Phuong Le (she/her)

Co-Founder / Head of Education

Phuong is a passionate teacher of German, English, and Chinese with a background in high school education (Lehramt Sek II). She has been teaching for 12 years, working with high schoolers, university students, and refugees, and has developed a strong focus on adult education. Frustrated by outdated methods, she founded her own language school to teach with curiosity, compassion, and connection. As an openly autistic educator, Phuong embraces her “neurospicy” brain — a mix of deep focus, structure, and emotional intensity. Her sensory sensitivity and honest communication shape both her challenges and her strengths. She values authenticity and teaches with openness and heart.

Phuong speaks and teaches German, Vietnamese, Chinese, and English — and is currently learning Spanish. Her love for language, people, and cats drives her every day. Her co-teachers Stevie and Tila, Zeitgeist Zentrum’s school cats , are always by her side, bringing calm, joy, and purrs to every lesson. ❤

Hung Nguyen (he/him)

Co-Founder

Born and raised in Berlin, Hung knew very early on that he wanted to work with interesting people from all over the world. Today he is a postgraduate psychology student and works towards his goal to become a psychotherapist. In his career, various forms of communication have always played a central role, which led him to develop a passion for verbal forms of communication and language in general. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to develop a language school with a contemporary concept together with Phuong, he immediately agreed to join her.

Carolina Brown (she/her)

Administration

Caro started writing and drawing at an early age. At university, she switched from drawing to photography but she never stopped writing. She studied Literature and Multimedia Communications and has worked in advertising and film production. She has published six books in Chile, Argentina, Germany and Spain. When she is not at Zeitgeist Zentrum, she runs her Creative Writing Workshop in Neukölln, is deeply immersed in a novel or is petting random dogs on the street. She has lived in Berlin for 3 years and hopes the Auslanderbehörde will let her stay more.

Niko Jacobi (they/them, he/him)

Administration

Niko lives, loves and struggles with the in between. After studying linguistics and cultural science/semiotics for almost 10 years, they decided to rigorously shift focus to theatre and dance, no longer wanting to work with abstract theories. Having completed training for improvisation, contemporary dance techniques and somatics, he found his passion for performance art and enjoys showing off on stage. Slowly, these experiences are merging and creating new links between language, movement, culture and politics. Here at Zeitgeist Zentrum, they are working in administration and facility management. They is always open for deep conversation, but cannot understand small talk.

Aurica Liebing (she/her)

Teacher

Aurica (she/her) has called Berlin her chosen home for the past 13 years. A native German, she’s also fluent in English, Chinese, and French. She’s worked in a variety of teaching settings - from teaching German to Chinese native speakers and offering private lessons to serving as the longest-standing teacher at Zeitgeist. Aurica also lectures at the Free University of Berlin and runs workshops on Chinese history, culture, and politics for high school students.

Aurica is known for her interactive teaching style and for encouraging everyone to use their German confidently and creatively. She also has a soft spot for teaching students seemingly “useless” phrases - like “Ciao Kakao” or “Jetzt haben wir den Salat.”

Viktoria Partyka (she/her)

Teacher

Growing up bilingual with German and Polish, Viktoria identifies with Berlin and it’s culture, where she was born and raised. She studied German and English literature and linguistics and has been teaching for seven years in a variety of settings — from public and private schools to language school — working with students from grade schoolers to adults. She has now settled as a German as-a-foreign-language teacher. Her favourite things about teaching German are meeting people from all over the world, showing how systematic and (sometimes, promise!) easy German can be and combining learning with interactive exercises and creative games. Writing German poetry and fiction in her free time, Viktoria loves teaching her students a wide range of expressions for the same idea - from „Kiez-Deutsch“ to posh and polite High German, and literary or playful idioms. She has been a teacher at Zeitgeist for a year and intends to stay, partly because she fell in love with the cats and of course because it’s an amazing school! - but the cats are a huge magnet.

Trung Vu

Teacher

With Vietnamese roots, Trung grew up bilingually in Potsdam, Germany. His early contact with different cultures and languages laid the foundation for his later teaching career. Through his long stays abroad, from South America to Asia and New Zealand, Trung was able to deepen his intercultural skills, expand his interpersonal understanding and recognize the need for a common language within a living space. He sees language not only as a means of communication, but also as an art of expressing oneself, verbalizing thoughts and feelings and bringing them to life in the form of language. Outside of the classroom, he immerses himself in classical literature, contemporary art or tries out new language learning apps to improve his Spanish.

Oliver Wynn

Teacher

A lifelong language learner turned language teacher, Oliver’s curiosity doesn’t stop at grammar rules. He’s driven by a deep fascination with people, cultures, and the stories that shape them. Alongside his studies in modern languages and years of experience teaching, he also spent many years working in the tech world, most recently as a product manager, where he honed his love for systems, problem-solving, and asking the right questions. He speaks English, German, French, Spanish, and Russian fluently and he sees each language not just as a means of communication but as a key to understanding how people think, feel, and connect. 

For Oliver, languages are windows into the minds and hearts of others. He’s passionate about helping others build confidence and find their voice on their own language learning journeys.…

Pietro Senese

Teacher

Pietro grew up in a small village near Naples, southern Italy, where his passion for languages began early, sparked by stories of his grandfather’s journey to the US. While attending a linguistic high school in Naples, he began giving private German lessons, discovering a profound love for teaching that never stopped. Today, he lives in Berlin, where he is currently studying Russian and Swedish. He speaks eight languages (with Arabic on the way) and sees each as a gateway to new worlds filled with new people, music, and ways of thinking. For Pietro, every language is a new character to embody, a new soul to inhabit...just like in the theatre!

Activism is a central part of his life. Pietro believes that there is no place for racism or injustice, neither in society nor in the classroom. He sees teaching as a creative and mutual exchange: a  safe space where curiosity, imagination, and lived reality come together — because every lesson taught is also a lesson learned.

Dzhuma Abakarova

Teacher

Dzhuma studied linguistics, German studies, and teaching—and she puts all of it to good use helping you learn German in the most effective way possible. When she’s not in teaching the classroom, she’s busy researching how children acquire language for her dissertation. If pronunciation’s giving you trouble, she’ll walk you through how your vocal tract works (yes, with diagrams, if needed!). If grammar feels like a maze, she’ll dive into the historical roots of those quirky structures until everything starts to click. Feeling stuck? She’ll tap into the psychology of language learning to help you overcome mental blocks—and maybe even show you how babies learn languages, since they’re basically the pros.

Dzhuma’s a native speaker of Dargwa and Russian, speaks some French (though it’s a bit rusty), and is currently learning Arabic—so she knows exactly what it’s like to be a language learner, too.

Arturo Cervantes Ramírez

Spanish Teacher

Arturo was born on the coast of Ecuador, where he grew up near the beaches. He studied Literature and worked as a cultural journalist for a national newspaper and later at Ecuador’s Ministry of Culture. One day, he decided to move to Buenos Aires to pursue a Master’s Degree in Psychoanalysis. In Argentina, he taught Spanish to Senegalese migrants in vulnerable situations through a nonprofit organization, and also founded his own online bookstore. Since moving to Germany, Arturo has taught Spanish at three language institutes. In his classes, he loves weaving literature and psychoanalysis into the process of learning Spanish. Outside the classroom, Arturo performs in Spanish-language improv theatre in Berlin, and regularly reads his own texts at literary events for the Hispanic community.