Adam Green Tutor Interview

Q.　Hi, Adam Green. please introduce yourself!: A. Hello Cafetalk! My name is Adam Green, and I love teaching and communicating with language learners from all over the world. After teaching and traveling in many countries over the last 10 years, being part of Cafetalk is my way of visiting different parts of the world, without leaving home!
Born and raised near the capital of America, Washington DC, I now live in southern California near the beautiful Pacific Ocean with my wife, who is from Kanagawa, Japan, and our 2 year old son. We all love the beach! Surfing, hiking, canoeing and running around the nature parks are a few of my favorite things, but DIY activities around the house makes me happy too. BBQs and sitting around the fire pit in our backyard on cool California evenings are wonderful for our lifestyle.
Working with technology is also a large part of my life. My ‘day job’ involves training teachers and students at the University level on how to use a multitude of computer programs and processes. This is a reason why the Cafetalk community is attractive to me; it uses technology to bring people together.
Q. Please tell us something about Orange County.: A. Orange County is extremely diverse, with different people and languages living together in harmony. Located in southern California, the weather is terrific year round, which allows a lot of time to spend outdoors exploring the beaches, mountains, restaurants, concerts and festivals! It is easy to find many different national markets in the area, resulting in new delicious food any time! If you’d like to visit, please bring your sunglasses, sunscreen and flip flops.
Q. What motivated you to become an English teacher?: A. Meeting people and travel were my biggest motivators when I first started teaching English. Since then, my motivation has changed. Now, my biggest encouragement is when a student learns a new concept or discovers a new idiom. It is easy to identify when this happens! Usually, there is a look of confusion on the student’s face when thinking about an expression or idea. Then the teaching moment arrives… Sometimes it takes a little while, then boom! The look of confusion turns into a happy expression with a smile. That ‘a-ha!’ moment and smile is my biggest reward as a teacher nowadays.
Q. How do you spend your days off? Is there anything you’ve gotten into lately?: A. Family visits to the beach and walks to the nature park nearby are my regular relaxing activities. But when I am alone at home I like to build and create things. I’m a DIYer (Do It Yourself). Building a shed, making improvements to our chicken coop, or chopping wood for our outdoor fire-pit while listening to some classic rock’n’roll are some of my favorites. At the end of a hard day working outdoors, it’s time to BBQ and drink a beer around a nice fire. :)
Q. What is the biggest feature of your lessons?: A. Flexibility. The biggest feature of my lessons is getting the student to share their opinions about different topics. ‘Express Yourself’ is aimed at developing natural conversation ability. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, expressing yourself in a natural way is the main goal. Every student learns differently, and being flexible to adjust to the student’s style is important.
Q. What are you most careful of when you teach your students?: A. When communicating with students, I am most careful of maintaining encouragement throughout the lesson. It is easy to lose enthusiasm when errors are made, or vocabulary is forgotten, but in my opinion, that is how language learning ability increases quickly, through making mistakes! I commend all language learners making the effort to improve their abilities!
Q. Finally, would you like to leave a message for our students?: A. Keep on creating new goals! Step by step, we can all strive to achieve our objectives. Take advantage of new opportunities that arise in order to improve and move forward with your abilities. Seeking out new conversation partners can lead to amazing returns in life. :)