Marianna Lanzo
Board Member, Russian Cultural and Educational Center "Erudite"
Academic Coordinator · Philologist · Teacher of Russian and Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL)
Marianna Valeryevna Lanzo is a member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Cultural and Educational Center "Erudite," where she serves as Academic Coordinator. She is a philologist and teacher of Russian language and Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL) across multiple age groups.
She graduated with honors from Orenburg Pedagogical University in 2000, majoring in Philology (English and German languages). In 2005, she completed a specialized training program in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language at Saint Petersburg State University.
With 15 years of teaching experience in both Russia and the United States, she has worked at language schools including the Berlitz Learning Center and the Lado International Institute, as well as with The Washington Post's publishing division and the Russian Saturday school "Olympus."
"My teaching practice is guided by a core principle: every child is talented and gifted. The task of an educator is to find the right key to each child — to recognize their way of thinking — and to build the learning process on that foundation.
Teaching bilingual children is a distinct field. Despite decades of in-depth research by leading experts in pedagogy, neuropsychology, and speech therapy, bilingualism remains, in many respects, uncharted territory. That's why I consider the principle 'First, do no harm' especially important when developing teaching methods and building the right approach to communicating with bilingual learners.
The challenges of raising children in multilingual families are among the most important themes in my life — both as a professional and as a mother of two sons. My bilingual twins, growing up in a two-language household, present me daily with language questions to solve. Drawing on my personal experience as both a parent and a teacher, I can say with confidence that only a unified 'school–home' strategy can achieve the desired result."