About Me
Matt Coss (“Mateo” or 高正远 to some) is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Second Language
Acquisition & Application at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also working as a member of
the STARTALK division of the National Foreign Language Center at UMD. Previously, Matt worked as a
Spanish teacher and freelance translator during a gap year after receiving his B.A. in Hispanic Linguistics
and Chinese with a minor in Entrepreneurship from UNC Chapel Hill. What he lacks in age, he makes up
for in teaching experience—despite only being 23 years old, Matt has been a Spanish teacher since the
age of 16 and a Chinese teacher since the age of 19. Through a series of fortunate events that are much
too long to relate here, Matt grew up bilingual (English & Spanish) and started learning Mandarin at age
11 (currently Superior on OPI/ACTFL scale). Matt has taught a broad range of learners in both Spanish
and Chinese, from novice 3 rd graders to medical school students to retired adults and beyond. For Matt,
language learning and teaching have been lifelong companions so far, and it is his dream to continue
learning, teaching and growing on the Path across the U.S. and the world throughout his career beyond grad school.
