Scottish culture, its people, its language - in short, Scotland became my home. I spent 8 fabulous years, during which I also started to learn French. In 2015, I left Scotland with my husband and tried to settle first in Belgium before we moved to France. I've been here for about three years now. Still learning, still expanding my cultural horizon. It's wonderful!

I'm passionate about film and photography. I made films in the past (which have even won awards), and I am now looking forward to taking some time for it again. In 2008, I had my first solo photography exhibition in 2008 and I'm working on a second one. I hope I can set something up by 2020. This is my goal. I'm running a popular blog that focuses on the phenomenon of slow, or contemplative, films, called The Art(s) of Slow Cinema and I'm also running my own VoD service (tao films), which, again, focuses on contemplative world cinema. 

Those passions - a passion for culture, for the unusual, for art - help me to get to know people from all over the world. I enjoy learning, I enjoy helping people to learn in order for all of us to understand one another better. Learning languages is not simply about learning words or phrases. To me, learning a language means building a bridge to another culture. And building bridges, we should do! 

Check out my classes! I offer conversations, discussions, classes with a special focus on grammar, or even proof-reading (English and German). And for all of next week, I offer a 20% discount on all of my classes; a spring introductory offer! Hope to see you around!

Take care

Nadin