Velina Zabtcheva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to New Jersey at the age of 12 with no knowledge of the English language. She was placed in an ESL (English as a Second Language) program in her middle school, and through its full-immersion approach, she became proficient in English in about six months. Velina also took French courses during middle school and throughout high school. Now at Bennington College in Vermont, she is focusing on psychology and cultural studies—and continuing her study of French.
In January 2011, Velina won the Rosetta Stone Communicate and Connect Scholarship (http://bit.ly/h7DEbH), out of a field of more than 700 entrants, for her essay on cultural identity and becoming bicultural. She also decided to use Bennington’s 2011 “Field Work Term” as an opportunity to live and work in Grenoble, France, for the seven-week winter session. What better opportunity to polish her French and become acquainted with the culture of France? Determined to become trilingual, she’s using Rosetta Stone Version 4 TOTALe French (http://bit.ly/e2ru1V) to practice her French conversation skills and continue her language journey.
Every summer since immigrating to the United States, I’ve spent the month of August in Bulgaria, visiting family and traveling the country. This year, I also had the chance…
My history of studying French is long. In first grade, I attended a school that offered a specialized program for intensive French. I transferred schools in second grade, and…
