Fun Facts

I just passed my final language requirement (for my fourth language) for my Spanish doctoral program - my fourth language is Italian. I love getting emails from my friends who speak Portuguese or Italian so that I can see how well I can process the information and respond to them.

About Me

I am an engineer who went back to the university after many years and I am in a PhD program in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. I love people, nature, and languages. I was an engineer for many years so I am a "data driven" type person which helps me in my current role as a grad student in Hispanic linguistics.

Experience

I've taught University Spanish for several years so I have been in front of the class a few hundred times. I create exams, grade all work, and award the final grade. I also taught English to immigrants in Oxnard, volunteering through Lauterbach Ventura. I have also been trained as a court interpreter Spanish-English. I am just as comfortable one-on-one as in front of a small or even a large group.

Approach

First of all, I am trained in the Communicative Method at the University of California. It is a very up-to-date program. No grammar drills here! (Unless, of course, that is what you need to study.) My pedagogic training is really about teaching foreign and second languages to non-native speakers. That could be English to a Mandarin speaker, or Spanish to an English speaker. I am native in English so can apply my training to ESL also. I teach via the communicative method. The lessons are 99% in