My name is Jeremy David-Paul Hartman, and I grew up in Denver, Colorado, USA. As a child, I became fascinated with Spanish after my parents took me on vacation to Mexico several times. I decided to become the first person in my family to learn a second language. After struggling to learn Spanish at Lakewood Highschool, I did a 5-week Spanish immersion program in Merida, Mexico, before starting college at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The immersion program in Mexico was life-changing, and after this experience, I decided to focus my life on becoming fluent in Spanish. I studied Spanish for the Professions along with International Affairs at CU Boulder. After graduating in 2013, I moved to Barcelona, Spain, where I worked as a Spanish to English translator for a Catalan wine company.

I immensely enjoyed my time in Barcelona, but after my 6-month work contract ended, I decided I needed more Spanish emersion. I took a job with Dell Computers in Panama, working as an Internal Communications Analyst on a one-year exchange contract with AIESEC. During this year in Panama, I achieved fluency in Spanish and gained a native central American accent. 

After finishing my contract in Panama, I wanted to learn more about South America and better understand the southern South American accent. I took a job with GeneXus Consulting in Montevideo, Uruguay selling software solutions to the US market. After over ten years of studying Spanish and two years of living and working in Spanish-speaking countries, I became fascinated by Portuguese as I could understand bits and pieces of spoken and written Portuguese. I started studying Portuguese online with Philipe Brazuca and used apps like DuoLingo to learn Portuguese in my spare time. Then I did a volunteering exchange with AIESEC in Lisbon, Portugal, teaching primary public school students about climate change. The following summer, I spent four months backpacking through Brazil, practicing my Portuguese as much as possible, and eventually achieved a fluent level after spending roughly five years studying Portuguese and six months of immersion in Brazil and Portugal. 

Now I have switched my focus to French, and I have spent the last nine months living in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and I have just finished a contract working as an English teacher at a local high school. I study French at a French online school taught in Portuguese. I also learn French on various smartphone applications such as Busuu, Duolingo, and Tandem, in addition to using French in my daily life in France. I have advanced in French much faster living in France, and I have fallen in love with the French culture, the architecture, the food, the people, and the lifestyle. Working in France with the TAPIF program has been a dream come true. I have accepted a position to teach English on the French island of Martinique for the 2022/23 school year to continue to improve my French fluency next year. 

I work as an English educator and tutor, as well as a translator, translating Spanish, Portuguese, and French texts into English and performing live interpretation and multi-lingual tour guiding services. I dream of visiting every country and learning more foreign languages. In the future, I would like to study law and then use my language knowledge to work in politics and international diplomacy to work towards my life goal of helping the world become more just and democratic.