Tutors

Name: Gabi Ferraris

Native language: Spanish and Italian

Other languages you speak: French, English, Mandarin

Educational and Professional Background: I grew up going to a French school in Spanish-speaking countries and gained fluency in both languages. I attended university in the US and studied International Relations and Chinese Mandarin. During university, I worked for environmental NGOs and international organizations. After graduating, I joined the Peace Corps and spent my service in China. In my time as a Peace Corps volunteer, I gained experience instructing English and Spanish to Chinese university students in both classroom and one-on-one settings.

Name (and English/Nickname): Wenqian Yu

Native Language: Chinese

Other Languages You Speak: English, French, Cantonese

Educational and Professional Background:

• Bachelor in Law at Central China Normal University
• Master in Law at University of Amsterdam
• Certificate of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other languages at Teachers College, Columbia University
• Master in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University

Name (and English/Nickname): Lucy Gu

Native Language: Mandarin

Other Languages You Speak: Cantonese Japanese

Educational and Professional Background: TCSOL Certificate; B.A in Actuarial Science

Name: Sean Hughes

Native Language: English

Other Languages You Speak: German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic (beginner), Vietnamese (beginner), Spanish (beginner), French (beginner)

Educational and Professional Background: 

• MA-TESOL
• EdM- Applied Linguistics (2021)
• Former high school German teacher (Miami, FL)
• 13 years as an ESL teacher in the US, Japan, South Korea, China, Oman, Vietnam

Name (and English/Nickname): Veronica Bohorquez

Native Language: Spanish 

Other Languages You Speak: English, Spanish, French

Educational and Professional Background:

• B.S., Bilingual Education, Spanish Language - Boston University
• M.A., International Educational Development - Teachers College
• Master's Thesis - Latinx Undergraduate College Graduation Rates & Career Services
• Grew up speaking Spanish natively and has 10+ years of experience in English language development to Spanish speakers and vice versa. Gained experience with adult learners in college by facilitating a bilingual GED program for immigrants. Currently working in Higher Education within the biomedical sciences. Focus and work is on academic achievement within populations of students of color and incorporating research methods to monitor educational programming. 

Name: Gilsang Jo

Native Language: Korean

Other languages you speak: English (advanced), Spanish (intermediate)

Educational and Professional Background:

• B.A. in English Language Education at Inha University in South Korea
• M.A. in TESOL at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota
• M. Ed. in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University (still enrolled)
• 2013-2016: Public school English teacher in Korea
• 2016-2017: Teaching assistant for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) at St. Cloud State University
• 2017-2018: Korean instructor at Hills Learning, NY
• 2018-present: Economic Empowerment Coordinator at the Korean-American Family Service Center, Inc. 

My name is Annette Scattoni and I teach Italian. I have a Masters in Italian Foreign Language Education from NYU and am currently pursuing a second master's with the University of Venice in Advanced Italian Curriculum Design and Teaching Italian as a Second Language. Italian is a beautiful language. I have taught it in the NYC public school system, the home school community and privately, and I love it. Italian language and culture are two of Italy’s greatest patrimonies and any chance I get to share them with others is a thrill. When I am not teaching Italian, I am learning languages. I am studying Russian, the hardest thing I’ve done since giving birth, and Greek. I also teach ESL to adult immigrant students in Queens. This year included teaching courses to Venezuelan refugees. Being able to help people improve their quality of life by increasing their language competency is exceedingly rewarding and I am fortunate to be in a position where I can make a difference.

My name is Mian Hou, and my Chinese students call me 侯老师. I was born in Beijing and grew up in Harbin, a city in northeastern China. I trained in medical school for both undergraduate and graduate studies and worked as a physician and teacher at Harbin Medical University. In the early 90s, I moved to the US and joined a memory research team at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, where I worked until last year.

Throughout my academic career, I enjoyed interacting with students and realized my passion for teaching. To pursue this, I joined the TCSOL program at CIFLTE last fall and graduated with distinction in May. Now, alongside my work in the Center for Neural Science teaching lab, I am part of the CIFLTE COF teaching team. I am excited to apply my knowledge in language teaching and bridge cultural gaps between the East and West.

I am originally from Mediaṣ, a small city in Transylvania, Romania. Before moving to New York, I studied German and English in Klausenburg and conducted research for my final thesis on the implementation of digital media in the foreign language classroom at the University of Osnabrück.

Currently I am teaching German language courses at all levels at the Goethe Institut in NYC and at Hunter College. I am also a certified Goethe-Institut examiner for German (all levels). I am also an EdM student at the Linguistics Department here at TC Columbia, specializing in SLA. My current independent research is a case study on cultural and linguistic diversity for L2 and L3 learners of German. This involves a series of experiments designed to analyze preferences and choices in vocabulary associated to student’s L1/L2 directly relating to their own sense of identity and purpose.

Maria Menendez has been a Spanish teacher for over 15 years and has taught Spanish at all levels from beginners to fluent speakers. She has taught over 40 adult learners through CIFLTE since 2021, including medical professionals, faculty, and graduate students. She does her best to teach with flexibility, developing a tailored personalized program that responds to the interests of each of her students. Maria is patient and clear, empowering her students to speak Spanish confidently and fluently. Maria received a degree in Education from the Catholic University of Peru and a Second Specialization in Learning disabilities from the University Andres Bello, Chile. After moving to the USA, she has taught Spanish at different levels in schools in the states of Kansas, Florida and New York. She is also a Certified Spanish Teacher by the State of Florida.

Zachary Desjardins-Mooney is a doctoral student in French at Columbia University where he is also affiliated with the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. His research lies at the intersection of intellectual history, critical theory, and visual studies. His dissertation focuses on the history of education and psychoanalysis in postwar France. At Columbia, he teaches courses in French language, translation, and French and francophone history, and tutor undergraduate students. Before coming to New York, Zachary studied history and philosophy at Concordia University and McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Hi, this is Yushan. I first became a COF Chinese language teacher in the spring semester of

2023 to fulfill one of the requirements for TC CIFLTE’s TCSOL Certificate Program 22-23. I was

given a 13 years old intermediate level student who wanted to read Chinese folklore. I received

the certificate in May 2023 and was invited back to teach at COF in the fall semester of 2023.

My students ranged from an intermediate-advanced student who was a headmaster of a newly

established Chinese language school in Bangkok,Thailand, to an intermediate level high school

senior interested in reading Tang Dynasty love poems, and to beginners who simply wanted to

improve speaking Chinese to be able to function better when traveling to Taiwan. I have found

the jobs here both challenging and interesting, each task unique, calling for principled,

contextualized, and creative class designs. I thoroughly enjoyed the teaching process and

getting to know all my students.

I am a Spanish tutor from Colombia with a double BA in Language Teaching and Linguistics, in addition to an MA in Applied Linguistics from TC. I have been teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages for more than 8 years and Spanish as a Foreign Language at CIFLTE since Summer-22. I also speak intermediate-level French which, as the second most studied language in the USA, has proved a useful bridge between me and some of my Spanish students. As a teenager and adult learner myself, I know that it is never too late to study a language. You just need motivation, lots of exposure, and ample opportunity to use the language authentically, the latter two of which the CIFLTE tutors can definitely provide. Personally, I am glad to share my knowledge and experience with the CIFLTE students because it has allowed me to keep on learning from the USA and its diverse people even after returning to my home country. Every session is as enriching for me as (I hope) it is for my tutees, and I am looking forward to the start of our Fall-24 module!