Alex and LinguaVox Studio: An Inroduction

Hey! If you’re here, that’s probably because you have some interest in acting, language, dialects, or some combination of the above. Good news: me too!

You know how some people always knew what they wanted to do with their lives? Well, I wasn’t exactly that person. I changed my mind dozens of times as a kid, and maybe even more as a young adult. Or at least, that’s what I thought. Looking back on it now, the paths I’ve chosen seem pretty much inevitable. LinguaVox Studio may have been inevitable. Please enjoy a (not-so-brief) history of me:

Performing

As a child, my dad must have paused every movie a hundred times. Movies were a big part of our family time, which some people think is a bad thing. But, the way we did it was amazing. Dad would pause the movie to ask questions, to quiz us almost, and to let us ask questions. We learned about things we wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to by talking together as a family. At seven years old, I started dance and piano classes, then band a year later, and did my first school play at 11. It was “The Big Bad Musical” and I played a spoiled, bratty Little Red Riding Hood at the trial of the Big Bad Wolf. I did as many plays as I could in my tiny hometown, joined choir, and by the time I graduated high school, I was doing about 11 hours of dance classes (including teaching) every week after school.

Language

When my parents went back to University in their early thirties, I was still really young. It was great because I got to learn from their classmates and friends in philosophy, physical geography, economics, and political science. During that time, my mom took some Spanish and my dad did a few Latin courses, giving me my first taste of studying language. When I was a few years old, I fell in love with Hermione Granger and learned to talk like Emma Watson. When I was around 9 or 10, I found the bonus features on the National Treasure and fell in love with Hieroglyphs, so my parents bought me a university textbook about Middle Egyptian. As a teen, I realized that it would really cool to play my favorite video game series, Final Fantasy, in the original Japanese, and started teaching myself. The first thing I learned to say was 私の猫はりんごを食べません, which translates to “My cat doesn’t eat apples.”, a very useful expression as we all know 😝.

Adulthood

Now, let’s skip ahead. Coming out of high school, I wanted to go to film school and be an actor, but I was maybe too “smart” for my own good. I decided that acting was an unreasonable career choice. It’s not a steady career for most people and there’s a lot of rejection involved. So, instead I went to school for biochemistry, which made sense at the time. After only one semester, I knew that was the wrong choice, though, and I switched to Linguistics, and took some Japanese classes. I did that for a year before going to Film School for acting. Then, I went back and finished my degree in Linguistics, with a minor in Psychology, and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language.

During that time, I did some acting, of course. I did a few indies and a ton of student films, along with one or two plays and a student video game. I even managed to get an agent with a lesser known agency. I started studying Spanish for real and scratched the surface of German, Russian, Mandarin, and American Sign Language to name a few. I also worked on set as a production assistant. That was cool. After graduating, though, I mostly gave up acting. I’ve been teaching English and more recently coaching the Standard American Accent ever since my last year of school.

LinguaVox Studio

Which brings us here...

Have you ever sat in a class and thought, "This sucks!"? Well, me too, and moreover, I've been teaching a class and thought it too. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve loved most of my teaching jobs and I feel incredibly lucky to have had all the different experiences I’ve had. But, a lot of the time, I didn’t feel like I had the freedom to work with students the way they needed or wanted.

In 2022, I said, I want to open my own language and accent school online. I'd gain the flexibility needed for English teaching and return to the world of acting with accent/dialect coaching. At my school, everyone would feel like what they’re learning and practicing is real. All clients would feel like they're getting what they need and that they can make real progress toward their unique goals.

In 2024, I picked the name and colors. “LinguaVox Studio” would be a place for freedom and creativity in language and accent. “lingua” for language and “vox” for voice, with the “studio” to show that we’re not just going to sit in a boring classroom. We’ll have fun and be creative. Oh, and I really like purple.

So, with all that said - now that you know way too much about me - welcome. I hope you'll choose to take your language or accent journey with me and join me on mine.