Canary Islands English

When you speak a lot in classes you will always make some mistakes. But errors are some of the very best learning opportunities - here are three things my students said and how we worked together to improve 💪

Ukrainian students often say 'I had / have Spanish shame' (Испанский стыд). This is a direct translation of what Spanish people call verguenza ajena. In English, we'd call this emotion cringe or say we were embarrassed FOR someone because they have done something so embarrassing (as you can see, it's an emotion my wife knows well 😃 ). Why Spanish shame? I think simply because some early research into it was done in Spain.

Rebuilt /ree-BILT/ is an irregular past tense verb meaning to be built again after being damaged or destroyed (reconstruir in Spanish). I took this picture in Kyiv of one of the many churches that had to be rebuilt after being destroyed in Soviet times.

In English, we have strong/light wind but heavy/light rain. The sun can be strong or weak. Rain can also pour down or be torrential /tu-REN-shul/ ( C2 level = very heavy)

Thanks to all our students for their hard work and good humour in classes this week! Have a great weekend - you deserve it.

Happy Canary Islands Day!
To celebrate our beautiful home, here are three C1-level adjectives to talk about nature that we've recently learned in our advanced-level groups.
Want to know more? We have a place in our advanced class on Thursday evenings (6-7pm in the islands).

How would you describe the Canary Islands?

It’s been a long time since I wore a suit for work.

Living in a place where the temperature almost never drops below +15 degrees - yes, even in the middle of winter - and working from home means I don’t usually need more than a shirt to teach. Sometimes I go full TV newsreader and wear shorts and flip flops under the desk. But whatever I’m wearing, I’m always fully aware of the language my students are using, which is why I know so many of them have had problems with the construction I started this post with.

It’s been + time + since + I / he / it / you / we + past simple.

It’s been six years since I opened this school.
It’s been seven months since I visited Gran Canaria
It’s been ages since I saw him.
It’s been seven years since I moved to La Gomera.

We can also use the present perfect (have/has + 3rd form in the last part of the sentence. This is especially common if it’s something you’re doing again after some time.

(Today I’m wearing a suit). It’s been six years since I wore / since I’ve worn a suit.
(I’ve just arrived in Tenerife). It’s been a month since I was here / since I’ve been here.

We could also start with a negative:

I haven’t been here for two months / since March.
I haven’t spoken English since I was at school.

Is there anything you haven’t done recently? Try to make a sentence either in your head or in the comments.

The pictures were taken in Chernivtsi, Lutsk and Kyiv (all Ukraine) and at Fuchu Station in Tokyo.

Long time no see! ( = Cuanto tiempo sin verte).

While I’ve been absent on social media, real life has been much busier. Here are three things my students have been doing in 2026.

1. One of my students got her first ever modelling contract and is now in Jakarta, Indonesia for the next three months. We have twice-weekly lessons in between casting sessions, trips to the gym and swimming pool and her attempts to find Ukrainian Easter bread (p***a) in Indonesia.

2. My teenage Ukrainian and Spanish students are busy getting ready for summer Cambridge exams at A2 and B1 levels. One of them is the younger brother of a student I helped pass B1 in 2021 so she could go to Britain to study. This week she emailed me from her university there. “I’ll practise the speaking with him. To be fair, when I force him to speak English with me he does a great job. I’m always very impressed!”

3. Another of my students WhatsApped me to say he got B2+ level in an English test at work. “Close to C1!!!” It’s been great to see his progress since we started working together, though I know he’s much less happy about the football team he supports (Real Madrid) at the moment. ¡Buen trabajo, Rubén!

By the way, the photo was taken the day before my 50th birthday on the Agatha Christie Steps in Puerto de la Cruz. When I started teaching English in South Korea in November 1999 - another century! - I couldn’t have imagined how far language could have taken me. 26.5 years, 11 countries, thousands of great students and a few hundred steps later…

No video to end this year as I’m still recovering from some pre-Christmas flu and my voice is - a very technical term here - a bit gravelly ( = low and in bad condition).

I know 2025 has been a challenging year for many people. But thanks to all our students for your time, effort, stories, humour and inspiration. From Peru to the Maldives, Ukraine to Spain, and Brazil to Malaysia, I’ve been all around the world in our lessons together. I hope being part of our classes has given you as much joy and positive energy as it’s given me. May 2026 be the year your wildest dreams all come true!

Ending the year on a high, this is me on one last hike of 2025, with the last sunset over the Atlantic Ocean and mountains of La Gomera.

Happy New Year, ¡Próspero año nuevo! and z novym rokom! See you all in 2026!

I’m back in a cold and rainy Britain this week, which means I also have the chance to look through all the boxes of things I still have there. A few bits and pieces I’ve found so far today:

1. A certificate from International House Riga, where I worked in 2008-09.
2. My name badge and business card from Dinternal, an education company which represents Pearson in Ukraine. I was lucky enough to work there from 2016-18, travelling all over one of Europe’s most beautiful countries.
3. A conference programme from a presentation I made at Kharkiv’s Karazin National University in 2018. Despite a four-year terror bombing campaign, Karazin is still educating the next generation of Ukrainians.
4. A farewell card from my students at Melton College in York, written when I left in 2016 to start working for Dinternal in Kyiv.
5. A handout from a training session I did for teachers at the London School of English in Kyiv.
6. A photo of the very first school I worked at - Kalma Language School in Daejeon South Korea (1999-2000)
7. My lesson observation feedback from South Tyneside College in the UK, where I taught students from over 20 countries including Afghanistan, Poland, Algeria, Bangladesh, Iran, North Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Somalia between 2006-08.
8. A handout for teachers I wrote while I was UKLC’s academic director on grammar and Task Based Language Teaching. “English is used to achieve something that is personally relevant to each individual learner”.

And now we’re five!

When I first started Canary Islands English in 2020 I had five students. One passed his Cambridge B1, B2 and C1 exams and is now studying at university in Madrid, while a second got the IELTS score he needed to start a business course at a university in Barcelona. A third progressed from low-A2 level and is now studying English at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, my fourth student passed her Cambridge C1 and my fifth, after taking his Cambridge B1 in Kyiv, is now at an international school in Budapest. Since then, we’ve worked with hundreds of students in 20+ countries including Spain, Ukraine, India, Brazil, France, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Germany, the UK and the Maldives, seeing our learners improve their confidence to use English and grow and develop hugely in their lives. Thanks for the work, the fun, and all the stories you've shared!

Two of the things I’m proudest to have been involved in since 2020:

Offering free places to Ukrainian English teachers as well as conversation classes run by my friends Ant Clarke and Colin Gibson after the full-scale invasion of their country in 2022. It’s been a privilege for us all to work with teachers who remain so dedicated and professional despite everything they've had to cope with and in the face of constant terror attacks.
Seeing students who were bored or fearful of the language become more and more comfortable sharing opinions, hopes and past experiences with each other. It’s always wonderful to see your achievements close up!

(Thanks also to my son for the loan of his birthday crown!)

14 years ago I finished my MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL at Newcastle University and moved to Japan to teach at a university in Nagoya, where I was lucky enough to work with lots of great, hardworking (and snack-loving) students like the ones in the photo.

While I was in Nagoya, I also became a Cambridge speaking examiner. Since then I’ve evaluated students in Japan and Ukraine - where I also trained to be a Pearson speaking examiner in 2016 - and prepared students for Cambridge and Pearson exams in the UK, Ukraine, Japan and Spain.

What do I like best about getting students ready for an exam? The feeling when they pass. Especially if, like Cambridge and Pearson, it’s a certificate they can keep for their whole lives. Since starting Canary Islands English, I’ve helped adults demonstrate their level for work and university, and taken teenage students from B1 (Preliminary) through to C1 (Advanced). One is now at university in Madrid, another in Barcelona, a third in Bath, UK, and a fourth has already used English to start his own business in Tenerife.

This year we have one new teenage B1 class starting - and there are still two places left. If you’d like to join us, get in touch. Who knows where English could take you?

¡Hola! Apologies for the lack of posts on here this month. While we’re still working hard in lessons, I’ve been taking a break from posting to meet up with family near Alicante. This month we have a 50th wedding anniversary, a 5th birthday and a wedding to celebrate in our immediate family ( = brothers, sisters, parents and children).

Added to that, as you’ll know if you live here in Spain, it’s just really, really hot this month. “It’s been 45 degrees in Fuerteventura,” one of my students complained last week.

So, what have we been doing while not taking morning dips (= short, relaxing swims) in the pool, going to family parties or saying it’s too hot? Some highlights:

Teaching a new A2 adult class and seeing them begin to use the present perfect easily to talk about experiences in their lives.
Comparing summer holidays with our Canarian teens they win, of course!)
Finding out from our B2 adults what motivated - or didn’t motivate - them to learn English as children.
My C1 mixed Spanish and Ukrainian group discussing what makes something funny and immediately agreeing it definitely couldn’t be found in any of the British jokes I’d just told them 😂

How’s your August going?