Our Activities
Ambarabà acknowledges the importance of keeping your culture and language alive and supports heritage language speakers with the maintenance of the Italian language and culture from early childhood. We run after school programs for children in primary schools in collaboration with SIAL charity (Scuola Italiana a Londra), and rely on a playful teaching approach to provide an interactive and fun way to improve your child's language skills. We also collaborate with Talia e la Valigia delle Idee for the provision of playgroups for babies and toddlers. We promote Italian community events and workshops and offer tailor-made courses for parents and/or partners of Italian speakers focusing on functional language use and cultural awareness. All courses are designed with small study groups to ensure students are provided with individual attention.
Our Values
We see language awareness and intercultural sensitivity as the milestones for an inclusive and egalitarian society.
We believe that multilingualism is a personally and culturally enriching skill and a highly valuable asset for the active participation of the individual in social development.
We aspire for our students to achieve a high level of language proficiency and cultural awareness in the Italian language and that they will use it throughout their lives.
Meet the Team
Ambarabà teachers are qualified, native speakers and they all hold a Masters Degree and/or a PhD in Linguistics. All staff members are DBS checked.
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CARMEN
Founder
Ciao! I am Carmen, originally from Tuscany (Italy). I founded Ambarabà in 2016, aiming to support the second-generation language maintenance of the Italian and Spanish-speaking communities in South London. Today, teaching to heritage-language learners is my passion and Ambarabà’s main goal.
During my academic studies in Educational Linguistics at Università per Stranieri di Siena, I had the chance to teach at the Italian Institutes of Culture and consular schools across the MENA region. When I started teaching to young learners, I immediately discovered my passion for primary education and second language acquisition. I hold a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Essex and I currently work as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Reading.
GIULIA
Italian & English
Language Teacher
Ciao everybody! This is Giulia and I am an Italian language tutor. I come from a small town close to Milan but I have southern blood in my veins. I moved to London in 2012 after graduating in Italian Language and Literature. Here I discovered my passion for education. I completed an MA in English Linguistics in 2014, and in 2020 I was awarded a PhD in Sociolinguistics by the University of Westminster. My doctoral research focused on the multilingual language practices of Italian migrants in London. Thus, I am an expert in Italian language and culture, and Italian as a community language.
After working as Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster for three years, in 2021 I joined Kingston Grammar School as an Italian Language Assistant. Since 2015, I have been providing language lessons to both adolescent and adult learners.
ELENA
Italian & English
Language Teacher
Ciao a tutti! My name is Elena and I come from a small village in the heart of Tuscany. I graduated in English Language and Literature at the University of Tuscia and I hold a Master's degree in TESOL from Birkbeck, University of London as well as a CELTA certificate.
In 2015, I started working as a nanny for bilingual children, taking care of them and their linguistic development in Italian and English. In 2017, I spent some time back in Italy to volunteer at a refugee centre where I had the opportunity to teach Italian to students from different language backgrounds. Through these experiences, I realised that teaching modern languages and spending time with children was what I enjoyed the most, and so here I am! Literature and music are my other passions, and so I tend to incorporate them into my teaching. Moreover, I value my students' interests and I always tailor my lessons based on their needs and interests.
Our Partners
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Italian language & culture courses
As part of SIAL.charity, our mission is to make the amazing riches of the Italian language and culture available to as many people as we can reach by deepening the knowledge of those who already have an interest and awakening the curiosity of those who are new to it.
Since September 2018 we have been offering Italian Language and culture courses organised with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in London. Our extracurricular Italian courses are aimed at all the children attending Primary and Secondary School years in London and the South of England and run in more than 40 venues, including Balham.
Italian through play
Talia e la Valigia delle Idee is a UK registered charity offering tailored activities for Italian and bilingual children living in London, supporting their parents to pass on their heritage, tradition and culture through play.
Our sessions are filled with fun and creativity; we use storytelling, music and drama for a full immersion into Italian. Our first Italian playgroup started in July 2017 in Greenwich and since then we have been running more than 1,000 sessions all over London. After a whole year of online sessions, we are ready to go back to in-person classes from September 2021 and you will find us in Balham among other areas.