Hello!  I’m Instructor “Bee”. I’m so excited that you are here, and congratulations on your continued desire to make learning a part of life !  As an adult lover of leaning myself, you can be assured that your learning experience with me will be a good one.  In fact, I guarantee* it !

Let’s start with a few of my favorite quotes:

 “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world. “ Nelson Mandela.

 “It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.”   Claude Bernard

 “We must be the change we wish to see in the world”  Gandhi

I’ve always been moved by quotes, and I particularly love these quotes which represent who I am and what I have always tried to stand for: First:  Education and sharing knowledge; Second: the reminder that we must keep an open mind in all things in life and be willing to continually examine and grow; and Third:  the fact that (any) change first starts from within.

Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Bernadette, commonly known as “Bee”.  I’ve been a teacher for approximately 13 years now.  Prior to that, I worked in corporate America in various fields (mostly law and automotive).  I left corporate America while pursuing my passion of studying French in order to become a teacher.  I remember that moment well; I was so very happy and thankful for the opportunity to teach !  I’ve been happily teaching ever since, although not without a few bumps along the road, I must admit. (I will comment more on those “bumps” in a few moments. )  Those ‘bumps’ led me to this endeavor: to take all my experience, branch off, and teach language out on my own for adult learners.  Please allow me to explain further.

I have taught language now in four countries; the United States, Mexico, Malta (Europe), and online in Taiwan.   As a result, I’m not only a language teacher, but I’ve also been a(n) (adult) language student as well.  I’ve studied languages in 4 countries, so I understand first-hand the struggles of being an adult student, particularly a language student who is also a foreigner !  I have always learned as an adult.  My passion for language started while pursuing a ‘bucket list’ desire to learn a foreign language.  (Once I started though, I was hooked!).   This bucket list desire may seem rather silly to those who have been lucky enough to be surrounded by foreign language opportunities (i.e. Europeans) but any North American can confirm the fact that unfortunately foreign language is not a priority in that country.  While I was a second-generation American (first to be born in America) who had foreign parents, unfortunately my parents were of the generation that wanted to shed their roots, rather than embrace them; that is, they wanted to “be American” (which was a common mentality back in the 50s during large immigration periods).   Whenever I asked my mother why they (my parents) did not talk to us (my siblings and I) in their native language (Maltese), her response was always the same: “I blame that on your father!  His response was always “why do they need to know Maltese, they are American”.  As I said, I can’t blame them (although I always did;-) since that was a common mentality of immigrant foreigners at that time in history, but it was certainly a misfortune for me.

So, my passion for language started while I was completing my undergraduate degree in my 20s.  Then, while pursing my Master’s in French, I was giving a golden opportunity to become a GTA and start teaching.  The rest is history, although with many other details which I will provide as well.

  More about me:

After finishing my master’s degree, I had another golden opportunity to move to Mexico where I lived for two years.  While in Mexico I taught English and also studied Spanish.  This was an incredible experience for me in so many ways.  It is what eventually led me to Malta where I lived out my dream for about one year, also teaching English while connecting with my parents’ native culture and family.

So, as mentioned by that time I had taught in three countries.  I taught at many different types of language schools; universities, language schools, colleges.  During all that experience, I started to notice a common denominator that always bothered me, and that was that many of these institutions seemed to be more about ‘making money’, than about quality education.  Students paid exorbitant amounts of money to the institutions, while teachers were often paid poverty wages.  The teacher was always doing all the hard work, yet it was the institution who really got paid for the work.  Not only was money an issue (what I’m talking about is making a living wage, not being rich) but the manner in which the teachers were treated was also an issue. I unfortunately, and all-to-often, felt like teachers were exploited and taken advantage of.  At many institutions, teachers were (naturally) expected to be professional and knowledgeable, but they were also expected to be at the disposal and beck-and-call of the institution.  We were often given classes at the last minute (i.e. the day a class started, or  ‘on-call’ substitutes), we often had classes taken away, changed and/or canceled without any say or reason in the matter, and we were never given any benefits whatsoever (no paid vacation, no sick days, etc), among other issues.  So, finally I decided it was time to pursue my dream of teaching out on my own and offering quality, affordable education.  And so, here we are ! 🙂

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