Our story · Los Feliz, Los Angeles · Since 2006
Arrive wide-eyed. Leave changed.
That’s what a new language does to people, and we’ve spent twenty years helping it happen. Strommen is a family-owned language school in Los Feliz with 250+ personally vetted teachers and dialect coaches, built on one idea: take care of your teachers, take care of your students, and take care of your community.
Where it comes from
A childhood on a study-abroad campus.
Strommen’s founder, Garrett Strommen, grew up in Rome, where his father was dean of Temple University’s study-abroad campus for 25 years. Every semester a new group of American students showed up wide-eyed and a little lost. Months later they left speaking Italian, at home in a culture that had been foreign to them, and changed in ways that were easy to see.
His parents’ friends and coworkers were teachers and professors, and Garrett loved growing up among them. Watching students change semester after semester taught him that language is the most powerful tool people have. It breaks down cultural barriers, makes instant friends, and builds compassion, in the person learning and in everyone they meet.
That’s still the job. We’re a small company with a co-op feel and a global reach, and we try to be fair to the teachers who make it work and the students who trust us with their time.
“I still personally meet every teacher in our network before they teach for us. That’s been true since 2006.”
Garrett Strommen, founder
Timeline
From Rome to Los Feliz.
A rollerblading ad in Rome, a Craigslist ad in LA, a $300 website, and twenty years of teachers and students.
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Villa Borghese, site of the first lesson Rome 1991My first ad
At nine years old, Garrett put an ad in Wanted in Rome, the city’s English-language paper, offering rollerblading lessons. His parents were floored when someone actually called and booked one. He went up to Villa Borghese and taught her.
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Rome from Villa Borghese · Photo: Aviad2001, CC BY-SA 3.0 Rome 1995A childhood surrounded by teachers
Garrett’s father was dean of Temple University Rome, where every semester American students arrived wide-eyed and went home changed. His parents’ friends and coworkers were teachers and professors, and their table was always full. He loved growing up in that community, and it’s the feeling he wanted Strommen to have.
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strommentutoring.com in January 2008 (via the Internet Archive), and the first teachers, with Joey, in 2007 and 2008 Los Angeles 2006–08“Do you know a Spanish tutor?”
After UCLA and a few years working in film and TV, Garrett was tutoring English literature, ESL and Italian, finding students through his own Craigslist ads. Word of mouth brought him families across Beverly Hills and the Westside, including Sylvester Stallone’s. Then a student asked if he knew a Spanish tutor. He did, and Strommen began. He brought in teachers he knew and trusted, met every one in person, and paid his good friend Malik, a developer, $300 to help build the first Strommen Tutoring website. (Joey, the office French bulldog, didn’t have to interview.)
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Strommen coaches with Tom Hanks and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jason Alexander, and Sir Patrick Stewart Film & TV 2009–todayLanguage work behind the camera
It started with German coaching for Brüno. Since then we’ve done dialect coaching, translation, transcription onto timecode and language consulting for 150+ productions, from Netflix’s Chef’s Table, Street Food Asia and Ugly Delicious to Star Trek: Picard and For All Mankind.
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Some of the companies and teams we’ve taught Companies & teams 2010sClasses for the teams we cheer for
LA Opera singers have studied with us for more than ten years. We teach ESL to LA Galaxy players and French and Spanish to their staff, and we’ve taught Serbian to the Lakers, Spanish to Clippers executives, and new languages to teams at Netflix, Disney, Google and Marvel.
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Moving in (April 2014) and settled in (August 2014) Los Feliz 2014Our first real office
After years of running Strommen from home, we moved into our first office: boxes on the floor in April, then a world map across the wall and a clock for every time zone by August.
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Our teachers on the map. Click to explore. Everywhere 2020The classroom goes global
When the pandemic closed LA’s living rooms, lessons moved online and the roster grew into cities around the world. Every new teacher still goes through Garrett, and when he travels for fun, he often meets up with them.
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Free translations for refugees Community 2021–22Giving back
When Kabul fell, our translators started doing free translations for Afghan refugees arriving in LA, and when the war in Ukraine began, we did the same for Ukrainian refugees. We also run free English classes for LA residents, because a new language is how a new city starts to feel like home.
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Strommen film nights, in a backyard and on the big screen Community 2025Aperitivos and film nights
Students and teachers finally get to meet in the same room. We host Language Aperitivo happy hours and foreign film nights, where people learning Italian, Spanish, French, Japanese and more trade a drink and a conversation in whatever language they’re working on.
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The view from our office on Hyperion Ave, and our latest Language Aperitivo, 2026 Today 2026Twenty years in
250+ teachers and dialect coaches in 20+ countries, and nearly 400 five-star reviews. Still family-owned, still in Los Feliz at 2538 Hyperion Ave, and Garrett still meets every teacher before they teach for us.
The Strommen family
Every year, a bigger table.
Teachers recommended teachers, students recommended teachers, and the parties kept outgrowing the room. Scroll through the years.
Beyond the classroom
Private lessons are the heart of it. Here’s the rest.
Film & TV
Dialect coaching on set, plus translation, transcription onto timecode and language consulting for post-production. Netflix, Apple TV, Paramount+ and more.
See our resume →Companies & teams
In-person, online and hybrid classes, level testing, interpreting and translation for LA Opera, LA Galaxy, the Lakers, the Clippers, Netflix and Marvel.
Corporate classes →Our community
Language Aperitivo happy hours for students and teachers, free translations for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, free English classes for LA residents, and a home base in Los Feliz since 2006.
Meet our teachers →What hasn’t changed since 2006
Teachers first. Students first. Community always.
We know our teachers
Garrett meets every teacher before they teach for Strommen, including the ones who only teach online. It’s a roster of people we know, not a directory of strangers.
Teachers run their own business
Our teachers are independent professionals. They set their own rates, design their own lessons, and keep 100% of the rate they set.
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Students get a real match
We listen to what you want to learn and why, then match you with a teacher we’d book ourselves. If it isn’t the right fit, we find you one that is.
Local, and global
Family-owned and anchored in Los Feliz, with teachers in 20+ countries we know personally. In your living room, in their city, or online.
Start a conversation
Twenty years later, the first step is the same: a conversation.
Tell us what you want to learn and why. We’ll match you with a teacher we know personally.
Are you a teacher? Apply to join the roster →