Patrick C
Tutor in Whitechapel, East London

My first taste of tutoring came while working in an environment in which I was the only person 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.

Having gained this experience along with a first class honours degree, I decided to dedicate more of my time to education and tuition. With each individual, I use the skills I have developed throughout my own academic career to identify student’s strengths and weakness, passions and dislikes, motivations and learning style. 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. In my personal pursuit of self development, I believe it is important to gain feedback from 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 always aim 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. Since becoming a tutor I have undertaken a masters in philosophy from King’s College London, gaining a merit, and I am now studying for my doctorate in Literature and Philosophy. On completion of my PhD, I hope to remain in the academic sphere, both researching and teaching. 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 knowledge.

“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