Agata Kawka

Born in Rzeszów, a small city in Communist Poland. As a young girl, I knew if I wanted to fulfill my dreams, I had to abandon my city life and set new roots in a free more affluent location. As a new-fangled free Polish society, I was eager to explore my new found freedoms. With an Open border and my ambition to explore and learn, I decided to move to Paris to continue my studies. I lived in numerous European countries since I was 20. Understanding languages compelled me to connect with people and discover new customs and traditions. In my work, I focus on preparing my students for life in a given culture, providing them an opportunity to walk away with the familiarity of intimate particulars of a language and mastery of vernacular. In my work with children, I focus on fun engaging exercises. One of the most important aspects for me in teaching is to stimulate their imagination, this style of learning allows my students to learn rapidly and efficiently without realizing they are in a school setting. This style of teaching also allows me to rapidly assimilate new techniques and ideas to suit the needs of my students. In 2021 I was approached by one of my students who needed to complete his residency for his PHD. He was hesitant because this opportunity was in Paris and his level of French was basic at best. Through my immersive teaching style and his hard work, not only did he earn his doctorate, but he was given a position in emergency medicine in Paris. A position that not only demands a technical understanding but flawless comprehension of colloquial French as well. Total immersion learning is the situation where the learner spends time in an environment operating solely in the target language. In this way, the learner is completely surrounded by the target language, this being defined as the language that the learner wants to learn.