Rowan O'Neal

I graduated in 2015 from the University of St Andrews in Scotland with a masters in International Relations. I also studied French and Russian while at university. In 2015 I received my CELTA certification for teaching English as a Second Language. I taught English at the UCSC extension in Santa Clara until 2019. My classes focused on essay grammar, essay writing, rhetoric, and public speaking.

I also have played the violin since the age of four, I compose music, I fence, and I dance tango. These hobbies have taught me not only universal techniques for learning skills, but the power and value of deliberate practice when learning anything new.

Aside form my qualifications and experience as an English teacher and tutor, I am also a published writer. Short stores and essays of mine have been published in Catamaran Literary Reader and the Chicago Quarterly Review. This, combined with my experience in high school with Lincoln Douglas Debate and at university with Parliamentary Debate, gives me a strong foundation in the use of rhetoric. I enjoy using language to express myself and to make compelling arguments, and it gives me pleasure to teach others to do the same.

J’ai étudié le français au lycée et à l’université, j’ai suivi un cours d’immersion, et j’ai participé dans une programme d’échange. Depuis j’ai reçu mon diplôme, j’ai continué à m’entraîner en français par la conversation et en lisant. Mes écrivains français les plus préférés sont Voltaire, Alexandre Dumas, et Chrétien de Troyes.

I studied French at high school and university, I took an immersion course, and I participated in an exchange programme. Since I graduated, I have continued to practice French through conversation and reading.