Nora Gesellmann, aka Die Sprachfee.

At home in many languages and cultures, she is passionate about language in all its variety and originality, the way words sound and nuances of meaning. She still has a childlike curiosity and love of new discoveries (… not to mention a weakness for unusual sweets). She has lived on three continents, always ready to immerse herself new cultures, and her personal visual and creative learning style has helped her gain fluency in English and French as well as Italian and Japanese.

The daughter of two art professors, she grew up in a studio in the beautiful Burgenland countryside not far from Vienna, and went on to study art history and Japanese Studies. Perhaps she was inspired by the wealth of colours, or the many dialects spoken around her home*; or perhaps it was a vast art library that showed her the treasures of the world at a young age. Her career to date is as colourful as her clothes while her journeys of discovery have taken her to far-flung corners around the globe. The map of her travels has a pin in New Zealand, where as an exchange student she learnt about volcanoes and glaciers as well as Kiwi English and Maori. There’s one in Venice, where she studied among the palaces and acqua alta, and another in Japan, where she wrote her thesis on the fashion icon Issey Miyake and discovered Japanese business culture. And one in the Lofoten islands, near the arctic circle in Norway, which she explored under her own steam by bicycle, camping out with her dog for company. Before, during and after these endeavours, Nora spent many years working in the field of public relations, where her responsibilities included international communications for one of the world’s largest AIDS charity events (Life Ball), advising a leading sports equipment manufacturer, looking after PR for Vienna’s best-known photo gallery and working for an architect who designs major stations and stadiums.

She has been able to put her passion for cultural and language exchange to good use, working as a research assistant at the University of Vienna, for example, where she was part of an international research team puzzling out lost verbal imagery and hidden messages in Japanese woodblock prints. She has also worked editing books on major Austrian artists and on an architectural monograph on the new UN conference centre in Vienna, to which – being a keen photographer – she also contributed a photo reportage.

In the role of the Sprachfee she adds a splash of colour to the world of language learning. A qualified tutor in German as a foreign language, linguistic and cultural integration go hand in hand for her: she focuses on enjoyable, practical learning, tailor-made to your professional and personal interests.

Nora loves to open up the art of the German language to others, while in her spare time she may be found visiting exhibitions, devouring the latest National Geographic or walking unspoilt paths with her Sheltie, dreaming of future travels and linguistic adventures.