Why did English language teacher John Auld come to work from Ireland to Latvia?
Riga’s English learning centers often “hide” their teachers to the last. Acquaintance usually happens during the first class – when money has already been paid. The centers can be understood – they do not want to depend on freedom-loving specialists, which often change places of work and residence. But a teacher’s role in a student’s success is significant and it is better to leave a blind date for movie heroes.
“Too often teachers in Riga are not native speakers. Too often they are poor professionals”.
- Hello, John! How long have you been teaching English at New Horizons Latvia?
- Hello, Julie! Almost three years and I hope to stay here for a longer period.
- Does economic crisis in Latvia frighten you?
- There is recession all over the world and you can’t avoid it. It is just necessary to work hard, be good at what you do and everything will be back to normal. In my opinion Latvians did not always succeed in that. Maybe now it will change. In my native town Belfast (Northern Ireland) the situation is not as hard as it is in Riga, maybe because British people have always been suspicious about earning easy money.
- You are an exception from the rule. Latvians usually go to the Foggy Albion, not vice versa. How did it happen?
- I graduated Staffordshire University 11 years ago, and since then I teach English in Spain and Latvia. Once I counted, I’ve had more than a thousand students over these years. I love my job very much and would not change it. Teaching my native language to others is my vocation. Sometimes it is difficult to be far from home, but when you hear sincere gratitude from students, see their blazing eyes, when you are the witness of their miraculous transformation from mute watchers into happy interlocutors, and understand it’s a part of your work – it inspires you! It’s my challenge.
- John, tell me please - what do you think of Latvian students?
- I think you have great will to learn, to progress, and to get education. You have enormous potential, guys! Wish and strong will – are the most important things! My experience tells me it’s a half of business. At this point you are way better than Spanish, for example. They don’t have a motivation to learn English. Very often they consider everyone in the world should speak Spanish, and if you don’t, they look at you suspiciously. That is why they are not as open-minded as we may think.
- Are we open-minded? How many students have you helped to “open their mind”?
- I’ve taught about 500 students in Riga personally. But of course, I am not the only teacher in New Horizons, and the learning center have graduated over 2500 “English” over 3 years. One part of them continues their careers in Latvia using English. Others work abroad. Some people studied English for travelling, watching movies, listening to music in English, and had other goals. The title says it all – everyone opens new horizons for himself.
- Speaking of New Horizon, why do you work with this learning center?
- It is a very famous organization in the world. New Horizons includes 300 learning centers in 60 countries, where 2,5 million people get education every year. Here I feel as a part of something very big and important for people. Unlike other centers, New Horizons has the opportunity to use international modern methods of teaching. They get sharpened and reach perfection all over the world and colossal amount of students means achievement of colossal experience. Each person is an individual. And possible difficulties on the way to knowledge are individual too. We can help to surmount them because of our knowledge base, which was built from everyday practical work with students all over the world.
- What are the features of the New Horizons’ methods?
- We use communicative technology, which means deep immersion into the language environment that we achieve by special attention to the speaking skills, each student can not only understand, read, and write well, but also can speak according to the level he’s completed.
While working, I often face the situation when a person can understand both spoken and written language quite well, is able to write, but has a lot of difficulties with verbal communication. That is why the main goal of our program is helping people to overcome the language barrier. For that purpose we offer additional lessons plus to our main classes, and this is the English Fun Club.
For the Conversation Club I prepare different topics for discussions. Usually they are life topics, which are interesting for everyone – family, hobbies, habits, opinions, life stories, plans for the future. We learn new words, develop communication skills, and get confidence in speaking in English in a pleasant and friendly atmosphere.
We also offer Business English classes, where we discuss job and travelling, and Movie Night, where we watch and discuss various movies.
- Is that true, that demand for education grows during the crisis?
- It’s difficult for me to answer this question. This rule rather works in well-developed countries. If a person loses job, perhaps he has enough savings to improve his education the following year. He understands that recession is cyclic, and the time has come to fill in the blanks in one’s education. One should be ready for a new turn, get new knowledge, and become better that others, more competitive. That kind of person doesn’t have fear to lose a house or starve. He is optimist despite the temporary difficulties.
- Are there any optimists left in Latvia?
- There are more pragmatic people in Latvia. Studying English nowadays is an investment. It can be a manager in a company with an export market or a family moving to London – they invest money today to have the opportunity to earn more tomorrow. I call it “an intellectual deposit”.
- And what are the guaranties of generous dividend?
- As I said previously, a person's good will is a half of success. We are responsible for the second half. And I think New Horizons does everything correctly and creates all necessary conditions for successful learning – truly friendly and welcoming atmosphere, professional native-speaking teachers, one studying week for free, and many other things, which all together form our international experience. When I was a child my grandmother used to say: “John, there are two cases when you have to use your head not heart, when you choose your wife and when you choose your bank”. I always remember about it every time I want to make a good deal.
