What is the meaning of this テイル形

Question

For context: my language partner wrote me back and she explained to me in Japanese the use and grammar behind "て-form + いる" in the context of one's personal past.

The sentence in question (including some pretext):

「 大学の勉強の間、移住者の子供にドイツ語を教えるアルバイトをしています」 について考えてみましょう。

アンドレアスさんが言っているのは、「経験・経歴を表すテイル形」のことだと思います。

My attempt at translation of the bold part:

"Concerning what Andreas said, I think it is 'experience/personal history revealing TAIL-FIGURE'".

This "Tail-figure" doesn't make much sense, at least to me since I have no idea what it is supposed to tell me...^^

I would be happy if someone could elaborate :=)

Answer 1

「 大学の勉強の間、移住者{いじゅうしゃ}の子供{こども}にドイツ語{ご}を教{おし}えるアルバイトをしています」 について考えてみましょう。

↓

「しています」＝「している」 in meaning

Voilà, you have the ている-form of the verb 「する」 there!

And it certainly expresses one's "experience/personal history" of 移住者の子供にドイツ語を教えるアルバイト ("working part-time teaching German to immigrant children").

"Tail-figure" is just out of the question. Users here tend to "translate" things too early, namely, before even understanding the words and phrases in question.

As a Japanese learner, you must have encountered the terms such as マス形、テ形, etc. テイル形 is just another one of those terms. Those are discussed all day every day here.

　

Answer 2

テイル形 simply means “て form of verb plus いる”.

テ + イル + 形

て + いる + form

Answer 3

You're probably finding テイル形 is getting translated as "Tail Figure" because it's written in katakana, but it's actually referring to the ている form, i.e. the form of verbs ending in -te iru.