Hi! Thanks for checking out what a lesson like me would be like. 

ENGLISH:
The trial lesson will mostly be a conversation between the two of us. First, I will ask you some questions about yourself and your experience with English. Then I will tell you a little about myself. After that we will work together to make a plan for how you can best proceed learning English. I will be taking notes throughout this process about your English, what you are doing well, and areas we could work together to improve. If this sounds like what you need, feel free to try it out!

CHICHEWA:
As most people start Chichewa from scratch, the trial lesson in this case will be the first lesson in the Chichewa curriculum: greetings. By the end of it, you will know how to properly greet people formally and informally at certain times of the day. If you choose to continue after this lesson, the format will be similar but on different topics. I will send you a word document and the PowerPoint we used after each lesson, as well as a vocabulary list of the most important vocabulary for the following week if you'd like to learn it ahead of time (helpful, but not necessary, because I try my best to keep the vocabulary on the screen while we work on grammar).

This lesson is exactly what it sounds like—the opportunity to practice your English! In our first lesson, I will ask random questions designed to get to know one another better and keep the conversation flowing. I will not interrupt you to make corrections, unless you specifically request that. The lesson is an entirely natural conversation. Throughout the lesson, I will be typing what you're doing well and what could be improved into a Word Document. I will write down all the grammatical mistakes and mistakes in pronunciation that you make, along with corrections. I will send you this document after each lesson.

For all remaining lessons, I will ask if you have a topic you would like to discuss. If not, would you like me to choose one? Or would you rather discuss anything that comes up? Most of the time, I speak with students about news articles in an area they are interested in, but it is entirely up to you what you want to talk about!

I am from the United States and speak with a General American/Standard American English accent (GA/SAE).

Conversation Practice

In this lesson, we will work on topics in English grammar that you are struggling with. After we identify some areas of weakness for you (together), we will spend some time discussing how to work through them. Then, working from either a shared Google Doc (or a Word Document which I will send to you after the lesson). I usually explain things and draw tables or diagrams before working through some practice exercises together with you, and then ask you to have a conversation with me on a topic that will help practice the grammatical topic that you have been learning. I will provide feedback at the end of the lesson as well as in the document that I send to you afterwards.

English Grammar

Moni nonse! This lesson is for English speakers with no background in Chichewa at all. We will spend time discussing some basic vocabulary and the structure of the language. You will be speaking basic Chichewa in the first lesson. If you choose to continue with more lessons, we will discuss the many interesting facets of Chichewa, like noun classes, locatives, and extremely easy verb tenses.

How do I know Chichewa? I spent almost 3 years in Malawi teaching English to secondary school students. Additionally, my partner is Malawian, a native speaker, so I get a lot of practice in this language. Although I am not a native speaker, I became so fluent that I wrote a 200 page book in the language, which is under consideration for publication in Malawi.

Chichewa is called Chinyanja or Nyanja in Zambia. Chinyanja and Chichewa are generally considered to be the same language but there are some minor differences between them. The variety I speak is Malawian, specifically the dialect from the Kasungu and Lilongwe area, which is considered the standard dialect.

If you have some background in another Bantu language, like Swahili or Zulu, learning Chichewa will be very easy.

For the initial lessons, I follow the same format, though I adapt to each individual students' vocabulary needs depending on why they're learning the language. I have pre-made Quizlet decks with the vocabulary for each lesson I'll share with you, as well as optional post-lesson worksheets. Here is the general structure of lessons we cover:

1. Greetings
2. Pronouns and Verb Tenses
3. Tenses and Tones
4. Questions
5. Intro to Noun Classes (Mu-A Nouns)
6. Chi-Zi Nouns
7. More Verb Tenses
8. Possessives
9. I-Zi Nouns
10. Review Lesson [No Deck]

These lessons tend to be more grammar-heavy than my English lessons (though I can modify that if desired). Post-lesson 10, lessons are more flexible and I include more 'topical' content and themes (i.e. travel, shopping, weddings, funerals, folk tales, etc.)

Beginner's Chichewa for English Speakers

(Note: Please do not book this lesson without either sending me a document or messaging me to send you an essay prompt. This is so we can review your essay (which is already written) at the time of the lesson. We can also work on resumes and cover letters.

In this lesson, I will either share my screen or work with you to edit an essay you've written on Google Docs. We will work together to fix grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. We can work on anything. In the past students have worked on essays, while others have simply reviewed the e-mails they've written for work. If it's written down, we can focus on it in this lesson.

You should send me a Word document containing your essay and I will then share my screen with you and read your essay out loud, and note where I see mistakes. When we meet, I will highlight the mistakes in a different color and work with you to correct them. At the end of the lesson, I will send you back your edited essay(s). You can write essays on any topic, and it can be practice essays you've written for TOEFL or IELTS. If you would like for me to provide a topic for you to write about, please message me after booking the lesson and I will provide you with at least 2. In general, it is possible to work on 1-2 essays per hour, depending on your level and the essay length.

Writing Help and Review

In this course, we will discuss English-language literature. I have a set list of short stories, novels, and poetry that I will send to you for you to choose from to read prior to our initial lesson. You can also select something that isn't on the list! I'll then come up with discussion questions for us to talk about during the lesson. Apart from that, I treat my feedback like my other English lessons -- I will write down any sentence you make that has a mistake and note corrections in it. I will organize these corrections by theme and send them to you in a Word document (along with the discussion questions) and any new vocabulary we discuss.

English Literature

These lessons are designed to focus explicitly on pronunciation and have you sounding more like a native speaker of American English. Many pronunciation problems can be traced back to the way you pronounce words in your native language. In these lessons, we will discuss the pronunciation rules of your own native language before discussing how to work on the different rules of the English language. We generally also learn the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) sounds relevant to English. Because English has so many vowel sounds compared to many other languages, this is often essential in distinguishing between similar-sounding words to non-native speakers (like 'live' and 'leave,' for example). Some people find this lesson type very technical and it can be overwhelming for beginners, but intermediate and advanced learners usually find it helpful.

American English Pronunciation Workshop

An extended oral interview which contained random and unexpected bits of small talk, along with a difficult scenario question surrounding an abstract topic. My scenario was to describe in detail how gender roles differed in the United States and Malawi, whether this was good or bad, and how the country should go about resolving negative aspects related to these gender norms. I scored a Superior, the highest possible score on the Peace Corps version of the ACTFL ranking system.

Intensive full-time immersive course in Swahili in preparation for a job in East Africa. For five months, I spoke exclusively in Swahili for 5 hours a day with a one-on-one tutor, and used another 3 hours for daily self-study. I achieved a 3+/3+ which is higher than the required level to use the language in a professional setting for the company I worked for at the time.

A 160-hour Course which reviewed various teaching methodologies, their strengths and drawbacks, as well as specific grammatical and phonetic qualities of English.

First-year law student, focusing on human rights and international law.

Focused on Ancient Philosophy and Global Theology, with an emphasis on syncretism in world religions.

Assisted the primary ESL Teacher for Advanced students in lesson planning and facilitating lessons, as well as working with clients to get to appointments throughout the city and guiding them through the process of interacting with local officials.

Taught Secondary/High School Students English for 2 years. During this time, I also became fluent in the national language (Chichewa/Chinyanja) and developed a 200 page manual describing English Grammar written in Chichewa.

Assisted the Programming Team in training new teachers and preparing volunteers to become English Educators for the next two years. Additionally, assisted in cultural awareness and sensitivity workshops.