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Teaching English in Aberdeen

Posted by Peter Richardson - 12:30 on 22 October 2009

Good morning Joe, here's my story.

I spent 5 years, 2000 to 2005, working in Slovakia and became fluent in Slovak. Slovak is a Slavic language with strong similarities to Czech (of course) and Polish and considerable similarity to Russian and Serbian. Native Slovak speakers happily converse with native Czech, Polish and Serbian speakers but for foreigners such as myself it wasn't so easy.

I returned to Scotland in 2005 and in 2006 Aberdeenshire Council were looking for people to work with adults who needed help with English literacy. I took some SQCs in Adult Literacies, Working with Adult Literacies Learners, Learning and Teaching in Adult Literacies, to allow me to work for the Council. However, after about a year of teaching groups of foreign workers (mainly Poles and Latvians but occasionaly Hungarians, Russians, Venezuelans, Azerbaijanis) I felt that while I was more than competent in English what I needed was a qualification directed at teaching English. Hence, I did the 20 hour weekend course, the 50 hour TESOL on-line course and the 30-hour grammar on-line course. The classes I run can best be described as "drop-in". Some of my students are faithful and regular, others come and go. The courses helped me a lot in preparing lessons but that being said my main requirement is flexibility and the ability to throw a lesson plan out the window and "wing it" to cater for unexpected new students. I run two-hour classes on Monday and Tuesday evenings all through the year, only breaking for Christmas and New Year and when I'm away on holiday.

Let me know if that's sufficient.

Regards

Peter

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