People at froebel - Christina Cherry

The Spanish Anna Ponce Recio is one of the first foreign-language pedagogical specialists to have completed a specialist career at FRÖBEL. In an interview, she tells how she mastered this particular challenge.

Ms. Ponce Recio, you became multilingual "put in the cradle" – tell us something about your background?

My mother comes from Andalusia, my father comes from the Catalan part of Spain, where I was born – in the beautiful city of Girona. So I grew up with Catalan and Spanish and with a cultural diversity for which I can only be thankful.

If we counted correctly, you now speak five languages - how did that come about??

During my studies I lived in other countries and with different cultures: in the USA as an au pair and later, in order to complete my studies as a foreign language teacher, as part of an ERASMUS program in Sweden. There I got to know the Swedish language and culture through close ties to the school and the university. In recent years I have been part of a European Comenius project as a teacher, where we have developed and implemented a project for cultural exchange with England and Italy for three years.

Why did you decide to work in a kindergarten in Germany?

Five years ago, I decided to take a break from my work as a teacher and pedagogue and move to Germany pull – I already knew the country and culture from several long vacation stays. I went to Cologne. Since I was interested in the German education system, I quickly came across FRÖBEL. I was immediately impressed by the carrier, with whom I found all my values: a respectful upbringing that looked at the potential of every child takes, and the multicultural wealth that is reflected in the families and teams. As a bilingual specialist, I felt very attracted to it. My first contact with FRÖBEL in Cologne was through recruiting. Despite my not necessarily perfect knowledge of German, I was very well and warmly received.

How were you welcomed into the facility, the FRÖBEL Kindergarten Ostheim?

It is a kindergarten full of potential and challenges with which I feel fully in tune due to its multicultural character. The team and families are respectful and inclusive. FRÖBEL also has a network of support that reaches every single employee. In addition to our manager, the specialist adviser and the consultant for personnel development and intercultural matters supported me very competently and with a lot of personal commitment when I arrived in the German kindergarten system. You also accompanied me through the process of recognizing my pedagogical qualifications.

You are one of the first foreign-language specialists at FRÖBEL to embark on a specialist career. That is a challenge for German-speaking specialists.

Yes, of course that’s a big challenge, but an equally attractive offer that I couldn’t refuse. The training courses that I completed gave me more professionalism and therefore more security to move in the pedagogical field in Germany. As a coordinator, I am part of the management team and have my own area of responsibility. I particularly take care of the educational quality development in the facility.
FRÖBEL accompanies employees who want to develop further, very good and close-knit. There are individual offers that are adapted to your own professional interests and the needs of the institution. This makes the company unique.