More Than Language

Hi everyone and welcome to the More Than Language Tutoring Services Instagram page! My name is Dr Stephanie Durant but you can call me either Steph or Essie for short. I created this company in order to teach English to non-native English speaking medical professionals as my motto is “medical schools can teach medicine, language schools can teach English but very few people can do both!”.

Keep an eye out for my next post, which will be a short video explaining exactly why I decided to call the company More Than Language and for more information, please visit my website at www.morethanlanguage.co.uk

Please excuse the self-promotion and bragging but I'm so proud of my student that I want everyone to know what she's achieved!

I have a student, Asha (not her real name), who is a non-native English speaking nurse and has been trying for the past couple of years to move over to the UK. There are a few tests and hoops to jump through to get offered a job and visa in the NHS and one of them is called the Occupational English Test (OET), which is basically a test of medical English competency for any international healthcare professional. Asha had been trying for two years to pass the OET, attending courses with various ESL companies and paying for private online tuition, but no to no avail. By the time we had met she had taken the OET seven times!

Asha found me and asked me to tutor her while I was still working for an established ESL company, her interest in me piqued by my medical and NHS experience. We initially worked together for eight months, but were limited to 30 minute sessions once a week! At the time, I had no intention of setting up shop on my own and simply accepted the very low rate of pay from the company but was adamant that I would do no work outside of paid lesson time. As such, I believe there was a 'cap' on the quality of tutoring I was able to provide Asha and she failed the OET twice more.

After the 9th failed attempt, I had a sincere talk with her. I had already decided I was leaving the tutoring company and was planning on starting up on my own. Would she consider having private tuition with me, for 60 minutes twice a week until her next OET session in October? I was overjoyed when she said yes, but also pretty nervous- what if I wasn't a good enough tutor and she failed again..?

Fast-forward one month and the time had come for Asha to attempt the OET. I felt like an athletics coach; both of us had put in a lot of hard work over the previous weeks and now I had to let her go and flex her muscles on the field! She dutifully messaged me during the lunch break to update me on the scenarios and questions (this is allowed, by the way!) and we tried to guess what marks she might get but the honest truth is that we would have no idea until she received her results two weeks later.

The wait began... I set a reminder on my phone for the day the results were meant to be released and awaited Asha's message. The day came and went- no message. Days turned into weeks and still no news! My silly saboteurs were running amok in my mind, whispering all sorts of negativity to me during any moments of downtime. Then finally, a week after the results were released, I got a message... Asha had passed with flying colours!!!

I couldn't believe it! On her tenth attempt and after only a couple of weeks of private tuition with me, via my own company, she'd achieved a goal that she was almost about to give up on!

Honestly, I am just bursting with pride for Asha and all of the hard work and dedication she put into sitting this exam. And to be honest, I'm pretty proud of myself too, as I feel like I've been instrumental in making it happen. My saboteurs have been attenuated somewhat and it's nice and peaceful without their constant negativity!

Well done Asha and to all my students who continue to study hard in adulthood (I don't teach kids) to achieve all that they do. Teacher Essie is extremely proud!

Another article published! Thank you HOMME magazine (www.homme.com.my) for the feature and interview.

Stephanie Durant - Taking The Road Less Travelled - HOMME The phrase “road less travelled” has taken on a metaphorical meaning which is about daring to think and do things differently, i.e. carving your own path. Stephanie (Steph) Durant – medical doctor, professional dive instructor and English language teacher – has done exactly that because her ...

I've started a blog! Please have a read and comment if you see fit: I'd love to start a discussion :)

Dose 1 of the AstraZeneca vaccine: a step towards a Covid-free future? The floors were swept, the corners of the room were vacuumed, the dishes were washed and the shelves dusted... which meant one of two things: either I was procrastinating or I was highly stressed! You see, the day was the 5th of June, 2021 and at 4pm later that afternoon I would be getting my first....

In celebration of me and my closest loved ones getting our first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine I baked a carrot cake with a slightly cheeky (no pun intended!) play-on-words that's become viral in Malaysia recently thanks to comedian Douglas Lim.

For those that don't quite get it yet, the writing says " "... 'cucuk' being the Malay word for the verb 'to poke/to inject' and AZ being pronounced 'azzz'

I shall leave it there for you to figure out 😉

The Instagram page is now up! Please follow and like 🥰