WHO AM I?
Frustrated cook, actor, musician, gardener and time served crack English teacher. I´ve been teaching English for donkey´s years, but I´m still alive and I´m still kicking, raring to go, looking forward to meeting my latest students, this time via the telephone.
* Es un crack! Interesting to note that Spanish has adopted an English word but is using it differently. As you can see from above, crack is an adjective in English, but used as a noun in Spanish.
My Prosaic CV
I worked for a long time at the top English academies (IH, British Council, etc) and for quite a few cowboy set ups that went bust. I´ve done company English classes with some of the top companies and Institutions (BBVA, Ferrovial, Ministry of Defence, Mahou) and for quite a few cowboy set ups that went bust (Arthur Andersen to name but one) , and for one or two individuals that ended up inside who shall remain nameless.
So, by this stage, I know the secret to teaching English.
It´s no secret in fact, everybody learns in different ways, so my “method” is adapting to the way of learning of the student.
ENGLISH CONVERSATION BY PHONE
If you´re reading this blog/ website, you´re most likely intermediate or way above and you´re at that stage because you´ve spent a lot of time and energy studying English, doing grammar, reading, listening to podcasts and so on, all of which you´ve done by yourself. But you can´t study a conversation, it takes two to tango.
Previous to working by phone I´ve spent literally thousands of hours teaching one to one classes face to face then five years back I started teaching English by phone to various companies in the Pharmaceutical sector. A revelation. Working “remotely as they say strips away all distractions: You don´t have to find the room, shake hands, hang up your coat, make yourself comfortable, you´re straight in there: Hi, good morning Carlos/ Pilar etc, how are you doing today!
The concentration is full on – no visual or other distractions. It´s the most effective way of conversing I´ve found.
WHAT IS A CONVERSATION CLASS?
Or rather what do we do in my conversation classes. Basically, we talk about things but there´s no limit to what we can talk about. It could be important work matters or it could be a discussion about your favourite shoes or your dog. What I try to do is turn any conversation into learning. Put simply, while you´re talking I´m listening to two things: To what you say, and how you say it. And I´ll try and react to those things. Here´s an example:
(YOU) My dog is die
(ME) Wrong, you mean your dog is DEAD, repeat five times DEAD DEAD DEAD…
I don´t do that!
(YOU) My cat is dead
(ME) GOOD!!!!!! Last week you said die, not dead when your dog died, now you´ve said it right, but just for good measure, repeat what you said
(YOU) My cat is dead
(ME) Excellent!!
I don´t do that either
(YOU) My hamster dead last night
(ME) Oh that´s terrible, what happened?
(YOU) My cat eated him
(ME) Oh that´s awful, you must feel terrible
(YOU) I am, and my cat he dead too, my dog attack him for punish he
(ME) Oh, I can´t believe it, that´s SOOOO sad!!!
I might do that. And about a week later I might say:
(ME) How are you feeling after the tragic loss of your pets?
(YOU) Oh, better now, I kill my dog and buy other hamster.
(ME) Amazing…anyway, remember last week, you said “MY dog is DIED…well, that´s not quite right”
What do we talk about in an English conversation class?
Anything and everything. The onus is on you. If you want to talk about football go ahead, I don´t follow football so there will be little exchange of opinion, but it´s always good to learn new things. And as I say, I´m also listening so the conversation might go something like:
(YOU) Real Madrid are my prefered team, did you see the game on TV ?(ME:no, I´m afraid not) It was a very good game, Real Madrid won Betis five zero and Mariano was very good, he scored three goals.
(ME) Really? So Real Madrid are your favourite team? (YOU: yes) It sounds like it was a great game if Real beat Betis five nil and Mariano scored a hat trick, what an absolutely brilliant performance.
As you see, one way to “correct” or input alternative language is simply to repeat what you said using different idiom.
THIS BLOG/ WEBSITE
Yes I know you can´t look at it on a smartphone and that the layout is a bit chaotic but bear with me, at some point I´ll figure out my way around WordPress or upgrade or something and the blog/website will be even better.
My main intention with the site is to help learners use English better. There are articles where I´ll introduce new vocabulary and idiom, pronunciation tips, listenings, typical errors and how to iron them out, and lots more stuff too. You´ll notice I´ve highlighted to iron out in bold to draw your attention to the phrase so most of the words and phrases you come across in bold will be either new language to you, or expressions that you should use if you want to sound more native. I´m not keen on the term “native” by the way, it always makes me think of anthropology documentaries about lost tribes in Africa. By “native” I mean more “natural”, more like real English, less like English learners English.
When I get round to it I might sit down and create a sort of dictionary section where I explain the meaning of these phrases in bold, but for the time being, take a note of them, guess the meaning, look the phrases up and if they´re useful, start using them.
RingRingEnglish 