‫Hi, and welcome.
‫My name is Stephane Maarek,
‫and I will be your instructor for this course.
‫I'm delighted to have you here.
‫I really hope that you enjoy this course
‫and that you will go all the way through with it.
‫This is just a two minutes introduction
‫so that you get to know me.
‫And then we'll hop it right into the course.
‫I'm French, so if you hear a small accent,
‫this is where it comes from.
‫The sweet country of France.
‫But I've also lived in the United States,
‫in Australia, in Mexico, and now in Portugal.
‫My expertise is going to be around AWS certifications
‫and Apache Kafka.
‫Why?
‫Well, because in my career, I've had the chance
‫to be a data analyst, a big data engineer, a developer,
‫and an AWS solutions architect.
‫And obviously, well, (chuckles) today, I'm a teacher.
‫I love to teach, and this is my passion.
‫And I wanna help you achieve any goal you have
‫through online learning.
‫Before we get started with this course,
‫there are two ways you can connect with me.
‫First place is on LinkedIn,
‫this is where I will share more professional updates,
‫such as news on the AWS and the Kafka ecosystem,
‫course releases, and most importantly,
‫where I will congratulate you
‫if you tag me on your course certificates.
‫So for example, if you just completed the course
‫or passed a certification, make a post and mention me.
‫And I will make sure to congratulate you.
‫I love to see my students reach their goals,
‫this is my main motivation.
‫The second way is on Instagram.
‫Instagram is a big project of mine
‫that I started over two years ago.
‫I love to travel the world
‫and I decided to meet students along the way.
‫Every time I go to a new destination,
‫I'll make a post and I will try to meet students.
‫And to date, I've already met over 25 students.
‫Anytime, I meet with students, we'll have a chat
‫about your goals, how the course helps you,
‫your achievements, your career, and then at the end,
‫I will make a post about it.
‫So if you wanna get a chance to meet me
‫or read about other students' story
‫or get more personal behind the scenes updates,
‫then follow me on Instagram.
‫Finally, before starting this course,
‫I want you to set a goal.
‫By setting a goal, you will have a much higher chance
‫of finishing this course and learning a lot.
‫So maybe you wanna finish your course
‫in three weeks, that's perfect.
‫Take a piece of paper and a pen, write your goal on it,
‫and then stick with it.
‫This is how you learn
‫and this is how you'll make the most out of this course.
‫And don't hesitate to go through the lectures
‫as many times as needed.
‫This is what video is used for.
‫If necessary, you can speed up or slow down
‫the playback speed so it becomes easier
‫for you to understand me.
‫So that's it for me.
‫I hope you will enjoy this course.
‫And I will see you in the next lecture.
‫Happy learning.
‫(upbeat music)