Piano with Sara H.

Hi! I'm Sara, a Cambridge CELTA-certified ESL / EFL teacher and accent coach! I am a Cambridge CELTA Pass A-certified English teacher with over 7 years' experience teaching English in Budapest, Hungary and online. Before coming to Hungary, I was a vocal coach, music teacher, and performer in the San Francisco Bay Area for 15 years. I also hold an MA from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a TEFL certificate from University of Toronto, with specializations in English for Young Learners and Business English. Though I love California, these days I have made Hungary my home! I live in Budapest with my two beautiful, bilingual children. I began my teaching career while I was still in university as a Modified Supplemental Instruction teacher, assisting learners with special needs in the university Music Department. I went on to teach music both in the classroom and privately (piano, voice, choir, orchestra, oboe, English horn) up through 2015 in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2015, I decided it was time to travel and see the world! I ended up settling down in Budapest, Hungary. I became enamoured with the Hungarian language, people, architecture, history, and culture––especially the widespread appreciation of the arts here. I hit the ground running, and built up a private English instruction studio. My skills as a voice coach and choral director transferred beautifully into teaching English. I decided to make English teaching a career and earned a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. In 2020, I obtained the Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) with an overall grade of Pass A––the highest possible mark, which Cambridge awards to the top 5% of teachers in the program. I took some time off in late 2020 to stay home with my second child. He is now two years old; his older sister, 4, will start kindergarten in the Fall of 2022. Since I took the CELTA while I was on maternity leave, I had my baby with me in my lap at all lectures, to the awe and delight of instructors and fellow students. At the end of the program, he was even issued an "honorary CELTA certificate for babies" for being such a quiet and attentive student, a distinction that I think he alone has earned! My students have described me as fun, patient, clear, knowledgeable, and helpful. I hope that we will be a good fit together as student and teacher and that you feel the same way!