Ekaterina graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Saint Petersburg State Pedagogical University.

She has been teaching Russian at private language schools and Consulates since 1998.

Her students easily pass any tests of Russian language (including Levels C1 and C2)

She likes Russian Grammar and can explain even the most difficult things and make them both clear and funny.

Ekaterina likes telling about words’ etymology during the lesson which simplifies the process of words’ learning and helps people to better understand Russian culture and traditions.

To consider individual students’ learning goals and to develop appropriate exercises for these goals - these techniques could be helpful and useful for every student.

Studied at Novosibirsk State University.

Faculty of philology and cross-cultural communications. During that time, worked as a private tutor of English, tutoring elementary school and high school students.

Liya has been teaching Russian as a Second Language for the last 5 years.

Liya teaches all the levels from A1- C2 and get students ready for all kids of exams, her favorite levels to teach A1-B1.

Follows the existing curriculum for teaching Russian as a Second Language to students with minimal to no Russian language experience. Developing changes in curriculum for students based on their knowledge level and skills.

Natalia Abramova earned a Masters Degree at St. Petersburg Teacher-Training University with a major in languages and then became a certified teacher of Russian as a Second Language. After graduating Natalia Abramova began her career as a Russian Language Instructor at Extra Class Language Center in St. Petersburg. After moving to the USA, Natalia continued her career at San Diego Russian School (SDRS) and successfully developed a Russian as a Second Language Department at SDRS.

Natalia participated in various continuing education programs and earned a certificate in a governmental program of Russia “Russian as A Second Language Training Course for Teachers Practicing Abroad” (72 hours course)

Natalia teaches all the levels from A1- C2 and get students ready for all kids of exams.

Maria graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Kemerovo State Pedagogical University.

She has been teaching Russian at private language schools since 2010.

Her students easily pass any tests of Russian language (including Levels C1 and C2)

To consider individual students’ learning goals and to develop appropriate exercises for these goals - these techniques could be helpful and useful for every student.

Teacher of Russian as a Foreign language.

Irina graduated from the Faculty of Russian Philology and Culture at Saint Petersburg Russian Christian Academy For the Humanities

She has been teaching Russian at private language schools since 2005.

Her students easily pass any tests of Russian language.

She likes Russian Grammar and can explain even the most difficult things and make them both clear and funny.

Marika has graduated from the faculty of English language and literature at “Georgian University of David Agmashenebeli” Tbilisi, Georgia.

She has been teaching Georgian since 2009. She had taught three groups of “Peace Corps” Volunteers (G 9; G 10; G 11) The Co-Author of PC “Georgian Language Handbook”. Marika Had been a mentor teacher, worked in different projects as a Georgian Language teacher, met a lot of people, with different cultures and traditions.

Her passion for and knowledge of Georgian language and creative methods of teaching, is immediately clear to any learner. Marika teaches all the levels from A1 to C2.

Tamta Graduated from Gori State University (Georgia), faculty of Humanitarian Sciences WITH HONOR. She has been teaching since 2005 at different language centers, international, private and public schools. Since 2007 she has been working for American State Agency -Peace Corps Georgia as a Georgian language and cultural facilitator (LCF).

She has created a lot of grammatical and cultural learning materials. She has rich experience of working with students of different level and age. She uses her best practices to explain the most difficult grammar rules easily that makes the students love and enjoy the language and the class. She loves telling some historical backgrounds and etymologies of words that makes her class more interesting and clear.

Teaching Georgian language and culture is her passion, that’s why she has dedicated so many years working on this, for personal, professional and field development. Tamta teaches Georgian for all levels: from A1 to C2.

Nana Jirashvili graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Economy and Law Institute of Georgia. She has been teaching Georgian language at private school, at Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia within the project “Teach and Learn with Georgia “(TLG) and at Peace Corps since 2010.

Nana provides learners with simplified grammar rules. She encourages learners to get engaged in speaking activities based on various topics. She helps learners to develop reading as well as listening skills by providing materials relevant to their skills and levels. Nana teaches all the levels from A1 to C2.

Teacher of Russian and German as a foreign language.

Teaching experience 6+ years. Graduated from Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University of K.D.Ushinsky with a major in German and English.

Accomplished a special course at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia for translators. Got additional degree at St Petersburg University as a teacher of Russian as a foreign language. Experienced teacher, works with all levels.

Languages spoken: Russian – native speaker German – Advanced, C1 English – Intermediate, B1- B2

Anatoli has been teaching Russian as a foreign language and English as a foreign language for 30 years. His students range from high school students trying to reconnect with their Russian heritage to executives learning the language to conduct business in the Russian speaking countries. Anatoli holds an MBA from the University of Washington Foster School of Business and has studied linguistics and translation at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Foreign Languages. He continues to translate and interpret along with his teaching practice. His latest translation of Sabina Spielrein articles was published in the spring of 2020.

Thiago Arellano, a Brazilian native is a trilingual Language Instructor (Spanish, Portuguese and English). Thiago is also fluent in French and has basic comprehension of Italian. He graduated from the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2013 where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Letters with an emphasis in Portuguese. In addition, Thiago finished his Master’s degree program in Liberal Arts at San Diego State University (SDSU) in July 2017. Thiago is also ACTFL trained.

Academically speaking, Thiago has participated as a panel presenter during the 40th Annual Conference of the Luso-American Education Foundation (2015) held at SDSU and in The American Portuguese Studies Association (2016) held at Stanford University.

Thiago has a great passion for the universe of languages. He has been teaching languages since he was living in Brazil where he taught English and Spanish to several group ages, privately and at renamed schools. After moving to the United States, Thiago began a new chapter as a Language Instructor of Portuguese, Spanish and English for ESL at Language Door School in San Diego, California. Currently, Thiago Arellano is a Portuguese Professor at Southwestern College and, also, teaches online classes for San Diego State University. Beyond that, Thiago Arellano teaches Portuguese, Spanish and ELS English at Language Door. In addition, Thiago has had the opportunity to enrich his teaching expertise by participating in three summers consecutively in the ProjectGO program at SDSU where he taught at the university level. Currently, Thiago Arellano teaches online classes for San Diego State University.

Thiago Arellano believes education is the best approach to a righteous world and that languages aid individuals in opening up their minds to better understand the diversity of the human race.

Malu is a bilingual educator and parent, and Portuguese as a Second/Foreign language and English as a Second/Foreign Language teacher. She is enthusiastic about bi/multilingual development and cross-cultural networking and collaborations, and holds graduate degrees in education with emphasis on language, literacy and culture from the Ohio State University.

Malu has been teaching Portuguese since 2017 when received the Startalk Teacher Training Program certificate for Portuguese Language Teachers at the Language Acquisition Resource Center (LARC) at San Diego State University. She taught at LARC’s two Portuguese camps as a teacher and teacher assistant. Malu has been teaching Portuguese at a private language school and a public refugee program in Brazil.

Malu is passionate about supporting individual students and families’ Portuguese language goals bearing in mind their prior knowledge and needs. She understands that learning a language goes together with learning its culture(s), and she uses a communicative approach to engage students in real life and meaningful activities to develop grammatical competence.

Mariana Marques has graduated as a Geoscientist and Environmental Educator in 2017. She is a Master’s student with an emphasis in Mineralogy at the University of São Paulo (USP).

As a Brazilian Portuguese native speaker, she has been working as an English Teacher at all levels since 2013 with TOEFL IBT C1 Certification acquired in Galway, Ireland (2014) at Atlantic Language School, where she lived for 14 months. Her classes are dynamic and focused on the student. Mariana also speaks intermediate Spanish, and she is passionate about learning different cultures and people.

She strongly believes that teaching a new language is a way of being in constant learning.

Daniele Cima is a Social Worker and she has a Bachelor and a Master Degree in Social Work from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She is a Brazilian native and she speaks English and Spanish fluently. She lived in San Diego for 6 years and she has decided to move back to Brazil because she is very passioned for her culture and her people.

Daniele has taught at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil and, certainly, teaching is her passion. As a professor at the University, she has experience with students from different countries and different backgrounds. While in San Diego, Daniele participated at a cultural Brazilian class from StarTalk at San Diego State University.

In addition, Daniele has experience working with the United Nations in Brazil and in the United States she used to work with people with social needs, what helped her to improve her English skills, but also improved her life and social skills. She allied her background as a social worker with languages because she believes both are connected. Knowing a new language is fundamental to explore this beautiful world and we can go beyond our comfort zone.

She loves to talk about diversity, culture, and Brazil. She loves teaching people about Latin America and she believes that the cultural exchange makes us better people and, thus, creates a better world.

Claudia Lyra has been teaching Portuguese and English languages for over 20 years. Claudia is now in her first year of a PhD program in Linguistics, at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil.

She graduated in 2017 with a Masters Degree in Dual Language Education at SDSU.

Since 2009, she has been teaching Portuguese Language in San Diego - CA to all ages, privately and in groups. She is certified through Startalk Teacher Training and uses ACTFL standards in her lesson plans. Her background also includes Capoeira, an Art Form which she is still involved in, Traditional Brazilian dances and music which she teaches, performs and researches. She has been developing a creative and passionate teaching style integrating cultural aspects in Language teaching.

Claudia's Portuguese language teaching experience also includes intensive summer programs at different universities:

• 2016 - ProjectGo at SDSU/LARC, CA - level 101

• 2017 - Immersion Program in Brazil working for the Romance Language Department at Harvard University, MA - proficient level.

• 2020 - Middlebury University Language Summer Classes, VT - online, level advanced 1.

Her teaching philosophy is to foster well-being in the community and joyful learning through Brazilian arts.“

Caio has a Master’s degree in Conference Interpreting from the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and a bachelor’s degree in Translation from the New University of Lisbon (Portugal). He also received the CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification from Cambridge University. He is a native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and for the last ten years has worked as an interpreter, traveling with Portuguese-speaking delegations from Brazil, Africa, and Europe.

He is excited to share his native language with learners of all levels, as he has a passion for the mechanics of language and loves to patiently explain grammar, vocabulary, and culture, always striving to give his students a well-rounded, immersive language learning experience. He will tailor his lessons to students’ goals and interests and hopes the learning process will be a partnership between teacher and student.

Karyna her BS in Economic Theory and English at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. In 2014 she got PhD in Pedagogy from the same University. The topic of her dissertation was «Development of Academic Diligence of Preteen Youngsters in the Course of Educational and Teaching Process at the General Education School».

Since 2009 she has been teaching English and Ukrainian in one of Kharkiv high schools. She has years of experience in creating effective online interactive materials for high school students. Karyna knows how to teach, how to make difficult things understandable, how to get students interested in the subject.

Olena has graduated from H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University with a degree in Ukrainian/English Philology and Teaching Ukrainian/English.

She has been teaching Ukrainian and English since 2009. Olena teaches her students how to use mnemonic tools for better memorization of the material, she also teaches her students to make mental maps for generalization of knowledge and for exams preparation. Her students successfully pass all Ukrainian language tests (including Levels C1 and C2) and are fluent in Ukrainian.