Jane Godwin Coury is from the UK and has been working in English Language Teaching since 1987. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of Leicester, UK.  She has been living and working in Brazil for 27 years and has also taught in France, Germany, the UK, and the USA. Jane has vast experience of teaching English and has been involved in Cambridge English qualifications since 1995.  She is also a teacher educator, English language editor, and translator. Specifically, she edits and translates academic articles written by Brazilian researchers.  Jane currently works at Cult Estácio in Brazil teaching online courses to translators and English language teachers.   She is the author of various publications including “Exercícios para Falar Melhor em Inglês (Speaking Activities)” (Disal) and “Four Short Stories to use in the ELT Classroom” .

In 2018, I saw an announcement on Facebook from Hari Krishna Patcharu who is an English teacher at a school called  Z.P.H.S. Ilavaram in Bhattiprolu Mandal, Andhra Pradesh, India.    In the post, Hari Krishna was asking for volunteers to connect with his pupils online.  I got in touch with him and ever since then we have been regularly exchanging messages and connecting via Skype, Zoom, and Whatsapp.  I have certainly learned so much from the children and teenagers at this rural school, as well as from Hari Krishna´s Facebook page because he has a huge network of educators from around the world who regularly share their knowledge with his pupils.  More than 120 volunteer teachers from schools in countries including Mongolia, Brazil, the USA, and the Netherlands have given their input on a wide range of subjects from culture to science and geography to fashion.  Penpal letters, drawings, and presents have been exchanged by post, and children from all around the world have had the opportunity to open up a panoramic window on previously unknown cultures practicing their English.
Learning about Indian culture
  I always remember the first time I connected with a group of thirty 13-year-olds from the school.  Not knowing much about their culture and setting, I decided to talk about something universal – food!  I picked out some realia from our local market in the city where I live in Brazil such as mangoes, papayas, coconuts, and avocados.  We discussed meals and cooking, and it gave me a chance to get to know Hari Krishna and his pupils.  I was able to see how the classroom was decorated (various flags, a picture of Gandhi, and a painting of the Taj Mahal), what the teenage girls were wearing (saris), and find out what level of English they had.   At the end of the session, a group of girls sang the National Anthem, which was very touching.
Exchanging knowledge
  In other sessions, we talked about grammatical structures, such as verb tenses, reported speech, and relative clauses, and the students asked me their doubts.  The pupils also practiced the structures by introducing themselves and telling me about their lives.  We discussed flash fiction, which includes short stories, literature, and poems. I showed them some sources where they could improve their reading skills and they told me about famous Indian characters in literature.  I showed them how to make a chickpea salad and Sravya Sri, one of the girls, taught me how to make Semiya payasam. 
Learning throughout the pandemic
  From the outset of the pandemic until now, learning has not stopped.  Hari Krishna made sure that his students had access to smartphones to continue their journey at home traveling around the world stopping off at a myriad of virtual places talking to people from all walks of life.   Educators from all corners of the globe sent videos to the pupils encouraging them to keep on going through challenging times.   These were posted on Facebook and I must say they motivated me to carry on with my daily activities.  It has felt like being part of a global family at times. 
Empowering young people
  In an interview1 conducted with inspiring teacher Hari Krishna given by two Americans, Thomas Whisinnand and Josh Monroe, Hari said that he would like to see teachers going beyond the textbook showing children the world.  “We are all global citizens” he adds emphatically. Many of the pupils have personal ambitions about growing professionally, for example becoming a doctor, and these international experiences are instilling confidence in these young people to speak in public in English with people not only of their own age but also adults who have different accents and talking speeds.  In the same interview, Hari Krishna says if we help students with their English, they can survive in this world, and if they learn to survive in this world with these communicative skills, they can get a good job in the future so that they can feed their families.
Motivating others to exchange experiences
  I believe that this rich experience has changed my outlook on life.  I have had the opportunity to open a door to a world that I was unaware of as I have never traveled to India before.  I have also learned so much from educators around the world through the recorded videos posted on Hari Krishna´s Facebook page.  I truly believe that people inspire people and what started as something small has grown into a global community of adults and young people exchanging their knowledge and experience back and forth across the world.