We interviewed Greg from England, one of the presenters of our Learn English with Cambridge YouTube channel. Read on to find out about Greg’s funny experiences with learners, his favourite word and what we can expect from his videos in the future.
When did you know you wanted to teach English? What was it that made you choose that as a career?
I knew within my first few weeks of teaching in Spain. It quickly became apparent to me that learning English was something that meant so much to so many people and I wanted to be someone who could help people realise this aim.
What are your favourite English areas to teach?
I´ve got two favourite areas to teach, albeit two very different areas! I love teaching for exams and teaching real-world English. I love the preciseness of teaching for exams and the battle of breaking it down for my students, so they know best how to attack it. On the other hand, I love teaching real-world English as this really prepares my learners for what they will have to face when interacting with real native speakers.
Do you have any funny or emotional experiences of working with learners?
There´s quite a few actually! However, the one that sticks in my mind was my very first lesson as an EFL teacher in Spain. A young girl arrived late to class and upon asking her if she was ok, she replied that she was constipated. I couldn´t believe how open she was with it nor how the rest of the class nodded in agreement (and not one laughed). I spent the whole lesson in a mini state of shock which was only remedied when a fellow teacher informed me that ‘I’ve got a cold’ in Spanish is ‘Estoy constipado’ and it was just a slip due to her native tongue!
Do you speak any other languages apart from English? How has speaking another language impacted your life?
I’ve got about a C1 level of Spanish now. I’d say that it has been more the learning of a language that has impacted my life. Firstly, it was a process that really humbled me: how without your language you’re defenceless and even buying a loaf of bread can be quite a traumatic event. It’s helped me sympathise more with my students and language learners in general; it’s such a difficult experience to go through but ultimately very rewarding.
Is there anything you found surprising or interesting about teaching English as a second language?
How, as English teachers, we inherently know how to speak our language, but we don’t know why we speak they way we do and that there are rules behind most of the ways we use our language. It’s something that I had never even thought about before.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
I’m up early to do sport and do either some work for Cambridge or my ‘onepercentenglish’ Instagram account. I’ll occasionally use the morning to study a bit of Spanish too. I’m then off to work around 10.30 A.M. to plan for a few hours, followed by lunch and a siesta. I then work from 4.00 P.M. until 10.00 P.M. every day.
Are there any other languages you would like to learn?
French as I just love the sound of it! I’m also considering starting to learn Arabic for both its usefulness as well as its links that it has to Spanish (which would make it easier for me to learn!).
How are you finding being a presenter on the Learn English with Cambridge YouTube channel?
I’m loving it. I’m loving the challenge of making difficult topics presentable to you guys out there as well the experiences and people I meet while I do it. The editing and production side took me a little while to get used to however I’m flying now!
You have shown a keen interest in real-world English and how it is different to that learnt in the classroom – why do you think that is important?
Language is a living and breathing thing that is constantly evolving and never stands still. Students need to be exposed and updated constantly on these changes and teaching real-world English helps them with this. English learnt in a classroom has its place in giving people a sound base to English. However, real-world knowledge is ultimately what they need to know to become fluent.
What can we expect from you in your future videos in the channel? Are there any particular topics you want to cover?
I’m considering doing a video on British food as well as money slang in my upcoming videos. I’m also trying to convince my local landlord to film a video about how to get by in a British pub, so watch this space for that one.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone who is trying to learn English now?
You have to live it and that means practicing it every day. That doesn’t necessarily mean sitting down and studying though. It could be changing the language of your phone to English or writing your shopping list in English, just making alterations to your life so that you’re exposed to English every day.
Have you experienced any challenges when learning another language? And if so, how did you overcome them?
Mainly in how to improve my written Spanish. When living in a country, this is the one skill that you really don’t have to improve and can easily get away with not practicing. Even writing on WhatsApp in Spanish, for example, is aided by automatic spelling correction. However, it eventually dawned on me that it was lagging so far behind my other skills that I had to remedy it. I started to write a diary in Spanish that my friends would check every now and again and slowly but surely my written Spanish started to improve. It’s still not where I want it to be but it’s getting there.
Finally, what is your favourite word in English?
Higgledy-piggledy. Just such a satisfying word to say.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all of the latest videos from our presenters.