Patrick C
Tutor in Whitechapel, East London

My first taste of tutoring came while working in an environment in which I was the only individual whose mother tongue was English. Many of my colleagues were struggling to learn English and paying extortionate fees for courses at often uninspiring institutions. I immediately felt the need to help them and soon was teaching English as a foreign language to both larger groups and individuals. I can honestly claim this to be one of the most rewarding activities I have ever partaken in, especially after seeing several students move on to gain qualifications in English for academic purposes and become students within UK universities. I still engage with many of these students, offering advice about exam structure, exam preparation and even job interview prep.

This diversification of my tutoring resume, coupled with my graduation in comparative literature, with a first, led me into tuition of the humanities and taking on younger students. With each individual, I use the skills I have developed over the past years to identify their strengths and weakness, their passions and dislikes. I am a great believer in making education as engaging as possible and think one must nurture an all-encompassing passion for learning, stretching far beyond the academic sphere. Furthermore, I believe it is important to gain feedback from your students and those around them to gain a deeper insight into what will make our period together as productive as possible. In such a way, I believe I am able to tailor my tutoring to the needs of each individual, giving them the confidence to reach their full potential.

Tutoring is a greatly rewarding occupation and it has had a considerable effect on me, inspiring me to pursue my dream of becoming a lecturer. In the name of accomplishing this dream I have undertaken a masters in Philosophy at King’s College London and am currently in the process of applying for my doctorate in Literature and Aesthetics. As a result, tutoring has become extremely important to me on a personal level as both a method for honing my teaching skills and as motivation to provide the best service possible. In this sense tutoring is not simply a job it is a passion to unveil the true potential of each student, to instil confidence and to foster a passion for academia.

“So the educational environment in which you foster your younger generation should be light-hearted rather than authoritarian. This will also help you to see what natural abilities every one of them has”
Plato, Republic