We reckon John Perry is one of the best English Language teachers of any English Language school in Dublin and we thought you should meet him. Last week we sat down after class and had a chat about his love of teaching, learning and meeting new people.
Hi John. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi, I’m John Perry, like the Chelsea footballer but the P replaces the T.
Are you good at football?
You know, no, but I’d like to be or I would have liked to be. I support Liverpool so I suffer for my sins. But they haven’t been too successful recently so I suffer.
How long have you been here at City Language School?
I have been here nearly two years and I like it. It\’s great to be associated with such a great English Language school in Dublin and it really is in the middle of Dublin. I mean it’s a great location it’s right beside Temple Bar and the City Centre. The technology, the whiteboards and the access to Netflix and so on is a great asset for teaching. The visual side of the technology is great. Not everyone can learn through explanation. Some people need the visual example too so it’s great to have that at your fingertips whenever you need it. It’s a fun environment to work in and the other teachers are great too.
Where are you from in Dublin?
I’m from Tallaght and I live in Dundrum now. I travelled a lot in my twenties. The United States when I finished college and I did the three months there. I went to Australia on a work visa and I was there for about four months and travelled around Asia on the way back. I went to South America, Africa. Lots of places where you’d backpack around and meet new people and have new adventures.
How long have you been teaching English?
I’m 37 now and by the time I was twenty-seven I had travelled a lot but then I realised that I needed to find a career. I was asking myself: ‘What can I do?’ ‘What am I good at?’. I knew I liked travelling so I like meeting new people and I can explain things quite well so I realised teaching would be the best way to go. So the plan was to train to be a teacher and then travel with it and see a bit of the world. I did that a little and then I met my wife, she’s from Korea, and we got married three years after meeting her in 2012. We lived in Korea for a year then and came here in 2016. Our baby was born in South Korea.
So you have been teaching ten years. Do you still like it?
Oh yes definitely. I still love it.
Why?
Most of the students I meet are from countries that I have been to. Whether it’s South Korea, Italy, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, France or Brazil I know a little bit about where they\’re from so there’s an immediate connection there. I\’m little bit older now too so I’ve seen a little bit of life and because of all that travel I can connect my own experiences to what students are going through right now. So there’s a great sense of empathy and sharing of culture and knowledge. I’m learning from them all the time but it’s great to be able to teach them something at the same time. So you’re basically being paid to have quite a bit of fun, learn loads and teach grammar along the way.
When you’re not working what do you do?
Well a lot of the time is taken up looking after my daughter. But when we settle down at night on a weekend I love a bit of Game of Thrones and a glass of wine.