Facts About PLA
Polyglottist Language Academy is based in Berkeley, California, and has been offering language classes to Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, San Francisco, and the rest of the Bay Area for many years, but since the pandemic, most of our classes have been moved online. Consequently, our classes are now open to everyone, everywhere!
When PLA began in 2014, we only offered French and Russian. In a few years time, we expanded to more European languages, such as Italian and Spanish. Today, Polyglottist Language Academy offers 15 languages: Spanish, French, Korean, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, German, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Japanese, English (ESL), Russian, Tagalog, Arabic, Thai, and Dutch.
The word Polyglottist is a synonym of “polyglot” which describes someone who speaks multiple languages. The origins of this word are Greek: polyglōttos, from poly-(many) + glōtta (language). In accordance with our name, our school emphasizes the learning of multiple languages
Our Mission
Since the beginning, our goal has been to promote language learning, especially in our increasingly globalized and interconnected world, where knowing a second language opens up countless new paths and opportunities. The San Francisco Bay Area offers few options for language learning, especially in the variety of languages that PLA currently teaches
Our Approach to Language Learning
The world of language learning is being revolutionized by the growth and expansion of technology. Yet, the key principles to learning a language remain the same. Time, practice, passion, inspiring teachers and dedicated classmates remain essential to the complicated process of acquiring a new language to this day. Polyglottist Language Academy seeks to bridge the growing gap between traditional and modern language learning methods by offering a traditional language learning environment, where one of our passionate and knowledgeable instructors guides you through a foreign language. We embrace the modern here at PLA, offering a vast repertoire of online classes and using online resources and technology to bolster learning in our digital classroom.
Statistics about our Instructors
We currently have 25 instructors.
Three PLA instructors hold PhDs, while another three are PhD candidates, sixteen of our instructors hold MA degrees, and three hold BA degrees.
All of our instructors hold degrees in languages they teach, linguistics, literature, history or pedagogy.
The average teaching experience of PLA instructors is ten years.
Our instructors come from 17 countries (Belarus, Brazil, China, Colombia, Eritrea, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vietnam, and the US).
21 of our instructors are native speakers.
Eight PLA instructors are actively involved in academic research.
