About Julia Burnier, the Author

A Personal Message to Elementary Spanish Teachers Julia with llama 2 (800x600)

I created the Sing ‘n Speak Spanish® program for you, the teacher. I designed it to support your commitment to the education of young children whose world is rapidly expanding – a world with the linguistic presence of some 30 million native Spanish speakers in our society and another 500 million in the 20 or so countries in Latin America, our neighbors to the south.

I am a teacher, a wife, a mother, a chemist*, and a musician. I am also an American who, because of my father’s job, grew up in the rich, colorful, vivacious environment of Mexico City. This childhood filled me with the cadences, songs, and incomparable beauty of a language that is passionate when sung and poetic when spoken well.

For you, the teacher, I have created a complete Spanish program that reflects my own inspiration – to offer a richer world to children. It is a program that carries high educational goals but that is also playful. I offer you a program that makes us love what we do – that special feeling we get when we see a group of children wishing class wasn’t over, excited to share what they learned with their parents, singing the songs on their own, and learning so much. I offer you a program that is as easy and fun to teach with as it is to learn from.

Elementary school children are still discovering the world around them, and learning a foreign language is part of that discovery. When exposed to a foreign language early in life, your child develops a bilingual frame of mind – laying the foundation for advanced learning and bilingual speech and thus giving your child an edge later in the workplace. Children will never again learn Spanish as fast, as well, or as easily. Isn’t now the right time to begin – while children are at their linguistic best?

Julia Burnier, Director of Sing 'n Speak Spanish

* In 1983, I received a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Purdue University and worked as a research chemist for 14 years. In 1997, I departed from my technical career to create this new one that combined my passions for teaching, language, and music.