How have you been adjusting and keeping busy at home? I’ve been ramping up my online ESL teaching.

I’ve been teaching ESL for a while now. I love teaching because I can meet people from all over the world and watch them grow. I teach online which means my students are from a lot of different countries, 23 to be exact. A big reason why I love advertising and brand strategy is that it’s so focused on people. Here, I get to talk to different people while learning about them and their culture. It’s a dream hobby. Through the process of teaching English, I’ve learned a lot. Here are a few of those things.

  • I didn’t really know English. Well, of course, I’m fluent in English. But, do you know why we say we “go in a car”, but “on a bus”? They’re both vehicles but use different prepositions. Do you know what collocations are? I sure didn’t before teaching. I’m telling you, there’s a reason why they say English is one of the hardest languages to learn.
  • In high school, I was told repeatedly that I spoke too quickly. I remember when I filmed my first introductory video, it was painful to speak so slow. When I refilmed to update it 7 months later, it was natural for me to speak at a slow, much more understandable, pace. I make sure to speak slowly and clearly in my every day as well.
  • Perhaps the biggest takeaway that I can bring to my personal and professional life outside of teaching is the idea that you should never assume someone knows something. Constant communication is necessary. A student may be too embarrassed or shy to ask about a word they don’t know or grammar I used. Over-communication is unnecessary in normal speech. But, deliberate and clear communication is imperative in everything you do.
  • This is a more obvious truth but is difficult to put into practice: don’t use the word you’re trying to define in the definition, and don’t use more difficult words than the one you’re defining.
  • For the love of all things holy, stay organized, and take notes. I have taught over 70 students. That’s 70 different conversations I need to keep track of. What are they looking for from me? What did we already talk about? What do they need to practice? When did we last speak? When will we meet again? I don’t know what I’d do without my little ESL notebook.
  • Have you ever had a conversation with yourself for a full hour straight? Probably not. But, sometimes that’s what it can be like when a student doesn’t know much English but wants conversational practice. I learned to keep a conversation going – even if it’s mostly me talking. I learned to engage another person and move through different topics with ease.
  • Everyone has different skills and learning styles. I teach for consecutive hours at a time, so I have to switch my technique every hour, on the hour. Adapting is key in this world – and often it needs to be done on the flip of a switch.
  • The imperial system does not make near of sense as the metric system.

I love teaching and hope to continue to do it for the rest of my life. You can check out my teacher profile page here if you’re interested or know someone who needs help learning English. I’d be glad to help.

About Marissa Musings: Marissa Musings are short blog posts that derive from an outpouring of random thoughts. My brain can be a very crazy place. Enjoy with caution.