Introduction to Paul / My trip to Russia

Hi, boys and girls. How are you doing? A lot of you have been asking me questions recently about who I am, what I do, etc. So I decided to make a personal video just for you guys, for my YouTube channel. Perfect time to do it: there’s music, there’s snow. It kind of describes exactly where I am, so first and foremost, my name is Paul, if you didn’t know. I’m 37. I’m a teacher and I’ve been teaching for, I think about , maybe 15 years or so, I’m not sure exactly. I really enjoy it and I’ll give you some more details about that later. I’m English. I was born in London, I grew up in London. I started teaching in England, not in London, thank God. And then I started teaching in Germany secondary schools, then I left Germany and I came to where I am now. And that’s what a lot of people ask: ‘where do you teach?’ And of course, if you’d like to know where I teach, if you don’t recognize this building or don’t recognize anything around me, just follow me here and you’ll see one of the most impressive buildings in the world – St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square in Moscow, the Mighty Russian Federation. Yes, that is where I teach and I absolutely love living here. So a lot of people have been asking me why I became a teacher. It’s actually the most common question. It’s kind of hard to say but I suppose when I look back at my life when I was younger I think about who truly inspired me and why they did and those were my German teacher because I actually studied German at university and my school teacher Mr. Room. Unfortunately he passed away last year very young which is very sad but he was a great guy, he was funny, he explained things really really well. And you kind of felt good just being there in the classroom so we looked forward to going to school that day we had German. When I finished school and I did my 2 years ‘A’ level before university, again, another truly inspirational teacher called John Hill. He just explained things so easily and when we were feeling down he could just feel us and cheered us up. He gave us sometimes crazy examples which helped us to remember grammar and certain bits of vocabulary and actually that’s how I teach as well. A lot of my examples are stupid because it actually helps people remember. So it’s not just because I’m crazy or mental it’s because it for a reason because of my former teacher. The other reason why I became a Teacher, not just because of being inspired, I suppose. I don’t think my childhood was probably the best, when I had long blond hair, which is hard to believe. I think things maybe could have been done a bit differently. Things could have been explained a bit differently and I kind of feel that like I don’t want people to miss out on any opportunity. I like the idea of teaching people not just English but motivate them to give them some moral principles to sort of guide their lives and I just like the idea that I can make a difference. No one should ever suffer especially young people and when I kind of see parents sort of demotivating their children or saying something stupid I want to kill them, I really do. Kids aren’t the problem, parents are. And that’s the main reason. I really believe I can make a difference in people’s lives. A lot of people want to learn with me. If you live in Moscow, you’re more than welcome to come to my classes. Again on Vkontakte, the Russian social network you’ll see that I have adverts there for my school. For those of you who live in other countries, of course, follow me on YouTube, I’ll put up more videos, I’m going to renew the Facebook page to be honest and I’m just going to keep going up and up and up and, hopefully, one day I’ll be able to travel not just around Russia to teach like I do but other countries in the world where I can meet all of you and pass on my knowledge and experience. So right I’m going to get coffee now because my brain is frozen. So, when I’m not teaching I like to do many things in my free time. Of course, the most important thing is to spend time with my gorgeous daughter Sasha, who is right here, but you can’t see her. Stand up. Good girl. Say ‘hello’. Hello. Hello, this is my beautiful daughter. Now, maybe you would like to help me teach English. Of course. Yeah. Ok. For beginners. So, I’ll say something in English and you will translate it into Russian. OK? Yes. Something simple. My name is Paul. I’m English. I’m from London. But I live in Moscow. I like swimming and going to the gym to exercise. Right, OK, whatever… my Russian is not very good. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Goodbye. OK, ready?