Few moments with Steve N.B.

Artistic soul is something that is assumed to be rare, but when it comes to Steve N.B. this is certainly not the case. Steve is a 19 year-old student of architecture as well as a professional pianist. 

     All you need to do is to listen to him play the piano for a short period of time before you recognize that he undeniably has earned the term professional with all its corresponding accessories. He has begun learning the piano from an early age; as the years went by, he became more and more enthralled by the mother of all musical instruments, and  nowadays he and the piano are literally inseparable.

     I asked Steve to join me for an interview regarding social networking and Facebook, which he so gently accepted. I have to mention at first, that Steve himself uses the internet and social networking websites for about six hours a day grossing the notorious title geek in the process, thus surely he could be dubbed an internet enthusiast with sufficient knowledge and experience in the medium.

     It’s Steve’s firm assertion that it’s indispensable to embrace the new internet movement “in order to be competitive “ simply because the modern wolrd has undergone substantial changes as a result of the internet.  “I believe the internet has revolutionized our lives in many ways, it has changed the concept of communication and entertainment “said he and later continued: “in the mean time search engines provide us ways to search any information worldwide and [the means of] getting up-to-date”.

     Steve maintains that much the same as any other entity, the internet has its own share of advantages as well as disadvantages; for instance, albeit we all can benefit from swifter, finer, and more convenient access to information and communication, we cannot deny the threats of identity theft, spamming, and cyber stalking.

    Nevertheless, the merits of the internet by far surpass its drawbacks and hence it proves essential for implementing the day-to-day tasks. Social networking is a pivotal facet of Steve’s life, and he attributes it to not only a place to catch up with friends, but also an ambit to be submerged in while witnessing a diverse and multi-cultural environment and learning “a thing or two about new cultures or languages”. 

     Like many of us, Steve believes Facebook to be the throne keeper of all social networking websites with insurmountable potentials along with a “super positive atmosphere”.  When I asked him what he thinks of the validity and rigor of friendships on Facebook as opposed to real-life friendships he cited:

     “ Facebook is a means of social networking where you find the opportunity of finding your oldest friends from all over the world.” However, he said: “we should try to make our relationships stronger and better using the power of Facebook”. 

     In due course, I myself truly took pleasure in interviewing Steve for many reasons, from his passionate tone of speech to his rational behavior.   

You can listen to the entire interview at Talk Show Podcast Episode Ten.

Interview with Ali Bajelan

It's a rarity to encounter with truly successful individuals who owe their achievements to their own competence. Ali Bajelan is certainly one of those folks.

      Amazing artistic psyche capable of transmitting the aesthetic values in something as simple as a small sketch, admirably keen intellect that carries the weight of judgment in the most sensible manner, all wrapped up in a meek yet confident package.

      Al is too young to be a legend and too old to be a prodigy, but none of that would stop him from doing what he has to do: contribution to the world.

      I was fortunate enough to have a few minutes of Mr.Bajelan's time and that was more than sufficient to be a ground for a groovy interview.

      Al is "twenty five and a half" years old as he put it; he has lived in gobs of countries for lots of years after leaving Iran at the age of seventeen.He is a major in fields of Mechatronic (robotic engineering),Nano and digital technology.

      Nevertheless being a technophile is not going to hinder his substantial artistic profile; Ali has also mastered conceptual and artistic design along with musical instruments such as piano. I would like to admit that I personally have seen only a small portion of his design capability through an extremely elegant drawing of an auto that he left for me after observing one of my Talk Show classes. However, this competency is rooted in Al's childhood since he has been involved with drawing and art ever since, not to mention the multitude of international awards including "UNICEF youth award", and "world's eighth underage designer" that he attained in this area.

      I then went on to ask him about his experience regarding visiting so many different countries [mainly in Europe], in response he said: " I have been around a lot, and I really enjoyed seeing these things [various aspects of a new society and a new culture], discovering these things, and talking different languages …I think it sets you apart from the crowd in so many ways". Although, he has certainly not been victimized by the infamous phenomenon of culture-shock simply because Al is profoundly interested in the European life-style and culture.

      "They read a lot, they go to theaters a lot, they go to cinemas, they go to art galleries, they go to museums...they know a lot about a lot." said he, and then proceeded: "unfortunately other countries do not do that and especially smaller cities in Europe do not have that; so I am talking about metropolitan cities like Paris, London….these kind of places."

      But we all know that having an "up in the air" life style has its own share of disadvantages as well, so the first prominent challenge would be adaptation to the continuous changes from one society to another since the Law of Inertia a.k.a Newton's first law tells us that change is difficult (let us get a little bit nerdy!).

      Significance of ESL in the contemporary world was another subject that was discussed in our interview, and Al simply mentioned that "if you do not speak English you'd be considered stupid and illiterate in so many ways!" and that is merely due to the fact that English is the key to communication with millions of people all over the world. 

      In Europe for example, "everyone speaks English and in fact every one has to learn it" even in countries such as Germany and France which the notion of nationalism and official language is bought and practiced by almost all the population.
Now wait for the punch-line; living in so many different countries for what is worth, nets you with the opportunity to familiarize yourself with "shit-load" of different accents.

     Then we discussed the impact of modern technology on academia which not to my surprise is as substantial in the eyes of Mr.Bajelan as it is to all of us.
Al himself has passed four courses for his Master's via e-learning. As a result it is quite common to use this technology for the benefit of learning pretty much everything, ESL not excluded.

      To those of Talk Show students who are willing to move to other countries Al says that "they should expect the worst" since the aforementioned decision would certainly be rather arduous in so many different ways from the new culture and language to the exclusive fundamentals of that community.

      As a long-time reviewer of movies for Total Film London and UK Film Society, who believes the financial intentions have overshadowed all other dimensions of cinematography in the contemporary world, Al recommends all the language learners out there to cherish movies as the best way to not only learn a new language but also the culture and mindset of the guild who speak it.

You can listen to the interview via Talk Show Podcast. 

Interview with Farhood Taghipour, Instructor and Coordinator

I was really glad that Farhood Taghipour gave me a few minutes of his time despite the fact that he had to deal with multitude of issues in his busy schedule. Farhood Taghipour woks as a head teacher (in charge of arranging classes for the teachers and registering students), instructor and coordinator at an institute of language learning ; he is 32 years old, graduated in mechanical engineering and of course married.

    Unlike many younger instructors, Mr.Taghipour has been teaching English since the year 2001.

    He started studying English for more than ten years before acquiring his CPE degree, and also has been teaching English for quite a substantial amount of time.

    I asked Farhood to describe how it feels to be both an instructor and a coordinator? In response he said "my responsibilities here are somehow difficult because I've got to deal with students and teachers and management…. it is a central part and, yes it is sometimes complicated".On a side note, being the equivalent of a hub for the institute has certainly influenced the way Farhood treats other people in an admirably warm manner.

    I then proceeded and asked him the reason behind choosing ESL as his main line of work and he replied that due to the fact that English is not only Iran's but also many other countries' second language, then as a result, it is of significant importance and is absolutely necessary.

    While Farhood did not comment on the way English is treated and handled in Iran, he instead showed his satisfaction regarding the students attending English classes who welcome the system's unquestionable focus on learning through engaging speaking and conversation in various courses with open arms. Farhood constantly talked about the grandness of communication in all English courses even those which might not initially sound exactly pertained such as grammar courses, but this emphasis has certainly worked simply because the results contain notable improvements amongst students.

    I asked him to describe the place of English language in the Iranian society , and in response he believes that since the majority of the population in Iran is made up of youth and youngsters English is considered crucial if not absolutely vital." They appreciate this speaking [in English], they love to speak in English because it is really common here in Iran" said Farhood.

    I then called for some thoughts regarding the ESL teachers, which unfortunately was  immediately faced with the word "shortcomings".

Mr. Taghipour believes that the major problem when it comes to Iranian teachers is the universities that fail to transfer the teaching techniques wholly and thoroughly by not emphasizing on communication and speaking methods. Although this problem could be solved by adding new conversation courses to college curriculums.

    When I asked him about the financial aspect of ESL in Iran, unlike our previous interviewee, he was quite satisfied by it, and considered it lucrative due to the fact that the emigration rate is so high in Iran; many people constantly reach out for such classes and as a result provide an uninterrupted demand for a solid market.

    As a tip for the students, Farhood believes that learners need to accept the significance of communication in English learning and fill this supposed gap by attending classes that are solely focused on the aforementioned skill. For the final comment Farhood Taghipour wants the learners "to start as soon as you can".

Interview with Ahmad Kashani, a credible English teacher

Aside from being one of my best friends in Iran , Ahmad Kashani has proved to be one of the greatest and most fluent English teachers I have ever encountered with. His determined and tenacious desire to instruct befittingly outmatches that of other teachers. His self-effacing trait coupled with his innate endowment regarding communication is his state-of-the-art apparatus in ESL classes.

He so altruistically gave me a few moments of his time to answer some of my questions.Bellow you can read the interview that has been emended for the sake of shortness.

After greetings I asked Ahmad to describe himself for the readers.Ahmad Kashani is 26 years old, he is graduated in two distinctive fields of Microbiology and Information Technology; he went on and delineated Microbiology a bit further by saying :"Microbiology is a brand new field of medicine which talks about minuscule things such as bacteria, viruses and so forth".

Then I immediately changed the direction of the interview towards ESL by asking about the reason behind him becoming a teacher. Well not to my surprise ,he began talking about his English background which is quite substantial in its own rights.
Ahmad has been dealing with English since he was four years old, now that is the perfect age is it not ?! And that has let him to pursue his education in many different countries including England.

As we all know online and distant learning has become a major competitor with the conventional means of learning and Ahmad certainly has benefited from this phenomenon by studying two separate major simultaneously, so go Web 2.0!

After that I asked him how he reached this level of competence and fluency in English and how long it took him to do so, in response he mentioned that due to the sizable amount of time that he has spent on the subject and his multiple encounters and interactions in many different countries, his interest in movies and music that feature English tracks and overall affection are but a few of the contributors to his skillfulness.

Ahmad considers English more than just a second language but an international language that proves even more vital than the mother tongues in overcoming some specific challenges.

What really impressed me about Ahmad was his attention to the factor of love that ought to be implied in both processes of learning and teaching. It's quite obvious that Ahmad is indeed satisfied with the way ESL is taken care of in Iran simply because he ranked it as B+.

As many of us would agree, Ahmad does consider teaching English a profession that is primarily focused on social aspects rather than financial ,and he believes that if your sole purpose behind teaching English is monetary then you would find far better opportunities in real estate business and whatnot. As in the case of Ahmad, his other and perhaps most significant motivation behind teaching English is teaching itself. Ahmad adores teaching in whatever form as long as true essence of learning is flowing in. However, this unprecedented desire for teaching is partially innate since Ahmad's father is a college professor as well.

In the end Ahmad wants the students to not only put effort in the learning process but also be patient.

You can listen to the full interview in Talk Show Podcast Episode Two.

Briefing

This section will comprise assorted interviews with individuals from all walks of life who are associated with English learning process in one way or another including instructors, learners, conductors and so forth.

Due to the fact that the majority of the interviews will be recorded, visitors will be able to read a journalistic account of the interviews therein. The full audio interviews will we posted as podcasts for you to listen.