Ana : Hi everyone, this is Ana from inglesonline.com.br. Today I am interviewing Steve Ford. Steve is Canadian and he has been teaching English for over fifteen years. He's the author of the very popular Peppy videos.
These are videos where Steve teaches English through storytelling, through singing and they're a lot of fun to watch... and there's a bunch of Peppy videos on Inglês Online so you can access Inglês Online, the category Inglês em Vídeo or you can access Steve's channel on YouTube directly. It's - Steve correct me if I'm wrong - it's youtube.com/privateenglishportal.
Steve : That's right.
Ana : That's right?
Steve : Yes, that's correct.
Ana : OK. So the last word I said there, portal, it's "portal" like Portuguese
Steve : Yes, that's right. Portal, portal, that's right. Private English Portal, yeah. And you can either type in youtube.com/privateenglishportal.com (forward slash, "barra") or you can type that in the search engine... you type in "learn English" in the search engine, you can find me there too, so... yeah.
Ana : How about we get started with a few questions?
Steve : Sure.
Ana : We have a good one here: professor Adir asks, How did you get involved with English teaching?
Steve : Oh, that's a great question. Well, that was something that happened...actually, when I was doing my major in English. I always loved the English language, literature, culture, so... it was always my passion to, to know languages... especially the English language.
So that became more apparent when I started to live in Brazil. Because actually, I lived in Brazil for a total of ten years... kind of a long time for a foreigner to be in Brazil so... During my stay there I actually taught English in Brazil, so... Many of the schools where I got my start as an English teacher were in fact in Brazil, so...
Ana : Where in Brazil, exactly?
Steve : I started in the north of Brazil, in Recife, or as you would say in Portuguese "Recife", and then I made my way down to Belo Horizonte, and then of course you know that I was in Rio for a bit, and then I was in São Paulo, yeah. So, all over the place in Brazil.
Ana : Why did you end up living in Brazil? What made you go to Brazil?
Steve : Ah, yeah. This is a question that probably I answered every day to my students...
Ana : They were all very curious...
Steve : Yeah, yeah, you know... It was a question that... and, and I mean, I love answering this question because it is an answer about love, and it's a, it's an answer about my heart...
And, they say "Why did you come to Brazil, Steve?" And I say, well, the first time that I went to Brazil with a group of people was with a... "intercâmbio", or an exchange, a student exchange...
Ana : Really?
Steve : Yeah.
Ana : You were, like, in high school?
Steve : I was just out of university so we went as a group... It was really interesting because we had Brazilians who stayed in Canada for three and a half months and we, you know, lived together, we worked on a certain project together, for three and a half months... and that was in Quebec, Canada.
We also had to learn French. And then we stayed in Brazil for three and a half months. And I stayed in a very, very small town in the north of Brazil... which is difficult for me to pronounce to this day, which is Taquaratinga do Norte. I don't know if you've heard of that city before but...
Ana : Would that be Taquaratinga do Norte?
Steve : Yeah, and that was the first contact that I had with Brazil, was through this student exchange and... and I have to tell you that my... the first time that I arrived in Brazil... I mean, I was just in love, basically. And ever since that moment that feeling has not changed. I kind of have this love for Brazil. You know, maybe you can see it in my videos...
Ana : Yeah. In your wife...
Steve : Yeah, exactly. It's a lifelong love affair. And when you do anything with love, of course, you do it well, and it becomes magical... and I thought Brazil...
Ana : It becomes easy, doesn't it?
Steve : It becomes easy. And I thought from the very first moment that Brazil was a very magical place and... yeah, so that's how I first had my first contact with Brazil.
Ana : Great, great story. And before that... was it before that you taught in France, or was it after? When did you go to France?
Steve : I went to France in 2000. Yeah, so... it was actually shortly after we had our stay in São Paulo, and we lived and taught in Paris, France for a year.
That was a great experience because I had never been to France before so... You know, I do have French [the language], being a Canadian, I lived in Quebec but... Yeah, that was another great experience, and...
The videos about "Steve in Paris" are so true about, you know... Taking the subway to work, finding my way around... You know, a bit of confusion arriving, you know, where the students, you know... It's like a French movie living there. It was great!
Ana : Yeah, yeah... Paris, not too shabby, huh?
Steve : No, and, there are a lot of different nationalities living there so we had a great opportunity to share ideas.
Ana : Yeah, it's a big, international city, right?
Steve : It is.
Ana : Much like New York, much like São Paulo, and maybe like Vancouver... I don't know. Is Vancouver like that?
Steve : Yes, it is very cosmopolitan, very cosmopolitan... ah, you know, people from all over the world living there and... Paris is great, because you have... a lot of culture there. It's like walking through a museum or a Hollywood movie studio all the time, you know.
My wife and I lived near the Louvre museum, so we had the opportunity to actually go rollerblading around the Louvre every night so...
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