From Estonia to Orange: Five questions with new Kinross Wolaroi School French teacher and passionate linguist Signe Ernist

The CWD sat down with the linguistic master to find out how she's adapting to life in the Colour City and why she's passionate about Australian learning more languages.

CWD: "How are you finding Orange so far?"

Signe Ernist: "I love it, I feel like I've ended up in a a paradise. Everybody is so lovely, the school is amazing and the climate compared to Sydney is beautiful.

"The main street at night with all the lights is just so beautiful."

CWD: "What prompted you to move to Orange?"

SE: "It was a strange chain of events but we were looking to move away from Sydney. I then asked around my fellow French teachers and the next day someone said Kinross was looking for one.

"It was almost made for me. I didn't put anything in motion it just happened."

CWD: "When did you move to Australia?"

SE: "I moved in 2004 but I was visiting for a few years before that. I moved for a change. Before that I had been traveling the world. I was teaching in India and Egypt.

"I had visited parts of the world and Australia was pretty much the only part I hadn't been yet."

CWD: "Australians aren't great at learning a second language. Do you want to change that?"

SE: "When I first moved I had a masters degree in Estonia and when I got here I had to undertake a diploma of education of gain permission to teach as the pedological part of my degree wasn't recognised.

"As I completed that I had to do a prac and I learned that not many kids study languages. I had more questions than answers and one of my teachers said well if you are so interested then why don't you do a PHD to find out.

"So I did. In that sense, you guys not learning languages was good for me because it led me to do more research to motivate kids to continue past their compulsory language study."

CWD: "Finally, just how many languages do you speak?"

SE: "I speak five fluently and about 10 under torture. Fluently I speak English, French, Russian, Estonian and Finnish, which is very close to Estonian.

"Because Estonia is so small we all learn about three languages at school. I just love languages, I always have, that's my specialty."

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