My name is Christine Ito and this is my 10th course in the MET programme.
My background is in international education – TESL. I hold a BA in English Lit (UBC ’85) and a Dip. Ed. Specializing in TESL (UBC ’93). I’ve been working as an instructor, course developer and director of studies in the TESL/TEFL field for over 15 years, the first 4 in Japan and the remainder in the private ESL industry in Vancouver, BC, my hometown. I am currently working on the periphery of the ESL industry as the GM of a company that markets education abroad and provides landing packages to international students. I am also working as the Academic Director for a partner company that provides internship placements to international university students. My main responsibility there is developing and delivering content based academic programs – f2f, correspondence, online – that complement internship placements. At the moment we are in the final phase of a project we have assembled with & for Capilano University and a local catering company that is providing food & beverage services for Vanoc which involves recruiting and training international students to work as servers & kitchen help during the upcoming Olympics. Because of the depth of this project, I have taken a year off from the MET programme but am very excited to get back into it, particularly because of my interest in what this course has to offer.
When I am not working or studying, I am most easily distracted by the NHL (a diehard Canucks fan), pianos, live music, and books (I’m currently reading J-Pod, Voltaire’s Bastards & This is Your Brain on Music).
More information that I’ve been (meaning to update) can be found here.