San Mateo Language Lessons

This was my son's first lesson, and he is looking forward to playing his trumpet and coming back for more lessons. I was hoping to spark his interest in music and so far so good.

After a break of more than a year I wanted to restart my Trumpet lessons. I chose Jesse based on the reviews and Jesse did not disappoint. He is very patient and focused teacher. I liked his structured method and tools he uses. I was able to get back in groove in no time.

Highly recommended.

I took away a whole array of new strategies and techniques to help preserve my voice and to increase my range. What a surprise- I had no idea I could sing so high!! Kathleen is a wonderful teacher and a really super lady. I'll be back for more lessons in the fall.

My daughter is really enjoying her voice lessons. Kathleen is a talented, caring teacher and knows how to make the process effective and fun for my daughter. My daughter loves being able to choose the songs she wants to learn, and this collaborative process keeps her quite interested and inspired.

Excellent Voice Teacher

Mrs. B is a wonderful and dedicated teacher who focuses diligently during class sessions. She thoroughly explains terms and technique and is friendly and sociable. Her extensive knowledge of languages comes extremely useful in Italian arias and other folk songs as to explain the meanings of words and to convey motion. Her classes are enjoyable and fun, while still being comprehensively academic.

In the past two years, Laurel has helped me develop my reading and writing skills significantly as well as build graduate level vocabularies. She is very patient and sensitive to my needs, and she always makes our lessons fun! If you need help with the MCAT, GRE, LSAT, or any other graduate school entrance exams, I am sure Laurel will help you nail them and achieve your dreams!

Laurel was a great instructor for my parents who are studying ESL. They both enjoyed the conversation and learned a lot.

I took a series of online creative writing lessons with Mrs. Taylor. She is one of the kindest and most intelligent persons I have worked with. She helped me find my writing style and patiently and carefully taught me about every aspect of creative writing. She told me not only about grammar and story structure, but also motivated and encouraged me to write a short story. From my first lesson with her, I knew that she is a gifted teacher, as she is knowledgeable and informed. Before taking lessons with her, I was writing in my journal, but now I have written my first piece. She provided meaningful and relevant ideas to help me find the flow of my story. Because of the excellent and exceptional way that she teaches, I have decided to continue with my creative writing.

We had a great first lesson. Very relaxed and unassuming. Looking forward to upcoming lessons.

Terrific with our small kids. Extremely patient and easy to laugh

My boys took to him right away! He has a fantastic balance of high expectations/standards mixed with positive reinforcement. He also differentiated expertly with the 2 boys' ages/capacities. We look forward to continuing our lessons with him!

5 stars' teacher

We just had our first lesson and we hit a few bumps but my daughter has never had music instruction before so we're giving it another go next week to see if things go more smoothly. 3 stars above says meets expectations, and though it didn't, I just hesitate to give someone 2 stars based on one lesson.
Here are some details from class:
My daughter (K) just turned 5 but is pretty mature for her age and has expressed an interest in learning the piano so we signed up for individual lessons with Lella. At the start of class I mentioned again (I had noted it at booking time as well) that K has had zero experience with music instruction. Immediately Lella sat with K on the piano bench and started explaining treble clef sign, bass clef sign and what hands they relate to. Lella also has a thick accent as I was trying to follow along with her explanations with a little difficulty. She even asked if K speaks Chinese and I said "no" so she said "you're Indian right?" My daughter would look around from time to time while Lella was explaining at which point Lella would just keep seeing "Pay attention sweetie!" Then she asked my daughter to write the numbers 1-5 in a book and when she said she didn't know how to write the number 2, Lella laughed and said "you know, but you forgot right" so I spoke up and explained "no she has not been taught to write her numbers yet, but she can read/recognize them" to which Lella seemed very surprised, so I felt the need to say, "she's still in preschool. But if you write them she'll be able to tell you what they are." So then Lella switched to counts, explaining about the values of different notes. She asked my daughter if she had questions, to which my daughter said "I think I understand what you're saying, if it's just a circle that means four, but if it's a circle with a line..." And before she could finish her thought Lella said "no that's not a line, it's a stem". At another point when Lella asked if she had any questions, my daughter slowly said "yes... what's velour?" And when Lella looked confused I had to step in and explain that Lella was saying "value", the amount of counts for a note. By the end of the half hour lesson, Lella had reached her explanation of middle C, which she described to my daughter saying "this is middle C because it's in the middle, there are two black keys, then on the left is C. Can you find another one?" When K didn't respond right away, she repeated herself, and again another time. So I said "she really has had no previous music experience, I think you need to even explain to her that those are called keys, like there are black keys, white keys..." And Lella just looked at me confused.
At the end of the lesson I agreed to buy the theory book so we can practice that at home, and Lella asked if I can sit in on the next lesson to help explain things to my daughter, because she "doesn't really focus". I agreed to sit in on the lesson, for my own benefit so I can help her with HW since I also don't have music experience. But I also mentioned to Lella that her accent is quite strong and I think my daughter was having trouble understanding her, and Lella seemed surprised by that comment.
I don't know... it says on Lella's profile that she has worked with young kids but I can't really see how the class was any different from how she would teach me, an adult with no prior music experience.
Oh! I forgot to mention something so basic - when we met Lella she thought I was someone else so I re-introduced myself and introduced my daughter. Then as we were saying goodbye at the end of class I realized Lella had never introduced herself to my daughter, so I asked "oh, what would you like K to call you, Ms. Li, or Lella? Ms. Lella?" She said Lella was fine so I turned to K and said "Tell Lella bye K." It just hit me, I mean that's something about creating a relationship with a young student. Speaking to them directly, making that connection. Lella was really smiley which gave the impression she was friendly but she never really made a connection with K who is the student, not me.

Lella quickly recognized what I needed to practice and brought me a great book that helped me get back to where I was very quickly.

I really enjoyed taking Hindi lessons from Tarun. She is very nice and patient. She helped me learn vocabulary, reading, pronunciation and more. It is cool that she uses several techniques from kids books to games. As an adult, I really enjoyed these fun ways of learning. My Hindi has definitely improved from only a few lessons. I definitely recommend if you want to learn Hindi to take lessons from Tarun.

I was impressed that on the very first day Balaram had picked up quite a few words and was able to read and write a bit.

Специалистом мы очень довольны. Виктория интересно преподносит материал, наша дочка с удовольствием занимается. Репетитор пунктуальная и ответственная, к дочери относится доброжелательно. Дочь изучает английский язык для увеличения своих языковых навыков и каждый раз рассказывает эмоционально о занятиях, ей очень нравится заниматься с репетитором. Педагог проявила себя с лучшей стороны, у меня к ней нет нареканий, она подходит нам и личностными, и профессиональными качествами.

Translation via Google: We are very satisfied with the specialist. Victoria is interesting in presenting the material, our daughter is pleased to do. The tutor is punctual and responsible, she treats her daughter kindly. The daughter learns English to increase her language skills and every time she tells emotionally about classes, she likes to do with the tutor. The teacher showed herself on the best side, I have no complaints against her, she is suitable for us both personal and professional qualities.

Victoria is very professional. She provided excellent materials. Also, she has an excellent command of English and was able to discern nuance and detail. I highly recommend her for any level.

I really enjoy my lessons with Victoria. She is a great tutor. She knows your needs, and you will learn quickly! I look forward to our next class with Victoria.