Amy Gramlich – English as a Second Language Educator
I’m so happy you stopped by On the Job English today! I am Amy Gramlich – a wife, mom, public school second languages educator, and content creator. Originally, I purchased this website in March, 2023 from its previous owner, and I have slowly been making updates/changes and putting my own touch to this website.
A bit about me…I grew up in a bilingual home, with a mom from Central America (Panama) and a dad from Arkansas in the United States. I grew up “speaking” two English and Spanish. However, English is definitely my stronger language.
Eventually, I received my Master Degree in Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy. During the day, I am the building specialist and teacher for the ESL program for a junior high school in my local school district. I feel so fortunate to work with students and families from all over the world! Nearly every day, I learn something new about language and culture from my students. It is a fascinating job for me! In fact, I was recently honored to be named the Bryant School District Teacher of the Year!
I have owned and managed my own websites for over a decade now. My original website, Planted in Arkansas, is a lifestyle site. And my second website is called Arkansas Girls, which is a joint mommy-and-me website with my two young daughters. On the Job English is my third website, and it is the first website I have bought and flipped from another website owner.
I LOVE all things travel, culture, style, and language. At On the Job English, I hope to inspire you to learn the English that matters for you and your specific work. I want to help you build the confidence you need to perform your job well – focusing on the exact English you need to succeed.
In 2025-2026, my Arkansas school district named me Teacher of the Year — specifically for the work I have done with English learners. That recognition means everything to me. But what means more is every student who walked out of my classroom understanding something they did not understand when they walked in.
I Was the Kid Who Lived Between Two Worlds
I grew up in a bilingual, bicultural home — half Panamanian, half American — moving between Spanish and English the way most people move between rooms. But here is what nobody tells you about growing up bilingual: being comfortable in two languages is not the same as being equally fluent in both.
My Spanish was real. It made me feel at home. It was family, food, music, and love. But my Spanish was very basic and full of errors. It was “around the house” type of language. And when I entered professional spaces — academic environments, formal settings — I felt the gap. The words I grew up with were not the words those rooms required. I needed an entirely different vocabulary when I began my job as a multilingual educator. A different kind of Spanish. A different kind of fluency. It was all very niche academic terminology (school teacher talk). And, no, it was not anything like the beginning-level Spanish I taught to my 8th-grade emerging Spanish class. Slowly, I began to learn the niche vocabulary I needed to do my job with students and parents. Today, I’m still learning new Spanish words and phrases that help me with my work. My students still correct my Spanish sometimes. Yes, it’s embarrassing but it’s also a natural part of language growth.
I know what it feels like to know exactly what you mean — and not be able to find the words to say it.
That experience never left me. It became the lens through which I taught for 24 years as a public school ESL teacher — and it is the reason I built OnTheJobEnglish.com. I want to help other adults who are struggling with the specialized English vocabulary they need for their jobs.
I earned a Master of Arts in Second Language Acquisition because I wanted to understand not just what to teach — but how people actually learn a new language. The science behind it. The sequence that works. The difference between studying a language and acquiring one. That knowledge sits behind everything I create here.