Special topics: General English, Business English, Travel English
Hobbies: Spending time with my dogs, reading, learning Spanish, traveling.
Fun story: My all-time favorite funny moment was when a Japanese businessman told me that "A good f**k" was a sure way to capture his audience's attention during a presentation. (We both agreed a good "hook," although maybe not as effective, may be more appropriate.)
Tips for students: Get as much listening practice as you can; have lots of short sessions as opposed to one long one. Listening to news podcasts while you are walking, commuting to work or walking the dog is a great way to get listening practice without taking extra time out of your day. Put up post-it notes around the house with new vocabulary written on them; carry vocabulary cards in your purse to look at on the bus etc.
Special topics: Travel English, Grammar
Hobbies: Horse riding, photography, skiing, trekking, swimming, cooking
Fun story: The satisfaction of seeing students learn gives me a great deal of pleasure.
Tips for students: Always try to do a little everyday. Just 20 minutes can make a big difference. Enjoy the experience.
Special topics: IT English, Travel English
Hobbies: Traveling (I have visited 60 countries so far), IT (Web page design), Internet selling (I have 2 eBay stores)
Fun story: Not a fun story, but I found it very interesting and moving: Two weeks after the major earthquake in Sichuan Province, China last May, I had a young Chinese lady join one of my classes. She was living in Shanghai, however, all of her family lived in the stricken area of China. Her family was alright but they had lost their homes and everything they owned. She was still in a state of shock, but thought she'd attend a class to help take her mind off all that had happened. I could tell from the change in her voice from the start of the class to the finish I had managed to put a smile on her face and make things just a bit better for her!
Tips for students: Practice, practice, practice. Students always want to know how they can get "good" at English as quickly as possible. It's an easy answer - the more you practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking English, the better you're going to get. Practice a little = get a little better. Practice a lot = get a lot better!
Special topics: Grammar, Business English
Hobbies: I love dancing and listening to music - especially classic rock.
Fun story: My first class was so great that I forgot it was only 45 minutes long and ended up giving an hour long class.
Tips for students: Watch movies in English with English subtitles this helps pick up many expressions that you may not learn in a classroom.
Special topics: TEFL (teacher training), SLA (Second Language Acquisition), material development, writing, speaking proficiency, young learners and recently testing, assessment and evaluation
Hobbies: Reading, crafts (woodcraft mainly), walking, writing
Fun story: I had a student, recently, from Brazil who was so excited about my living in Israel. She had apparently been on vacation here many years ago and had fond memories. We had a few Private Lessons as a result and had a wonderful opportunity to compare notes.
Another nice story is about a student who frequently joins my lessons and is always very pleased to see me, as I am him. He lives in Hebron, one of the cities in the West Bank here in Israel. We both dream of the day we could meet for coffee freely and openly.
Tips for students: Never give up, keep on trying and be patient, it takes a while to learn a new language. But it pays off in the end.
Special topics: Grammar, Social, Business
Hobbies: All types of handcrafts, such as scrapbooking and fabric painting, horse-riding, hiking, reading
Fun story: A student announced in class that he was chatting to my daughter on MSN while we were in a class, and that I was "a good teacher, just like her!" (I always expected HER to take after ME!) I had to explain to the class - she is also one of our teachers!!
Tips for students: Build a solid foundation - learn to speak well socially before moving on to business topics. Have fun!
Special topics: Music, Language
Hobbies: Chess, Fishing, Billiards, Site Building, Traveling
Fun story: I once had 3 students with identical names in the same classroom. So I had to call them Carlos 1, 2 and 3!
Tips for students: Be patient and try to reinforce new things learned as often as possible. If you are always in a hurry to do things then you are living in the future. Try to be present "in the moment".
Special topics: Business English and Conversational Skills
Hobbies: Reading, writing and traveling
Fun story: Teaching with Englishtown is a passion. You meet students from around the world and I will always remember my two students Ivan and Connie who both attended my beginner lesson, they were boyfriend and girlfriend and met through their Englishtown classes, they were in the lesson together and introduced one another throughout the whole lesson. They wanted to work together and when they read the dialogue together they were reading it as though it was just the two of them, it made the class fun and all the students were inspired by their story. They are now getting married thanks to Englishtown!
Tips for students: Believe in your own ability to learn a new language. Most students suffer with lack of confidence. So do remember that what you are doing is achievable with practice and determination!
Special topics: Travel English, Business English, Medical, Legal
Hobbies: I used to like doing extreme sports like sky diving, shipwreck scuba diving, surfing, rock climbing, mountain climbing but had two children 2003 and 2005 so have had to put my activities on hold for now, one of the most memorable moments was standing on the edge of the Kumba glacier looking up towards the seracs of Mt Everest, what a feeling of total minuteness within the whole picture of life, a totally amazing place.
Fun story: I had a student tell me that they were given their grandmother’s locket after they killed her - they meant to say after she had died, what a mix up of the language but once I explained it the student was horrified at what they said but glad to know the correct way to say it.
Tips for students: Sing with English songs, its fun and great practice for pronunciation and vocabulary.
Special topics: Pronunciation, idiom, literature, poetry
Hobbies: Reading, traveling
Fun story: I've had a few Brazilian guys who are like me and like to make jokes and clown around. We encourage each other and sometimes get into trouble with the other students. Just like naughty boys!
Tips for students: Read, read, read. Listen to internet radio, even when you're not paying attention (www.publicradiofan.com). Keep a vocabulary book and test yourself. Have fun! Don't be too serious. Sometimes you need to be silly.