St Andrews German and Russian Graduate (1st) with experience teaching GCSE, A-Level and German for personal and professional use.

Find out more about Kristel

• Do you speak this language fluently because of your origins or because a teacher inspired you to learn?

  My native language, Danish, is quite close to German, and I studied German (and Russian) at university. The reason I started learning German was a major teenage obsession with the German pop-rock band Tokio Hotel - I knew a fair few phrases even before my first German class in school.

• Can you name a living, historical or fictional character that you think is the emblematic representative of the language's culture?

  "Mutti": Angela Merkel

• Is there a typical word, phrase, tradition or behavior in the language that you particularly like?

  Being a bit of a grammar nerd, I love how systematic the grammar of the German language is. It might be hard in the beginning for students to learn and remember all these rules, but once you get it right it suddenly becomes much easier to speak German!

• Why does speaking this language matter to you?

  I am half German myself and the history of Germany is closely interlinked with the history of my native Denmark. Also, as an aspiring opera singer, - often singing in German - it is important for me to speak this language well.

• What is the main difficulty in learning this language and what can help the process of learning?

  It is hard to get all the rules: declination and conjugations patterns memorised at first. I tend to offer my students different techniques for this memory work depending on their individual learning styles. Depending on the students' native language, pronunciation can be hard too. As an opera singer, I am an expert on pronunciation of foreign languages, and I won't hesitate to stick my mouth close up to the webcam to show my students how to produce a certain sound.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to your language learning or your days at school.

  I really enjoyed my semester abroad at the University of Vienna in Austria. The Austrian dialect was quite hard to grasp at first, but eventually I started to understand it. I was even brave enough to sign up for a Medieval German language course!

• How has travel or a specific trip helped you to increase your skill and knowledge of the language?

  Travelling to a country where they speak the native language is extremely valuable. But what is perhaps the most valuable is to go somewhere where they don't speak a word of English. Next time you travel, try not only to visit the most popular sites or venues - find the locals!

• What makes you a Superprof in language?

  I speak four languages and I have taught students of more than 7 different native languages, some of which I don't speak a word of myself. However, with my knowledge of how different languages work and interlink, I am able to cater for students of various backgrounds and nationalities.