Karin Bersier (School Director)
A trilingual instructor who teaches French, English and German, Karin Bersier has accumulated extensive teaching experience over the course of her professional career, and she tailors her teaching style to the individual needs of students. Her language courses are often developed collaboratively with the student or group of students which are coming from all over the world to Quebec City.
She uses an interactive, immersion-type approach in which the student starts using the language right from the first lesson. Finer points of grammar can be explained either in the student’s native language or the language they are learning.
Karin Bersier or other qualified teachers will come to your workplace in Quebec City to give classes.
Patrick Moisan (Cours de langue française)
Amoureux des langues, Patrick a étudié la littérature française et la traduction, domaine dans lequel il a travaillé pendant plus de 10 ans. Désireux de relever de nouveaux défis sans se réinventer complètement, Patrick a choisi de se tourner vers l’enseignement. Son expertise dans la transition d’une langue officielle à une autre l’a amené à se tourner vers l’enseignement de l’anglais comme langue seconde. Passionné par la culture sous toutes ses formes, Patrick cherche à allier langue et culture pour favoriser l’apprentissage par le biais de cours qui mettent à profit les différentes sphères de la culture, notamment la littérature et la musique. Étant lui-même en formation pour devenir enseignant au collégial, Patrick tente toujours de se mettre à la place de l’apprenant pour mieux comprendre les difficultés qu’il éprouve, répondre à ses besoins et déconstruire les idées préconçues qui pourraient nuire à l’apprentissage.
Longjie Yan (Mandarin and Japanese language courses)
Longjie, with his Chinese roots, is a polyglot teacher having over five years working experience in Japan and as well in other places around the world.
The Mandarin is her mother language, but she also speaks Japanese, English, and French fluently. Longjie studied Japanese at the University of Qufu in China for 4 years; after that, she has perfected her third language during her master’s degree in Health and Well-Being at the Yamaguchi Prefectural University in Japan. She worked at the JR Kyushu Hotel „Blossom Shinjuku“ in the city center of Tokyo where she has established herself by helping with translation and interpretation.
Her interest in languages was born during her first days in school in China, which she has never lost. She gradually learned other languages than her mother language: secondary English classes introduced her to a second language and she discovered this new cultural universe with great pleasure. Later on, the study of the Japanese language and the Japanese culture marked an important part of her adult life by giving her unique experiences that has enriched her life greatly. Longjie Yan has been taking so-called „francization courses“ since arriving in Quebec in 2018.
Luis Hildago (Spanish language courses)
Coming from a Mexican cultural background in Michigan, USA, Luis is a lifelong student of the Spanish language and Spanish-speaking cultures. Luis studied Spanish at the University of Michigan, and more recently pursued studies in Spanish language literature at Laval University. Luis taught Spanish for eight years at LPS Quebec, as well as at Academie du Savoir de Québec. He was also a member of the Toastmasters club Alegria Quebec for many years. His background shows that Luis has done much to promote the Spanish language in the Quebec City area.
Marc Lautenbacher (Photography Course)
A professional photographer for the past 35 years, and former owner of an ad agency in Germany for 20 years, Marc Lautenbacher has a wide-ranging expertise in photography. He has worked in many forms and subjects, including photojournalism, portrait, landscape, and fashion photography, and has taken his passion with him through many voyages. Past contracts have included photographing industrial products using electronic flash and studio lighting.
He was also co-owner of the international image bank PGI-IMAGES, with two international offices as one in London / England and another one in Munich / Germany and was in charge of selecting contributing photographers as well as the entire marketing activities.
Marc Lautenbacher is offering a Photography Course for beginners as well for advanced people. This interactive course will immerse you in artistic and experimental photography, both outdoors (“on location”) and in the studio. Participants will learn special tricks, such as the motion blur technique, the Rule of Thirds, and many other secrets of this magnificent art, to make extraordinary and striking photos!
Samuel Carrier (Russian language courses)
Samuel is originally from Saint-Étienne-de-Lauzon, on the south shore of Quebec City. He began learning German and Russian while studying philosophy at Laval University. His passion for these two languages led him to Moscow, where he studied Russian for two semesters, and then to Berlin, where he continued his studies and wrote a dissertation on the concept of resistance in the work of Anna Akhmatova. It was in the spring of 2019, in between his trips to Moscow and Berlin, that he began teaching classes at St. Olive Tree School. He particularly likes the diversity of this school and its location in one of the liveliest neighborhoods of Quebec City, near the St-Jean-Baptiste bookstore. Teaching is an opportunity for him to participate in this diversity and to share his passion for languages and literature. He offers French courses for all levels and Russian courses for beginners.
Jung (Korean language courses)
I am originally from South Korea and worked as an audio designer and musician for 10 years before moving to Quebec City in 2017. I spent my teenage years in Brazil where I learned Portuguese and discovered another completely different culture. I enriched my cultural background and since then, I am excited to share my Korean experience and culture and discover the different facets of another culture, including music and cuisine.
I would like to teach beginner’s Korean classes for those interested in discovering and immersing themselves in Korean culture.
École Saint-Olivier 