At Sagalingua we provide language and culture coaching for adults and children in 12 languages, taught by native teachers: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Polish, and Arabic. We use the immersion method of teaching languages.
SAGALINGUA: SAGA = long story LINGUA = language
Carrie is passionate about teaching English; she especially loves the cultural exchange with her students. Your culture, interests, life experience, family, professional-life and personal goals serve as a guide for her lessons. Through conversation, she will determine your level, grammar needs and target vocabulary; her goal is to help you improve your speaking, understanding and your confidence too.
Carrie has more than 5 years of professional experience teaching English as a Second language; she taught for 3 years to Spanish speakers in Costa Rica; and has spent two years at Sagalingua with students from around the globe. Her expertise lies in grammar and natural conversation.
Carrie is from Southern California, and has also lived in Washington state, Costa Rica, Massachusetts, and Montana.
Cora is originally from New York. She lives in Seattle now and loves it! She obtained her TEFL certificate in Poland and lived there teaching as well.
Cora has been teaching for more than 4 years and has taught people from all over the world. She recognizes the importance of acknowledging people from different backgrounds. She does this by honoring traditions, cultures, and ethnic differences.
She is a passionate teacher who loves helping her students become confident and fluent in speaking, understanding, and communicating in English. Her main focus in teaching has been conversational and business English. She has worked with various professionals in different fields and also alongside upper-level management.
Before she started teaching, she was a life coach for several years. She found this to be quite rewarding and she continues to coach and teach her students with the same patience and care that she has always given them.
Dora was born in Limassol, Cyprus and immigrated to Toronto, Canada when she was five. She grew up in a European household and is fluent in both English and Greek. She embraced the rich ethnic communities within Toronto and gained an appreciation for the diversity of cultures around her.
Dora studied Dental Hygiene and worked in private practice for over 19 years. During her clinical career as a hygienist, she spent an increasing amount of time educating patients on oral health. This experience unlocked her interest in teaching. Also, as a mother of four, she has been actively involved in her kid’s education both within the school and at home. She is proud to have been involved in the early childhood reading programs within the classroom.
Dora moved to the Seattle area with her husband and 4 kids in 2013. Having moved a few times in her life, she understands the challenges and rewards that come with life transitions.
In her spare time, she enjoys reading, working on fused glass projects, traveling, and learning about different cultures.
Filipino household, which gave him an understanding of each culture’s traditions, mannerisms, and values. This helps him to be sympathetic to the differences of other cultures and allowing students to feel comfortable expressing themselves through their own unique, cultural lens.
Brandon has a bachelor’s degree in sport management with a minor in communication studies from Washington State University and Teaching English As Foreign Language (TEFL) certification from the International TEFL Academy.
Brandon is enthusiastic about teaching English and wants to create a safe, comfortable environment for learning English. He hopes his students will have increased confidence in their speaking and listening skills after each lesson.
In his spare time, Brandon enjoys playing tennis, table tennis, playing video games and learning languages such as Korean.
was born and grew up in Mexico City. She has a BA in Economics. While in Mexico, she worked in both the public and private sector.
In 1994 she moved to the US where she completed her Masters in Accounting. She has lived in Florida, and California.
A year ago, she relocated to Washington where she volunteers at the Bellevue Library teaching math and reading in Spanish to people who are completing their basic education.
In her free time, she enjoys gardening.
Bachelor’s Degree in System Engineering from Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego de Trujillo, Peru and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain.
She loves to teach and share Latin culture through voice, pronunciation and speech. She would like students to understand a new point of view through the Spanish language.
She believes that when you learn a new language, you are also learning a different way of thinking and expression.
Isabella is from Italy, and she grew up in Rome where she got her degree in Foreign Languages (English and Spanish) as teacher and translator.
During her education career she has been living abroad to improve her language skills especially in Uk, Scotland, Ireland, and Spain. She spent long time living in Spain especially during her Erasmus programme in Salamanca and then she continued travelling to Spain both for business and leisure. She has more than 10 years of teaching experience mainly Italian, Spanish and English within international institutes and multinational companies.
She defined herself as a ‘globetrotter’ as her life has been filled up with such amazing teaching and living experiences among Italy, Switzerland, Ireland and lately US. She is very passionate about Italian and Spanish cultures and languages, and she loves teaching her students expressing this feeling to make them more be fascinated and engaged about learning foreign languages.
She has passion for concerts, museums, cooking especially with fresh and local ingredients, fitness, browsing farmer/vintage markets, organizing language exchanges, picnics, fundraising events and especially travelling to keep exploring the world!
Annelise was born in Switzerland, she grew up in Lausanne in a bilingual (French/German)
household. She is fluent in French, German, Swiss German, and knows some Italian.
Her first career as a ballerina took her all over Europe and especially Germany, where she met her husband. She lived in Stuttgart, Germany, for six years. They relocated to San Francisco for her husband’s career and another job-related move brought them to the Pacific Northwest.
While raising their two children, Annelise had the opportunity to tutor French to their friends, and worked as birth doula, ballet teacher, nanny, and nurse assistant over the years. What matters most to her, is to connect to her fellow humans and she loves that teaching a foreign language is a perfect opportunity to do just that.
In her free time, Annelise loves dogs, reading, live performances, traveling, and hiking in all the beautiful places the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
Austria. At the age of nineteen she moved to Vienna, where she completed a Master´s Degree in Jurisprudence. She lived in Austria´s capital and worked in the social field as HR and account manager for more than twenty years. She moved with her husband to Seattle in 2015.
Martina appreciates the possibility to meet people from all over the world and she loves to listen to fascinating stories from random people at the grocery store or to learn about her Sagalingua colleagues´ thrilling experiences in the US.
Martina enjoys improving her English style at Sagalingua and is both a brave student and a committed teacher. As an immigrant, she knows what it´s like leaving one´s “linguistical comfort zone” and coming up with proper terms in one´s second language. That´s why she admires everybody who is willing to dive into strangely sounding vocabularies and challenging grammar rules, and she is passionate about supporting her fellow “language-artists” whenever she can.
She likes to explore the entire US by foot and by car, especially the Pacific Northwest. She hopes to add some more miles to the American family vehicle and some more pictures to the cloud pretty soon.
her formative years living in Venezuela and Italy. She earned her Juris Doctor degree at UCAB Caracas and practiced family law there before going on to practice international private law in Italy and then moving to Seattle in 1999.
She has more than ten years of experience teaching Italian to foreigners and has designed effective Italian lessons for a variety of groups and individuals with needs ranging from casual travel to professional development. Her fun and lively classes focus on Italian grammar and offer insights into Italian culture.
She is passionate about music, cinema, travel, and loves to engage curious learners interested in the Italian language.
Fernanda is from Brazil. She has lived with her family in the USA since 2018.
She loves to teach and see her students learn and develop themselves, learning not only a new language, but the culture and the way of living of the nation of that language.
She is also an artist. She is passionate about watercoloring. Her inspiration comes from nature. She likes everything that is homemade. She likes to cook and
and receive compliments. Who doesn’t?
She likes gardening as well and her favorite season is spring! She gets energized when she sees so many vibrant colors around the city.
international cultures. She graduated from Tokyo Woman’s Christian University in Sociology, and earned teacher certificates in Japanese and Social study.
After she worked as a reporter and editor in the education field in Japan, she moved to the USA where she earned her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Colorado Boulder. While working as a translator and interpreter in the academic and education fields, her interest extended to nursing education and she was involved in several research and exchange projects.
She started teaching Japanese after she moved to Seattle ten years ago and has been enjoying learning together with various types of students from businessmen, government and military personnel, college students to elementary school children. At Sagalingua, she has been teaching Japanese and providing cultural coaching for newcomers to the USA.
She enjoys tea ceremony practice as well as wine and food excursions in her spare time.
and raised in Osaka, Japan, where she graduated from Kansai Gaidai University with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, and worked in the private sector afterwards. She moved to Seattle to study fashion marketing at The Art Institute of Seattle and worked for several local companies.
Teaching Japanese has been a part of her life since her children were born. She worked closely with them when they attended a Japanese school. After tutoring as a volunteer in a Japanese online class for a local high school in 2012, Kaoru has been teaching Japanese language and culture to children and adults at various local language schools. She learned many things from her students too!
Kaoru enjoys reading, walking, watching movies, flower arrangement, and cooking.
Nishio, Japan, and has lived in Kyoto and Tokyo and travelled most areas in Japan. She moved to Seattle in 2003, and in addition to various teaching assignments, has served as a writer/editor of local arts and entertainment information and has written profiles on people and celebrities for various forms of Japanese media.
Naoko is a specialist in Japanese language and cross-cultural understanding. She has many years of professional experience as a Japanese teacher, writer, and editor.
Naoko’s students have come from all over the world and have received instruction from her at all levels, from beginner to advanced. She has had teaching assignments in Japan, Vietnam, and the United States. At Sagalingua, she teaches language for professional use, for fun, to excel in activities, and to explore an interest in Japan. She holds Associate’s degree in Japanese language (Kyoto Women’s Junior College) and a Bachelor of Liberal Arts (The Evergreen State College), and has obtained a teaching certification for passing the Japanese Language Teaching Competency Test in Japan.
She enjoys hiking, travelling, playing music, mushroom hunting, knitting hats, and organizing. She also loves Kore-eda’s films, contemporary arts, jazz piano, wine, and her husband’s home-made dishes.
was born and raised in Beijing, China. She worked as editor, journalist for XinHua New Media before she left China for Australia in 1988. During her 12 year of residency in Australia, she had studied English for her personal advancement, owned a Beauty Salon, met her husband and got married.
In 2001, she and her husband moved from Sydney, Australia to Washington D.C. where she became a full-time Chinese language instructor. During her 6.5 years in D.C., she worked for various language training schools, teaching Chinese Mandarin to students from Department of Defense, State Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, as well as some private business sector companies.
Hebei Province, China – a city that sits on the edge of China’s capital, Beijing. After studying Public Affairs in Beijing, she went to Hong Kong for a master’s degree in Sustainable Tourism. After working in a PR agency in Beijing for three years, she decided to do another master’s degree in Public Relations & Corporate Communications at Georgetown University, Washington D.C. She moved to Seattle for her career in 2016, where she met her husband and settled down to start a family.
Apart from teaching Mandarin, she also works as a Simplified Chinese Localization QA tester and works with Chinese language usage and linguistic topics every day in a very multicultural working environment.
She is very proud of her language and culture. As a teacher, her goal is to make sure her students learn the knowledge and language solidly, and also have fun and feel encouraged at the same time.
Rebecca was born in the city of Wuhan, China, an important transportation hub since ancient times. Before she became a Mandarin tutor in 2014, she was a violin teacher in a youth academy center and an account manager.
In 2015, she became a licensed Senior Chinese Language Teacher and began to teach full-time. She likes to exchange cultural information in her classes in order to help her students improve their communication skills. Rebecca is taking intercultural communication classes at Bellevue College in order to further her professional development.
She likes playing badminton and going to movies – mysteries and fantasies are her favorites. She has travelled almost all over China and hopes next to go to Europe.
Yoonwoo (Judy) is a native Korean speaker and was born in Busan, South Korea. She then moved to Seoul to attend college and start her journey in the world of work and in 2015, left Korea and moved to the Greater Seattle area.
Yoonwoo has a BS degree in Electronics Engineering and an MS degree in Industrial Engineering from Korea University. She also studied Art Management at Chung-Ang University’s graduate school in Korea. She has worked in a variety of fields over the last 20 years, providing her expertise as a User Experience Designer and a Human Factor Engineer in companies like Samsung, Siemens Healthineers, etc.
She enjoys problem-solving and is enthusiastic about supporting and assisting others with their communicative needs. In addition, she is well versed in whatever subject matter she teaches and is dedicated to providing knowledge in a way that is meaningful to her students. She loves interacting with people and wants to provide a full-immersion experience not only with the language but also with the culture of her country.
She has been volunteering to teach the Korean language via Meetup.com since 2018 while also working as a Korean language teacher in Korean language schools in the Bellevue area. Her hobbies include reading books, collecting stories. and singing. She was a member of three choir groups in Korea. Yoonwoo also enjoys cooking and owns an Instagram page where she shares photos of her the dishes that she makes.
and then to US where she has been living for the last six years. She obtained a BA in Psychology in Winnipeg and languages and teaching were always close to her heart.
She worked with both elementary children and teens and she has been working in Polish School in Bellevue for the last three years teaching Polish language to children. Mom of two boys, she enjoys outdoors, photography, skiing, literature, child psychology and languages (she herself, apart from English, studied French, Italian, German and Russian).
She enjoys getting to know people from different cultures and with different backgrounds and she loves being part of the Seattle’s multicultural mix.
grow their language skills. She believes that everyone can learn, regardless of age, language, experience, education, health, familiarity with technology, or any other factors. She uses the immersion method to teach language skills, and since 2008 has been teaching Russian language in Berlitz and computer literacy for the City of Seattle.
Galia was born and raised in Russia and has lived in Estonia, Israel, and the United States. She has worked as a teacher, language expert, project administrator, and software engineer, most recently at Microsoft Corporation. She holds a Master of Education degree (summa cum laude) from Jones International University (USA) and a B.Sc. in System Engineering degree from St. Petersburg State Technical University (Russia).
Apart from teaching, Galia likes travel, books, photography, music, and cooking. Galia is fluent in Russian, English, Hebrew, and is currently learning Polish. Her two tri-lingual children and husband feel comfortable in any multi-cultural community.
What people are saying about us
When we moved from Europe to Bellevue, one of my co-workers recommended a school, Sagalingua, which focuses on languages as well as on culture. This was exactly what I was looking for in order to support my spouse in brushing up her language skills and settling in in America. She not only scheduled intensive individual sessions, but also joined a conversation group whereby she made many new friends. In a short time, her progress was markedly noticeable. Meanwhile she feels much more comfortable and confident meeting my co-workers and business partners. Because of her experience, I can fully recommend Sagalingua as a fantastic language/cultural coaching school for any newcomer! (Christian B., Bellevue, WA)
It’s a wonderful place to study English, especially if you are new in America! Sagalingua find special education techniques for everyone. You can learn English in natural situations such as museums, cafes, stores and other place! My personal tutor (Sandri) and I wrote a short – list of places about what I like, and we want together everywhere. It was faster way to understand real-life English! But even if you take a group-lesson it’s also teaching through activities. It’s always interesting, effective and fun. I strongly recommend it! (Anna N., Redmond, WA)
Loveletter to “Sagalingua – Language and Culture Coaching”
The name says it all!!! The Sagalingua guys, bosses and instructors as well, literally LOVE various languages spoken all over the world. Bright-eyed they talk about new vocabulary, the serial comma and point out the differences between American and British English. They never get tired answering questions about current political or social discussions, animal shelter, latest movies or the correct use of tenses. In case you ask them – and of course I did – they explain football rules and illustrate the most important weekend´s Seahawks moves on the whiteboard . Within only a few weeks I became a true blue…..almost I really appreciate their passion, not only for languages, but also for the different countries and their people! Recently, for instance, Sagalingua offered us an unique chance to talk to an American author of Korean descent! She shared her experiences and described how challenging it was having a childhood in between two completely different cultures. Afterwards our Korean-American instructor added further information about present day Korean culture and presented several traditional clothes and food. Is it cool or is it cool!!? Every day I´m looking forward to walking to “my sagalinguan family”, where the bosses, Sandri and Galia, give me a warm welcome and provide European styled bread. My instructors, Anastacia and Darina, have a saint´s patience concerning my far from fluently English language. They applaud me for nice homework and “scientific” observations concerning the use of “though” or American, and especially Washingtonian, quirks. Their passion affects me and turns me into an outstanding young student. With a lot of wrinkles, though. (Martina T., Bellevue, WA)
I’m so glad that I found this nice place to learn English. The people are very friendly and much more than nice. I met so many people from so different cultures, I love it. My classes with ‘Anastasia’ are absolutely interesting and she helped me a lot to increase the language and to learn about the American culture and history. I’m very thankful and I highly recommend this language school.(Christiane L., Kirkland, WA)
Sagalingua is the local choice for those who wish to learn a new language or sharpen an existing one. The atmosphere, people, and teaching methods are all excellent, as is the location, near downtown Bellevue. I’m extremely satisfied with my learning progress and am excited to see what’s next! I’ve been taking Russian lessons for about nine months now. My teacher, Galia, conducts every lesson completely in Russian, in a constant back-and-forth question and answer format. What this does is instill Russian words and ways of thinking without the need to translate back and forth between English. The vocabulary and grammar builds up systematically over time; and as I feel like I’m struggling to learn a new concept, I realize that I’ve been practicing the previous difficult concept without thinking. And the next lesson I’ll be struggling with something new, but picking up the last concept organically! It’s an immensely satisfying way to learn, and my progress has been spectacular. A year of college French left me with little more than the ability to order coffee, but six months of Russian at Sagalingua and I’m starting to have simple, but useful, conversations about a variety of familial, professional, and recreational topics. I highly recommend Sagalingua and their excellent teachers to anyone wishing to learn, or improve, a second (or third? fourth?) language! (James R.,Issaquah, WA)
In my opinion, It’s the best place to learn English (they also teach other languages, but I took only English class). Every lesson is so different and super interesting. They read books at home and then discuss about them, they have Skype chats with authors, visit some museums together, have special guests, celebrate different holidays etc. One time I took a group lesson where we had watched a movie before a lesson and then discuss about a movie, about words and phrases about everything. It was really fun and useful. It’s also nice that they have a group for moms with kids, so you can bring your little one with you. I wish I met Sagalingua earlier and didn’t postpone studying English until my child would go to a preschool. There are a lot of toys and games to play for kids there. If you want to study any languages check it first if Sagalingua can teach you this language. I would strongly recommend to go there. The environment is so friendly. People are nice and professional. It’s really cozy place with awesome people and great opportunity to study languages easy and fast!!!! (Maria I., Sammamish, WA)
Everyone at Sagalingua will make you feel like family! Great place to learn, and the staff are very flexible and accommodating according to your learning interests and needs. They offer a large variety of activities at a high quality! I would highly recommend checking this place out. (Liza D., Redmond, WA)
Welcoming, skillful, reassuring, helpful these are the words I use when I speak about the Sagalingua team. Regarding your level and what you need they adapt courses. You find there more than teachers, friends! (Emma H., Bellevue, WA)
If you are just beginning to learn English or trying to improve it and don’t have anyone to talk to. Or if you would like to extend your vocabulary by reading books but don’t know which books will be good for you. If you would like to learn something new about different countries, food, culture and traditions – Sagalingua is the perfect place for you! They have very knowledgeable, friendly and fun teachers. They will adapt lessons depending on your needs and requests. Classes are very small, from one to 4 (max) students per teacher. They also have a book club so even if you don’t want to take lessons, you still have an opportunity to improve your verbal skills and be more social as a result (and learn quite a few new things!). Our class usually goes to one field trip per month, which can be museum, farm (like blueberry u-pick), restaurant or things like the Sheraton Seattle Hotel Gingerbread Village You will also do things like watching movies at home and then discussing them in the class which is always a fun thing to do. From time to time we have a potluck lunch: as students come from all over the world, it’s quite amazing to see such variety of food. Finally, the location is great: just across the I-405 from downtown Bellevue so easily accessible both by car and bus (5 minutes walk from Whole Foods). I highly recommend this place. (Irina K., Bellevue, WA)
I am really happy to discover Sagalingua and the conversation group they have. I extremely need speaking practice and coming once a week to school makes difference. My teacher is Anastasia Kim. She is adorable person and experienced professional. Every week we have different topics for discussion. Once a month, we discuss a movie or episode, which Anastasia usually chooses according to month holiday or some other event of current interest. Besides, we have books discussions, usually leaded by Sandri. We have to read a book on our own and be ready to discuss it. I read my first English book in Sagalingua! I was so proud :)). They motivate me to study, to enhance my vocabulary. They make me confident in speaking English. I visited different conversation classes, but only here they correct my mistakes. Anastasia is a carrier of millions of idioms and beautiful expressions, which I try to absorb. Both Anastasia and Sandri inspire me to learn more. The most fascinating thing is field trips, when we get together with other students and go out to visit some interesting places in Seattle area. I should also say about potlucks and parties that Sagalingua organize for students and their families. It’s like being the part of the huge family. They have private classes, which I’ve heard very popular and efficient and they are very flexible and could adjust curriculum to your needs. I have to mention that Sagalingua is not just a language school; it is also a cultural school. They do understand your needs as a new comer and they help you to settle in a new country with all its diversified culture and traditions. So, for now, it’s not just about English, it’s about to belong to a very nice and pleasant community, called Sagalingua. I am very grateful to Anastasia, Sandri and Galia for everything they are doing, for all their efforts to make our visits to Sagalingua comfortable and effective. (Getlin N., Redmond, WA)
Sagalingua is the best! Everyone there is so welcoming it makes for the most comfortable environment to take on a new language. I’ve always found Spanish difficult but Mary has helped me improve quickly with effective lessons and a positive environment. Often when learning a new language you’re embarrassed to make mistakes, but I never once did I encounter that here, in fact I felt compelled to try to go beyond. Thank you so much to everyone at Sagalingua!! (Pascale M., Seattle, WA)
Summary
The Language & Culture Instructors work as part-time employees. The instructor will teach one-on-one lessons as well as group lessons for 4-6 people. The instructor is responsible for developing and facilitating lessons, communicating with their students, and helping students reach their goals in their studies.
Sagalingua serves students Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The instructor’s schedule is flexible and depends on his/her availability. The Instructor should be have prior teaching experience.
Key Responsibilities
- Uphold the values and mission of Sagalingua
- Develop and facilitate one-on-one and small group lessons
- Lead students on field trips according to their interests
- Assist and/or lead conversation groups for people of all levels
- Assist and/or lead events such as book clubs
- Assist with new student assessments to determine their starting level
- Promote Sagalingua and help with outreach such as writing website blog articles, posting to Facebook, and helping with presentations in local communities.
Desired Qualifications
- Native speakers only
- Experience teaching learners of all ages
- Experience developing a curriculum according to a students’ needs
- Enthusiasm for connecting with people and building rapport with students
- Sense of humor
- Flexibility
- Ability to travel to Sagalingua’s center in Bellevue either by car or public transportation or arrange lessons on other places including online platforms
- Demonstrated responsibility and commitment to one’s work
- Understanding and ability to work well with a multi-cultural audience
If you are a native speaker of French, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Arabic, German, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and have experience teaching language to children and adults, please email your resume and availability to [email protected]
Sandri Richardson and Galia Dadiomova started Sagalingua in 2014. Our programs 
encourage students to take an active role in their language and culture learning, engaging through specific goal setting, field trips and continuous feedback with minimal ”teaching” but instead “coaching”. The role of the coach is to adapt to the student’s needs and to maximize the potential of the student by keeping them motivated and engaged.
Language coaching involves aspects of teaching and training, but it also has a personal aspect where the coach has the ability to adapt to the learner and lessons are client-focused and adapted to the client’s objectives. “Teaching” is kept to a minimum, motivation takes top priority and the clients actively have ownership of their language learning by setting achievable goals. Synonyms for “coach” include counsel, lead, mentor, pilot, shepherd, show, and tutor.