Guten Tag and Hello!

My name is Veronica, and I have been teaching at LanguageBird since October 2021. I am a Canadian and native English speaker from a very German area of Ontario, Canada—we even have our own Oktoberfest! From a young age, I have had both a love for languages and good language skills. This passion led me to earn my Bachelor’s Degree in Honours German from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Alberta. I have studied French, Italian, and Spanish, among other languages, German has always been the one I’m most passionate about. During my Master’s, I began teaching and tutoring German at university and fell in love with it.  Over the past fifteen years, I have taught university and adult classes, as well as individual lessons for all age groups.  At the same time, I completed TOESL certification and tutored English on campus. Even with a great love for German, I have always loved working with my native language.

While in living in Germany, either studying and working, I had opportunities to improve my German language skills, teaching skills in both German and English, and to work in both languages in a variety of capacities. Working with children and adults improved both my language and teaching skills. Although teaching at a German school, I had the opportunity to teach English during the day as well as classes for adults in the evening.

I also traveled as much as possible within German-speaking countries and throughout Europe. Although I speak and teach High German (Hochdeutsch), I am familiar with many German dialects through travel, study, friends, and family. I travel to Germany and Europe as often as I can to visit family and friends, revisit familiar sites, explore new ones, and immerse myself in language, culture, and history. I absolutely love the German language and its culture! Here in Canada, I seek opportunities to feed this love—I participate in our local annual Oktoberfest and weekly Stammtisch, and I even coordinated a Weihnachtsmarkt at my last university.

I am very passionate about German language and culture, at the heart of that is a passion for teaching and sharing my love and knowledge, regardless of language. It is a joy to be a guide on my students’ language journeys in both English and German.  My own native language is fascinating, and as a Canadian I get to share my language and culture. I have even been told that the Canadian accent is one of the nicest and easiest to understand!  English is full of challenges, which I am here to help navigate, whether through tutoring or teaching.

While I know that German is awesome, I also know it can be challenging for native English speakers – and of any other language – and understand where they might run into difficulty and why. I’m here to help navigate any challenges or troubles they face and help get them unstuck. All that said, there’s nothing to fear! Many may already know more German than they realize 🙂

I look forward to meeting you and journeying with you as you explore all that German and English have to offer here at LanguageBird!