Beginner 2 (Online) – Wednesday evenings

Speakers

• Anna Lanzani
  

  Anna Lanzani

  Anna is an international business consultant with extensive economic training. She graduated in 2001 cum laude in International Economics in Pavia and in Management International in Strasbourg (EM), she obtained a master’s degree in Strategic Marketing in London (2007) and an MBA in Buenos Aires ( 2016).  Beside working 20 years as marketing executive  and consultant in leading companies and in the promotion of Made in Italy in Europe, Asia and South America, Anna always cultivated her passion for italian culture, language and cuisine and is a certified language trainer (CEDILS -Ca’ Foscari) with more than 850 hours of university -level teaching experience. Her teaching mixes different  approaches, integrating  CLIL and TPR.

• Francesco Zappalà
  

  Francesco Zappalà

  I grew up in Italy where I reached the rank of captain of the Air Force and as a lawyer obtained a doctorate in Commercial and Business Law at the Universitá degli Studi La Sapienza di Roma. I recently moved to Vancouver with my family. I am a lover of Italian cuisine, especially Sicilian, and a fan of “calcio”, but also of other sports. I spent my childhood and adolescence in my wonderful Sicily, specifically in Catania. Teaching is part of my DNA. Currently I am a University Professor and Associate Researcher of Law. I was an Italian instructor several universities and Italian associations, for instance at the Dante Alighieri Society, chapter Cali Colombia where I lived for several years. I’m a certified examinator for language exams. Teaching Italian is above all a way to promote Italian culture and “l’Italianitá.”

• Sonia Dal Torto
  

  Sonia Dal Torto

  I was born in the small region of Molise and then moved to the north of Italy (Emilia-Romagna) at the age of 19. There I obtained my Master’s degree in International Cooperation and Protection of Human Rights. I discovered the passion for teaching while working as Assistant Grant Writer in an NGO in Greece. There I started to teach Italian to young refugees and to hold seminars about human rights in high schools and other non-formal educational settings. Once back in Italy, I continued to teach Italian to migrants and I started to study at Università per Stranieri di Siena.

  Furthermore, as a Grant Writer, I had the chance to promote inclusion and diversity in the education system, thanks to proposals I made in the areas of Youth and Children, Disabled people, Education and Social Services. I proposed strategies for parents, teachers and community workers to confront educational poverty in disadvantaged backgrounds, introducing intercultural teaching practices with the help of cultural-linguistic mediators.

  To me teaching holds so many invaluable meanings: it is turning into success the potential that every student has; it is understanding our communities to build better ones; it is a life-learning process thanks to the engagement with students from different backgrounds; it is falling in love every time with the Italian culture.