Let’s meet the teachers – Mahmoud

My name is Mahmoud S. and I was born in Boston, USA. My family decided to go back to Lebanon, their beautiful home country when I was around 5 years old and I have been living there since then. I was introduced to the platform by a student of EF who happens to be a friend and I can easily say, that one recommendation had a great impact on my life.

I have been teaching English online for almost 3 and a half years. What started off as a part-time temporary job turned into a discovered passion I never knew I had. I would expect to be appreciated by students for helping them with their language learning, but I never thought it would be that rewarding to have a student express how I have helped make their day better. Being warmly thanked by a Japanese student for being a fan of Akira Kurosawa, by a Brazilian student for knowing the capital of his state, or by a Chinese student for pronouncing the name of my country in their language, are all examples of experiences that I could have missed out on had I chose a different career path; and I am happy that I didn’t.

When I am in class with a student, I make it clear to them that it is not just acceptable to make mistakes, but expected, if not desirable. That, with a warm smile, would help the student overcome any possible fear of making mistakes so they feel more comfortable expressing themselves. Simply put, I let the student know that we like mistakes and want them to learn from them.

In my free time, I enjoy indoor activities like watching movies, reading, and spending time with my beautiful wife and two cats. And of course, everything seems to be better with a good cup of espresso.

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