Roya Abedi

Euan (00:01)
I'm delighted to say today I'm joined by Roya Abedi. Now, Roya, thanks so much for coming onto our podcast. How are you doing today?

Roya (00:09)
Thank you very much for having me. And this is the first time that I'm an interviewer like this. And I'm super excited. Thank you very much. I'm doing great.

Euan (00:19)
glad to hear it. That's a much nicer sentiment than most people at the start of the podcast. So before we delve more into the fine details of your career, because you've had such an interesting career path and that's why we wanted to speak to you, but let's go right from the start. What was your childhood like and how did you develop such a passion for the English language? Because I'm really interested to know how that came about.

Roya (00:44)
Um, interesting because I didn't follow the tradition path of being an English, an English teacher normally, but I don't know why going to the university studying, uh, teaching or studying English studies. Instead, I was a language learner. And after reaching an advanced level, I decided to be an English teacher and I was inspired by my private tutor because she told me she was the person, my person that told me that.

you are somehow talented and you can learn new languages easily. So go and pass some TTC courses and be an English teacher because you have the ability to actually do this. So I just, at first I just wanted to give it a shot, but after that I realized I was an English teacher.

Euan (01:34)
I love that. So what was your exposure to English speaking media growing up in Iran? Because we've spoken to another Iranian guest, Sara Lamy, who told us about films and pop music and getting films on cassette and kind of transcribing back. So what was your exposure to English media, English speaking media like?

Roya (01:54)
To be honest with you, my main exposure was just going to different English classes and having a private tutor, but at the same time I used to watch a lot of American movies because I love American accent and…

Euan (02:08)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (02:10)
watching TV series and listening to pop music. But I think those things, I mean, watching TV series, podcasts, I should say that I used to be and at the same time, actually, I used to be a big fan of podcasts.

Right now, no, I don't know why, but those days as a language learner, I used to listen to a lot of podcasts and I cannot say that those podcasts, TV series and the other materials weren't useful for me, but they weren't the main source for me, the main method for me to learn English. But yes, I had exposure, a lot of exposure, I think.

Euan (02:49)
I think the perception is certainly in the West is that, you know, there's confusion as to how far, you know, music and films and that kind of thing spreads across the world because I think people will make all sorts of assumptions. So I just have to ask actually as well, was there any particular podcast that you listened to and that really gave you inspiration?

Roya (03:12)
Yes. BBC podcasts. I said that I love American accent, but I used to listen to BBC podcasts, you know, which are British podcasts from BBC and especially BBC six minutes. And they were super useful for me. I remember those days when I wanted to go to work. It took me like an hour and a half to go and again, to come back. So.

Euan (03:29)
All right.

Roya (03:39)
All in all, three hours on my way to work and I was driving and I remember vividly, remember those days that I was listening to those podcasts on and on. And I think they were like a magic for me.

Euan (03:55)
Cool. So you've talked a little bit about private English tutoring. I was wondering, what was your school experience like? Is it easy to learn English in the Iranian schooling system or do you have to sort of look outside to really get into the sort of finer points of the English language?

Roya (04:13)
Unfortunately, I should say that it's not easy. It's not that easy in Iran to learn English especially at school because students start learning English in secondary school not primary school and the English that they learn is not that useful and practical because it's all about grammatical rules. They don't learn how to speak.

in the other language in English. And I think the methods that they use, teachers and schools use is not that practical and standard even now, even these days. So for my case, no exception. I didn't learn anything at school. And after that, not anything, just rules, but I couldn't speak. It's better to say I couldn't speak. But after that, by going to different…

Euan (05:00)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (05:06)
classes, English classes, by exposure, as I told you, by listening to podcasts, by watching movies, by studying on my own, I could speak English almost fluently those days.

Euan (05:20)
I mean, it is kind of incredible as well, the fact that you've, you know, being able to learn to be as fluent as you are to the extent of being an English teacher and so much of that is self -directed and that's definitely the vibe that we've got, you know, not just yourself, but Sarah, who was on the last series, that seems to be the kind of experience. So I wondered this as well, you know, when you're growing up in Iran, and I think there are, you know, people do make assumptions about Iran and what it's like to live in Iran, but did it feel possible to kind of explore the world when you were growing up? Did it feel possible to kind of…

Did it feel within your grasp to go and travel and work and that kind of thing? Or did it seem like it was kind of much more difficult? Where did you kind of want to go?

Roya (06:00)
No, I should say I didn't. I didn't feel that I can go to see the world. I always, I was daydreaming to travel to the other countries because I've always wanted to still I want to see the New York City, for example, see the US and the maybe now that I'm living in Italy, it's not like a dream anymore, but it used to be like a dream when I was living in Iran and and.

you know that I was born and raised in Iran so it sounded impossible as it sounds impossible now for everybody who's living in Iran so it's not easy traveling to the other countries for Iranian people because for almost for all countries you need the visa and getting the visa is not it is something complicated totally complicated

Euan (06:43)
Uh huh.

Absolutely. And Italy as well seems like a particularly difficult place to get a visa, but you're there and you're working there. We will kind of get onto that stage in your career a later on. So just kind of, again, sort of going back to the sort of roots of of where your English teaching dream kind of sprouted. You know, you and if I get the pronunciation of this wrong, do immediately correct me. But you earned a degree in engineering from the from the Malayar Malayar University.

Roya (07:18)
Maloyer. Maloyer. Maloyer is my home.

Euan (07:19)
Malay year, third time's a charm. Excellent. So, you know, obviously that kind of points out there was a different career in mind at one stage. So can you tell us about that experience and when you sort of realized you maybe weren't going to be an engineer as a career? Because that's kind of interesting divergence there.

Roya (07:39)
Maybe to you it sounds interesting, but to me it's not. It's one of my biggest regrets in my whole life. I think choosing, studying like civil engineering at university was a mistake for me. And if I hadn't chosen that major as my bachelor's degree, probably I could, now I could study like in a major for my master's degree, like teaching or.

Euan (07:46)
Okay.

Roya (08:07)
English studies or something like this or even I could have a better job right now because I'm not that satisfied with the job that I have right now in Italy. So I think it was just a mistake and those days probably because you know in Iran there was a belief that you have to be whether a doctor or an engineer.

in the future, you know? It's like a dream job for everybody to be an engineer or to be a doctor. And because of my friends, maybe because of my family, I don't know, they didn't push me to do so. What I did, but after a while I realized that I didn't like it, but I couldn't change it. So, you know, even now, maybe…

I don't know whether it's necessary to explain or not. Even now in Italy, I'm studying something that I do not like because of my bachelor's degree. So that's why that I told you it's one of my biggest mistakes and regrets.

Euan (09:09)
I mean, just kind of on that, you you talk about kind of there wasn't pressure necessarily kind of explicitly to do engineering and you said something interesting there that people were ever expected to be doctors or engineers. What are the kind of other sort of main careers when you're growing up in Iran that kind of people expect you to go into? Are those the kind of big two? Are there any others?

Roya (09:33)
Yes, there were actually and still actually these days there are. These days because of the social media everything is clear and better and students can choose their path easily I think, easier than those days because those days I was studying math at high school and I don't know whether you're familiar with the education system in Iran or not.

But after high school, we have to pass a tough exam, like a concur, to go to the university. And if you were studying math, at the end, you can enter to engineering work or something like this. If I wanted to be a teacher, I didn't want to be a teacher. Probably those days I didn't know what to do, you know? I didn't know that.

I was good at teaching probably. I didn't know. My mother was a teacher in primary school, but I'd never felt that, okay, I want to be a teacher in the future. I don't know why, but after 10 years, after 10 years, I realized that, okay, I'm good at teaching, so I should go and teach English to the others. English is this thing that I know that, you know, I had been studying English for years.

So even now I feel my students very well and I can help them.

Euan (11:03)
Definitely. And it gives you a level of empathy. Having had a career where you weren't necessarily enthusiastic about it and changing something that you're passionate about, I think that's something that, I mean, obviously your case is different and everyone's individual story is different, but that is a very familiar path where people go like, I don't really like this. I'm going to do the thing I really care about. So actually, there's a really interesting point there. So you said your mom was a primary school teacher. How did she feel about you making that move to teaching?

Did she say anything like, oh she always kind of saw you as a teacher but didn't want to push you a certain way or was there anything like that?

Roya (11:37)
She's excited, she's so happy. And actually when I started here teaching at kindergarten, she helped me a lot because she used to, now she's retired, but she used to work with children because she used to teach students at primary school, the first and the second grade. So she knows these students very well.

their emotions, their behavior, the skills that I needed to help them. So she helped me a lot and she's happy and always she said that I'm proud of you, you're a good teacher. So because everybody, I don't want to give myself a compliment, but the parents of these students, now I'm mainly working with the children at kindergarten and I teach English at kindergarten and the parents all the time say that,

My kid loves you and my kid can understand you or my kid, you know, is like, you are like a role model to my kid. So my mother, I tell all of these things to my mother and she always says that I'm proud of you. So she's excited and happy.

Euan (12:52)
love that as well. And also, there's a common thread here as well, where when women come on the podcast, they always apologize for telling me about the nice things that people say or the achievements that they've made. This is absolutely the platform to give yourself compliments. It's a wonderful thing. And without putting too much importance on this podcast, we do seek out people who have interests and individual stories to tell. So I hope that is…

Roya (13:09)
Thank you.

Euan (13:22)
viewed as a compliment as well.

So let's talk again about the start of that teaching journey. So, you know, how did you kind of get things moving? What was your first job like and how did you kind of feel taking on this challenge?

Roya (13:35)
Wow, it's totally different than the other teachers. So normally teachers start teaching general English to the students, probably from like the basic level, elementary and then pre -intermediate and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they move on to if they want to teach IELTS techniques to these students. But in my case, it was totally different. Why?

because I started teaching English to the students right after my IELTS exam. So I knew everything about the IELTS exam because you know for the exam like IELTS, apart from the GE in general English, you have to know techniques and strategies to, you have to be test -wise and well -prepared for the exam. And I knew everything. And I actually, I've,

sat the IELTS test like twice. And that time, right after that, my private tutor told me that, okay, now you're like an advanced level, go participate in some local TTC courses. And I participated in one local TTC, like CELTA -based TTC, and it was super useful for me. And right after that, they offered me to go and to work in their institute, but it was…

in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. And I couldn't go there. I couldn't because I was scared. Everybody was scared and nobody.

Euan (15:03)
Alright.

Roya (15:10)
want to work in like the other places. Everybody wanted to stay at home. So I rejected. I needed it because in order to be a good teacher, you need to work first for the others. I believe because you need to be observed. Everybody, you need to be the other person who is more experienced and knowledgeable actually has to give you feedback. But I didn't have that opportunity because of coronavirus.

Euan (15:16)
Uh huh.

Roya (15:40)
pandemic. So I started on my own. I started my own and my own and I opened an Instagram page and I gained it. It's incredible because I gained a lot of followers from the very beginning. I don't know why, but everybody trusted me and they started asking me for private lessons and private classes. And after a while, like after one year, I was

Euan (15:57)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (16:08)
My classes were fully booked and I didn't have enough time to accept more students. So it started like this, but after that it changed. And after that I could manage, I could find the other people that, you know, perfect people or institutes to work with. And so this is the beginning of the story. I have a long story.

Euan (16:10)
Bye.

No, we're going to cover as much of it as we can. So tell me about the kind of students that you got, because you mentioned there that people would approach you on Instagram and trusted you and tried to get private lessons. So what kind of students are we talking about here? Are we talking about a range of different ages? Do people have different aims in terms of what they wanted to do with English? What was your general audience, if that's a fair question?

Roya (17:03)
Um, actually those days, mainly I had adults, you know, like IELTS candidates, you know, everybody in Iran wants to immigrate to another country because of the bad situation in Iran. Everybody wants to just get rid of that country. Uh, and, uh, I had a lot of IELTS candidates.

with a low level of general English. So first I started working at their GE and after that the IELTS techniques. So mainly adults. Okay, but if you're asking about now, this is currently I have the students like from three years old to 60 years old. You know, a wide range of students here in Italy.

Euan (17:53)
We will cover more of your Italian experiences a little bit later on, but yeah, it's wild how things change. So in the midst of all this, you're building up your Instagram, your social media presence, which obviously lends itself to having private students and building the business. In the midst of that, you do a course with the University of Arizona. So can you tell us about what happened there and what did you…

As a student, other than the teacher in this scenario, what did you make of that kind of online study environment? Did you find it really fruitful?

Roya (18:29)
Okay, the thing is I couldn't find any reliable TTC courses in Iran. The course that I participated in was reliable because of the mentor, but the thing is I knew that one day…

I'll emigrate to another country and this TTC course won't work for me. So I have to pass another course like CELTA, I don't know, like TESOL, like TEFL, but I couldn't afford, I couldn't afford none of them. And even I found the TEFL OROG website on the net and I wanted to participate, but I realized that it wasn't affordable for me. One day one of my friends told me that on Coursera platform, there's a TESOL course with a financial

Aid. So the reason that I participated in that course first was the financial aid because in E1 nothing was affordable for me. So to pay like weekly, I don't know.

The price was for this course exactly on Coursera without the financial aid was like weekly 40 euros or 40 dollars if I'm not mistaken. I don't know. I can't remember, but it wasn't affordable anyhow. So I applied for the financial aid first and after two weeks I realized that I got accepted. So I started immediately after that and I realized, wow, such a good course. And, um,

It had a lot of assignments. It had actually two parts. The first part with four courses and the second part with four more courses. The first four, like you can teach online, you can learn how to teach online and it's about…

Euan (19:56)
Uh huh.

Roya (20:13)
teaching like this system like vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. It's about how to write lesson plans and some other things. But the second part is all related to these skills like listening, reading, how to teach, writing and speaking to the students. And the second part has more assignments and you have to…

for both the first and the second part, you have to give demos and you have to teach and they give you feedback. And after that, they give you the degree from the Arizona State University. I found it super useful. And even sometimes when I have some students that I don't know what to do, when I, I don't know how to write a lesson plan for some specific students, again, I refer to the course. I watch the video related to that part.

And again, I try to polish my knowledge and I try to use it. So I found it super useful.

Euan (21:10)
Yeah, it sounds like a great experience, but your academic endeavors weren't done there. You went on to do a master's in Turin. So can you tell us about that move to Italy and to a city like Turin? What was that process of moving like for you? And how quickly did it take? How long did it take you to adapt to a completely different culture and a completely different academic experience? What was that like for you?

Roya (21:38)
Again, it has a long story, but I want to wrap it up and make it short for you. So as I mentioned a lot in this part today is that everybody in Iran, especially young people want to immigrate to another country because of the situation in Iran. And I wasn't an exception. I wanted, I'd…

Euan (21:42)
Long stories are good!

Roya (22:04)
I'd been trying for like six, seven years to immigrate to Canada, but it didn't work. My husband and I waited a lot. We'd been waiting for years, but it didn't work. And one day that I was super disappointed with everything, with my life, with my career, with everything. One of my friends who had immigrated to Italy told me that, why don't you come here?

Euan (22:10)
Right.

Roya (22:31)
because you have the IELTS degree, you have all of the documents, just give it a try, come here. You are an English teacher, there are lots of job opportunities for you here because people here cannot speak English very well, so you are not coming to a country like, I don't know, the US or Canada, so probably you can find a job easily. And I decided to try.

And I thought to myself it's better to apply for like a university or major related to my job like teaching like English studies and I applied for example for

Cafuscari University of Venice, University of Bologna, University of even here in Turin to study something related to my work, but all of them rejected me and I got rejected and more disappointed because I realized, wow, so I cannot because again, because of that stupid background, like engineering, civil engineering, I have to again continue with a master's degree studying engineering.

But the thing, the key and the thing was that if I actually hadn't applied for this major, again, in something related to engineering, I wouldn't be here now and I wouldn't have this job opportunity and this life here that I love here. So I decided to apply for something related to my background.

Euan (23:55)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (24:08)
A course, the name of the major is Digital Skills for Sustainable Societies. It sounded interesting to me and I applied and immediately I got accepted. So I realized that for Italian universities, your, I mean, work experience is not as important as your academic background. So I got accepted and after that I came here. I came here and arrived here like…

Euan (24:30)
Right.

Roya (24:38)
in 22, I think on the 10th of September, if I'm not mistaken. And after that, my husband joined me. I could even bring my husband here. And like, it took us six months. But the thing is that after a month, because the first months here, we were just…

Euan (24:52)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (25:02)
you know, sightseeing, going to different places, trying new things. And I started after that searching and looking for, you know, a job opportunity. I was a job seeker at that time, but it's like everybody, when people hear this, they're like, wow. And I was like, wow, how quick? After a week, I could find an…

An institute and they offered me an IELTS class because they knew my path. I've been working with IELTS students so they gave me like a class of people like the class of five students maybe and after one session they asked me to go to the institute and they told me these students are super satisfied after the first session so are you available to have more courses in this institute and I said yes.

Euan (25:37)
Okay.

Roya (25:58)
Definitely, of course. And then they gave me more classes, not only for the IELTS, but even for Cambridge tests like CAE, FCE, or general English classes, private students. And so I was like full. And I couldn't study anymore. I passed five or four or five exams for the first year. And after that,

Euan (26:20)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (26:27)
My boss introduced me to another school because I don't know whether you're familiar with the working and like.

environment, the policies in Italy, but in Italy it's not easy to have a long -term contract. But my boss introduced me to another school that I had the opportunity to work with them, this kindergarten that I'm right now I'm working in, to have a long -term contract and to work with them forever.

with somehow a well -paid job and at the same time I was and I am working in that institute, Steele. So I found it here, people super welcoming and…

Actually supportive, kind, and I think they helped. For example, if my boss in the first institute hadn't introduced me to the other school, so I wouldn't have the situation that I have right now here in Italy. So I think they are good supports.

Euan (27:37)
I mean, you preface that by saying this is a long story, but that was that's fascinating. There's so much kind of there because, you know, certainly not covered what it's like to get to sort of live and work in Italy to that degree. And I've got to ask this, you know, I'm going off script a little bit here, but can you explain what the kind of emotions were like the first few weeks when you're there? Because you're in Italy where they speak Italian. That's not your first language. And also you're you're you're in there trying to find work as an English teacher. So, you know,

kind of juggling languages, getting used to a new place, like were you running on kind of excitement and adrenaline and you were just like, this is fine, bring it on. Or was it a bit like, okay, this is hard work.

Roya (28:17)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was exciting because, you know, even when I was in Iran, I didn't used to talk in Persian in my classes. Mainly, I used to speak in English because…

All of the TTC courses, they told us that you have to talk in English and you have to convey the meaning in English to the students. So I knew how to do this, especially because of that TESOL course. So it wasn't that difficult for me to teach to them, but for them, it was so exciting because…

Unfortunately, I don't know why. We are Iranian and I know that probably we have a little bit Iranian accent while we talk in English. But even Italian teachers, English teachers, they have like intense Italian accent when they talk in English.

Euan (29:15)
Yeah.

Roya (29:17)
intense Italian accent. So the way that I was speaking to them was so fascinating to them and because they actually couldn't talk to me in Italian, again it was another thing that was like they were super excited wow so we have to we urge, we are urged to speak in English so I think it was a very…

you know, incredible experience for these students and also at the same time for me.

Euan (29:47)
I love that so

So I kind of wanted to follow on from what you're saying about your students, about the excitement of them having a teacher who speaks with an Iranian accent as opposed to an Italian one. So you help students prepare for the IELTS. That's something we've kind of covered. So tell me a bit about what kind of students you get in Italy and what their kind of ambitions are and how rewarding is it to know that you're helping people do these big, you know, make these big moves in their life? Like, what's that kind of like for you?

Roya (30:17)
Here in Chile I've got a wide range of students. At kindergarten, students aged like three to five, and at the institute, adults with different goals, it depends. Some of them because they work in companies. For example, I have a student who works in a company and he has a German boss, but he has to talk in English.

to the boss. So because of the career, their career, some of them want to learn English. Some other want to study in another country, for example, in the Netherlands or the other countries. So they want to get the IELTS degree to study in another country. But the number of them is not like a lot, you know, not many students want to.

get the IELTS degree. IELTS is not that famous as in Iran, you know, because people do not want to immigrate to other countries that much. I think this is the reason. Normally they want to improve their general English and they want to have a degree for that to show to prove to their companies, their bosses or the other places. So the Cambridge tests are

like more favorable here in Italy. So people normally want to sit the Cambridge test like CAE, like get the level of advanced being a advanced level student. Normally the students are like this, not IELTS candidates.

Euan (32:00)
I see. Okay, so, you know, obviously we talked before about, you know, the social media aspect of what you do. I think this kind of ties in because I was going to ask you, you know, when you help students, especially adult students, prepare for exams, whether it's IELTS, whether it's Cambridge, have you had people sort of keep up with you and you've kind of seen them go on their journey? Are there any students that sort of come to mind where you think like, okay, no, I really did help them out there. They're over somewhere else doing this thing now and they're happy.

Is that the most rewarding part for you? Does anyone particularly come to mind when I ask that?

Roya (32:35)
You were talking about my followers specifically?

Euan (32:42)
Well, I guess, I mean, anyone who's kind of, you know, booked a lesson with you and maybe they've moved country or maybe they've got a new job that's much better than their old job or that kind of thing. Are there any sort of particular stories you remember from people who have kind of kept in touch with you?

Roya (32:57)
Yes, a lot of stories. I've got a lot of stories because you know that I have a website and on the website there's a part just like a consultation. I normally talk to the students. Of course they have to pay, but I talk to them. They talk about their problems.

with language learning. And since they know that I'm living in Italy, they asked some like, I don't know, guidance, how to immigrate to Italy and how some of them how to become an English teacher because everybody knows that.

First I used to be a language learner and after that I became actually an English teacher and recently I've uploaded a video about myself in Persian on YouTube and I described everything and I told them I actually revealed everything, the path so I got a lot of comments and some of them was

in the live session with me, we had a meeting and she was crying so hard and she said, I don't know, you are the reason that I'm crying right now because after watching your live, after realizing that you actually, you had a lot of difficulties and I felt the same. I felt that you are me. I felt that this life, your life was for me. So the things that you experienced,

Are the things that right now I'm experiencing. So just help me. And I receive a lot of comments, you know, on YouTube, on Instagram, in meetings with the other people, live meetings. So I talk to them a lot. And yes, they actually ask for help sometimes.

Euan (34:41)
Yeah. Right. And what's that like being a role model to so many people? Did you ever did did you ever consider like when you were on your kind of the journey to where you are now and we'll talk obviously about your own business as well. We'll ask that next. But on a sort of kind of on well following the path that you took to get here, did you ever consider that other people, you know, especially people who want to become teachers or, you whatever they want to do.

sort of look at you as a role model, did you ever consider that that would happen and what does that feel like?

Roya (35:13)
Actually, I don't think that I'm a good role model for people. I don't know why, but all the time I think I'm not enough. And I know that I'm a hardworking person, but I don't know because of like there's an imposter syndrome, if you know about it. I don't know because of that or what, but I don't know. I'm not sure I'm a good role model, but…

Euan (35:34)
Yeah.

Roya (35:41)
When I, I received this message as well, a lot that you are my role model. I, you're a hardworking person. We admire you. And so it feels like I'm excited. I'm flattered when people talk to me like this. It feels so good, but.

At the same time, huge responsibility because I think that, okay, if I do something wrong and I don't know if I upload it on Instagram or on YouTube, what will happen? So at the same time, it's a little bit scary to be a role model for the other people. And I think I myself have a role model, but I think she's perfect. But I don't know why. I don't think that I'm a perfect role model.

for the other people.

Euan (36:32)
I mean, yeah, no, I can get the idea. I don't think anyone who maybe sees himself as being in that area of responsibility probably has complete confidence in what they're saying. But equally, no, it's kind of a shame that we talk about imposter syndrome. And I really do think people are going to listen to this podcast, for example, and see that there are possibilities. And they're going to relate to your story. I wanted to ask about how you set up your own business.

And you actually employ teachers as well. So firstly, can you talk to me about the sort of how you built your business? And secondly, what do you look for in an English teacher beyond the qualifications that they have?

Roya (37:15)
Everything started like setting up my own business started when I

started working on Instagram and I gained a lot of followers in the beginning and I've been working on Instagram for four years. At the beginning it wasn't that difficult but these days it's getting more and more difficult because Instagram changes the algorithms on and on.

And, you know, that sometimes I get bored and I don't know what to do. But my setting, actually, of the business started when I started my, opened my Instagram page after I think three, four months, because of having followers, I decided to launch a website.

And my husband did everything because he knows how to do these things. He's a graphic designer and website designer. And every, all of the graphic things are related to my husband. He's responsible for them. So he, we just launched a website and then I started recording some courses because I realized that I cannot accept a lot, many of like,

Euan (38:14)
Okay.

Roya (38:35)
private students, and even I cannot have a lot of group classes. So, and some people at the same time want, a lot of people, not some people, wanted to study on their own. Okay. So they wanted to self study, but I knew that self studying is not enough to learn a new language because you need feedback. You need to be corrected in case of specifically speaking and writing. So I designed some courses.

Euan (38:46)
Yeah.

Roya (39:05)
for those who wanted to self -study and for those who wanted to learn English with me. Some courses that I actually taught English by recorded videos and at the same time with the team to correct their mistakes, to give them feedback and the other things. And another course like…

not another course, let's say other courses for those who wanted to self -study just to give them a detailed plan based on their goals and to correct their mistakes in case in writing and speaking. So because of these things I had to actually ask the other people, hire people to work.

with me, some teachers to correct these students, some admins. And so I have a team. It is not a big team, but I have a team now. And in order to actually hire them, because mainly they are my colleagues that I know them. I know how good they are. So I didn't interview them, for example, because I knew them.

Euan (39:59)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Roya (40:14)
Okay, I knew how they teach. I knew their level of GE. Even some of them are much better than me and more experienced than me. But I had the platform with a lot of students and they didn't have and they accepted to work with me. So.

Euan (40:29)
Mm -hmm.

Roya (40:30)
That's the story of having my own business, but I should say that now everything is changing. Now I've closed some of my courses and I'm designing new courses, not only for the English, not only for Iranian students, but also for people from the other countries, courses that I talk only in English.

Euan (40:50)
Right, well, that's

incredible. We've got a few more questions to ask you, but first of all, we're just going to take a short break and we'll get right back to you. OK. Yeah, perfect. Another perfect section. Thank you very much. It's just sort of because you've not done a podcast before and because we, you know, we record clips and that kind of thing. Just kind of sort of let you know. Oh, sorry. Just sort of let you know the process a bit. We sort of we take maybe four or five.

Roya (40:58)
So, thanks.

Euan (41:20)
quotes where someone's given a particularly good answer and we use that to learn more about the person, learn more about their story, listen to the podcast and that kind of thing. And sometimes when you're talking to someone it's kind of hard to imagine what the best bits will be and not necessarily in a bad way, but you sort of don't really know. But you know what's a really good recording when you're just like, we're going to be spoiled for choice. There's so much good stuff in here. We'll have to be really careful, but we won't pick out. And this is definitely one of those.

So yeah, like if you ever end up doing your own podcast, you'll know what it's like when it's just like, oh, this is okay. I know what people are gonna respond to here. It's gonna be really good. Nice one. So we'll talk a little bit about social media, a bit about kind of the future, because you talked about how you're gonna do more courses and that kind of thing. It's a really, really exciting time. And then we'll kind of wrap up. So yeah.

So we've got maybe about five, five minutes to go. If that's all right. Cool. Excellent. Okay.

Roya (42:22)
Yes, yes, yes.

Euan (42:27)
And we're back with Roya Abedi.

Now, we've talked a couple of times about how quickly things grew on Instagram, about how there was a sort of ready -made audience there, and you were able to build up your business from that. So when you have your own business and you have such a successful social media presence, how much time goes into, you know, maintaining the Instagram and kind of…

Because the videos that you do are really really good and they're really popular they get like hundreds of thousands millions even of views and that kind of thing. How do you have to sort of divide your time between teaching and creating content? What's that like?

Roya (43:06)
This is like a full -time job. If you want to create content, I didn't tell you, but I used to be a content creator before being an English teacher. And I use, now I'm using that skill.

to produce content and to put on my own platforms like YouTube and Instagram, but it's like a full -time job because at first you have to film the video, you have to, you need a lot of devices like camera, I don't know, like the lighting system, like, you know, mic, and I have all of them, but normally at weekends,

We record the videos by we I mean my husband and I record some videos but the most difficult thing is the idea of the video. You know you have to think about a lot of different factors like is it going to be helpful for these students and

you know, what sorts of problems this video is going to solve. And I have to think about these things. I have to make a detailed plan, but thank God I have my husband and with the help of him, we can, we can do all of these things. I mean, having a plan.

to produce the content, like to edit the content because after that I just record the videos in front of the camera and after that he edits the video, he publishes, he does everything related to like social media. But I should say that it's like a full -time job and…

Euan (44:46)
Uh huh.

Roya (44:53)
It, you cannot manage if you are working in another place like me and you don't have another person like an editor or admin to help you, you cannot do it on your own. Absolutely no.

Euan (45:04)
Well, it's an awful lot of work. I completely agree. In terms of those videos, in terms of YouTube and Instagram, have you had any moments where you've been surprised by the reaction to a post or to a video where, you know, it's ended up being more helpful than you could have imagined or more popular than you could have imagined? Has that happened to you?

Roya (45:27)
When you publish a video and it gets a lot of views, there is this possibility that you face a lot of haters at the same time. And I had this, I've experienced this and still I know that even in the future, for example, I was talking about when…

Euan (45:37)
Alright, okay.

Roya (45:52)
scholarship in Italy in one of my videos scholarship in Italy did the one that I have right now and a lot of people came and said okay no bullshit you are telling lies and this is not the truth and don't trust these people a lot of comments like that I was like

Oh my gosh, this is my experience. I did so I wanted to help people. Why? So yes, I got surprised by the reaction of the people and some other times some videos that I didn't expect actually to gain a lot of followers to gain a lot of attention, but they did. And there is a video, short video, like a real, I just filmed my laptop and my book and my…

Euan (46:14)
Yeah.

Roya (46:42)
um, airpod and I shared my experience how I learned English and it didn't actually take a lot of time, I don't know, in half an hour and it got millions of views. I don't know why I, I, I still, I'm confused. I don't know how to, how Instagram works, you know, after working on this platform for four years, I don't know how it works.

Euan (46:58)
Yes.

It's not an exact science, I don't think. There's so many things where, and I'm sure the people who do social media for the Teflon could probably attest to this, sometimes you just don't know what's going to catch fire. But there's a really important point there about visibility. And you talked before about how growing up in Iran, there weren't a lot of people that you could look to as examples of the career path that you've had.

Roya (47:23)
Yeah.

Euan (47:40)
And we talked about role models and that kind of thing as well. But, you know, although you've said that you've got a sort of element of imposter syndrome and that kind of thing, do you not feel an immense sense of pride at the fact that you're a visible online Iranian woman who not only is you've chosen your own career, you've chosen your own career path, but you're doing it to such a successful degree and you know, you're living and working in a place that you know, you wanted to live and work. Does that not feel like a source of pride for you? Because surely, you know,

It should be.

Roya (48:12)
I don't know how to answer this question. There are a lot of people who want to be successful, especially on Instagram and the other platforms. And I can give them pieces of advice, but the thing is I cannot tell them what to do or what not to do, because everybody is like…

every person has their own unique personality, situation and so on. So the thing that I normally tell them is that if you have a dream, if you have a goal, if you want to be an English teacher or if you want to work on Instagram, you have to be patient.

You have to be passionate and you need to continue on and on without any breaks because, for example, I work even on weekends. I don't have any weekends even now, even when I was in Iran. So this is my lifestyle. So if you have a goal and you want to pursue it, you have to work hard. And I cannot tell them what to do, but I can give them pieces of advice.

Euan (49:25)
I mean working hard like you have is a good piece of advice. I think that was a really really good and inspirational kind of point to sort of end on. So Roy it's been fantastic speaking to you today. Finally, where can people find you? You know what's what should people look up if they want to know more about you?

Roya (49:44)
Thank you very much again. As I told you, I think now on Instagram, which is Roya Abedi official and YouTube, which is Roya Abedi and even on LinkedIn with my name Roya Abedi people can find me. But soon I'm going to create another YouTube channel only in English for people all around the world.

Euan (50:14)
Well, Roya, we're going to keep up with that. It's going to be fascinating and we wish you the absolute best of luck. Thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today.

Roya (50:22)
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me again. And it was an incredible experience talking to you and being here.