Interview

Teacher: Mariko

  Mariko Shimizu was born in Vancouver, Canada. Her parents are Japanese who came from Japan to Canada a long time ago. She grew up in the city and studied Political Science at UBC University.

  Now, she teaches English at International House. she has been teaching here for eight months. She enjoys education very much because it’s very fun and makes her happy. She met many international students and is told a lot of interesting things that her students think about. Before she taught at I.H, she was a tutor and had many part time jobs. When she tutored, she had to teach children homework and English one by one.

  When she has free time, she always relaxes and likes watching TV series/shows and reads any kind of books at home. On Friday nights, she plays volley ball in the gym, but sometimes wants to play it at the beach in summer.

  Mariko likes traveling and she has been to the USA, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Europe, and more. Her favorite travel experience is Florence, Italy. She only stayed there one day, but the city is so beautiful and the food is so delicious that she couldn’t forget the sightseeing (pasta and famous Gelato ice cream). She wants to visit Florence again one day.

  Mariko thinks the best city is Vancouver. It’s her hometown, she feels comfortable and happy in the city, with beautiful mountains, ocean, and parks. Maybe sometimes people drink to much and are impolite, but she still likes Vancouver.

  In the future she wants to move to a different country to get more experience. And she hopes she has a dog, because she never had pets. A dog is cute like a baby. Mariko really wants a dog in the future.

Teacher: Bryan

  Bryan Field Anderson was born in Canada. His parents are from England. He likes Vancouver very much, there is beautiful scenery, friendly people and comfortable weather, everything is good, but the best thing for him is the hockey.

  Bryan says “Canadians like Hockey”, He likes hockey very much  that sometimes he plays in the park with his students. The sport lets him feel great and excited. But he played hockey for the first time in the Rockies with us. He can’t forget that experience, it had amazing scenery and everyone had fun.

  Now he works 6.5 years at the I.H. school. But before he came to I.H. he taught English for 3 years in Japan from 1999. He likes this job a lot and enjoys it, because he meets and teaches many students. He teaching style is interesting that every student can understand in the class.

  Bryan's other hobby is playing the piano. He started to play piano when he was 9 years old. He made the song “Game on”, it’s about “Winter Olympics” which is wonderful, and I like the song a lot. His inspiration for the song was from the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. He is excited and it touches his heart when he watches the game’s video. And he fellows his feelings when plays piano. He doesn’t have to write on  paper, he just keeps it in his head and plays by ear. Before he had a band, he met them at a nightclub in 2006. Bryan likes many singers, but only Elton John and Billy Joel are heroes in his mind.

  He has even been to American, Japan, Australia, and more. In the future, he hopes to travel more. (South American and Europe) He wants to get a lot of different culture and experience.