1 - Pro --
BA (Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA, USA)
and Masters work in English Education (NYU, USA), and then practical
experience creating and maintaining a language school in the south of France for companies;
teaching, translating, interpreting, making several EFL video programs
including "We Mean Business" with Longman, "The Adventures of Charlie
McBride", and the ongoing Real English® project. --
2 - Perso --
-- I
was born in poor circumstances in the northern New Jersey countryside. My father died when I was 5, my mother had a
serious car accident when I was 8. We went to a stupid abusive catholic
school, which nearly ruined my spirit. --
-- Brother Pete went far
beyond the failed ambitions of our ancestors to become the director of
the MFA in Houston, Texas, USA. He transformed it from almost nothing
into the most democratic museum in the USA, and perhaps number 5 or 6
in America in terms of endowments/visitors. --
-- As for the second
and last son, myself, I was born confused and I didn't have my
brother's ambition. I wrote well. I was a lost idealist. I marched on Washington against the Vietnam war
several times, but I also did something intelligent: I spent school
vacations in 1966 and 67, working for the SCLC in and around Selma,
Alabama. There were multiple trips from PA to AL, always with my friend
Carol, and sometimes with 1 or 2 of our professors, and always with a
handful of other students from Juniata. We went door to door in the
poorest parts of the town and countryside, and explained to the black
folk that they could finally vote. And would you like a ride into town
to register?
--
-- 40 years later and it's a done deal, almost. Obama is a leader in a
completely new world. --
-- I learned how to hand glide after much training and enjoyed this
sport immensely for 3 years in the Drôme département in France in a
town called "Die" (pronounced "Dee"). Free as a bird and in control. Realized a dream, a literal dream. --
-- Personally speaking, my own ambition genes
kicked in only when I became 30, and I married Valérie, and created a
language school in France, etc. Now, in 2009, almost 2010, I just want
to take the whole Real English project to the limits while helping
students on and offline.
