Let me tell you about my language learning journeys. I was born in Riga, Latvia, in the family where everyone spoke Russian, so my first language was Russian. Growing up in Latvia, constantly hearing Latvian language spoken around me, attending ice-skating classes in Latvian as a child, I picked up Latvian as my second language without really studying it.  

My third language was English, I started studying it at the age of seven at school, and I didn’t really like it! In those days there were no opportunities for practicing English, I kept on learning English all throughout school and the university, but by the time I was 19, I could read and understand English, but not speak. That was when I made some friends who spoke only English, and that’s when I had to use daily all the English I’ve learned.  

Fastforward a few years, I am fluent in English, and I discover the joy of teaching. I teach English to adults, children and teenagers of different countries and nationalities. That’s when I met a very special person who is from Romania and who later became my husband. 

And that’s how a new chapter in my life began. We moved to Romania and started raising our two children. My Romanian language journey wasn’t very smooth, though. At home I spoke English with my husband and Russian with my children, and had a very basic knowledge of Romanian. I was faced with a language barrier and was embarrassed and stressed about speaking Romanian. It took me quite a few years to get comfortable speaking it, and I still make grammar mistakes and have a slight accent, but I can say that I have overcome the language barrier and am fluent.  That was when I set up my own company and opened first one, then two language centers. 

My fifth language learning journey started on the 1st of June 2020 when I was challenged by my Neurolanguage® Coaching Course mentor Rachel Paling to take up a new language. At the time of writing this I have completed levels A1 and A2 in two months, and I just enjoy this journey immensely! This experience gave me the opportunity to step into my students’ shoes and experience firsthand the joys and frustrations of the learning process. 

Having gone through such a variety of language learning experiences, I made it my life’s work to study how people learn foreign languages and how I can make this process more brain-friendly for everyone.  

If you would like me to assist you on your language journeys, I am just an email away!