Rick Kappra's Home Page


I'm originally from a very small town in southern New Jersey called Paulsboro , on the banks of the Delaware River, across from Philadelphia International Airport and surrounded by oil refineries. Sounds wonderful, huh? Actually, it was a nice place to grow up and I still like to return for (short) visits.

When the air is clear in Paulsboro, it can be a beautiful place - large tree lined streets, big houses, a river and a creek, and friendly people. At night the refineries light up the sky sometimes making it a flaming red. But some days, the air is putrid, smells of sulfer and other chemicals remind you that you're in the middle of an industrial zone - one of the largest oil refineries in the US, providing jobs, and destroying the environment.

I lived in Philadelphia for 10 years, then moved to Tokyo, where I lived for 6 years (with 4 months of that time in Singapore). I also taught for a summer in Taipei, Taiwan and another summer in Daegu, South Korea. I've been living in San Francisco since 1995.
I love to travel! Countries I've visited:

still many more to go...

I teach ESL (that's English as a Second Language) at City College of San Francisco, Alemany Campus. It's the best job in the world. I love what I'm doing, and my students continue to inspire me. You can see my resume here.

I just published a textbook which I co-authored with a former colleague of mine from Japan who now lives in Santa Cruz. The book is called, "Out and About: An Interactive Course in Beginning English", and it's an ESL textbook for beginning ESL learners. You can get more information by checking out the publisher, OWL Publishing or the distributor ALTA Book Distributors.

I also practice Thai massage on the side. If you have never had a Thai massage - you don't know what you are missing!! I studied Thai massage at the Wat Po School of Traditional Thai Medicine in Bangkok , Thailand. I have also studied Reiki, Jin Shin Jitsu and Shiatsu. All are related to Chinese medical theories and the movement and regulation of Qi (the life force). Keep your qi in check.

My latest passion is latin dancing. I started with salsa which I love, and have moved on to tango. I can't wait to go to Argentina and see people dancing tango on the streets and maybe join them. I used to dance a lot (came of age in the disco era), but when slam dancing and all of the other spastic movements of the 80's took over, I stopped. Latin dancing is so sensuous, energizing, romantic, passionate. It's everything I love about Latin cultures - the closeness, the expression, the passion of the music. I take classes at the Metronome Dance Center in San Francisco. They offer a whold range of classes, including same-sex classes. It's a wonderful environment with all kinds of stuff going on. Baila!

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CATESOL - California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

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