Smart Easy English, Book 3

Who am I?

Hi! I'm Aidin Safvati (Aiden) and I'm very honoured that you have followed me all the way down here. If you really want to know more about me,  it will be easier to simply search me up on the internet (try Linkedin) but let me tell you first, what really matters is "Who are YOU?" Have you watched the scene from Lion King, the animation, with Rafiki (the wise monkey) returning that question to Simba (the lion)? I doesn't matter really who I am because you are here to see if you can learn something that will help you create a better version of you, a better future for yourself and your loved ones. It's all about you and your loved ones, not me. But check my Linkedin page to know more about me if that is needed to trust that I can help you become who you want to become.

Here are a few facts about me. I was born in 1969 as the second child of a family of four. Mum and dad met each other at the university where they studied languages. My mother spent her entire career as an English Teacher (middle and high school). My father worked initially as a teacher and later on as a translator and interpreter. My mother played a fundamental role in my learning languages without focusing on grammar. My father became instrumental in my learning to speak Russian and to maintain the skill through working as a simultaneous interpreter for international conferences. I became fluent in English and Russian, although none of these can be considered as my native language. Perhaps due to my upbringing, I always felt a profound dislike for systems that taught complicated language structures (grammar) as a means to achieving fluency in the use of a language. At the age of 18, I started a Bachelor's Degree in English Translation. It was an excruciating pain to learn the 21 different sentence structures already in the first semester. Before the end of my first year, I let my enrolment lapse, mainly due to financial reasons, but also due to feeling extremely bored by the teaching system and because I had also enrolled in a Bachelor's Degree in Optometry and Vision Science.

For the next 9 years after graduation, I worked as an optometrist, teaching at universities and working at my own private optometry practice while also working as a simultaneous interpreter. Then, being a Sagittarian, I got bored again and welcomed the offer to join a highly-respected international company which allowed me to travel to many countries and work with people from multiple ethnic backgrounds while teaching optometry and learning a lot from internationally-trained mentors. The objective of my role was to change the contact lens markets in 7 countries, all at the same time, and that we did, very successfully too, together with our teams stationed in each of the seven countries. I flew in and flew out for close to three years to teach and to bring about the necessary changes into the markets before I decided to upgrade my qualifications. I simply could not reject the offer of a full-fee Australian scholarship with a stipend that allowed me to commence and successfully complete a PhD degree (Optometry and Vision Science, Cornea and Contact Lenses), at the University of New South Wales (2010). Then, I completed a Graduate Diploma and a Master's Degree in Teaching (MS Teach Biology and Science) majoring in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in Melbourne (TESOL, Deakin University).

There you have it, that is my story and who I am. I still sometimes work in areas related to optometry, but I tend to see myself as a teacher, an educator, an author, a researcher, and an optometrist. Sine 2015 I see myself also as a language coach. Why a coach and not a teacher? Because teaching is great, but coaching changes lives in a more profound manner and that is what makes me feel useful and fulfilled, improving people's life by way of digesting information I gathered throughout my over 50 years of life and almost 30 years of working experience.

Satisfied your curiosity about me? 😉 Good. Now go and click on that button which puts you on the right pathway to getting to know how you can solve all your language-related problems.