Teacher James Balderson's Page

Hi! I'm James or "Jim", if you prefer? I come from England and I am half English, half Irish - so, I guess that makes me totally British!? I left England in March 2009 and have so far only been back there twice to visit my family and friends. I now live and work in Baguio, Philippines.

I had two spells in China. I lived in Hefei, Anhui province, from March 2009 to July 2015, where I worked in a boarding school, a language school and a university. I have worked with all ages of students, from kindergarten to adult learners. I have also worked with all ability levels, from absolute beginners to advanced learners. I much prefer working with adult learners, however, and that's just one reason why Skimatalk is so perfect for me!

From July 2015 to June 2019, I was also living in Baguio, Philippines. My wife is from The Philippines. During that time, I worked from home, full-time, online, both for Skimatalk and an online school, called "Anglophone", based in Almeria, in the south of Spain. After a slow start, I eventually became one of the most successful Skimatalk teachers and, even now, despite my limited availability, I am still the ninth most booked Skimatalk teacher of all time!

I returned to China in June 2019, and have recently quit my job, teaching full-time at Yuncheng University, Shanxi province, in Northern China. I was working with first and second year English and Business English majors. So, overall, I now have almost fourteen years of teaching experience. Before becoming an English teacher, I had a business background in financial services and marketing, making me an appropriate teacher for several Skimatalk teachers, who wish to focus on Business English.

I am also an author and I'm working on an autobiography right now, entitled "High Functioning Faith". I am a big believer in speaking grammatically accurate and natural English. I specialize in providing detailed error correction feedback and I will notice a number of minor mistakes which other teachers will, perhaps, simply ignore.

I prefer not to interrupt students when they are speaking. Twenty-five minutes is not such a long period of time and I think that students should speak as much as possible during a session. I will only interrupt if I cannot understand what you are saying. Otherwise, I will make copious notes on a separate Word document and offer some specific feedback after the session.

Free conversation seems to be considered my specialty, although that is not to suggest I am unable to teach several other types of lessons. My wife and I recently bought a new computer and there are now, thankfully, no real internet issues here either.

I look forward to talking to you!

Cheers!

Jim.