AI-generated transcript:
Hello.
Happy Friday.
I just wanted to make this video because I'm thinking about concluding the story of how we got where we are.
my school developed and if you've been following on the blog I wrote a few pieces and next Wednesday I'm going to complete the series with talking about how we bought our own English school but I thought I would show you rather than just tell you about an English school this is our English school when I say our I mean my wife and myself we own this building so we literally own this school
It's not a school school.
I mean, what do I mean?
This is a family home that we've bought.
And one reason I'm showing you this is because I'm showing off.
No.
Well, yeah, a bit.
But the purpose of this is to show, I think if you say you're a self-employed English teacher, that the implication is that you're teaching in
Coffee Shops or you know running around trying to get gigs here and there in kindergartens and there is certainly that's true and I've done that in my time but I've always been my wife and I have always been conscious that it's got to build to something quote-unquote better something that leads somewhere
So my dream was to have my own library and when I started out teaching English for myself, well let's say for ourselves, my intention was to have like a, in my mind I had a sort of the idea of a like a mahogany panelled gentleman's club with lots of books everywhere and that that would be the model
to teach so that it was more, not a gentleman's club, that sounds a bit odd doesn't it, but like a club, you know, London, like a Mayfair, you know, where you go and you drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and discuss the times of the day, the affairs of the day, affairs of the state.
That was my image and I wanted that as a kind of model for an English school, not
The Utilitarian Plain Empty White Classroom with a desk and a whiteboard and a poster of London or something.
Actually, I'll show you around the house and you'll see.
that's exactly what I've got downstairs oh my god but um I hope it's a bit a warmer place now anyway so my dream was to have the mahogany paneled bookcase bloody blah I didn't quite go for mahogany in the end it became um just pieces of pine that I bought from Joyful Honda and stuck together but our school has a library now you might say what who's going to be using your library well
It's kind of like an overflow room really to be honest and we do use it for reading lessons not really reading these books these are mostly my books but it's a nice place and it's a quiet place I also do my online lessons I record from here so it's a nice atmosphere and it's being used and it's fulfilling my dream which is to have my own sort of home library so
Yeah, so the point is, you know, this is, am I at the end of my, end of the line?
Not really, but I think there's more to come, but I've kind of feel like this is what I've achieved.
What we've been working for 16 years is to have our own place and to stamp it with our own way of doing things rather than, you know, come for an English lesson and we'll take your money and then bugger off, you know, not interested.
No,
I'm trying to imbue the school with a bit of character and a bit of my character I guess and my wife's character.
The whole point is to show that English education is not just about passing a bloody test.
At least that's my raison d'etre, my reason for being.
Of course, using English to pass tests, that's fine if that's what you want to do, but I want to show that there is a purpose to learning a language that is far more life-changing.
Right, I'm going to shut up.
I'll just show you around our house, our school.
So here we go and by the way I'll talk more about that next week about how you can go about buying your own place and my experiences so they'll be more practical but let me just show you this is this is what it's this is what it amounts to so so here is like the library the school library I'm upstairs please ignore the mess on the table
but you know it's also it's the spare bedroom in a house but it's become a library right so it's got plenty of books so I hope you don't get dizzy as I wander around but it's a great place to sit and do my work right I'll come out here and I'll show you this is a sort of overflow classroom I have taught adults in here face to face my oil paintings please ignore
and it's a break room too and it's not being used for adults for teaching but this is you know this is upstairs this is our private room over here another bedroom toilet but so although it's a it's built as a family home we've converted it to be used for for a school and down here if i go down the stairs
with Britishness.
Picture of me and the missus.
And you're into the genkan.
You can see here I've got like kids.
We did that when we first moved into this place.
Genkan.
So this is where the students will come in.
And most of the teaching is done downstairs in what would be the living room area.
But this has become a big classroom.
There's the obligatory poster of Big Ben.
I've also got Tower Bridge, too.
British theme, you know.
Yeah, and so if I show you the whole room, you can see that this is the main table for, well, from elementary school to high school.
And, you know, you can see this is like a
Converted Living Room.
I hope it doesn't, it maybe echoes a bit, I hope it doesn't feel like too utilitarian, too much like a, you know, like an office or something.
One of my projects over the Christmas break was to build a set of shelves here to shove off all the books that I've written.
and that's a good marketing exercise but also you know I mean it's good when prospective students come in and they say oh you got all these books yeah oh you're very professional and you must be good at teaching English and there's the proof maybe but also the kids they come and they say oh I'm working on the you know the blue book what's the next book or what's the green book is the next one oh you know they can see a progression and you show them the the adult you know the books for adults and you say well you know
If you keep studying at English, you'll get to this level.
So it's a kind of sales thing to motivate the kids.
And that's really basically it.
So, you know, you can see this is a Japanese house, a new Japanese house.
There's the kitchen, which, you know, which can be lived in or it can be used as a school.
And that's what we do.
That's through there's the bathroom and stuff.
So, you know, for me, I think it works very well because it's the kids relate to it because it's like, oh, it's just like going to Mr. Sherriff's house.
You know, it's got a feeling that this is a place to learn.
But, you know, it's like a home.
So.
Nice atmosphere.
Anyway, and this is all possible as a self-employed English teacher.
If I were working for a company,
You know, all of the excess profits, if you like, from my labour would go to the company.
I would see nothing of that.
I'd just get my flat hourly wage, whatever that is.
Instead, we're able to plough in any extra money that we might make into this place.
And there's nothing better than having your own place.
And I tell you, it's very motivating coming to work.
And every day, I think,
Every day I work here, I own a little bit more of this building and my children will have the whole thing by the time I'm done.
So that's a good thing.
Okay.
Thanks for listening to me and I hope you enjoyed this little tour and I hope it, I'm not just showing off, I hope it motivates you to realize that you can do great things as a self-employed English teacher.
Okay.
I'll talk to you later.
So next Wednesday I'm going to write more about this, more details about how this is possible and how it might be possible for you to do something similar, if that's your dream.
You may not be as obsessed with books as I am, but you know, whatever.
OK, thanks a lot.
Have a nice weekend and take it easy.
See you next week.
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