Michael Dale Larsen, born on May 28th, 1972 in Murray, Utah in the United States, is the firstborn in a large LDS (mormon) family. This deeply religious environment based on core family values, honesty and hard work forms the solid moral foundation of Michael’s personality. As a child, he was always found with a book in hand, often encyclopedias, preferring intellectual activities over athletic ones. Michael enjoyed writing, and for three consecutive years, won the Reflections national contest at East Midvale Elementary school. Always a bright student, Michael enrolled in the Honors programs at Midvale Middle School and Hillcrest High School from which he obtained his diploma in 1990. He discovered a love for strategy games as a teenager combined with a repressed wanderlust, which caused a few stumbling blocks in his studies. When he was nineteen years old, as many young men and women of the LDS faith do, he accepted a two-year missionary assignment to Milan, Italy. From the summer of 1991 to the summer of 1993, Michael taught the principles of his religion to those interested in hearing the message in Cinisello Balsamo, Piacenza, Savona, Alessandria, Genova, Varese and Milano. These years immersed in Italian culture helped to mature Michael’s love and acceptance of Italy with the little sleepy town of Piacenza finding a special place in his heart. Immediately after returning to the United States, Michael started making plans to return. In January 1994, he returned to Italy and Piacenza as a guest of his friend Giovanna and her mother. As the relationship with Giovanna developed, however, there arose the problem of finding gainful employment. Without the necessary education, his goals of creating a new place for himself in Italy were frustrated. Once he determined the direction to be made, Michael returned once again to the United States and enrolled at Salt Lake Community College with plans were to enter the accounting and international finance sectors. When he returned to Piacenza in the summer of 1995, Michael and Giovanna decided to get married that September. In 2002, their family increased in size with the birth of Linda Cheryl followed by Caterina Marie in 2006. Michael had resumed his studies with Distance Education in 2003, this time directing his attention towards psychology, adolescents and human development. He obtained his A.S. of Science from SLCC in 2008.
Career
Michael first entered the workplace in 1988 working for McDonald’s in the food services field. He chose to work with customers rather than working in the cooking area. In the fall of 1988, an Arby’s closer to his home offered a better pay, so he shifted restaurants. Michael eventually became an assistant manager, a position he quite enjoyed with the additional responsabilities. He reamined with Arby’s until June of 1991.
When Michael made his second return to Italy in 1995 after attending SLCC, he qualified for a temporary job in the finance office of the LDS church in Milano. The minimal training in accounting he had received at SLCC were exactly the characteristics his employers were seeking. His first assignments were in providing data entry, but he quickly gained experience in information technology. He used proactive approaches to provide solutions to routine problems and built two effective databases with Microsoft Access. The first was to deal with the complexities of the fleet; the second was an Integrated Payment System that allowed all office staff to quickly make payment forms from stored information to avoid filling out contact details each time. They could also track if their payments had been made. Unfortunately, although it was highly beneficial to the staff, it was considered rogue software because it was not sanctioned by the ICS department. Michael spent twelve years in that office passing through the Finance, Information and Communication Systems, and Facilities Management departments before finishing his career with six years as the Materials Management Coordinator. His duties in this position involved being the fleet and purchasing supervisor, chief negotiator for various services and in coordinating the logistics for distributing the international magazines throughout France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Albania, Greece, plus the islands and countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2004, Michael and Giovanna purchased a home on the outskirts of Piacenza from Molinaroli Costruzioni. After cultivating a good working relationship with the owners, Michael accepted a position with the company in September, 2007. He used his skills to reduce telephone expenses, provide the accounting data entry for the sister company Edilmovi and crunch raw data from reinforced concrete production into useful inventory control numbers. Michael left the company in 2012 when the company started suffering from the construction crisis.
While working at Molinaroli, Linda started primary school, and it was quite a shock for Michael. He had imagined great progress with her English skills, but the program seemed pointless and without direction. Michael determined that results were needed. With his knowledge of the business world, psychology and human development factors, the creation of a new method of teaching that could obtain chartable results was a reality. After a discussion with his boss and some careful market examination, Michael started his own company Silverfoxx Consulting, but remained as a contracted worker with Molinaroli. This change allowed a steady income, but also the flexibility to build a new business promoting the English language.
The first schools to be interested in Michael’s services were pre-schools with children from age 3-6. For these schools he created a program he called Stinky Pheet (Physio-emotional English for Tots). With Stinky Pheet the children were exposed to the English language through stories and physical activities. Rather than teaching numbers, colors and animals, which were typical of other English projects on the market, Michael aimed at capturing their enthusiasm for the language through activities such as hunts for lions or Bigfoot, visits by mummies or even dressing up as Mr. Swamp. Each lesson evolved around a theme of just a few words. The children finished the lesson with a drawing activity that recalled the words of the lesson. In this way, parents and teachers could then reinforce the words in Michael’s absence.
Michael expanded his activities to then include the primary and secondary schools. With the primary schools Michael initiated a practice of having children keep a notebook specifically for his activities. The children had homework assignments, which were completely new concepts for them. Many parents balked at the idea, but gradually grew to accept them and expect them. They were surprised to find that they, too, were learning English. Michael also held competitions between schools and classes, awarding points based on correct grammar and linguistic flexibility. With the older children he used weekly news reports based on world news events. Students (and teachers) became acquainted in this way with important global figures.
The loss of his contract in 2012 with Molinaroli was quite devastating for Michael and his family. Although he did have several companies that provided off and on business contracts, the lack of a steady monthly income had a severe impact on family finances. Never willing to surrender, Michael rolled up his sleeves and accepted a temporary job with Helid which made twist-locks and spare parts for machinery. He then worked for two years with the Piadineria in Piacenza, returning once again to the food services. In August of 2015, Michael found a new position with Metronotte Piacenza as a security guard. Metronotte proved to be the perfect contract for him as Michael could determine which days and hours to work based on his own business schedule.
Michael had worked with many companies over the years, but one company, Viva, had provided a constant seasonal work since 2010. At first, they only needed a group leader to accompany students to various places during the summer months. But starting in 2014, they began requesting his assistance with coordinating the English program during summer camps. Always on the lookout for new potential markets, Viva offered the chance to Michael to provide a physio-emotional English workshop for teachers in 2016. The workshop opened the way for further teaching opportunities and joint-ventures, eventually allowing Michael the chance to register his own trademark and promote his own products on a vast scale.
Published Works
Michael’s first book and attempt at creating a teaching manual, Project Silverfoxx, combined 1.500 words into thirty lessons of fifty words each. Each lesson examined the daily routine of a typical family. The idea was that even if one did not understand English, it was fairly easy to identify with the vocabulary. Although the booklet was appreciated by his students, Michael changed strategy after teaching in a small school of eight students in Piozzano. Project Silverfoxx was abandoned in 2014.
During his time in Molinaroli, Michael also started writing a novel. He had tried writing a novel many years before, but his plot only had a basic idea to hold it together. One morning as he was making his bed and meditating on his life, he received a brilliant inspiration. In an instant, he knew exactly how his story needed to start, how it needed to end and how it needed to be written. Given his constant movements, there was little time for writing in a traditional manner using a PC, tablet or notebook. Since one of his work assignments with Molinaroli was to deal with the phone contracts, he had received a Nokia 61i with its full keyboard and a version of Microsoft Word. Whenever he had a free moment, such as while he was at the park with his children or before going to bed or if he awoke during the night, Michael would type away on his phone. He created over three years 70 episodes that he later combined into his 500+ page novel, Per Sempre. Michael wrote the final episodes of his novel in the three-minute spans between changing pieces while working on the lathe at Helid. Per Sempre is available in both English and Italian.
Michael was awarded a contract in 2014 to help the citizens of Piacenza prepare for the Expo in Milano. Fresh from a teaching project in Piozzano where he had tracked student progress, Michael adopted a new approach to teaching English based on important and similar sounding words. After creating a database from the words in Project Silverfoxx, he organized them based on length and sounds, choosing 1.000 words for his new book I am Sam – Least Common Denominator English. The book is organized into five sections, one for each year in a typical primary school. Each section is then split into twenty individual lessons. Every lesson then consists of an objective, ten words to learn and a short text example of how those words can be used. I am Sam is built in a concentric way, so the important words and concepts receive reinforcement as the student progresses. The book received a green cover and a revision in 2016 to include illustrations that provide a visual context for the text.
A sequel to I am Sam arrived in the fall of 2016. The new book, After Sam Came Pam – LCD English 2, had the same structure as the first book, but was written with adolescents as its target audience. The imaginative texts in LCD 1 morphed into full episodes in LCD 2, one for each of the three years of a middle school. Through his years of experience in observing the homework of hundreds of students, Michael realized that students seldom used correct punctuation. Sentences rambled on aimlessly with commas placed at random. To fix this situation, Michael broke the grammar rules into small bits and added rules to guide punctuation use. Each rule has a series of examples using idioms or typical expressions. By studying these guidelines, students will become more professional in their written communication. After Sam Came Pam has a yellow cover to indicate its intermediate level.
Michael published another sequel to I am Sam in November, 2017. In this original work, he once again replicates the LCD English structure presented in the first two books. Sam and Pam Jam – LCD 3, however, is in the format of a yearbook from a high school in the U.S.A. It is printed in color with artwork and sketches provided by his daughter, Linda. Once again, ten words are provided for each of the 100 lessons. Contrary to the first two books, the texts of Sam and Pam Jam provide individual episodes to a mystery involving the Homecoming Queen and the school mascot at Silverfoxx High. The lessons, though, are real slices of Michael’s life as a teenager in the United States. Teachers can share these anecdotes with their students, noting the similarities and differences with the lives of their own teenage students. The hope is that by drawing from real personal experiences, students will have a greater motivation to share their own personal experiences.
