Ventsislava
What is your reason for becoming a teacher?
On one hand, I have always been into different cultures and intercultural communication. On the other, since I was a small child I have loved languages and was fortunate enough to have parents that would support my passion. So by the time I was in university I knew I had to combine my two loves and my experience from living abroad for a number of years and somehow naturally they grew into this. And I have never regretted that decision even for a second!
– Which countries have you had students from?
I have been so blessed to have had students from all around the world – Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, France, Turkey, Australia, USA, Argentina, The Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Switzerland, Germany, India. A true blessing indeed!
– What are the biggest challenges for your students?
I would say it depends on the person, but there are most definitely moments that most of my students struggle with. I would say that one of them is when students learn how to use articles and plural in Bulgarian. I feel like they are so overwhelmed by the many endings and rules they have learned they hit a breaking point of sorts. Of course, this is a normal part of the process and I try to help each and every one of them to get over it. I advise them to think of it as a growing moment – not easy, but incredibly useful!
– What would you tell somebody who wants to learn Bulgarian?
Try it out and have fun with it! You will see you are capable of much more than you thought and you won’t be able to stop 🙂