And I've been Teaching English as a Second Language for the past

8 years.

And I've had a few people

come up to me and ask me, uh, like how do you teach?

Or would you have any tips for other people

who are interested in teaching children English.

For example. I have this

wonderful friend who speaks

English perfectly, she speaks French perfectly.

She's not a teacher, she studied something totally different

but a few people have asked her if she

would maybe like to teach their kids.

And she kind of panicked and called me

and she asked, "What am I supposed to do?"

"I've never taught kids, I don't hang around with kids."

How do you teach someone who's

not your age, who you think of as some small little alien?

So I'm gonna give you three

tips

that could help you feel a little bit more

confident on your first meeting or

lesson with a small human being who would like

to learn English, or who's parents would like this

human being to learn English.

So my first step is

tada!

to sit on the floor

So meeting an adult, just imagine, you're meeting this person

who's like, so much taller than you and if you

look at them and you have to kind of be

in this position in order to see their face

thats kind of um, kind of scary and intimidating

and on top of this, this person is speaking to

you, using these words that you have

no idea what they mean. But when you sit on the floor

you kind of make yourself a little bit more

vulnerable, but you're also on the level of

this child, which makes them feel a

little more comfortable and it makes you

more approachable.

Next tip:

Be interested!

Being interested means reacting to what

they're saying or to things that

they're doing with interest

so for example, asking about a teddy

and asking if it's theirs and showing interest in their Teddy.

Showing interest in um, them making handstands

and congratulating them on that

showing interest in, for example

pictures on their wall and asking, you know

"Did you draw this? Is this yours? Wow this is really good!"

So just being interested in them and their

environment and showing that you want to

be there, with this kid, already kind of

opens up this wave of friendship.

Third thing is...

"You know English!"

Which I think is pretty important

as a confidence builder.

Because learning a language

isn't actually that difficult. I think a lot

of people blocking themselves and they

think that no this is impossible I can't

do it, I don't know, I don't understand what you're

saying so I'm gonna listen to you and I

think it's important to find certain things

that the child understands and knows and

congratulating them on it. Or I do this thing where I kind of

trick them into knowing the language.

I start with a drawing. Drawing in itself is a very

very cool way to interact with the

child and teach English at the same

time. So for example, I would say, OK so.

"I am drawing

a head

And now I'm drawing

two eyes,

a nose and a mouth."

"Where are his eyes? Where can you see his eyes?" *Blink Blink*

And the child usually points and I'm like

"Well done! Yes! That's his eyes!"

And then, kinda like, you know

"You see? You know English!"

So yeah, those were three of the tips that I think

could be important as a start.

If you have any tips on what made your

first lessons work or what helped you when

you started teaching kids, let me know

or if there's some other tips that

you would like, you're welcome to let me know too!

and maybe I can help out.

Hey guys. So that was my first ever

YouTube video and I just wanted to say thanks for watching!

And I wish you an amazing

2017!

Bye!