Three Jobs

By AJ

I essentially have three jobs.

First, I work for a school called IIC in San Francisco, CA. Its a good school, with very nice students and teachers, and a great director. While I am often highly critical of schools, I feel that IIC is an excellent English language school and I'm very happy to be teaching there.

My second job is tutoring with The Linguist. I don't do this for money- I do it because I believe The Linguist is the most powerful and effective language learning resource available. With The Linguist, a student can access a large library of material that comes in both text and audio form. The learner can use the system to acquire and save new words and phrases. Linguist students can also submit writing samples for correction by tutors. Finally, the Linguist offers one one one and group discussions with native speaker coaches, via Skype. I can't say enough good things about The Linguist- and am excited to contribute to their success- if only a little bit.

Finally, my third job is teaching private students on my own. I work with a few students here in San Francisco. My job is to coach them towards English mastery AND independence. I don't just teach them English. Rather, I work to teach them a language learning system. When I first meet them, I always tell my private students- "I will teach you a very effective system, but you are going to do all the work!" I'm very honest with my students. I tell them that one hour a week, or three hours a week, is not enough. I tell them that they need to devote at least an hour a day to focused, repeated, systematic listening, reading, and (if ready) speaking practice- every single day. I tell them that if they follow the plan, they WILL make a breakthrough within 6 months. And finally, I tell them that I expect them to fire me once they make the breakthrough. I'm direct about this- I don't want them to become dependent on me. I don't want them to still be coming to me one year, two years, or five years later. I want them to learn an effective self-learning method, master it, make it a daily habit, and then- eventually, be free of me.

As a private coach/tutor, I do not consider language explanation to be a very important job. I do explain things now and then. But the most important part of my job is to:
1) help students develop their own powerful learning plan
2) motivate, encourage, coach, and cajole them to boost their motivation, increase their focus, build their confidence, and assure their success.

Of the three jobs, I must admit that the third one- private English coaching- is the most rewarding. I enjoy it the most because I see the best results. Its so exciting to see a learner make fast progress. Its wonderful to see their confidence grow. Its simply amazing to see what can be accomplished by an energized learner with an effective plan. Truly amazing.

I love being a part of that!





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