About Anika
Ciao, Hola, Szia, Hi!
Born Hungarian, living in the Netherlands and insatiably travelling the world over, it can be said that I am a language junkie.
Born Hungarian, living in the Netherlands and insatiably travelling the world over, it can be said that I am somewhat of a language junkie. Owing to the fact that at one point, I did actually listen to other people, I had at one time or another studied to become a teacher (my parents thought it to be an excellent and ‘safe’ profession for a girl). In the years since, I’ve also been a student, marrying my love for travelling with my real, human need to connect with people. I studied German in Vienna, English in the UK, Dutch in the Netherlands and Italian in Sicily. I can converse in these languages now. Russian, which I forcibly learnt at school in Hungary however, I can’t even manage to order a glass of water in. I put it down to the need to fall in love with something - a culture, a cuisine, a hobby, an entire nation (or a man from that nation!) - in order to really learn a language.
For a period I wasn’t a teacher. I worked in the corporate world and became incredibly bored, at which point I went straight back to teaching Dutch, German and Hungarian. To do this I used a method that actually works. This was to focus more on communicating than on the nitty gritty of grammar (for that all comes with time). Language learning should not be like an algebra class. It’s like a summer romance that blossoms into something more. It’s fun. It’s connecting. It’s discovering a new version of you.