Anastasia Karouti talks to us
Katheti is an educational and cultural centre aiming to provide locals and visitors of the area with the opportunity to learn new things, to develop their skills, and to have fun by attending cultural events. Many of Katheti’s educational activities for the previous school year of 2018-2019, have been designed by Anastasia Karouti, an educator and translator.
Read an interview with Anastasia below to find out more about her work and education in general, while getting to know who we are!
Tell us about your work.
I am an English language teacher and translator and I work at Katheti. There I design educational activities and I deliver seminars on topics I have been trained on and on which I have professional experience.
I have been teaching English since 2010. I have taught English to learners of all levels. My great passion was and still is translation –since 2009, I have been collaborating with various companies for the translation of medical and legal texts and for the translation of INTERREG deliverables.
What is your relationship with the local area?
I visited Poros for the first time in 2011 and I instantly fell in love with the area. Since then, I have started visiting the island every year. In 2017, when I had been living in Athens for 3 years already, I realised that I wanted to leave and live in a place which will inspire me and help me learn more about myself, away from the city’s noise. So, I moved to Poros in August 2018 and I do not regret it for a moment.
How has crisis affected your work and your life and how do you deal with it?
I graduated my university school in 2010, amid crisis. I was exceptionally lucky to find a job right away and almost never become unemployed. The crisis has had a profound effect on me, though, as in order to make it, I had to never stop trying to find a job −even when I was already working somewhere− or working two or three jobs at a time. I can now say that I cope with the crisis by setting clear goals, by constantly searching for new things, and by finding creative solutions to the issues that concern me. And of course with constant training.
Which of your knowledge and personality traits have been most useful to you in your professional life? What are your weaknesses and how have they influenced you?
What I have made the most of is my curiosity and willingness to learn new things and improve my skills. I am sure that without the motivation to learn and evolve, I would not be able to design seminars or activities and not be afraid to do something out of my comfort zone.
One of my disadvantages is my insistence on doing everything on my own, which has led to my being overworked. It’s something I’m still trying to improve and now I think I’m on the right track.
Is there an aspect of your personality or anything related to how you work that would like to improve?
Someone may find gaps in their knowledge or things they want to develop every day. This applies to me, too. When I realize that there are things I can improve about an activity I design on or in a text I translate, I do my research and try to fill in the missing pieces. I think what I want to improve is the way I treat myself when I understand that I need to learn something more –I sometimes get harsh or feel guilty if I make a mistake. I need to learn how to be more understanding towards me.
Is there anything you would do differently? What do you consider as a right step in your career?
What I would do differently is talk more with people who could act as my mentors, with my professors or friends and with colleagues so as to get ideas and learn by avoiding common mistakes.
What I feel I have done very well is that I have never stopped evolving, I managed to easily adjust to all the work environments in which I found myself, and I set clear goals: to be independent, to act on my values and to respect others.
What piece of advice would you give to a young person who would like to do what you do?
Never stop looking for opportunities and never be afraid to try new things. To volunteer, to live abroad for at least a short time period, to read a lot of literature and to always be up-to-date on developments in their field. To learn at least 2 foreign languages at a very good level, to attend seminars and courses and to always try to answer the following questions: who am I, where do I want to go, how can I go there, why do I want to go there. If the last question is answered by the first one, this person in on the right track!
What are your plans for the future, short-term and long-term ones?
I intend on keeping on learning and having more fun.
Short bio
Anastasia Karouti grew up in Nafplio. She is an English language teacher and translator with postgraduate studies on gender studies and feminist theory and she has received training on education, non-formal and experiential learning, intercultural communication, and the Erasmus+ programme in Greece and abroad. For two years, she had been working as a trainer and educational counsellor at non-profit organisations in Romania. In 2013-2014, she participated in GROW, a nationwide educational programme for personal and professional development. As a trainer, she was responsible for designing and delivering experiential learning workshops to teenagers, as well as training international volunteers on non-formal learning.
