Next up, we spoke to Rebecca from Brazil, one of the presenters of our Learn English with Cambridge YouTube channel. Read on to discover Rebecca’s alter-ego as a ‘walking meme’, her difficulties with learning French at university and why she likes to use technology and games in her lessons.
Rebecca, when did you know you wanted to teach English? What was it that made you choose that as a career?
I guess I knew I wanted to teach English when I saw how many people wanted to learn but had so much difficulty doing so. I wanted to change that by making learning fun and meaningful. Working in a teaching environment is great because I’m constantly learning along with my students and peers. I also believe that if I can make a difference in my students’ lives, they will be better people and create a better world in the future.
How did you get in to teaching?
I guess I have always been a teacher. My way to study as a child and teenager was to ‘teach’ a subject on the blackboard in my garage and my dogs were the students. Having lived abroad as a child and enjoyed learning and studying English, when I entered university, people started asking me to teach English. So, I started as a private tutor and studied a lot of teaching techniques and how to personalise a lesson, attending to the specific needs of each student. After that, I decided I wanted to work with children and teens and started working at a school, where I am now the bilingual program coordinator.
What are your favourite English areas to teach?
I love teaching pronunciation, expressions (I have a big passion for phrasal verbs), and I love to make my classes closest to my learners’ realities, using real life examples like songs, movies and TV series.
Do you have any funny or emotional experiences of working with learners?
I have had a lot of funny experiences working with learners. I’m a very theatrical teacher, so I’m always making funny faces or voices; it keeps my learners attentive and also creates a fun learning environment. I also have a teenage student who calls me a walking meme and has made an Instagram page with the funniest pictures of me and even funnier memes.
How has speaking another language impacted your life?
I guess speaking English has made me the person and professional I am today. Having learned English as a child, I can relate to my young learners. I know how easy it can be for children to pick up things, so I never doubt their capacity and know they can develop more and more. I also took French classes when I was at university and boy, was it difficult. Because of that, I understand my older learners’ difficulties and always try to make the class interesting, so they want to participate despite their difficulties. I’m a very communicative person and knowing English makes me capable of speaking to basically anybody in the world, and that’s what I try to show my students.
Is there anything you found surprising or interesting about the English language, that differs from Portuguese spoken in Brazil?
I love the fact that the grammar in English is so simple, especially in contrast with verb conjugation and gender for nouns and adjectives that are part of the Portuguese language. I guess English is a very intuitive language and I see how foreigners struggle when learning Portuguese.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
Well, I work full time at a school where I teach and coordinate the bilingual program. After work, I’m a full-time mom and spend time with my two daughters Helena and Heloisa. Helena’s 5 and we have a great time watching movies, reading books and playing board games, while Heloisa is just starting to interact with us, as she is now 7 months old.
Are there any other languages you would like to learn?
I’d like to improve my French, as it’s very rusty since I haven’t studied it in a while and I would like to learn Greek, as my father was Greek and unfortunately passed away before he could teach me.
How are you finding being a presenter on the Learn English with Cambridge YouTube channel?
I’m so grateful and happy. I’ve always wanted to produce my own videos and to do it for Cambridge University Press is a dream come true. I get so excited with each new video. I’m learning a lot about filming and editing, and it’s even helped me become a better teacher in giving objective and clear explanations.
You have mentioned before that you like to use games and technology when teaching – why do you think that is important?
Technology, today, is part of my learners’ reality – everybody is connected – so instead of telling the students to put it away, why not use that with a teaching purpose? Sometimes I have students that are not so interested in what we are studying, but the moment I put a game or technology or even both in a lesson, they start participating, get involved and don’t even realise they are learning or practising English. Once, I saw a lecture by Herbert Puchta and he said there is no learning without emotional engagement. I took that to heart, and I believe that learning can be fun and the more interested the students are the more significant the learning.
What can we expect from you in your future videos on the channel?
I want to continue bringing interesting and relevant content to the channel. I’m now getting the hang of filming and editing so I’ll explore more possibilities in that area. I really want to bring some videos with expressions and phrasal verbs. They’re used on a daily basis by natives and so important for communicating and understanding English.
As someone who has already learned English as a second language, what advice would you give to someone who is trying to learn English now?
Don’t give up! Sometimes when learning gets a bit tougher, we think about quitting. I love to recommend that learners practise daily an exercise of thinking in English. No-one needs to hear it, just think what you’re doing for a small period of the day. That will give you the possibility to branch out your vocabulary and practise your fluency. It’s important to stay in contact with the language every day: the brain is a muscle, the more you exercise it, the more you learn.
Have you experienced any challenges when learning another language? And if so, how did you overcome them?
I had the experience of learning French at university and at first, I couldn’t understand why it was so difficult and different from learning English. I learned English in a natural way with full immersion as a child living in the US, so having French classes twice a week and learning as an adult really changed the pace of my learning. However, I really wanted to learn, so motivation was key for me. If you’re not interested, it’s much more difficult. I like to personalise my lessons for my learners’ interests, so that’s what I did with French. I found songs and movies I could listen to and watch for practise, and when I have the opportunity I like speaking to natives or people who also speak French to practice.
Finally, what is your favourite word in English?
I guess if I had to pick just one it would be “awesome”, because that’s how I want my students to feel whilst learning English and I love how the pronunciation of the word fills my mouth when I say it.
We have also interviewed two of our other YouTube presenters, Greg and Maria. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of the latest videos from our presenters.