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About LA Language World

LA Language World (LALA) is an online magazine that looks at one city's linguistic diversity case by case. Consistent with the mission of its publisher, the UCLA Center for World Languages, the magazine fosters understanding of linguistic communities and of the multiple paths of language knowledge.

Student interns provide the energy and much of the content for the site. They work with editors and a webmaster at the Center for World Languages and its parent, the UCLA International Institute.

LALA Staff

Susan Bauckus, Senior Editor
UCLA Center for World Languages

Susan works at CWL and is the managing editor of the Heritage Language Journal. She grew up on St. Croix, U.S.V.I., studied English and Russian in college, and spent years doing office work before pursuing graduate work in Slavic at UCLA. She teaches Russian during the summer session at Santa Monica College.

Scott Gruber, Web Designer
UCLA International Institute

Born in Phoenix, Scott counts it his good fortune to have been to Europe, China, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, Tahiti, and around the U.S. He studied Mandarin Chinese and Japanese in college and French in high school. On his polyglot iPod: Los Angeles Negros, Manu Chao, Serge Gainsbourg, Faye Wong, Dengue Fever, Karsh Kale, Tran Thai Hoa, and others.

Kevin Matthews, Editorial Director
UCLA International Institute

Kevin grew up monolingual in Garland, Texas. Before grad school, he taught English in Valencia, Spain, and filled out Medicaid applications for newborns in Austin, Texas. He and his wife, a Spaniard who dreams and counts in Catalan, are struggling to teach their daughter Spanish.

Analee Pepper, Reporter
UCLA '09

Analee is a fourth-year International Development Studies major with a concentration in Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. While living in France and Senegal she experienced a plethora of overlapping languages, shaping her interest in language diversity here in Los Angeles.

LALA Alumni

Michelle Campagna, Reporter
UCLA '07

Michelle is an English major with an emphasis in World Literature (and a healthy dose of Creative Writing). Through her travels and studies, including a year spent living in Spain, she has fostered a love for language: she knows Spanish, Italian, and some German. Michelle hopes to write travel stories abroad, and then pursue graduate school.

April Girouard, Departments Editor
UCLA '07

April grew up in Antwerp, Belgium, and San Clemente, Calif. Though English is her first language, she learned French and Dutch at a relatively young age. She likes to speak French when studying literature and Dutch when telling secrets. An English and Francophone Studies major, April hopes to work abroad before continuing on to grad school.

Andrea Harris, Reporter
UCLA '07

Andrea is an English Major with a concentration in World Literature and a Spanish Minor at UCLA. Growing up in a monolingual home has taught her a strange love for grammar. She plans to get her teaching credential and inspire high schoolers to enjoy literature as much as she does.

Margarita Hirapetian, Reporter
UCLA '07

Margarita is a fourth-year English major who dreams of becoming a magazine editor someday. She speaks Armenian and Russian, but always resorts to English when the going gets tough. Currently, she can be found scouring the L.A. landscape for inspiring stories and interesting characters.

Janice Kim, Reporter
UCLA '07

Janice grew up bilingual in LA up until preschool years when her love for English rendered any trace of Korean obsolete. After studying Spanish, her growing passion for language led her to the Linguistics major before realizing it is very much a mathematical discipline. Nonetheless, she strives to forego all logic and theory in the spirit of journalism.

Thi Nguyen, Reporter
UCLA '08

Thi is a Mass Communications Studies major and a Spanish and Global Studies minor at UCLA. Although she was born in the U.S., the first language she learned was Vietnamese. In the fall, she will be studying abroad in Spain to sharpen her Spanish skills. Thi enjoys listening to hip hop music as well as watching Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Stephanie Tavitian, Reporter
UCLA '08

Stephanie is an International Development Studies major and Spanish and Linguistics minor at UCLA. She has had experience in or out of classrooms with Armenian, Arabic, and Japanese, and is fluent in Spanish. She was born and raised in Los Angeles by her Arab-Armenian father and Salvadoran mother.

Date Posted: 2/1/2007