WHO ARE YOUR STUDENTS? - My students are from various ages, school levels or profession. I am not accepting just any student. I select my student based on their eagerness to learn and reason why they wanted to learn L2. As a matter of fact, I terminated or rejected few students already from the past. The main reason was because, I am not after money but I want to teach student who are worthy by being meek and courteous which I am looking for before I accept anybody as my student. Because most often than not, when the applicant is not humble, the tendency is that he/she might boost the gift of knowing a 2nd language because language gives power. It is a tool to make things realized and bring a person to different places. And if the learner is not courteous, he/she might disrespect me because I am easy to get along with, jolly and patience aside from being an Asian; as what I experienced before from my previous student Korean.
(Most of my students are living in Daejeon, Seoul, Ulsan and Andong.)
(Some example of their writing projects and diary including some students’ personal testimonial about my teachings are posted here.)
WHEN DID YOU START TEACHING ENGLISH TO DIFFERENT NATIONALS SPECIALLY KOREANS? It just happened by accident when my theater colleague sister asked me if I could handle one Korean student who is a middle school female student who was the language manager’s headache that time, since there are already 3 teachers attempted to handle her but still can’t please her. Therefore, I would be the 4rd teacher to handle her if ever. So, I felt pity with this girl thinking her parents colossal expenditures just to send her to another country to study and yet nobody could make her satisfied. So, it puzzled me why and it became a challenge to me to try, though I believed, I am not an expert.
When I met her, she is tall and smart. She is wearing eyeglasses and speaks so timid and has so much complexity expressing herself in English. I felt sorry for her when I was also told by the manager of the language house that she cried often because of discontentment. So, to gain her trust I immediately showed her my professional teacher’s license ID.
Though, the compensation offer was very low to my surprised but, I still accepted it just for the sake of… Then, the following day, I interviewed her and assess her English skills. I also asked her what her goal is. She said, “I want to speak English naturally”.
I wondered why she can’t be contented with her previous teachers. I inquired what are the materials or textbook they are using. How she was taught by her previous teachers. What exactly they are doing every lesson.
She showed me one textbook they are using and it is TOIEC GRAMMAR. Instantly, I drop it on the floor after I took hold of the book. And she was stunned! Then, I said… “This is not what you need to achieve your goal”! I set aside all they are using even asked her to stop memorizing 30 individual words per week.
We start all over again. After that first session, an irrepressible smile appeared on her face. Tantamount in saying, “I found hope at last”.
A staggering improvement in her speaking and listening skills was observed by other Korean students, teachers and including the manager after 14 days and 10 hours every session; which means our only break is to eat lunch and dinner. And she accomplished “Survival English” and accelerated to intermediate level after getting a high score in TOIEC pretest and conversation test conducted by the Korean language house owner. By the way, I am the only teacher there who did not follow their syllabus, textbook etc but instead brought my own. And they don’t know what I am using because we are always inside my student room when studying.
(Though, she appreciated my effort very much and commended my unconventional method of teaching…but I still telling her, “I am not a good teacher and there are lots of better teacher out there perfectly grasped the English grammar rules which I can’t…until now and striving. Just you may say, I am different among the rest.)
WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR UNCONVENTIONAL METHOD OF TEACHING ENGLISH THAT YOUR STUDENTS FIND IT MORE HELPFUL COMPARED TO ESL OR GENERAL ENGLISH…? Since I am just an elementary student, I studied Japanese language through my eldest brother’s lesson because he is studying Japanese at that time. It is also a big factor that my mother also likes to learn different languages and dialects that influenced me a lot. Therefore, aside from English as her 2nd language she knows some few basic expressions in Spanish, Japanese, Chinese languages and some dialects like: Capampangan, Visaya and Ilocano.
So, when I became a university freshman student, I tried to learn Spanish too, because when I was young I enjoyed listening and watching my uncle talking to a retired Spanish priest who was given temporary home by him at the back of his clinic. Hence, my mother is working with my uncle so she was able to talk to him too.
Then, after finishing my university degree course, I studied basic French because during that time I am aiming to apply a visa for Canada. For some reason my plan was impeded and I became a freelance tour guide mostly for French nationals in Lenten Season. Therefore, studying French became useful and not wasted.
After several years, I tried to study Korean as I already teaching Korean exchange student from Hannam University and Andong University as a private tutor after setting up a tutorial and arts center. But, because one of my rule: “to set aside temporarily the L1” while studying L2”, I also been affected. I can’t practice my Korean to them.
Because, I am already very much involved in teaching English to Koreans so I decided to make it as an additional career aside from being a theater and media personality/director for 3 decades so I studied in graduate’s school and took Masters in Language Education.
Then, when the so called “sleeping dragon” Chinese dominated the world market and putting them to the 2nd spot as the wealthiest country, I got interested in learning their language too. But, in the middle of my studying I stop. And realized that I‘d rather study the language of the country I considered my second home which is Korea; where my previous Korean students that I treated like my own daughters are living.
To make my story short, I acquired my own style of teaching based on my own experiences and research while taking up my masters in Language Education.
HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU IF THEY ARE INTERESTED?
They can send email (maestraviajes2004@gmail.com) first and write some little introduction even in Hangul and reason why they want to learn the language. They should also include some vital information like: yahoo messenger or skype address and contact number because I will assess and interview the applicant.
“Honesty is the best policy”!
(Note: There are lots of better English teacher and deserving to teach you out there. You just search and choose.)
