Hello there!
My name is Shana and I’m the teacher on this American English Podcast site.
You probably know a little bit about me from the Podcast, but I figured I’d share a few tidbits (small pieces of information) about me in case you’re interested!
*** 5 Fun Facts ***
- Although I was born and raised in California, I’ve also lived in New York, Texas, Germany, Spain and Brazil. So far, I’ve travelled to 17 of the 50 states!
- I’m married to a Brazilian named Lucas. He is my former student! We speak Portuguese at home because we want our daughters to be bilingual. 🙂
- My undergrad degrees are in German and Global Studies. I’m certified in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages).
- Apart from language learning and teaching, I love hiking, baking and planning trips.
- Since college, I’ve hosted hundreds of big language events. (Language Exchange NYC, Berlin, São Paulo, Polyglot Conference of 2015, Polyglot Gathering, 2015, etc.)
Teaching English
After graduating from UC Santa Barbara in 2011, I decided to get my English teaching certification in TESOL. In all honesty, it was a backup plan in case my strategy to work at the UN fell through (didn’t work out).
One amazing year teaching ESL abroad in Calahorra, Spain and over 3,000+ ESL classes later, I’m still teaching English as a foreign language! I’ve been fortunate enough to do so online while moving around the world and studying my own foreign languages. Yup, I’m a learner too of German, Portuguese, French and Spanish; podcasts have been key in my improvement.
My Love For Podcasts
Discovering Schlaflos in München back in 2009 was like hitting the jackpot for me. Annik Rubens, the host, taught me about the German language and culture and became a virtual friend who stuck around while I was living overseas. She was a teacher, who, at a distance, had a huge impact on learning experience and life.
That’s what I want to be for you, wherever you are in the world!
Learning foreign languages can be fun. I truly hope that you find the topics I’ve chosen for this podcast both interesting and educational!
Where I've lived...
The world is a small place. I’ve been fortunate to have lived in quite a few countries.
You’ll hear about many of these in the podcast as time passes.
