Roger-interview (Ken&Andrew&Juile)

Kenneth Deane Craig 

Life motto; "Love conquers all ". 

Ken is Canadian; his father used to be a Professor at Oxford University. When he was a kindergarten student, he went on a study tour to England, then in high school he did an exchange in France. He is a Capricorn man, so he is a practical person. He doesn't like puke yellow and he likes Punk Rock style. His favorite food is Pizza with beer. Also he is a shy boy, because he likes snowboarding and mountain biking. But walking with his Korean dog, is his only hobby now. 

He has many, many travel experiences in the world. He has been to; Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia and more…, close to 25 to 27 countries. Also he has a rich experience as an  English teacher, he possess 15 years of teaching knowledge. 

When he tough English in Korea, from 2001-2007, it was the best time of his life. He had a good job, a nice house and met other foreigners also traveling in the world. the most important was meeting his dream girl, but she is now in the past, now his dream girl is Talya. Also he had his second best life experience  in England, he enjoyed studying there. Now he has a goal, he wants to become a lawyer in Vancouver and to help people have a future and job. 

He is a broad-minded man because he said “Even if one day I find my other half is man, I'll also say love you to him, even if I suffer peculiar looks from the world. so he likes to share different cultures with students, also he has a lot of knowledge in his brain, students can break into it, then dig out the treasure, one day you will find one piece.

Andrew Gordon Claxton 

Life motto; "Live the world as the fair place that you found it". 

Andrew was born in Richmond, Vancouver,  then he grew up in Langely, eight years ago he moved to Vancouver. He is a Taurus man, He looks calm, friendly and mature, also he is an imaginative teacher. He loves every food and can "eat anything". He likes ordinary style and loves any color. In the future, he wants to go back to university and to get PDP, that can help him to teach in public school.  

He also has many English teaching experiences with children and adults. He has even taught English in Tokyo and Yokohama in Japan for two years. he has had many travel experiences in the USA and Canada. If you have travel questions about any south American or north American countries , he can become your Travel Consultant. he has also been to the Philippines. 

He likes to help students to simulate and imagine real situations that help them to remember English, also he is very good actor, you can see many different shows in his class. 

 

 

 

Julie Morphet 

Life motto;“In the future your more likely to regret the things that you didn’t do, rather than the things that you did do, I want to do a lot things, have a lot of adventures, and then I won’t regret anything in my life...”. 

Julie was born in Guelph, Ontario Canada, her father was born in Scotland. She is a very grounded and practical person also patient and willing to wait for what she wants. Despite her intense focus on her goals, she can be very witty like her horoscope Capricorn. 

She doesn’t likes yellow but likes casual style and also likes to create something, sewing sweaters or clothes. Her favorites foods is Greek food Souvlaki also she likes BBQ and steak and stinky tofu and still likes snowboarding and playing hockey. 

She has been to many countries; Taiwan, Mexico, Europe, Scotland, England, France, Prague (Czech), China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong, America. But her favorites time in her live was traveling in Thailand for three months. It is a beautiful country and she met very nice fiends there. If she have time travel abilities then her want go to the future. In the future she wants to get married and meet her dream man Mr. Darcy.  

She likes to make students speak like machines , because in her class you must say something, but don't worry about it, she has a lot of teaching experience and she can operate your brain.

Selena- interview (Tina & Veronika)

The one who inspired my interest in English - Tina

As I know, Tina is a very kind and warmhearted teacher. She makes all of students be not afraid of speaking English and attempting to answer questions. In our Low-Intermediate Course, the learning environment she made was friendly and cheerful; students rarely absented and were pleased to talk each other. For me, she is the first teacher who make me know how attractive English is and how happy to improve myself.

Background

Tina Chen, also know as Chih-Yu or Tia, is the youngest child in her family. She was born in Taiwan, and immigrated to Canada when she was eight years old. She graduated from UBC, and received two different degrees from the university; a B.Ed. in Elementary Education and a double major of Developmental Psychology and Asian Studies. While being a child care staff, she realized that her dream was to be an ESL teacher. Therefore, she went to Japan to improve her Japanese skills and practiced teaching children.

ESL Teaching Style

Through her career, she likes to interact with different students, learn other cultures from them, and get to know them well. Tina likes teaching those students who are active, has a good attitude, tries to use English and never gives up. In her class, you can always see she encourages students to answer questions, and see how students become more and more confident in using English. Although students sometimes make mistakes, Tina still will smile and cheer them up. She can easily create a positive learning environment, and that’s why students in her classes usually aren’t afraid of speaking English.

Personal Life

In her free time, she listens to rock music and watches some TV comedy series; she likes the comedy named “The Big Bang Theory” and also recommends students to watch it to practice English under no pressure. She also likes those delicious Japanese and Taiwanese snacks, especially the “Stinking Dofu.” The time in Italy was most memorable for her, The Colosseum in Rome is the most fantastic place in her mind.

About Photography and Other

Tina really likes the IH photography blog, she said “the blog posts show lots of stories through pictures, and the personality of the students who took the pictures”. In the end of our interview, she said that she also likes photography, and she used to blog and shares her photographs with her friends; her favorite is architecture photography. In the future, she might start her photography blog again.

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.  

Roger-selfier

What is your opinion of selfies?

I think some people want to tell the world, "I'm here!" It can prove they were ever born on this earth. Then when they die on Earth, they would travel to other planets in the Universe. So, everyone would have a record in this space when you collect all selfies from different planet, then you will really finish your life mission. this will prove your existence. then you will become nothing to wait next birth. 

In a parallel universe have many different time line, then we live in inside. the most life know the line haven't end, It is limitless. actually It have end. how do to ending it? just have only way can to ending. So the human find the selfies. but they don't know it can to finish the parallel universe for himself. 

Chaos isn't nothing. It has a time, we call it epoch. Every epoch Universe will rebirth, then when they rebirth, it will release all life of finished parallel universe. than they are will gat some especially ability, It can to change their world if they want. so everyone have change to got this capacity.

WARNING: SELFIE ALERT

Nowadays, it’s very common to find people carrying cameras, tablets and smart phones everywhere. Even when you’re alone, you can take uncountable pictures of yourself. In other words, you can make selfies! It’s a good way to show yourself in different places, without asking someone to help you.

The big advantage is to share your selfie with whole world through social media. But, you need to be careful, because the selfie might show a negative image of you. The people whom you share your picture with or who might see you taking a selfie, can judge you. You might show a selfish image about yourself if you repeatedly upload your pictures. It sounds like someone begging for attention all the time. Clearly, this attitude doesn’t please everybody. However, now, pay attention and enjoy “your selfie”!

In my selfie, I decided to take a picture with my umbrella on the street, because while in Vancouver it’s winter, in my country is summer.

Selena-fear

The fear of women’s position

Because of my masters, I have always been concerned with the issue of gender and sexuality, and I really appreciate that I have the chance to learn and know more about it. Unfortunately, not every woman is as lucky as me. I heard that in some countries, women don’t have the opportunity to educate themselves about their rights, or think about gender equality. What I said is not just about education, sometimes woman have no human rights, too. Women are claimed to be the secondary gender and the property of their male counterparts.

     Looking back on my life, I don’t have to worry too much about that since our government requires everything to be fair for both female and male in my country, and so on in other modern countries. However, sometimes I still confuse women’s positions and their future even though things are already different if we compare them to traditional society in Chinese culture. Nowadays, women can find a job, and might have the same salary as man; moreover, babies can also use their mother’s last name not just their father’s. In addition, more and more men would like to share the responsibility in the family such as housework and taking care of children and the elderly. Doesn’t it sound perfect?

     Nevertheless, something is still hidden under the peaceful surface in modern society. There are several various discrimination of woman there. Of course it might not be as serious as some cases which happened in other male-lead societies, but people are still judged by gender and sexuality. For example, you can’t be a perfect wife and mother if you can’t do very well in both work and family. The other case is, if you can’t have a son, your in-laws might suggest your husband divorces you and marries another woman, because Chinese culture prefers having male members in the family. People still believe that there are some limitations for women; when born, women are claimed to be bad in science and logic, that’s why people believe that women are useless in rational society.

     Frankly, the worst thing for me is, sometimes not only are men chauvinistic, but women are as well. They, as some men do, try to limit and regulate women as they were in the past-- sometimes they ask more than men. It sounds ridiculous but it’s true. It’s an absolute tragedy.

     It’s seems to me that women are hard to have their own position if people keep discriminating against gender. Basically, while they have many challenges in work and family, they are hardly rewarded. Where should women go? Personally, as a modern woman, I’m afraid of being limited by society and culture. To be honest, I don’t want someone to tell me what I can and can’t do based on my gender. If I can’t avoid being judged, I wish I could be judged in something I can change.

The fear of water shortage

     As a resource, water is vital in the world; people need water in various ways everyday. However, it seems to me that most people have not appreciated about the present that we receive from nature. It is weird since the treatment of an important resource looks like rubbish to people.

     Why do people still waste water even though they already know that water might be exhausted in the recent year? In my case, I had had an aware experience about the poverty of water before I came to Vancouver. Several years ago, I have been to Southwestern China once. When we went to the washroom in countryside, I found there was no water for cleaning. It’s impossible to happen in Taiwan; I thought it might be a special case, but unfortunately, we faced the problem again and again in China. In that time, I realized that water was not always plenty in everywhere and, suddenly, I was extremely shock though I already knew the fact for a long time. Being in that situation, I felt guilty because sometimes I wasted water, too. 

     Therefore, I do really worry about the water shortage issue now. I saw a lot of research and newspaper which discuss about the water pollution and shortage. In addition, some information shows that many countries have not had enough water in both livelihood and the development of economic and country. At the same time, people in those powerful countries have tons of water and they don’t really care about resource wasting.

     It’s high time we saved water. It’s the responsibility that we can’t avoid to bear for all human who living in the earth. Considering the justice and ethics, we must do something to save water. Otherwise, we will lose the beautiful world and made more and more people stay in a poor and sad situation