Claire Mitchell

Claire (00:05)
It just kind of got me out of such a sort of a hole after my Masters have finished and it was Covid, and I didn't know what I was going to do, and it just felt like it opened up so many doors and just made the world seem like such small place. Like I was kind of this morning I talked to someone in Istanbul, talked to somebody else in Hanoi, and then after this podcast, I'm talking to a student in Tokyo. So, yeah, it's awesome. It just feels like I've got these friends kind of on the other side of the world, but it feels like they're not far away at all.

Euan (00:37)
You're listening to ‘I Taught English Abroad’ a Podcast by The TEFL org My name is Euan Davidson and in this podcast series, we're going to be talking to people who've taught English as a foreign language, find out where it's taken them and find out what they've learned from it. So whether you're an aspiring TEFL teacher, you're studying a TEFL course, or you're interested in teaching English more generally, hopefully, this is a podcast for you. We'll be covering a range of topics each week, from travel and accommodation to the nitty gritty of teaching, all while taking a look at global teaching and the quirks of TEFL life. I'm excited to say today I'm joined by Claire Mitchell. Claire lives in Manchester in the UK, and has been tutoring online since 2020. She specialises in teaching in the writing and speaking sections of the IELTS exam - we'll get onto that - and has her own YouTube channel focused exactly on this. She currently teaches on Cambly, and loves chatting to her wonderful students around the world. Her words! In addition to the TEFL qualifications that Claire gained from The TEFL Org - very good by the way. She has a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Master's
degree in Creative Writing, so you can count me as jealous of that. She's also taught ESOL on a volunteer basis for a charity that helps refugees improve their English, so I couldn't ask for a better guest. Claire, how are you doing today?

Claire (01:51)
I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Euan (01:57)
I can't complain. Who would listen?

Claire (01:57)
At least the heatwave's over.

Euan (02:00)
Well, that's true, yeah. It's been stormy in Glasgow for the last couple of days. I think it's sort of sorting itself out now, but, yeah, it's been a bit funny. What were you doing before teaching English? As I said in the intro, you started doing this in 2020, so it's been a bit of a whirlwind a couple of years for you. If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing before you discovered TEFL?

Claire (02:25)
Yes, so before, I actually spent quite a few years working in corporate offices, doing sort of legal administration and kind of contracts admin and working in legal departments and that kind of thing. So it was all fairly typical kind of office work and then I left in order to do my Masters in Creative Writing it
was just something I'd always wanted to do. And I kind of reached that point where I was like, it's kind of now or never. And then after that, immediately after graduating, pretty much two months later, COVID struck. So then I was like, oh, okay, because I'd been planning to just kind of go back into admin work, back into office work. And so that was kind of turned upside down a little bit. And one of my brother-in-laws, actually, who's a teacher in a kind of brick-and-mortar school, he suggested TEFL. And it was something that I hadn't really thought about before, but because I love English, I've always loved writing and language, so I thought I'd give it a go and did a bit of research and obviously came across The TEFL Org and saw all the accreditations and things. And so I opted to do my training with The TEFL Org and did the 120 hours course first, and did the advanced online course as well, which I found really, really helpful, especially for helping me feel a bit more confident, kind of delivering a lesson, actually, online.

Claire (04:04)
It was kind of a big shift, and so I've been just working from home, working remotely throughout the pandemic and continuing now as well, just because I was enjoying it.

Euan (04:17)
Absolutely. What inspired you to teach English? With your career experience, the degrees that you've done, I'm sure you would have had lots of different kinds of career options, especially in the context of the pandemic and working remotely. But I just want to ask, what was it about teaching English
specifically that inspired you to make that career move? Was it based on kind of the strength of your academic experience or was there something particular about it where you thought, “yeah, this is for me”?

Claire (04:36)
Yeah, that's a really good question. It kind of just piqued my interest, probably initially because I've kind of just always loved English. It was the subject - I mean, I guess more the literature side of it, really. It was what I studied at Uni and my A levels. I did English literature and English language as separate A levels, which at the time my teachers were all a bit disapproving of. They were like, oh, no, it's too narrow a focus. You need to kind of spread your wings a bit more first. But it's just always something I loved. So I think the English aspect appealed first and then I also loved the thought of being able to - because I'd spent two years, my master’s was kind of distance learning. So I got used to not having to go into an office every day and really loved that. I really enjoyed working from home. So I thought now that everything was going online, the kind of secondary reason was that it was something that I thought, I can do this from home. I can do it from anywhere if I want to travel around wherever kind of life takes me in the future.

Claire (05:46)
Once the pandemic was over, then it was something that was just really flexible. So, yeah, I think the English first and then after that, the fact that it was so flexible and I could do it remotely and work from home or wherever wanted to.

Euan (06:04)
That makes total sense. And so there was something specific as well I want to ask you quite early on because we mentioned there to start the IELTS exam. Try saying that quickly five times! For those that are watching this and don't really know what that is, what is the IELTS? to the best of my knowledge It's an exam, it's a way for students across the world to find opportunity in English-speaking countries primarily, isn't it? I've written a couple of articles for The TEFL Org website, but it's hard to even put across how meaningful it is. So for listeners and for viewers that aren't fully aware, what can passing the IELTS do for people?

Claire (06:44)
Yeah, so you can just call it IELTS actually. That's easier, the easier option. It's the International English Language Testing System, which is also a mouthful. But yes, my students that are studying it, it's so, so important to them, so essential to their futures. You can either take it if you want to emigrate to an English-speaking country and work there, or you can take it if you want to study abroad. So if you want to do a master's or I think probably also for undergraduate degrees in an English-speaking country. And a lot of my students are really passionate about wanting to travel and they take their academic work really seriously. So it's just something that's really sort of vital to their lives and so I feel like helping them practise and kind of achieve one of their goals, hopefully, it's just really quite rewarding and fulfilling because it is such a kind of such an objective for them and it's so difficult and challenging, I think they get very stressed about it.

Claire (08:08)
So it's kind of trying to sort of help them through that a little bit as well. I sometimes find myself giving a bit of life advice as well and just sort of all-around helping them to prepare for the test day and give them some relaxation tips and ways that they can feel a bit more comfortable about the whole process.

Euan (08:37)
That makes total sense. It strikes me - obviously I'm not a teacher, that should be obvious, but it strikes me as something that's a bit more kind of… obviously, teaching English in general as a foreign language opens up all these opportunities for people, whether it's getting through school or university, that kind of thing. But I've got to imagine there's quite an emotional kind of component to teaching something like that because it is so integral if someone has plans to move to an English-speaking country or to kind of unlock something academically somewhere else. We'll get on to refugees and that kind of thing later on as well which obviously plays a large component in your career. But as you say I can imagine it's not just about the teaching.

Euan (09:20)
It's about you kind of being there for students as well. Can it be challenging? Sort of, I guess, emotionally? Do you find, obviously as rewarding as it is for teachers who want to teach the IELTS, which thank you again for clarifying, do teachers need to be prepared that there's a little bit more to it? Would that be fair to say?

Claire (09:44)
Yeah. I would say so because it is so kind of… Because it is so important to their lives which I probably didn't realise when I got into it. I just thought. “Oh. There seems to be a lot of demand for this so it would be a good thing to kind of specialise in” and I'd had some inquiries about helping people with the writing aspect of it, I think because of some of my writing background, so I thought “this actually makes sense”. It kind of led me towards it and then once I started teaching it I realised how crucial an exam it was to these students a lot of them are at that age in their life so they're kind of perhaps late teens or early twenties and they feel like the future is ahead of them so it's that point where things become really critical.

Claire (10:37)
I think you have to be quite understanding and just anticipate that they might have kind of bad days and good days with their studies and some of my students sometimes they feel like they reach a plateau or they have a kind of a week where they're feeling really frustrated or perhaps they're like comparing themselves to other kinds of students that they've come across and worried that they're not good enough so it's important to be able to give them some positivity and kind of let them know that there's always peaks and troughs in learning anything new but as long as you're always practising then you're always going in the right direction you're sort of moving towards where you want to get to and you just have to expect there might be little blips along the way but that's completely normal when they're having a bad day. Sort of tell them that as well.

Euan (11:30)
That's really interesting and obviously IELTS has become a part of your career in the sense that you're on YouTube as well so talk me through that because I - just, first of all, I absolutely love the ambition and confidence of it, being like “I’ve changed careers and now I'm at a point where I've learned so much that I can impart lessons on YouTube”, that kind of thing. First of all, I love that. But secondly, how did you come to that? Did you notice there was a bit of a gap in the market in a sense and how has that impacted how you teach?

Claire (12:11)
So, yes, I think I guess in terms of IELTS, there's lots of sort of help and things out there and a few YouTube channels. But actually I have to credit one of my students with this because he also teaches English in Vietnam. He's like a really advanced and proficient speaker but I've just been helping him kind of fine-tune a few areas of his English in terms of really getting that native proficiency and he teaches IELTS in Vietnam and he said, |look, there's not many videos out there where you get native speakers doing example speaking answers”. There's some writing help and some speaking help but what I try to do with mine is kind of simulate a bit of an exam environment where you're not given the answers so you'll find a lot of maybe scripted answers out there. But what I'll do is I'll just take a question and kind of answer it like I would in the exam. So there's some natural fillers and I'm guilty of using words like 'like' or, 'you know' and, 'umming' and 'erring' and things. But they're just kind of natural parts of English so you can't sort of block them out completely.

Claire (13:34)
So I just tried to give really authentic sort of unscripted responses and include some topics, specific vocabulary because that's a really important thing to be aware of in IELTS. The examiner looks for kind of precision in your language and if you can use some sort of everyday colloquial, idiomatic language as well, not too much and sometimes they'll try and use too many cliches. So I try and do example answers that use more natural, relaxed, sort of informal English rather than sort of crowbarring in lots of things like "it's not my cup of tea" or "It's raining cats and dogs" because we don't really go around talking like that all the time. So yeah, that was just like I said, my Vietnamese teacher friend suggested it and said there's not a lot out there, just these natural native IELTS example answers. So that was where it kind of started and just sort of hopefully branch out and do a few more types of videos at some point.

Claire (14:41)
But yeah, hopefully they've been helpful for people to pick up some useful vocabulary in phrases and things.

Euan (14:50)
We should, at this point, give your YouTube channel a quick plug. So if people are listening to this or watching this, how do they find you on YouTube?

Claire (15:02)
Oh, good question. I'm not really used to plugging anything but yeah, I'm just on as Claire Mitchell. I'm trying to think of the best way for them to find me, to be honest, because I'm just on with my name, Claire Mitchell. Perhaps if people searched for sort of IELTS, I use hashtags. So I kind of put hashtag native English, hashtag native speaker, hashtag IELTS speaking part two. If you kind of searched with that in particular and perhaps include my name as well, then it might pop up.

Euan (15:44)
Cool. We will of course drop a link in the description for both the podcast and the video as well. So you talked about idioms and cliches and that kind of thing. If I was going to ask you what the biggest challenges for non-native level English speakers with spoken English, would that rank pretty highly? What other challenges are there that maybe we don't think of as native English speakers that seem utterly bizarre to people who are learning the language?

Claire (16:13)
Yes, one of the things that my students kind of struggle with or that they feel that they're not very good at, even the students that really impressed me with their English ability, that can just hold a half-hour conversation with me, but they always kind of complain that they can never remember the words that they want. They seem to struggle specifically with vocabulary, especially if they're talking about more abstract concepts. So the sort of vocabulary that you wouldn't use every day, and with IELTS in particular, you're examined on all kinds of different topics and including kind of random ones. They expect you to maybe talk about art and the environment. Even really kind of strange things like whether you've ever…    some of the recent questions have been like “have you ever bought a mirror?” and you have to talk about mirrors, or “have you given a wallet as a gift?”

Euan (17:19)
Kind of random.

Claire (17:21)
Yes, really odd. And then the part three aspect is where you get more of the sort of abstract philosophical questions about how maybe life has changed from the past to the present. Or they might talk about the differences between the old and the young and where people like to live, are they in the city or the countryside, and why. So it's just not things that you talk about in everyday conversation. So yeah, I generally try and give them tips in terms of learning vocabulary. And for a start, I'll say, look, just use the most kind of appropriate word. So even if it's not a really sophisticated advanced word, it doesn't matter. It's better to use the right word for the job and sound native and natural rather than trying to force a kind of a more complex word that, perhaps, doesn't really fit in the context and kind of just give them tips. Like I sometimes tell them just when they're sort of going about their daily life, for example, kind of tell themselves in their head what they're doing in English.

Claire (18:30)
So even if they are making a cup of tea now I'm walking down the street, the birds are singing, anything like that. If they haven't got anyone to practise with. They can kind of just do that by themselves and sort of get into that headspace of speaking English. Yeah. Other than that, I tell them to put vocabulary on post-it notes and stick it around the house, and then when they come across one, sort of use it in a sentence, use it in context. And also just with IELTS particularly, take the different topics and perhaps focus on one topic at a time and just learning maybe or practising kind of five new words a week, or ten new words a week, whatever feels manageable and achievable not to give themselves too many new words. And when they learn a new one, learn some synonyms as well. So some other words mean the same thing, or some antonym words that mean the opposite. So you've got kind of a group. Yeah. So I think there's ways they can help build up their vocabulary, but I think it's just letting them know as well, that native speakers always forget words and can't find the words that they want, so they feel like it's a really kind of bad thing. But I say, look, the amount of time I'm sitting there and words on the tip of my tongue, but I can't kind of pluck it out of my subconscious.

Claire (19:55)
So it's natural and not something to feel ashamed of. But yes, I think that's probably one of their struggles. They feel like they can't access the vocabulary that they want.

Euan (20:02)
I’m not even sure I would pass the IELTS, to be honest. That sounds really tough.

Claire (20:17)
Sure. Yeah, it's difficult. So I've kind of done a practice, kind of a mock, IELTS exam. I'm actually going to sit the exam myself in a couple of months just to experience it. So I'm sitting it in Manchester and yes, like I say, it's really hard. Even native speakers, you would need to study it and kind of understand the techniques that they're looking for because I think otherwise, the top band score you can get is a nine. But I think it can be common for a native speaker to kind of get us over six or seven just because they've not necessarily practised, and they're not giving the examiner what he wants, which is a range of vocabulary and kind of structured answers and things like that. It's difficult.

Euan (21:07)
That's absolutely fascinating. So to kind of change gears a wee bit, we're going to take a break shortly, but just before we do that, I want to ask you, working for an online business means you can essentially teach English abroad in different parts of the globe during a working day. So you might be sitting in Manchester, but theoretically, you're teaching across the world. Where are a lot of students from at the moment and what are the major differences? Sorry, what major differences are they learning English for speakers of different languages? So, for example, what makes someone whose mother tongue is Italian struggle with, compared to someone who speaks, for example, an East Asian language? What are the kind of differences there? Or is all broadly the same challenge?

Claire (21:51)
Yeah, no, that's a good question. So I would say most of my students are - I mean, they're kind of all around the world, but mostly in Asian countries. I've got quite a few in Vietnam and Japan, China, Korea, and then also I have got a lady in Canada and California and actually they're both Korean, but they're living in Canada and America. And I think in terms of the sort of the difficulties, certainly in terms of accent, I think, for example, quite a few of my students are Vietnamese and I know that in their native tongue there's a tendency to not pronounce the endings of words very strongly. So that's something they really have to practise when they learn English, especially with things - if they're using the past tense, they won't necessarily pronounce the sort of ed very strongly or they might miss off or not pronounce the 's' at the end of plural strongly enough. And that kind of thing would be marked down in IELTS, if you can't hear that, because the examiner might assume they're using sort of a singular instead of a plural or present tense instead of past tense.

Claire (23:18)
So for them in particular, I think my students in Southeast Asia and around there, I'm always kind of trying to listen to the pronunciation of the endings of words. That's probably one of the most noticeable, I think, challenges that I've come across.

Claire (23:37)
Excellent. Okay, we're just going to take a quick break. One of my beautiful colleagues is going to tell us all about something that's happening on The TEFL Org website and then we'll be right back with Claire Mitchell.

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Euan (25:00)
So, one thing I really want to ask about, that we covered in the intro, is your work volunteering with refugees. I was just wondering, I don't know if everyone necessarily thinks of that. How difficult is it for people to find opportunities volunteering locally for refugees?

Claire (25:15)
Yeah, so for that, that's also actually something that I'm doing online. There are a couple of refugee charities that I'm aware of. One is called Refunet. Net, and that's the one that I volunteered for. And then the other is Language Linkers and I think they've both got kind of Facebook pages and things like that. That was not too difficult, actually, in terms of getting involved because I think they were obviously always wanting volunteers and there's so many, kind of, people out there sort of seeking asylum or refugees who really need some help. So, yeah, these charities are always looking for people with different skills and abilities that they can then match up to a student. So, yeah, it wasn't too tricky for me. I think I just contacted - went on the Facebook page and sort of messaged the organisation and I think I perhaps had to fill out a form, an application form, and tell them what I guess my training was and my skills and kind of mentioned about English.

Claire (26:34)
So the first refugee that I was matched with wanted help with her GCSE English language, actually. So it wasn't so much TEFL and it was kind of GCSE English. So that was good, really good to have to go back in my brain and sort of access some GCSE stuff in the distant past.

Euan (26:57)
No that distant I'm sure.

Claire (27:04)
Further away than I care to mention! And then after we've studied the GCSE, we then moved on and did some TEFL and kind of grammar and general English and some functional skills and just conversation practice. So that was all really great practice for me, as well as hopefully being beneficial in helping her. We've taken a break from our lessons now because she started she got her English GCSE, which is amazing, so that was awesome. Now she's doing A levels, and ultimately wants to become a doctor and I think she's got so many kind of obstacles against her, just on a number of different levels, but she's just so ambitious and committed and I find it really quite inspirational. She kind of just keeps going. She's very focused. So I just keep in touch with her now and touch base, and check how she's doing.

Euan (28:00)
That's fantastic. And also with the humanitarian crisis we've seen in recent years, refugees coming from Syria, Palestine, Yemen, and of course, more recently the invasion of Ukraine, it sounds kind of obvious, but has the demand for English teachers, TEFL teachers - I'm going to guess that's increased pretty exponentially?

Claire (28:23)
Yeah. So I'm on an email forum group thing for ESOL volunteers and specifically for refugees, and I've seen lots of emails lately related to that. And people have been creating resources, like helpful resources and attaching links to those resources for volunteer teachers to use with Ukrainian refugees. I think, yeah, the demand has definitely gone up. I think it's definitely there and I think kind of the charities are just - and I guess - I think there's probably local opportunities as well. You could do kind of in person teaching as well. That's not something I've sort of explored yet, unfortunately, but it's definitely something I would think about.

Euan (29:16)
It's fantastic, and there's so much value in doing that. I'd encourage anyone that's listening or watching us to check out opportunities locally. Obviously, you're now a really established TEFL teacher and as we mentioned, you're even doing lessons on YouTube. But for someone who's building their CV in terms of TEFL teaching, and from a sort of utilitarian kind of voluntary perspective, obviously we'd recommend it, but to what degree would you recommend voluntary work? In terms of both building a CV and doing something good in terms of a local way?

Claire (29:54)
Yeah, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Yeah. I actually recommended it to a friend of mine who lives down in Cornwall, actually. But yeah, she also did her training with The TEFL Org and she wanted to get started. So I mentioned Refunet, which was the charity that I'm volunteering with, and she contacted them and she was put in touch with a student and she helped them, I think for about six months or so, I think, and really found it a great way to just kind of get started. And it gets you used to lesson planning and because it's one-to-one, it's really nice. You can kind of really tailor your lessons specifically to the student. And I think, yeah, it just helps build up your confidence as well as knowing that you're helping someone else. You feel like you're putting what you've learned to good use kind of in an extra way. So I would definitely advise it.

Euan (31:00)
Excellent. To switch gears a wee bit. What you've been able to do in two years is just absolutely astounding. And obviously you've got a really impressive academic history as well, including a Masters in Creative Writing. So, firstly, I'm jealous, and secondly, how creative can you be with different groups of students? Have you ever had students come up with their own stories? Can you sort of add a creative writing element to lesson planning? Like, how have you been able to use that?

Claire (31:28)
Yeah, definitely. I have actually got one student on Cambly who is a children's illustrator and she wants to write a children's book. So I've helped her a little bit with her story. She sent me some excerpts from it and I've kind of corrected the English. And then I've also been able to give her a few tips as to how to structure the story and make the reader feel really absorbed in it or want to know what's going to happen next. So I've definitely been able to use it as a creative aspect there. And I had another student as well who just wanted to practise writing generally, and he was an IELTS student, but he was really advanced, so he wanted to sort of write in a more advanced way or do something a bit more sophisticated. So I gave him some writing prompts and I think he quite enjoyed, instead of writing sort of the typical academic essays, just being able to get a bit more creative. And I always try to emphasise that I suppose with English you can be a little bit - especially with writing kind of adventurous or experimental because some of them are really quite bogged down in the grammar and wanted to make sure that that's all correct. And of course you have to do that or you have to kind of know the rules in order to break the rules.

Claire (32:58)
But if they want to just write a bit more creatively instead of sticking to these kind of stricter, sort of rigid frameworks that IELTS demands, then it's just kind of maybe can bring a bit more fun and light-heartedness and pleasure and enjoyment into using the language if you can kind of write something more creative. Yeah, I think it's just a little bit more fun.

Euan (33:24)
That's really interesting because - I’m going off my own experiences here - in terms of English, we were always really encouraged to do creative writing and there was always a creative writing element to whatever we were graded on, even from primary school up the way up. In terms of learning foreign languages, not that I can speak them now, but I learned German and French and there wasn't really that creative aspect of it. And I think that really would have helped because if it's kind of self-directed in terms of the message that a student wants to get across, surely these kinds of phrases and words and terminologies are going to stick more inherently because they've chosen them.    Does that make sense?

Claire (34:12)
Yeah. So instead of just using it in a really formal or academic way to be able to use the language more creatively and obviously in real life, whether you're just writing emails to an English friend or kind of yeah, you're going to have to use language in quite a creative way. And just in everyday conversation, we don't always stick to the correct grammar, depending where you come from. For example, in the UK, you kind of mix things up and probably mix tenses up and use things in a way that a student would maybe find odd. But I think that's kind of real English in a real-world context, so having that creative element helps maybe broaden their horizons of the language students a little bit so they know that they can use English a bit more flexibly if they want to.

Euan (35:01)
I love that. So this section is… ostensibly it's a quick-fire question thing, but I'm never ever going to tell a guest that they have to answer really quickly, especially if the answer is really good because I received some feedback on that after the first recording. So it's a quick-fire if you want it to be. If not, that's also fine. Okay.

Claire (35:22)
I'll try and be concise because I always feel like I'm not always concise enough. So I'm going to try to be.

Euan (35:30)
Don't worry about it, take as long as you need, honestly. It's going to be quick-fire in the sense that I wrote these questions quickly. I don't know. So we'll get into a hypothetical. So let's say money, visas, all the rest of the stuff, no object. You can be transported to any country in the world. Where would you want to teach the most?

Claire (35:52)
I think at the moment, probably Vietnam. Because like I said, I've got students there and I've watched loads of YouTube videos about it and it looks amazing and I think the cost of living is not too high and there's just loads of beautiful scenery. So I think that would be my top choice for the moment.

Euan (36:11)
Excellent. You can actually read a guide to teaching in Vietnam on The TEFL Org work website.

Claire (36:17)
I have seen it, yes.

Euan (36:24)
That's the first successful plug I've ever done in this podcast. What do you wish someone had told you when you first got into TEFL?

Claire (36:31)
Oh my gosh, look at this is just not quick at all. Do you know what? Maybe actually just because I felt that it was such an unknown quantity to me, but if they told me about the amazing students… that I would be able to meet some of them, I really think of much more as friends now than students. So I think if I'd known that, that would have probably inspired me to kind of get stuck into it sooner, I would have felt really kind of excited about it from the get-go. It was a bit more of a slower process of like, I'm enjoying this, this is great. If I'd known that I think if someone said, you know, what the opportunity to meet some amazing people around the world? Yeah, that would have been good to know.

Euan (37:19)
That's a great answer. Talking of advice, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given? It doesn't have to be TEFL-related at all.

Claire (37:26)
Oh, the best piece of advice I've ever been given. I mean, honestly, I'm not just saying this, but yeah, probably my brother-in-law saying, “have you ever thought of TEFL?” Just because it just got me out of such a sort of a hole after my master’s had finished, and it was Covid, and I didn't know what I was going to do. And it just feels like it opened up so many doors and it just made the world seem like such a small place. Like, I was kind of… this morning, I talked to someone in Istanbul.    Talked to somebody else in Hanoi. And then after this podcast, I'm talking to a student in Tokyo. So, yeah, it's awesome. It just feels like I've got these friends kind of on the other side of the world, but it feels like they're not far away at all.

Euan (38:13)
That's so cool. I mean, it's got to make the world feel, like, small, but in a good way, right?

Claire (38:27)
Yeah, it does. And it's kind of inspired me. It's made me want to travel a bit more and just see more of the world. Yeah, it's really good.

Euan (38:34)
I love that. And if someone is considering doing a TEFL course but they're nervous about it or they don't think they could do it, what would you tell them?

Claire (38:44)
I would say I'm like a massive worrier and kind of get anxious about everything. So I would say if I can do it, anyone can do it. And yeah, also I would say you can take your time with it. So I found it great the one I did with The TEFL Org, just because you can do it at your own pace. It's step-by-step. You kind of do the grammar and then you've got the additional modules, kind of the teaching your learners and things. I think you can pace yourself so there's no pressure. And yeah, it's great fun. Like I say, if I can do it and I kind of worry about everything, then anyone can do it.

Euan (39:23)
Cool. Okay. Finally. Absolutely not TEFL-related at all. Obviously. You come from Manchester. A couple of Manchester-related questions, if you'll indulge me for a second. City or United?

Claire (39:35)
I would have to say, officially, I'm a neutral. This is complicated. My best friend is like, United all day long, but my family, my dad, they're actually all not City they are Liverpool. Yeah. And that's a whole other rivalry. Officially, I'm neutral. But I'd have to say United, because my friend would never forgive me otherwise.

Euan (39:58)
That's the perfect diplomatic answer. Stone Roses or Happy Mondays.

Claire (40:04)
Stone Roses.

Euan (40:12)
Okay. And Joy Division or New Order?

Claire (40:12)
Joy Division.

Euan (40:18)
Excellent. That's the correct answer. But yeah. Okay. Claire, it's been an absolute blast talking to you. I've really enjoyed this. So, finally, again, we'll plug your stuff. Where can people find you?

Claire (40:31)
I’ve got a Facebook page. Again, that's just Claire Mitchell or Teacher Claire E M. And then YouTube. And, yes, you could probably find me Claire Mitchell, hashtag IELTS speaking, part two. That's probably a good way to find me. I'm sure there's a more high-tech answer for that, but I haven't quite got to grips with all the marketing side of that yet.

Euan (40:54)
That will come, I'm sure.    Claire, it's been fantastic speaking to you. Thank you so much.

Claire (41:07)
No problem at all. It was great. Thank you very much for having me.