Jan's Sample Lesson on Phrasal Verbs

About Jan Abell

Jan tutors ESL, English, and beginning to intermediate Spanish. She teaches students of all ages, both worldwide via Skype and locally in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. She has taught at the Berlitz Language School, Living Educational Encounters, and The Beverly Hills Lingual Institute and teaches at career centers for larger groups of foreign students.
Jan earned her Master’s degree from California State University, Northridge, and has taught at the college level since 1998.
Jan works with French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hungarian, Armenian, Brazilian, South and Latin American, Russian, and Iranian students, among others.

​In her work with musicians, in addition to basic language skills, Jan's musical education and active singing career enable her to prepare her students for stage performances, interviews, and other media-related events around the world using correct English music terminology.
What Jan's students say about her

 Jan is helping me with my accent reduction. Even though I have been in the US for a long time, I struggled mightily with the ‘r’ and consonants. Jan has me repeat and work on them as she listens very well. Jan has an amazing ability to hear distinct differences. She breaks down the words to ensure proper pronunciation. Jan wants to help. I highly, highly recommend Jan for anyone that feels the need to improve her/his accent. Thank you. --Tai Lu, Thailand
I have studied with Jan for more than a year, and I can honestly say that my English improved significantly during that time. I can now speak fluently and participate in English-speaking conversations at work, which I would never have been able to do before. Jan is not only a great teacher but also a very interesting person and a good friend. She is a native speaker, and her accent and teaching style are a good fit for those who want to learn how to speak like people from California (like me).

I highly recommend Jan as an ESL teacher. She has helped me achieve my goal of being able to speak confidently in English, and I am grateful for everything she has done for me. --Yurii K, Ukraine, Bali
Jan is a fantastic person and teacher. I was in Los Angeles for a workcation in the summer of 2022 and decided on a whim that I would use the stay to finally get help with improving my pronunciation. I found Jan via her website and the enthusiastic reviews on it.

I can now say that they are very well deserved, and I am happy to add to them :-) With Jan I got what I was looking for, and much more. She quickly identified what patterns caused my foreign (in my case, German) accent, helped me realize some quick wins, and pointed to other areas where more work and practice will be needed. There have been many eye-opening moments both during the lessons with Jan and when practising with the great accent-reduction book (and accompanying online material) that she uses.

​Moreover, working with Jan has been very enjoyable. It's actually fun to try and produce new sounds and to rewire some of these neurons as an adult :-) After my return to Germany, I have been keeping up my lessons with Jan, now through video calls, which works surprisingly well. —Holger S, Germany
Five-star review on Thumbtack!
Jan is a great teacher! We just met a couple of days ago, and she is very good at detecting what I truly needed to work on in order to move to the next level. Passionate teachers are everywhere, but Jan is, in addition to being passionate about teaching English, so cheering, caring, and very attentive that she always makes sure if I have correctly understood what I learned during the lesson.

She really hopes to see the growth of her students. I felt much more confident and comfortable speaking English after her lesson. I will definitely come back, as I'm certain that if I continue to learn from her more about the practical aspect of the living language, it brings me much closer to my future goal.—Hirofumi N, Tokyo
Other testimonials

​An Excellent English Teacher!

I’m fluent in English, but my speech is peppered with errors. Since I need to record videos and write a lot of texts for my business, I decided to find a good ESL teacher
to upgrade my skills. 
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Below are Jan's great reviews on Yelp!
Jan is seriously the BEST!!! She is your English teacher, she's your life coach, your best friend. 
She has so much patience with her students and you can just tell she truly LOVES her job!! She explains everything in a way that you'll get it right away. I'm so lucky I found her on Yelp!! SEARCH NO MORE! Accent reduction, grammar improvement—she really is what you've been looking for!

Take a trial class now, it's only $25 :)
​—Janice N, Los Angeles
Ms. Jan is the wonderful ! I had lived in LA for several years and always could speak English. But I was self-conscious about my pronunciation. Because of I'm not a native speaker. Once, I started lessons with Jan.  I realized that there were many mistake I was making.
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My lessons are always fun. She has a very nice personality and speaks English elegantly and intelligently. I always want to copy her speaking and writing.

I can say that you will benefit from Jan's teaching wherever you come from!
​--Tom Y, Los Angeles
I am taking English lessons with Jan since May 2018. Jan is the greatest teacher that I have ever had. Her teaching program is based on your individual needs and it is a pleasure to have Jan as a teacher. If you are looking for a professional who will help you to improve your English, I will highly recommend Jan.

Thank you, Jan! —Ted K, Armenia
I was looking for quite a while for a teacher for accent reduction and improving the voice quality. I usually act on what my intuition tells me. And I was right when I discovered Jan. My mind was saying "I have a feeling about this lady" and now I am more than happy to have this great opportunity to work with her.

She is an amazing teacher and a very kind person. Her approach is effective. People tell me that I sound much better with every lesson I take. And her lessons are so much fun, I am always looking forward to them. Honestly, I am blessed to know her.
—Elena N, Moldova
Jan is great. I had a very important meeting and needed help with fixing my speech. Jan helped me to correct my grammar and helped with rewriting sentences to ease the message. She is patient, nice, and educated.

I highly recommend her for anyone who wants to give a presentation at work and English is their second language. —Roxy W, Burbank
Jan is a very good teacher. We have lessons twice a week via Skype and her approach has helped me to improve my English speaking and comprehension.

She has a lot of patience, if you don't understand, she is so nice to repeat again and again and again, until you understand.

I'm so happy to improve my English with her! I would recommend her to my Italian friends!—Valentina C, Balsano del Grappa, Italy
Jan is an excellent teacher and tutor! When she started to teach me, my English level was intermediate. I couldn’t express myself very well, and had difficulties with grammar.

Today I took my Accuplacer English test that Jan helped me prepare for, and I have placed into English 1, which is the highest on the course sequence at Santa Monica Community College! Thank you Jan, I couldn’t have done it without your help! 
—Gabi P,  Santa Monica
Jan really knows her stuff! I referred her to one of my clients who has an internationally based sales team. His salespeople were all impressed with how quickly their English skills improved. My client is really happy I recommended her to him. You can tell she really loves language.

She is now a permanent contact— someone I would refer to any of my clients for tutoring in English/ESL. She worked with the son of another of my clients and did a great job helping him bring his grades up. She has helped my clients with advanced proofreading, grammar challenges, and vocabulary. She is flexible with scheduling and competitively priced. —Leslie H, Los Angeles
I love Jan! She is a very calm, positive, and good teacher. She always checks the needs of the students and works on fixing the problems. I strongly recommend her for anyone! —Ira K, Santa Monica
Miss Jan Abell is a great teacher for me. 
She helps my English speech practice and gives me a vision of how to express my self in public space. Her roleplay lessons help me lot to see what is my weakness and what to practice. --Yoshio K, Culver City
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I am so happy to write this review. Jan was totally meant to be!
Used to work with one of the top speech coaches a few years back, when she left town I thought I could never find someone at that level and more affordable at the same time.

Finally after sending out few emails one day, Jan got back to me and I am sooo happy she did! She is so professional and caring. She sends you useful links, give you copies of little exercise you need to be able to reach your goals. She's awesome woman and friendly. On top of all this she's affordable and flexible when possible.

​Highly recommended! I love her. --Sofia C, Los Angeles
Jan is the best out there. She truly cares about her students' progress and tailors her teaching to their individual needs. She has many books that she works from, and augments her lessons with handouts and quizzes that she makes up herself.

Jan is kind and very patient. I can't recommend her highly enough!! --Lori S, Los Angeles
I'm an actress from Brazil and I have been working with Jan almost 2 years privately. She is really good with grammar and corrects me all the time. She is always on top of my pronunciation too. I had a hard time to find someone that I really like and feel comfortable and confident to speak because I'm taking acting classes too and I have always monologues to learn and memorize and she helps a lot. She helps me with line coaching and phrasing and emphasizes the correct way Americans speak.

For me Jan is the complete package. She could immediately notice the areas where I needed to improve.  I really love to study with Jan--Franciely Freduzeski, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Jan is a great teacher. She is cerebral at her approach while keeping it as pedantic as possible for you. Starting from the basics per se, she helped me improve my speaking skills while being critical about grammar usage and pronunciation. There was a time when I couldn't even say a single line without pauses and there is today where I can speak confidently and fluent enough to convey my thoughts in a well structured way.

I am so happy that I got trained under Jan, though only for a month or 2. She is a calm, patient & well educated lady with a great sense of humor. Apart from the language, I got to learn some really good lessons about sanguine attitude towards life which I can never forget. I would definitely want to continue my training with her when I am back to the States and keep on moving up the ladder.

Thumbs up to Jan!!! —Micky S, Santa Monica
Jan tutors my wife who is from Brazil. She is great with her. My wife feels very comfortable practicing with Jan and has really improved her accent, vocabulary and comfort with English. While Jan does not speak Portuguese she is able to communicate very well through gestures and Spanish when needed. There is little confusion and no discomfort in her lessons. Jan is very good to my wife and gives her the necessary comfort needed when learning and embracing a new language. I would highly recommend her services for those seeking to improve and learn English, from beginners, such as my wife, to all levels. —Bobby D, Santa Monica
I talk to Jan every week via Skype to improve my conversation skills, and it helps me a lot! Jan is a very good teacher and such a positive person. Our lessons are always individually tailored to where I have a need for improvement. She's really into linguistics and attends to every upcoming question. It's fun to learn English with Jan!—Claudia K, Berlin, Germany
Jan is an outstanding English/ESL instructor, as attested to by her students. She's extremely knowledgeable, but that isn't the best part of her tutoring skill set.

I can see from observing the reactions she gets from her students that the list of her assets includes her engaging personality, the creativity she brings to meeting her students' needs, her patience and dedication to their progress, and her sense of humor.

At the top of the list is her love of the English language and the passion she has for teaching. This is reflected in her students' joy at learning to communicate more fluently and comfortably within a short period of time. —Susan C, Palmdale
Jan is a very good teacher. We have lessons twice a week via Skype and her approach has helped me to improve my English (comprehension and speaking). She has a lot of patience, if you don't understand, she is no nice to repeat again and again and again, until you understand.

I'm so happy to improve my English with her! I would recommend her to my Italian friends! --Valentina C, Italy
I got the contact information of Jan Abell, who has helped two of my friends. They had been trying to start speaking English for several years but with not much success. It’s a real pain, since poor English condemns one to live in a bubble of their native community, suffering from low self-esteem and with no chance to increase their income.

Jan’s professional advice and cheerful attitude made a huge difference. I had my first lesson today and I LOVED it. Jan is helpful and charismatic, and, most importantly, she cares about me and my success. I could tell it right away. I told her what I was looking correct mistakes in my speech that I make out of habit, to get rid of errors in my written texts, and to reduce my accent to a minimum. I don’t believe it would disappear completely, but I’m fine if it will be barely noticeable. Let it be the charming quirk of a foreigner. Jan identified my problem zones and gave me plenty of good advice. After the lesson, I felt inspired and motivated.

The word of mouth about her work miracles has started spreading over the Russian community. She is helping one of my friends to start speaking English after seven years of futile attempts.

So, if anyone wants to learn English with a good teacher who is a native speaker, write to Jan: readwithjan@gmail.com. She is wonderful.
—Irina B, Los Angeles
Jan, I know it's late and I hope I won't wake you up with this message, but it can't wait until the morning. I practiced a lot today when I got home, and right now I decided ​to record
myself saying the monologue, and I listened back . . . my jaw dropped! I sound American!

I think the work I'm putting in is paying off. I am just shocked! You are an amazing, magical teacher! —Elena N, Los Angeles
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Jan is a great teacher, she understands what you need for making your English language better. I have been her student for about six months, and she taught me so much and now my English is really good. With Jan you save money and you learn in the best way ever. She loves what she is doing and she is very smart. I shopped a lot for a private teacher on the internet and in social media and I am so happy I found her. My English now is great and I loved my classes with Jan. The time went very fast and I learned more and more with her about the English language.
—Sam S, Los Angeles
We would like to thank Jan for her professionalism and her kindness. My wife and I had great English lessons with Jan for one month in LA. Jan managed to make the lessons very interesting, mixing general conversations and specific grammar rules, idioms, and vocabulary teaching. We were so happy with our experience with Jan that once back home, we decided to continue our lessons remotely via Skype, a way to benefit from Jan's great teaching experience anywhere in the world. We strongly recommend Jan. —France and Patrick, Switzerland
Jan has been tutoring our 12-year-old son in ESL for a few months now, and we have seen great improvement in his reading, writing, and verbal skills. Jan is always punctual and prepared. She brings visual aids and handouts suitable for his age and has introduced a fun word game to help him with his spelling, vowel and consonant combinations, and vocabulary. She is a great communicator and very pleasant to be around. I highly recommend her as a tutor for any age. --Kazushi T, Beverly Hills
Jan is an excellent instructor! Very flexible to adapt to her students' needs. —Juliana G, Marina del Rey
Several months ago, we asked Jan to help one of our employees with his English, especially as it pertained to his writing of business emails. We noticed that he would often make direct translations from French to English, which would sound awkward. Jan has helped him so much with this! His emails now sound professional and are very well written. This makes a much better impression with our prospects and clients!

Jan has given him the tools to write clearly and effectively. Many thanks for all your help, Jan! --Patrick M, International Top Executive Search and Selection
I am very pleased with Janice as an English and second language tutor. My fiancée is from Brazil, she is very shy, and was nervous about learning and speaking English. The teaching method Janice uses is nonthreatening and not intimidating, but very proactive at the same time.

My fiancée is learning a lot quickly but does not feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable. She is doing really well and wants to increase her number of lessons per week already. She feels very comfortable learning with Janice and really likes her as a person. They communicate great. I highly recommend Jan's services to anyone looking to learn English for the first time or to enhance their skills. —Robert D, Santa Monica
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