Simon Norton Tutor Interview

Q. Hi Simon, please tell us a little bit about yourself.: A. Hello everybody, my name’s Simon and I come from England. I was actually born in Scotland (like 007!), but my parents are English and we moved back to England when I was still a baby. I really like Scottish accents, but I don’t have one! I love travelling, hiking, rock climbing, scuba diving, snowboarding, playing the piano, listening to music, languages, playing chess, and many other things!
Q. As we know, you are from England. Could you please tell us about your town you live?: A. Sure, I live in a medium-sized city in northern England, right in the middle of the UK. It’s called Leeds and is the main financial center outside London, and has great shopping, restaurants, and nightlife. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t have anywhere to go snowboarding except for an indoor ski slope, so I have to go to other countries to snowboard!
Q. According to your profile, you had been in Japan as a tutor for 2 years. How was your life in Japan?: A. Actually I have lived in Japan twice! The first time was just for a couple of months in Hokkaido (mainly for snowboarding!), then when I came back the second time I lived in Kansai for 2 years and worked as an English teacher. I started in Kyoto, moved to Osaka, and then moved back to Kyoto! Kyoto was a great place for me as it is surrounded by mountains with so many amazing hiking trails, often leading to remote shrines that few people visit – I could leave my apartment in Fushimi and walk almost directly into the forest! So that was nice, especially in spring and autumn, also in winter it was easy to go snowboarding in nearby Shiga. I did have one big problem though in Kyoto – the summer! After 2 summers there, I didn’t think I could handle another one… too hot for me!
Q. I heard you love traveling and you have been to over 60 countries! Do you have any interesting experiences you can share with us in those countries?: A. Well, in addition to the UK and Japan I have lived and worked in Austria, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Of course, these are all countries where you can snowboard in winter! While I was living in each of these countries, I made sure to visit as many of the neighbouring countries as I could, and sometimes I would visit countries on the way there from the UK, or on the way back home. When I first went to Japan, I went all the way from England to Hokkaido without flying! That was my biggest trip – by bus, ferry, and train, using the famous Trans-Siberian railway to cross Russia from Europe to Asia. Another fantastic experience was teaching snowboarding in Canada. Working on a mountain everyday is good for body and soul, and it’s a real pleasure to help students to improve their snowboarding skills (just like it’s a real pleasure to help students improve their English skills!)
However I think my most important overseas experience was volunteering in Tohoku after the disaster in 2011. I wanted to help out and finally found a group which had a mix of Japanese and international volunteers, working mainly in English (my Japanese isn’t so good!). Travelling is always a fun and personally rewarding experience, but countries and places don’t exist for the enjoyment of visitors, they exist for (and because of) the people who live there so I think it’s important to give something back to the host country when such a situation occurs. The continued resilience of the people in Tohoku is an inspiration.
Q. Please tell us about your lesson, “Let’s Talk!” What is the feature of your lesson?: A. The beauty of one-to-one language lessons is that the lesson can be adapted for the individual needs of each student. Some students want very strict correction for their spoken grammar, while others might need some extra focus on pronunciation. Some students need to be able to discuss current affairs with their clients, while others simply want to chat and practice by having an enjoyable conversation about interesting topics. The point of “Let’s Talk” is for the student to learn by having a real conversation about topics which are relevant and interesting for them, with a focus on helping them to achieve their individual English language goals. The lessons will always be fun, but they will also always be productive.
Q. You provide a lesson note to your students after every class. Please tell us about it.: A. The human brain is designed to learn new things. Just by having a conversation in a new language, your brain is learning and remembering how that language works, even if you don’t make a big effort to remember! However, with a little effort you can help your brain to learn much more efficiently, and one way to do this is by reviewing the conversation. I like to make this easy by sending a note to the student after every lesson with all of the new words and phrases, the grammar corrections we made during the lesson, examples of more natural sentences, and a summary of any other hints and tips from the day’s lesson.
Q.Could you please give a message to our students?: A.I’ll keep this answer short! Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, and never stop learning.