Individual care pays off for award-winning French-language teacher

When news broke early this year that she had won an international teaching award, Svetlana Grier had no idea who had nominated her. The Russian-born French teacher at the Chinese International School only found out later from the Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth, which presented her with the Friedel and Otto Eberspacher Award for excellence in the teaching of a modern Western European language, that it was one of her former students.

The South Korean student, now studying at a US boarding school, had left Chinese International School a few years ago. "It was the first time I had heard of him since he left," says Grier, who had been teaching in Hong Kong for a decade. After his nomination, she was asked by the Johns Hopkins Centre to submit a short essay explaining why she took up teaching. It led to her winning the award, beating about 80 other teachers worldwide.

Her passion for teaching is obvious to her students. "She focuses on every single student, and teaches students as individuals. She knows how to accommodate our needs and learning styles," says Year Nine student Victoria Ngai.

Individual attention and motivation are known to be important factors for language learning, whether English, a common second language in Hong Kong, or a third or fourth language, such as French, which is being taught in several schools here.

In her home country, Grier had hoped to study to be an official interpreter. But admission for the training at top institutions in Moscow was extremely difficult. She had good grades in English in high school, so she studied French at the Tyumen State University in Western Siberia because it was relatively less common.

She became drawn to languages at the age of 11 under the influence of her father, who was learning English and was a big fan of the Beatles.