Teacher: Henning
My name is Henning, and I joined the team at GSSF in September 2023 to teach A2/DSD I. I was born and grew up in Essen in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Later I moved to Hamburg, where I studied Phonetics/Phonology, Linguistics, North-American Literature, as well as Near Eastern Languages (in other words, Persian and Arabic) and Cultures.
After moving to California in 1995, I taught Persian Language and Literature at UCLA, UCSB, and at UVA in Richmond. Upon my return to California, I taught Persian at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in Monterey. But I still longed to apply all my language teaching skills to my own native tongue, and for several years, I taught German at the Goethe-Institut in San Francisco, where I now live. Of all the places I lived in California, I like the weather here best—I’ve been a fan of clouds, rain, and fog all my life. Bring it on, Karl!
I also teach German at the University of San Francisco. My overall approach is the same no matter where, whom, or what language I teach: that learning a language should bring out your inner child! Because we’ve all managed to learn (at least) one language already, and when we did, making mistakes never discouraged us, we certainly did not neglect to have fun along the way, and our ultimate success was never in doubt. So what should keep us from doing it again?