The Immigrant Centre is fortunate to have the pleasure of working with some very dedicated and caring volunteers. One of these people is Bob Dick, who volunteers as a One-on-One English Tutor and English Conversation Group Facilitator.
Bob’s involvement with the Immigrant Centre began about 15 years ago, sometime around 2007, when he was introduced to the Centre by a friend. A TESL certified teacher, he had already been teaching English abroad for several years after retiring from a 33 year career in Human Resources.
Bob stumbled upon what he refers to as his “second career” through a chance encounter with a gentleman at the Winnipeg airport bookstore, who told him that he trained teachers to teach English overseas and invited him to a meeting. He attended that meeting and so began a new career teaching English – in China!
“I first went to China in 2002 and fell in love with the country and the people. China has always interested me and I loved teaching there.” For about 15 years, Bob taught English classes in five different cities and at four different universities in China. He taught elementary to high- intermediate levels of English as well as business English in workplaces, He also taught many one-to-one tutorial lessons and has lots of experience teaching English online to students in China, Australia and the UK.
Upon returning to Canada in June 2019, he contacted the Immigrant Centre to inquire about volunteering once again. His decision to return to the Centre was due in part to needing something to do, but he adds, “I fell in love with teaching English when I started in 2002 and it has brought me more satisfaction than my HR career. I know the work of the Immigrant Centre, I like the people and really enjoy offering help to my new immigrant friends.”
Bob’s experience teaching English online has certainly come in handy, as the Centre has transitioned to delivering classes via Zoom due to the pandemic. “I find the classes enjoyable. My preference is to be in a classroom with the group but we manage pretty well.”
Thank you, Bob. The Immigrant Centre appreciates your time and commitment to helping our clients.