Information About Kenny - Canonbury teacher -

(24 reviews)

Personal Description:

Hello there, I am a Korean guy who has been living in London about 19 years on and off basis. I have 3 degrees under my belt including a BA degree of teaching Korean as a foreign language. I had lived in Mexico about 4 years, 2 years in Japan and of course most of my life lived in South Korea. I like to travel around and so far I had visited over 20 countries. I am very interested in learning new things especially foreign languages and different cultures including various music and arts. I had worked in many different fields in many countries. I worked in several trading companies, international hotels, educational organizations (mainly private schools) and countless service industry such as restaurants, bars and coffee shops.
As you can imagine, I have a quite international background speaking 4 different languages and lived and worked in many countries.
I am a very funny and amicable but sometimes very serious in terms of business and teaching stuff. I am told that I am very good at talking to with small group of people and well presented all the time with the pleasant appearance . Personally I don't like too many people in a restricted area. So I have to say I am an intimate type of person with few good people around.

Teaching Experience:

As I like to learn foreign languages myself, I have been teaching and learning all most same time whenever I have tried learning new language. Because I had to keep communicating with other people when I had intended to learn a new language. it involves to teaching and learning circles basically from the beginning of a new language. I graduated from a national university in South Korea specialized in Spanish language and literature. Upon entering my university I started teaching many secondary and high school students in private classes which was varied in subjects taught at that time including geography, Chinese letters, maths, Korean languages and literature, German, and English.
As a professional level, I taught in ECC YBM language academy and Harvard Academy( these are private after school courses) in South Korea when I stayed there between 2006 to 2008. and I returned to London in 2009 to finish my BA in international hotel management. After graduating from the university, have worked in few hotels, and volunteering work at the British redcross to help North Korean refuges for their translation and interpretation with English staff from British Redcross international family trace team. I started teaching Korean as a foreign language occasionally via internet since 2017. In 2018 I studied the BA in teaching Korean as a foreign language and got a professional teaching certificate afterward too.

During my teaching career, i have been teaching many different background people from age 8 to 76 years old with many different nationalities including few well-known celebrities and public figures who work for the government or military bodies such as FCDO and British Navy officers.

And i worked for the FCDO as a exterior Korean language exam assessor to supervise their Korean skills. Few foreign office staff are assigned to work at the British embassy in North or South Korea as a diplomat in the end.

So I am experiencing broadly to teach Korean for so many different people with various needs and background, so please feel easy and do not hesitate to contact me, I can help you to improve your Korean from the scratch level to Advance level in a systematic and gradual way.

Teaching Approach:

In my book, people shouldn't take too seriously anxious about learning a new language. If you think so much about grammar or other academic linguistic structural terms, you won't last long to learning the particular language. You need to link to some interesting theme or subject to motivate your curiosity or enthusiasm to continue that learning process. My experience of teaching or learning a foreign language is all about to find out some exciting subject or issue of that peculiarity of that language. And I tried to relate to its culture for example, with music, movie and art stuff to understand better its nuisance and people's common sense in that linguistic area.
A language is not a just a communication tool, is a multi-faced cultural tool expressed verbally and non verbally.
My approach to teaching is basically communicating a lot and try to find out what and how learners want to improve by themselves using their own motivation. As I am a just tutor, I think I am an intermediary to help them find their own way to learn quicker and effectively. and also try to help them understand how a language is differ from others fundamentally.
I like to sing a lot in different languages when I am free so teaching some simple songs in those languages is a good to remember for a long time. and also telling my pupils about my own experiences in many countries is good reference to them because I believe people can learn through other people's hand on experiences whether they are direct or in-direct. the most important thing is make learners to have consistent interest of that language not just emphasizing grammar and memorizing many stuff from the beginning. I am a big fan of K-POP especially Bigbang, 2NE1, KARA, now of course BTS. So if anyone want to share the Korean Culture Wave with me, please raise your hand and come to learn Korean from me.