Are less-than-stellar language skills preventing you from reaching your professional or academic or personal goals? [Show summary]

Christina Ball, Fulbright scholar and founder of Speak! Language Center and B-Speak! brings her love of cultures and languages to this episode. She describes the approach her programs take to making language learning enjoyable and effective for those looking to improve their English or learn a new language. 

Language issues don't need to keep you from reaching your dreams [Show notes]

Welcome to the 446th episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted's podcast. Thanks for joining me today. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to share a free resource at Accepted that can benefit you if you are applying to graduate school. The challenge at the heart of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target schools and stand out in the applicant pool. Accepted's free download, Fitting In & Standing Out: The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions will show you how to do both. Master this paradox and you are well on your way to acceptance. Download your free guide at accepted.com/fiso. 

It gives me great pleasure to have on Admissions Straight Talk for the first time, Dr. Christina Ball. A Fulbright scholar, Dr. Ball earned her PhD in Italian language and Literature. In 2004, she founded Speak! Language Center to help people learn other languages. In 2012, she co-created B-Speak! English, a one-on-one coaching and educational service designed to help international graduate students, especially those applying to business school, and working professionals strengthen their speaking and writing skills in the English language. She's also a writer and actress. Let's hear her story and then cover how she can help you.

How did you get into the business of language instruction, both for Speak! and B-Speak!? [2:13]

It all started with my own passion for language and my interest in languages and cultures. Both sets of my grandparents were immigrants from Poland and Italy, so I grew up hearing lots of Italian and Polish in the household of my grandparents. I think it all started there. Then, in my own travels and studies, I just fell in love with Italian, French, Spanish, all of the literature, and meeting people and hearing their stories and learning about culture, so real love of culture. Speak! started in 2004. I have an academic background, so I was a college professor before starting my business. Many people in my family have businesses, so I think I definitely have the entrepreneurial gene. 

I was teaching at Yale, Wake Forest and here where I live at University of Virginia, and I just started to notice not only my own desire to have a language center, but also people kept asking me, "I'm not a student at UVA.  I'm an adult, and I'm going to Italy. How can I learn Italian?" I just saw there was a real need for a language center like you have all over Europe. You'll find private businesses, which are language centers, teaching people all of the languages of the world, but it's less common here in the US where we tend to rely on universities to teach us. 

So in 2004,