 I'd like to show you a couple of quotations about teachers. So this is the first, and this is the second. So the second quotation is slightly different to the first one. But what they portray are two different attitudes about teaching and teachers, or two different perceptions. And the simple fact of the matter is that the perceptions that others have of us in our daily lives and in our professional lives impact on the perceptions that we have of ourselves. And as English language teachers, because we're all in the same profession here, we probably have to look at the profession in a global context, and we have to look at the language in a global context. So let's kick off by taking a look at some statistics. English is spoken by about 1 and 3 quarter billion people worldwide now. That's one in four, approximately one third of the world population. It's the most widely taught foreign language in over 100 countries. Now the fact that Tina was just describing English being taught in China kind of serves as a testament to that. And the fact that we have quite a multicultural group here in front of us supports this. It's been projected that by next year, that number will climb to 2 billion. And given that we're supposed to have 6 billion of us in total on the planet right now, by 2050, there should be 9 billion people. If those projections remain consistent, that will be 3 billion speakers by 2050. And according to Crystal, this will happen. And because this will happen, there will be an increase in the number and quality of teacher able to teach the language. A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized everywhere. And the fact is, English is spoken on every single continent worldwide. English is the most global of languages. It's the lingua franca of business, which is the lingua franca of science, of education, of academia, of politics, technology. Chiwi showed us it's the language of entertainment, singing. It's the language of transport and safety in transport. It's the language of the media. Podcasts, for example, Christopher was talking about the fact that English is the predominant language in this genre. It's the language of finance, of economics, of sport. So let's look at where the English language teaching industry sits within these facts and figures. The English language teaching business has become one of the world's major growth industries in the past 50 years. The fact that globalization ties in with the English language teaching industry is a factor. There are many geopolitical factors and historical factors that we won't be able to get into today. But let's look at these figures. The industry is worth £6 billion per annum internationally. In the UK alone, it's worth £2 billion. And in an Irish context, the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, in 2018 pledged to grow the industry to £2.1 billion by next year. That's a lot of phrasal verbs. House and supports crystals believe that native speaker teachers are increasing demand around the world now. There are some 12 million English language teachers active worldwide. Nevertheless, this masks a shortage. We're in big demand. This quotation is what really gets to the heart of my study. Bryson wrote a book called Mother Tone, very entertaining, which strongly recommended to you. It is the Bill Bryson who wrote about his travels around the UK. And he found a quote in The Economist magazine, which stated that English language teaching is estimated to be Britain's sixth largest source of invisible earnings. And it's the word invisible that really caught my interest. Because this suggests that the industry is under the radar. Now let's go back to the figures. $2 billion in the UK, $2.1 billion in Ireland. Yet there is this incongruous invisibility to the sector. And within this sector, English language teachers have been largely voiceless and invisible. We're an invisible cohort within a broader teaching profession. What do you see in this picture? I'm walking down a lonely road. Describe him for me. Backpacker, OK. Backpacker, yeah. One of the perceptions of the English language teacher for a long, long time in core countries, the core that Angela alluded to earlier, is that that's what we are. We're primarily backpackers who use English to help us fund our travels. Now, I love traveling. And English language teaching has permitted me the opportunity to travel quite exclusively. Actually, it's been lovely. But there's more to us than that. This is my contention. And there is this kind of notion that, well, isn't it enough if you're a native English speaker that you can teach the language? You can do a weekend cert online. And it's enough to be a native English speaker. But if you play with Lego, it's probably not enough to build a house. Or if you watch the British Bake Off, don't try and bake your friend's wedding cake. You know, if you cut your doll's hair once as a kid, don't do it to your best friend. Do you see where I'm getting? It takes years to become a professional. And again, one of the heartening things for me being the last speaker up today is that I have heard all of these wonderful people talking about a profession that they are so informed about, that they clearly love. And yet this misperception seems to persist about us. And it's time maybe to address it.