Anneke Vanmarcke Forzani, President & Founder 

How do you inspire children to learn about other languages and cultures and to respect diversity early in their lives? How do you help children maintain their home languages and become bilingual? And how do you HAVE FUN doing it?

These are the questions that drove Anneke Forzani to establish Language Lizard, LLC.

Anneke has been a language enthusiast since birth. And it had nothing to do with the research documenting the many cognitive, academic and social benefits of early language learning. Rather, It was the result of chatting with her Belgian grandma while feeding the chickens; munching on sushi and edamame with her Japanese colleagues; and searching out the best chocolate croissants in Paris with her French amis.

When Anneke became a mother, she wanted her sons to experience the same joys and benefits of early language learning. She also felt it was her responsibility to teach them to respect, play and work with people of all cultures and communities.

…And the real experiment began!…And they had fun in the process!

How? In part, by reading entertaining stories in other languages that the kids wanted to hear over and over. By listening to great multilingual music. And by sharing (age-appropriate) books which include illustrations of various ethnicities and characters dealing with issues of diversity.

After researching available materials, Anneke decided to make the most creative, effective and fun language products readily available to other parents and teachers. Products that expose children not only to other languages, but also to other cultures and traditions. Products that can benefit bilingual families, world language teachers, and educators who work with English Language Learners.

… And so, in 2005, Anneke created Language Lizard.

Some more details about Anneke’s life prior to establishing Language Lizard…

A first generation American with Belgian parents, Anneke worked in Japan and the US in consulting, ethnic marketing and international business development positions. She has an undergraduate degree from Princeton University 's Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs and an MBA-MA in International Business from the Wharton School and the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania .

Anneke has studied children's writing and graphic arts and has experience teaching English to non-native speakers. She is a member of the National Network for Early Language Learning and the New Jersey Bilingual Educators / Teachers of English as a Second Language Association. She has written articles related to early language and culture learning and is a frequent contributor to Multilingual Living Magazine.

INTERVIEW WITH LANGUAGE LIZARD PRESIDENT & FOUNDER ANNEKE FORZANI Interview on Public Radio International's "The World in Words" podcast (co-produced by BBC, PRI and WGBH) can be heard at http://www.theworld.org/pod/language/WIWpodcast22.mp3. (Note: The interview starts about 5 minutes into the podcast after the Hispanic Heritage Month/Football story)

Terri Sherman, Customer Relations Manager

Terri Sherman has 15 years of marketing, operations and financial experience working for a large telecommunications company. While there she managed the company’s international relationships with customers in  Europe , Africa and Asia . She joined Language Lizard shortly after the birth of her first child, now 4. She now has a second child, age 2. She enjoys seeing their enthusiasm when exposing them to Spanish, a language she studied in school and learned while traveling to Spain .

Mason Hoeller, Customer Relations Manager

Mason has 18 years of sales and customer service experience in the manufacturing, retail and magazine industries. During college, she studied Italian and Art History in Rome , which inspired a lasting passion to explore foreign cultures. Mason enjoys an active life with her husband and two boys. At a very early age, they enjoyed books together as a family and established a bedtime reading routine. The boys have since developed into enthusiastic independent readers.

Maureen Barlow Pugh, Newsletter Editor

Maureen attributes her facility and love of languages to her German mother, and to her exposure to French as a baby while living in Belgium . Maureen took weekly German classes as a child and through most of high school, and then switched to French in her senior year and in college. She spent a semester in Paris during her junior year at Boston University . After graduating cum laude with a major in Political Science and a minor in French, Maureen worked as a sales representative for an educational sales company and then as an editor for a medical publisher. Maureen is currently at home with her two children. To maintain her language skills, she regularly attends continuing education courses in French and has taken classes in German and Spanish.

Elmon Frederick, NYC Sales Representative

Elmon grew up in Brooklyn and received a Masters degree in Elementary Education. After spending many years as an elementary school teacher in NYC, he began working in educational sales and sales management. He has specialized in ELLs and bilingual education and enjoys working with teachers to help them find the right materials for the English language learning community. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, and cheering on the NY sports teams.

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