Ele Arder

I am about to graduate from the master’s programme at Tallinn University as a language teacher. It was already early in my studies that I was sure I wanted to teach adults, and, in the course of the studies, I arrived at the realisation that teaching adults was my cup of tea, something that lit me with enthusiasm. I started at Multilingua as an intern, but pretty soon I got an offer to start teaching my own groups.

I received my first higher education (2008) and master’s degree (2012) majoring in philosophy, which is the sphere that provided me with first teaching experience and gave me courage to take a sharp turn in my life and start studying to be a teacher. Between the two university degrees there were several years of working in communication and marketing. I believe that language learners benefit from a teacher who is used to thinking and interacting.

Teaching alongside your studies provides a great opportunity to put all the theory you learn into practice, and I believe that my current open, flexible and enthusiastic wat of thinking and communicating will keep me in shape for years to come. During my studies, the Estonian Mother Tongue Society awarded me a teacher scholarship, and I seized the opportunity to take part in the Estonian Language Week “KeelEST” organised by the Estonian Institute as a volunteer in 2019.

As a teenager, I spent several years living in Helsinki, Finland, and the in New York, US. My experience of the time shaped my ability to empathise with the people who have come to live in a foreign country and language environment. In my lessons, I want to build a platform where the students can learn to express themselves and have a feeling they can contribute to our common society. I want to open Estonia to the world through the development of Estonian language skills.