{"id":2625,"date":"2022-01-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tutor.engoo.com\/blog\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2022-01-17T16:09:22","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T16:09:22","slug":"engoo-tutor-darren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tutor.engoo.com\/blog\/about-online-tutoring\/engoo-tutor-darren\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Darren: Engoo Tutor and Award-Winning Filmmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It's not every day that you meet an award-winning filmmaker who also has over a decade of experience teaching English!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So today, we're pleased to introduce you to Darren. Besides discussing his life and creative work, he'll also share his tips on preparing students for standardized tests, working with kids who don't want to take our lessons, and more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And ... action!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tell us a bit about yourself!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I'm 42 \u201cyears young\u201d and I'm a passionate happily married man. I'm originally from the UK but have been living in Poland now for about 10 years and it's where I met my beautiful wife Iza. I mainly teach English and work on various creative projects like films, and about two years ago, I started tutoring on Engoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a bit about where you\u2019re from in the UK?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m actually Welsh! However, because I\u2019m from a town on the border with England, I grew up speaking English. I do know bits and pieces of Welsh. For example, \u201cthank you\u201d is \u201cDiolch yn fawr<\/a>.\u201d But most Welsh-speakers are in the heart of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as I always tell my students, Wales is a multicultural country. For example, my best friend growing up was from Afghanistan and my first girlfriend was Japanese!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what inspired you to move to Poland?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2000s, a lot of people from Poland were emigrating to the UK. Seeing the influx and having met so many wonderful Polish people on my travels, I started wondering what it would be like to live in their country, so I found work there as an English teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you experience any culture shock when you first moved there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely! In fact, I\u2019ve had to change my personality to fit into this culture. You know how British people say things like \u201cOh no thank you,\u201d \u201cNo after you,\u201d or \u201cIf you don't mind\u201d all the time? Well, when I first got here and was opening doors for people and no one was saying \u201cthank you,\u201d I was like \u201cHow are people so rude?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, I realized that's just a cultural difference! Polish people aren\u2019t rude \u2013 they just communicate in a different way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So tell us about your work making films! What\u2019s your favorite part of the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been making films since university, where I majored in filmmaking. I\u2019ve made documentaries, fiction films, all sorts of stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite part is the editing. With all the advances in digital effects, I can create worlds which were unheard of when I was at university. I feel like I\u2019m painting like a magician \u2013 especially when I\u2019m animating stuff, which I\u2019ve been doing a lot of recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the pandemic hit, I haven\u2019t been able to film people in real life, so I started to learn animation. I made my first animated film on \u2013 unsurprisingly \u2013 the pandemic, and it\u2019s done really well. It\u2019s picked up loads of awards at festivals and been shown all around the world! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Congrats! We\u2019ll share the film at the bottom of this interview. By the way, would you say your creative work helps your teaching and vice versa?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, teaching is creative! You have to figure out how to help people in creative ways, especially with language learning. And filmmaking is basically storytelling so when you meet people or you have lessons and they tell you stories, it gives you inspiration for new stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us about your experience teaching English and how you joined Engoo? How has it been switching to online from offline teaching?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019ve been teaching English since 2007, and most of my career has been in Poland though I also spent a summer in Spain. I\u2019ve taught all kinds of students from kids to doctors, actors to bankers \u2013 just about anyone who wanted to learn. I\u2019ve also done a fair amount of test prep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the beginning, I mainly taught at language schools, but later on, I took on more work as a freelancer. Freelancing gave me more opportunities to teach students in a flexible way, as opposed to following a fixed methodology that a language school gives you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined Engoo shortly after the pandemic shut down the office I rented as a freelance teacher. Tutoring online hasn\u2019t been too much of an issue for me though, because I always thought teaching was going to go online. The pandemic just sped this up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you noticed any differences between your Polish students and your Engoo students?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since joining Engoo, I\u2019ve started teaching a lot of students from East Asia, and I think the main difference is that I have to work harder to get them to express themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s probably because they\u2019re more used to a one-directional education where the teacher is a \u201csage on the stage.\u201d Like I\u2019ve had students who just took notes on what I was saying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the lesson shouldn\u2019t be about me, you know? So I\u2019m very conscious about giving them more opportunities to speak up and practice.<\/mdspan><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing I\u2019ve noticed is that East Asian students love to be criticized! They are definitely very appreciative of my feedback<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there are individual differences. Like recently I had this one gentleman from South Korea who hung up on me when I gave him feedback. But overall, my students on Engoo love feedback!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of feedback do you usually give?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I give a lot of feedback on grammar. For example, a lot of students continuously make mistakes with the perfect tense<\/a>, especially the past perfect<\/a>. So I\u2019ll point this out and then give them some sentences to put in the perfect tense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect of grammar I often point out is the different conditional tenses, especially the third conditional<\/a>, which goes like \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t done this, I wouldn\u2019t have done that.\u201d It\u2019s like time travel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while I bring these up as \u201cgrammar issues,\u201d they go far beyond that. It\u2019s like rewiring the way you think, you know? And once a student can put their thoughts in the right tense, the rest falls in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s really important to be encouraging when you point out these mistakes. I\u2019m usually like, \u201cYou can do this!\u201d and in my lesson notes, I\u2019ll let them know what progress they\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, it\u2019s motivating to let students know that they\u2019re improving, like if they\u2019re more fluent than before, if their rhythm<\/a> has improved, or if they're using the right collocation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tricky to get natural-sounding English, so when students are improving in that regard, I make sure they know it. For example, I\u2019ll say something like, \u201cThat phrase is better than what you were saying before!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You mentioned you\u2019ve taught kids before. Do you have any advice for working with kids who don\u2019t want to be taking English lessons?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So actually, I\u2019ve had more opportunities to teach kids since joining Engoo. Most of my younger students are between 8-12 years old and then I also get my fair share of teenagers. I have to say, I\u2019m quite happy to work with kids, probably because, I\u2019m a big kid myself! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I love it when students don\u2019t want to be there. They make me an even better teacher because I have to try harder to get them to love the lesson. In the beginning, I\u2019d see my students being pushed into the camera by their parents, and now they can\u2019t wait to have lessons with me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think you just have to be flexible and let them dictate the lesson. If they go off-topic, you go off-topic with them and then bring them back to the lesson when the time is right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You also mentioned test prep. Can you share your experience preparing students for standardized tests? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, I\u2019m glad you asked. I\u2019ve been teaching IELTS and TOEFL for over ten years. So I\u2019ve probably had over 150 students pass their exams at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key to preparing students for tests is to be intense about fixing their problems, especially when it comes to grammar. I become like an antibody you know? I just attack it and attack it and attack it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You wouldn\u2019t want to be this intense when you\u2019re having a conversation lesson with a student, but it\u2019s necessary for test prep!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all really helpful! Do you have any general advice for Engoo tutors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My biggest advice would be to not take things too personally. For example, going back to the South Korean gentleman who hung up on me, it\u2019s not like I pounced on him the first time he made the mistake, you know? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I allowed him to make the mistake multiple times before bringing it up at a moment I felt was appropriate. I also explained that I wasn\u2019t trying to be condescending and that I just wanted to help him fix this recurring mistake, but he just got more upset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These types of situations used to make me feel down, but over time, I learned that most students\u2019 frustration isn't aimed at me. People really put themselves out there by learning a new language, so they\u2019ll sometimes get frustrated and take those frustrations out on you. As teachers, we just have to shoulder some of this and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another example: Princess Mako \u2013  bless the poor woman! So many people are against her marriage and I get that it\u2019s their taxes that support the royal family, but I\u2019ll usually tell my students that, at the end of the day, it's her life. But sometimes during discussions like these, the student will be like \u201cHow dare you not understand!\u201d and get really upset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after teaching students from different countries and backgrounds, you just get used to it. People have different perspectives, and it\u2019s not always possible to find the middle ground!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udc4b That\u2019s it for now!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We hope you enjoyed getting to know Darren and took away a thing or two from his advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As promised, here's his animation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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