Hello, I am Alice Choquard, the new French language assistant at WGC. I am 22 years old and just completed the first year of my Master’s degree to become a French teacher abroad after graduating from a Modern Languages Undergraduate Degree. I was born and raised in Monaco, one of the smallest countries in the world ! I decided to come to New Zealand to become an assistant because I wanted to be closer to nature and be able to do all sorts of outdoor sports like hiking, surfing, skiing… I am really looking forward to discovering this beautiful country. Half of the week, I am also working at Ridgway School in Brooklyn in the bilingual section of the primary school. I am looking forward to improving your children’s level of French and making them fall in love with my language.

Gude! (This is how you say hello in my local dialect at home.) 

I’m Rylan Köhler, the new German language assistant for term 1 and term 2. Over the past seven years I lived and studied in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, before graduating and finding my way to this beautiful place! At home, I studied to be an English and Philosophy teacher, but here I get to experience the joys of teaching my native language as a foreign language. I am working with Anna Scadden two days a week; the other two days, I have the pleasure of working with Philippa Watson at Heretaunga College in Upper Hutt. I have really enjoyed being at WGC, and of course, being part of the German classes in particular, so far! Outside of school, I spend time with my flatmates, do handicrafts, go swimming, and soon will start taking te reo Māori classes.

My name is Zhāng Yángyáng（张 洋洋). I’m the new Mandarin teaching assistant. I was born and raised in Yichang City. I am a postgraduate student in Wuhan University, majoring in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages. I will stay in New Zealand for ten months. In my spare time, I like to listen to music and play the Chinese zither. I hope to share music with others.

New Zealand is a very beautiful country! I’m very glad to come to New Zealand. I grew up in an inland city, so I really like the sea in New Zealand, which is very magnificent. Besides work, I hope to experience different cultures in New Zealand and make many friends.