Visited 2 days ago
Simon
English
Native
French
Japanese
Spanish

From United Kingdom

Living in Other, France

Teacher, IELTS Tutor and Proofreader with MA in Applied Linguistics and 32 years’ experience Hi, I’m Simon—a British English teacher with a passion for languages, travel, and adventure. With 32 years of teaching experience and an MA in Applied Linguistics, I specialize in helping students excel in IELTS and academic English, preparing them for success at university. My expertise comes from 15 years of teaching at Japanese universities and pre-sessional courses at the University of Glasgow, where I honed my skills in guiding students through the complexities of academic language. My love for languages isn’t just professional—it’s personal. Having lived in Japan for 20 years and now residing in France, I’ve immersed myself in learning Japanese and French. I have been teaching English for 32 years and I have a Certificate in TEFLA (CELTA), an Advanced Certificate in TESOL and an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. I was the editor of a Teacher Education journal in Japan for eight years and I taught at universities there for 15 years. I taught pre-sessional courses at the University of Glasgow from 2015 to 2020, completing 13 in all, so I have a lot of experience in preparing students for the cultural and academic expectations in an English-speaking university setting. The goal of the pre-sessional courses was for the students to attain an IELTS-equivalent score of 6.5 or 7. Also, I have been teaching scuba diving and first aid since 2002. It is difficult to describe a specific style as each student is different and one of the greatest strengths of the Italki platf...
My teaching material
  • PDF file
  • Text Documents
  • Audio files
  • Video files
  • Flashcards
  • Articles and news
  • Quizzes
  • Test templates and examples
  • Graphs and charts
  • Homework Assignments
Read more

Interests

Writing
Films & TV Series
Sports & Fitness
Reading
Travel
Trial Lesson
497 lessons completed
USD 10.00+
English for Studying at an English-speaking University
B1-C2
Language Essentials
425 lessons completed
USD 13.00+
10% off
English Conversation with help on pronunciation and grammar
A2-C2
Conversation
1,755 lessons completed
USD 13.00+
10% off
Proofreading/Essay Correction
A2-C2
Language Essentials
194 lessons completed
USD 14.00+
Based on your timezone (UTC)
4.9
652
Reviews
100%
Attendance
100%
Respond
For beginners·21
Structured lessons·2
Provides materials·2
Student Lidiya Grishayeva
Lidiya Grishayeva
93 English lessons
Teacher’s pick
I have been taking lessons with Simon for half a year now, and I truly enjoy the learning process. I can clearly see my progress, which motivates me a lot. We discuss a wide variety of topics and learn new vocabulary in every lesson, along with detailed pronunciation correction. After each class, I receive homework assignments that we carefully review and discuss during the next lesson, which helps reinforce the material and structure my learning. Simon is very polite and supportive. He communicates at a comfortable pace and always makes sure everything is clear. If something is difficult to understand, he explains it patiently and provides clear examples until it fully makes sense. I especially appreciate that he often explains the origin and background of certain words. Understanding their etymology makes new vocabulary much easier to remember and gives deeper insight into the language.
Student Joayeon
Joayeon
13 English lessons
Teacher’s pick
For an immigration purpose, I had to get IELTS 7.0 (each band), and looked for the qualified English teacher who has many years of experience in teaching. Now that I got my desired scores (actually higher than that - L 9, R 8.5 S&W 7), I feel so grateful that I met Simon! He helped me a lot during my IELTS journey especially for my writing score to increase from 6.5 to 7. For the last three months, he motivated me to write more essays and gave me excellent feedbacks and estimated my possible score for every writing piece that I produced. The classes always went smooth, in an interactive and fun way, so I never got bored. I really admired his long teaching experience and ability to attend in details! Apart from that, he has collected very useful and hands-on information about IELTS and how the scoring system work, and he never minded sharing this valuable information with me. If you need IELTS score and find a qualified teacher, I do recommend Simon as your English teacher!!!
Michael Tsia
11 English lessons
I have taken editing lessons with Simon for terms. I got a merit for my modules 1 and 2. Hopefully, I will get a distinction this term!
Tanya
16 English lessons
Teacher’s pick
In our lessons, we have combined both interview preparation and general conversations. Simon is an excellent teacher and an amazing person. He is confident, intelligent, knowledgeable and capable to listen to me as a student. He has reacted to my needs, be they help, guidance or further explanation, adopting a supportive and an encouraging approach. He always gives honest feedback and challenges with (unexpected) questions that make me think. Being a linguist, he understands what intercultural communication is. Last but not least, he has a good sense of humor, which adds to the whole experience. Although I still can't articulate my thoughts in English as fluently as I would like to, I feel I've been making some progress. Thank you for that, Simon! And let me highly recommend you!
Student Eric
Eric
1 English lesson
Had a great trial lesson with Simon. He is friendly, patient and supportive. I enjoyed the interaction very much.
Michael Tsia
11 English lessons
As good as usual