Hi there! My name is Andjela, I am 25 years old and I work as a French teacher and a freelance translator and interpretor, currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.

Languages and communication in all of their forms are some of my greatest passions, so I find teaching a fantastic way to pass on my love for language learning. Both challenging and inspiring, my vocation as a teacher is to serve as a guide to my students and help embark on this exciting yet sometimes not so easy journey. Proactive and well organized at work, but not so good at leisure pleasure prioritizing, I spend most of my free time balancing between theatre weekend marathons, workouts, TED talk binges and plans for my upcoming trips.

As a member of several non-profit international organizations I also gift my time and energy to charity and social projects aimed at empowering our local environments, helping those in need and making the world a better place to live.

I hold a MA degree in FSL (French as a second language) & Critical Discourse Analysis and a BA in French studies - language, literature and culture.

So far I have worked with more than a 100 students of all ages - starting from pre-school and primary school children, ages 6-11, through adolescents and adults. At the moment I mostly teach adult learners, offering individual, semi-individual and group lessons both face-to-face and online. As a Virtual Classroom Instructor, I have gained precious experience in online tutoring, which gives me the chance to use all of my teaching support - including audios, videos, photos, original texts, news articles, games, etc. - as successfully as face-to-face.

My pedagogical experience includes teaching at four private language schools in Belgrade (face-to-face), one online school and independent Skype lessons. I find non-formal education no less important than holding a university degree, which is why I started attending different workshops, projects and seminars at a very young age. As the winner of National competitions in French I had the chance to participate in seminars in a number of institutions in France (Sorbonne - Inalco, University of Poitiers, CAVILAM, Claj Jeunesse Camping) and other parts of the world, learning about socio-political aspects of life in France, but also improving my teaching methods and acquiring new ones. I strongly believe in life-long learning, which is why I try not to miss any chance to develop my professional skills in every possible direction.

While teaching I am also trying to customize the lesson goals so that they reflect my learners' real-life needs. I therefore try to find out as much as possible about their motivation and reasons for learning French and it is only then that I start tailoring a personalized program which would fit their life context and help them communicate the way they wish to, overcoming eventual fears, insecurities and challenges that are often visible when working with beginners. I believe that working for VerbalPlanet gives me a great chance to make use of all my creativity and make students all over the world discover the beauty of a culture and language as rich as French. Culture being one of the most important aspects of language acquisition, I try to make my lessons funnier by offering fun facts, interesting expressions or simply adding a personal-life anecdote so as to overcome a potential barrier between a student and myself.

I also believe that my direct and enthusiastic approach along with tailored lessons is what brings me and my students together and what makes a so-called 'Bingo!' combination.