Learning new skills

I love learning. There’s something about the journey from ignorance to competence that truly energises me. If I’m not learning new skills, I sense I may be in trouble.

This is probably why I’ve enrolled for numerous courses centred around my interests since I completed university – teaching English as a foreign language, teaching English to young learners, a few Japanese lessons while teaching in Japan, a few Italian lessons in the hopes of travelling to Italy (which I eventually did do many years later), darkroom photography (back in the day when we still used film cameras), digital photography, content marketing, blogging, copy editing, plain language, writing for the web, teaching online and, most recently, Search Engine Optimisation.

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

- Andy McIntyre

Travelling and teaching

All this learning has helped me in both my life and work, enabling me to travel to and teach in many countries. I first taught English in the UK where I worked with mostly rowdy Italian teenagers in summer schools.

I then travelled to Japan and taught there for 2 years. This is where I experienced culture shock for the 1^st time. It was a big learning curve, accepting cultural differences and doing things like slurping noodles - which actually brings out the flavour.

After Japan, I taught English in Cape Town (where I live now) and then Angola. Angola felt like the complete opposite of Japan – but also a culture shock! Despite the challenging environment, I always looked forward to my lessons; I experienced some of my most memorable teaching moments in, what someone once referred to as, “The richest poor country in the world”.

There is little I love more than seeing learners grow in confidence as they improve their skills – after all, this is the process that entices me too.

If you’d like to meet online for a free, no obligation, 30-minute English lesson, please click below.