I developed these videos as an unconventional approach to teaching Travel and Tourism English to EFL/ESL students. It's also an unconventional approach to tourism itself—hence the name Paradigmaclast. Most vacations are what I call "glass bubble tourism." I'm encouraging "full contact tourism," both for more fulfilling vacations and for a better world. Making the videos look like the work of a faraway company rather than a local teacher is part of that new paradigm in teaching. After all, people are more willing to listen to an expert than to someone who lives and works among them. As Will Rogers said, "An expert is a man 50 miles from home with a briefcase." Further, by this means, I hope to get more honest feedback from the students. As for the teaching approach using humor and surprise, I learned many years ago, people are more likely to learn and remember a lesson if it's funny, unusual, or in some other way striking. I hope I've succeeded in making these lessons entertaining, unusual, and useful.
