Italian CLASSES MADE IN LOS ANGELES

My name is Marianna and I hold a Ph.D. in Italian from UCLA. Piacere! I am excited for you to learn all things Italian! Born and raised in the countryside of the Po Valley between the cities of Bologna and Ferrara, I moved to the US to pursue my academic career. I’ve been teaching at different institutions in Los Angeles since 2009! I LOVE my culture and my goal is to make you fall in love with it too! As a Language Teacher at Strommen, a Graduate Student Researcher at UC Santa Barbara, a Teaching Fellow at UCLA, and a private Tutor at LILA for the Italian IB Test, I gained extensive experience in developing, coordinating, and teaching the Italian language and culture to students age 5 and up! Students describe my teaching as “dynamic, congenial, interactive, engaging, and anxiety-free.” They praise me for being “professional, caring, helpful, energetic, enthusiastic, encouraging, and inspiring.” I am a native speaker of Italian, a near Native-speaker of English, and I am also fluent in Spanish and proficient in French. “Well. How does this affect my learning?” you may ask. If you’re an anglophone, hispanophone, or francophone I will show you how to delve into your linguistic arsenal to master Italian. Whether you want to learn basic Italian, dive into Italian literature, cinema, or art, master your academic writing skills, study opera songs (yes, I taught singers from the LA Phil), or learn standard pronunciation (I also work with actors), I can help you! Cosa aspetti? (what are you waiting for?) Let’s learn Italian together! A presto e grazie! Marianna

Buongiorno! I am a native Italian, born in Castel San Giovanni, a small town outside of Milan. My studies concentrated on foreign languages with an emphasis in English. Studying in England and working abroad around the world allowed me to use both the English and French languages extensively.
I have been teaching Italian for over 13 years (I have been working with Strommen since 2009). I have recently published my first Italian novel 'Non ho chiesto l'America.'
I teach teenagers, adults, (beginners, intermediate, advanced), public figures, actors, singers, producers, celebrities and whoever wants to get ready before a trip to Italy.
Where I can help:
I teach Italian you can use, at the speed and learning style that suits you best. I incorporate your goals and timeline into the lesson planning, ensuring you get the language skills you need when you need them. You'll learn the standard current Italian, the correct pronunciation and grammar guiding you through the conversation.

Ciao a tutti! My name is Elisa and I was born on Lake Como, Italy (but no, I don't know George Clooney). I got my Bachelor's Degree in Arts at DAMS in Bologna. I spent a few years in Milan working as a TV writer working for different production companies. When I moved to the States I started teaching Italian and I really enjoy seeing my students making progress and loving my language. I always try to incorporate their interests in my classes, to make it fun and more personal. I also work as a dialogue coach on movie sets and I prepare actors for Italian speaking roles. A presto!

Bonjour! Ciao! My name is Mylène and I am a native French and Italian speaker. I was raised in Italy in a French family and have always been exposed to different languages and cultures. I hold a Bachelor of Science Degree in Languages and Media with a major in Marketing. I started teaching French to college students when I was 17 years old. Since then I have taught French to people of different backgrounds, ages and language proficiency. I tailor my classes in order to meet my students’ goals. I started teaching Italian when I came to the United States in 2003. Since then I have taught Italian to people of different backgrounds, ages and language proficiency. I tailor my classes in order to meet my students’ goals. I love teaching adults as well as kids of any age. While working in a French preschool, I was amazed by the ability kids have to pick up a language so fast. I enjoy creating a personal and fun learning experience and I truly care about my students’ achievements. I can’t wait to have my first conversation in French or Italian with you! A bientôt! A presto!

My name’s Paolo, I was born in Rome and grew up in Italy and Belgium. I lived in many European cities, and I am passionate about cultures and how their connections show up in languages, art, cinema and literature. I moved to Los Angeles last year and love the Southern California vibe. I enjoy helping students learn Italian and French, and supporting them in their progress, whether their goal is to organize their next trip to Venice, to read Victor Hugo in French or to better prepare for a class. Ciao!

Ciao! My name is Garrett and I am the President, and founder of Strommen - I am also an Italian tutor.

Education runs in my blood. My mother was an art professor and my father was the Dean of Temple University's study abroad campus in Rome, Italy, for 25 years. I grew up on the campus and travelled to every corner of Italy on the university trips benefiting from the college lectures.

My parents put me in an Italian school when I was 8 and I picked it up in about 3 months (Roman slang and all). This is perhaps the only "easy" way to learn a language! At Strømmen we strive to do the next best thing. We try to create an immersion experience right here in Los Angeles. This summer for example, we will have a German group class at the Berlin Currywurst BierGarten, we also host free cultural events like Mexican movie night and Foreign language Karaoke night on my friends Karaoke RV (yes you heard that right, a Karaoke RV).

I love teaching. I am always impressed and humbled when I see such interest for foreign language in our city.I am currently studying French myself. I took Spanish at Strommen and I can now speak fluently.

I also love innovating and improving things at our company for both students and tutors. We want to have the world’s very best language professionals. Private tutors at one time were only at the disposal of kings and nobility. Now it is quite the opposite, tutors have been commodified and diluted in vast online marketplaces. Our company and tutors stand out, and we aim to create a company that can help them to be successful and feel respected and heard. In my free time I enjoy spending time with my family, practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, playing soccer, rollerskating and making art.

See you soon at a Strommen event or in class! If you want to read a little more about me, check out a recent article in Slate.com or an article in L'italo Americano (in Italian), or an article here about my experience starting Strommen or my wikipedia page A presto!

Bonjour! My name is Selina. I was born in the USA, and grew up in France. My mother is French, and my father is Egyptian. I studied Languages and Management in France and in England. I am a certified language teacher for adults, and have also taken courses to teach languages to children in Paris. I have been teaching languages (ESL, French, and Italian) since 2006 in Cambridge (UK), Ancona (Italy), Paris (France), and Orange County, to adults as well as children. I am passionate about languages, especially grammar! Languages are rich in history, culture, and variations. It is with passion that I teach these languages!

Ciao, Hallo, Salut, Oi, Hola, Grüezi, Hi, my name is Vanessa. My dad is Italian and I was born in Italy, but my mom is from Brazil and likes to speak to me in Portuguese, while I answer in Italian. When I was in second grade, we moved to the German part of Switzerland. For being a country of only seven million people, the Swiss national languages are four: German, French, Italian and Rhaeto-Romance (an old Latin language – I don’t speak Rhaetian, but I understand it). So I grew up very multicultural becoming fluent in Italian, German, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Swiss-German. My mom and I traveled three hours to Zurich and three hours back once a month to go to the Dominican hairdresser. I would play with their Spanish speaking kids and learned their language; we even visited their families in the Dominican Republic. My family and I traveled a lot, visited Brazil every year, spent the summers in Italy and visited other countries. At home, we spoke Italian and Portuguese. In school we studied in German, but we also had French and English classes (later also business communication classes in those languages and Spanish as extracurricular). As an Italian born, I attended a half-day school for Italian children and catechism in Italian. Graduating in economy and commerce, I received my English First Certificate of Cambridge, DALI the advanced Italian language diploma of the University of Florence and the French DELF certificates. Working in Switzerland, I always spoke, wrote and answered in all the languages that I master. When I moved to Los Angeles in California, people kept telling me how they wished they knew how to speak a different language, but the traditional way of learning did not work for them, so I developed my own system and started teaching languages. My method is similar to the way I learned seven languages and it has proven to be efficient. Being active as a teacher and translator since 2008, I have had the pleasure to teach individuals from all paths of life, who want to learn a language for many different reasons, or may need a translation for an article, a script or a medical document. I have been hired as translator for Haitian asylum seeking women after the earthquakes, translated soap opera scripts, recorded international voice over talents (I also wear a different hat as a sound engineer), invented a language for a stop motion picture, voiced a sock monkey called Maxx who loves anyone more than bananas and accent coached actors. Now, just a warning: We sing in my class!

Ciao! My name is Antonella and yes, as you can probably tell from my name, I am Italian and precisely I hail from Sicily. I have been studying languages ever since elementary school all the way to college where i deepened my study of European languages and cultures such as English German and French. Back in 2011 i moved to New York City and recently relocated to California. I often teach English to Italian-speakers and Italian to English-speakers. Mostly i focus on the practical use of the languages as well as culture and heritage, so get ready to fall in love with anything italian: language, food , art, just to name a few. Needless to say: Arrivederci to our next class!

Ciao! I was born and raised in Milan, Italy. I graduated from the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica del Piccolo Teatro di Milano with a degree in acting. I performed for several years before moving on to study filmmaking. While in film school I worked as a journalist, writing about theater and film for Condé Nast magazines. In 1997 I relocated to Los Angeles to teach Italian language and diction, focusing especially on opera singers and actors.

Do you miss travelling? Come aboard with me and join my Italian class! With “L’italiano in valigia” we’ll pack a virtual suitcase with all you need to know before visiting the “Bel paese” so that upon arrival you’ll be ready to speak like a local! And if you haven’t purchased a ticket yet – or don’t feel like travelling – that’s not a problem. Learning Italian is always a good idea. Italian cuisine, fashion, art, architecture, literature and more... after a few classes you’ll start seeing the Italian language everywhere, even while speaking English! My name is Serena and I just moved to Los Angeles from Turin, a city surrounded by the Alps and the first capital of Italy. I’ve received a BA in Communications and a MA in American Studies, and I am an accredited Cambridge ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Before settling in California, I taught English to children, teenagers and adults in Italy, and I also taught Italian to high school students in Australia. But I won’t go on talking about myself because my classes are about YOU! No, this doesn’t mean that I am a lazy teacher, but that we’ll focus on your interests and goals, on your questions, on that troubling grammar rule that doesn’t want to stick or on that particular word that you find so difficult to pronounce. And yes, this means that you’ll be active, that we’ll be speaking a lot and that you’ll do most of the talking! But don’t worry, I’ll always offer direction and support, like a tour guide: even if it’s a private class, you’ll never be travelling alone.

I am a proud advocate of multiculturality. My ancestry and family history have strong intercultural roots (French, Spanish, Italian and Mexican). I remember my grandparents reading me different stories in three different languages and different places: French, Spanish and Italian. The first words I heard were in French from my mom, but my dad always insisted on teaching me both Spanish and Italian to somehow rival my mom culturally, so I did not lose track of my other backgrounds. When I was only 9 months old, my parents and I moved to France. I grew up in a beautiful city, the capital of France's Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region: Lyon. My dad’s job involved moving throughout France, Spain, Belgium, and Italy. Moving to northwestern Mexico (Chihuahua and Baja California) because my father inherited a ranch and a vineyard, did not represent a cultural shock but meeting instead the other part of me I was never able to discover while in Europe. I, thus, embrace cultural diversity, and would always love to bridge cultures through my job as a language tutor along with my mission as an internationalist whose flag is diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. So far, I have two majors: International Relations and French Language and Culture. Also, I am close to graduating with a BA in Italian Teaching, and one more in English Language Teaching. I simultaneously studied two of them and started college at age 16. I am currently writing the thesis of a master’s degree in International Cooperation at the University of Bologna, ranked oldest in the Western hemisphere, among the most prestigious in the world. I began tutoring French, Italian, Spanish and ESL when I was 16 years old. I have taught all these languages for about nine years, and I do not feel like stopping ever in my life. Every time I teach them, I become a cultural ambassador of the countries where they are spoken, which is a huge amount of land in the world. I love spending time surfing, jogging, hiking and occasionally trekking. I also enjoy cooking, listening to music and walking my three beautiful dogs by the beach. I would not tag myself in terms of leisure activities, as I could go from playing some video games, to watching a nice movie while having ice cream, or spending a Saturday rainy afternoon with friends at an art gallery or a music concert. I do not believe in a single teaching methodology. As a recent graduate of a BA in French language, I learned that combining teaching techniques and methodologies results in a more personalized teaching style, always aiming to tailor my teaching to the needs of my students. Notwithstanding, the communicative approach is a solid base of my practice. I was a language learner too. When I was learning English and German in Europe I really appreciated when I had a teacher who made me speak. So, I’ll make you speak. Finally, I highly recommend using “Alter Ego” and “Tendances” for French, “Chiaro” and “Caffè Italia” for Italian, “Aula Internacional”, “Nuevo Español en Marcha”, and “Gramática de Uso del Español” for Spanish and “Top Notch” for English. I take language tutoring seriously.

Ciao a tutti! I’m Luca, your enthusiastic Italian language teacher and cultural connoisseur. When I'm not passionately spreading the joy of Italian, you can find me sipping espresso, waving my hands wildly as I talk, and perfecting my pasta-making skills. As an Italian, I have a flair for drama (and pasta sauces), and I bring that theatrical energy into the classroom. You'll learn to express yourself with all the gusto of an opera singer, whether you're ordering a pizza or passionately debating the merits of gelato flavors. From the sparkling canals of Venice to the rolling hills of Tuscany, I'll transport you to Italy with my infectious passion and vibrant personality. You'll feel like you're strolling through the narrow streets of Florence or enjoying a gondola ride in Venice, all from the comfort of your language lesson. So, get ready to dive into the beautiful language and captivating culture of Italy with me, Luigi, your charismatic maestro. Together, we'll learn, laugh, and embrace la dolce vita!

Ciao, My name is Jersey! I was born in New York but moved to Roma, Italy, with my family, at the age of 11. I was thrown straight into Italian public school without much knowledge of the language! Terrifying but highly recommended. By the end of Terza Media (equivalent of 8th grade, middle school) I had better Italian Grammar than anyone in my class. Most importantly I learned to ride a motorino at the age of 13. I spent the last 2 years of high school at St Stephen's International School, where I met Garrett Strommen! I have worked in education for over a decade supporting photography programs and teaching in art departments. My tutoring experience ranges from conversational practical use and dialogue coaching in film productions to extra assistance to high school students struggling with their foreign language class.

I am a language enthusiast and a passionate traveller. I consider myself a world citizen, able to merge with every culture and deeply curious about minority languages. I currently live in Valencia, Spain, where I am studying for a Master's degree in Linguistics and Translation. I have studied Modern Foreign Languages and Communication & Media (Honours, with Year Abroad) at the University of Liverpool, where I had the opportunity to gain a good working knowledge of foreign languages (European and Asian). As a matter of fact, I am an official member of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots, and I currently speak 16 languages, I am a top-10 teacher in Taiwan and Hong Kong on the online platform AmazingTalker and I have also organised polyglot gatherings. I am socially active as a blogger and language content creator on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram and I have worked as an ambassador for Opportunities Circle (UNICEF). I look forward to meeting you all in class, I am sure we will have a lot of fun together and perhaps share our common interest in languages, cultures and travels.

Ciao! My name is Veronica and I’m your new Italian language tutor! I was born and raised in Milan, Italy and have always had a passion for language— why we use the words we use, the way we pronounce them, the newer sayings that reflect our current culture. I graduated from a Communications-emphasis high school with top grades (#nerd) and a soft spot for literature, writing and theater. I moved to the United States a decade ago and have since acquired a Bachelors in Fine Arts at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, and have become a professional actor, writer, filmmaker, performing arts teacher and Italian language tutor. I love where I come from (my whole family still lives in Italy and I visit regularly) and I feel that learning Italian is a beautiful way to immerse yourself in our rich culture!

Ciao! I am Gabriele, native Italian speaker from Calabria region with the passion of language teaching. Currently located in Italy and available for online lessons. Some information about me: besides being a native Italian, I am qualified in teaching (I have a Master’s Degree in languages, a Master in teaching Italian to foreigners and various other teaching certificates). My teaching career started by doing internships in my Italian University and in an Institute of Italian culture and now I have various years of experience in teaching online in private schools, corporations. Whatever is your goal related to learning Italian, I will help you to achieve it! Not only we will have lots of conversations and you will know how to communicate in daily situations, but also you will learn the grammar, interesting facts about the Italian culture and much more! Sounds interesting? See you in our class!

Ciao! I'm Chantal, an Italian native teacher. I'm here to help you on your Italian study journey! If you just have some doubts or if you want to start an Italian language course, at any level, book a lesson with me! I have years of experience and will help you based on your needs and goals.

Ciao, I'm Cynthia, a passionate and dedicated Italian language tutor, with over 25 years of experience in the field of language education. I was raised and lived most of my life in the enchanting city of Rome, Italy. I bring the rich cultural heritage and linguistic nuances of my homeland to my teaching. My approach to teaching Italian is rooted in the belief that language is a gateway to understanding the culture. as we embark on this linguist journey together, you can expect a supportive and encouraging atmosphere, where mistakes are celebrated as opportunities for growth.

Salve a tutti! My name is Marco Colao, and I hail from the beautiful city of Florence, Italy. Growing up in Florence provided me with a rich artistic environment, where I had the pleasure of interacting with people from diverse cultures who came to visit our city. I attended Liceo Classico high school, where I delved into the roots of the Italian language, exploring its connections to Greek and Latin. Additionally, my experience as an actor has honed my Italian diction and pronunciation skills, enabling me to effectively communicate and teach others the intricacies of speaking Italian fluently. I furthered my education by earning a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the prestigious University of Rome La Sapienza.

CIAO! I'm Giovanni, an Italian-American dialect coach, speech consultant, and writer soaking up the LA sun. Drama grad from the William Esper Studio in NYC, I've worn many hats in the Big Apple – from working in a production company to being a personal assistant for an actor and even assisting New York Times author. I stumbled upon my love for teaching while leading a Film class at the United World College. Now in LA, I'm all about teaching Italian and being the go-to speech "guy" for actors, speakers, production companies and athletes. Ready to upgrade from just saying "margherita pizza, grazie"? Catch you later, ciao!