My name is Réka Gyurkovics. I started learning English from the age of seven. I was attending group or individual private lessons parallel to my primary and secondary school years. I guess I am quite comfortable using English by now.
What boosted my speaking skills even more is visiting English speaking parts of the world. The first such journey was to the United States of America, and it was also my first time flying. I spent the majority of the summer near Seattle, in Washington state working with children as a camp counselor together with an international staff, throughout the holiday. After that I was also visiting several big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Later I’ve been to London twice, for shorter visits only, but it was definitely worth the trip.
As for my university training, I studied English language with a teacher training specialization. I had my teaching practice in a secondary school, but I was teaching a variety of students regarding age and level, including a primary school teaching experience for 2,5 years, teaching from 5th to 8th graders, preparing the gifted for competitions, tutoring those who were in need of it. Other than that, I was teaching complete beginners in a private primary school, tutoring secondary schoolers, leading university students’ language groups and preparing individual learners for language exams, as well as just conversational English lessons in private classes.
I like to find out what students already know and build on that gradually, giving them practical knowledge to be able to use at once. I also love to keep them motivated by discussing topics they are (or I imagine they could be) specially interested in, and by giving them lots of different types of exercises, and enjoyable, playful tasks. I like making up gamified exercises myself and to see learners enjoying their lessons.
