Foreign Language

Marian Kliger (Chair) was born and raised in New York City where she played stick ball and ring-o-livio in the streets of the Bronx.  She attended the High School of Music and Art as a violinist and pianist, but hated to practice.  She preferred taking ballet classes at Carnegie Reutal Hall or modern dance at the Martha Graham School of Dance.  She received her B.A. in French with a minor in theatre from Hobart and William Smith College, Geneva, New York, and her M.A. from Columbia in French literature, and M.A.T. in English from Hunter College.
        Besides her passion for French, the arts, film, and anything that reminds her of Proust, Madame enjoys traveling with her husband, Peter,  just about anywhere…especially France. Every other summer, they take a small group of students to travel and live in the village of Vence and Paris.
        Madame Kliger teaches French, Art and Society, and International Cinema.  One day she hopes to retire to Pt.Townsend, Washington, where the sun seldom shines.

Classes: French I, II, III, IV, Art in Society, International Cinema
E-mail: Prefers phone contact Phone: (323) 343-6357

Lidia Hill, a native Spanish speaker and one who modestly represents the diverse Spanish culture, Lidia Hill has been with LACHSA since the year 2000-2001. She teaches Spanish II, Spanish III and Spanish IV. In the past, she has taught swimming, salsa dance/ Spanish films, yoga and orientation. Ms. Hill, like everyone calls her, is very excited about teaching at LACHSA because she has great respect and admiration for the arts and the young artists that attend this school. It is her belief that teaching part of her culture, her language, is giving her students an appreciation for all cultures. In her own words, Ms. Hill states, “I teach because I want to create a true citizen, a citizen of the world, one that embraces humanity and is willing to question his/her own ongoing learning process in this ‘University of Life’. I hope to create a worldly citizen that before he/she acts is considerate to ask herself/himself how his/her actions will affect others. That kind of citizen is the true artist”.
Education
Single Subject Credential – California State University, Los  Angeles - 2004 M.A. California State University, Los Angeles - Spanish Linguistics and Literatures, 2000-2001 B.A. California State University, Los – 2000 (Spanish) B.S., University of Life, ongoing
Interests
Ms. Hill’s interests include: pedagogy, film, Literature of 16th Century Spain, feminist criticism, travel writing, reading, world Religions, Linguistics and more.
Prior to coming to LACHSA, Ms. Hill worked for Citrus Community College, Glendora; East Los Angeles Community College, Monterey Park; Adjunct Professor at California State University, Los Angeles (Summer Sessions only).

Classes: Spanish II, III, IV
E-mail: jhalgen@yahoo.com Phone: (323) 343-6384
Emily Torices is currently in her eighth year of teaching Spanish.  She majored in Spanish Language and Literature at the Colorado College in Colorado Springs where she learned to love skiing, hiking and letterpress printing.  When not enjoying the outdoors, she knits hats with ears and cool scarves, bakes, and reads anything that she happens to stumble across.  If you ask her right now, she’d say that P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh and Borges are her favorite authors, but she also likes quirky comedies like A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole), and non-fiction works about the history and development of different languages and dialects, or books about how things work. 
      For recreation and study, Sra. Torices has traveled all around Mexico (Guanajuato, Cuernavaca, Patzcuaro, Oaxaca, Mexico City and Baja California).  She went to Costa Rica with one of her two sisters to see some monkeys, speak some Spanish, and learn to surf.  Although not quite daring enough to participate in the actual event, she enjoyed watching the bulls rumble through the streets of Pamplona and then spent a little time eating seafood paella in San Sebastian.  Her most recent trip out of the country was to Buenos Aires to meet her prospective family.  That went well, so she married and now lives with her husband and two cats. 

Classes: Spanish I, II , Freshmen Studies
E-mail: torices.emily@gmail.com Phone: (323) 343-6338