Johanna is a native of Detroit, Michigan.  She began her studies in the Honors Program at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.  After graduation, she decided to continue her pursuit of a liberal arts education earning an M.A. in Political Science from University of Toronto, as well as an M.A. and M.Phil. in Philosophy from Fordham University.  Currently, Johanna is working on her dissertation entitled: A Humanistic Approach to Bystander Responsibility in Cases of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity.  She is deeply dedicated to learning about, and educating others on the importance of respecting human rights.

Johanna loves to travel abroad with her husband Roald~ learning about other cultures and traditions together. In her free moments she likes to read, cook, and enjoys listening to jazz, opera, Italian, Albanian and classical music.  Johanna has a dog Viola, named for a character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  She lives with Roald in Cayuga Heights.

In a world of color-coded and cross referenced box files that are organized in alphabetical order is a person who live in chaos, constantly misplacing her cell phone and room keys, which unfortunately just cannot be placed into a folder.

Born and raised in Amman, Jordan, Zein attended a small international school, which in combination with Jordan’s proximity to Africa, Europe and its central location in the Middle East has ignited a passion to travel, see the world and immerse in different cultures.

After graduating school she attended the University of British Columbia in Canada for a year prior to transferring to Cornell University in the fall of 2009. She is now majoring in Policy Analysis and Management in the College of Human Ecology.

With interests ranging from cooking, music, reading and playing tennis, what she enjoys most is any activity that involves good company. Zein is excited to be part of the Language House at Alice Cook house, and is looking forward to being the Arabic Native Speaker this year.

Although I was born in a small country in Central America, I have been blessed with abundant opportunities to study in schools and universities around the world, including two years in a boarding school in Lake Placid NY, one year of High School in Germany, two years of college in Ohio, a summer in Beijing, one year at Cornell and the rest of my life has been spent in Guatemala, the “land of forests”.

I began studying Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University, until my eagerness to see new places prompted me to transfer to Cornell, where I discovered the “gorgeous” landscapes of Ithaca and an academic and creative enthusiasm that prevailed in most of the students and professors I met. While in college, I have also allocated much of my time to the campus church, sports, student government, architecture and design clubs, singing clubs and the Hispanic and German communities.

This summer I spent in Guatemala City, working with a small landscape architecture firm, taking an architecture course and working on my thesis. I am extremely excited to become integrated with the student community of Alice Cook House and especially with students who are eager to learn Spanish and more about the Hispanic Culture. One proverb by which I have always lived is: Life is short, eat dessert first!

¡Nos vemos pronto!

Marion was born in Paris and lived in France until she was 12. In 2003, she moved to Scarsdale, NY and went to the French-American School. She then completed her high school at Edgemont High School. She always loves to travel and is so happy to have been able to be exposed to two different cultures when she was younger.

She is a sophomore in Human Ecology and a Biology and Society major. Marion is thinking about a career in international public health. At Cornell, she is a Kappa Delta sister and a member of P4HH and the Cornell Student Society for Public Health. She ran track and field in High School and loves to move around! She has serious coordination challenges but loves sports nonetheless.

Marion also love to cook and bake, learning from her mother, an incredible French cook. She is excited to be living in the Language House next year and share all that she knows and loves about France.

Mika is not the typical Language House Native Speaker; she wasn’t born in Japan nor has she lived there formally. Mika was born and raised in Buffalo, NY to an American father and Japanese mother.

Thanks to her mother and the support of her father, she was raised with many Japanese influences. In fact, despite living in the US, Mika couldn’t really speak English until she started to attend kindergarten (after which her English greatly improved). Mika may never have lived in Japan, but every year she has spent two months during the summer in Japan, visiting relatives, attending school there, and traveling. She has dual American/Japanese citizenship.

In her spare time, Mika likes to paint/draw, ice skate, read, cook and watch Japanese “dorama”/drama and foreign films (especially Bollywood!). She also loves learning about different cultures. At Cornell she is active in the Japan US Student Association (“JUSA”) as the secretary.

Mika looks forward to living at the Language House and the wonderful opportunity of being Japanese Native Speaker.

Hui Liu is from a place with an old name of dragon city in the northeast of China. She grew up there along the river until she went to Tianjin University. She received a bachelor’s degree in Optoelectronics when she was 18 years old. Hui Liu enjoyed life in Tianjin both for the delicious food and friendly people. After four years of study there, she went abroad to see another world and explore a new life independently here at Cornell.

Hui Liu is a big fan of skating, both roller and ice. Another time-killing habit is to sing freely and make noise by trying some singing techniques. She is also really interested in animals so Ithaca is a good place for her although she is more interested in large animals such as tigers. She is working on her PhD in Applied and Engineering Physics. She hopes to travel around the states during her time here and record all of the beautiful moments. She is looking forward to her new family at Alice Cook House with many new friends and hopes for a most exciting year!

Yomna Chami is a Lecturer in Arabic Language and Linguistics in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University. She earned a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the Lebanese University Zahle- Lebanon (2004), and Master of Arts in Teaching Literature Degree and New York State Secondary Teaching Certificate in English from Bard College, New York (2009).

Before joining Cornell faculty, Yomna was a Foreign Language Teaching Assistant and Arabic instructor at Bard College (2006-2008). Before coming to the United States, She taught English to secondary students and adults at America for Middle East and North Asia American Center (Amideast) Beirut-Lebanon. She taught English to sight-impaired students at the Lebanese Center for Training and Studies, Baalbeck-Lebanon. Yomna participated in teaching training workshops conducted by Amideast and British Center for teaching English (British Council) Beirut –Lebanon.

Yomna is a Lebanese young woman. She is the only member of her family in the United States. Her mother lives in Lebanon and her brother lives in London.Her favorite hobbies are reading, swimming and traveling. She also likes dancing and considers it a therapy.

Cecelia Lawless, Senior Lecturer, has her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from Cornell University. The title of her dissertation is "Homeward Bound: A Study of Home in Hispanic and American Gothic Novels".

Cecelia also has a background in comparative literature and architecture and an interest in film. As a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies, she teaches both language and literature courses. She has published Making Home in Havana, Rutgers Press, 2002, and various articles on film and architectural concepts in literature.

Recently, she received a Fulbright award to go to Merida, Venezuela, where she conducted research on cinema and the cityscape.

Grit Matthias was born and raised in Jena, Germany. She studied in Heidelberg, Dresden and Jena, where she received her M.A. (Magistra Artium) in German as a Foreign Language with minors in American and Romance Studies. Her research and teaching interests include Internet-based language learning, the use of digital materials in language instruction, foreign language acquisition and teaching, intercultural communication, and German short lms. She has incorporated Podcast workshops in her teaching, where language learners produced their own Podcasts in German. She has presented her experience of working with Podcasts in Foreign Language Education at various conferences.

Robert Sukle is the Director of the Japanese FALCON Program at Cornell. He also teaches in the regular Japanese program, primarily Japanese 101-102. Robert was born and grew up in Colorado. He has a BA from the University of Colorado in Boulder. After college he spent two terms in the Peace Corps, one in Malaysia and one in Thailand. During this time he became enamored of Asian languages and, after a stay in Japan, decided to specialize in Japanese linguistics. He did his MA and PhD work at Cornell and then began teaching in the Japanese program at Cornell, where he became a Senior Lecturer in 1978. In 1988 he was appointed as Director of the Japanese FALCON Program and in 1989 he was appointed as Director of the Japanese Teacher Training Workshop, a four-week summer intensive program for training Japanese language teachers. His interests are Japanese grammar and sociolinguistics as well as language pedagogy. Most of his time and effort is spent on his students, but he also enjoys gardening, music and antique-collecting.

Professor Teng earned her B.A. from Department of History, Peking University, P R China and M.A. from Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University. She worked as an editor at Department of Literature and History in Beijing Publishing House, and as a journalist and an editor for the magazine University Students in Beijing Publishing House. She currently teaches Chinese 201-202 (intermediate level), and Chinese 411-412 (Advanced reading course, which focuses on Chinese fiction reading). She is also one of the instructors who teach Chinese FALCON. (Full-year Asian Language CONcentration).

Colette Waldron, Senior Lecturer in French, was born in Franche-Comté in Eastern France, adjacent to the Bourgogne area. Her academic background includes a degree in History from the University of Besançon, and she later majored in Applied Linguistics (Linguistique Appliquée) at the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Besançon.

Colette has been teaching French at all levels, and has focused her work on French language. She developed and is currently teaching an advanced level language course, French 3050: "Advanced French through Film." She also completely redesigned French 3130: "Advanced French through News" which is offered every spring semester. An active member of the French Studies and Cornell Abroad Programs, she has been nominated twice for the Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching at Cornell.

Having always wanted to be a teacher, Colette continues to be highly interested in pedagogy and enjoys developing new material to teach French language through different medium. Using French films, newspapers, and television newscasts to analyze topics of interests to students, she teaches about French society - its current issues as well as its history and literature - and how it all can relate to other countries.