PEARTREE LIFE: Experiencing Languages

He's loud, he has a big beard, he is an amazing teacher, he is... Jon Letson!

Hi, I'm Jon Letson and I'm the Director of Studies at Peartree.



I'm 33, I'm from Wales and I've been teaching English for about 13 years, on-and-off. I've moved around quite a lot but I did most of my growing up in the Valleys (which is an area north of Cardiff), where I went to school, played rugby and listened to lots of heavy metal music!

Jon during his relaxing summer holidays.
I've always loved learning and thinking about different languages so I came to Cardiff University when I was 18 to study for a degree in French and Japanese, which was great as I also had the chance to spend time living in France and Japan. Language learning and teaching has been a big part of my life ever since, and I've continued my studies in this area, going on to complete a Master's in Applied Linguistics at Cardiff University.

Jon enjoying Japanese food during his travels
My job's a really interesting one, as I get to meet people from many different parts of the world and help them get what they want from studying English. I'm especially interested in helping students with grammar and pronunciation since these are both areas that are really important in being able to express yourself as well as you want to. I also think that anything that you have fun doing tends to stick in your memory better so I try to make my classes as active, positive and friendly as possible. Hopefully, that means that everyone feels confident to get involved as much as possible in class, and can remember and use the language they've learned in their lives outside class. I also hope that I can bring these qualities to my role as DoS at Peartree and make learning and teaching at the school as positive, rewarding and engaging an experience as possible for everyone.

Jon's other passion is music and he plays bass guitar in a band called 'Hunted'.
I'm a pretty active person outside school, too. My main passion is playing music but I'm also into a lot of sports (especially rugby!) and exercise in general. I play bass guitar in a heavy metal band called Hunted – we've played gigs in lots of different places around the UK and we're currently recording our second album, which will hopefully be out sometime later this year. I used to play rugby and do martial arts but I tend to watch sports more than playing these days – I'm still into keeping fit, though, so I go to the gym three or four times a week. When I need a break from all the activity, I really like reading. I'm mostly into sci-fi but I'll read almost anything!

Thanks for reading – see you in school soon :-)

Jon
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About Peartree Languages

Peartree Languages is a language school located in Cardiff.

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