About Me

I recently graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelors degree in English, Philosophy, and Japanese Lang and Lit. At UVA, I started teaching by participating in the VISAS program, which assists international members of the community in learning English as a second language. I worked with adults (graduate students), teaching English communication strategies specifically, such as the use of intonation, hand gestures, and general cultural norms. I enjoyed teaching ESL so much, that I became TEFL certified (completed a program that qualifies me to teach English abroad). As I became more interested in language teaching, I also started tutoring freshmen in Japanese, with lessons focusing on grammar, kanji memorization and practice, and again, communication. I believe that without conversation practice it is much, much harder to make progress in any language, so this is a big focus in my lessons. Little is more rewarding than moving from a few vocabulary words to full sentences: from moving from the learner to the speaker. I moved from Poland to the U.S. when I was very young and since then have been fascinated by language differences and cross-cultural communication. I am lucky enough to speak three languages English, Japanese, and Polish and find the process of studying a language both fascinating and rewarding. I hope my students will find it to be the same! In terms of teaching high school English, I am an obsessive reader of classics and took every English class I could get my hands on in college. I have become the unofficial tutor for my high school aged sister and her group of friends. If you're looking for a friendly, passionate English tutor who loves to obsessively analyze books, I might be your girl.

Education & Certifications

Tutoring Subjects