The Level Up English Podcast
The Level Up English Podcast
#31 Interview with Teacher Will (American vs British!)
Teacher Will - an English teacher from the US - talks with me about learning and teaching.
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Hello and welcome to the English with Michael podcast. The best place to come to study English as a second language as well as t he practice, the British accent with me. M ichael L avers as your teacher. Hello English learners. Welcome back to the English with M ichael podcast. Thank you very much. Whether this is your first time listening or maybe you're coming back after listening to all o f them, whatever the case, I'm happy you're here. Once a month I have an
Speaker 3:interview with someone. Usually they are an online English teacher, maybe that a classroom teacher or English learner. Today I'm talking with an English teacher living in Saudi Arabia and he's my first ever American guest, so he's from the USA. He has an American accent. If you want to, you can practise listening to the difference between my accent and England and his accent. It might be very good practice to hear how differently we talk. In some ways we might be similar, so my guest today is called teacher will. Now you can find him on Instagram or youtube. There's other places as well. He had so much to say today. Really, really good stuff, very motivational and really good tips for you to improve your English. So highly recommend sticking around, listening to this episode. If you want to find out more about him or see anything that we mentioned in this podcast, you can go to my website, the show notes.
Michael:So you can go to ewmicheal.com/will. That's w-i-l-l. Today, I am joined by the one and only teacher Will, so thank you very much for joining me. How are you?
:I appreciate that. Teacher Michael, I don't necessarily know if I'm the one and only no pressure, no pressure. But no, I appreciate the invitation. I really, really do.
Michael:Yeah. Thank you. Well thank you very much for joining me. Uh, I don't know so much about you, but I love your Instagram page and you've got like a really nice community on there as well. Maybe could you give us a little bit of an introduction? So tell us, uh, what you do, where you're from and all these kinds of things.
:Sure. So my name is Teacher Will. I am from America. I was born in Louisiana and basically spent most of my life in, uh, New Jersey before my family moved to Chicago. And, uh,
Will:so I'm, I'm American, I'm a native English speaker. To me that really doesn't matter with respect to learning English and perhaps we'll talk about that why later. But then back in 2011 I decided to make teaching a full time job and I did not come from the business and I'm sorry, did not come from the teaching environment. I actually was in the business world for about 20 years, mostly in sales and marketing across four different industries. And what made me go kind of full time in the teaching industry for those who are old enough to remember 2008, there was a world economic crisis. And then unfortunately I got caught in a, um, downsize. The company was downsized and I was, uh, luckily I found another job and then, then again that crisis hit. And then I was working at a financial services firm(inaudible) position. And in about 2011 I actually heard an advertisement or advertisement, depending on how you want to pronounce it, learning let's travel the world to go and get one's TESOL certification. And so I went to props out and shout out to my alumnus school, um, See English Academy with the Director Miran, Benjamin, and Deborah(I) went back and got my TESOL certification, decided that, hey, uh, learn English travel the world. And I narrowed my search down to three spots, like where I was going to do my first international assignment. One was China, the other China, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. And at the time China and just seemed so far away and I was like, oh my God, that's too far from my family. South Korea reminded me kind of like the US in terms of like values and morals and western standards. And also when I was in the states I knew a lot of, I had a lot of South Korean friends and so basically I chose Saudi Arabia really for a couple of reasons. The primarily, number one, uh, it was the job in terms of, uh, the job had the most economic benefit. It paid the salary. And so I was looking for a job. I needed money. So that was one factor. And the other factor was, is I, I really said, hey, you know what? If I'm gonna do my first international assignment, let me experience it in a completely different culture from my own. So that's basically what I, why I ended up in Saudi Arabia. And, uh, I've been here, I traveled back and forth every year or every other year to see family and friends back home. And currently right now, like when my first assignment was starting, I worked for a language school for years and now I teach English still, or a program manager for one of the leading telecommunications company here in Saudi Arabia. So that's a little bit about who I am and how I got into the world of teaching.
Michael:Perfect. Perfect. That's really good. Okay, so you basically chose the country that wasn't so far away, but very, very different to what you were used to is...
:Yes, exactly. You're exactly correct. I mean, so in comparison, I mean Chicago from Chicago to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where I am 6,942 kilometres and South Korea is further than that a nd China's further than that. And so again, I don't, you know, it was really two factors. Again, i t w as the money and, and experience, a completely different culture from Saudi. I mean, the good thing was, is that I do, I did my research on the country, the do's and don'ts, what are the cultural values, what are the taboos. U m, and so it was really interesting and I would encourage anybody, whether or not it was, whether it's Japan, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt as an example, Argentina, if you have the opportunity, I, I often times I try to convince my students o r also people that I know, friends and family that I k now as a whole, l et's listen if you have the opportunity to live in another part of the world, not vacation because I think that's very different, but actually live in a different part of the world.
Will:At least for me, it has given me a greater appreciation for, uh, the United States of America, my country, much more. I was always appreciative of it. But I think by living here and then having the ability to, you know, travel in parts of the Middle East and in other parts of Asia, it's really given me an opportunity and appreciation for things that I might've took for granted when I was home that I certainly don't take for granted here and that I appreciate it. And so, you know, one of the benefits of English as you and I both know, it's one of the, it's one of the international languages. And so, um, you know, you can learn English, travel the world, learning, let's travel, you know, learn about a different culture. And so I think again, I would encourage anybody to like, you know, live in a different culture because I think that, uh, you will appreciate, not only will you learn about a different culture, certainly idea, but I think in addition to that, you will, people have an opportunity to appreciate their own. One last point on that, it's interesting. I remember at the time before I was leaving to leave to come here and my director used to say to me, she's like, William, you can tell that, that you will tell the difference between those Americans that have travelled or live outside the country versus those that have stayed in the states most of their life. And I remember saying to Mira, I was like, what do you mean by that? And I was like, she said, you'll see. And I remember the year when I first came home, I was like, oh, after I saw my family and I started telling my friends, I actually visited Mira and I said, Mira, I got it. Cause you can just tell. And I think in terms of indicative in terms of the World view, um, in terms of what they say and how they say it. So I found that to be very interesting.
Michael:Definitely. Definitely. I completely agree. I don't know. I think, I don't know how you would define living abroad. Maybe I haven't lived abroad yet, but I think every time I go away and I come back, I always have a deeper appreciation for my home England. And also it's really nice to see that there are places in the world where are going about their lives completely differently from you. But it's still just as you know, just as good, you know, there's no different in some ways. It's really nice to see that, yeah.
:Yeah and I think to your point, teacher, I mean, I, you know, the interesting thing is is that I think, you know, there are certain similarities between cultures and that there are also differences. And I think it's, at least for me, my, my philosophy on life, both personally and also, you know, professionally as it relates in terms of, you know, the social media arena. I mean I happen to be on Instagram and Youtube and snapchat and Twitter and you know, on, I do, I try to do um, live Instagrams or I do then from time to time and one of the mottos at least that I kind of adopted was, is that we learn together. And I've noticed just in terms of videos that I might have done in terms on whether it be youtube or whether it's Instagram and you know, there are similarities.
Will:I mean, when you talk to people in America, you talk to people in London versus if you talk to people in Iran or you talk to people in China where some of my followers are, or Saudi Arabia, even where some of my learners are, there are certain, there are similarities and yet there's still differences. And so one of the models that I came up with is that we learn together and a lot of people, I think a lot of my learners, I don't like to call them followers, I call them learners or extended family. I don't know how they feel about that. But with that being said, um, I think we do, or at least I have, because I think what's important is, is that oftentimes, at least from my own perspective, I think, you know, how does one understand someone else unless you understand the similarities and the differences and oftentimes differences can be a point of contention. But I think it comes in terms of, you know, if a person is, you're actually willing to listen from a point, a point of, excuse me, a point of understanding versus a point of judgment. And so I really try to stress that to my learners. I was like, listen, you can respect your country, your value, your culture, whatever it is, but recognise and realise that everybody does not think like you do. You might want them to, but they do. How is that...and Interestingly enough, how is that really applicable to English? Because obviously I'm at least, obviously to me we say that English is an international global language, which, which it is. Yet the way that English is perceived in different countries, in different cultures is vastly different. And so as teachers I think, and in addition to that also as learners, I think it's important to know- note that, hey, what's the perception of English in your country? Because there are some people in some cultures that view it very positively and there are others that view it possibly negatively because of societal cultural pressures. And so hopefully that's made me a more effective teacher. And when I say that, and hopefully the learners have gotten something from that. And I've actually been lucky because when I've done live Instagrams, there were times that, you know, people from different cultures or different systems didn't know each other or different religions didn't know each other or, or different denominations or sex within itself didn't know each other. And so it gives them an avenue. And so if therefore people are kind of like, they have their prejudices or biases and like, listen, this is a, this is a, they sometimes laugh at me, I'm like, listen, this is an English call. You know, this is a place of love. This is a place of understanding you got problem with somebody because they're this, this, this, this and my learners laugh at me now I'm just kinda like save the drama for your Mama.
Michael:That's nice. That's nice so you've tied in this like world philosophy with English as well. And I completely agree. I think there are some things that are basically universal. Like I've kind of learned that regardless of your culture, you know, everyone kind of wants to be happy, everyone wants to be loved, everyone wants these same things. And um, yeah, I guess when you're learning English as well, there's another thing that people have in common. Your, what did you see your family or what uh,
:I call them the learners or extended family.
Michael:Ah, Learners or extended family. Yeah. So they've all got that same thing in common. They're all learning, trying to get to the same goal. And that's something else as well. That's nice.
:Exactly. And I do think, you know, it's interesting because I do think that, you know, part of my teaching philosophy, if I do have one, is it's kind of like, Hey, I'm, for me at least,
Will:this is just my perspective. English to me is a language. Yes, obviously, but it's a culture. It's a way of life. It's a, it's a thought pattern. It's a sense of a commonality where individuals from all over the world can sit back and communicate in a common tongue does not mean that one does not negate their native language, but it's all of that. If I'm learning English, I'm learning about culture, I'm learning about perspective, I'm learning about politics, I'm learning about economics, I'm learning about viewpoints different from my own. And so I hope, at least in terms of the stuff that I've done on social media, whether it's Instagram or youtube, people think of that. And again, that philosophy is one of, you know, you know, think, you know, think globally, act locally, um, with respect to, you know, so that's one philosophy that I have in teaching. In terms of if you asked me the question, um, how I would describe myself or my teaching style or teaching philosophy, uh, it is communicative. It's the communicative approach does not mean that I don't have understandings in terms of, you know, the traditional grammar approach or the lingual approach and obviously you and I know the different approaches, but when I received my TESOL certification, it was a communicative approach making English relative to one's a life. Um, and so for me, I think the reason why I liked that approach so much is because it's relative. Um, I would, you know, you would have to ask my learners or whether they're on Instagram and, or the face to face students I have, how they would describe my, my philosophy, but I hope they would say fun. Um, I encourage communication. I encourage them to be teachers. You know, I, I have no desire to be a traditional teacher. Why is that? I'm not knocking that. That's not my philosophy. Why is that? Because I knew how to speak a foreign language. So for me it's kind of like, I try to think about when I was learning French, I tried to think about while even now while teaching after what, eight years or something, what is it William teacher Will, do you remember what it is to be a student? Because of my mind, I classified what I thought was a good teacher, what, what, what was his or her particular characteristics and then contrast that with respect to what did I think goes a bad teacher, what were they not doing? And so hopefully again, fun, communicative, engaging, asking questions, challenging. And that approach might not be familiar to everybody. And that approach might not be normal because if you're in some parts of the world, you know, teachers are glorified more so than other parts of the world or you doing question the teacher. And I understand that that's just not necessarily my philosophy as much as I'm a teacher. I'm also a student. ie. Tying back to earlier, the aforementioned point where we all learned together.
Michael:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think, I think that's important to put yourself in the shoes of a student too. And be a student as you said. Yeah. So did you say you're learning French or you've learnt French?
:No I've actually learned French. So I, um, years ago I spoke French and so my next two languages I'm desiring to learn is Spanish and then Arabic, I mean I understand Arabic in a broken way. Most of the Arabic that I absorbed was because I'm here, but I've never taken an official Arabic class with the exception of
Will:teacher Nora. And then- shoutout the teacher, Nora, she's there. One of my learners who is an artist and a teacher herself. Um, and so she offered one day to teach me Arabic and I was doing well and then I just got busy. So I have to, I have to recommit myself to that, which I think goes to a point going back to English, but I don't know, I'll digress, but let me just say it this much. You know, sometimes I think when learning the language, you have to ask yourself are not only a language but um, what not, whether it's a language and or something that you want to do in a live. One of my, I guess acronyms that I've kind of say, um, I related to English, but I also relate it to life, and it's kind of like, you know, what's the reason? What's your, what's your reason for learning English? What do you wanna do it? What's your reason? What's your purpose? And so, particularly if it people are adults, um, I don't know about other people, but I know I have other responsibilities just besides learning a language. And so I kinda try to remind my learners and even my students face to face, I'm like, listen, it the key, cause oftentimes I'm sure you and I get this teacher Michael"What's the key to learning English. How can I be successful?" And I kind of have, I kind of created an acronym called the G triple P. Uh, you have a goal. What's your purpose? What's your reason for learning English? And the reasons are varied. And what I think is important in addition to that is it, it has to be a personal reason, not, you know, what is your reason not your Mama, not you know, not what your mom, while your Mama wants you or your dad or your husband, your girlfriend, your partner, whatever. What is your specific goal or purpose of learning English? Is it just to communicate? Is it to play playstation? Is it for immigration purposes? Is it for professional purposes? What is your specific goal? And then after you have a goal, you have a plan. What are the steps? What are the necessary actions that one needs to do or you don't like a plan? Think about a map. How you get from point a to B. The other p stands for prayer. I'm a spiritual person. I believe in God. If you don't believe in God, that's your business. So if you don't believe in prayer, call it belief in yourself and then you produce. So it's a goal plan, pray and produce. I think that's very applicable, at least to my life. And certainly I think it's applicable to English because oftentimes people say, I want to learn English. I have a dream to learn English. I have a wish to learn English. Well, listen, you can add, well, let me make an I statement. I can dream all I want. I can dream to be one of the best teachers out there. I can dream to be a good influencer on social media. I could dream to move to another country. Well, you know what? A dream without a plan for me is just a wish. So I, you know, I try to tell that to, to, to learners and stuff and you know, it's kind of like, look, you dream too. If you dream to be a fluent speaker- great! You're dreaming. What are your plans? Because a dream without a dream, without a plan. To me it's just a wish.
Michael:Definitely, definitely. Yeah. So you've got GPP, right?
:Yup G triple P.
Michael:Goal, plan, pray, produce.
:Yes sir.
Michael:Really good. I like that. I like that. I might write that up. Um, when I post this podcast. That's great.
:That's the beautiful thing we learn together. I didn't copyright it so there it is.
Michael:I'll, I'll, I'll link you to it as well.
:Thank you, I appreciate that.
Michael:That's nice. Yeah. I think that's so true because people can, they can aspire to be anything, whether it's like, uh, an artist or a writer or any kind of job or any desire to learn a language, but that will only get you so far. You have to think about, you have to put the work in and actually produce as well.
Will:You said the optimal word teacher Michael, you have to work, you have to work. I don't know, you know, I mean, it would be nice if there was a pill that one could take or a drink that one can drink to, you know, learn English or accomplish your English goals. There's not, there is no, you have to work, you have to put the work in. Does that mean that you know, I mean, again, I'll relate to French. It's kind of like, okay, I was speaking French.( French words lol). Right. So, uh, were there times that I was frustrated? Yes. Was there times that I did not want to study? Yes. Was there time that I was not motivated? Yes. Were there times that I had other responsibilities? Yes. That's okay. Yet what it goes back to what's your goal? What's your purpose? So, and you have to put the work in. Um, and I think one of the things at least that at least when individuals and learners have asked me like what are the steps? What can I do? You know, obviously the GPP. I think the key, at least from my perspective, and you know, there are a lot of different keys, but I think two words that come to my mind that I've often shared with learners is, um, listen, you have to have confidence. You have to have confidence, belief, trust, credence in yourself. I recently did a video on that- on competence because a lot of the learners were asking me, so it's like, you know, if anybody has youtube, go to Ask_teacherwill underscore teacher will look at the video and competence. England's or what do I say? That half. The key I believe to learning a language is competence and belief and trust in yourself. Not worrying about what other people might think about you, not doubting yourself. It's confidence and the other is a mind... Is the proper mindset, a positive mindset. Now I think with those two things, at least in my own life, those are the two key things because oftentimes what happens is people will sit back and say, I can't. They beat themselves down. I can't speak. I'm shy. Where is your confidence? Because then you convince yourself that, oh, you're not going to do it. I'm shy. I'm fearful. I understand that. I've had fear in my life. I've been shot in my life, yet with competence, one decides they are they not me, not you, teacher Michael. They will make the decision. You might get inspired by teacher Michael by listening to his podcast by and wow, he's really inspired you. You're learning really great information. Yet if you don't have that belief in yourself, it does not matter in my humble opinion. And then I just, the last one I would say would be mindset. The proper mindset. It's surprising to me. It... I challenged one of my learners one time I had a class and this was when I was at the language school and I had a class and I was like, write down all the things that you think about yourself as it relates to English positive and negative. And it was very interesting to me where most of my students, not all, but the majority of my students wrote negative things about themselves and I was like, I can't learn this. I'm dumb, I'm stupid. I didn't remember this word. I messed up and I just asked the question, now that's one of my philosophies. I'd like to ask a lot of questions cause I don't, you know, we're teachers, you know TTT, your teacher taught time, encourage student teaching or student talking. And I just said to myself, I was like, well if you're walking around here saying you can't, well I made a video on it. You are what you think? Because if a person keeps saying to his or herself, I can't, I'm dumb, I'm stupid. Then they will convince themselves that is a neurological chemical reaction. So learning the language is confidence and mindset. That does not, it does not exclude practicing immersion, but I think those two things, that's kind of like the foundation, at least in my opinion.
Michael:Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So what you think yourself on a daily basis, that becomes who you are, doesn't it? It really does over time.
:Exactly. You become your reality. I did a video on youtube or what you think. Somebody asked me, one of the learners asked me a question. I was like, oh, teacher Will. I'm so negative.
Will:And actually I created that video. I called it, uh, you are what you think. And then I followed it up by TIE and they were like, ty, what's TIE think in English. They were like what? I was like, yeah, we'll tie. Why don't you tie, let's tie think in English teacher. We're like, can't. There was nobody, there was nobody in my country. Nobody in my city to speak English with really? Well, Luckily we live in the digital age. Luckily we most people not all have access to the Internet and social media. 25 what? 20 something over 25 years ago I learned French was there youtube, Instagram, snapchat podcast? No. So I, you know, thinking in English things that you can do, being proactive, being proactive, being accountable for your learning and not necessarily, you know, being accountable for your English and not necessarily waiting for someone to give you the answers. My job is a teacher, but I remember I asked you that I'm a teacher, great, but what for me in my role of a teacher, because I said this in class one day, I was like, do you mind teaching? Teach me. I was like, really? I said, well, I said, but isn't education isn't learning a symbiotic, symbiotic relationship between the student and the teacher. And if you decide that you, you, you don't practice, you decide that you don't want to speak, you decide that you don't do your homework. You decide that when you, you know that, hey, you don't want to read. Can I teach someone that's not going that, that has no desire to be told or doesn't want to learn anything, and they looked at me like I had like five heads maybe I did at the time. Right? And I was like, listen, that might be my official title, my own personal perspective. My goal as a teacher is to motivate you and empower you to help you accomplish your English goals.
Michael:Yeah, I like that philosophy.
:And that is my job.
Michael:Maybe it's not all about just giving knowledge to people. That's not necessarily the whole idea it's about inspiring and motivating and...
:Exactly, it's about that person feeling the internal inspiration or the internal motivation does not mean that. Let me use myself as an example. How have I been motivated by other people in my life? Yes. Have I been inspired by other people in my life? Yes, and I'm grateful to God about that. Yet. Where is the internal motivation? I said on a live Instagram one time I said, Oh, if I stop doing live Instagram, I was joking. It was: no Teacher Will you inspire us, you motivate us. I said, well, God, if I die tomorrow, what are you going to do? Happy. You will cry and be upset. And the other half of you will be like, well good. I don't have to listen to a stupid voice anymore. Or going savage. And then what? Motivate yourself. Empower Yourself, be accountable yourself with all of the different resources out there.
Michael:And yeah, going back to what you said before, um, I think being a language learner yourself, it's very, very useful when it comes to teaching. You know, when I'm planning my lesson or when I'm doing something like that, I'm always thinking about, I'm always basically everything that I make to help people is kind of what I think would help me if I was learning English, using my own experience, learning languages. I kind of used that to, to put into it. So that's a really good, really good mindset to have.
Will:Thank you. And I think it's interesting because I think a lot of times what happens is people make an assumption, assumption learners, let's learn that word. I'm sorry, I don't mean to call your learners learners teaching Michael. I'm Sorry.
Michael:Well they're also learners!
:But let's, let's, let's talk about that word briefly about assumptions. Assumption. A. S. S, U. M P. T. I. O. N. Take the first three words... The first three letters of that word. Listen, I think at least what has happened to me that people assume that because I'm a native speaker that I don't speak another language and so they, therefore, oh, teacher will you don't know when you don't know you're a native English speaker. Really? Okay, well don't assume, don't make a derrière you. Ignore me. Right. So therefore I think it goes to your, your point teacher, Michael. It's kind of like, yes, I try to relate to my own experience and then others that because I, in my mind I was kind of like I, you know, my students were like, teacher, why do we have to talk?
Will:I was like, well you want to speak right? How else are you going to speak unless you use the language for my higher learners up from like when they're like upper, when they're up intermediate, I start having them teach. They do a teacher, break them up in groups. I do game nights. Why? Because again, confidence mindset and you're actually utilizing the language. If you have a learner are out there or anybody listening to this podcast, if you want to improve your confidence, you want to improve your speaking, you want to improve your vocabulary, teach someone either at your level or particularly, I would recommend someone lower than you. Why? Because it forces you to use your active knowledge of English along with your passive knowledge of English. It forces you to sit back and then say, okay, if I do, for example, if I don't know what the word loquacious means, loquacious meaning, a garrulous or very talkative. Now someone who's just learning the language, they might not know that word, but then how do you, how the beauty of becoming a teacher and teaching someone else's, you have to be able to explain it to the person at their level and then you have many things at your disposal, synonyms, sentences, context, story, pictures. And so that's for
:me as one of the techniques that I use particularly, you know I, I really focus on when they're the higher learners, but even so when they're beginner learners, a lot of repetition. Simon says colours everything because again, it's building, it's buil... In my humble opinion, it's building confidence. It's inspiring themselves.
Michael:Yeah. Yeah. I think, what was it Einstein said? I think it was Einstein where he said you don't really understand something until you can explain it to your grandma. It's kind of like explain it to someone who maybe doesn't understand very well. You'll kind of dumb it down, you'll make it simple and you will understand it better yourself. Right.
:Perfect example. I love how you said that. Make it simple. There was one time, there was an I, I do this all the time. Well not all the time, but most of the time when I'm in class I've asked the students, I'm like, what's, what's this referring to a chair? And they're like, what's that? A chair? What's a chair? A chair. Well, you're telling me what it is. Are you explaining it to me? Dumb it down or I'll say make, I shouldn't say dumb it down, but I have, so let me be honest.
Will:That's an area of development yet I've said make it simple. If I'm your son and you're five years old, I don't know, I don't, or three. I don't know what that is, but if you tell me it's something that I sit in, I don't know. So it's kind of like I have a thing. Um, you know, one plus one equals total English for example. I that, that I did that in class one day and I actually did a live Instagram in class and the students loved it, but I said one plus one equals total English. They were like, teacher, well, what do you mean? Well, one day we were talking about the ing in the present continuous for example. And I was like, oh, I'm eating, um, you know, I'm drinking water. He's sitting in a chair. I was like, what does that mean? At that time They were like present, continuous. I was like, what? They're like present continuous. I was like, I don't know what that means. I was like, what does that mean? And they were like present, continuous. I was like, you know, one plus one equals total English. So you can tell me what present continuous means. For example, a verb tense or you can, you can tell me what you know, a vocabulary word is or what an idiomatic expression is or, or a a conditional statement. And for example, right. Oh, if I had gone to America, I would have seen my family. Great. So that's the one, right? So the one is whatever it is. And then the concept. The other one is the explanation and you can explain it to your point, teacher Michael, simple stories, pictures, whatever the learner has at his or her disposal. So one is the, one is the target language, as we would say. Plus. The other one is the explanation equals... Equals total English. And so my point to learners, at least my learners that were with me face to face and hopefully learners listening to the podcast, a way to improve your English, whatever it is, is hopefully that might be of help to you. One plus one equals total English. Whatever you're learning in English, that's the, the, the target language or your subject, explain it. And then if you explain it, you have a holistic picture of that. So for those individuals that asked with respect to vocabulary, oh, how can I learn the vocabulary? How do I remember it? Well, what's the vocabulary word for example? Then explain it. Synonyms to find it, using them in a sentence. So it gives you a holistic perspective. Then in terms of just saying, oh that's a chair or that's present perfect. At least that's my approach.
Michael:Yeah, break it down, break it down,
:break it down, break it down.
Michael:Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanna ask you a question now this is a question that I ask. I've asked all the guests in the past, we can kind of become like a tradition now. Okay. I want to know if you've had any language, like embarrassing moments or you've made any kind of funny mistakes.
Will:While teaching?
Michael:When you've been learning French may be your Arabic or anything like that that you can think of. But if not that's fine.
Will:Oh yeah. Okay. Let me give you two. I'll give you one new teaching. Cause it came to mind when I, um, when I was learning French, I said a bad word in French because I pronounced it wrong.
Michael:Is it possible to hint at what the word was or is it too bad?
Will:it's a woman's body part, which I said I didn't, I was like, oh my God, I said the wrong word. Oh, what kind of reaction did that get? The everybody was like, ish, sorry. That's Arabic. They were like" what?" And they started laughing, you know, cause I was um, the funny teaching moment cause it came to my mind just came to my mind. Um, one time I was teaching class, um, at the current employer that I'm at right now. And um, my, uh, my pants split in class and I didn't realize that it did like literally the back of my pants split in class. And I was really, you know, I was into the lesson, things of that nature. And they were like, teacher teacher. I was like, what? What, let me just fit a blood. Right. And they were like, no, teacher teacher, uh, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah. And I, and I was like, oh. So I was really embarrassed. I didn't take my shirt off and it wasn't a small, it was like a major from top to bottom. I was like,
Michael:Cartoon style!
Will:William, time to go to the gym, blow up, like swim, cardio, whatever. I mean it split. I was like, oh my goodness.
Michael:Oh so embarrassing, so embarrassing. But at least it wasn't the British pants, you know, cause there is that difference, isn't there? There's pants as you say is trousers for me, isn't it?
Will:Yes, exactly. Good point. Yeah. And that actually, you know, I have had the chance to go to Britain. So, um, I'm not trying to be prejudice. I have big legs, so if I'm black, so it's genetic. May I can't wear, I have to wear baggy pants cause you know the, I remember there was a suit one time I loved and it was like small cut. I was like, why did they make, I remember saying this and I was like, they don't make clothes from me. I'm like, I'm not generalizing, but I'm like, I'm black. I have a big legs. I had a big butt. I'm not saying, well, I'm not generalizing folks. I'm talking about me. So I was like, oh, so yes, Britain, British trousers, I'll can't, I can't, or British, I can't.
Michael:I can't do it. Oh, interesting interesting. I like, I like those stories a lot. I do love to talk about these kinds of mishaps in situations because it just shows people that it's not a big deal. If you do mess up, you can laugh at yourself and you can learn from it and move on. And that's part of the fun of learning.
Will:Exactly. Exactly. I, you know, I have two mottoes that I say. It's like, um, I think, you know, when I'm doing live Instagrams or even when I'm teaching my students face to face, I'm like, people listen. I'm like, English is your second language, right? It's not your native language. They're like: yes teacher, yes! I'm like, it's okay to make a mistake. I'm like, wow. Because I think depending on where people live or whatever, at least students that I've taught that I've taught, oh my God, I made a mistake. I'm like, what? It's not your native language. It's okay to make a mistake. You made a mistake in Arabic. You just don't remember. You made a mistake in Tagalog you don't remember French Spanish, Portug.... You made mistakes. You don't remember. Yeah, so if you make mistakes in your native language, I was like, do you make, did you make mistakes in your native language? They're like, yes, teacher. I'm like, the why is English any different? They're like, Huh? I was like, yeah. Yeah. If you made a mistake in your native language, why do you think English is any different when their foreign language skills that are universal because people I think don't think of that and I'm like, so number one, it's okay to make a mistake to your point, Teacher Michael, that's how you learn. You learn by it. Hopefully we learn. The second point I try to say is it's like I don't believe personally this practice makes perfect bologna! For me. We're both native speakers. For me, I don't believe in that because I think sometimes perfection slows and stumps students' learning down. They strive to be perfect. Instead of being fluent. They strive to be perfect and being a sense of perfect prevents them sometimes from engaging in the language. So instead of, for me, I don't say practice makes perfect. I say, practice makes progress or practice makes better. I'm a native English speaker that makes me know better than anyone else. With that being said, how many mistakes have I made on here on this podcast, Ladies and gentlemen? How many just count them up, go back and counting them, right? I mean, I don't know, teacher Michael will do that. It's like it will save the Pi's like, oh my goodness, he said this. He said that. So realize that no language is perfect, not even your native language. So I don't practice makes progress. Practice makes better with consistency and practice and confidence and mindset. You will get better, but stop. For those of you that are respectfully, there's a difference between trying to be very competitive with yourself and you have a strong motivation to learn versus being perfect and hindering you or preventing you from learning. So I don't, I don't use it. I say practice makes progress or practice makes better.
Michael:Yes, definitely. That's good. That's good. I think, um, in many cases that desire to be perfect often... well, if you're always desiring to be perfect, you'll probably spend your whole life miserable because you'll never get that. Think about the progress and not the perfection.
Will:Exactly. Notice that different accent learners between progress and progress. Did you catch that? That's accent, but we're both fluent. I'm sorry I shouldn't go into fluent.
Michael:I didn't even catch that. That was good. So what did I say? Progress. And you said,
Will:Yeah you said progress and I said progress.
Michael:Interesting. Progress. Progress. Yes. Interesting. I think earlier you mentioned another one, which I think is a difference between us. I would say... What would I say? Advertisement.
Will:Yes. And I.. right right and most Americans say advertisement.
Michael:Yeah. Lots of tiny differences that people don't. People don't, uh, realise sometimes,
Will:And I think teacher Michael, the thing that I would say at least encourage...., notice there are different, here's what I want to say very quickly on this: notice learners, there are different accents. Every language has an accent, advertisement, advertisement, water, water, right? But yet what, But what I focus on at least is fluency. We were both fluent in the language. And the only thing I'm going to say on that, because my learners get mad at me when I say I want to sound like a native, I want to sound like a native. I want to sound like a Brit. I want to sound like an American. I'm like, okay, I'm growing into this point yet very quickly. If you have a desire to sound like a native British or American, then you can do that. You would need to immerse yourself in the language in that particular accent, by movies, by shadowing, by, you know, news. Right? What I would encourage people to do is that should, in my humble opinion, that should not be your first goal. That should not be your first step. Your first step, humbly and respectfully is, is that you learn to be fluent. The goal of a language is to be understood. So you become fluent. And the learner today sent me a message on Instagram and said, oh, teacher Will, I like your accent. And I remember replying to the person and said, oh, thank you so much. What I, have you ever thought about liking my pronunciation? Liking my fluency? So again, particularly if you're learning in a language first focus on your fluency or how to pronounciate or annunciate your words because accent is part of who you are. Accent is part of your identity. It's interesting if we say that, that last point Teacher Michael, I'm sorry. Um, it's interesting that we say that English is a global international language, yet a large percentage of people not right, not wrong, because it's supported by the ESL industry. It's supported by certain teachers. Oh, I need to sound like an American. I need to sound like a Brit. Well, if English is a global international language, do you want everybody to sound like me? That would be boring. And yet there are some people that to do it and yet they focus so much on accent to try to sound like teacher Michael with the.... as a Brit or the south or half an American accent that it is impeding them to learning the language and becoming fluent. So please just at least- I'm crazy- but at least think about one's fluency and pronunciation and intonation and comfortability with the language before you try to sound like somebody that you don't have to be. You can aspire to be with it, but there's nothing out there saying that you have to sound like teacher Michael or sound like Teacher Will. Sound yourself. Be Authentic. Be fluent, be confident. I will shut up teacher Michale. I'm sorry.
Michael:No, no, no, That's great. That's really fantastic. You can talk forever if you want to.
Will:No I can't talk forever no.
Michael:That's really good. I always say the same thing as well. If you focus on fluency, accent will come. It will develop over time. And Yeah, I think the world would be very boring if everyone had the same accent.
Will:But isn't it interesting, isn't it interesting teacher Michael? Oh, but maybe not some of your students and some of your learners. I have a lot of people say that on a live on some of my own students face to face that I've had over the years. I'm like why?
Michael:Yeah, it's a very common thing. I'll always give my advice on how you can improve and practice, but I'll always give it like a disclaimer as well that it's maybe not the most important thing to focus on.
Will:Exactly. It's not mandatory. It's a step that you can do, but it's not mandatory. And then we have, and then we have people are an industry that support, oh sound like... By the way. Public Service announcement. You can not, I'm going to relate it to French and if anybody's out there telling you that you can learn Lang, if you can learn English in 30 days, three weeks, Bologna. I can't see what I want to say because I'm on a podcast. So think of Bologna and make that word stronger. Bologna! Learn English in 30 days. Really? Did you learn your native language in Arabic? I'm sorry, not Arabic. Did you learn Arabic as an example? Did you learn your native language in 30 days? No. Fluency is a lifelong process teacher. Michael and I are native English speakers and we become fluent. It's lifelong words are added to the dictionary 30 years ago with there, the word Google? No! Fluency is a lifelong process. There is a difference between fluency, which is lifelong and proficiency based on the four language skills, listening, reading, speaking and writing. There's a difference. So fluency is something that you continue throughout the rest of your life. Think of your native language proficiency is different. It's things that you're able to communicate based or understand, comprehend, or do. They stay on those four language skills and as a result of that, you know you become more proficient but fluency, it's a lifelong process.
Michael:Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's a, it's a long term thing. It's not something that happens overnight. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well before we say goodbye today, I want to ask you is anything else you want to say? Like is there any where people can find out more about you? Is there any way you want to direct people that are listening to this podcast?
Will:Okay, well first before, let me say that a um, I want to thank you for the opportunity to have having me and invited me to your podcast. I hope that I was able to share or whatever I shared that it would add value. It would be of service. Um, and in terms of if anyone wants to check out my information, I am on, snapchat, Instagram, youtube and Twitter, mostly Instagram and youtube. I would encourage people to go, uh, for all of those particular, uh, social media that I gave you. It's ask_teacherwill. So that's ask_teacherwill on Instagram, youtube, snapchat and Twitter. Um, check out the information. It's uh, it's available. It's there for free. I would encourage you to check out teacher Michael's information and the content there for you learners is free. So if you want to check me out there, um, I am by all means do make a comment, subscribe, click notification. Social media is a wonderful thing. Um, and I just want to end by saying very quickly the reason why I got on social media, I would need to thank um, four uh, four individuals that I call the core. They were the reason why they got on. I got on social media. Uh, cause I thought I was too old and I thought I was too stupid negative affirmation about myself and they really begged me to get on and begged me and I said, you know, so shout out to those four individuals you knew who if you are in there listening to them. And um, again, my goal was social media is to be of service and change the face of English because I think that representation is extremely important. So if you like that, ask_teacherwill. And again, teacher Michael, I really, really appreciate it. I think this is like my second podcast ever. So I hope. I hope I was somewhat knowledgeable and I hope I gave your learners and students something to think about.
Michael:Yeah, the pleasure has been all mine. I'm sure my students are very motivated and fired up after hearing you talk.
Will:Thank you. I hope, they're probably like he talked too long. He's stupid. He didn't make any sense.
Michael:No, it was perfect. It's perfect. Thank you very much.
Will:Thank you. So I just want to say a big thank you to teach a will for joining me today. It was a lot of fun to chat with him. As I said at the beginning, if you want to find out more, you can go to my website, ewmichael. com/will and on that page you will find the transcript so you can read what we're saying while we're saying it and you will find everything he mentioned, his social media, youtube videos, anywhere that you can connect with will. Oh for now. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you very much for listening to today's episode and I will see you next week on the podcast. Bye Bye.
Michael:You have been listening to the English with Michael Podcast to view the podcast notes for this episode and to listen to previous episodes. Head over to ewmicheal.com/podcast
