About us and our teaching methods
Our team of five language enthusiasts offers significant practical experience in professional education and intercultural dynamics.
It is our top priority to guide our students to achieve their goals of mastery with their target language in a way that is fun and useful to their everyday lives. We strongly believe that if you enjoy the learning process, you will realise faster and more enduring results!
Based on our wide-ranging experience with language acquisition and modern teaching methods, we create customized course programs for each student. This enables us to focus on individual needs in order to maximize the student’s benefit from the lessons.
We encourage student contributions to curriculum planning in order to create bespoke offerings that are taylored to individual needs. Our students appreciate the conversational style of the lessons as they enable them to jump right in to their target language in little time.
Jenni Gedamke
Founder,
Language Kitchen
Growing up with three languages (German, English and Tagalog, the main dialect on the Philippines), I have always had an affinity for languages since I was very young. When I started to learn foreign languages in high school, it became clear to me that I wanted to become a teacher one day. Through my Bachelor’s degree in English, Spanish and German as a foreign language, I was able to realise my career aspirations.
Following my university graduation, I travelled the world visiting the USA, Canada, China and the Philippines. During my travels, I discovered first-hand how essential it is to be able to communicate with the local people in their language and how frustrating it can be when you cannot communicate. My experience also revealed how receptive and appreciative people were when they realized that I spoke their language, even if it was just a few phrases. Therefore, language is key to integration and making connections with cultures around the world.
Having lived in Germany, Switzerland and New York, I discovered that there is also a cultural dimension connected to learning a language. We focus on this aspect in all of our courses at Language Kitchen to provide a style of teaching that is relevant to your daily life and immediately applicable.
My life experiences along with my extensive teaching of both small groups and private lessons helps me and my fellow teachers to create a customized course program for all our students. I am looking forward to seeing you here at Language Kitchen as well as realizing your language goals!
Joanna Brittain
Partner,
Language Kitchen
Learning languages and studying the arts enables a student to understand the cultures and feelings of other people.
A student can use this knowledge as inspiration for reinterpreting and adding ideas to their own culture, values and experiences, and then express their new thoughts verbally, in writing, in multimedia or other artistic forms. In educational theory, this process fits the ‘social-constructionist’ model of learning.
I began teaching in 2003 in the UK, and this model has always fit well with my style of teaching. Analysing a dialogue, a piece of a story or a scene in a film is the starting point, but a student only learns deeply when they use this experience as a stimulus to then independently create something original. By analysing the impact, style and purpose of a text, a student is able to consider using similar strategies and techniques themselves.
Since completing an honours degree in English and Media in 1999, I have taught language, literature, poetry, film theory and production, graphic design, drama and public speaking. Using critical theory I have encouraged students to explore identity, class, gender, and the use of language. I have taught creative writing and performance poetry to adults, teenagers and children, for developing advanced techniques, preparing for exams, as a counselling strategy and for developing early literacy skills.
After several years of working in mainstream education, I completed a Masters degree to deepen my understanding and range of specialist strategies for teaching students experiencing dyslexia, dyscalculia and other neurodiverse ways of learning. I have particularly enjoyed teaching students to use multimedia techniques as an empowering tool for communicating their ideas through art. After setting up a specialist programme across two campuses in London, in spring 2010 my work was nominated for the TES Award for Outstanding Literacy Initiative.
I moved to Switzerland in 2012, where I have enjoyed working as an English teacher, literacy and numeracy specialist, assessor, academic guidance counsellor and training consultant. I have taught qualifications and supported students in schools using the British, International Baccalaureate, American and bilingual Swiss education systems.
I love living in Switzerland, for its democracy, fair standard of living and beautiful landscapes. In my free time I enjoy snowboarding, hiking, swimming in the lakes and exploring more of the wonderful countryside around us.