Paula recently moved to Chicago after a year of living in San Sebastian, Spain where she taught English to Jr. High and High School students. She graduated from Nebraska Wesleyan University where she studied Theatre Arts and Communication Studies. Born in Venezuela, Paula is a native Spanish speaker and has experience teaching both Spanish and English to children of all ages. Because of her experiences growing up she strongly believes in the importance of language education for children and is excited to be a part of the Lango community!

Ni Hao! My name is Sabina Shie and I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. After graduating from the Chinese Cultural University, I became a journalist working for TV Company for several years. Then I went to National Tainan University of Art majoring in Sound and Image of Documentary and received my M.F.A. in 2002.   I came to the United States in 2005 and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for a scholarship program in video arts. I worked for the Chinese Fine Arts Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting awareness of Chinese culture through music and arts to children and taught Mandarin to children part time at Chinese Cultural and Educational Association every weekend. Working with children has been a very pleasant experience for me and I am very excited to have the opportunity to teach Mandarin to Lango kids.    Sabina holds a Master degree in in Sound and Image of Documentary of National Tainan University of Art

 Hola !!! My name is Erika Gonzalez. I was born and raised in Mexico city, and I moved to Chicago at the age of 19.  I am a Spanish teacher graduated from Chicago State University.  I love children and I have a passion of teaching Spanish because it expands the knowledge beyond the educational setting to the students.  But, the best part is that I have the opportunity of doing it in a beautiful environment in the Lango program. I use diverse teaching strategies in order to reach children through their interests and individual learning styles.  Our program truly allows children to learn while having fun.

*in addition to the standard Lango curriculum Erika is working on expanding our focus to include Heritage speakers classes that focus on early literacy.  She often writes her own stories to share and act out with the children during class!   

Hola! My name is Maria Lopez. I grew up in the neighborhood of Gage Park in the South side of Chicago. I was born in Mexico but came to the United States as a child. Growing up in a predominantly Spanish speaking household and neighborhood have made me very fluent in the language. I recently graduated from the University of Chicago, where I studied Cinema and Media Studies. Although, I did not study education while in college, I have four years experience working as a camp counselor and tutor with children ages 4-8 at the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club. Working with children made me realize how impressionable and eager to learn children are and also made me realize how much fun it is to interact with them. That is why I feel privileged to have become a Lango teacher. Working for Lango gives me the opportunity to introduce children to a new language, a new culture, and a new fun way of learning. My experience as an intern at the International Latino Cultural Center and as a staff member for the Chicago Latino Film Festival will significantly help me introduce children and their parents to the many wonders that the Latino culture has to offer. I am also hoping that working with Lango will help me gain more experience as a teacher because I would love to eventually teach English abroad in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. I also hope to some day incorporate my passion for cinema and my passion for working with kids by establishing a Summer film camp in the South side of Chicago. 

coming soon...

BONJOUR! HOLA! Je m'appelle Hector!!  I was born in Chicago but was raised in Texas. No! I'm no cowboy but at times I do love my country music while wearing my orange boots and cowboy hat!  I am loving the windy city and cannot wait to experience more of the culture I missed out on.  Son of one French and one Spanish parent I grew up fluent in both languages and later studied Italian as well.  I am currently a freelance educator and love teaching languages.  I studied at the University of Texas at Austin, home of the LONGHORNS!  I also studied abroad to study French at the L'Université du Jean-Moulin III in Lyon, France.  I have 6 years of HS teaching experience and 8 years of Museum Education. I have now worked with children as early at 18 month through college age students...all learn differently but working at the Museums as an Educator has allowed me to become that much of a better teacher.    Aside from my passion of languages and cultures, I love to partake of the Arts.  I am an avid crafter and love to design and make clothes and accessories.     Though I miss all my Texas family and friends, (and my 3 dogs), I am very excited to be working with a great team of language lovers and COSMO our Language Mascot! :)

Ni hao, Lango families! My name is Li Chen and I was born and raised in Chengdu, China.I have many years of experience working with young children. I was a kindergarten teacher for 5 years after receiving my Teacher’s Certificate in Child Development at Chengdu Teachers Training Academy. I have instructed students in Chinese, Dance, Music, Art and Mathematics throughout my teaching career. I was honored on multiple occasions as the “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” at my school. Since coming to America in 2000, besides studying English, I have also worked as a Chinese tutor, an assistant teacher in a Dance studio in Los Angeles, California, and as a volunteer at the St. Vincent DePaul Center, here in Chicago, as a teacher’s aide. I love children, and I believe that every child is a precious, unique individual with great potential. I’d look forward to using my international perspective, experience, skills and enthusiasm for teaching to make a positive difference in the lives of each and every child enrolled at Lango.

 Chicago Lango's Managing Director-

 I grew up on the south side of Chicago and attended Chicago public schools.  I was in the unique position of growing up in a non-bilingual household within a bilingual community.  My elementary school (Ninos Heroes) was for a time classified as a bilingual school, similar to the current CPS language academies, and I was offered Spanish instruction starting in kindergarten.  I also had numerous family friends and relatives who spoke primarily Spanish and on a regular basis played games and sang to me in Spanish.  With that beginning followed of course by more study and course work in high school and college I grew up to speak fluent Spanish with no "American accent."  It was that environment where bilingualism and multiculturalism were the norm, that sparked my interest in other cultures and their languages and during my college years, eventually landed me in China.  I think the same is possible for all children and that we owe it to them to give them the foundation not only to become bilingual but to grow up aware of the larger world and all its people and possibilities.  When my daughter was born, I immediately started researching language programs because I knew I wanted to give her an early start.  I came across Lango and fell in love with the program.  I believe the curriculum and class atmosphere are good simulations of what I experienced as a child.  Since Lango was not yet offering classes here in Chicago, I jumped at the chance to bring the program here myself! The best part about owning Lango has been seeing how much my own daughter enjoys our classes.

- Megan holds a Bachelors degree in Linguistics from University of Toledo with over 20 credit hours each of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese -

Hola! My name is Biliana Grozdanova and I am a world traveler who came to Chicago a year ago. I am originally from Bulgaria but began to travel the continents at the age of 5. After living in Australia, Canada and the United States, my family moved to Spain where I attended high school and studied Audiovisual Communications in college. I spent 7 years in Madrid, fell in love with the Spanish culture and turned the Spanish language into a native tongue. A year ago I returned to the States and in June, I graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master of the Arts in Humanities. While in Spain, I taught English and worked with children of all ages, and now I am very excited to be able to share my love of Spanish language and culture at Lango!