DARIA KOLACKA

 

I have been an adult education teacher for more than 20 years. I have taught German as a foreign language (DaF and DaZ) at language schools and privately in Poland and Switzerland. At the same time I was a lecturer of art history at different universities and art academies, among others at the Institute of Art History in Basel and the Institute of Theory and History of Photography in Zurich. I have a PhD in art history and possess the "Grosses Deutsches Sprachdiplom" (Goethe Institut) as well as the certificate "DaF Methodik und Didaktik" (Goethe Institut).

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I also work as a journalist for the photography magazine "Fotografia" and for the art magazine "Artluk". For the past 25 years I have been regularly publishing articles about photography, art, dance and theater in different magazines, books and catalogues. 2011–2014 I was responsible for coordination of publications at the University of Basel ("eikones" Insitute).

Currently, I still work as a freelance photographer for various clients including Stadtkino Basel. For many years I have been producing videos about artists and musicians and have worked for, among others, Museum Tinguely and Musikwerkstatt Basel.

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In my German classes I combine my knowledge about the language with a deep interest in culture. Through my journalistic background and practice in video making I can teach you German and present Basel to you in a non-standard way. I have lived in Basel since 2001 and have dual citizenship (CH/ PL).

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REFERENCES

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"Great German lessons, best I have experienced so far. Daria uses her creativity to adapt the lessons to my needs

and interests. Lessons are very practical, enjoyable and definitely I feel improvements in my day to day use of German. Highly recommendable lessons for anyone who wants to learn German while having fun!"

Pepe (Spain)

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"Daria is full of energy, with positive attitude and great sense of humor. She will identify what is “your way” of learning and adapt it for you, will choose topics which are interesting, engaging and relevant for you, will make learning German pure fun. After couple months I had made more progress than being in group classes for a year! Definitely one of the best teachers I ever had!"           

Malgorzata (Poland)

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"Daria is a pleasure to study with. She teaches in a wide variety of topics which is based on what students need in the everyday life. Students can easily follow what is going on in a class as Daria is always clear with various explanations.

She is enthusiastically willing to assist her students with any activity which is making a very friendly class room. She is organized, efficient, responsible in teaching, fun and has excellent communication skills."

Akiko (Japan)

 

"Daria is professional, always well prepared, provides personalized lessons tailored to your own interests and needs. I learned a lot about Basel culture and the creative scene here, my German improved a lot and I had good fun at the same time!"

Stephanie (New Zealand)

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"Daria is a fantastic German language teacher. She is friendly, welcoming, funny and all around a great person. I enjoy and look forward to my lessons each week. I have learned a lot in such a short time and hope I will continue to learn much more. Highly recommend."

Jessica (USA)

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"Very friendly atmosphere and professional approach. Apart from usual teaching material, Daria also uses very interesting self-made films & provides more activities for interested participants (movie evenings, city walks). During courses you also get to learn about Basel and Swiss history and culture. I've started learning here two years ago with no experience in German whatsoever and now I can communicate in work and everyday situations with (relative) ease!"

Mikolaj (Poland)
 

" (...) I have really felt the improvement in my German skills since we started collaborating. What I think is really unique about Daria's approach is (...) her ability to tailor individual lessons to meet the individual's needs, interests and goals. She also makes the lessons really fun and has her unique style to teach e.g. (...) offering movie nights and art event visits (...)"

Taimur (Pakistan)

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"Daria is an extremely professional teacher who adapts her teaching strategy to the student’s learning agility and learning style. She is a driven, organized and patient teacher who develops inspiring relationships with her students.

I do highly recommend Daria as one the best private German instructors in Basel!"

Mana (Iran)

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"Learning German with Daria is a pleasure ! She made it very interesting, proposing nice topics to discover. I learned a lot about Basel culture as well, which is very good when you just arrive in Basel!"

Laure (France)

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"(…) Daria is a great teacher, very motivating and patient. Her lessons are very engaging, she alternates the use of traditional study books with self made videos about the art and culture in Basel. The lessons include conversations, reading, listening and watching videos, which make learning very interesting and dynamic. Daria also showed me to a lot of useful online learning materials, which nicely complemented the lessons and helped me to improve even faster. I am very happy of the progress I made in few months, thank you Daria! I can definitely recommend German Classes Basel!"

Stefano (Italy)

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"Earlier this year I decided to take Daria's course: Preparation for Swiss Nationality 2: Swiss History, Politics, Culture / Advanced...best decision! I can confidently say that experiencing this course with Daria exceeded my expectations. Daria is a resourceful, motivational, well rounded and knowledgable teacher. She uses a variety of tools and engaging visuals tailoring her methods to how her student learns best. She uses the allocated time in a structured efficient and fun manner covering each topic thoroughly. She follows up with emails suggesting links, reading material and other recommendations to further improve and encourage understanding. After completing the course, I felt like I had a wealth of information allowing me to step into the citizenship exam with confidence. I really enjoyed Daria's course, it was so rich in information that each lesson made me realize how much more there is to learn and discover.
I can only recommend this course to anyone wishing to take a similar yet unique learning journey, whether for the citizenship exam or simply to further discover, understand and appreciate beautiful Switzerland."

Mona (Jordan)

 

"Daria is not only an outstanding teacher, but also an inspiring person, immersed in the cultural life of Basel. Her classes offer very intense communication exercises, that find their extension in the everyday life and at the events that Daria follows and convincingly recommends. Definately, the most broadening the horizon language course I have ever frequented"

Mateusz (Polen)

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"It was a great pleasure to have German classes with Daria. Aim of our personally adjusted classes, was to improve my written German and correct the mistakes in spoken German. Thank you Daria for your help and for your approach."

Zuza (Chech Republic)

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"Daria is a fantastic teacher and flexible in her teaching style. Her willingness to focus the classes on her student's interests was a major factor in my choosing German Classes Basel and it was a great decision! Her studio is conveniently located and she is easy to communicate with. I highly recommend language classes at German Classes Basel."

Matt (USA)

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"I recently concluded a set of German lessons with Daria, in preparation for my German B1 exam and also prior to that in 2018 for preparation for the Swiss Nationality application. Daria is an excellent teacher, who clearly leads the course and learning experience in a very structured way, which prepared me excellently for the exam. Furthermore, Daria is very dynamic and keeps lessons interesting, and uses not only books but media tools too. I highly recommend Daria as a German teacher".

Lucinda (United Kingdom)
 

"Daria helped me prepare for the "Sprachstandanalyse". This is the German level test required for obtaining the Swiss Citizenship. The test was a total success! Daria is very friendly and approachable. Personable and knowledgeable. The best way to lear a foreign language is to find the right teacher and I was very fortunate to take part of her classes. Once the Sprachstandanalyse was approved, I decided to continue taking classes with her in order to help prepare for the Citizenship protocol and final steps of the process. Thank you Daria!!!! I would highly recommend "German Classes Basel".

Leo (Argentina)

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"Looking to learn German during your maternity leave: I went to Daria’s class with my one month old baby and we both loved it. My baby son was really relaxed and Daria knew what to whisper when he got agitated, always in German. I quickly learned enough German to get around town and most importantly, I learned all the baby vocabulary that will help you with your daily life in Basel. I highly recommend spending some time with Daria during your maternity leave!"

Charlotte (France)

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"Each lesson with Daria is very interesting, time is flying during the lesson as she adds to the standard classical method with books different not typical approaches, such as video with real life speaking conversation, visit in a shop to practice simple requests, phone call in German when you really need to do so (...).

Daria has lots of passion and enthusiasm in teaching German. Always patient, she explains difficult topics in a simple and clear manner. She has a very positive energy, is very supportive and can motivate each student in the group. But more important (…) she helps to not be afraid to speak, motivates to speak more and to love German language and culture in general. "

Natalia (Russia)

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"I have really enjoyed my weekly ‘Deutschstunde’ with Daria (...) and I have learnt more in this past year than the previous three of trying to learn German. The topics are always in line with what is going on in my life and I really enjoy the range of learning materials Daria brings - it’s not all text books which makes the class a lot more engaging!"

Melinda (Australia)

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"I'm from San Francisco and have been taking German classes from Daria for 6 months now. She's taken me from zero to a reasonable level of reading and speaking ability in a relatively short amount of time! I noticed large improvement in reading comprehension by even the third class. She's an excellent listener and more than willing to adapt to a learning style that suits you. Through spoken everyday conversation, videos, hypothetical scenarios, and classical bookwork, it was clear that Daria has been teaching German for a long time and loves what she does. She's also very knowledgeable about the city and especially in the arts, -- this cultural aspect is a real bonus! (…)."

Andy (USA)

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"The best way to learn German without school-like ambiance! Daria is open-minded, broadly educated, interesting and interested person, with whom it is a pleasure to discover new culture, customs, topics through language classes. Moreover, as a part of classes, movie evenings, discussions and just friendly meetings are being organized, where one can meet other quite diverse students and friends of Daria In addition, she is always full with helpful advice for foreigners/newcomers in Basel/Switzerland. Highly recommended, no better option!"

Kasia (Polen)

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Here meets the world! Thank you all!

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