Ieva Spolite-Jansone

My name is Ieva Spolite-Jansone and I am completely Latvian by name, but I am proud to say that part of me is Estonian. I grew up in Latvia in a family of an Estonian and a Latvian and have spoken both languages since childhood. My university studies initially took me to Tartu, where I studied ethnology. After a couple of years, where I mainly did translation work, I moved to Tallinn University. In 2020, I became a teacher of Estonian as a second language with a Master’s degree, and since then I have replaced translation with teaching.

As a teacher of Latvian at the Multilingua Language Centre, I am able to explain some difficult pronunciation and grammar issues in Estonian. Since 2022, I have been a lecturer of Estonian language and culture at the University of Latvia, where, in addition to  teaching Estonian, I have also tried to facilitate language contacts between learners of both languages.