Stephen is from New Zealand; home of The Lord of the Rings, Kiwifruit, and Bungee-jumping. He has been living abroad and teaching English for most of the past 10 years. He has spent time in Taiwan, Korea, Guilin, Qingdao, Shenzhen and now Zhuhai. He has a variety of experience teaching with both adults and children and at with various English levels. He did his undergraduate degree in Education at Massey University in New Zealand and a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics with the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia. His most recent teaching experience was with the highly respected language institute Wall Street English in Shenzhen. He has taught all four language skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Particularly, he has a lot of experience teaching oral English and desires to see many students develop their speaking skills. These qualifications and experiences make him a welcome addition to our teaching staff.

He loves to travel and experience new things. He likes dancing and has learned Salsa dancing. He can play guitar a little and has played music for students to learn songs and has led an amateur music team for a while in Taiwan. He likes singing and KTV and has even recently learnt to sing a song in Chinese. He enjoys playing board games like chess, Monopoly and Risk. He also likes surfing on the internet and chatting on QQ. He enjoys going to movies and watching TV. His favourite Chinese actor is Jackie Chan. He enjoys languages and has learnt Chinese since he went to Taiwan 10 years ago and can communicate sufficiently for everyday use and for travel. He also knows a little Korean.

He has travelled to many parts of China – Jiuzhaigou, Yunnan, Guilin, Shanghai and Beijing and even many small towns; and also several countries in Asia including Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. His favourite place in Asia is mainland China, where he has spent the past 4½ years. His favourite place in China so far is Guilin where he spent 6 months absorbing the culture and hospitality of Chinese people, brushing up his Chinese language skills, and doing some work on his MA. His parents and brothers now live in Western Australia so he has been to Australia a number of times.

He is excited about teaching at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai campus because it has been a long term ambition to teach in a university and recognises that this is a high quality university with a truly beautiful campus and friendly staff and students. Students here are keen to learn and motivated to try hard to reach their goals. He wishes all staff and students the best in reaching their goals and dreams for the future.