Happy Tuesday, my dear GLNers! Now that it’s a new month, you know what that means–there’s a new edition of the GPS! In each edition of the GPS we feature a teacher and a student; read on to meet our teacher and student this month!
Featured Student: Therren Dyson
Salam! (Hello)
My name is Therren Dyson, and I am from the Bay area in California. I have been a GLN student since 2011 when I took my first Persian (Farsi) Class. Since that time I have taken two more Farsi classes, currently in a class for Chinese. I also speak Spanish. My interest in foreign language began when I began as a college student in 2009. I found myself fascinated with the idea that people all around the world convey and communicate the same messages and feeling to each other using very different sounding words. This point became most obvious to me after my first semester of college level Spanish when I was able to have my very first conversation in Spanish that Christmas while visiting family in the Midwest. That experience showed me that being able to communicate with people in languages other than English was a truly worthwhile investment of my time and resources.
Since then, I have become increasingly interested in being able to communicate with people from all over the world. When I first found out about GLN, it sounded to me like perfect fit, and it was. I have greatly enjoyed every class that I have taken with GLN and I intend to take many, many more classes with them. The fact that they offer so many classes is what keeps me coming back every semester.
This organization makes learning a foreign language easy, attainable, and affordable. Every exchange that I’ve had with GLN staff has been positive and worthwhile. My teachers have all been knowledgeable, professional and kind. I am truly grateful to have had the experiences I’ve had with the Global Language Network.
Featured Teacher: Daniela Enriquez
Buongiorno! My name is Daniela Enriquez and, despite my Spanish last name, I am Italian. Since 2011, I have been involved with GLN as a two-term teacher of beginner level Italian. My first teaching experience was in 2009. At that time, I was studying Hebrew in Jerusalem and decided to take part in a language exchange program through which I taught Italian to an Israeli girl who was teaching me Hebrew. The experience was so fulfilling that when I came to D.C. and heard about GLN, I decided immediately that I had to get involved.
My goal is to show my students that even though Italy has great food, wine, and soccer players—Italian culture includes much more than that. I love to teach the history of my language, how it developed from Latin and ended up with hundreds of different dialects, and how it is strongly connected to the essence of Italian culture—expressing itself through songs, dances, ceremonies, and gestures. In order to fulfill my goal, I try to involve my students in the many Italian cultural activities that D.C. offers so that they meet “real Italiani” and have opportunities to test out their new language skills.
GLN gave me the opportunity to teach my language in the way that I love—through culture and fun!—by supporting me with new innovative ideas and its great team. During my classes we enjoyed singing, dancing, learning about art, Italian holidays, and gestures accompanied by dialogues, a little bit of grammar, and a lot of vocabulary and common expressions—all according to the GLN philosophy. Over the course of these classes, I saw the progress of my students and was proud of them. In the meantime, I was positioned to see my own culture from a different point of view, through my students eyes, and—why not?—love it more than before, all while forming new long-term friendships.
Now that the European soccer championship is well underway…I have nothing else left to say but: FORZA AZZURRI!