ABOUT US
| About the Author of the My Second Language Series | |
Joyce Fernández  |
Hi! My name is Joyce Fernández. I am the author of the My Second Language Series. I've recently left my New York home and made a new life for myself and my beautiful family in North Carolina. Learning a second language as a teenager or as an adult can be quite a challenge. Many educators and parents are beginning to see the benefits of learning a second language as a child. As a college student, I did several research assignments on the benefits of growing up bilingual. It was incredibly difficult to find information pertaining to the positive effects of learning a second language at a young age. Instead, the libraries were teaming with information about how confused and slow the bilingual children were! I felt that I needed to introduce a new way of thinking to my country! Luckily, a lot has changed since I went to college. The US is finally starting to see what many other countries have known for a long time, just how important it is to teach children to understand other languages. |
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After college I became a second language educator. I taught Spanish and French to children, 3 year old nursery all the way through the 8th grade. In the years that I spent teaching languages to children, it became more and more clear to me that the younger the children were, the easier they acquired proficiency in the second language. With the youngest children, up to about third grade, I was able to completely immerse them in the language. As they matured to beyond childhood and into late elementary and junior high, they retained and improved on their proficiency. On the other hand, the children who started learning at older ages had a difficult time becoming interested in the second language and their acquisition was fairly slow compared to the younger children. It was no longer a case of learning something new, it was a case of learning something foreign. The key to learning a second language is to make it familiar, and the earlier you start the more familiar the language will be. I really hope that you enjoy browsing through our site! Please tell everyone you know about our series! You'll love the books and the knowledge that they bring! |
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About the Illustrators We are very home-school friendly and are always looking for a talented home-schooler to jump into the publishing world by illustrating one of our books!
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 Meghan Chung |
Meghan Chung is a ten-year-old home-schooler who lives with her family in North Carolina. She has written and illustrated several books. Arriba is Up is her first collaboration and first Spanish book. When not writing and illustrating she is busy with three horses, three cats, two guinea pigs, a fish, one dog and hundreds of tadpoles. Watch for her next book! |
 Meghan Wellman |
Meghan Wellman is an 11-year-old home-schooler who lives with her family in Ohio. She is illustrating I Eat is I Eat. This is her very first published work. Meghan enjoys reading, horseback riding, swimming, playing piano, riding roller-coasters, and playing with her cat and dog. |
Hanna Wellman |
Hanna Wellman is a 9-year-old home-schooler who lives with her family in Ohio. She is illustrating The Farm is The Farm. Hanna enjoys listening to music, playing the guitar, swimming, cooking, crafts and playing with her cat and dog. |
 Adia Bradshaw |
Adia Bradshaw is a 7-year-old home-schooler who lives with her family in North Carolina. She did a wonderful job illustrating A Rainbow is A Rainbow. This is her very first published work. Some of the things that Adia loves include reading, dancing, hanging out at the beach, visiting her grandparents, playing with her little sister and brother! What a busy young lady! |
 Alex Chung |
Alex Chung is a nine year old home-schooler who lives with his parents and three sisters in NC. He loves all things Lego and has an impressive collection filling an entire room. Like his mother before him who was unbeatable at Backgammon, Alex is a formidable opponent on Wii. Alex loves to draw and his hilarious illustrations and stories have delighted family members for years. Alex is illustrating The Foods are the Foods. This is his first published work. |
 Laura Jean Kolb Marsh |
Laura
Jean Kolb Marsh has always loved art. As an illustrator, she paints
primarily with watercolor and gouache, but she also loves pen &
ink cartooning and doodling. When she is not busy drawing something,
Laura spends her free time enjoying the great outdoors. In addition
to collaborating with My Second Language, Laura has also worked with
Brier Creek Elementary School's Aspiring Authors program and
illustrated The Magic Collar, by Shelby Lattimore. Laura lives in
North Carolina with her husband, dogs, and cats.
To see more of Laura's art, or to contact her directly, please visit her web site at http://artimproviso.blogspot.com. |
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About the Translators
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Nicole Abaz |
Nicole Abaz, our French
translator, started translating for us
while living in North Carolina with her husband and son, but has since
moved her family back to her native France where she continues to add
her expertise in her language to our series.
Nicole is a nature lover and enjoys spending special moments sitting quietly with a cup of tea, son on her lap, alongside her pond. |
 Elena Khvostova |
Elena Khvostova, our
Russian translator, grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now she lives
in North Carolina with her husband and two children. She is thrilled
to be a part of this series.
A note from Elena: “My husband and I moved to America when our daughter was only four years old. We did our best to help her learn English at school as well as keep her native language intact. Being bilingual has helped her so much throughout her adolescence with developing a passion for languages. She has also been able to harbor a connection with both cultures throughout the years which she shares with her younger brother. Even though he was born in America, we decided to raise him bilingual as well and it is such a joy to be able to see my kids take advantage of their ability to know two languages because of learning them at a young age. I wish I’d had the same opportunities when I was young. Even ten years of a language in school can’t compare with exposure as a child” |
Sabiny O'Rourke |
Sabiny O'Rourke, our Portuguese
translator, lives with her husband in North Carolina. "Um
is One" and Little
Bird" are her first translations. She
loves children and is tickled to be given the opportunity to do the
translations for our children's books. Sabiny brings a smile to
everyone she comes across!
A note from Sabiny: "Learning a second language was very challenging for me, especially because I did it in my adult life. Having the right tools is very important and less stressful for the learning process. Unfortunately, grammar books are not very exciting and my brain works better when associations are proposed in a given subject." |
 Silvia Kuriss |
Silvia Kuriss, our Italian
translator, lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband and
two sons; Luciano and Eugenio. Her sons both know English and
French. Luciano also knows Japanese and German. Silvia
loves tango. She also loves languages. Silvia remembers
the fun of learning a language through play, as she learned Italian
when she was a child.
A note from Silvia: "Learning a language brings the possibility of knowing habits and idiosyncrasy of people in other countries. Of course, it's very much easier to learn it when we are children..." |
 Jianxin Guo |
Jianxin Guo, our Chinese translator, grew up in China and moved to the US in 2004. She lives with her 8 year old son in North Carolina. A special message from Jianxin: "My son only spoke Chinese before he came to US in 2007. The first day he came back from school, he told me that he was hungry, in English! He learned and spoke a few words in the first 3 months. I could see that he gradually understood other people talking. In 6 months, he could read Level 1 books. He started talking in English in his dreams. By the time he finished 1st grade, he had completed reading Harry Potter volume 1 and many other stories. It is amazing to see how the language learning curve goes up so dramatically at a young age. " "I was not so lucky myself. I started to learn English when I was 12 years old and I am still struggling with the reading, writing and speaking. Be sure to start your children in a second language as early as possible." |
 Inga F. Gregory |
Inga F. Gregory, our German translator, lives
with her husband and two young daughters in New Hampshire. She grew up
in Germany and immigrated to the USA a few years ago. "Little Bird"
and "Eins is One" are her first children book
translations.
Here are some words from Inga: "Since I'm from Germany and my whole family still lives in Germany and Rob, my husband is from the US (and doesn't talk German at all) we decided to raise our girls bilingual which is a very exciting adventure. It is amazing to see how our 2 year old easily switches back and forth between English and German depending on to whom she is talking! It is so much easier to learn a different language when you are young!!!!!" |
 Rosana Abrutzky |
Rosana Abrutzky does our Spanish editing. She is a sociologist. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband and two little treasures. She is a huge fan of baby-wearing, loves languages, cooking and baking... Rosana is raising her children as Spanish speakers, and she is teaching them Italian as their second language. They also use words and sentences in English and Basque in their daily life. |
 Kena Sosa |
Kena Sosa, our Japanese translator, lives with her husband and son near Dallas, Texas. They are expecting their second bundle of joy in March 2010. She grew up in San Antonio, Texas where learning Spanish was like learning to love enchiladas. It just comes naturally to you. Later she began her studies at Our Lady of the Lake University in Japanese, and was lucky enough to live in Kumamoto, Japan for a year. She finished with her BA in English and a minor in the Japanese language. She went on to compete and win the Texas State Japanese Language Speech Contest three years in a row. She continues to take part in sharing and learning about the Japanese culture through performances with Dallas Kiyari Daiko, a traditional Japanese drumming group. |
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Kena is an avid traveler, having lived in Japan and Mexico, her
spirit constantly wandering to new places and adventures. She loves
the challenge that traveling with little ones can be, and thinks
that these experiences will be enriching for her son. Here are some words from Kena: My husband and I wanted my son to be bilingual so that he could really understand, appreciate, and come to love his two cultures. Without knowing the language, we can only know what we see in a culture, but not its intricacies and depths. I speak English with my son and my husband speaks to him in Spanish so that he will have a visual cue when learning these languages. I hope to introduce Japanese to him when he’s begun speaking more. Now he says different words in each language. It is fascinating to see which words he chooses to use now, while he’s still so young. I can’t wait to watch him learn more and see the opportunities that being bilingual will bring him. |
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