From United KingdomLiving in Zagreb, Croatia (19:21 UTC+01:00)
About Me
italki teacher since Jan 11, 2022
Interest topic
*From March, I will have shorter available teaching hours as I will be working another job during the day, so apologies to anyone who’s schedule I cannot fit!
Hi, I'm Patrick. I was born and raised in the UK, and have lived in the UK, Japan and various countries around Europe. I'm a Music and Philosophy graduate from the University of Leeds, and have two year's experience teaching English. I love going to the gym, eating nice food and exploring new places. English is my first language, but I also speak Japanese at an intermediate (N2) level. I think that going through the language learning process myself has helped me see language learning from a student’s point of view.
Me as a Teacher
I'm quite a friendly and approachable person, and this attitude is reflected in my lessons, where I like to keep a causal tone with my students. I believe that people learn better when they feel comfortable, and that a relaxed atmosphere is the best setting in which to bring out inner confidence and foster an effective learning environment. Rather than asserting outright what is right or wrong, I like to encourage students to work things out for themselves, what mistakes they have made and why have they made them. In this way, rather than language learning being an exercise in memorisation, students really come to internalise the language and feel it for themselves.
My lessons & teaching style
I vary the style and content of my lessons a lot to match different student's language learning goals and learning styles. Some of my students engage mostly in self study, and want to use their time with a teacher to work on specific aspects of English that want help with. On the other hand, some students want me to guide them through a curriculum, to set out a guideline of what to learn and when. During lessons, I often diagnose weaknesses in a student's English that they might not see themselves. When this happens I like to recommend specific areas for improvement, either through further practice with me in a classroom setting, or in their own time.