Our Team

Meet our amazing team! 

Marian Zapata – Owner, CEO

Marian is a native from Granada, Spain. Marian and her husband moved to Maryland in the year 2000 and have two wonderful bilingual boys. After living in Bethesda for 6 years, and searching for language education, she realized there was a lack of effective language programs in the area.

May Seo – School Administrator

May was born in Korea. She first studied in Korea, but moved to London where she extended her studies. From London, her love for traveling brought her to Sydney, where she worked for the Australian university helping Korean students.

Asami Saito Paine – Japanese Instructor

I love teaching as it is amazing to see the students improve their Japanese languages abilities and be able to communicate in Japanese. I am looking forward to seeing you at the school!

Maria Elisa Covarrubias – Spanish Instructor

Maria Elisa is a native Spanish speaker from Mexico. She lived in Mexico City most of her life and moved to the United States a few years ago. She enjoys teaching Spanish because she loves the language and the culture associated with it.

Johannes Nziengui – French and English Instructor

Whether teaching English or my native French, nothing gives me more pleasure professionally than to help my students not only build language skills, but actually begin to use the language to express themselves and make improvements with growing confidence.

Lorena Arevalo – Spanish Instructor

Lorena is a native from Venezuela.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources. When she moved here in 2016, she became a certified teacher and has been teaching since then.  One of her passions is to teach Spanish to children. She loves seeing how quickly they improve!

Victoria Zeballos-Woods – Spanish Instructor

Victoria is a native of Lima, Peru. She went to college in Lima and studied Psychology. She received a Masters in Psychology of Education. When she moved to the United States, she decided to continue her studies and obtained a Bachelor’s in Psychology.

Saada Abdallah- Arabic Instructor 

Saada was born in Lebanon, where she grew up speaking Arabic, French and English. After graduating from college with a degree in Journalism, Saada became a successful broadcast journalist covering all aspects of her home country.

 

Catalina Campos – Spanish Instructor

Hola! I am Catalina and I am from Costa Rica! I majored in French and English teaching and have been working as a French, English and Spanish language teacher for over 20 years. I love teaching! It is my true passion. I love to help students in the acquisition of a language.

Amy W. Hasberger – French and English Instructor

For 20 years, in the Chicagoland area, Amy worked with students of all ages, sharing a love of both French language and ESL development TOEFL, speaking skills and cross-cultural training.  Now residing in Bethesda, Maryland, Amy retains her commitment to linguistic proficiency with students in both French and American English.

Rosangela Corte – Portuguese Instructor

My name is Rosangela Corte, but most people call me Rose. I am from Brazil and have lived in Maryland for the past 11 years. I have more than 25 years of experience teaching Portuguese to children and adults, initially in my hometown of Porto Alegre, located in the south of Brazil, and since 2008, here in the US.

Helene Blin, French Instructor

Helene was born in Le Mans, France. She studied International relations and negotiations for English and Spanish speaking countries (Bachelor and Master) and Finance (Master). She taught business in France for 3 years, as well as Risk Management and Business Ethics in Monaco and in the United States for 9 years.

Natalya Tomasova, Russian Instructor 

Natalya was born in Novorossiysk, Russia. She studied Russian Philology at the Kuban State University in Krasnodar, Russia, as well as her MBA. She has been teaching Russian for 25 years and really loves to learn about her students and assisting them with their goals of developing their language skills and cultural awareness.

Evelina Todoranova, French Instructor

Originally from Bulgaria, I have over 13 years of professional experience in education. I have been teaching French and English at all levels for children and adults, and I worked for the International Baccalaureate Organisation.

Greg Stauffer – German Instructor

Greg was not yet a teenager when he discovered his enjoyment of tutoring others to linguistic success. A bilingual native-level German and English speaker with intermediate Russian, he will be your guide to master the German language and explore the German language world in whatever detail is of interest to you.

Liliane Weinrob, French Instructor

Liliane has been involved in promoting the language and culture of France, her native french language, in the Washington area for nearly 25 years. Before working with ISL, she served as a volunteer teacher for a nonProfit and taught french to young professionals in the corporate and non profit world.

Pamela Li, Chinese Instructor

Pamela was born in Beijing, China. She studied in Beining International Chinese University to obtain a degree as a teacher of Chinese as a second language to foreign students. She has been teaching in Chinese for over 30 years and in the United States since 2017.

Araceli Ma, Spanish Instructor 

Araceli was born in Peru. She studied Communications Science at the University of Lima. In the US, she found her passion in teaching Spanish and has been doing that since 2014 at public schools, in group and individual settings.

Young Ok Kim– Korean Instructor

I was born in Korea, where I majored in German language and literature. I have more than 10 years of teaching experience with both children and adults. I love teaching because I love to meet people who have a passion for learning.

Scarlet Echeverria – Spanish Instructor

Hi! I am Scarlet.
I am graduate in Foreign Languages Applied to International Business with focus in the Spanish language. Currently I am DELE official examiner. I’ve been teaching Spanish since 2016 for children and adults. I am an enthusiastic teacher that loves to engage students with culture, art and latin songs.

Susanna Weerth – German Instructor

Susanna, a German native, grew up in the South-West of Germany at the board of Switzerland and France. After finishing her education residing in several German cities in the South she moved to New York and finally to Maryland working in the biomedical field before becoming a German language professional and teacher.

María Catalán – Spanish Instructor

Hello! I am María, I have been a Spanish teacher for many, many years, at least 12. I am Spanish and I am based in Madrid, the city where I was born. I have a Master’s degree in teaching my native language and I have a degree in Journalism too but teaching is what I love the most. I can say I have the great fortune of being able to make my vocation my way of life.

Tom Stockley – American Sign Language Instructor

Tom was born in Syracuse, New York. He earned a Masters in Deaf Education and American Sign Language at Rochester Institute of Technology. He has been teaching ASL since 2009 and really enjoys helping his students excel and being able to communicate in ASL.

Victoria Calabria – Italian Instructor

I was born in Argentina, but grew up in a small seaside town in northern Italy. I majored in English teaching in Buenos Aires and have worked in bilingual schools for 7 years. In addition, I have taught Italian and Spanish for 4 years to students from all over the world.

Organizations we work with