All About Ciao Languages
Live Foreign Language Lessons
Ciao Languages is based in Orange County, California and offers live foreign language lessons held by native speakers of the language. We carefully vet all of teachers to enusre that our students have access to foreign language tutors with experience and training in online language teaching. Our staff of native speakers are able to offer live Zoom lessons in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and any other language you care to learn.
Our Mission
At Ciao Languages we provide high-quality foreign language instruction to individuals of all ages. We are dedicated to offering a complete service which includes assessment, access to digital and non-digital content, live online lessons with native speaking language coaches and motivating feedback aimed to encourage and guide students in their progression to the level of fluent speaker. We offer a wide variety of levels and schedules to meet the needs of busy individuals who would like to improve their language skills in their free time.
Our Method
The Ciao Languages approach is a system of best practices, techniques and attitudes that the owner and Ciao Languages Founder and CEO Sean Cook has molded into a unique and effective teaching method. His experiences as a learner of Italian and French, as the owner of a language school and as a teacher trainer have informed his method, which is based on empathy, encouragement and student engagement.
By designing lessons with the specific needs of online Zoom lessons in mind, Ciao Languages makes the virtual lesson a live human experience.
The lesson slide decks that are used by the teacher contain explanations, as well as exercises and speaking practice activities that enable the student to immediately put new language into use.
At Ciao Languages teachers are trained to strike a balance between the need for the student to be accurate and to become fluent in the language they are learning.
We also firmly believe in making students feel as comfortable as possible during our lessons so that they can feel free to experiment with the language they are learning and to engage in authentic communication with their foreign language tutor.
The Ciao Languages approach works with all languages!
Principles of the Ciao Languages Approach
- Encourage all attempts at learning
- Foster authentic communication
- Give bits of theory, do LOTS of practice
- Humanize the virtual
Sean Cook – CEO
Sean Cook was born and raised in Oregon and attended UC Santa Cruz, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy. He has worked as an English teacher since 1994, but also owned and managed a foreign language school in Italy for 18 years. He speaks Italian and French, but would also like to learn Mandarin. He is one of the founders of Ciao Languages.
Alan Tai – CTO
Accomplished Telecommunication Architect with extensive hands-on experience in security, designing, developing, and implementing innovative DevOps solutions across multiple functional areas and diverse business domains. Alan Tai is also the founder of Renaissance Academy Online Learning, a non-profit organization that aims to improve English skills in remote economically disadvantage regions of the world.