Entrevista: professor Steve Ford, Private English Portal (parte 1)

Hi, everyone! Aqui está a primeira parte da entrevista que fiz com o professor Steve Ford, figura muito conhecida de quem acompanha o Inglês Online há algum tempo. Eu fiz a transcrição da entrevista (logo abaixo) e você pode também
baixá-la em PDF, além do arquivo MP3 que tem o áudio – é só clicar abaixo.

Baixe a entrevista em mp3

Baixe a transcrição da entrevista em PDF

E se por acaso você não sabe de quem estou falando, dê um pulo na seção Inglês em Vídeo e assista o trabalho desse professor canadense: procure por Peppy nos títulos dos posts e divirta-se com as estórias do Steve (não perca os mais recentes, que tem participação da esposa dele – ela é uma comédia).

Nessa primeira parte da entrevista, Steve conta por que começou a ensinar inglês, como veio parar no Brasil, e fala um pouco também da sua experiência na França. A entrevista toda será apresentada num total de 3 ou 4 partes, portanto fique de olho aqui no site nas próximas semanas.

Extra: Repare como actually é uma palavra super frequente na conversa em inglês, e perceba como ela é usada: o Steve usa actually cinco vezes só nesse pedaço da entrevista. Clique aqui para ver a lição sobre actually e currently

Acesse o site do professor Steve Ford

Ouça a primeira parte da entrevista aqui mesmo:

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Transcrição da entrevista

(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…

[Continua...]