Interview - Owen Flatley

• FORCE ENGLISH PEOPLE TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU
• DON’T TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY
‘The Study Guide Interview With’ starts with Owen, teaching an advanced class (8-11am) and a writing module class (11-12am) daily. Owen teaches the editor’s class and started teaching English 4 years ago. He has been teaching at Malvern House for 11 months. Now let’s listen to his story and his special tips on studying English effectively.
(E: Editor, O: Owen)

E: Why did you choose to teach foreign students?
O: I find it extremely exciting, experiencing so many different cultures in a small place, learning more about people who have different experiences and concepts from all around the world. And also I love English and I love being able to pass a little bit of my knowledge on… And it gives me great pleasure to hear extremely good spoken and written work from my students.

E: And you can learn how to say ‘close the door’ in lots of different languages?
O: Yeah.(laugh)

E: What do you think of Malvern House students? What’s your impression of them?
O: I think they’re very ambitious…can be extremely hard-working, can be slightly lazy. But otherwise, they’re very receptive to new ideas and quite easy to engage in teaching so that I can enjoy teaching.

E: You are the one who suggested the publication of this Malvern House magazine. What was your motivation?
O: The motivation was to establish a form of communication in which students could demonstrate, not only to any other people but also to themselves, the progress they’re making, the language they’re learning and the new levels of their communicative abilities. So the motivation was to find a method that really motivates students and actually gives them the opportunity to really use their languages for a purpose. It’s more a stage of communication, I think, communication with the real world.

E: Do you have some special expectations for this magazine, for example, what do you want this magazine to be and continue like?
O: I don’t care what it turns out to be like as long as the students involved are interested in what they’re writing about and the magazine shows a good quality of literacy. Hopefully, this will become the students’ independent thing and in the end I won’t have much to do with it, because it will be a student-led magazine.


OWEN’S TIPS ON STUDY
• READ A LOT. Read everything you can get your hands on. Everything, anything. Fire escape notices, magazines, signs on the train, anything.

• FORCE ENGLISH PEOPLE TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU. Make them interested in you. Just talk to them. Find mutual understanding and share interests. ‘I’ll get another person to write a guide how to make English friends’ he says.

• TRY TO AVOID JOBS IN PLACES WHERE LITTLE ENGLISH IS SPOKEN. Try to get into an English-involved environment for as long as possible.

• LISTEN TO THE RADIO EVERY DAY. Just a short little snippet like 1 min radio. Play it again to yourself until you understand.

• KEEP REVISING. Keep looking at words everyday and revising them. Keep trying to use them in as many contexts and situations as you can.

E: Finally, are there any final thoughts you’d like to mention?
O: The most important thing in learning a language is not to take yourself seriously. Be happy and comfortable with making mistakes. Don’t be stressed and be happy to make yourself learn English.

Ji-hye Park

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Note: Please e-mail us your own tips on study or contact us at studentmagazine@ymail.com to let us hear your study ideas and deliver your valuable tips to many students thirsty for English. Any students and teachers are welcome.