About me

(Dresden, June 2016, at the Technology Collections; as a part of AATG's STEM/MINT seminar)

Andrew Graff - Germanophile, Francophile, Linguist, Educator

(Currently quite happy at my teaching job, but feel free to send German-related inquiries my way-- herrgraff AT gmail)

Teaching Resume here Linked In Page

For over a decade, I have taught German in a variety of contexts: University, Community College, Saturday School, High School and Middle School, and French in High School and Middle School. I enjoyed all of these milieus. I am at home in the hustle-and-bustle of a HS language teacher's several preps and language activity responsibilities (German/French Club, Honor Society, Stammtisch, etc), and I found teaching Middle School to be a steadily rewarding experience due to the excitement and enthusiasm of the students. The most successful and driven high school students I ever had also started their language learning with me in Middle School. With all of my heart, I firmly believe that you take all students where they are at that given time when they are in your class. And I have also taught from that core tenet. You can have an engaging, exciting language class with the right planning and preparation, if you know your students.

I must admit that I find it particularly rewarding to be there at the beginning when students first acquire the German/French language. If the teacher sets the right tone, then language class can be a joy to students for many years to come.

I have enjoyed a close relationship with the German language and German-speaking countries since my teenage years, when I had the opportunity to spend two summers with a family in Nuremberg and do considerable traveling in Germany and neighboring countries.

As an undergraduate student, I was able to study a year at the Universität Heidelberg on a scholarship from the Federation of German-American Women's Clubs. I took classes with other German students studying Germanistik, and I also attended lectures in Philosophy and German and additional courses in French, German as a Foreign Language, and Romanian.

While my experience with French is not as extensive, I did have the opportunity to spend a month as a teenager immersed in French with a family near Bordeaux, and have made three separate trips to Paris while in Europe. As a student in Heidelberg, I also sat in on classes in their Romance Languages department, as well as at the Institut Français (which was still open there in 1998-99.) My French coursework also includes French Literature and -Culture classes at the 300- and 400-level at the University of Delaware, and an upper level writing course at Indiana University Bloomington.

I maintain my fluency in German by regularly conversing with native speakers, reading substantially online and for my own enjoyment. I am keen on current events, and thanks to Facebook and Twitter and other social media, I can easily keep my fingers on the pulse of German-speaking Europe. I frequently watch German news-segments and TV shows, as well.