Get to know Cockney Gringo
Transcription:
Hi Guys
My name is Greg and I am the Cockney Gringo.
I am happy that you’re here for me to share with you some of the news stories that happen in the UK, and some interesting facts about my life in the UK and in general.
First of all, I would like to tell you a little about myself, how I came to be here, and my mission with Cockney Gringo.
I am not a qualified teacher through university, but I have nearly 10 years of experience in teaching English for a number of schools, using different methodologies. I have taught classes from basic English through more specialised areas such as aviation and business English. I have mentored people for interviews and exams, and I love sharing my knowledge with other people who want to know about it.
Apart from being a teacher, I have worked in a lot of other areas.
I have been a chef, salesman, bicycle mechanic, manager at various places, and today I am a network engineer. I have even toyed with the idea of being a pilot.
I love knowing about the unknown. If I don’t know about it, I usually find it interesting, and I am a quick learner.
I moved back to the UK after living in Brazil for 8 and a half years. It was a great time, but my wife and I wanted somewhere that we could bring our daughter up without worrying about violence in schools and drugs. I used to hear about it too often where we lived and I didn’t want to bring her into a world that would be bad for her future.
I have recently been introduced to instagram and I think it’s a great place for people like me to share their knowledge. So here I am!
The truth behind the birth of Cockney Gringo is actually more about the vast ocean of terrible videos about learning English.
Learning English is a process. There are no shortcuts and the only surefire way of learning English in the shortest time is immersion. Even living in the UK is not a guarantee that you will speak English. You have to make an effort, and if you do the rewards will come.
My mission as Cockney Gringo is not to teach you English. A teacher is not responsible for you learning. You are, and it is this belief that destroyed my faith in schools. I used to hear schools guaranteeing students that will be fluent in 1 year, or 6 months… and this cannot be achieved if the student is not committed to the objective. Learning English is not a necessity. Not even for someone living in the UK, and you should never look at English as a necessity. If anything it is more like a commodity (like gold). People want it because it makes their lives better. A necessity is something you need to survive (like air or water) and English cannot be compared to these things in any way.
So my mission is to put you on the right track to help you learn, not for me to teach.
I can show you how, but you have to do it… I cannot do it for you, that’s not how it works.
I am here to give you a source of listening to a different accent (cockney) that you will see quite commonly in London and even other parts of the country. Don’t look at this as a masterclass of pronunciation. My pronunciation is terrible and you should probably try and find the accent you feel most comfortable with. An accent is just an accent, and there is no one correct way to pronounce any word, so much so that one word can have 101 different pronunciations in the UK alone.
Anyway, I hope I can bring you some interesting news stories and help you with your journey. Each one is unique, and never ending, and is a great source for stories to tell others.
I hope you enjoyed listening to me, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate in contacting me and I will get back to you.
Please check out my Reels on using Google Docs too. Copy this text into docs and use the tools available to you, because It is such a good tool for learning.
