-: 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)