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
becoming a confident English speaker
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English lesson thanks so much and I’ll
see you later bye