About Us
Our philosophy. About zoqla.
Zoqla is the brainchild of a group of dedicated teachers whose goal is to embrace and share the world’s diversity through language and culture. As we all know, many of the world’s social problems stem from a lack of knowledge and empathy. Learning a different language is the key that opens the door to understanding a new culture.
At Zoqla we combine language teaching with entertaining social activities and culture-oriented projects. You can take advantage of the Zoqla team’s 20+ years of teaching experience from the comfort and convenience of your own home or workplace.
So if you are eager to learn, we invite you to expand your understanding of the world, and perhaps even yourself.
Our Team
We have professionally certified and native-speaking or fluent bilingual teachers, specially trained to help you learn languages online. Gain fluency and increase your confidence speaking any language with one of our native teachers via our 1-on-1 or group classes.
Seyda Ergul
Co-Founder
Teaching Turkish is my passion. I love being a language teacher. For me, teaching is a “work of heart” (and art!).
More about SeydaI think of my class as people first, and as students, second. As a “people person,” I’m sensitive to individual personalities and styles—what one person might enjoy, but what might make someone else uncomfortable. I suppose you can say that I teach from the heart, not just from a book. I’ve taught Turkish to young kids, university students, expats living in Turkey, and professionals needing advanced fluency. But regardless of age, the magic moment is the same: it’s when that “light bulb” of understanding turns on right in front of me.
Of course, teaching is an art, too, requiring specific skills and professional training. I’ve earned university degrees and certifications for teaching foreign languages, as well as comparative literature. I’ve also prepared materials for teaching Turkish as a foreign language on the university level. And instructed other language teachers in how to teach Turkish to young Syrian refugees, in cooperation with UNICEF.
Game-playing is one of my favorite learning tools. It relaxes people, creates camaraderie, and it’s fun! And when you’re having fun, you learn more quickly.
Nilüfer Benito Fuentes
Co-Founder
I am one of the lucky people who do the job they love and have succeeded in transforming their love of learning languages into their profession from an early age.
More about NilüferOn my language learning journey, I started my education at the Department of Spanish Language and Literature at Ankara University. Later, after teaching Spanish and Turkish to foreigners in various places, I completed my master’s degree in “Teaching Spanish as a Second Language” at a UNED (Spain) to specialize in my field. Not content with this, I attended formation courses of various institutions and universities in order to improve myself further. Later, in order to set new goals for myself in the field of education, which is my passion, I did another master’s at Coruña University in Spain, where I am currently living, under the title ” Leadership, Management and Innovation of Schools and socio-educational institutions” and still continue my doctorate in the same university in the “Equality and Innovation in Education” department.
Professionally, I have worked as a Turkish and Spanish teacher in numerous educational academies and international schools including working as a lecturer in Istanbul Aydın & Galatasaray University. Consequently, I had the opportunity to work with students of all ages and levels from various backgrounds and countries which granted me an extensive experience in both language and foreign cultures. Culture lives through language, and the intercultural approach is a well-known methodology that helps us feel language as a crucially embedded part of our identity instead of a superficial layer that erodes overtime. Therefore, in my lectures I always include cultural subjects, which I consider to be an integral part of language teaching.
