Today we’d like to introduce you to Anne Hwang.
Anne, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After graduating from college with a business degree and having worked a few years, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for a 9 to 5 job. I took a couple of months to deeply reflect on my true passion in life. I decided to give teaching a try for a couple of reasons. Growing up, I had to learn English and Chinese. Then in high school, I took Spanish for four years. I remembered how difficult it was for me to learn English, especially because at the age of seven, I immigrated to the U.S. and I had a limited amount of time to learn enough English so I can survive, make friends and excel in school. Also, in college, I studied abroad for a semester in Taiwan, while there, I had the opportunity to teach English.
With the encouragement of a few teacher friends, in 2001, I went back to school to get my Master of Arts degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). While working on my master’s degree, I wanted to gain some teaching experiences and to get my feet wet, so I worked as a private tutor helping elementary school kids with math and English, and I also worked at the University Learning Center at my university where I help college students edit and proofread their essays.
At the age of 26, I officially embarked on my English language teaching journey. After receiving my master’s degree, I went to Taiwan (where I was born) to teach English and to practice my Chinese. I taught conversational English to adults as well as academic English to 5th graders. In addition, I did some private tutoring on the side to help students who were preparing for their TOEIC exam.
In 2004, I returned to the States and continued my teaching career. I worked as an ESL teacher at a public elementary school for one year. Then I was fortunate to get a teaching position as an ESL instructor at a local community college where I worked with immigrants who were learning English to get a job in the U.S. while some were learning English to survive in America.
In 2008, I started to explore online teaching. Teaching online and in a classroom is completely different. At the time, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew nothing about online teaching. I just knew I didn’t want to limit myself to just helping 35 people in a classroom. I ventured out into the online teaching world. I started teaching on different online teaching platforms, then on to Skype private lessons and finally started English Valley Cafe on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and now Instagram. Along the way, there were doubts, frustrations, and thoughts of giving up. At one point, I even questioned whether I’m a good teacher. But a voice inside me tells me to just keep going and I did.
These 11 years of teaching online have taught me quite a bit as a person, a teacher, and a teacherpreneur. I’ve broadened my horizon and learned to be more open-minded and accepting of other people. From working with students from all over the world, I’ve learned so much more about the history and culture of other countries than I did in my high school history class. Self-growth and self-care are very important to me. Through these years, I learned that being genuine and passionate about what I do is far more important than the numbers. I learned the hard way to never let fear and people stop me from doing what I love and to work hard and smart, but always stay humble.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
English Valley Cafe helps English learners from around the world online via different social media platforms and provides personalized online English lessons. I help students improve their English speaking fluency and build their speaking confidence. Speaking and listening go hand in hand, so through building speaking fluency, students also train their ears to understand native English speakers. The contents that I create include slang, idioms, phrasal verbs, and common English expressions that native English speakers use in everyday conversation. English learners can also find pronunciation videos to help them speak English more clearly and naturally. Just by understanding the meaning of words and how to pronounce them aren’t enough. When helping my students, one of my focuses is to help them understand the nuances of English.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite childhood memories was learning enough English to be able to play with the other kids during recess and understand the teacher in class. Another unforgettable memory was receiving my very first birthday invitation from a friend in my class. I remembered how happy I felt; it was my very first time going to a birthday party in the U.S. It was just an awesome feeling that I was able to fit in and be accepted by the other kids in my class.
Contact Info:
- Email: englishvalleycafe1@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/englishvalleycafe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/englishvalleycafe/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TeacherAnneh
- Other: https://bit.ly/2ndFrBW
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