The Linguist

@Linguist_CIOL AUGUST/SEPTEMBER The Linguist 31 INSTITUTE MATTERS How about looking after yourself? What about your mental and physical health? I think the health aspect is extremely important. I completely lost my voice teaching during lockdown. I was so scared! I couldn't make a sound; I couldn't even call the doctor. I know why it happened: I was teaching 10 hours a day for three weeks straight because I was in a rhythm. Luckily there was no lasting damage, but the doctor said: "You just have to be quiet; don't try to speak for five days." It was terrible. You are voiceless! Ideally, you should stay away from the screen for 10-15 minutes per hour – for your voice and for your eyes. So if you teach a 45-minute session you should have a 15-minute break. I think this is crucial if you teach eight hours per day. I also recommend drinking five cups of lukewarm water with a few drops of honey. You should practise using your muscles, and be conscious of how you are speaking all the time. You might even think about voice training, because we tend to speak in the wrong way, and to sit in the wrong way too. As a teacher, your voice is your career in the same way as it is for an actor or a voiceover artist. Can you share a few tips for adapting the way we speak and sit? How we breathe affects the way our voice is projected. Taking shallow breaths can make the muscles in our throat tense up, which puts a strain on our voice. We should take deep breaths using the diaphragm. Yawn to open your chest and larynx. Laugh heartily, using big open vowel sounds as you expel your breath. This is a fun way to practise the deep breaths necessary to project your voice. Sit up with your back straight and keep your shoulders back. I have bad posture because I didn't take much care about it when I was in my 20s. I'm using a tool called Go Upright: if I slouch, it vibrates. My posture has improved, but I still need to build muscle strength and be reminded about posture awareness. How about client set-up and connection? Things can go wrong. So before I take on a new client, I always offer a 30-minute introduction free of charge to meet and greet them, and set out some expectations. In this session, I also send them a link to an internet speed checker and tell them: "If you decide to continue, please check your internet connection and send me the result." This needs to be done. There might still be issues on any given day, so I always have unlimited data on my phone, just in case; and I exchange phone numbers with my clients because sometimes, if it's really important, you can still call them. What else do you do to set expectations? The biggest mistake is to get super excited when you get your first clients and they say they'll commit to 10 lessons over 10 weeks. When they start cancelling and rescheduling, the lessons draw out to 20 or 30 weeks. If this is your only job, that's very bad for your finances. So in this first 30-minute session you have to say very clearly: "If you commit to this but cancel less than 24 hours in advance, the lesson is lost." The terms on which you are working as a professional are really important and you need to have it in writing, because people tend to forget. Overall do you prefer teaching online or face to face? I like both actually, so I'm in favour of a hybrid solution. I miss face-to-face interactions, because there is a beautiful connection with another human which will never ever happen online. But I also like online because it saves a lot of time. Plus, with online, I can reach the whole world. I love that! As [educational technology expert] Elliott Masie says: "We need to bring learning to people instead of people to learning." So if you were to sum up online teaching in a hashtag what would it be? #JustDoIt. Simple as that. What hashtag would your students use for their experience of learning online? #ILoveIt. Romana Sustar MCIL CL is a member of CIOL Council. Her native languages are German and Slovene, her languages of qualification are English and Spanish, and she lives in the UK. www.romanasustar.com; LinkedIn: magromanasustar; Twitter: @romanasustar

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