James Thorpe

Hi there!

My name is James, I am originally from England but have been living in Italy now for over 15 years. I am passionate about sport and music, in particular Swimming and Football, as well as rock and indie music. I play the drums and guitar casually and like to teach my son how to play these instruments. I am also a former elite swimmer both in England and in Italy and I still compete in Masters swimming today.

I love teaching. I have taught languages, swimming, football and various other sports and enjoy teach bits of music that I know. My degree in England was in Sports Development, Teaching, Coaching and Management.

I like to blend my experiences when teaching. For example, one of my first jobs in Italy was coaching football for Arsenal and AC Milan Soccer Schools. My unique approach was to coach football and teach some English at the same time. It was a way to use football (the reason the children were there) as a vehicle to improve their English. I would use some simple commands, verbs or adjectives such as Go faster, kick, run, pass, shoot, slowly etc and eventually move towards short phrases such as "Pass the ball to your teammate, pass the ball to the left, shoot the ball with your right foot. I found the children who participated loved both aspects, learning English while playing the sport they love. I find using popular topics and speaking about them and using language really helps. I would like to continue using this approach as I find it to be really successful.