Hi, boys and girls.
How are you doing?
A lot of you have been asking me questions recently about who I am, what I do, etc.
So I decided to make a personal video just for you guys, for my YouTube channel.
Perfect time to do it: there’s music, there’s snow.
It kind of describes exactly where I am, so first and foremost, my name is Paul, if you
didn’t know.
I’m 37.
I’m a teacher and I’ve been teaching for, I think about , maybe 15 years or so, I’m
not sure exactly.
I really enjoy it and I’ll give you some more details about that later.
I’m English.
I was born in London, I grew up in London.
I started teaching in England, not in London, thank God.
And then I started teaching in Germany secondary schools, then I left Germany and I came to
where I am now.
And that’s what a lot of people ask: ‘where do you teach?’
And of course, if you’d like to know where I teach, if you don’t recognize this building
or don’t recognize anything around me, just follow me here and you’ll see one of the
most impressive buildings in the world – St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square in Moscow,
the Mighty Russian Federation.
Yes, that is where I teach and I absolutely love living here.
So a lot of people have been asking me why I became a teacher.
It’s actually the most common question.
It’s kind of hard to say but I suppose when I look back at my life when I was younger
I think about who truly inspired me and why they did and those were my German teacher
because I actually studied German at university and my school teacher Mr. Room.
Unfortunately he passed away last year very young which is very sad but he was a great
guy, he was funny, he explained things really really well.
And you kind of felt good just being there in the classroom so we looked forward to going
to school that day we had German.
When I finished school and I did my 2 years ‘A’ level before university, again, another
truly inspirational teacher called John Hill.
He just explained things so easily and when we were feeling down he could just feel us
and cheered us up.
He gave us sometimes crazy examples which helped us to remember grammar and certain
bits of vocabulary and actually that’s how I teach as well.
A lot of my examples are stupid because it actually helps people remember.
So it’s not just because I’m crazy or mental it’s because it for a reason because
of my former teacher.
The other reason why I became a Teacher, not just because of being inspired, I suppose.
I don’t think my childhood was probably the best, when I had long blond hair, which
is hard to believe.
I think things maybe could have been done a bit differently.
Things could have been explained a bit differently and I kind of feel that like I don’t want
people to miss out on any opportunity.
I like the idea of teaching people not just English but motivate them to give them some
moral principles to sort of guide their lives and I just like the idea that I can make a
difference.
No one should ever suffer especially young people and when I kind of see parents sort
of demotivating their children or saying something stupid I want to kill them, I really do.
Kids aren’t the problem, parents are.
And that’s the main reason.
I really believe I can make a difference in people’s lives.
A lot of people want to learn with me.
If you live in Moscow, you’re more than welcome to come to my classes.
Again on Vkontakte, the Russian social network you’ll see that I have adverts there for
my school.
For those of you who live in other countries, of course, follow me on YouTube, I’ll put
up more videos, I’m going to renew the Facebook page to be honest and I’m just going to
keep going up and up and up and, hopefully, one day I’ll be able to travel not just
around Russia to teach like I do but other countries in the world where I can meet all
of you and pass on my knowledge and experience.
So right I’m going to get coffee now because my brain is frozen.
So, when I’m not teaching I like to do many things in my free time.
Of course, the most important thing is to spend time with my gorgeous daughter Sasha,
who is right here, but you can’t see her.
Stand up.
Good girl.
Say ‘hello’.
Hello.
Hello, this is my beautiful daughter.
Now, maybe you would like to help me teach English.
Of course.
Yeah.
Ok.
For beginners.
So, I’ll say something in English and you will translate it into Russian.
OK?
Yes.
Something simple.
My name is Paul.
I’m English.
I’m from London.
But I live in Moscow.
I like swimming and going to the gym to exercise.
Right, OK, whatever…
my Russian is not very good.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
OK, ready?
This is where I like to come when I’m not teaching because I teach a lot.
So I like to exercise and not just exercise but meet a lot of people here where I can
speak Russian, meet Leo, who speaks perfect English.
It’s basically near where I live and it’s one of my hobbies.
So, that’s it.
That’s it?
Yeah.
The audience is wondering what are your 3 tips for the perfect exercise.
3 tips for the perfect exercise?
Firstly, I would say when you come to the gym leave your ego at the door because nobody
cares if you’re trying to do more weights than the other person, really it doesn’t
matter.
Secondly, I would say, warm up, maybe on a running machine or ellipsis.
It’s very important to warm up.
Some trainers say: ‘don’t do it’, which I find stupid.
And, thirdly, always have the correct technique and if your technique is bad you have too
many weights so drop the weight, get the right technique and you’ll get big much quicker.
So, I think that’s it.
I’ve just trained for 2 hours I’m tired.
Now I’m going to KFC.
Alright, thank you very much.
So this is my final hobby.
As you just saw I like to go to the gym to take my mind off teaching.
On top of that, I like to do modeling.
And as you can see behind me I’ve got a lot of models on my shelves.
They start out as little pieces of plastic like this, I cut them out, clean them, glue
them together, paint them and if I don’t cut my finger off in the process or glue my
hand to a model or the model doesn’t end up on the floor or in the bin then it ends
up here on the shelf.
They are not bad.
I’m not a professional by any means but it’s just a nice way to use my hands and
not think about anything.
I think I really need to give them a clean to be honest.
A nice British spitfire.
Yeah, it’s really dirty, I think I should clean this actually to be honest.
That’s basically my hobbies that I do to keep my brain working or not working.
Let’s move on to my Top tips for learning English.
So my friends this concludes my little introductory video.
My top 5 tips for learning English.
Of course, they are quite obvious but I’ll sort of just tell you them again.
I’ve mentioned them in other videos.
You know, the 1st one and I tell this to my students.
If you really want to learn English, if you want to learn anything you need to go the
extra mile.
You need to do more than expected.
For example, I had students in the past who came to my classes and they really didn’t
do more than what I told them to do.
Those students who went home and use their initiative and they went onto the internet,
found things, found books they can use themselves, ask other people, those are the people that
progress very very quickly, because they are doing more.
And they are exercising their brains a lot more.
As a result their English is a lot better.
Second one: don’t worry too much about mistakes.
Here in Russia that’s a big problem because in Russian schools students often told ‘you’ve
got to be correct’.
As a result that kills confidence and students don’t speak that much.
I have to break down that system and rebuild them again by telling them that it’s ok
to make mistakes, that’s why pencils have a rubber on the end because people make mistakes.
And if you don’t open your mouth, you’re not going to practice, are you?
And it’s impossible to be perfect, it really really is.
Even students who are advanced will make mistakes.
So don’t worry about it.
And in my experience I’ve had students who are pre-intermediate who have the most wonderful
characters ever and it doesn’t matter they make mistakes.
They’re still great to talk to.
So it doesn’t matter.
You have to get that stigma out of your head.
Number 3: if you want top quality teaching, spend money.
A lot of people do send me messages asking for my help.
I want to help everyone as much as I can, however some people do ask questions ‘hello,
Paul, how do I learn English?’
or ‘can I speak to you for like an hour?’
‘For fun?’
No, I’m extremely busy.
I mean I’d like to help but if you want me to teach you, you have to pay me to do
it.
You know, online there’s a lot of information, a lot of websites, where you can do some online
exercises.
For example on Russian social network, VK, there’s so many communities for learning
English.
And you know to be honest if all that stuff was useful and great everybody would speak
perfect English around the world.
But the truth is they don’t.
Because number one, there is information overload.
And number 2, people don’t know how to use it.
You need to have a teacher.
It’s as simple as that.
Unless you’re super talented and gifted and have some superpower, then congratulations.
Number 4: be realistic.
Can I learn English in 6 months?
Forget it.
I don’t care what some people tell me.
‘Oh you can learn a language in 3 months’ No, you can’t.
Because I’ve never met anyone that can.
Again, if you have superpower congratulations.
But it takes years and years of practice.
Yes, in 3 months you can learn to communicate if you go on holiday some basic communication
but to get to a super advanced level from a beginner forget it.
It’s not going to happen.
Also, when I say be realistic that also means that if, for example, you’ve got a job,
you’ve got a family, you’ve got kids to look after, a lot of obligations or commitments.
The time you can invest in learning English is not going to be as much as a student at
university.
You should never compare.
You should understand you’re doing as much as you mentally and physically can within
your restrictions, within your limits.
And number 5: very simple, just enjoy it.
I would never spend time doing something that I didn’t enjoy.
Why waste time?
Learning English shouldn’t be boring, it should not be a chore.
You can enjoy it.
There are so many things available even funny videos on youtube, watch films in English,
even I’ve mentioned up here you know.
When you learn, do more than expected, watch a TV, read books.
Find people online to talk to.
If you travel, throw yourself into situation, speak to people, have great fun doing it.
You know, I love teaching, I love learning languages myself, I think it’s enjoyable.
For me the biggest benefit is being able to communicate to anyone around the world.
So that’s it.
Have a nice day everyone.
I’m now going to watch kitten and puppy videos on YouTube to relax.