My special student - teacher bond

 I've been an online English teacher since 2014. I can remember clearly how uncomfortable I felt delving into this uncharted territory and doing something I wasn't familiar with. In fact, I didn't know that online tutoring even existed. It sounded mythical when my significant other told me that this was his job. When we decided to travel together, I had to pick up a new occupation that would eventually fund my new way of living, so I started designing a website and Glen introduced me to Wix and gave me a bunch of Cambridge books in pdf he had found for me. Thus, Skype English Tutoring became reality in our little Metropark apartment in Bangkok, although the idea and the design had started a few months earlier, in Athens. 

My first classes were awful. I almost had a panic attack, but managed to have show up as a newbe online teacher. Next step was trying to find companies to work for. The first company that hired me was called Talkabroad based in Japan. My payment was 3 dollars per class. Japanese people liked me and I started having some regular students who were interested in improving their English but also talk to foreigners. I vividly remember Daisuke, an unconventional Japanese who had changed more than 2 jobs thus was considered unsuitable for higher ranks in companies. I also remember my older student, a very sweet and elegant grandmother who used to be a piano teacher and loved classical music and opera. I remember a lot of them and I thank them for their trust. These classes helped me build up my knowledge and improved my strategy regarding classes. 

One thing that was special with these people was how they talked to me as if I was part of their inner circle of friends or even a relative. We talked and agreed on family issues and Japanese stereotypes. This special bond with these people and who easily they opened up and shared personal things, really captivated me. Little did I know that my classes won't be merely focused on grammar and vocabulary, but more personal where they would share personal moments and I would be their teacher / friend /  therapist who would listen, share my personal experience and we would both vend on the issues we disliked. This sharing moments are what made me love my new job. 

After Talkabroad came E-Space but in between I gained my first student. She was a young Thai who wanted to improve her English. These classes were very different. I wanted to be a teacher and help her but I was so unexperienced. Nancy stopped her classes after 15 classes, but we are still in contact. It's been 10 years and Nancy is now a German wife in Bavaria. We talk very often and we arrange to meet in Bangkok next time we're there. 

Those 10 years have been filled with students. I have learned so many things from them and they have learned a lot of things from me too. Is it always about the English language? No. It's personal and friendly. It's relaxed and convenient. I've had students who confessed to me things they've never shared with anyone else. I've had students I cried with and students I've laughed with. My classes contain 30 minutes of talking and 30 minutes of teaching. During their talk, I listen to them carefully and correct their mistakes while I'm carefully listening to their problems and offer solutions or hands-on experience. I've had students that I've felt more connected to than any of my friends and students that I've loved as if they were my children. Most of my students make me proud with their knowledge and their drive to learn and talk more. This is what I offer them: the ability to talk and learn. 

All of them remember our classes and recommend me to their friends or people they've just met. What they actually recommend isn't what a great English teacher I am, but how friendly and insightful I am. I share my life in the States and around the world and they get ideas or find solutions to their problems as migrants to another country. I help them when they get scammed and give them personal advice on relationship issues. At the end of the class, we both press the button to terminate the Skype call and we feel deeply connected and content. That was one more hour with Anna, my English teacher who helps me build my life in the States, corrects me and teaches me English. For me that was one more class with Sergei, Natali, Darya, Lena and all my students who are making new dreams and plans in a country that's not their own. My students send me messages on social media to see if I'm well and if Covid has passed. They wish me for Christmas and the New Year. They are my extended family and I care for them the same way I would care for my cousins. 

This is the special bond I have with my students. I might not be the best English teacher, but I offer an hour (and a little bit more) of learning English and a thousand other things.