Culture in Our Classrooms

I'm Gill Johnson and I've been a teacher and trainer of EFL for over twenty years. My first job, post CELTA, at the age of 22, was in a prison, where I taught English to foreign inmates. It was a baptism of fire and I certainly learned to be creative and think on my feet there!

Later, I joined IH Hastings, where I became interested in humanistic methodology and trained as a CELTA trainer. You may think these two things are diametrically opposed, but they're not!

In 1994 I started working for Pilgrims (thanks to Simon Marshall). It was here that I really began to develop as a teacher and trainer. It was also where I met and began working with Mario Rinvolucri and in fact, many of the authors on this website. I shared with Mario my lifelong interest in culture and the influence it wields on our lives. We exchanged stories, experiences and the dialogue began to take shape, culminating in our new book, Culture in Our Classrooms.

Apart from writing with Mario, I work in an international boarding school, near Hastings, where I teach French and English and manage a busy languages dept. In my holidays I'm either to be found working on Pilgrims' teacher training programmes, or somewhere on the other side of the planet, running CELTA courses and teacher training workshops. I enjoy speaking at conferences and when I'm not doing any of these things, I like to relax at home, entertaining guests, or spending time with my very patient husband, 'hanging out' with my (now grown-up) children, reading, chatting and chuckling with friends.... or sleeping!