While we have studied at Nelson English Centre...

I told Dave that I was going to go back to Taiwan, so tomorrow would be my last day in our class. At once, Dave grasped a piece of paper and wrote down ”After coming back to Nelson, I will come back to Nelson English Centre to study”.

And he wanted me to sign, and then he signed and invited the other classmates to sign. Finally, he posted it on the wall and let us take a photo, which will be the witness.

He made me laugh, but actually I was very impressed.

He is one of the nicest, most interesting teachers I have ever met.

I have been in New Zealand for more than six years. Although my English was poor, I didn’t go to English school to study. I had learned English with my neighbours and friends before I went to NEC to study. And I have done self-study as well. In spite of the fact I tried my best to improve my English, I struggled to speak out confidently and accurately.

Because of Covid-19, NZ had closed its border since 2019, so it has been tough for NEC to have overseas students. In order to keep those excellent teachers and run the business, NEC has applied for financial support from the NZ government to have students who are citizens or permanent residents. And every one is free which is pretty good.

When I had got the information, I rushed to NEC to enroll and started studying the same day. I was thirsty to improve my English.

Most students in Dave’s class are young and they wanted to take the IELTS test except Yuki and me. But Yuki’s English is very good and he always shared some fantastic stories with us.

I thought Dave has a magic power to make students comfortable and enjoy studying. When we get to class, in the very beginning, we are nervous, shy and quiet, because we are strangers, who rush on to a stage, where we have never been before. When any new student joins our class, Dave always asks us to introduce ourselves and wants us to ask the new student some questions in order to get to know each other more. He takes care of every student.

In the beginning of the class, we always share our daily life, news or weekends. Then we try to make some good sentences for each other. At the same time, Dave shares what happened in his weekend or his story. If we want other people to open their heart, we should do so first. And even though students come and go, the relationships are true and sincere.

Dave knows our problems very well and tries very hard to help. While we are talking and writing, Dave corrects us and writes words or grammar on the white board and asks us to review and practise them. It is very useful and helpful, because we always use some wrong words and grammar. Learning from our daily English and mistakes is very practical.

Dave looks a little bit shy, but he has an amazing sense of humor. He always makes us laugh and we can’t forget our mistakes. We write our partner’s opinion or stories on the white board then Dave corrects them with us. Dave makes it more interesting and unforgettable. For example, I wrote that “ I prefer to have food at home rather than eat restaurant.” Dave held the wall and opened his mouth, pretending to eat the building. I knew restaurants couldn’t be eaten. He was so funny. A student wrote that ”She is going to Christchurch to pick her Japanese passport “. So Dave put lots of paper on the desk and said ”Did you mean there are lots of passports for you to pick?”

I enjoy writing and correcting it together, not only can we practise speaking, listening, writing and learn from our mistakes, but also know all of our classmates’ life. Their stories or experiences enriches my life.

In addition to writing together, Dave encourages us to write a diary. After writing, we should check and then Dave checks and uses some symbols to show our problems. We have to correct by ourselves and then discuss with Dave to make sure we are right. The process is quite complicated and takes Dave’s time but it is based on students finding their mistakes and correcting them by themselves and following the process, we can remember and improve our ability, otherwise even though Dave corrects a thousand times, we have still made the same mistakes.

I think pronunciation and listening are very hard to teach. Dave lets us practise pronunciation by playing a maze game, and then speak out one by one then he corrects us. After listening tests, Dave sends the file to us, so that we can listen again and check some vocabulary or phrases. We can’t understand the meaning because of new vocabularies or phrases sometimes.

Dave gives us tests in a different way which depends on students’ needs once a week. I do appreciate that because getting lazy is human’s nature. We need to be pushed more or less, even though we are eager to study.

Apart from studying English, we had the other events at NEC.

Although there weren’t many students at NEC, we had lots of fun. We had international food once a month. Every one prepared a dish from their country's cuisine to share. We enjoyed many kinds of food, which were from Japan, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil and India….They were so different, but beautiful and delicious.

Furthermore, Dave is glad spending time with his students, even though we just study for a short time. When I or the other students invited our classmates to have a BBQ or share food, Dave would join us if he was available. We had lots of fun and it made us closer as well.

But I found the fact about our speaking was cruel.

Every Friday some students graduated and they gave us a short speech publicly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand well while they were talking. I thought their English might be pretty good, but not speaking. It was very hard to improve our pronunciation and accent. And one of my friends told me that my speaking has been worse than before because I might copy my classmates’ accent. All of that disappointed me and I was also fed up with some classmates who always talked for a long time and repeated the same story about themselves ,which hasn't happened at Dave's class.Dave always gives everyone equal time.

Different teachers have different styles, and some weren’t suitable for me and some classmates have different abilities, which was very difficult to study together, so I decided to stop studying at NEC.

While I was walking along the Maitai River foot path in October 2021, I thought I might never walk the old way to NEC again.

But I came back to NEC in February 2022, because Dave was going to be our teacher again. I missed the days when we studied English with him. And I also enjoy walking along the Maitai River bank before studying. It was a beautiful journey: I observed the scenery, did exercise at the outdoor fitness station which close to the foot path, said hello with people who passed by or thought about my life or made a plan for the future. It was a pretty beginning of each day.

I will come back, if the Maitai River doesn’t disappear; and if Dave is still a teacher in NEC.