Hello Chris how are you?
I’m alright Chris, thanks for taking the time to interview me.
My pleasure, Chris. For those who are discovering this website, what is OuiCommuniSKATE about?
OuiCommuniSKATE is essentially a skateboarder’s virtual school for English. Anyone learning English and who skateboards will find video content that uses the skateboard culture and the skateboard aesthetic in an effort to make the learning more appealing and – dare I say – fun.
Do you have a background in teaching?
Yes, I am a qualified teacher for Europe, the US and the UK. I hold a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Literature with a specialisation in English and German. I then did a Post-graduate degree to be a teacher and I also have a handful of TEFL qualifications.
In layman’s terms, this means that you can teach in schools?
Yes, I can teach in schools, either private of State funded. For the USA, obviously it depends on the different States in which a teacher must get approved. But otherwise, the short answer is yes.
And you are also a skateboarder?
That’s correct, I discovered skateboarding in 1989.
How do the two things combine? What made you believe that one could help the other?
It’s actually quite simple: As we said, I’ve been involved in skateboarding since the early 90s and I have come to know the “psyche” of skateboarders rather well. (For lack of a better word) I know the qualities of skateboarders, which are a teacher’s dream. Added to that is a lexical background that is based in English. These two things combined are a recipe for success.
Can you expand on some of these qualities?
There are many ! When you look at it closely, skateboarders have always been explorers and learners at heart. When a skater steps onto a board, it is usually for the pleasure of cruising or landing familiar tricks but it is also for learning. An “outsider” watching kids skate will just see a lot of boards flying and missed tricks but this is precisely because all these skaters are trying to learn something new. Not just rehearse known tricks.
This frame of mind isn’t necessarily found in other sports: watch your average baseball game or Sunday game of tennis and I don’t believe you could say that the players set out to “learn” something. Perhaps they wish to improve their score or win a game, however the big difference with skating is that learning is built into skating. It is an inseparable part of it.
One of the core ideas of OuiCommuniSKATE is that it is possible to connect with this learning frame of mind if you give it an appealing form, such as fun videos or references to the skate culture.
There are also other qualities that derive from skateboarding such as a growth mindset. Skaters are usually pushing for “more” – for example, more tricks, better balance…
Within this, there is also the idea of discovery: while you could say that some passionate golfers enjoy going to new courses, it is not necessarily a built-in feature of golfing.
However in skateboarding, you almost have to discover new spots, go to new cities and connect with new people. A skater who travels on holiday to a distant city is already thinking of the new spots they could discover.
Then there is the socializing side of things: saying hi to new skaters and making friends. It’s one of the few activities in which you can go to a completely new place and hang out with people within minutes or hours. All these examples are features that make up this growth mindset I referred to.
When you add them all up, from a teaching point of view skaters actually rack up quite an impressive set of qualities !
There is also the creative side of things?
That is a big part of it, too. Creation can be seen everywhere in skateboarding. Not just in the activity itself, but in the things that derive from it. Obviously, there are the numerous trick variations, but there is also the re-interpretation of a cityscape, which is no small thing.
To an average person, a set of steps or a bench just have one function. To a painter, it might represent an interesting type of canvas. To a skater, it has an altogether different function than its intended purpose. This is actually what great artists do: reinvent the obvious.
A bent pole might mean an opportunity for a grind, a loading bay might contain a gap to ollie over, an empty parking lot might be a great spot for flatland… It isn’t dissimilar to artistic photography.
Then there are the products and the designs…
Exactly. From the magazine layouts to the brand logos to the design of the shoes. Creation is everywhere. Skaters are exposed to all of this in a way that is perhaps subconscious for some or more “acquired” for other, but it is hard to deny that the average skater isn’t involved in personal growth, discovery and progress.
Is it a simple matter of using pictures with skateboards in your lessons?
It is part of it but there is also a very legitimate linguistic side to these video lessons. The skateboard pictures are there to help skaters build on a pre-existing passion. When I was a teenager, everything was about skating: if my parents took me to a restaurant I’d be wondering if it was possible to skate between the tables! (laughs) A lot of parents might see this as too limiting and might want a child to broaden their horizons (which is good also) but instead of asking a skater to like it “less”, why not seize this opportunity and use it to build on? Such as learning English…
We can argue both ways whether it is better to be into alsorts of different activities in a moderate way, or rather be fully focused on one thing with intense passion. For this specific purpose, I find it easier to work with passionate individuals.
How does the linguistic side of your profession come into play?
There is a legitimate linguistic and pedagogical reflection behind all of this. I am after all a teacher and a linguist, almost as an identity. Practically, this means my mind always works a linguist: picking up on accents, noticing unusual things about a particular sentence construction, a certain intonation that a person uses… It’s like watching a post-game analysis on TV. Whereas I just see people running after a ball, Charles Barkley and co see placements, strategies and manoeuvres. They see formulas. So do I, but in language.
I see skateboarding as a linguist for the vocabulary it contains. But as a teacher I ask myself how to put this into a palatable and effective form that a student could learn from. And as skater, I ask myself if this would appeal to me if I was the learner.
Let’s speak about the website a bit more. What does it do?
The website itself contains a core programme for learning English. Practically you pay for a yearly membership and you access learning videos. There are also quizzes relating to each video.
The curriculum is the same as you would find in any ESOL grammar textbook. (I know so because I checked!) It’s a legitimate English course, that just happens to be more fun.
I started out with a small, basic programme which I taught in face-to-face lessons and then I expanded to a larger, more elaborate one. At this moment, there are 40 videos which comes to about 5 hours. But I will keep on adding videos throughout the year. Skaters can also ask precise questions about the language which they feel I haven’t yet covered. And of course there is a “comments” section in which they can ask questions.
Do you still do one-on-one classes?
At the moment, the focus is placed on professionals of the industry. Skateboard teams who have international riders can contact us for custom English classes.
How can a skateboard company benefit from English classes?
I personally think that there are many benefits attached to this. An international skater with incredible skill will catch the attention of the kids, but they will leave something on the table if their English isn’t good enough to get their personality through.
At the end of the day, pros wish to make board sales and get exposure. There is a business reality which is much different to the landscape of twenty years ago.
The old business adage “people buy people” is as true as ever. I became a fan of Ed Templeton following a Transworld interview in which he spoke about the dairy industry among other things. He was a man with ideas to share. On the other hand, you had pros like Nicky Guerrero, Rodil de Araujo, Giorgio Zattoni who were placing in contests but not always getting their personality through. Some people might feel a different way about this, but from where I stood I would rather have bought Templeton’s board. A skater whose ideas were clearly enunciated and could captivate me.
The second reason is making sure that post-skateboarding, a former pro doesn’t find themselves with “valley girl English” and limited tools in their arsenal. Precision of communication isn’t necessary to make it as a top pro and it is very easy to fall into “yeah man” kind of English.
There is a risk for an international skater of carrying the illusion that they speak English perfectly well as long as it gets them through a basic day. This is true for any foreign person living in a new country: you might think you speak like the locals when in fact not at all. You might also not measure how bad your grammar or pronunciation is.
From the skateboard company’s perspective it is a way to show that they are looking out for their international pro and not leaving their communicative abilities down to sheer luck.
Wouldn’t local people correct them? Can’t they learn by example?
It’s funny because just the other day I was listening to a non-American who happens to be a very clever person who built a big skate shoe company. Decades later and after countless interactions he still very much speaks English like a foreigner. This in turn might invalidate the need for English to function in higher-level jobs, but it is his company so he makes the rules !
My own mum has lived in a French-speaking country for over 40 years and still sounds like a foreigner. The fact is, people are forgiving and consider it your own “foreign person’s way of speaking”.
The second reason is that native speakers are not teachers so they wouldn’t know what to look for. They might be able to correct minimal things if you asked them, but they wouldn’t be able to explain the hows and the whys on how to choose between 2 different tenses for example. Or why the word “sheep” doesn’t have a plural.
What is your “Skate Plus in English” programme?
It’s my way of proving that this learning really works and also a way to have a little fun. It’s something cool for the kids, too.
“Skate + in English” is a sponsorship programme in which we act as a “sponsor” to chosen skaters who might be failing English in school. Once their grades are up they get a board sent to them.
We’re hoping to get skate companies involved to donate product towards this cause. It also serves to prove that skateboarding is and can be a positive force for change. Obviously, we can only sponsor a small number of students!
As a business owner, I like to do business “my way”. From the start, I knew that selling wasn’t enough and didn’t want OuiCommuniSKATE to be just a marketplace in which you click and buy. Education carries with it certain principles which I take seriously, such as social responsibility. We are, after all, enabling students to better themselves and expand their minds. You have to give as well as receive compensation.
Is this your first venture into online teaching?
Oh no! The company is actually called OuiCommunicate, LLC. Within this I have a French-teaching website which I’ve been doing since 2018. These are online French classes as well as a video platform.
I should point out that I speak French and English as a native. This has enabled me to do French lessons specifically built for speakers of English. These lessons have nothing to do with skateboarding, however.
Then there’s a third website, which is on hold at the moment and will be English lessons for speakers of French.
What brought you to want to be a language teacher?
I think I might have been pre-destined to be one ! Ever since I was a child, languages played a part in my life. My mum is English and spoke to me and my brother in nothing but English. At the same time, we lived in a French-speaking country (Belgium) but in a Dutch-speaking area !
We went on speaking English at home, and French at school. I started to take Dutch in school when I was 8 all the way up to my senior year. Because all the shops around us refused to speak French or English, it became necessary to speak Dutch for things such as paperwork or simply doing the shopping.
When I was in my 30s I decided to go to college/uni and chose German as my study language. Years earlier, I used to skate with a lot of German expats. Something about the sound of German fascinated me and I always wished to learn it. When the opportunity came, I did!
Lastly, I enjoy learning Danish as a little side hobby, I’m not very good but it keeps me interested.
Do you enjoy being a teacher? What does it mean to you?
I could talk about teaching until tomorrow – don’t get me started ! Yes, I love it. I am fascinated by human behaviour and the factors that guide our decisions.
Teaching is a way to take a complex matter and present it in a way that is just challenging enough to ensure that the information “sticks” in the brain, and just accessible enough so that the student doesn’t get frustrated. It is also a reflection on finding little “hacks” and a constant self-questioning.
We must constantly place ourselves in the shoes of the learner and wonder if our topic is clear, well-presented, engaging… it is very complex and a never-ending pursuit !
Would you say you are a good teacher?
I certainly aim to be one ! But the reality is that no one can just “be“ a good teacher because it is not a static quality, You might be great on Monday because of the way you felt the energy of the class and utterly fail on Tuesday because of an inability to engage with the pupils.
A lesson plan that works well with one person might be boring to another. It’s extremely psychological.
Our activity is also completely dependent on the participation of our dance-partners, in this case our students. It isn’t a profession such as decorator or lawyer, that you can perform to your full potential without the participation of your customer. A teacher can only be as great as the pupil allows them to be.
The definition of teaching can also fall victim to misunderstandings. To some teachers and also to some pupils, teaching is about lecturing. You stand and speak and by some miracle the information supposedly has now become fully usable by the student. Not at all !
Your typical TED talk is a lecture. Speakers tell a story, of which the listeners will probably have forgotten the majority minutes after the talk. Teaching is a different activity altogether: it is a way of making a learner acquire skills through a lot of upstream preparation.
There really is so much to say, I had better stop here !
What does the future hold for OuiComuniSKATE?
Many good things, hopefully. We are a school with a worldwide ambition, meaning that we wish to connect with individuals worldwide. A skater from Botswana can relate to a skater from Dagestan, which is a truly beautiful thing.
Skating is a trans-border activity. If we can help to build connections between all these positive human beings, it will have been time well spent.
We are open to getting involved in different social causes, though we many not always know how. For example, in war-torn countries where education might not be available. We’d like to get a different rate going for such skaters.
Also, I am very open to any co-branding ideas. I feel this English programme could work well in Summer camps also.
Parting words, Chris?
Thanks very much, Chris. Wonderful interview. Anyone wishing to say hello, please do, Thanks for stopping by and thanks for reading.
The end.