34-year-old Ana Maria Tropotei from Romania has lived in Ireland for six years and has worked with us at City Language School for almost two years. She is without doubt one our most popular teachers and has a reputation for being friendly and outgoing. We caught up with her after class last week and spoke to her about life in Ireland and her love of teaching.
Where are you from?
I am from Targu Mures in Transylvania.
Dracula?
Yes, that’s what Transylvania is famous for. Bram Stoker, who was of course Irish, made my home famous.
How did you get into teaching?
When I was at school I hated MAths and Computer Science. I wasn’t any good at them so when I went on to University and studied Romanian Language and Literature and English Language and Literature. SO I Spent four years studying them.
I taught in a High School in Romania before coming here and I came here in 2012 and worked in a creche for a shirt time. While I did that I studied for my CELTA, got the qualification and started to teach here in Dublin.
Bram Stoker from Clontarf in Dublin wrote Dracula in 1897
Where do you live in Dublin?
I live in Dublin 9 around Whitehall and it’s a lovely area. I like Dublin. The people are friendly and it’s nice and clean and it’s quiet. It helps me to calm down and relax and I really like the weather. It’s lovely to leave your house in the morning and breathe fresh air and to be able to go back home and walk in a park or on a beach after 9 o’clock and breathe fresh air again. In my country it’s not the same. Here there are a lot of different options like the mountains or the sea and the DART and Dublin Bus are great for getting around.
Why do you like teaching English?
I like working with people and teaching is a very rewarding job. It’s not selfish because you’re helping other people to achieve their goals and you’re helping them to find out more about themselves or their personalities. Teaching is more or less the same, the grammar is the same, the vocabulary is the same but people are different and so the experiences are going to be different.
What do you do in your free time?
I like visiting places around Ireland and going out for walks. I spend a lot of time in nature as I said it helps me relax and after a long day teaching it’s nice to unwind and get ready for the next day.
The beautiful Town Hall in Targu Mures