I am new here and hope to make a difference for some learners when I have the spare time. This seems to be a great site and there are many people with different backgrounds all with an interest in English.I love learning and teaching too. Other cultures are very interesting and I have studied many of them and traveled widely. Undergraduate classes were very interesting and I focused on Anthropology, Biology, and English literature. I even was allowed to teach biology labs as an undergraduate because I had taken so many of the higher courses.There were lots of opportunities for learning, so I worked many places doing Archaeology and Ethnobotany as well as applied anthropology and biology fieldwork. During Graduate training more opportunities came for teaching, academic advising, and research. My children were born during this time. After the Masters Degree I took courses for both Biology and Anthropology Ph.D. degrees while teaching and parenting. I finished all the courses but did not complete those degrees.More teaching opportunities were available and I concentrated on teaching and academic advising of college students. I taught a course at three different institutions geared toward the business student and their need to understand different cultures. We focused on many cultures and their differences from the culture these Americans had experienced. the Arab world, various Asian cultures (including Japan), the Eskimo, the Bushmen cultures of the Kalahari Desert, the Tklingit, and many others were covered.The saddest time was when I had to leave the teaching to follow my wife and children for her new job opportunity. After moving I did some adjunct teaching but had to move into the business world to provide steady insurance coverage and income, as well as provide for my growing children and their education. I have worked within the petrochemical support, and process equipment manufacturing industry for over 13 years.Within this industry I specialize in working with the customers and engineers who studied english as a foreign or second language. Others may have trouble understanding them sometimes, but my work in other cultures as well as academic English background (also TESL / TEFL certified) makes it easy to communicate for me. I help them come up with the proper English technical word when necessary and we confirm our oral conversations by email.English is crucial for most international business and I enjoy playing my small part in helping L2 speakers. I am especially interested in digital learning solutions for the English language and ways it can help international business people. I teach English to immigrants who need some help and I enjoy helping them.I plan to start some groups here that will help people understand the cultures of English speaking countries, and also others to help people in industry with specialized English and international terminology. Please be patient if it takes a while for me to answer because I have a full time paid job and volunteer work as well.This was one of my first blogs and That is How I joined MyEC.
I joined MyEC when I saw the choice between Join and Log In. So I clicked on join and that is how I joined.
Pretty soon Nadiyah had left me a nice greeting and some useful links and the next day Nadira also told me hello. Not much later Snow, and Skoon, Oktenita, CutieJean, Carol Jones, Alice and Xkaliber had all commented or friended me within about a week. What a friendly bunch of people.
P/S. I know you are extremely busy with your daily work, but I am very enjoy reading your blogs. So do other people, I believe. Can you write more stories? ^_^
Your background is so interesting. I'm now an undergraduate student in international business major. I'm especially interested in your concerns about learning new cultures, meeting different people and helping them understand global cultures deeply. I'm also an ESL student so I know how English is hard for international students when studying overseas. It's my pleasure to share my own experiences and other helps to you and anyone who is interested.
Nice to meet you here.
Thanks for taking the time and sharing your experiences, Bob.
Did you teach in Asia? My son is very interested in business English and he's actually about to study English at a University of China in the coming semester.
That's very nice of you Bob. I would love to learn from you, and share with you my learning experience as a second language learner as well as my culture if you like. I'm currently a master student majoring in TESOL/Chinese language education in the United States. Although I've learned English for many years and I have no problems communicate with people on daily basis, I still cannot achieve the language proficiency level that allow me to be a qualified ESL or Chinese teacher in U.S. after my graduation. You experience are very impressive and interesting. You have a large range of knowledge and a well-rounded background. I admire the people like you who sacrifice their own spare time to help others.
Comments
Pretty soon Nadiyah had left me a nice greeting and some useful links and the next day Nadira also told me hello. Not much later Snow, and Skoon, Oktenita, CutieJean, Carol Jones, Alice and Xkaliber had all commented or friended me within about a week. What a friendly bunch of people.
You requested more stories. I have made a new one for you.
Nice to meet you here.
Did you teach in Asia? My son is very interested in business English and he's actually about to study English at a University of China in the coming semester.