Mike Burland
5.0
United States•
11:30 AM (GMT-06:00)
English
147
1,887
English
147
1,887
Active Promotion (25% off)
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Speaks
English
Native
,Spanish
B2
,Mandarin
About Me
Hello everyone! I am teacher from the USA who is passionate about teaching English as a second language. I always look forward to delivering the best lessons that I can and I always do my best to try and learn from each and every experience.
I graduated from University back in 2013 with a Bachelor's degree in Education. From there I decided I wanted to travel a bit and looked at ways in which I could do that. I came across the idea of teaching English as a second language. I decided to get a CELTA certification because I read about how prestigious is is in the ESL world. In 2014 I received my Pass B CELTA certification and was ready to start teaching.
Currently I am progressing my CELTA certification even further by becoming DELTA certified.
In April of 2015 I finally found a job that I felt comfortable with and decided to go for it! I ended up in Arequipa, Peru thinking I was only going to be here for three months. After leaving over a year later, I knew I had found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was there that I fell in love with teaching English as a second language.
In Peru, I taught English to mostly young adults; however the age range was anywhere from 10-60+. I was also able to teach all different levels of English from beginners to advanced students. It was really a great first job for me as I received so much experience. I also did a lot of private tutoring in Peru and tutor many different students in conversational English or test preparation (TOEFL, IELTS, etc.)
After Peru I landed a job in South Korea in the summer of 2017. This job is much different than the one I had in Peru as I am teaching mostly young children (6-10 years old). I have been in Korea ever since and continue to find different reasons for loving what I do.
Both of the schools I have worked at have been great in terms of my professional development. I am in charge of creating my own lessons and teaching the subject matter as I see fit. I am growing as a teacher everyday and learning new ways in which to become a better teacher.
In terms of my philosophy, I always try to make learning fun and enjoyable for everyone involved. If you don't love what you are teaching or learning you will not succeed. Since it is a language, to me the best practice is having the learner speak as much as possible. It doesn't make sense for the native speaker to do the majority of the talking because we aren't the one's trying to learn the language!
I also understand that everyone is different, wants to learn English for different reasons and learns better in different ways. I am always willing to listen to what my student wants out of the classes and adjust my classes depending on what that is.
I am incredibly flexible, adaptable and always looking to be a better teacher.
A little bit about myself. I love to travel, have been to around 10 different countries and I am always looking to expand that number. I myself love to learn languages too and understand the difficulties when it comes to learning a new language. I can speak Spanish fairly well and am currently trying to learn Korean.
I have also recently gotten into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I am about 1 year in and I love every minute of it. The challenge of it is very appealing to me and it seems like no matter what, you can always improve.
I hope to meet you soon and look forward to our future classes together!
Trial Lesson
One time, 30 minutesPrivate Lessons
60 minutesTeacher Stats
Within a few hours 
6 years ago 
99.00%1,887 
28.7 lesson average
5.0 Schedule
March 30, 2025 - April 6, 2025
All times listed are in your local timezone
(GMT+0000)GMT+0000
Sun
03/30/2025
Mon
03/31/2025
Tue
04/01/2025
Wed
04/02/2025
Thu
04/03/2025
Fri
04/04/2025
Sat
04/05/2025
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1:00 AM
2:00 AM
3:00 AM
4:00 AM
5:00 AM
6:00 AM
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8:00 AM
9:00 AM
10:00 AM
11:00 AM
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
2:00 PM
3:00 PM
4:00 PM
5:00 PM
6:00 PM
7:00 PM
8:00 PM
9:00 PM
10:00 PM
11:00 PM
Teaching Expertise
Beginner
Upper Beginner
Intermediate
Upper Intermediate
Advanced
Upper Advanced
American English
Résumé
Education
2008 - 2013
B.A. Education
California State University Channel Islands - Camarillo, CA
A degree to teach secondary school in the USA
Work Experience
2015 - 2016
Teacher
Extreme Learning Center - Arequipa, Peru
Taught English to ELLs of all different ages and all different levels. Had to make my own lesson plans.
2017 - 0
Teacher
SLP - Ansan, South Korea
Taught English to kindergarten ELL students. Have to make my own lesson plans.
Certifications
2014 - 2014
CELTA
St. Giles University - San Francisco, CA
Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
Ratings
252
Fun
140
Motivation Guru
315
Excellent Materials
327
Great Conversation
77
Exam Coach
30
Business Expert
67
Writing Coach
219
Great for Beginners
247
Great for Intermediate
159
Great for Advanced
140
Accent Reduction
44
Tech Savvy
211
Goes the Extra Mile
134
Grammar Expert
19
Great for medical professionals
160
Cultural Insights
5.0 Average
1246 ratings, 147 students
May 15, 2020 • Lessons: 25
It is very good and usefull to take lessons with Mike. He is helpful, friendly, attentive to your needs and good in grammar explanations. The conversation with him is pleasant and also funny. I am satisfied with the work we are doing.
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May 12, 2020 • Lessons: 72
Mike is a wonderful teacher! With each lesson, I get more understanding of language than for the years of school education before. I like that the lessons are well-balanced in terms of the speaking/grammar ratio, and the explanation that he gives makes the rules suddenly clear and logical and easy to use, which makes me feel more confident when I speak or write emails. Not to mention the fact that his lessons are never boring, he has lots of different materials: cartoons, articles, and also interesting home tasks.
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