The plumber who did geometry in his head!
I studied psychology, which is a good way to become suspicious of how people think. What strategies do we use to "learn"? What techniques work and for whom?
Early on, to pay for my studies I taught part-time at a Sylvan Learning Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Usually three students at a table, usually math. If you're familiar with their methodology, you might call it bribery or more professionally, "positive reinforcement".
One of my students wasn’t a kid. He was an adult plumber about my age now... He could look at a run of pipe, measure it, work out the angle, cut it and fit it, all in his head, and he was right every time. He understood the geometry perfectly well. What he didn't know was how to put it into the language of a textbook. Eventually we agreed on a very practical plan, how might I describe what I need to an architect for example, or the general contractor and purchasing manager?
I've met that plumber many times since, mostly in language learners. People who parachute into another culture or country manage to get through the boulangerie, the call with the bank, and the neighbor's apéro in a language they swear they don't speak. They don't need to start from zero. They need someone to help them connect what they already do to the rules, and to build the confidence that comes with a human exchange.
Ten years behind the scenes of tutoring
About twenty-five years ago I parachuted in to France. I learned French in Paris, mostly by saying things wrong in front of people who were too polite to correct me, and a few who weren’t. These days I live in the countryside with my lovely spouse and a mixed golden retriever. My kids are grown and spread from Asia to the US to Europe, which means someone in our family group chat is always inventing words in Franglais or Korglais.
For about ten years in the 2000s, I ran the IT systems at France’s best-known tutoring company. If you’ve never had a job like that: it’s the software everyone uses and nobody thinks about. Families, tutors and staff all worked in it. It planned the lessons, matched tutors to students on skills and objectives, and kept track of how each tutor and student were getting on, day after day.
Ten years of that taught me something simple: a good teaching method doesn't count for much if the student and tutor don't connect. A good tutor with the wrong student, or without a goal they can both name, has a hard time. The right pairing, a clear objective and a bit of continuity get you most of the way there.
Looking back, I'd seen two rather different approaches to tutoring. At Sylvan in the US, everything was structured, right down to the rewards for getting things right. In France, tutors had much more freedom to decide how and what to teach. I still don't know that one approach is better than the other. I suspect the answer depends rather a lot on who's learning, who's teaching, and what they're trying to achieve.
Then off on my own
I ran my own development consultancy, building ed-tech tools for other companies and eventually I left to build something of my own.
AI came along and, after years of building software, I was fascinated by what it could do with languages. But I wasn't convinced it could replace a good tutor. I'd spent enough time around tutors and students to know that learning a language isn't just about getting the answers right. It's about finding the confidence to use it with someone else.
That’s imchatty. AI partners for the hours between lessons, certified tutors for the connections an AI can’t make, and exam prep for people whose next step depends on a score. Like every learner I’ve met, I’m still getting things wrong and fixing them as I go. This blog is where I’ll admit to most of it.
Why this blog
Most language-learning content online is written to rank, not to be read. I know, because I’ve published some of it. Most marketplaces have fought for their place with SEO and expensive marketing. They feel sterile to me.
This blog is the opposite experiment: fewer posts, real names, and something in each one you couldn’t get anywhere else. A tutor’s classroom story. A learner’s exam result. An honest look at where our AI gets things wrong. At least that's my objective. Lets see how it goes.