Our Teachers
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. -William Arthur Ward, American Author
Our goal is to provide you with a great teacher. Our trained instructors are native-level speakers, passionate about sharing language with the community and vetted by parents!
Ines Andrade, Movement Specialist, Vocalist, French and Spanish Instructor
Ines was born and raised by her French mother and Venezuelan father in Paris. She grew up speaking French, Spanish and English. Ines is a movement specialist and has performed, choreographed and taught young children in Paris and Miami before moving to Seattle in 1999. She received her dance BFA from New World School of the Arts (Miami ) in 1997.Ines currently teaches in schools and dance centers all over the the Puget Sound, including American Dance Institute, Creative Dance Center and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Her passion for teaching kids, her training in childhood development through movement and her love for languages makes her a great addition to our team.
Morgan Lindberg French Instructor
Originally from Portland, Morgan had early foreign language exposure when she moved to Japan. Her mother was assigned there with the US Air Force. When she returned to Washington for high school, her parents encouraged her to study Spanish over French. Like any normal teenager, she defied her parents and enrolled in French and fell in love with the language. Morgan graduated from UW with a BA in French and minor in Environmental studies. She moved to Paris then Bordeaux to study French and teach English. She then spent a year working at an office job in India, which made her realize how she missed teaching. Today, Morgan is an assistant teacher at the French American School of Puget Sound, is looking forward to earning a masters degree in education.
Antonia Mallarino, Spanish Instructor
Antonia first came to Seattle from Colombia as an exchange student in 1990 to learn English. She returned home to obtain a Bachelor's Degree in design in 1996. After many professional experiences as fashion marketing consultant, teacher at a local university and speaker for many design seminars around her country, she discovered her love for teaching after volunteer teaching children weaving techniques and promoting Colombian art and culture. Antonia now lives on the Eastside with her family and her passion for teaching children fits in well with the Polly-Glots' mission. Antonia believes teaching is a very important part of her life and it is a way to give back some of what she has received.
Paula Cerni-Conde, Spanish Instructor
Paula grew up on Spain's Mediterranean coast. Wanting to be a foreign-language teacher, she earned a BA in English language and literature and especially enjoyed American literature, never suspecting she would one day live in the US. Soon she moved to the UK to practice her English, and ended up staying there for twenty years and raising two British children. Together with other Spanish-speaking moms in London, she set up Amiguitos, a social and cultural club designed to encourage bilingual kids to use and improve their Spanish. Her children are now in middle school and Paula teaches Spanish at the Experimental College. In her spare time she learns piano, jogs, and reads books, though nowadays they are more likely to be popular science than literature.
Rosa Rosario, Spanish Instructor
Born in New York, Rosa's family decided to return to their native Dominican Republic specifically for early education in Spanish before returning to the US where Rosa studied at Rutgers University earning BA in Psychology. While at college, Rosa became a preschool teacher and later worked with at risk youth. Rosa continues to work in both industries. Currently, Rosa volunteers at Evergreen Hospital as an Assistant to the Instructors of the Parent-Baby classes, where she supports new mothers and their babies. Rosa and her husband are very passionate about learning from different cultures and languages and they are committed to provide a multicultural and multilingual home for their child. They speak Spanish, English, Tagalog (national language of the Philippines) and French at home and are hoping to learn Mandarin together. Serious polyglots!
Merrie Siegel, Spanish Instructor
Merrie began her career teaching music and English (ESL) in Mexico to students from elementary school through college. With 20 years teaching experience among all ages, levels and abilities from preschool to college in music and Spanish, Merrie is as comfortable playing on the floor with young children as she is lecturing graduates. Merrie holds a doctorate in musical arts (D.MA.) She and her family are billingual/bicultural with strong ties to Mexico.
Anne (Ana) Messler, Spanish Instructor
Ana has been teaching for the last ten years. She has taught children from preschool to high school but she discovered her true passion lies in Early Childhood Education. Ana has taught K-3 Spanish and English as a Foreign Language in Ecuador. She has lived, worked and studied abroad in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador. She earned her B.A. in Spanish from the University of Minnesota Duluth and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language/Teaching English as a Second Language certificate from the Centro de Estudios Interamericanos in Cuenca, Ecuador. Ana looks forward to joining you as you begin this important journey together with your child into the world of language. Together you will engage in hands-on, minds-on discovery and play.
Cindy Barrero, Spanish Instructor
Born in Bogota, Colombia to Colombian parents, Cindy grew up in the Latin culture. However, she and her family moved to the United States when she was a year old and she has lived most of her life in Houston, Texas, making her fluent in English and Spanish. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and a Minor in Telecommunication Media Studies. Out of college, she worked in the Oil & Gas Industry, however she changed her focus and is now in the process of applying to graduate school at the University of Washington so that she can study something she is passionate about, the sociology of children and the family. Cindy believes that continued learning and acquisition of knowledge is key to becoming a better citizen of the world. Currently she is learning French to keep her brain active and alert and so that she herself can also become a polyglot.
Vandana Gupta, Hindi Instructor
Vandana was born and brought up in the culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse country of India, with Hindi as her mother tongue. Professionally, she is an environmentalist. Prior moving to Seattle in October 2011, she was actively working on different environmental projects while pursuing her doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences from JNU, New Delhi. Vandana has a natural flair for teaching and connecting with people especially children. The diverse setting of Polly-Glots is just the right community to draw upon her sensitivities and share her skills with children and families. Vandana's energy and enthusiasm for sharing her language and culture with the western community is palpable.
Mai Takahashi DeBlieck, Japanese Instructor
A native of Japan, Mai has been teaching foreign languages to children since 2002. Soon after moving to Seattle in January of 2008 with her husband and two young children, Mai started a Japanese storytime at the Greenwood Public Library. She is passionate about teaching her native language, and about sharing Japanese culture. Mai also speaks Italian, and has performed internationally with the taiko group Fujisan Kaen Daiko.
Winnie Chan, Mandarin Instructor
Winnie is a native Mandarin speaker from Taipei, Taiwan. Winnie was a Mandarin tutor while studying for her BA at the UW. She currently works for the Chinese Weekly Newspaper, Asia Today as a Mandarin translator, editor and proofreader among other duties. Winnie is passionate about teaching Mandarin language because she would like to share with all kids just how interesting Mandarin is.
Joyce Chen, Mandarin Instructor
Joyce was born in New Jersey to Taiwanese parents but she spent most of her childhood in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. At age 7, she attended American School in Malaysia for a year. Soon after, her family moved back to Taiwan where she attended public schools until 8th grade. At age 14, she decided to study abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland where she learned French and how to snowboard, a sport she greatly enjoys. She loves meeting new people, being exposed to different cultures and learning new languages. Joyce graduated from the University of Washington where she earned her BA in Anthropology and Master of Public Health in Nutrition. She tutored English to preschool kids for a year at Denise Louie Education Center through the UW Jumpstart program. Currently, she teaches ESL to Chinese older adults in the International District and is a part-time dietitian at YMCA Snohomish County. Joyce speaks Mandarin to her parents, Hokkien (Taiwanese) to her grandma and is trying to learn Japanese from her roommate.
Junker Jonetter Wong (JJ), Mandarin Instructor
JJ is from the southern region of China though of northern Chinese descent. He was privileged to have attended private schools to formally study Mandarin from Beijing-trained teachers which formalized his foundational accuracy in pronunciation; and, his command of traditional Beijing Mandarin as the official language for writing, speaking and pronunciation. JJ brings a lot of expertise to classroom: formal law school training in London, U.K., along with advanced linguistics education in the US, and K-12 Canadian teacher qualification just to mention a few. JJ is also a longtime ski and swim instructor for children. Come, experience a neo-linguistics immersion from our varied diverse Mandarin teacher: JJ.
Jill Yang, Mandarin Instructor
Jill is a native Mandarin speaker from Taiwan who has always loved languages. She earned her BA in Arabic Language and Literature from National Cheng Chi University in Taipei. Jill has taught ESL as well as Mandarin Chinese to adults and children both in Taipei and Seattle since 2003. She traveled the world extensively before moving to the States. Besides teaching Mandarin, Jill also home schools her daughter.
Yanchun Zhao, Mandarin Instructor
A native Mandarin speaker from Beijing, China, Yanchun graduated with a medical degree and Masters in Endocrinology from Tianjin Medical University and was a resident at Beijing Diabetes Hospital in China before coming to the U.S in 2007. Before moving to Seattle, Yanchun taught Mandarin at a preschool in San Francisco. She was an instructor with Polly-Glots in 2009 when she was offered a job in medicine. Despite her medical background, Yanchun's love of teaching has drawn her back to the classroom. Since March 2009, Yanchun has been teaching Mandarin at Washington International School and at a Mandarin-immersion daycare in Seattle. Welcome back Yanchun!