[本期Steven视线登场人物]
·K：Ken Carroll，The President of Kaien English Training School
·S：安家良，Steven An，沪江英语网主编 Steven视线主持人

我的理想就是办学校

S: Is that what you came here for? And the setting-up of the school?

K: No, when I came, I was very idealistic, I had now what businessmen call an exit strategy. I didn't have an exit strategy. I didn't plan to do an IPO or sell the company, because I was young and maybe idealistic. My hope was to build a great school. That's all I wanted to do. (B: And without any business plan.) We had a business plan, but it was a simple business plan that was based on three-year revenues. That's all it was. What really inspired me and still does is a methodology, a method of teaching, is a way of traditional methods by... I've always had a problem with those. Learn this, repeat this, memorize that. In real life language learning, I don't think that's the way to go. But what I do like and what still drives me, what motivates me is to treat people as complete humans. You are not my slave; you don't do what I tell you. You were in an environment where we are equal. It's your chance to express yourself, to talk, to connect. Talk about what you think, not memorize and repeat the passage to me. Nobody needs that. So that was very impodant for me; that was communication. That was a time for people to come in, and on one hand, learn new words, but on the other hand, to express themselves, to talk, to have fun, to be really human, to talk like they would if they were in a tea house with their friends, but just do it in English. And have a facilitator in the room who's the teacher to guide them, to motivate them, to correct them, to give them new words, and that's for me, very very important even in a digital product, which is Chinese pod. We really stress the human element.

S: Since the Chinese students are hard-working, so you don't need to push them.

K: We don't push them, we liberate them, right? You let them be free, let them realize,    because the first day when you come into the class, you want them to talk a little. They say 我讲不来（In Shanghai accent）? So I realize that traditionally they are not used to it. But after a week or two weeks, I think they start to get used to it. Then, you cannot stop them. Because when they are talking, they are having a great time. So for me, the human aspect is very very very important. And I think any company, any brand, if you start to think of your customers like numbers, and then if you think of these people, you can stay in touch.

教意大利人英语是种乐趣

S: And this teaching experience seems to be very important. So how long have you been teaching?

K: I started teaching on... I'm 45 years old; I started teaching on...I think the first class I taught was probably in 1983. Straight after the college, I taught some Italian students who came to Ireland to study English. And I didn't know how to teach.

S: Really? I think it's really hard because Italian people have a very strong accent.

K: Yes, but they are also very warm and friendly people. I had a small group, and that was my first class. And I've always been interested in languages. And one thing that interests me is the context of language universal. There are things that are universally true in all languages. I think there are things that are universally true no matter what language you are teaching. And that also interests me. So it's very interesting to compare, for example, a group of Chinese students. How they act with a group of Japanese or Italian. They all react differently. Very interesting.

S: And your students are mainly from Shanghai?

K: Yes.

S: Is there any student from any other country?

K: Over the years, we have had students from Europe, from other parts of Asia; we have Japanese students, Korean students, Philippine students. But now, probably about 98% are Chinese, certainly. And I couldn't say how much are Shanghainese. And the majority, I would say, are Shanghainese. But of course, we do have a lot of people from out of Shanghai.

S: Do you have personally teaching experiences of teaching some other students from different nations? Like apart from Italian.

K: I taught in Spain, I taught in Germany, I taught in France, I taught briefly in Japan and Korea; I taught in Taiwan. And then I taught, as I said, in Ireland. We had mixed groups of many nationalities. That's tough, but that's very very interesting. For me, teaching is also about learning. If you are a teacher in a classroom, if you spend an hour in a classroom, if you didn't learn something, then the students didn't learn something. That's my view. If I'm with a group of Chinese students, I learn something about, maybe, language acquisition in china, but if I'm with a mixed group, you can learn incredible things, about as I said, the things that interest me, the universal. How come that everybody understands this concept, but everybody doesn't understand this concept, it's very interesting.

S: Do you have any unforgettable interesting experience of teaching those students from different nations?

K: Not so much, I mean lots of funny misunderstandings, stuffs like that, jokes. But I do remember the shock of having... I think I spent like six weeks in Japan and struggling in Japan, because I didn't know the culture. And when I was in the classroom, I would try to say: "Could you guys talk?" And they just "Hai". Because I wasn't used to it, so I struggled. Eventually, it worked, and I just did one six-week course. But later, I went back to Spain, I went into the classroom and I was still thinking about Japan, and I said: "Could you guys talk?" and they just "wow, wow". I just remember the contrast, very very well. So, culturally, it's quite interesting. I think the hardware is the same, the brain is the same; the way people use their brain, the software is a little bit different. But sometimes, it's shocking.

To be a great teacher, be a philosopher.

S: I think that your teaching interest has something to do with your major.

K: My major is philosophy. I think teaching is a very interesting thing. There are sometimes teachers who are interested in the theory. Like the theory of learning and the theory of language. They are two different things. I didn't do linguistics at college. But if you do a master's degree, for example, in linguistics, on one hand, you need in your own mind to have a theory of language. What is language? How does it work? How you use it? And so on. At the applied level, you also need a theory of teaching and learning. And both those things interest me, but I know lots of very very good teachers; it's more than just interests in there. They don't do it that way. They just go to the classroom, and they just do it. So I think that I'm interested in the philosophy, but I still think you could be a great teacher without (interest), you need some. You don't have to be a philosopher to be a great teacher.