Oxford/NYU grad, PhD, spécialiste de la préparation pour les concours d'entrée aux universités anglophones : SAT, ACT, GMAT, IELTS, IE, GRE, etc. 20 ans d'expérience. College counselling. Essay editin

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• Parlez-vous couramment cette langue en raison de vos origines ou parce qu'un professeur vous a donné envie de l'apprendre ?

  (My post is more about admissions consulting than about learning a language, so I'll answer that instead!)
  
  I moved from France to Australia, from Australia to the UK, from the UK to the US, and from the US back to France, and every time I arrived in a new country, I was completely mystified by the workings of its education system. I was used to being a good student, I wanted to remain a good student, so I set out to learn. I won't lie: I rarely learned things the easy way. But that's what makes this job so rewarding-today, I teach what I wish I'd known back then.

• Citez le personnage vivant, historique ou fictif qui est, selon vous, le représentant emblématique de la culture en question !

  I'm hesitating between the savant, so good at one thing they cannot be denied, and the polymath or the allrounder, brilliant in so many fields that we can't help but see in them a future prime minister. College admissions as a culture is slightly mad. In every other field, we raise a permissive eyebrow at the behaviour of our teenagers. Here, we expect them to be a ready-to-bake mixture between Michael Jordan and Marie Curie.

• Y-a-t-il, dans celle-ci, un mot, une expression, une tradition ou un comportement typique qui vous amuse particulièrement ?

  I confess to loving working on personal statements with my students. Here I am, helping students shape their own personal narrative, and often for the very first time! It's a real privilege to help them lay one of the first stones in their identity.

• En quoi savoir parler cette langue est important, que ce soit scolairement, professionnellement ou d'un point de vue plus personnel ?

  Knowing how to navigate the college admissions process is crucial. A higher SAT score, a better statement, a more perfect application list... all of those will help high-schoolers land on their college feet. To be honest, I rarely encounter parents or students who aren't aware of this.

• Quelle est la difficulté principale de cette langue et ce qui peut favoriser son apprentissage ?

  For the most part, it's getting the right information at the right time. Some parents are deeply aware of what their kids need to do, but are wondering how to optimise. Others have forgotten what the process is like, or have never gone through the system themselves. What people need is simple: access to good college counselling roughly two years out from their application cycle.

• Une anecdote en rapport avec votre métier ou votre scolarité à nous raconter ?

  I started tutoring by taking out an ad in the local print paper. I was 17. Such things worked back then!

• Aidez-nous à vous connaître un peu mieux en évoquant vos différents voyages.

  Not sure what to say about my past travels, but I can say what I like to do today, and that's to go on hikes. Five days in the wilderness somewhere cut off from my phone. It's as good as a meditation retreat, plus it does wonders for my waistline. Can't recommend it enough.

• Qu'est-ce qui fait de vous un Superprof, en + de cette capacité à s'exprimer en plusieurs langues ?

  I've already mentioned the fact that I've known many education systems from the inside. What's unusual about me, I suppose, is that I started being very math-focused, and then I veered towards the literary. My undergraduate degree was in engineering, whereas my PhD is on comedy! I didn't know it at the time, but that's an excellent background to have for college admissions.