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
us
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
it
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
um
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
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
to
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
like
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
go
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
me
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
is
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
like
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
like
it takes that much more effort so like
it
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
like
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
like
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
like
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
like
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
to
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
like
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