[Essay 15] Teaching English
It's been over a year, since I returned to Korea. There were many unexpected things I confronted, which are still quite uncomfortable in a way, but now I think I'm used to them as part of Korean culture. Currently, I am teaching English for adults and even some students living in America through Zoom. Before this job, I used to work at a French hand bag store in Yongsan where I was a store manager, so did I in the United States, kind of paralleling and connecting with my previous job.
Fortunately, conducting 1:1 English class is the most fulfilling job I have ever had, and when my students start speaking English very well, the happiness can't be better than anything. I can't just describe the immense feeling from both the sense of achievement and proudness about it. While it feels a common service job as others do, these amazing moment that I just mentioned before recharges my energy right away, which is the specialty that the other jobs don't have. It motivates me to keep working on in this area.
Nevertheless, I'm still figuring out of how I can be better when it comes to teaching so that people can easily access English and learn with joy. I truly believe, and actually have been proving, that it's possible for anyone wanting to speak in English, so called "free talking", to make it happen. Let me tell you an example here. He is in 30's and has never been willing to learn English by himself, working as a Korean software engineer, which does not require using English necessarily. No grammar, just some basic knowledges that others normally have, such as be-verb. He has been joining my class only for 3 MONTHS and now? He is able to describe his daily life 100% in English. Of course there are some minor handful grammars to be corrected but it's overall great! Actually this success story is one of many, including students from the Berklee College of Music(MA), Seoul National University, KIST lab researcher and some government officials. Everyone can do it. But I won't say literally "everyone". I mean you will achieve it only if you try to practice by yourself. Otherwise, it simply will never happen.
Here's why: Some students come to me saying "I'm not good at speaking in English, even though I scored over 90% in some English proficiency test like TOEIC, OPIC etc. What should I do? and what am I doing wrong?" Well, there's a common issue here: a lack of making their own English. They may have studied hard, and that's why they got a good grade on the various tests. But, what they did was mostly memorizing the answers that they were supposed to spit out at the test. Talking isn't that case, meaning it's not to find an answer like a test, but to express oneself and communicate with others. The point is to practice to create your own language so that you can express what YOU think, by sophisticating your words to say and receiving feedback from English speakers or teachers like me. It's the most essential and critical to keep in mind for all English learners, I would strongly suggest.
There's an ultimate plan ahead. Since new students keep coming to my class, I will create my own institution to teach and realize all their goals related to English.
