How mentoring is a win-win

For language teachers, mentoring can water two plants with one hose.

I met Min-Jun when she was holidaying in New Zealand. She was enthusiastic about the natural scenery and about practising her English with as many native speakers as possible.

Min-Jun’s an English teacher in South Korea and loves the language.

Which means maintaining fluency is vital to her. As is keeping up-to-date with idioms and expressions as well as social and cultural trends in English-speaking countries.

We café-hopped around Wellington, chatting not only about English questions (When do you use like versus as?) but also conundrums that come up in the language classroom (How do you encourage reluctant speakers?).

And Min-Jun decided she’d like to continue these conversations when she returned home.

Now we meet for weekly online mentoring sessions where we talk about English language stuff and English teaching stuff.

While we’re drinking our coffees, Min-Jun asks me pronunciation and vocabulary questions. She bounces ideas off me about teaching tasks and classroom management.

I answer her questions and give advice, feedback, suggestions.

As a result, Min-Jun’s improving her English language skills plus developing her teaching skills.

Making mentoring both a personal win and a professional win for her.

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