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Introduce yourself (NAME, COUNTRY of origin, LANGUAGES you speak/understand, HOBBIES, REASONS for becoming a teacher and something that is IMPORTANT to you (e.g., a place, an object, a person, etc.)).

You can either a) WRITE A SHORT TEXT with a PICTURE of yourself OR something that is important to you; or b) post a VIDEO recording; or c) post an AUDIO recording with a PICTURE of yourself OR something that is important to you.
Do this by Monday, 9th of August 2021.

Take a look at what the others have posted and...
Ask someone a QUESTION (e.g. if there was something you didn't understand or would like to know more about)

Write at least one COMMENT (e.g. if you have something in common with someone else or if you have learned something new).
If you have received any questions, REPLY.
Looking forward to meeting you all!

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My name is Franziska, I was born and raised in Germany. I am fluent in German and English and work as an international coordinator at the Center of Teacher Education at the University of Göttingen.
I graduated from the University of Göttingen with a Bachelor in Cultural Anthropology and an Erasmus Mundus Master in Cultural Studies, always planning to become an international coordinator at a university.
Currently, I am very busy with organizing the BEST Exchange program, which includes this summer school.
When I am not working, I enjoy reading sci-fi novels, playing board games with my friends (very German of me, I guess) and taking long walks with my dog, Toby.
I am looking forward to meeting you all!

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My name is Gokce, I was born in Izmir, Turkey and I live in Turkey. I was a participant of Virtual Exchange Project (April- July 2021). My mother tongue is Turkish but I'm excellent at English, my level is C1. I have many hobbies but hiking in the nature and seaside is my favorite one. I also love cycling, doing exercise, pilates in the nature. I also love swimming so much. It can be my favorite sport.
I love watching films, documentaries and TV shows. I love travelling to new things, to nature and take photographs. I love taking photographs of nature and sea-side, sunset and moon. I am in love with sea side, moon, stars and sunset, these things give me peace and I think that nature is a pure art. I am a real nature and sea lover.

I chose to be a teacher because I love guiding, leading people, I love spreading knowledge, humanity and other good things. I love to be the reason why a person smiles and learning a new thing. I love to be the reason why a person improves himself/herself academically, spiritually and personally. I love to be the reason that a person learning/discovering  a new thing about himself-herself and I love to be an inspiration to other people. I had teachers that inspire, guide me, I want to be same thing to my future students. I also love researching, learning new things about everything. I always have something to research, read. I always have questions. I have a curious mind :) That's why I chose to be a teacher. I will do my best to be a good teacher :) I  am really excited for summer school and hope that we will have good time together in BEST Summer School in August.

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Hi everyone :)
My name is Sophia, I am 20 years old, I study English and Sports to become a teacher at secondary schools and am born and raised here in Göttingen (Germany). I am fluent in German and English and can understand Spanish a little bit. I want to become a teacher, because spending time with kids was always a natural part of my life (I really miss my babysitting kids in this pandemic) and I did a voluntary year at a school after my A-levels and did not want to leave. I look forward to teaching kids and also learning from them.
My hobbies are sports (at the moment mainly at-home workouts and ballet, but I also do a bit of gymnastics at home) and I am currently trying to get better at water colouring and reading more.
You can see my little dog Coco who is basically my little sister.

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My name is Hugo, I was born and raised in Brazil. I am fluent in English, beyond my own language, Portuguese. Nowadays, I am learning German in Instituto Ivoti in South Brazil. Until this moment, I have graduated with Bachelor in Theology and post graduated in Biblical Theology. I am almost finishing my Master of Arts in Ministry by Carolina University (USA- Online). I work as missionary in a Baptist Church.

I always liked to study languages and I enjoy teach languages too. Because of these, I want to work as German teacher in soon. I intend to work as a missionary in Germany too in few years.

My hobbies are hear music, play guitar, read good books and hang out with friends.

I hope see you all in soon!

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Hello everyone!
I am Viktoria from Germany, I am 23 years old and I study English and Physics to become a teacher at a secondary school.
Teaching has always attracted me as it provides opportunities for creativity (creating materials and engaging lessons), contact to children and young adults as well as the possibility to influence lives in a positive way.
I speak German and English as well as a little bit of French. As I always struggled with French at school, I have lots of empathy for students who find it hard to learn a language.
In my free time I love to cook Indian food (Chana Masala!) and I do yoga to practice living in the moment. Something dear to my heart are bees and insects. I try to accommodate them in the garden of my parents :-)

I happy to get to know you all so soon!

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I'd first like to thank you and the University of Göttingen for organizing the BEST Exchange program. I'm sure that we'll be provided with so much great information and so many wonderful experiences.

My name is Azadeh. I was born in Iran, and I'm 36. I got married, and right after, I moved to Sweden. It's now about 5 years that I'm living in Sweden, Stockholm. I can speak Persian (MT), Iran Azerbaijani (MT), Turkish (F), English (F), Swedish (F), and some Arabic (I).

I graduated in IT and worked as an EFL teacher for about 14 years in Tehran. As soon as I moved to Sweden, I started studying software technology, and then, I shifted to English. Later, I graduated in linguistics from Uppsala University.

Now, I'm studying at Uppsala University to get my teaching degree in English for upper secondary schools and adult education. I'm only studing the

I like:
- cooking,
- baking,
- eating,
- playing volleyball,
- watching animal videos,
- sitting at my PC in cafés for hours, talking to a friend, watching people and thinking about what would go in their minds,
- taking too many courses and becoming stressed! (Joking=> Of course I don't like to be stressed),
- programming,
- learning languages,
- last but not least teaching whatever I know/can.

I look forward to meeting you all.

Yours,
Azadeh
P.S. If I'm the only one left in this world to water your plants, never ask me to do so! Note the attached picture for more details.

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Hi all,

My name is Radu and I come from Malmö in Sweden, though I am originally from Timisoara, Romania. I have studied and graduated in Computer Science and until now I had the opportunity to be involved in teaching activities at Malmö University. I am quite interested in teaching (especially technical stuff) because I think I have a natural inclination for understanding things in depth which comes in very useful in terms of passing on the knowledge and information to others. I am quite communicative I suppose and have a broad range of interests ranging from sports (tennis & football), going to the beach, cryptocurrencies, or aliens :DD Also, I am missing some pedagogical credits and this summer course sounds like a great opportunity to learn more about dealing with virtual environments which is becoming so frequent these days. Looking forward to meeting everyone else soon!

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Hello everyone!
My name is Marie and I'm 25 years old. I study English and Physics in Göttingen and I speak German, English and the tiniest bit of Swedish. I studied law before switching to English and Physics and I couldn't be happier now.
When I'm not working or studying I take care of my plants (we have accumulated quite a lot of them). But I also love cooking and reading. My main hobby is music. I am a member of a marching band (this is the closest translation, in German it's called Spielmannszug) and I teach kids how to play the flute. This is the thing that's most important to me, by far. In the last few years we did not only compete on a regional level. We participate in European championships regularly and were also able to compete in World Championships in  2017 (Palm Springs) and 2019 (Calgary) and I am very very proud of that.
This hobby is mainly the reason for me choosing to become a teacher. I love working with kids and it makes me so proud to see them succeed in life. It is such a creative job and every day is different and brings new challenges.

I am looking forward to meeting you! :)

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Hi I am Dave. Born and raised in Jaunde, Kamerun. I understand French, Francanglais, English, Pidgin English, German, Eton, a little bit of Spanish and the programming language C.

My hobbies: Play the guitar, dancing, talking about deep philosophical topics like death, love, vertues, human values, time, culture ...

I started teaching as I was myself in the secondary school - in Form 3. I used to teach my classmates on topics and subjects that they did not understand. We formed a group and took the habit to teach one another.

There is nothing I love or like more than myself. But besides me I decided to try and love each and every human, to teach love to the humanity and spread love when and where ever I can.
But in the bottom of my being I hate !

My favorite colour: Pink/Rose
My favorite digit: 8
My favorite number: Pi
My favorite activity: work out
My favorite song: Canzonetta Sull'aria from Mozart

I wish to learn good people, new educational Stuff, experience good vibes and positive actions.

I wish us all the best.

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Hi everyone, I’m just gonna continue the theme of cute dog pictures :-) (This is Leo, my mom’s Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.)

My name is Isabel, I'm 21 years old and I’m from Germany. Aside from German, I also speak English and understand Latin, Ancient Greek and a little bit of Biblical Hebrew because I started studying Theology after I graduated high school. Now I study German and Ancient Greek to become a teacher at secondary schools.

I’ve always been fond of “dead” languages, probably because you don’t have to learn how to speak them, you just examine them. Talking to people has always been a problem for me due to my social anxiety which also makes my heart beat uncontrollably while typing this text :-)

My proneness to mental illnesses is also what drives me to become a teacher as, growing up, my teachers made me feel save and I want to pass this feeling on and give my students strength and hope (and meanwhile teach them how to place commas and conjugate παιδεύω ;-) ). So, mental health and everything connected to it is very important to me.

I wanted to participate in the BEST summer school because staying connected to other people is the most important thing a person can do and learning how to do this virtually is nowadays crucial.

In my free time, I knit, read, spend too much time on Instagram…, hike and hang out with my friends.

Nice to meet y’all!

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Hi everyone! I’m Daiana Souza from Ivoti, Brasil. I’m studying pedagogy and Im an English teacher. Pedagogy is my 2nd grad, Im graduated in Advertising 1st and I have a long experience mixing communication and education. Im glad I joined this group! Also, Im a mother of a beautiful 6 year old girl and 3 dogs. I hope I can make new friends and improve my teaching knowledge. See you all!

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Hey!
Hope you are all doing great. It's me Hamide from Turkey. I have been studying foreign languages education and philosophy. I enjoy talking about wide range of topics from spirituality to music. I am very fond of making new friends all over the world. In my leisure time I play violin and go for cycling by the beach. There is nothing better than feeling sunlights burning your face and enjoying the sunset right :). I am very greatful for taking part in this summer course and I look forward to meet you virtually soon. Have a nice day :)

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Dear Franziska and Fabian, dear fellow students,

My name is Amélie, I’m 38. I’m French but I’ve been living in Ghent (Flemish part of Belgium) for 12 years. I speak French, Dutch, German, and English.

I studied linguistics and worked for five years in a company, where I wrote and translated technical documentation. I was bored in this job and did not feel useful. I started to teach French in my free time and enjoyed it so much that I quitted my job to go back to university and get a teaching diploma.

As a teacher, I want to help students acquire skills and values that are key to a happy and rich social and professional life: communicate in several languages, be open-minded, become autonomous and perseverant learners,...  And (virtual) international exchanges are excellent means to achieve this goal.

What is important to me? My family and friends, obviously. But also contributing to making the world a little bit better, for instance by smiling at people on the street, saying thank you more often, listening to people, volunteering in a local environmental organisation, adopting a more ecological lifestyle, trying to motivate and encourage my pupils, ...

Looking forward to learning with you,

Amélie

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Friends, I tried to edit my previous post but It didnt work. So, these are my babies! German dogge Maisel, dalmatian Bella, little Lola and my kid Helena.

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Hi, my name is Vanessa and I am originally from Potsdam, Germany but moved to study in Göttingen. I am a student of French and Russian, therefore I can speak those languages to a certain level (and english). Currently I am reading lots of fantasy books and I love gaming. The languages I wanted to learn actually led me to wanting to become a teacher - I wanted to share my knowledge and try to make students as interested in it as I am. This project was interesting to me because it will probably help me to learn more about different ways to teach. Also, I am really excited to meet you all. c:

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Hi, my name is Louisa and I am from Göttingen, Germany. I study English and sports to become a teacher. In addition, I can understand a little bit of French and Spanish (not a lot tho). In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family or meeting up with friends and going to bars or restaurants, trying out new sorts of food. Furthermore, I like to read or go to the gym to stay healthy and I love traveling and exploring new places. The reason why I want to become a teacher is to motivate the kids to be the best version of themselves, to be a good role model, and spread kindness. See you guys soon!

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Fun pic of some nice day in the past spending time with mother nature - It was funny because there was no other plant like this in sight on that meadow. Love watching the nature! I am Arina Motamedi, from Germany, originally from Iran. I speak german, english, persian, french, spanish. I was born and raised in Hannover, where I am currently living. I addition to all that I like doing many other things, like spending time outside or on the phone:), watching stand-up-comedies, music, dance etc.etc. At GAU Göttingen I tried to improve my skills that I see as necessary for students of today's generation, like new ways of virtual communication, and generally, like problems occuring due to certain social behavioral characteristics. I like to work at school because I enjoy interacting & working with children, developing skills that are necessary for handling life and its normal daily situations, basically to be able to follow their chosen paths in democratic societies. I appreciate to be able to take part of this project and I am excited to get to know you guys and despite the distance to do some interesting multicultural & -lingual & virtual exchange activities! I am open to new experiences, connections & challenges, lets wait & see!

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Hey everybody :)

My name is Kevin, and I am 24 years old. I was born and raised in Germany but since my mother is Greek, we spent every summer in Greece. Other than German as my mother tongue, I am also fluent in English, and I can understand a little of Spanish because I learned it in school. Unfortunately, although I went to the School of Modern Greek Language at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for a year after I finished school, I can barely speak Greek today because I never practiced the language afterwards. However, I originally planned to study in Greece, but eventually returned to Germany to study Psychology at a correspondence university. Sadly, the concept was not agreeing with me, and I wanted to attend a university in person. Psychology is still my major interest, but I also wanted to become a teacher because there is nothing more interesting to me than human beings. The childhood is a crucial part of life that influences us permanently. There are teachers that I will never forget because they taught me something important or otherwise had a positive impact on me, and I would hope to be such a person for my students if I become a teacher. Therefore, to escape sitting at home with distance learning, I started studying Political Science and English (as subjects to become a teacher) at the University of Göttingen. Ironically, I found myself yet again in distance learning because of the pandemic. Later I switched from Politics to History because it fits my interests better. So now I study English and History and could not be happier with my decision. Although I would be allowed to teach at upper secondary level, I am not ruling out any type of school.

In Greece, because Thessaloniki is such a beautiful city (and because public transportation was unbearable), I picked up the habit of walking everywhere on foot. Since Göttingen is very manageable, I continued doing so. I prefer walking because you can listen to podcasts and music for longer. Other than that, I like to hike as well, preferably alone. I love to read fantasy and science fiction because I enjoy the time-out it provides. The works of George R. R. Martin and Cixin Liu count to my favorites. Though, more than reading I love watching movies, shows and theater (basically anything that involves acting). I used to work out for many years, but admittedly neglected it lately. However, I cling to the “it’s never too late” philosophy.

I have an older brother and my cat is still staying at his house because I could not bring it with me to Göttingen. My cat has been with me basically my whole youth (since I was about 10 years old) and is therefore a treasured part of my life. Generally speaking, I love all animals and I don’t like to think in labels like being a “dog/cat person” or something. So, show me your pets, even if it is exciting like spiders or snakes for example :)

I would like to thank you for reading this if you made it to the end, and simultaneously wanted to thank you for all the interesting introductions.

See you soon :)

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Hey there! My name is Fabian Krengel and I'm a PhD candidate and international coordinator at the University of Göttingen. I was born in Germany and I speak German, English, some Norwegian, a little bit of French, and a tiny bit of Dutch! I love traveling, the higher the mountain the better! I studied to become a teacher (of English and Geography) because I am convinced that languages and an awareness for shared issues on this planet are powerful means of connecting people across the world and to foster mutual understanding. ... but also, working with kids is simply a lot of fun!
Besides Germany, I have lived, studied and/or taught at a university in the United States (in beautiful Boulder, Colorado) and at a school in Norway near Oslo.
This picture was taken in France, on my first international trip since the pandemic began. While I believe that modern technology is another wonderful means of bringing people together, I also treasure those moments far away from electronic devices, in "the middle of nowhere".

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Hey my name is Svenja, I was born and raised in hanover, germany and study to become a teacher for the subjects german and philosophy in the second school stage of pupils living in germany.
I am fluent in german and speaking but not writing englisch - sorry for that, but I think it's enough to understand what I wanna say even in the written form.
In the past semester I started learning the german sign language - and it worked, but I am still practicing that one.
I am a sport lover, so that's what I am spending my freetime with: football, handball, jogging.
I don't really know what else to say, but if you have any questions, please ask! 😇

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Hello everyone!

My name is Sandy and I'm a student at Instituto Superior de Educação Ivoti - Brazil. My first language is Portuguese, but I can also speak English and Hunsrückisch, which is a German dialect spoken in my State, Rio Grande do Sul. I've been playing clarinet in an orchestra for 12 years. In my free time, I like to play music, read, drive someplace and cook. Also, I have 17 cats and usually, they like to appear in front of the camera and lay by my side during the classes, so one of them may appear during our meetings.

When I was younger, I used to help my classmates, friends, and relatives with their school activities and I discovered that I enjoy the experience of teaching others and helping them to achieve their goals. I'm excited to meet all of you and I hope we can have a productive time together.

See you soon