A Brief Story of a modern Teacher
Sofia Karfi founded LM Language and Motivation in 2018 while living in Utrecht, The Netherlands. But the story really began much earlier…
Studying French
Sofia graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dept. of French language and Literature, in 2006. After graduating, her memories from the semester she spent in Dijon, France were still fresh. Not about mustard delights, but about how people from diverse religions interact, how differently people cook, how dogs bark in different countries and how similarly they love and dream. That experience was about falling more in love with languages and prompted her to learn Spanish as well!
Becoming a Teacher
The next thing to do was to build upon her experience in teaching. She began her journey with the Greek Ministry for Education as a French primary school teacher. She maintained the position for 5 years while also working with a private language school.
Private lessons
Sofia became a well-developed teacher with excellent relationships with her students; both children and adults. The students were generally hard-working which should have given her satisfaction. However, it did not. A question started going through her mind: “They are such good students who do everything correctly, but why does it take them four years to reach a B2 level? I am teaching by the books and doing my best…. Surely, it can go faster. I must find a way.”
This question became the motivation for a big change in Sofia’s career and her whole life.
Philosophy, Pedagogy, Psychology
In the meantime, Sofia started to tap deeper into these sciences and their application in life. Since she was 16 years old, she started reading books for personal development, an area that still inspires her. This interest pushed her towards poetry and creative writing, eventuating in Sofia’s first book.
The topic that most excited Sofia was how one becomes an effective teacher through motivating people to believe in themselves. In this scope, Sofia also wanted to act as a life coach through encouraging and inspiring students. In combination with teaching languages she found her purpose.
Finding the Answer
Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.