Interview with Vanessa Featuring Jack from ToFluency

hello everybody this is jack from

tofluency.com this is a little bit

different this english lesson from

Vanessa because I am going to ask her

some questions we’re going to ask a

questions that I think you’re going to

find very interesting

yes if you would like to see a similar

interview with jack

I interviewed jack on his channel and

that video will be in the description of

this video so if you’d like to learn

more about Jack or learn English with

Jack click on that link and you can see

the other interview cool are you ready I

hope so I don’t know any of these

questions yes a complete surprise so

completes a problem I’m gonna be quite

kind to you oh thank you some of these

questions are going to test your ability

okay okay let’s have a look first one is

it’s more of it’s not really a question

okay it’s more of a command okay

introduce yourself in 30 seconds hi I’m

Vanessa to me okay speak English okay um

hi I’m Vanessa I live in Asheville and

I’m an English teacher I’ve been

teaching English online for a while but

I love to travel and I like to go hiking

and spend time with my family and cats

and be in nature is that 30 seconds more

or less right the question the reason I

like to ask that question is because

what you normally say when you are at a

dinner pie you’re at a bar and someone

says what do you do what do you do like

for my job yeah well what like what what

do you do I would say I am an English

teacher online and usually the next

question is oh where do you teach or

what company do you teach for and then I

say oh I teach for myself

I have my own website and I teach online

to you and then do people normally say

oh I didn’t know you could do that yes

yeah and then I have to explain a lot of

people asked to do you speak all of

those languages yes because they ask

what country do you teach I would you

speak Portuguese or Japanese or Russian

oh no this is for intermediate learners

who already speak enough English to

understand yeah I always get that

question so do you speak Spanish and

French and everything else just say yes

I see yeah all languages yes definitely

yeah why not

ha 500 um ok the next question are you a

night owl or a morning person Oh

ideally I would love to be a morning

person but at the moment I’m certainly a

night owl to me going to bed at a good

time is midnight and my new year’s

resolution this year actually was to go

to bed at midnight and it’s been pretty

good so far because I have to wake up

kinda early not early for you with kids

but maybe like 7:30

most days I wake up around 7:30 so if

you wake up consistently at a specific

time like that then I’m bound to be

tired earlier but it’s so hard to go to

bed before midnight and usually it at

night my husband is active too

yeah so we cook dinner like 9 or 10

o’clock

Wow and it’s very Spanish yeah I just

feel more active at night but I would

like to be a morning person

right and oh good are you more creative

at 9:00 or in the morning um in college

I did most of my writing and papers and

everything at night but now I try to do

most of it in the morning so when I make

videos or write posts or make lessons I

try to do it in the morning because at

night is usually when there’s more

distractions like that’s the fun time

that’s the fun energetic time but

morning now is more focused time yeah

but not early not too early no you need

a 9 10 o’clock after Wow yes he need a

little bit of time in the morning to get

into work mode yeah and I like to make a

good breakfast in the morning

so that’s like my morning routine okay

speaking about food yes I love it if you

could eat only one meal for the rest of

your life what meal would you choose and

you have to eat this every meal every

day ah the rest of your life does it

have to sustain me like does it have to

be healthy you can decide that oh no I

think I’m good I could is on a meal but

I think I could eat watermelon for the

rest of my life

every meal and be really happy but I

wouldn’t live very long

No so it certainly wouldn’t sustain me

but that’s the like one food that I

could eat forever isn’t watermelon one

of those foods where you burn more

calories eating it then you actually get

maybe the celery water celery is one of

those foods yeah yeah I think there’s a

lot of sugar though in watermelon no yes

usually in the summer we buy at least

when I was younger we used to buy a huge

watermelon and then just cut it in half

this half is mine this half is my dad’s

and we just eat it all week and then the

next week and another one but I don’t

eat it quite as much now but that’s

certainly my favorite food it’s not a

meal no is there a meal hmm I eat chili

a lot we talked about that in your video

curry curry a lot mmm that’s yeah I

think the most that most of the things

that are like simple like just fruit and

vegetables so I would say watermelon

okay that’s cool I like that answer I

like watermelon but I hate preparing it

I know that sounds silly but they’re so

big yeah heavy and I’m just cutting them

hey when you first cut into it my

favorite part is when you first cut it

and then he cracks a little bit and you

just smell the watermelon so that scent

coming out that is my favorite thing

tell that you like warm oh yes I’m now

speaking about meals as well similar

kind of theme do you prefer

Thanksgiving more Christmas

that’s a good question and just taking

the holiday as as a whole I’d said

Christmas right because I feel like

Thanksgivings exciting but it kind of is

just a meal and then it’s finished but

Christmas is a build-up like you’re

decorating your house and it’s getting

colder and you’re starting to drink hot

chocolate and you hear Christmas music

and it’s like a long-term excitement and

then sometimes because of that Christmas

day feels a little disappointing yeah

because you’re so excited christmas is

coming kiss is coming but usually it

still is at least for me it still is

exciting because you go see family and

you do something yeah instead of just

eat a meal and then Black Friday

speaking of Thanksgiving do you go

shopping I hate shopping

shopping in general yeah except for

grocery shopping because I love food but

if it’s if I have to buy something I’ll

just go and buy it and come home but Dan

my husband loves shopping he doesn’t buy

stuff but he just looks at stuff so he’s

the browser and I’m the one sitting in

the chairs at the front of the store

waiting for him to finish thank you can

we go home now yeah yeah buy it for me I

have to be in the right mood and I think

it has to do with spending money that

typically I’m really frugal and I really

don’t want to spend money on unnecessary

things so I don’t feel like this is

worth it and our apartment where I live

is not that big so it has to be able to

fit there and be something useful

usually I’m exactly the same if I want

to get something then I love to go and

get it you know and feel that sense of

okay I needed that it’s practical it’s

within budget yeah yeah my wife’s the

opposite more like more like done yeah

so I guess in that case Black Friday

there are sales so that would be good

for people like us because you want to

save money but I think it’s also kind of

a superfluous shopping it’s not necess

very stuff generally I know if you had

to buy something it could be a good time

like electronics you could get a good

deal but mm-hmm

it’s not my idea of fun no everyone

thinks about buying a TV don’t they oh

it’s a long lines oh yeah I and I do it

online as well yeah yeah there’s deals

online so Amazon is my favorite store

I’m meeting this is probably the

toughest question and when ask it now

okay what was the last lie you told oh

my goodness the last lie I told and

remember there are things like white

lies yeah oh there are very big lies

feel free to open up and tell everyone

well mmm the last lie probably was

something like I like to do this but I

really don’t like to do it is usually

I’m trying to think of something

specific because usually I don’t want to

hurt people’s feelings

yeah so that kind of white lie is pretty

common not like all the time but I think

it’s easy to do that kind of thing mmm a

specific situation I’ll tell you mine

okay okay because sometimes to me um it

was this morning when my wife said oh

could you make sure that you do that

before you leave

yeah and I was in a rush because I

wanted to prepare for this I said yeah

but I knew that I was not gonna do it

uh-huh so why did you say yes because if

I said no then then she would have said

Oh

what we need to do this or like I think

it’s important etc so I said yes and I

went I kind of just leave oh yeah what

and it wasn’t a big deal but I still

look up the line I say that off I say

that often to Dan about rubbing his back

oh yeah

cuz that’s our relationship currency

that if I do a favor for him yeah he has

to rub my back for like 10 minutes or

something but sometimes I say oh yeah

I’ll rub your back and then I know

that I probably won’t do it yes oh yeah

do it I’ll do it like that or it’ll be

like one minute but that’s it so what

one minute and you say oh my phone’s

ringin sorry

yesterday’s policies about work yeah or

just get distracted

I guess it’s it it’s not really a white

lie but I guess it kind of is yeah yeah

that’s a tough question

it is hmm um if you think about anything

later okay and you can last night all

right I’ll let you know all my my lies

and if you were a teacher mmm what would

you be doing instead mmm if I weren’t a

teacher I think if I weren’t a teacher I

probably be well I thought about being

and probably a writer I think I’d still

be working for myself

yeah so in the past before I became a

teacher I had several a travel blog oh

yeah let’s wrote about like travel

experiences and I think with the

knowledge that I have now I didn’t make

any money doing that that was just for

fun but I think that I could make money

out of that with the knowledge I have

now so I think I’d probably be doing

something like that like writing trying

to share that information whether it’s

about travel or lifestyle choices

alternative ideas mm-hmm

usually I have a million ideas and that

week it seems like the best idea

so before I found out that you could

teach English online when we were living

in Korea it’s kind of that pressing

question what am I gonna do when I leave

Korea mm-hmm I’m not gonna be able to be

in the same kind of job in the u.s. so

what am I gonna do and a million things

crossed my mind and Dan and I thought

about together being interviewers for

homeschooling because Dan was

home-schooled so we were trying to

research about this are you talking

about yeah we were trying to do research

about different ways you can homeschool

and now there’s so many resources about

that but there’s not like interviews

with real people who do it so we thought

what if because we didn’t know what city

we wanted to live in what if we travel

to different cities and then interviewed

different families who homeschooled as

like education for ourselves to see do

what do we think about it and also share

those interviews with other people and

then try to monetize it and maybe get

like magazines to support us or some

websites to be our sponsor and stuff

like that but that was one idea and

obviously it didn’t work out but I think

that all the ideas have been working for

myself yeah to have that freedom yeah

creativity yeah once you start that it’s

so hard to stop well this is a good

follow-up question with that yes and as

a child what did you wish to become when

you grow up

Oh so has that changed over time yes um

when I was in elementary school I wanted

to be a professional water skier because

how excites in them because when I was

in elementary school there were five

families who had daughters my age and my

sisters

and it was amazing that there are five

families in my school a small school who

had the exact same family like two

daughters our age and we used to go have

adventures together or spend the weekend

together and we rented this lake house

and one family had a boat and everyone

tried waterskiing and no one could do it

it’s actually pretty hard like you have

to have the certain stance and

everything but no one could do it and

then it was my turn and I was in the

water waiting for the boat to get

started and my dad was beside me and

he’s like okay Vanessa you can do it you

can get up and I was like oh yeah I

could do it’s not that hard right and

then when I did it I got up and I was

the only person who could water-ski and

of course that was like a huge ego boost

that Pavan asset can do something that

no one else can do here and I don’t know

why I could do it cuz it was a pretty

small kid especially like before puberty

I was really small like the smallest in

my class but that was I think the first

moment when I felt like I can do

something unique yeah and I’m going to

be doing this professionally yes but uh

yeah so that was the first dream but the

biggest dream throughout high school was

to become a pilot and that was my first

job to work at the airport my goodness

as a pilot my first job was working in

the small airport in Greenville where I

grew up and they just have like

single-engine airplanes for two people

or four people but yeah I was fifteen

and I couldn’t drive but I learned to

fly an airplane before I could drive not

by myself like you have to be with

someone but I bartered for flight

lessons so they didn’t pay me but I

worked at the hangar washing airplanes

and cleaning stuff and then in after

that in the evenings once a week the

pilot would take me up and just show me

things and it was really basic stuff it

wasn’t like

actually I was about to become a pilot

but some of the other people who did

similar things got their license and

went further with it than I did but I

feel like that dream I like the idea of

freedom and doing my own thing and I

think that that was the basis yeah for

the dream of being a pilot I might still

want to do that in the future but once I

started to travel my dream to become a

pilot almost stopped like somehow that

idea of like going to travel and doing

something like freeing and flying off on

my own that kind of image was I think

the basis for the dream to become a

pilot but that time was a really happy

time in my life yeah sounds like it yeah

I think you probably realized that being

a pilot probably means going to

Charlotte to a London to a Monson yeah

well there’s a lot of like alternative

kind of pilot jobs like one of my

teachers in elementary school her

daughter’s husband or someone was

basically a private pilot for someone

rich and there’s a lot of people who do

that kind of thing were you the

chartered pilot and I often thought I

don’t know it was such a strange dream

but my dream was to be I don’t even know

if it’s a specific job but to be the

person over the beach who flies some

kind of banner oh yeah oh yeah they fly

some kind of banner soon in high school

my notebooks were covered in drawings of

an airplane me in the airplane and then

some kind of silly phrase or joke on the

banner there’s a lot of variations of

that dream whoa but pilot was the thing

and my room was covered in airplanes

yeah there were no princesses and

rooney’s in my room do you see yourself

flying planes light point in your life

maybe I think this small planes is

basically like a hobby my uncle has a

small plane and it’s

his hobby he’s also single and has no

other expenses so he buys an airplane

it’s pretty much the price of a car but

you can fly anywhere and that’s what he

does on the weekends and I feel like in

that way it could be pretty cool but not

necessarily as a job yeah like once it

becomes a job maybe it becomes less fun

yeah I am here in Asheville in October

they do flights around Asheville oh yeah

yeah plane I did it for my birthday

come on go Oh that’d be great with the

mountains oh it’s beautiful yeah I think

I talked about that for a while

sorry yeah um so um let’s have a look

next question is what buckle you reading

at the moment oh I just finished a book

called

state of wonder and it’s about it’s a

fiction novel about a doctor who goes to

Brazil into the Amazon to try to find

this pharmacologist or somebody who’s

been developing a drug for their company

but that person’s kind of like missing

in action and they can’t contact her

they don’t know what’s happening so she

has this adventure going into the Amazon

and is amazing just through her eyes

it’s like mine I’ve never been there

I’ve never experienced that so it’s just

really cool to see a whole new world

yeah but that’s the book I just finished

but for the last two months I’ve been

reading another book that’s kind of on

and off sapiens oh yeah I think you

recommend it I did yeah yeah yeah we

have a little book club with some

friends and we get together every couple

weeks and talk about it

did you get the audiobook yeah we ended

up getting it and it’s really good isn’t

it amazing yes I’m reading it and then a

couple days later Dan will listen to the

same thing that I just read but it’s

good and do you normally read physical

books ebooks listen to audiobooks do you

have a preference um when I lived abroad

I read my Kindle all the time

because that was it enough space to get

yeah I couldn’t travel with books and I

didn’t have as wide of a variety of

physical books at the library as I said

I’m cheap I’m not gonna buy every book

that I want to read yeah so now I just

go to the library and get a book and

that book actually the state of wonder

about Brazil I found that in the free

book box and I know they have it at the

pet library oh it’s like a little

usually it’s in a neighborhood oh the

little library yes so it’s like it’s

almost like a mailbox and there’s free

books inside but there’s a couple in my

neighborhood and I’ve read almost all

the books in those little libraries like

right online

yeah and you just returned it and I put

books in there that are mine that I

don’t want anymore and I’ve kind of felt

like lately books are good but they take

up a lot of space yeah

so I feel more free about just going to

the library and renting it or giving

away the book after I’ve read it this is

like really personal yeah we have got

rid of a lot of books recently hard to

drop just takes yeah they take up so

much space yeah um

did you have a nickname at school high

school not really actually my parents

chose my name because it’s hard to make

a nickname out of Vanessa yes yeah like

you could say mess or Nessa and that’s

what people might say if they could but

it’s not so easy to make a nickname out

of it like my parents names Theodore and

Pamela were always Pam and Ted yeah and

they didn’t like that it was so short

and wanted something more descriptive or

longer so that’s why they named me

something that was kind of hard and my

sister too

Cherise you could say Reese but my

parents were pretty strict about that

it’s Vanessa

it sure is sorry so did you also like

stick to that as well this one gave you

a nickname did you say no just call me

yeah there were really no nicknames that

people even tried to give me except for

Dan

this family calls me Nessa so that was

kind of the first time their rebellious

yeah the first time you know you Nessa

yeah and sometimes as a like childhood

name my sister she couldn’t pronounce

Vanessa when she was really young so I

don’t remember this because I was too

young too but my parents say that she

called me Vashi so sometimes in like

birthday cards my parents will write

happy birthday Vashi cuz I’m their

little girl yeah but no one really calls

me nicknames except for Dan’s family

yeah but does that do you have nicknames

for down Oh

usually I don’t use his name often

usually I just say like hon dear honey

sweetie

Hey yeah like I realized that I don’t

often say Dan unless I’m around other

people and if we’re if he’s at work

sometimes if I’m trying to get his

attention maybe I’ll say hey hon but if

he’s not thinking that I’m there then

I’ll say Dan or Daniel well yeah when

you’re angry

yeah Daniel Daniel that’s more his mom

maybe yeah you don’t again to that kind

of usually we just use pet names yeah

yeah I’ve got two more questions okay

I’m ready and why something that your

English learning community doesn’t know

about you

mm-hmm I think I’ve said a lot of those

so far mmm interesting you know like at

a party trick or something that you can

do that of the people calm oh that’s a

hard on-the-spot question think about

that well today I mentioned a couple of

those that I learned to fly an airplane

that’s cool before driving a car it’s

pretty cool that’s pretty unusual

so probably trick that’s a party trick

yeah yeah um I think mmm the stuff that

I share with my students the stuff that

I talked about in YouTube videos

often maybe are things that some of my

friends don’t know mm-hmm like talking

about experiences living abroad or like

learning languages is a lot of what we

talk about but a lot of my friends maybe

either haven’t traveled or they don’t

speak other languages so when they hear

oh you can speak French

it’s shocking really cuz a lot of people

in the US at least if you haven’t

traveled you probably haven’t learned

another language enough specially French

yeah maybe Spanish is yeah a lot of

people know a little bit of Spanish oh

yeah store people if they if they speak

a language and the first language is

English then it’s always gonna be

Spanish yeah maybe something surprising

is maybe not super surprising is that a

lot of my students say like how can you

always be so happy how can you always be

so energetic but I think if you came to

my house for dinner I’m probably more

energetic than you even imagine like I

feel like you are energetic if we’re

listening to music and tonight we’re

gonna have some friends over and make

pizza and play a game sometimes I feel

like other people are like oh wow you

have lots of energy yeah I’d say

enthusiasm enthusiasm maybe that’s it I

know you I’m really excited about

watermelon or yeah light or something do

not like it well no it’s just when you

said I love cutting the one oh that’s

specifically the best part yeah um but

yeah when we came over for dinner we

were dancing to Michael Jackson oh yeah

yes my son was done sitting yeah yeah

loss of enthusiasm yeah I think it’s a

great thing to have not really a party

trick no no I’m but it’s something yeah

they might not know that you’re not just

happy on video yeah

you happy in real life Jam last question

okay if you could live anywhere in the

world where would you choose to live

apart from my shop oh I’ve been really

happy with Asheville that’s not the

answer I guess but I’ve been really

happy living here you can answer it I’m

any kind of way I’m gonna I’m gonna push

you - or twice have to say somewhere

else yeah

and somewhere that you’ve not been well

it’s just fro die oh I did I’ve never

visited yeah well first of all I like

living in Asheville and I imagine myself

living here for a while somewhere that

I’ve been but I haven’t really lived yet

yeah I think I think I could see myself

maybe living in Strasbourg France really

it was really cool just the city was

very liveable it didn’t feel like a

tourist City

it felt really different from Paris or

the South of France like the South of

France is just like a fairy tale

everything is just perfect and looks

beautiful but it seems to me like it

would just seem too unreal to live there

on a daily basis but Lee Strasberg

seemed the people we met there we just

met some random people who just talked

to us and they de seem so friendly and

the atmosphere was just a good mix

between just Europe it’s just pure

Europe because it’s mmm

Germany and France gonna mix together

yeah I think someday I’d like to live in

Japan

• have you been to Japan only the

airport right so you have a really

experienced thing yeah so in a real

sense when I’ve talked with my Japanese

students and when I’ve watched YouTube

videos about Americans or foreigners who

have lived there it just seems like I

really loved living in Korea but I

couldn’t live there forever mainly

because it’s as far from everything like

family and everything but it would be

really hard to work at an English school

which is the only legal job you can have

as an American I just can’t

work in that system for the rest of my

life but I think it would be cool to do

my job now in say Japan somewhere that

would be new to me but it just seems

really interesting yeah definitely I’d

love to go that yeah those are my

answers cool good thanks for your

questions yeah I’m guys if you have

further questions for Vanessa leave them

below yes and thanks so much for

listening to my long and sometimes

unanswered I didn’t really answer about

a lie um or a party trick but it’s okay

no that’s okay I do know that you can

make another lesson about it yeah when

it comes to you yes if I think of one

I’ll let you know and if you want to

answer any of these questions for

yourself what is a food that you love

and you’d eat every day or what’s the

last lie you told let us know in the

comments it’d be really interesting and

make sure to check out Jack’s interview

I asked Jack a bunch of questions on his

channel so you can just click on the

link in the description and go to that

video oh thanks so much everyone

thanks Jack yeah Thank You Kathleen yes

see you later bye um the next step is to

download my free ebook five steps to

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English lesson thanks so much and I’ll

see you later bye