User:EnglishRyan

EnglishRyan (born 28 August 1981), better known as Ryan Higgins, is a Canadian blogger and video logger who has built his career creating online content helping international students prepare for their IELTS examination. He runs a blog and a video log that provide free IELTS-related content to students around the world who otherwise would have trouble receiving quality instruction regarding preparing for their IELTS examination.

Higgins has lived, taught and written IELTS-related courses in Shanghai, China, since 2007. He lived in Dubai for the 3 years prior to his professional relocation to China.

Chapters
 * 1) Life and career

Life and career
Higgins was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he completed both his high school and university studies. Higgins attended Carleton University, graduating with a BA History. He also completed a Professional Sequence in international business at UC Berkeley as well as the Canadian Securities Course. He is an accredited TESOL instructor.

Higgins's career as an English instructor began in Ottawa in 2005, with 1-on-1 classes that were organized for him by the Embassy of China. After settling in Dubai in early 2007, he began instructing IELTS essay writing with the University of Wollongong in Dubai, as well as Saint Petersburg State University's Dubai chapter and the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology. Proving a popular IELTS instructor Higgins's students encouraged him to demonstrate his teaching methods online, which he did via YouTube. To date, his YouTube videos have garnered close to 2 million views.

Following a brief visit to Shanghai in 2007, Higgins decided to relocate there permanently. He took up residency and branched his career into corporate English training for 2 years. During this time, he maintained an online IELTS presence and began instructing IELTS writing courses at Shanghai University.

Since late 2009, Higgins has focused his career almost entirely on IELTS preparation. He has made signifacnt efforts to provide online students with quality instruction and has written 2 ebooks, Task 1: How to write at a 9 level and Task 2: How to write at a 9 level, which are available in soft copy from his website and in hard copy from Amazon.com. He has also start a chat website and an ESL networking website to allow international ESL students, teachers and schools find each other.