Hello! Bonjour! My native language is Russian, but my forever love is French: I have been teaching it for 17 years. I have taught all levels of college/university language classes, from beginning to advanced, literature, film, civilization, and theater. I have also taught ESL: 4 years at a refugee resettlement agency. I studied European Literature in Cambridge (earned my M.Phil. in that subject, with specialization in French and Russian literary traditions). I lived in Paris for two years, have translated prose and poetry from French into English, and wrote my Ph. D. dissertation in French. I started learning the language because I wanted to sing like Edith Piaf. I still sing, although not like Edith Piaf and preferably away from anybody's ears, and French and Francophone cultures have been a joy and a marvel in my life.

classical music, opera, piano, singing