"I’m recently retired from government service. As part of my job, I taught introductory Arabic to small groups (2-10) of adult coworkers twice a year for 12 years. That was a 20-hour, semi-immersion style class held in agency classrooms. Because students often asked for follow-on instruction, I created an intra-agency blog with fun vocabulary and grammar exercises and Arabic cartoons. When not teaching, I translated Arabic daily for 20 years, and translated Spanish occasionally. My DLPT scores were 3/3 in both languages. 3+ in Spanish reading.

In my twenties, I was a Spanish-language teaching assistant in two elementary schools. My task was to help Spanish-speaking students keep up with their native English speaking peers until their English skills improved.

I learned Arabic at Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and graduated in 1996 with the highest honors. While a student, I tutored other students. The focus was on building up their confidence and having fun.

I have a BA in Spanish from California State University Northridge, graduated in 1989." less...