Meet the Team

Team Members

meyer Judith Meyer is a former project manager of GermanPod101.com and also one of the hosts. She has a passion for learning and teaching languages, speaking eight languages (not counting languages she dabbles in). Judith has taught languages as a private tutor for several years already and is just finishing up her university degree in linguistics.
Chuck Smith, American host of GermanPod101.com Chuck Smith As an American living and working in Germany for more than 4 years, Chuck is in a great position to help you discover the greatness and sometimes weirdness of all things German. Since he speaks six languages, Chuck knows the process of learning a language and will also guide you throughout the lessons as you embark on the same journey.
Lars Riemenschneider of GermanPod101.com Lars Riemenschneider As a native German, Lars knows about his homeland — its language characteristics and cultural aspects. He studied Business Management and Administration in England. Since he speaks 4 languages, he developed a passion for different learning and teaching techniques, which he would like to share with his students.
Sulamith Bade Sulamith “Laura” Bade She was born in Switzerland, grew up in Germany and is a native German speaker She graduated in Acting and Perfoming Arts at the Univerity of Arts Berlin and worked at some theaters before she came to Japan in order to do research on Japanese culture and theater. Recently she has been teaching French and English at a college for Culinary Arts and nutrition in Tokyo. Additionaly she’s practising the Japanese martial art Aikido. Sulamith wants to create own physical theater in Japan, going beyond linguistic and cultural borders and looking for a mutual understanding through movement and social interaction. She is very glad to be working with the GermanPod101.com team, and hopes that the listeners will enjoy her work as well.
Sulamith Bade Katrin Neubert Katrin is a native German speaker, and was was born in Berlin. After working in England and studying Japanese Studies and English Philology at Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin), she spent time in Japan to study the language further. Katrin firmly believes that anyone can learn a language if they just put their heart and soul into it, and wants to help others achieve their learning goals.
Gabriella White Gabriella White Gabriella is a linguist and multilingual broadcaster from the UK. Born to English-Dutch parents, Gabriella has a BA (Honors) degree in Linguistics, French, German and History of Art from the University of Durham. An accredited international journalist, Gabriella has worked with the BBC and is published in international newspapers and magazines including the Tokyo Daily. Gabriella is now learning her fifth language, Japanese, in Tokyo.
Andreas Frank Andreas Frank Andreas was born and raised in Bavaria, Germany. He studied Interaction Design at the HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd. Because of his interest in Japanese design, food and culture, he moved to Japan and studied at the Zokei University in Tokyo. German is his native language, and he is fluent in English. His hobbies include traveling, making music, and being creative.
Frank Hebestreit Frank Hebestreit Frank works in administration at an international language school in Darmstadt, Germany. He is currently learning his third foreign language, Spanish, and has a longstanding interest in teaching German as a foreign language.
Albert Metz Albert Metz Albert was born and raised in Germany and began studying Japanese at the age of 24. He previously majored in East Asian Studies and Chinese language and received his master’s degree from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Through studying and living abroad in China and Japan for several times, he has gathered broad cultural knowledge of both countries. He has experience in teaching English and Taekwondo to both adults and children. Albert is very passionate about photography, sports, Japanese Enka music, and singing karaoke. In fact, he has taken part in a few karaoke competitions since living in Japan. Albert has been doing voice acting and content creation for GermanPod101.com since July 2014 and hopes that listeners and German learners will enjoy his work.
Clara Lauer Clara Lauer Clara was born just outside Hamburg in Northern Germany, and is half German and half American. She grew up in Germany and moved to England after graduating high school in 2009. After graduating university (International Hospitality Management) in 2013, she worked in the sales department of a hotel in Brighton, UK, then moved to Tokyo in November 2014. Clara loves learning languages, and speaks a bit of French and Spanish and is studying Japanese. She also loves traveling. She was originally planning on going on a long holiday to visit university friends in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan but decided to quit her hotel job and move to Tokyo. She is loving it!
Samantha Lena Khairallah Samantha Lena Khairallah Samantha was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and raised in Canada, Lebanon, and Switzerland. She studied Japanese Studies at Zurich University and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Currently, she is doing her masters in immigration studies at the Asia Pacific Graduate School of Waseda University in Japan. She also supports several start-up companies and writes blog articles, mainly concerned with content marketing. She speaks German and English as native languages and French and Japanese at a conversational level.
Henrik Stoewenau Henrik Stoewenau Henrik was born in Peine, Germany and studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Hanover. As part of his studies, he lived in Hungary and in the U.S., and later, in Brazil for one year. In Brazil, he taught German at a private language school. Besides being fluent in German, English, and Portuguese, Henrik has studied French for seven years and Spanish for two years.
Anja Anja Anja was born in Japan where she grew up. She later moved to Germany. She has a multicultural background being a native speaker of both Japanese and German, and fluent in English. By focusing her studies on music education at a German university, she has gained valuable experience in teaching music and the piano. She also used to give German lessons and is interested in different cultures and mentalities.
Anne-Kristin Anne-Kristin Anne-Kristin was born in a small city in southern Germany. Besides her mother tongue German, she speaks English, French, Spanish and Finnish. She has been teaching German since 2011. After having completed her Bachelor’s degree in Finnish and Spanish philology, she is currently doing Master Studies in Specialized Translation.
Reinhard Reinhard Reinhard was born and raised in Bavaria, Germany. He studied Industrial Engineering at the Technical College in Munich, and Business & International Studies with the Open University in the UK. He has traveled extensively through Europe, South America, and South-East Asia, and lived for extended periods of time in Australia, where he worked as a scuba-diving instructor, and Barcelona, Spain. He speaks English and a little Spanish and Japanese besides his mother tongue, German. Since settling in Japan, he has worked 6 years teaching English in Japan’s public education system (ES, JHS, High School and Schools for Children with Special Needs). He loves animals and wants to get more involved in animal welfare in Japan. He volunteers in various animal shelters and an animal hospital. At home, they have three cats who all came from various shelters around the country, including Fukushima, and he is in the process of starting a pet-sitting service.
Igor Zapała Igor Zapała Igor was born in Poland, where he spent the first five years of his life, before his parents decided to move to a city on the German-Polish border. There, he grew up bilingual, living in a Polish household while attending a German school. After graduating from high school, Igor spent five years in the German capital Berlin before deciding to move to Japan. His interests include music, movies, and pop culture in general.
Katrin Preusler Katrin Preusler Katrin hails from the northern part of Germany and has studied art history and Japanese studies at Martin Luther University in Halle, Germany. During university, she completed two exchange years in Japan, the last of which being at Tokyo University in 2013. Since 2017, she has been working for a language school in Tokyo, and as of April of 2022, she has also started working for Sophia University as a lecturer in German.