hello hello teacher Michael how are you?
hi I’m good thank you I’m good how are you?
pretty good thank you thanks for asking
so we could finally you know meet
yes yes it's right good to meet you it's
that Meysam is that right?
yes Meysam exactly exactly yeah great to meet you great to meet you too thank you
very much so without further ado let's do the you
know meeting and without you know losing any time
because I think we're in a hurry
cool okay uh teacher Michael
uh speaking of motivation how can we motivate language learners? what do you
think about this?
um yeah good question
so I think of course motivation is very important
uh I think it depends if you mean like
self-motivation or from like a teacher's point of view
so I think in terms of self-motivation maybe
immersing yourself in the culture um kind of listening to music like say
English music things like that I think is really good sneaky ways to get that
kind of motivation
as for teachers I think it's important
that teachers kind of make a connection between language and real life use
so it's not just stuff that you'll never use
in reality but I think seeing the practical side
can be quite motivating too but I always like to say to my students that
motivation is important but it's not the only thing
because I think if you only rely on motivation to study then
you're not gonna study every day so I also think in
addition to motivation you need to have like good habits in place as well
so you have that habit to study every day too
fantastic very good thank you okay uh
it says here what are the probable
problems of students while they are studying and
learning?
the problems that students might face when they're learning? yes yes
um well yeah going back to my first one I would say habits is a big one
so I always compare it to like uh brushing your teeth
so when you brush your teeth you don't have to think about it or plan it
it's just a habit and I think if language learning or English learning
can become the same that's perfect because you can
wake up or whatever and sit down and study and it's not even something you
have to think about and I think that already is
a big problem that many people face is finding the time and the motivation to do it
I think as well people don't think about why they need to learn English so
perhaps someone might have the maybe someone
wants to travel and that's why they want to learn
English but then they're kind of studying all of these use
almost useless vocabulary about you know in the office
and things like staples and tape and all this kind of office
equipment that wouldn't be that useful for them
so I think I think that can be another problem that many people don't consider
cool exactly yeah uh
what sort of material would you
recommend them to use? like you know sorry books, apps, websites?
or some other digital platforms whatever?
yeah I think it can be quite a quite subjective, it depends on the
person to summarize maybe just whatever the
learner finds fun so I, in my opinion fun is more important
than efficiency even if there's not as much
vocab or grammar I think if you find it fun that's most important
um but yeah like personally I like to go for like blogs or podcasts or
videos that I find interesting (yeah) and when
I do come across grammar or something that I find difficult
then I would maybe use a book or online resource
to help but only when I get stuck but in terms of like specific
recommendations I’m not really loyal to any one resource I just
like whatever I find on the internet is fine
for me so there's not one specific thing I would
recommend just whatever works for each individual person
I see yeah
possible of course (yeah)
grammar and vocabulary which one is
important? and why? plus how can learners improve their
grammar and vocabulary?
huge question
I love huge questions actually
yeah I think but both are definitely important of course
um there is a difference though I think if you have a lack of grammar you can
still be understood because I... you know I've been to Spain
with no language just some words and people still understand me
but if you have a lack of vocabulary that
will hinder like stop people from understanding you so I would
say vocabulary is incredibly important grammar is
obviously also important but maybe not as much
but I’m a big advocate of like natural methods
so like not studying grammar before you need it
so for example if you're reading a book or listening to something
then you see the grammar then you can study
but I think many people will make them maybe not mistake but
many people will study like advanced grammar that maybe we rarely
use but it's in a textbook so I think that
is something that you could avoid (yeah) yeah
so basically study in context and yeah pick it up as you go that's that's
my preferred method anyway
exactly yeah mine too
ah I see
sure and okay very silly question to ask from a native speaker
how did you personally learn English? [Laughter]
I don't really remember so of course I was a baby
it is interesting to think about the differences between
you know how babies learn and how adults can learn
um yeah I'm not sure I’m not sure what to say okay I can talk
about my Japanese learning if you like?! um
like I mentioned it a bit already but I’m learning Japanese and in
that I basically just do every day a bit of
reading a bit of listening podcasts um Youtube videos
and then some flash cards and the final
thing I do is like a weekly conversation with my language tutor so I
try to kind of keep it simple but access or use the same
you know areas that the main areas like reading listening
speaking (yeah) but keep it simple that's my method
cool okay you know let's say uh where are you originally from?
originally I'm from England I'm from Cornwall which is like an area in the
Southwest of England um and we do have like we do actually
have our own language (really?!) in Cornwall the Cornish
language (really?!) but these days it's only like 200 people
speak it so I don't know it actually.
is that close to English or completely different?
not at all actually so it's got a completely different
history to English it's kind of similar to
Welsh or Scottish but yes it's definitely interesting if
(I didn't know that) anyone has time to look into that yeah cool
cool okay uh is it possible to learn multiple languages at the same time? and
would you recommend that?!
yeah I think it's possible because I... I'm doing that at the moment
uh if people do that I like I'm a big fan of like the 80
20 rule which is having one language as the
dominant language like maybe studying eighty percent
one language twenty percent the other language
because if it's fifty, fifty it might become a bit confusing
and progress will be quite slow of course if your goal is to get fluent
in English then picking up a second language will
maybe double your time to get fluent but yeah I think if you
have the passion for two languages and you think it would be fun then yeah you
can go for it and yeah I think enjoyment is the most
important thing really
yeah of course yeah uh because you know
these are frequently asked questions that is why I
put it in this you know question let's say
interview questions but of course the answer is so obvious yeah
it is possible of course
yeah I used to I used to be
learning like three languages at once but then
I found my progress was so slow I kinda cut it down to two
but yeah I think you have to find that balance don't you? between
what you want to do and how quickly you want to make progress I guess
yeah exactly exactly okay how can learners improve their
speaking abilities? yeah I am fed up with this question
yeah I get this question every day (yeah) um
very simply practice um that there are other things you can do like I
think listening can help because it helps you get used to the
collocations the expressions the sound of the
language and the accents which you know does have a role to play
in speaking but I think the best thing is just to
practice speaking so you can speak to yourself and many
learners talk to themselves when they're doing
housework and that kind of stuff um and narrating their life
the thing I would recommend most highly is getting like an online teacher
or a language partner doesn't have to be a native speaker
someone to practice with maybe once a week at least I think that's
the best way quite simple
I see yeah possible um accent and pronunciation
which one is really important? uh
and of course we have American English versus
British English which one should a language learner you know choose or select?
yeah that's a good question too
yeah really good question
yeah I think
so I’m kind of stealing this so some people
may know the teacher on instagram called teacher Will (yeah)
he said this he said this phrase I really love he says
focus on fluency and the accent will follow naturally in time so I love that
that I think a lot of people focus
too much on accent at the beginning and kind of forget about
becoming fluent in the language and that can make people sound unnatural
if they do that too much so I think fluency is the most important
um pronunciation is vital to be understood if you have
bad pronunciation you won't be understood
but accent is a bit different because everyone has their own accent you know
I have a different accent to my even my family
to a lot of my friends um that doesn't really matter because it just shows
where you're from (yeah) I think pronunciation is
the the key and um yeah American or British
I think again I think it depends on your individual goals (yeah) so if you're
you know say if you're French and very close to England
you are planning to maybe travel to the UK
then of course maybe British English but it just depends on
your goals for the future you could even study both at the same time I think
that's also fine but yeah it just depends on what you prefer
some people will study both simultaneously and some people will
study one and then maybe study the other one when they get to like an advanced level
but it doesn't really make any difference I think in the long term
I see very nice very cool uh okay is it possible to learn English
without going abroad? again very cliche question
but yeah absolutely I definitely think it is
because um yeah I get this a lot too but
uh yeah I think if you're going abroad it's it can
help but I think it's over how much it can help is overestimated
over exaggerated maybe um I think if you're very outgoing and
extroverted person you can make a lot of friends if you
travel it could be very helpful but if you're a bit more introverted or
shy then staying at home can be just as good
because you know I went I stayed in Japan for one month
when I was very shy at this point and I really didn't improve at all
um so I think if you're at home you can surround yourself with English through
the internet media go to restaurants that maybe
don't speak your language they can speak English
meetups all this kind of stuff I think for most people in the 21st
century there's no excuse yeah not to learn because you know we
have the internet these days
exactly absolutely uh
okay how long will it take for a person to
really learn every necessary elements of language to speak it properly?!
ah I like it another cliche question
very cliche question
it's I don't know if you'll expect this but I think it's real
in my opinion it's impossible to say I think it depends on many factors such as
your motivation how much time you invest in learning
your ability to learn you know I think everyone has a different
natural ability how quickly they can memorize
and also what it means to you to speak properly? because I think it depends on
your goals so if you want to get a job in London
then you need a high level of English but
if you want to just make friends in the pub
then maybe you won't need quite as high to speak you know properly so I think
that depends but what I would advise to people asking
this question is rather than focusing on the long term thinking how long will it
take is to focus on the small wins so
for example yeah I just had one successful conversation I had one talk
with a native speaker or English speaker and it didn't go too
badly and that could be like a thing to
celebrate and it's much more rewarding than waiting
for the goal in a few years time so I think you know
it's a continuing process and language learning should be
enjoyable you know it shouldn't be like when is it going to happen when am I
going to get good yeah
I see yeah very nice okay
and uh it says here that technology and education do you think that uh
integration of these two let's say elements
can be a good idea or it can be harmful what do you think about this?
oh yeah yeah this is a good question for me I think I think
maybe this answer will depend on people's age
I imagine um but I love technology I actually don't own a single piece of
paper or a textbook so all of my textbooks are digital like
pdfs because I think there's so many benefits
I think you know you can have online teachers of course like I'm an
online teacher so that's part of technology you can have
easy and often cheap access to resources from around the world you
don't have to be in a place that has these
physical textbooks for example
but of course it can be harmful it's not always black and white
(yeah) so if you're learning on your phone with an app
or like I have to do on youtube I think you have to be very strict with
yourself and set boundaries because as I have found with
myself in the past it's very easy to you know get
distracted by a random video about cats or something
like that and it can ... it can be dangerous if you're not
if you don't have that discipline I think so we've with great
power comes great responsibility with that ability
to use technology you have to be responsible
yeah very nice very cool okay teacher Michael thank you very much for
accepting my invitation and (my pleasure) what you said
actually was really valuable for both teachers and students uh surely
speaking I hope in the future we can you know
come up with some other you know ideas or questions and we can I
hope uh we can do some other meetings too
thank you very much again
I'd be very happy to
thank you so much for having me it's been fun
my pleasure my pleasure man okay uh
take care of yourself then thank you so much I'll see you later
see you later man bye-bye take care bye bye
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