I was born in Boston but grew up in Rhode Island and have a fairly neutral American accent (meaning no identifiable accent). I studied French for 4 yrs, Latin for 2 yrs, and Spanish for 1 yr in high school and fell in love with language-learning. Then for some reason (time?), I switched to only Spanish and Mandarin in college. Since then, I've tried to juggle keeping them all from becoming too rusty - but my hope is that italki will enable me to do so with more confidence while also making friends around the world. I also travel often (with my family and with school groups), and find italki to be an invaluable resource for instilling confidence and honing communicative skills and pronunciation.