What English Teachers Want Their Students To Know English With Tiffani

hey today i have a special video just

for you

i actually had a conversation last year

with one of my good friends

his name is johnny he’s an amazing

english teacher

and we met as english teachers while

living in south

korea now johnny is still living in

south korea he actually

is married to a wonderful woman and he’s

such a great guy he’s so passionate

about what he does so i know that you

are going to enjoy our conversation and

learn a lot

but i do want you to interact all you

have to do is as you listen to our

conversation i want you to pick

one tip because johnny gives so many

tips

that will be helpful for you as an

english learner

pick one tip and in the comment section

just say hey

i really liked this tip that johnny gave

and then write the tip write what he

said now

i’m gonna pick one winner from those

comments

and because cambly sponsors today’s

video

as a sponsor they’re willing to give one

student a

60 minute tutoring session that’s right

totally for free for one winner now for

those of you who don’t win

don’t worry cambly still has some

special discounts for you

and you’ll find them right below the

video so cambly thank you so much for

sponsoring this video

are you guys ready to listen to and

watch the conversation i had with johnny

you are well then i’m teacher tiffany

let’s jump right in

[Music]

all right hey johnny thank you so much

for joining us how are you doing man

i’m good right now i mean i’m a little

bit tired it’s the end of the day and

i’m a little old so this is about my

bedtime

right i know like for those that don’t

know he’s in korea and right now it’s

about 9 30

in the evening right yeah so 9 30

evening

plus 33 years old equals like

this is time when it’s time to wind down

exactly

i totally understand i’m the same way my

bedtime is 9 p.m

i do not go to bed late so i totally get

all right okay johnny so we’re going to

get started but

so i know you but i know students are

very curious to know

kind of your story who you are like can

you just give us a general idea of

who you are tell us who johnny is that

has a deep

question oh well it’s just everything

well my name is johnny obviously okay

i’m from san diego california

um i’ve been living and working in korea

as an english teacher for about

five years now um

a big life event actually i just

recently got married yes

congratulations thank you thank you i

just got married about

oh man it’s been over a month now yeah

yeah so just been that’s been the new

development in my life just

getting adjusted with that other than

that just um i’m also a pastor

at a international church out here in

korea so i also do that

i wear many hats right now um so that’s

why

uh early bedtime is the name of the game

yes

as far as me personally what i like um

i’m a big fan of music

i’m a massive fan of baseball and i am a

i don’t think people understand i’m a

foodie but i know everyone says they’re

foodie but when i say i mean i’m a

foodie i mean

i love food all kinds of food

yes yes i remember us having

conversations

back in korea about avocados oh

yes this is it’s it’s really true like

out here like avocados like it’s like

it’s such a hot commodity because

they’re so expensive like i feel like

i’m buying something exotic

like right i don’t know i don’t know

what’s going on with the five dollar

avocados in korea but

we don’t have that in california because

back in cali

y’all have avocados for like a dollar or

less right

oh my goodness avocados you can get

probably like two avocados for a dollar

oh wow like if if at any point at any

point in california

they put avocados for five dollars

people would riot

they would buy it in the streets and

like for example like

my friend actually owns an avocado farm

her family

uh runs avocado farm so like she used to

trade me sometimes so like she would

like oh

like i need a hiking partner or i need

somebody to help me do this like i’ll

give you some avocados and she’ll just

give me like a bunch of avocados so like

out there because they’re so much easier

to find and there’s so many

farms and resources like they’re cheaper

so that drives the price down but i

think out here it’s not as common

they’re not as in demand so the price

goes up yeah

yeah that makes sense yeah it was nice

coming back home

and i’m in i’m in maryland so i’m on the

east coast but

like my family loves mexican food so my

mom cooks it really well like i was born

in arizona for those that don’t know i

was born in arizona so

this was surrounded yeah we’re like

surrounded by other mexican people so my

the mexicans taught my mom how to cook

mexican food

oh yeah so now she cooks it

yes so it’s really good so yeah so

avocados are a really big part of our

diet too so we love guacamole

everything so it’s yeah i like i my

my mom one time is a funny story like i

one time i i told her

and like

it’s a story with mexican moms so

mexican mom you can’t just tell them one

thing and they can’t like just go

overboard

so like i told her i was missing mexican

food now i told her i was missing

mexican food but in her ear she heard

he’s starving he hasn’t eaten in three

months so she sent me like two

big fema packages when i mean fema

these things were like 75 pounds each i

don’t know how many kgs

oh yeah they were like 75 pounds each

and inside were beans masa mix

a cast iron tortilla press

for people who don’t know what molcajete

is that’s what in english you’re a

mortar and pestle

and it’s but the mexican one is made out

of pure

rock like wow wow

yeah and i’m not even going to tell you

how much she spent to ship it she

wouldn’t tell me but i found out through

my dad but

oh my god 25 pounds

that’s how it tells you how much i love

mexican food and how much i love food

and how much i love my family and my mom

loves me clearly but

yes you got to thank the lord for

parents and moms coming through

okay all right guys we got on the topic

of food and it’s so easy to talk about

that because i also love cooking

but um okay let me go back to the next

question then because the students are

probably curious

why did you become an english teacher

and how long now i know you’ve been in

korea for five years but why did you

become an english teacher

and i guess how long if it’s been five

years you can leave it there but

why did you become that’s that’s a

really good question because you’re

honest a funny story in college

all my friends would laugh at me because

the one thing the two things i said i

would never be

i said i never wanted to be a preacher i

never wanted to be a teacher

and i’m now i’m both i’m not even

kidding you

i said that verbatim i remember i

remember i said i never want to be a

preacher

i never want to be a teacher and now wow

but

honestly my first time teaching was i

went to africa and i volunteered an

orphanage in kenya

and as a part of that volunteership i

got to teach some of the older kids

english

and i don’t know i kind of really

started to like it a little bit

like it was different than like teaching

kids in america i didn’t want to do that

but teaching kids who like didn’t know

it and who had such a desire to learn

and then you see them like catch on and

learn something and like grow it was

i was like oh i kind of like this but um

then uh

i didn’t teach again for probably

another like five six years and then

um i was actually working as a manager

at a five-star hotel

in san diego and i was working crazy i

was like 80 hours a week

and i was getting paid a lot of money

but like honestly like my life was

super empty and like my spiritual life

and walk with god was just

it was just dry and i was just

i like life to me didn’t seem like

fulfilled it didn’t seem like oh man

this is not

like it has to be something more than

this so you know just through a lot of

prayer and everything and i felt god

would just tell me like you need to go

like you need to go somewhere far for

those of you you don’t know in the bible

there’s a character

named abraham and abraham and god told

abraham to go

and say where he just said to go so i

felt that kind of same push and um

actually it was between china and korea

and

kind of i don’t know how how that worked

out but somehow something amy was like

ah china’s not really the right fit

mainly because that air the pollution

pollution i have a lot of breathing a

lot of breathing problems so korea was

you know they have yellow dust but it’s

like not as bad

right um and so i ended up coming here

and i remember when i first came here it

was real rough

like just i i i had traveled many places

i’m well traveled

but i’ve never lived anywhere outside of

california

so going from living in uh california

all my life to korea if you

you know is like black and

black and white day and night it is

completely

opposite so i i came to live here and um

those first few years are rough but they

proved really vital and just kind of

um just my walk with god but also my

development as a person

in my maturity and um soon i

i i was i don’t think i was a very good

english teacher at first i think those

kids were really

patient with me but then i when i

started to be open to

to learn myself and to develop as a

teacher

that’s when things really started to

catch fire and i started to become

better i started to become more

interested in it

i started trying to hone my skills my

students were getting better

i was enjoying this more and you know my

walk with god was where it was supposed

to be then i

felt the call to preach became a

preacher and um

everything was just kind of for the

first time in my life just firing on all

cylinders and clicking

and so it really was kind of like you

know for me like a wilderness moment

where god brought me in this wilderness

and

and you know i was there for a little

bit but he brought me out of it

and praise god now it’s just it’s just

i’m living

truly a blessed life now that’s what’s

up yeah when i see your pictures on

facebook honestly i mean

outside of getting married and you look

super happy you and your wife

yeah but i can see that you look very

fulfilled where you are right now yeah

and even the pictures of you with your

church family you guys look

very happy and at peace so praise god

yeah

i mean yeah i mean it’s not always easy

too because you know sometimes you know

you have those moments that are not

facebook

yes yes and i could especially the first

few weeks of marriage for those of you

don’t know oh my goodness

those first few weeks of marriage are

like uh it’s like hello

this is another person in your space for

the rest of your life

exactly my friend and i were just

talking about that yesterday she’s been

married for years like she has three

boys like she’s been married for a long

time

but we were talking about how prior to

marriage and again for those listening

i’m not married yet but i have a lot of

friends who are married

and they’re saying before you get

married it’s kind of like this

oh so excited to be married but you also

are able to separate

like i love you man but you’re also

going home and i’m going to my house

but after marriage oh you’re still here

you’re not going anywhere you’re in my

house

in my space forever where are you going

to go to and especially like our

apartment like we’re very blessed like

we got a really nice building in chiang

juan

two years old everything’s spanking new

we got two aircon it’s really nice

but it’s it’s cozy let me put it that

way it’s cozy

[Music]

but it’s nice so it’s like we could have

a fight all day where am i going to go

turn two feet and i’m right there you

just look silly

yeah like where are you even gonna run

to you have nowhere to go

so it’s like it forces you guys to work

stuff out quickly

yeah but i’ll tell you this for all

those people not married who don’t get

scared

like it sharpens you in a way that

nothing else can sharpen you like more

than friendships

more than these things and it’s nothing

against people

like because like who are married

because i know you’re not married but

man you you’re sharper than 99.9 percent

of my friends

no but i’m what i’m saying is like

it does it does it does something else

that that those relationships can’t do

and it’s hard but like you start to see

the growth in yourself

and and it’s really exciting like she

calls out things to me that like

even i think like i don’t know what

you’re talking about like all this and

i’m like

i don’t see it but you see it so it gets

me excited so like

that’s really nice like in marriage and

sometimes people rag on marriage a lot

and like oh this is this is like

you know institution all the stuff but

i’m telling you it’s like it just keeps

getting better

and it’s awesome i wish everybody could

be married

i i’ll pray that for you i honestly pray

that for you

yeah and i pray god is setting you up

because like

forever yeah i can tell like he’s

working on he’s working something

i appreciate that brother yeah i’m

looking forward to being mayor but yeah

my parents are married still and they

have a beautiful marriage and

that looks cool by the way i don’t know

why i don’t know why i sense that when

you

post messages like oh i’m hanging out

with ej i don’t even know if i know his

name yeah

right it is this guy seems cool i don’t

know why but i want to hang out with him

he’s a cool guy he’s everybody likes him

my dad is real cool my mom is real sweet

and real loving like she’s the mom that

like you mentioned your mom sent you the

package

my mom if i get sick right now my mom is

already gonna start making a soup

yesterday like she just is that mom

and then my dad is there yeah it’s there

my dad he’s a really cool guy like he

was

he was the cool guy in school like he’s

a cool guy at church

but he’s also real real kind and

understanding like he’ll sit and listen

to you if you want to talk like

he’s just really really a good guy so i

told you i

i don’t know that’s a god-given gift or

what but i could just sense even through

pictures i could sense when somebody

like oh this this dude is

this dude is righteous yeah

that’s the word of the day righteous

this dude is righteous right

yep yeah he’s there he’s there

um all right so guys listen those

listening you guys are getting a lot of

gold right here you get marriage advice

you get life advice you’re getting

everything

so all right so you mentioned a little

bit about your first teaching experience

you said that yeah didn’t feel like you

were the best teacher so can you give us

a little bit more information about

like your first experience as a teacher

my goodness

has anybody ever seen the movie

kindergarten cop yes

from like i know you have seen i know

you have this guy i know the fact that

you have seen it but for those who don’t

know

if you know arnold schwarzenegger i

think most people know arnold

schwarzenegger if you don’t know

look him up big hulking um austrian dude

who came into the united states and made

it big in the film industry

and he he plays this cop who goes

undercover as a kindergarten teacher

but obviously you know he’s insensitive

he’s big he’s bulky he doesn’t want to

work with kids he doesn’t have to be

soft

so he goes to this room full of

kindergarteners think he’s got this

because he’s got criminals and he’s

he can work with criminals and it’s just

chaos like they’re

throwing things their food everywhere

they’re shouting on him they’re picking

their nose pooping

peeing shouting at each other fighting

and like

that was my first day

100 like i got 0.0 percent respect

from this wow because like my whole

thing was like oh i’m a funny guy

i like to be along with kids i really

love kids

i’m excited to have kids so i was like

oh it’s perfect i’ll just get on the

level

but like what they don’t tell you is

like what i learned is if you don’t lay

down the law

first then we try to lay it down

afterwards they’re not gonna respect you

they don’t respect you they’re not gonna

learn because when you’re trying to do

any type of

rules or boundaries it’s it’s out the

window they

you lost them so like that was my first

experience like the classes were really

rowdy i would get

angry i would just be kind of like

fighting with them and shouting like i

had one day like

oh my goodness like there was this

kid who would just like bully this other

kid in class

stop that and like this kid was just

crazy like i’ll be sitting in class

totally quiet doing prep work he comes

in very quiet

puts his uh bag down jumps on top of the

desk goes

ah really and then just jumps

and it just jumps down like nothing

happened just

oh that was cool yeah yeah

legitimately and he was just like oh my

goodness

he was he was insane and like i had so i

don’t know why

i think the way they had it as new

teachers

you got set up with the newer kids who

are new to the program so they weren’t

uh used to the program yet so they

didn’t know how okay in this bro

and you know in this program and this

school you you don’t act like this

so you had to kind of uh indoctrine them

a little bit oh yeah reteach them so

they weren’t they were not they were not

with the system yet and so they just

thought they could just do whatever

and like so i got a lot of those

students and it was just really

man it was really really really really

rough

wow so so johnny you mainly still teach

kids too right yeah now i now

actually solely only teach elementary a

few older kids like

they’re almost reaching middle school

but not not anymore not quite

okay good this is going to be even more

interesting conversation because

your perspective is going to be very

interesting with teaching little kids

i’ve had some crazy kids when i was in

in korea

and like you said i also am a fun person

i like

i like kids a lot because they they’re

innocent they love

life but again learning to lay down the

law

first and then having fun that’s like

the key you got to lay down the law

for those who lay down the law just

means set rules first like

lay down the law and make sure they know

exactly what the deal is

and then you switch and have fun so yeah

i totally get that

same you you you you had to do that if

you didn’t like

that’s it like you lost them and like

that was like the worst part because as

a teacher

like your goal is to see them progress

um to see them reach their full

potential

and so when you lose them you can’t

teach them anymore like you feel like a

failure

they’re not learning so like they feel

frustrated they feel like and it’s just

like it’s just all

it’s all down there don’t hill from

there yep

all right so then you learn from that

experience and you’ve been there five

years so i know you’re an amazing

teacher now and the kids love you

now in your opinion then uh what have

you noticed are the three best qualities

of an english

student like the kids that you’ve taught

like your best students what have you

noticed are the three things that are

the best

not necessarily the student with the top

top scores

but what are three qualities of a good

english student

honestly the first thing is your

attitude yeah is like

the best students that i’ve had have had

a really good attitude

um because you know i know in the the

korean system

they put a lot of pressure on themselves

so it’s easy to get a bad attitude

either way

you could say i give up learning english

because it’s too hard

or you can put so much pressure on

yourself that you crack and you can’t

learn anymore and so you just kind of

fall apart

so like a good attitude is really key

that’s the very first thing is you need

to have a good attitude

towards learning english you need to

have a good attitude towards your

teacher

um number two is you need to be studious

because one thing is sure like just

learning the lessons just hearing it is

not going to help you learn english

you got to be able to apply that you got

to be able to go on your own and say

look um i i did this problem wrong let

me do it again for example i’m trying to

learn korean

and so i have these korean books and i i

grade myself and i grade myself harshly

so like if i get a certain score like

below three or five like i do the lesson

again

i’m like i didn’t get it i need to do

the lesson again so you need to

be studious in that where you’re able to

hold yourself accountable

when you’re not with the teacher so when

you’re not with the teacher are you

studying

are you going back over the the the work

that you missed are you going back over

the works that you got wrong

like that’s that is the make oh that is

the difference between i seeing students

from being like they can barely speak a

a sentence

to like advanced english i’m having

conversations with them out about the

news and politics

makes a big that makes a big difference

so i would say like

um attitude um studiousness

and i would say personally i would say

like accountability

you need to have accountability with

like with your goals so you can go in

saying i’ma learn english but that’s a

really ambiguous goal

why are you learning it you know what is

your goal or is your goal to

hold a conversation in an interview is

your goal to um

apply for college is your goal to work a

job at a bank like what’s your goal

and hold yourself accountable to that

that way you have a vision in mind

okay i’m learning english i’m learning

english with tiffany

okay and i got this road map this is

what i want to do

this is where i’m going and i’m not

reaching that goal right now okay i

failed that lesson okay i need to go

back

i need to go back and like when you

start to do that

you you almost start to you motivate

yourself because you’re progressing

towards

reaching that goal but what happens is

sometimes

um students lose sight of that you know

they’re like oh why am i even learning

english

and then they either fall behind in

their studies

and then they lose motivation and they

drop out and like honestly

that is like the worst decision you

could make yeah you regret it so much

more later yeah

wow those are really good so you get a

good attitude studious and accounting

accountability yeah excellent guys i

hope you guys are listening closely

there’s are really good points you guys

need to add these to your

list as you’re continuing on your

english study journey so very good

okay so we have those three qualities

now

in your five years as a teacher have you

ever had

a favorite student and if you have tell

us about him or her

like i had like a bunch of family

students but i’ll tell you i’ll tell you

my most recent

favorite one his name is joshua so we

have different levels

um in the elementary age and it we have

we have eight different levels this is

the highest level he’s at the highest

level

but i’ve seen him come through the

lowest levels that’s what makes it

significant

i’ve seen him progress so far

like i look forward to teaching him like

be like he sometimes is the best part of

my day

okay number one like this kid has such a

great attitude towards learning

and but the thing is he wasn’t the best

student at first

like and to be honest if i say like he’s

not i don’t know if i would call him the

best student in the school

but he’s the best student because of his

attitude

like sometimes he’ll be really

struggling with a problem but like

he’ll turn to me and say teacher i don’t

understand

teacher can you explain this for me yeah

i will like

get on one knee i will help him out i

will work it out until like

he understands but like that

teachability is

everything yes him being teachable is

everything

and number two he’s just like

very grace giving you know so like

there’s been times where like

you know this you make a mistake as a

teacher and there’s those students who

will nail you

they nail you to the wall yes we make

mistakes

don’t get wrong i made mistakes at

spelling mistakes grammar mistakes

definitions mistakes and

there’s a students would be like teacher

you made a mistake

and like it’s kind of like okay i can

say like yeah yeah i did i’m sorry

and they’ll still like like just cut me

out after that

yeah but like i’ve made mistakes from

any and i i said i’m sorry joshua i made

a mistake he’s like it’s okay teacher

everybody makes mistakes

oh wow i’m just like wow

you’re so awesome yeah i would be your

i would be your friend if i was your age

but uh

yeah but he just has a good ad towards

his work good attitude that i could see

him

like when i’m talking and he doesn’t

have to take notes i can see him taking

notes and i can see him drilling what

i’m saying

and when i correct his writing when i

correct his writing he always

like always corrected everything that i

correct and he always tries to do better

the next time

nice and like so it always seems like he

sets a goal and he’s trying to progress

he sets the goal and he’s trying to

progress

and you know just has good attitude he’s

very patient very serious

always does his homework pays attention

in class very patient

because you got to be patient when

you’re learning the language yeah

teachers and

students yeah um but uh

yeah so he’s honestly he’s my favorite

student and

he’s great and i know he’s gonna succeed

so well it’s cool

that’s what’s up i mean this little guy

he seems like he’s a better student than

many other adult students and

like that i’ve taught in the past like

his drive

he’s amazing he he asked like

theoretical i don’t know where

like you can tell his english is a

little bit still

uh being developed so you know he

doesn’t always get the exact

you know grammar or syntax right but

sometimes so asking really

thought-provoking questions like

how did you even know to ask that like i

was getting married

and he said teacher why are you getting

married oh

and i was like i was like honestly

joshua i was like i don’t want to live

with anyone else for the rest of my life

and she’s really beautiful she’s really

cool and he’s like

okay teacher that’s good wow

yeah he’s just a little he’s a i could

tell he’s like he thinks a lot in his

head because sometimes i see him space

out

maybe that’s his only only flaw i see

him spaced out sometimes but

like he he’s really he’s a cool kid he

he’s he’s gonna be he’s like honestly

i’m i’m anxious to keep an eye on him

he’s like one of those steve jobs

like yeah like type kids like he has

something going on up here that you know

everyone thinks he’s just

a daydreamer and like no this kid’s

going places

very nice i tell him i tell him joshua

when you get uh older and you’re rich

right you’re gonna send me money

and he just like maybe teacher

not even yes i think about it maybe yeah

i’ll think about it

that’s what’s up okay so tell us what’s

the hardest thing

i mean this kid brings you joy as a

teacher what’s the hardest thing about

teaching

english honestly

the hardest thing because it doesn’t

come actually is patience

it’s like the hardest thing is to have

patience because like

for me i’m a very i’m a very

task driven organizationally minded

person so we have a goal

we need to reach that goal today we got

this lesson to get through we need to

get through this lesson

and with english that’s not always so

you have kids who drag behind

because they’re they’re they’re not as

developed as other students

some students in the class sometimes it

will be like there’s a really smart

student like joshua and there’s a

student

who’s another student and they can’t

even they can barely put together a

functional sentence

yeah and so it’s hard for me to switch

between patients to be like

okay i want to be patient but we really

gotta finish this lesson

you know like how can i help you and i

really try to like break down the sense

this is why this is the case you know

this is your this is your verb

this year now and then they still don’t

get it and i’m still explaining it at

different ways and there’s a point where

you got to move on

you’re going to be like okay hey we’ll

com i’ll come back to this

you know um for you so for me that

patience is really really hard

for me because like i think in my mind

sometimes we forget as teachers

like the student is not supposed to be

like you it’s not supposed to learn just

like you

maybe there is a student who learns like

you but that’s rarely the case

matter of fact i don’t think i’ve ever

had a student who learns like me so like

you

forget that and like as a teacher you

got to be careful not to apply that to

the student

um and you have patience because you

realize like oh

this kid this is not his first language

number one

um maybe he’s a little bit high above

his level he’s really struggling

he’s new okay i understand now like

i gotta like maybe meet with him after

class a little bit before or

get a little one-on-one time somewhere

to kind of narrow in where where the

problem is so for me like

that’s like that’s the biggest challenge

is patience is to have patience

that’s a good point i think you brought

up another uh good point when you

mentioned

that in one class you can have students

of different levels different learning

styles and different learning abilities

and it’s it’s so exciting to get that

student that learns quickly

but then like you said having a student

in that same class who learns

very slow it’s really hard for a teacher

to balance those

i’ve experienced the same thing and it’s

like yeah you don’t want to you don’t

want to

hold back the learner that’s learning

really fast but you also

can’t slow down for that it’s really a

tricky

balance so i totally get it yeah it

makes you a better teacher honestly and

like i mean let’s get life lessons here

it makes you a better person when you

surround yourself with people at varying

levels and like

just different abilities like i always

thought i would marry someone just like

probably my wife’s in the other room

laughing right now

because i always thought i want to marry

someone just like me but like

god gave me her and she is not like me

in every way

like we are so different but like what

happens is you rub up against each other

but you start to sharpen each other

right and the bible says iron sharpens

iron but the way iron sharpens iron is

it smashes against each other creates

sparks

yeah and like when you’re learning in a

learning environment with a teacher and

student that’s kind of what’s happening

on varying levels

you’re rubbing against each other and

you’re sharpening each other so like

yeah i can meet a student who’s perfect

at learning but i’m going to tell you

that’s honestly not always my favorite

student my favorite student is the one

who’s

a really low level but wants to learn is

teachable

has a desire to progress and has you

know this you know

vision whatever however big just learn

abcs

speak a single sentence have a

conversation

and like start from there and like from

there then

we make each other better because that’s

what i didn’t predict as

as as teachers like it’s not just a

one-way

learning stream it’s two ways like yeah

you’re teaching them

but you’re also learning how to be a

better teacher from

you know interacting with them that’s a

great point it’s a great point

you know on one of my current students

and i’ll move on to the next question

but one of my current students

who is one of my favorite i won’t say

his name because then that may be a

little bit of war between the students

right

start a war you don’t want to start a

full-on like

teaching with tiffany ward right i

thought you i thought i was your

favorite

i’m like no i have many favorites but

one of my favorite students

he’s not the best quote-unquote like you

mentioned like he’s not the one that can

speak the best

or have a full conversation without

making grammatical errors

but yeah he is one of my favorites

because when i correct him

not only does he say it over again he

makes notes he creates flash cards

of what i corrected like he literally is

trying to be better and what you

corrected

exactly like he’ll show me the history

tip i made this um flash card so i can

practice what you taught me and it’s so

encouraging as a teacher because it

shows that he has the desire to learn

and he’s okay making mistakes it’s like

you’re going to make mistakes it’s not

your native language like you’re going

to make mistakes yeah

and even if it is your native language

we make mistakes all the time

so even more with the second language

and it’s like he’s okay with

not being the best but he’s gonna end up

being

one of the best yeah so yeah it’s great

so i totally agree

totally agree yeah all right so next one

you tell us about your hardest and your

favorite um

what do you enjoy most about teaching

english about teaching

yeah since before it was the job you

hated but now

you’re a teacher what do you enjoy the

most

i honestly enjoy it’s not really moments

sometimes this moment is in class

but i enjoy like when the everything

starts

what you taught them starts to kind of

sink in

and they’re firing on all cylinders and

they’re starting to use it

you know like um for example i had a

student

and his his name was adam and he came in

he couldn’t even

speak he could not speak anything zero

english

we started from the alphabet and like

then we worked up to like he was walking

in class hi samwell teacher

i’d say hi adam how are you i’m good

how are you i’m good and like that was

it but like that was such a progression

yeah my favorite thing my favorite thing

as as teaching is to see

that progression like to see marked

improvement

so not just like general um they can

just have a conversation now but like

marked improvement like they could not

do this before

now they are doing this like this is

cool you know because

you did that you kind of helped shape

that and so like you know

i know it’s just it’s just kind of cool

you know like sometimes i wonder like

i wonder if that’s how like god feels

about us like oh wow

yeah look at tiffany like she started

here and now she’s doing this

like yeah like that’s cool

yeah look at johnny like like he was

real down low

you gravy he was real down low

and then i helped i helped him out look

what i did that’s me

it’s a good feeling like it is a good

feeling you know and like

um like that’s why i’m i totally am on

board with

the fact that i always like i always

thought that teaching wasn’t gonna be a

one-way street

but teaching is not a one-way street it

goes both

ways like it really is shaping both of

you like i’m sure you know that by

now oh yeah i told my students that

before i was like you guys

when we like again like you know i went

to korea as a missionary

and i’ve told students like guys as a

missionary you go

somewhere with a mission like you have a

mission to give something

but what i realized and many of my other

friends that went there as missionaries

we say the mission is for the missionary

and that just means

i learned more from my students than i

think they learned from me

even though i mean i think they learn of

course a lot of english

like you mentioned i grew as a person i

so many

aspects of that experience shaped me and

made me

what i hope to be a better person so i

think yeah

we learn more from students than they

realize even now being home and i teach

via the internet i still learn a lot

because students will send messages

and learn a lot from the conversations

you have with students and things they

tell you because

i’m teaching them english but they’re

still a person like they have a life

their culture and little things they can

tell us about their culture it’s amazing

it’s really yeah you learn a lot and

they’re gonna go now and apply

use the language skills that you have

taught them to apply

out in the world which is going to have

an effect on their country or their

family like

exactly it’s really like wow like it’s

crazy how much

like reach is going on there yeah that’s

like that’s some like

generational reach going on exactly

exactly all right so i know they’re

probably curious you kind of uh

told us a little bit i know but i’ll let

you tell them do you speak another

language or

languages and if you could which

language would you learn if you don’t so

i know you speak

another language but tell us

italiano

[Laughter]

so for those of you that don’t speak

italian spanish or english or korean

you want me to translate it yes yes so i

i speak i speak spanish so the first

language is spanish

um my mom is mexican so that’s why i can

speak spanish

although i’m losing it really fast here

your career so like sometimes i i think

i try to think in my head so i don’t

lose it but

um italian i studied for two years in

college

and like there was a period where i

completely lost all of it

and then now for some reason when i

listen to like italian tv or italian

speaking

i can understand it almost better than i

can almost as good as i can understand

english oh wow wow wow

how that happened and i think it’s just

because my exposure i

wasn’t exposed to it for a long time so

i think if i went to italy for a while

and got exposed to it it would kind of

resurface and i’m like ah okay this is

firing i remember what this means but

also it’s very similar to spanish so you

know i think they’re both latin

languages so it’s just

they have a lot of the same basis and um

a korean i’ve been in korea five years

and like i’m currently studying

korean and i’m really trying to heart

it’s really difficult but you gotta

really be

studious so um i’m currently

trying to get there to be fluent that’s

what’s up

again another inspiration students that

are listening you’re going to inspire

them like

you’re a teacher you just got married

you have a busy life yet you’re still

trying to improve yourself and learn

another language so that’s

very commendable that’s what’s up that’s

what’s up people don’t realize how

valuable it is to know the language they

think it’s just like oh to get a job and

to get this

yeah those are benefits but that’s not

like the main thing like the main

the main thing is like it personally

like it develops you as a person like

it takes a lot of tenacity to be able to

sit down and learn a language that’s not

your mother tongue

yeah you know it’s true that’s literally

working another

part of your brain right that after

you’re i think it’s what is it five

years old

yeah like when you’re when you’re under

five years old it’s way easier to learn

language but after you’re five years old

it becomes significantly harder yep so

it takes that much more effort so like

like i i think it’s like i’m not sure

i’m not a um

you know a doctor or anything but like

the studies of people who

learn languages later in life and the

rates to like dementia or other

kind of uh brain development diseases

because like it’s keeping your brain

active and learning something um

so personally i i’m i’m all for it it’s

and it’s really awesome and

you get to learn something new and it

also it keeps you humble

yeah you want to get you want to you

want to humble yourself

learn another language especially if

it’s difficult yeah because you turn

into a baby right then like okay i don’t

know

anything i’m a baby every time i go to

korea

and then like when i first if i lose it

like so my korean sometimes is oddly

very good and

sometimes i lose all of it so they’ll

ask me it’s usually when they

uh i respond i ask something in korean

they get excited

and talk to me and i get nervous and

clam up yeah and then i turn into like

oh right eagle moyo

and like you just you just lose it so

yeah

it’s humbling this is true that’s very

true very true

one other thing too i noticed personally

like you already know this so i learned

korean

as an adult like i started in my late

20s so i started

that’s that was think i was 28 29 so

years ago whatever

but it taught me so much about the

culture

and like people ask like how did i stay

in korea so long i said here’s the thing

learning the language yes it got to a

point to where i could travel anywhere

and i was fine i was comfortable i could

go alone it was okay

i said but the main thing was i learned

so much more about the culture

which helped me understand ah this is

why they do things like this or this is

why they think like that

which made me want to stay there longer

i’m like oh i understand you more

so this has become like a second home so

now

like i’ll miss korea at certain times

because it’s my

second home now because of learning the

language and understanding the culture

i’m not confused about certain things

anymore i’m like okay

okay that’s cool and you start to like

um how do you say

it changes the posture of like how you

approach people from that culture

you know i’ve seen i’ve seen people i

tell people

expats who come to korea or any country

what’s gonna make or break your time

here is your attitude

yep if you have a bad attitude you’re

going to have a bad time you’re going to

get mad at everything or why did they do

this why do koreans do that why

do that no but like you’re in their

country take some time to learn their

language and you learn their language

and you learn how they do things

and now that i know certain things i’m

like ah that makes sense to me actually

like yeah it used to make me real mad

when ajamas would just like

throw bows at me like in the in the

grocery store i’m like

what is going on here yeah now i realize

like they put a big respect

on like the elderly yeah and and make

the

first and like now i understand it

because honestly in this country

they’re they’re mildly disenfranchised

like they don’t get a lot of support

sometimes and like

it’s really hard for them so like what’s

the difference between me like one

person waiting in line and just letting

this

this elderly woman go ahead and actually

cutting like

it’s not worth it you know just exactly

so little things like that it gives you

more grace for the culture and like i

said yeah you you eat it on the nail

with like wanna learn more about the

culture because i’m learning that

language but along with it like i have

books i’m looking at them right now

on korean history and korean knowledge

and like all that came from

the desire to learn that language and to

dig in because when you learn language

you’re not just learning the language

you’re learning the people

you learn about the people you’re

learning about like

you know how that language is applied

you know because

you can learn any language all you want

and like

for example in spanish you know like

there’s like

really high forms that you can use but

like not everybody use that but you’re

not going to know that if you’re not

like digging into like the culture and

like ah okay in this setting

it’s not necessary to use like yeah it’s

not necessary to use like

this tense like okay exactly

yeah exactly i i’m really happy to hear

too that you said you’re reading about

the culture and you’re also learning the

language and i say this because

it’s very weird so i’m an

african-american female

but yeah part of me because i lived in

korea for so long and i learned the

language i studied it there

you know universities got my master’s

degree there in their language and stuff

it’s so weird because part of me feels

such a connection with korean people

that i kind of want to

fight for them in certain situations

like kind of stand up for them

you become an advocate exactly it’s like

no don’t misunderstand this aspect now

there are aspects of the culture that

again

are opposite of my culture so yes

they’re difficult to under

not understand difficult to adapt but

when i’m in your country i adapt because

this is your culture but

like i’ve had some friends who have read

about the culture but they don’t know

the language so they think they

understand i’m like no

you don’t really understand until you’ve

actually started to learn the language

and read about their culture

in their language i’m saying that

because i had an understanding and then

when i went to university and actually

to read

about certain things in korean i’m like

oh this is the way you guys

think about this and it’s like it’s just

a whole different

dynamic a different way of thinking and

it’s it’s amazing like you said like

your brain blows your mind and some of

it’s like a lesson for you like i

learned like

i used to get so mad when when the

students

i knew they knew the answer i knew for a

fact they knew the answer because we

talked about i knew it was in their head

and they would always be timid and

didn’t want to answer and i’m like oh

man this is me i know you’re

smart i know you know this i wasn’t

getting angry like

i was being so fresher and then i

learned like in korean culture

like before they speak they don’t speak

like they’re not quick to speak

because like it’s like if you say

something wrong

and it brings shame on yourself like uh

you’d rather than just not speak

and it’s other people that sound strange

but like

that’s like a form of respect for the

other person and for themselves

exactly exactly and it’s kind of like

okay

unless if i wish i did that so like

avoid saying something stupid johnny and

this sentence which i always do

sometimes and talk too much

my wife is laughing at me right now

then we just we just hold back

don’t say anything and just wait you

know keep listening to the conversation

true exactly you already realize like

there’s certain things that we can learn

from them like yeah

yeah the cultural exchange okay last

thing because i know i mean this

conference is good

sorry students you guys are getting a

whole lot from us um yeah

so one of my closest friends is korean

she may listen to this later but like

we’re very very close

and she speaks english perfectly she was

an english teacher as well

um okay but through our friendship

johnny when i say i learned so much it

was a cultural exchange because there

were ideas i had

and their ideas that she had but they

were so opposite that through our

friendship we were able to learn about

each other’s culture and yeah it really

developed us

both like we both were like oh my

goodness like we both grew as

individuals as as women we grew because

we learned

a different culture and how somebody

else thought it helps you to be more

understanding but because of the close

friendship like and we were talking

about wow it’s really hard to have

in honesty a close friendship not

surface

like i mean deep like deep go deep

go deep like i went to korea for your

wedding like i

traveled you know whatever but it’s

really hard to have those kind of

deep friendships because the culture is

so opposite but when you’re willing

to basically break down and understand

somebody else

man it’s just a beautiful friendship

that can happen yeah

yeah that and all that like all that

like stems from like

you gotta you gotta put that out there

like you gotta like step out there like

okay

like i’m gonna go deeper than just

trying to just learn this language like

i want to like

go deeper in friendships and go deeper

in this like

because sometimes like we treat language

learning as is so surface level

it’s just learning the language and it’s

not it’s really not and if you treat it

like that

and that’s what you’re going to get i’m

not saying you’re not going to learn the

language

but you’re only going to get surface

level learning exactly like

that’s essentially what i got with

italian i learned it

i know the verb i know the ribs and all

this stuff but like i just got surfaced

and so what happened after a few years

i lost most of it i can maybe understand

something

but like i guarantee if i had some

italian friends if i went and studied in

italy if i did that and dug deep

like oh man like yeah i’d be

i’d be spelling off in italian more so

than i can right now

yeah it makes a huge difference huge

difference

yeah right johnny my next question is uh

kind of wrapping up things

now students are learning and like we’re

both talking about the the beauty

of actually getting to know people in

the language and like in the country

there are a lot of students that i have

that are not able to either come to

america or even go to england or to a

native english-speaking country so

they’re very curious about english

resources that can help them and

when i say english resources i’m not

really speaking about books because

remember a lot of the students listening

are intermediate and advanced english

learners so they

quote-unquote got the grammar down they

got the vocabulary

but they want to experience like english

culture

so even if it’s a television program

that you like so really

johnny what do you like to watch on tv

are there blogs you actually

uh read on a regular basis or anything

that you do as an american

like something that they can benefit

from like i’ve told them you know i like

something like

for you i’m i’m i’m an older person

i like to look at the news so the first

thing i thought about i started

with my kids one time is there’s this at

uh this part of cnn called cnn 10 news

do you know what that is

uh uh what’s that it’s called cnn 10

news

i think it’s cnn 10 news and you go on

there and what it is they give you

10 minutes worth of worldwide news but

it’s cool

because you learn about all these

different cultures what’s happening in

the world

but they’re speaking and in between that

they have little quizzes so they’ll say

pop quiz

who is the president of this country and

it’s really valuable because a you’re

learning about these different cultures

it’s in

english you’re getting quizzed on it and

it’s only ten minutes

so like let’s say you do a lesson and

you you kind of pop in with that like

it’s a nice little refresher and i’m i’m

not gonna lie

if you’re not may not be where you’re at

because they speak very fast

okay it’s difficult verbiage okay okay

if you want to challenge yourself

if you want to set a goal for yourself

it’s it’s a good

place to start good with it’s a good

place to start with there and honestly

otherwise i would just start with like

like how americans as you know probably

when you came to korea you start

watching korean tv shows right exactly

so you started watching these different

shows and it helps you because you start

to apply what you’re learning so like

i mean i could talk about some of my

favorite shows like i like comedy so i

i like the office yeah you know uh-huh

uh-huh the office is hilarious like

that is hilarious to me or we can go

like really old school and we can tell

them to look up like family matters

yeah or or uh or the cosby show or

something

or like or a full house yeah something

because it’s like very in those shows

they’re family based uh

shows so they speak kind of at a very

slow pace the show theme develops at a

very slow pace

you can kind of catch on what is

happening and you actually learn a lot

of um

slang a lot of jargon uh oh that’s what

they say in san francisco oh that’s what

they say in chicago like oh

so like you pick up on these things and

i think those are the best

those those are the best some of the

best ways to learn because

they’re little snapshots in our culture

at that time

yeah you know and that kind of helps you

in your in your knowledge and ability to

like be able to

to work out these shows um ask for me

now i can’t mention other shows because

i just watched like me and my wife just

watched housing shows you know like

building tv

and like we love watching like things

like marie condo

yeah like you know that marie condo like

the organizing thing

food all food food stuff so yeah what’s

your what’s your favorite food show

because some students like cooking you

know what i’m saying

oh man well i’ll tell you this is really

old school

man vs food used to be my favorite show

oh my goodness i loved that show so much

it was a pretty much a guy

who traveled the nation and he would do

food challenges but at the same time

he would show you little hot spots in

the united states

where there was like really bomb food he

would go to

uh mississippi and he would he would say

okay this is like the

the uh um the the gumbo

gumbo challenge or something but they

will show you okay let me show you the

five best places to get going we go eat

there

and like oh i love that show and um i

watched a lot of anthony bourdain shows

he’s really good you know rest of pieces

yeah with us but uh

um but there’s other random shows that

oh man

what’s that food show we were just

watching one day sorry

sorry i i i’m asking what is it called

yeah cause that’s what happens when when

you get older you forget things

what’s the show where it’s like a food

challenge

and they gotta it’s like a cook-off and

they have like a cook-off of their food

is it food food incorporated or food

food oh man is it oh it’s gonna bug me

it’s bugging me are you looking up right

now

okay um oh

oh is it with um are they going against

one of the famous guys on the food

network

one of those guys or it’s yeah yeah

bobby flay like uh something with bobby

flay no

no the final table the final two oh yes

i watched that

yes the fight yeah final table yes i

watched that i love that show

because they go to different places now

and like oh and like i like it because

you know usually they have like the

chefs cooking in their own environment

and that’s a little bit boring like okay

we know you can cook flambe or whatever

this is

like to take a chef out of his element

who’s german and like oh one time they

had them make all mexican food and

someone

like i’ve never even heard of mexican

food so that was cool

so they had to think on the spot and

like oh that was cool yeah

yeah yeah yeah wow these are great shows

a lot of these shows you can find on

netflix guys and some just go on the

internet and look them up but yeah

great list great list yeah good stuff

okay final question easy question

any last words any advice you can give

the students anything honestly

and this is going to be such a teacher

cliche have fun

because like if you don’t find some way

to have fun with it

whether it’s watching one of these shows

finding a friend to dig in and go deeper

with

or uh it’s really gonna start to get

redundant after a while just doing the

same lessons and doing this

it’s like it’s gonna get kind of stale i

mean it’s just like kind of like

you know that’s why we have friendships

we have different kinds of friendships

that go

you know deep you know i would say just

have fun with it

but at the same time like don’t take

your eyes off your goal

like don’t take your eyes off of like

why

why you have started learning english um

and what your your goal is like

keep keep focused on that goal like

write it down every single day write

your progress even if you go backwards

write it down

like keep keep focused on that keep

focused on that because i’ve seen

smart students i mean smart students who

i mean so smart they should be like

diplomats and they just

quit they drop out of the academy

because they got burnt out

and i don’t think it was the reason why

they got it wasn’t just they got burnt

out

is they lost sight of the goal maybe

they’re they just thought oh just my mom

wants me to learn

and like that’s going to last for a

little bit until you get bored or until

you lose sight of it and so like

write it down whatever your goal is to

learn english whatever write it down and

put it somewhere you can

look at it every day because like like

one thing is like

man repetition repetition repetition is

like a father of success but like

you keep doing that again and again you

keep seeing it it’s gonna start to sink

into your mind

so that way everything that you do you

should be visualizing that goal if

you’re doing a problem you’re working on

a sentence and man it’s really hard

and you’re but you have that goal in

mind like you’ll work through it

you know if you don’t you’re just going

to like throw the pencil down

i’ll forget it i’m i’m just gonna i’m

gonna i’m gonna bounce out and like i

guarantee you like you’re gonna regret

it because like

even little things like i regret not

continuing to pursue italian

or being studious in that regard

i should have i should by this time in

five years in korea i should have been

almost fluent but i really dropped the

ball and studying

i’m trying to pick it back up so like

just be like be studious

keep your eyes on the goal and like have

fun find a way to have fun and like i

guarantee you because like

like a treat for me is like man these

books you know the talk to me in korean

yeah am i a lot am i allowed to give

plugs like on your show of course hey

is awesome and but like their books are

really challenging really practical

but sometimes after going through it man

i’m like sweating like oh

but a treat for me it’s like okay i just

learned this and i turn on korean tv

show and it’s kind of like a relaxing

fun then i hear like oh

oh i learned that word or i know that

word or i know what they’re saying

or i know what this is you know yeah and

like you connect it and you’re having a

show

you’re watching the show and it’s having

fun so it’s like it it

it for that day for that time it

releases so like whatever it is every

day after you learn

whatever you got to do read a book watch

a tv show talk with a friend like do

something to

to either to take your mind off take

your mind off that lesson for a quick

and and get into a practical sense of

what language you’re learning you know

yeah it’s gonna help you in two ways

because it’s gonna help you with applied

knowledge which i’m telling you

is key applied knowledge applied

learning

and it’s gonna help you have fun yeah

you’re gonna get that energy and that

that um

motivation to keep going that’s what’s

up great advice i was trying to type as

you were talking and i mean

great advice hold on one sec find ways

to apply what you learn

great advice yeah i did that also when i

was learning korean

i would watch dramas and i was level one

so didn’t understand

ninety percent of what there was

ninety-five percent of what they were

saying

but your brain is like your brain just

starts making connections like okay well

she

has to be upset because of the way her

face looks and what she just

said okay it’s like you just connect

things but like you said i enjoyed

watching it even though i didn’t

understand everything so

great advice fine you got to think you

got to think about it like a baby like

how do babies learn babies don’t

understand every

every um every word in english you’re

speaking

you keep speaking it to them it’s stored

away in their head then that becomes

applied knowledge because one day

you point at that chair and you say

chair they remember that was a chair

that is a chair

yes that is chair yeah it’s the same

thing for you you weren’t listening to

any of that korean it was just going

through

yeah i guarantee you it was getting

stored away somewhere

and you saw that that that korean drop

drums are oh

boom

exactly and then you’re like oh okay i

know what she’s older brother

yeah yep exactly

exactly man johnny thank you so much i

mean this

honestly i’m so excited i think the

students are going to learn so much from

this conversation

and good good i appreciate it you’re

taking your time really appreciate you

all right awesome i i wish you guys all

the best luck

and and stick with it and you got a good

teacher

so you’re on the right track so keep it

going thanks man thank you

hey i hope you enjoyed that conversation

that i had with johnny

isn’t he amazing he’s such a great guy

don’t forget to put in the comment

section

what tip you actually liked that johnny

gave during our conversation

remember i’m gonna pick a winner and i

hope it’s you

all right guys i will talk to you next

week don’t worry story time will be back

next week we had a lot of stories during

our uh

conversation so it’s coming next week

but i’ll see you next time

have an amazing week and remember to

speak

english