{"id":2095,"date":"2022-02-08T15:38:46","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engoo.com\/blog\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2022-02-08T15:39:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:39:42","slug":"introducing-darren-engoo-tutor-and-award-winning-filmmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engoo.com\/blog\/engoo\/introducing-darren-engoo-tutor-and-award-winning-filmmaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Darren: Engoo Tutor and Award-Winning Filmmaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meet Darren \u2013 a popular Engoo tutor who's also an award-winning filmmaker! Today, Darren will tell us about his life and teaching experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a bit about yourself!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I'm 42 \u201cyears young\u201d and I'm a passionate happily married man. I'm originally from the UK but have been living in Poland now for about 10 years and it's where I met my beautiful wife Iza. I mainly teach English and work on various creative projects like films, and about two years ago, I started tutoring on Engoo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a bit about where you\u2019re from in the UK?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m actually Welsh! However, because I\u2019m from a town on the border with England, I grew up speaking English. I do know bits and pieces of Welsh. For example, \u201cthank you\u201d is \u201cDiolch yn fawr<\/a>.\u201d But most Welsh-speakers are in the heart of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as I always tell my students, Wales is a multicultural country. For example, my best friend growing up was from Afghanistan and my first girlfriend was Japanese!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fascinating! Our English tutors<\/span> come from over 100 countries, so it's always a pleasure to learn about different parts of the world when we do these interviews. By the way, can we ask what inspired you to move to Poland?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2000s, a lot of people from Poland were emigrating to the UK. Seeing the influx and having met so many wonderful Polish people on my travels, I started wondering what it would be like to live in their country, so I found work there as an English teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you experience any culture shock when you first moved there?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely! In fact, I\u2019ve had to change my personality to fit into this culture. You know how British people say things like \u201cOh no thank you,\u201d \u201cNo after you,\u201d or \u201cIf you don't mind\u201d all the time? Well, when I first got here and was opening doors for people and no one was saying \u201cthank you,\u201d I was like \u201cHow are people so rude?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, I realized that's just a cultural difference! Polish people aren\u2019t rude \u2013 they just communicate in a different way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So tell us about your work making films! What\u2019s your favorite part of the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been making films since university, where I majored in filmmaking. I\u2019ve made documentaries, fiction films, all sorts of stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My favorite part is the editing. With all the advances in digital effects, I can create worlds which were unheard of when I was at university. I feel like I\u2019m painting like a magician \u2013 especially when I\u2019m animating stuff, which I\u2019ve been doing a lot of<\/mdspan><\/s> recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the pandemic hit, I haven\u2019t been able to film people in real life, so I started to learn animation. I made my first animated film on \u2013 unsurprisingly \u2013 the pandemic, and it\u2019s done really well. It\u2019s picked up loads of awards at festivals and been shown all around the world! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n