Hallo liebe Schüler und Schülerinnen!

My name is Curtis C. Taylor. My professional name is Herr Taylor. (Herr = “Mr.” in German. It sounds similar to “hair” in English.) I have been teaching young people to speak German since 1997. I taught for 5 years in Texas (1997-2002), and then for 19 years in Colorado (2002-2021). I’ve been teaching online since 2012. I started learning German when I was 21 years old. After all of these years, learning and teaching are still part of what I love doing every day. I hope you fall in love with the German language and culture just as I did.

One of my favorite things about teaching and learning German is the exposure to a different culture. I grew up in New Mexico and Colorado. I lived only in very small towns, and didn’t know much about the world even after graduating high school. Once I started learning German, I was exposed to a culture from half-way around the world. I saw that people from around the world are very different from everyone I knew, but at the same time, they had a lot in common with us. I can’t wait to introduce you to the German culture.

My focus for students is communication. You have to be able to talk. A lot of people “take” a language, and learn very little. Or at least very little they can demonstrate in actual communication with others. I want to make sure all my students learn to speak, read, write and understand German at whatever level they want to achieve. Many of my students have gone on to use their German in real life, from being able to talk to Oma and Opa in German, going on a student-exchange or mission trip, or even pursuing master’s and Ph.D.’s in German.

I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1995 with a bachelor’s in political science. I then stayed on to get my master’s degree in German in 1997. Go Gamecocks!!!

I taught high school in Texas for 5 years. I then moved with my family to Colorado, where I taught high school for 19 years. I started teaching online at Colorado Community Colleges Online in 2012. Since 2021 I’ve been teaching German online. (I’ve also taught Theatre, World Geography, and U.S. History.) In my free time, I have too many hobbies to keep up with. I love sports, but my old body doesn’t let me do as much as I used to. I get my exercise working on my 2 and ½ acre farm in New Mexico. The hobby about which I am most passionate, is music. I love listening to and making music.
I look forward to getting to know you better. Alles Gute, Herr Taylor.