Gillian Lee Durham
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ESL Instructor
B.A. English, 1995, Elon University
M.A. Applied Linguistics, 2005, Old Dominion University

About Me
I was born and raised in Virginia Beach, but I have not spent my whole life here. I went to college in North Carolina and studied in London. Soon after I received my undergraduate degree, I moved to Australia, where I lived for about four years. In fact, I am a dual citizen of the US and Australia. I did all kinds of exciting work there. I sheared sheep, dealt Blackjack in the Sydney casino, and sweated under the hot outback sun in the vineyards alongside travelers from all over the world. I've traveled to Mexico, England, Wales, France, Austria, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. I also spent one year in Japan, teaching English to students of all ages – from 3 years old to 73! If you want to hear a funny tale about cross-cultural communication, just ask me to tell you one of my 'snake' stories. I left Japan because I wanted to learn more about being an effective ESL teacher, so in 2001, I returned to the US and began studying for my graduate degree in Linguistics at ODU. Now, here I am at TCC, teaching YOU and enjoying every minute of it. I can’t wait to hear YOUR story in a composition or a presentation.

My interests include yoga, film, cooking spicy food, and spending time outside in nature with my husband and two sons. I'm the tall person in the picture below. How tall? 186 centimeters (6 feet, 2 inches) tall!

Gillian Durham and Students