I teach 1-1 or group classes, and my students fall into three categories:

• Adult professionals: engineers, managers, accountants, salespeople, etc.
• Those preparing for advanced-level university study overseas
• Occasional classes at high schools, providing specialised training usually for honours students

The students who are studying English for career development purposes need to communicate with their customers or business partners more effectively. Usually their English is not at the level they need because they have always studied language without a context. We focus our energies on activating the language they know (and building on it) by studying topics related to their work:

• Report writing - this is a big problem for Taiwanese as the skill is not taught in Chinese either! It requires the ability to improvise, which is discouraged by the focus on knowing the answers to tests.
• Presentation skills - is really just an extension of report writing. Most Taiwanese can speak reasonably well - if they know what to say. We emphasise the need to prepare when giving effective presentations.
• Customer Service and negotiating skills - this is often a cultural more than a language issue, and we also offer classes at Enspyre teaching CS in Chinese
• Problem-solving - education in Taiwan focuses on "knowing the answer given by your teacher" and this makes it difficult for students and employees to adapt to new situations. In fact, problem solving is closely related to report writing as both require analytical skills that are not taught in school. A large part of my work focuses on teaching people to analyse things, either to describe them or to solve them.
• Motivational and self-development issues - younger students especially lack a sense of direction and job-satisfaction. We help people to find meaning in their work by setting meaningful achievable goals.

The theme of my classes can be summarised as "building better businesses by building better employees"!

If you would like to take one of my classes....