The best way to get started in a discussion forum is to introduce yourself!
Given that I started the forum, I'll go ahead and introduce myself first...
My name is Jason Renshaw. I'm 35 years old and I come from Melbourne in Australia. I am a graduate of the University of Melbourne (where I did a double major in English and Swedish) and I have been teaching English for almost 16 years.
If you do the math you'll see that I started teaching English when I was 19 - straight out of high school! I started out as a tutor for high school students looking to improve their composition skills, and then later began to teach English as a second or foreign language to university students and business people. I did this as a part-time job for several years while I traveled the world and worked in various industries (hospitality, marketing, tourism, and then later language institute management). For the last 8 years teaching English has been a full time profession for me and I have taught all age groups (kindergarten, elementary/primary, secondary school, university and adults).
In 2007 I had a 20-book series published with Pearson Longman. It's called Boost! and is divided into five strands (reading, writing, listening, speaking and grammar), each with four levels. Boost! is now selling well all around the world, so that's really pleasing! You can see the books at this link: http://www.boostskillsseries.com
Currently I am visiting professor at the Teacher's College, English Education Department, at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. It's my job to train and develop the next generation of Korean secondary school English teachers. It's very hard work, but also very satisfying. I have some of the best students a teacher could ever wish for, and it gives me a very positive feeling about the future of English teaching in Korea.
I am also a Business English instructor with Pagoda Outsourcing, focusing on teaching English to Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction employees at the main Changwon plant. My students at Doosan are awesome. It's tiring to go and teach at night (and it's tiring for the employees as well!) but after every lesson with the Doosan people I feel very energetic and positive. They are great people, and I'm fortunate to be able to call them my students.
If that's not enough to keep a guy busy, I also run an online English teaching and learning network called www.onlinEnglish.net. I own and run that company with two Canadian guys whom I consider to be some of my closest friends. We're busy with lots of side-projects at the moment, but eventually we're looking forward to pouring more of our energy into that company and making it the best online resource for learning English.
I am married to a Korean national, and we have a little son (three years old) named Jamie/재민. We have another baby on the way, so no doubt life at home is going to get busier and busier! I love my family with all my heart, and always wish I could spend more time with them.
I used to have a variety of personal hobbies, but they've been cut down a lot since I got married and started a family. To be honest, my main hobbies now are my work and my son! I try to do a lot of interesting and innovative things in my work as an English teaching professional, and that helps to make work feel more like a hobby or passion. And with my son, well he's so interested in so many things now (reading books, riding bicycles, drawing pictures, playing with lego, playing golf, cricket and football) that just by playing with him I seem to be doing several hobbies at once! One other thing I like to do these days is to catch up with some friends and play Screen Golf, relaxing with a few cold beers. That's nice!
I started the Global English Discussion forum because I believe in the power of the Internet to really connect people and make language learning more practical, realistic and motivating. I hope you'll join me in making it the very best place on the net to come and apply real English discussion skills.
So there's my self-introduction. Yours doesn't need to be as long as mine (but it can also be longer if you want!), but please do go ahead and let the world know a little about you. Connecting with other people around the world is the best way to facilitate genuine English interaction!
Best of luck to you,
~ Jason
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