Sparkly Mitsa Pepelanova eagerly told us about her background and how she ultimately decided upon her chosen career as a Helen Doron teacher. “I live in a small mountain town with only 5000 citizens by the name of Chepelare. My father is a history teacher and my mother is a dentist. They lived most of their life under the communist regime in Bulgaria and were obliged to study Russian at school as was I. English was not a priority language then and it wasn’t until I was in 5th grade at school when we started studying English 2x a week. So, we spoke mostly Russian as a second language at home. At this point in my life I speak English, French, Hebrew and Greek and I’ve been learning Italian!”
“I heard about Helen Doron English when I was travelling on the bus with an old friend of mine who lives in Austria. We were speaking about schools and our children being able to study alternative methods. She mentioned the Helen Doron methodology and later I checked the information on Google. I fell in love with this method and immediately took the necessary steps to become a Helen Doron Teacher. I took the opportunity to travel to Israel and be trained in Nazareth, and soon after that I started teaching around 20 students in my home town.”
Mitsa enthusiastically caught us up on her present experience as a teacher. “I have been working for Helen Doron for four years now and have taught many of the programmes including: Baby’s Best Start, Fun with Flupe, More Fun with Flupe, English for all Children, Jump with Joey, More Jump with Joey, Paul Ward’s World and Play On. My youngest student started when he was 15 months old and still comes to my classes and just started More Fun with Flupe (ages 4-6).”
The Bulgarian teacher reflected on how Helen Doron is different from the competition. “The thing that keeps me going is the sparkle in the children’s eyes when they come to the lessons expecting something interesting and original—their feeling of happiness to discover how they speak and understand English without much effort and the eagerness to learn more and more… the friendship between us and the intimacy which cannot be found in more ordinary ways of teaching English. They accept me as an equal, as their partner and this is where the magic starts, because I am not the teacher who punishes and criticizes, I am their friend who cares and encourages them all the time without being hostile as many of the teachers I know are. The children feel the love and they reflect it and give it back to you. This is the best method to teach English to children and I recommend it to all parents.”
A word to future Helen Doron teachers from Mitsa: “For my future colleagues, you have to be very devoted to the children, you have to be very hard-working and the most important thing, you have to be patient and loving. If you are not sure you have these qualities, you better give up the idea and do skills and drills somewhere in a state high-school. And last but not least, the money is good as well!”
Mitsa’s parting words about her Helen Doron career “The most important thing for me is that the children are happy and they really learn English easily and in a fun way.”
