About Susanna Zaraysky - Learning a Foreign Language

Susanna Zaraysky (Cycaнна Зaрайcкая)

I have studied twelve languages (English, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Ladino, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Hungarian) and I speak eight of them, sometimes with native to near-native pronunciation. Since I am often able to speak to people in their native languages when I travel, I have developed a deeper understanding of life in other countries than most travelers who only speak to English speakers & learning a foreign language or see other countries through tour busses.

I have lived in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mexico, Argentina and the US and have traveled to over 50 countries. I was born in the former USSR and have lived in the US since I was a child.

Contact me using my form.

Adding to my international perspective on life is the fact that I have a hidden disability and only see the world in two dimensions (2D). (Yes, that’s right, I can’t see 3D movies and see people as flat 2D images!) Being partially blind, seeing with only one eye at a time, not only makes me see the world differently from the majority of the population, but it also makes me very sensitive to audio input, languages, accents and music.

My goal is to empower people to use music and the media to learning foreign languages, travel, learn about other countries and points of view and explore what it’s like to see the world with only one eye via my books and film and my blog posts about vision, language learning and music, multilingualism, Spanish and Ladino, commentary, cultures and travel.

learning a foreign language

My books:

Language is Music (El idioma es música in Spanish, Idioma é música in Portuguese, La lingua è musica in Italian, and Легкий способ быстро выучить иностранный язык с помощью музыки in Russian) about learning foreign languages with music and the media.

Travel Happy, Budget Low is about budget travel.

One-Eyed Princess about growing up in a 3D world with flat 2D vision and the vision therapy I have done to improve my depth perception.

My film:

Saved by Language, about how a Sephardic Bosnian boy saved his life in the Holocaust by speaking in Ladino, an endangered Judeo-Spanish language.

Media and Public Speaking:

I have been featured on CBS, CNN, MTV, the BBC, The Guardian, the Filipino Channel, Yahoo Finance, Fox Business News, Univison, Telefutura, and MSNBC. I have given presentations at the Defense and State Departments of the United States to help diplomats and military personnel learn languages using music. Read my media page for links to TV and radio interview and articles.