Carmen Anders is a proud union member and the Head of Languages at St Rita’s College in Brisbane, Queensland. Last year she was awarded for her Outstanding Contribution to Language Learning by the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland. She discusses the value of language teaching, unionism and the teaching profession with IE journalist Jessica Willis.
Carmen has been teaching since 1999 at St Rita’s College and has been the Head of Languages for the past nine years.
She teaches German and Japanese and prior to her appointment as Head of Languages, also taught mathematics – having graduated with a double major in pure mathematics and a Diploma of Education in German and Japanese Studies from The University of Queensland.
Under her leadership, the languages program at the college has increased from three to six teachers, with 68 per cent of students in Years 7-10 and 33 per cent of those in Years 11-12 learning another language.
“I am German and migrated to Australia, so German is my native language,” Carmen said.
“I decided to go into teaching – and be a language teacher – because I would help my high school friends with their German schoolwork and found that I loved helping them.
“I thought, ‘oh, this might be my career!’.”
High value of language teaching
Carmen is incredibly passionate about language teaching because students are usually self-motivated which can make lessons fun.
“For starters, students choose to take the subject and be in your classroom,” Carmen said.
“This means most students are very self motivated and ready to learn. You can make it fun and real, especially by incorporating online technology into lessons.
“For example, we can be looking at food and I can ask students to look up a grocery store in Berlin, find certain groceries and ask them to calculate how many euros needed to cover them.
“We can look at cameras set up in Berlin streets and see what people are doing during their day. We can listen to German radio during class and see what topics of conversations students can pick up.
“Activities like these are so much more effective than just using a textbook. It makes it very real and fun for everyone; sometimes it feels like we are actually in Germany or Japan and not in an Australian classroom. It is also great when we are able to take students overseas and be totally immersed in the language and culture.”
Carmen said she believes that sometimes language teaching in Australia is overlooked for other subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); however, she believes it should be valued just as much.
“I believe teaching languages is just as important as other subjects such as science and mathematics,” Carmen said.
“Learning languages can lead to jobs and careers and lives anywhere in the world. Not only do we teach the core language, but we look at the cultures, traditions and histories associated with the language.
“Language students can become much more tolerant of other cultures because they start to recognise differences and similarities with their own culture which is a first step towards accepting people who are different from yourself.”
In addition to providing professional and career advantages and giving people better social skills, knowledge of more than one language has also been associated with:
- better reasoning, problem solving skills and creativity
- helping people deal with unknown and unfamiliar situations
- delaying the onset of dementia
- boosting academic outcomes, and
- ability to access a broader amount of education and information.
Outstanding contribution to language learning
Carmen’s teaching was recognised in 2019 when she was awarded for her Outstanding Contribution to Language Learning by the Modern Language Teachers’ Association of Queensland.
The award is only given out once every ten years and recipients must be nominated by fellow language teachers.
“I feel quite honoured and proud to have received the award and I take it as a ‘thank you’ for my work over the last 30 years.
“I feel society doesn’t often recognise the hard work that the teaching profession is. It’s not a 9-3 job; we work weekends, afternoons and into the nights to prepare lessons and work on certain things.
During the learning at home period in Term 2, Carmen believed that more people were starting to notice and appreciate the teaching profession a bit more. “Being nominated and recognised for my work makes it all worth it,” Carmen said.
Union community
Carmen has been an IEU member since she first started teaching and was an active chapter representative at her college for five years.
“I’ve learnt a lot being a part of our union, including how to negotiate,” Carmen said.
“[Our union] has always been very supportive and understanding and helped to answer any questions I’ve had. And, knowing I’ve got the legal support – if I ever do need it – is very reassuring as a teacher,” she said.
Carmen also said that knowing she had the collective union community behind her throughout her career has been comforting.
“You know you aren’t alone, especially if a situation necessitates collectively demonstrating how we feel or speaking up; you’ve got that whole union support and that means a lot. It means you are not alone; you are together.”
When asked about advice for members thinking about taking a more active role in our union – whether it be through joining committees, taking on leadership positions or becoming a chapter representative – Carmen said being honest and ensuring you listen are key.
Many members may hesitate to take on these positions from fear or uncertainty in how they will be perceived by their colleagues and their school leadership team.
“What I learned is to be honest with leadership,” Carmen said.
“My leadership team know I am an honest person and therefore they were supportive of me [when I was a chapter representative]. You need to be upfront and actively listen to your colleagues. It’s also important to be approachable and remember there’s two sides to every story.
“I enjoyed being a chapter rep; it meant I got to know my colleagues at the school and have made a lot of friendships through it.”
A bright future in teaching
Reflecting on the teaching profession, Carmen focuses on the joy that learning brings to students and encourages people to go into teaching.
“The teaching profession is a great job and an excellent profession even though teachers are not always recognised. I highly recommend people consider the teaching profession because it is so worthwhile and rewarding. You can see the difference you make for students every single day.”
One such past student of Carmen’s, Gerri Budd, was inspired to study German and then become a teacher herself after experiencing Carmen’s enthusiasm for teaching.
“Ms Anders was the reason I chose to study German in high school,” Gerri said.
“I was originally going to study Japanese but by some miracle, our class had Ms Anders for a cover lesson and her passion for her language and enthusiasm convinced me to change that day.
“I then studied German for five years with Ms Anders and although I wasn’t the best and struggled sometimes, her friendly, engaging demeanour and rapport with students made German one of my favourite subjects.
“Being a teacher now myself, I endeavour to treat my students the way Ms Anders treated us – with kindness, empathy and respect.”