Spring and summer has been rather rough this year, with my mother passing last month. She was my biggest cheer leader for creative projects, music and growing a productive garden, and always wanted me to be an English teacher.
Since I was an avid bookworm from the age of 6, mum always expected that I would be an English or English literature teacher, probably to high school students or at university. She was quite disappointed when I went for the dry and boring science route, studying computer science.
When I returned to teach English in Japan, and tutor adults here in Germany, she was delighted. Unfortunately, that was not sustainable in the long term around various health issues, and I returned to my IT experience, becoming a freelance technical writer and translator.
I wanted to keep some avenue where I could teach, and offer my resources and experience to language students and ESL teachers, especially conversation class teachers. There are few resources out there that are flexible enough to target the likes/dislikes and goals of (adult) students who want to improve their conversations, and the teachers who guide them. Thus the Learned Words Patreon was born.
I’ve started branching out into talking about the courses I’m doing and books I’m working through - most recently, the Right to Write by Julia Cameron.
Newsletters and more recently video content have let me take you behind the scenes to look at progress on craft projects, building a kitchen and garden, and see snippets from my day-to-day life.
