How ENGin Volunteer Dmytro Went From Zero Experience to Teaching English Full-Time
- ENGin Program
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
Almost two years ago, Dmytro Kniaziuk made a quiet, slightly terrifying decision: he wanted to try teaching someone English. He had no training, no formal experience, and, by his own honest admission, very little confidence. What he did have was curiosity, a willingness to try, and a classmate who mentioned a program called ENGin.
That small beginning would grow into something far larger than he ever expected.
Dmytro's First Steps as an English Tutor Volunteer
Dmytro first joined ENGin as a student, pairing with an American conversation partner to practice his own English. But it didn't take long for him to feel the pull of the other side of the table. He wanted to be the one helping someone else.
There was just one problem: he had no idea how to actually teach.
The solution came from the person closest to him. His girlfriend, Emilia Tokar, is a professional English teacher — and when Dmytro told her what he was planning, she stepped in.
"She taught me everything she knew and prepared me for this challenge," Dmytro says. "I don't think I would have started without her."
Armed with Emilia's guidance and a healthy dose of nervous energy, Dmytro accepted his first ENGin match: a student named Volodymyr, a peer from Odesa with a similar background and, as it turned out, a remarkably familiar life story.
ENGin Student-Volunteer Match That Became a Friendship
When russia's full-scale invasion began, both Dmytro and Volodymyr left Ukraine for Poland. Dmytro settled in Warsaw; Volodymyr found himself in Gdynia, a port city on the Baltic coast. They had never met, they didn't know each other existed. And yet, through ENGin's matching process, they ended up paired together — two young Ukrainians navigating displacement in the same country, separated by a few hundred kilometers and connected by a weekly video call.
"My first lesson was quite nervous," Dmytro recalls. "I wasn't sure about what and how I should do it."
But something clicked from the very beginning. Volodymyr was engaged, curious, and easy to talk with. The sessions flowed naturally, built around conversational English and topics that genuinely interested both of them.
One and a half years later, the results speak for themselves. "His skills became truly unrecognizable after this period of time," Dmytro says, with the kind of quiet pride that comes from watching someone grow. Dozens of meetings, consistent effort and a friendship that was about to cross from screen into real life.
From Weekly Video Calls to Meeting in Person
In April, Dmytro traveled to Gdynia for a youth conference and met Volodymyr in person for the first time.
It's the kind of moment that's hard to put into words: two people who had spent more than a year talking through a screen, finally sharing the same city, the same room, the same conversation face to face. What started as a weekly English session had become a real friendship, one built on shared experience, language, and the consistent presence that ENGin had made possible.
"We were finally able to meet in real life and become good friends — all because of ENGin," Dmytro says.
What Volunteering With Ukraine Taught Him About Himself
Dmytro signed up at ENGin to give something to someone else. What he didn't anticipate was how much he would receive in return.
The experience of volunteering with Ukrainian students through ENGin didn't just improve his teaching skills, it fundamentally changed what he believed he was capable of. The person who had been "not confident at all" in his abilities became, over the course of eighteen months, a working English tutor with his own paying students outside the program.
"Thanks to ENGin, I became an English tutor and have my own students outside of this program," he says. "This experience made me earn money by teaching English."
This kind of transformation, from uncertain volunteer to skilled, confident educator, is one of the less-discussed benefits of being an ENGin volunteer. The program is designed to help Ukrainian students, but the people who show up to help are changed by the process too.
How ENGin Inspired Dmytro to Launch a Free English Speaking Club
Dmytro's story didn't stop at one-on-one tutoring. Together with Emilia, he took everything they had learned from ENGin sessions, teaching, and building connections across borders, and created something new.
They called it Let's Speak: a free educational community built around speaking clubs, grammar sessions, native speaker meetups, expert webinars, and even singing clubs where members learn English through music. It's a place where people come to practice, connect, and grow — all without paying a cent.
"This community wouldn't have grown without the experience I gained thanks to ENGin," Dmytro says. "I value it a lot."
Dmytro's journey began with a single question: Could I teach someone English? He wasn't sure of the answer, but he took a chance anyway.
Today, he is an ENGin volunteer, a professional English tutor, and the co-founder of a language learning community that helps people for free. And somewhere in Gdynia, Volodymyr's English and his life look very different from what they did eighteen months ago.
None of it required a teaching degree, perfect confidence, or a detailed plan. It required showing up, once a week, for someone who needed it. That's what being an ENGin volunteer looks like.
Ready to start your own story? Sign up as a volunteer — no experience needed, just an hour a week and a willingness to connect.
ENGin is a nonprofit program that connects Ukrainian students with English-speaking volunteers for weekly online conversation practice. Learn more at enginprogram.org.
