Hi, my name is Andy. I'm a silly, happy guy from sunny San Diego, California, though I haven't lived there for many years. In 2014, I sold everything to travel. Since then I've lived on three continents, learned Spanish, some Polish, and now I'm working on Romanian. So I understand the struggles of learning, and speaking, a foreign language!
To date, I have completed more than 3,500 hours of lessons, including several long-term learners. I have taught individuals as well as groups, in-person as well as online, and young learners as well as adults.
My passion, and what I do best, is intensive tutoring for intermediate level (or above) students who already have a decent grasp of the language but want improve in some way. What I do most is pronunciation and phrasal correction, accent reduction, and introduction to new vocabulary.
One of my only requirements is that you are *self-motivated* to speak/converse. I am not going to endlessly supply topics to discuss. Think of it this way: when you meet up with your friends, do you make them give you topics to discuss? No, of course you don't. You just start talking.
For precisely that reason, the tone of my lessons is more like a conversation than a regular English class. So, please be prepared to keep up your end of the conversation. If you do, we'll never run out of things to talk about, I promise!
I find joy in teaching the nuances of practical English (how it's actually spoken), not theoretical (from textbooks). My preference is to tailor lessons to each person's needs, so I do not have long-term lesson plans and none of my regular, long-term students have had the same experience.
Unlike some tutors, I won't promise to have you speaking fluently in "no time". The truth is that no matter what your current level is, it's going to take both of us putting in time and energy to see significant change.
What I will promise, however, is to provide an informative, friendly, and even fun learning environment for you to practice speaking, increase your vocabulary, and, over time, improve your confidence and fluency.
During each lesson I will notate words and/or phrases we discuss, then send my notes to you in a neatly formatted PDF so you can get the most out of our lessons.
I look forward to helping from you!
Andy