I'm a passionate polyglot world traveler now starting a new language adventure in Prague, Czech Republic. I'm a trained cultural anthropologist and classical singer. During my college years I took many linguistics, phonetics, diction and language courses in both Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and German. Language and language learning is something that fascinates me and I enjoy working with!

I have lived in eight different countries, and have experienced the advantages of speaking multiple languages. Besides traveling I dedicate a big chunk of my time to music, I'm also a classically trained soprano with a jazz and world music passion, and enjoy cooking international dishes, reading, biking, doing yoga, jogging and teaching languages.

-Sociocultural anthropology degree from the University of Minnesota.

-Worked as a Spanish tutor in Shoreline Community College in Seattle, WA for three years.

-Have worked as a private Spanish and English teacher and tutor for ten years in Seattle, WA, Minneapolis, MN, Berlin, Germany, Madrid, Spain and now Prague.

-Have facilitated workshops for student exchange participants to improve their Spanish conversation skills before leaving the U.S. For this I developed games, conversation topics and handouts with vocabulary and easy grammar. They loved it!

-I have completed French, and Portuguese grammar cycles (2 years each) at the University of Minnesota, which has kept my language part of the brain active and has refreshed my teaching skills helping me develop fun and dynamic ways of teaching.

Grammar is our friend, but is definitely not everything. We need interaction and repetition in the right context in order to internalize a language and become fluent in it. From my own experience I've learned that having short grammar lessons, and quickly put them in a practical context is better that trying to structure everything and understand the grammar in detail. So my classes have short grammar explanations, lots of talking and relevant games and activities like short readings, videos and sometimes even karaoke to help you learn and have fun.

I am a big fan of learning about the cultures that speak a given language and trying to understand them instead of translating everything and trying to understand everything through our own lenses. Learning a language is learning a new worldview and a way of being. Let's do this together!

With that being said, I am also a grammar geek so if you are more of the rules type of person I can equally enjoy going over rules, exceptions and fun nitty-gritty grammar. I follow the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to structure my grammar lessons, and focus on elements that my students might need or want to work more on.

I'm always looking for new fun ways to help you learn Spanish or English in all kinds of media. If you'd like I might even get you singing in rancheras or The Beattles, perhaps watching telenovelas or doing something fun you actually enjoy in your target language. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me or try a 50% discounted trial lesson!