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Tom Ratican


Email: tratican@ufl.edu
YouTube Introduction of STEP Online course

Bio

Tom Ratican is a proud alumnus of UF. He did his undergraduate work in the College of Education and briefly taught high school French and Spanish in Jacksonville, Florida. After spending 3 years in the Army, including 16 months in Turkey, Tom came back to UF to do graduate work. He received a master’s degree in French with a minor in linguistics. Tom did additional coursework in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He then taught ESL part-time for 2 years at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. After receiving his master’s degree, Tom worked for 30 years as a translator for the US government, translating French to English and Spanish to English. He loves languages and learning about the cultures of other countries. Tom has been back at his alma mater and teaching part-time for the ELI since 2004.