- Hey everyone its Hadar,
Welcome to my channel
and today I have a special treat for you
so you are exactly where you need to be
because today we have a special guest
and that guest is Andres from Andres en Ingles.
Andres is a remarkable youtube creator
based in New York City.
He is originally from Colombia.
His videos are engaging, fun, and creative
and he has helped thousands and thousands
of English learners change the way they speak english.
This video is going to be divided into two parts.
The first part is where Andres will share with us
his inspiring story about turning from an English learner
to an English teacher and coach on his channel.
And how he started his channel just because
he wanted to help his friends learn English in a fun way.
And on the second part we are going to answer questions
from Andres' community about how to pronounce
the most difficult words.
And yes, the word world is going to be there.
- World.
Oh my god it is groundbreaking.
- Also I appear as a guest on his channel,
so definitely go and check out the video there
where we had a beautiful conversation about English,
English learning, different methods, fluency,
limiting beliefs, and so much more,
so make sure you check it out as well.
And when you're there make sure to subscribe,
especially if you're a Spanish speaker.
So what are we waiting for,
let's check out the interview I had with Andres.
Andres!
- Hi Hadar.
- Hi welcome to my channel.
- Thank you so much for inviting me.
- Oh Its such a pleasure actually you're inviting me,
because I'm in your apartment in New York City
- Yeah.
- In Chell Sea
and why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Wait I'm gonna say that Andres is a good friend
and he is also my student
- Yes
- and we're gonna talk a little but about that
but I think that the most incredible thing
about you is your journey.
- Thank you.
- Um so I know it
and I think a lot of people don't necessarily,
why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself
and how you got to do what you're doing now.
- How much time do we have?
(laughter)
So my story started thirty something years ago.
I'm already from Colombia
and my whole life I wanted to live in the states,
New York and I didn't have the means to study English
when I was younger my family didn't have enough money
to study to put me through bilingual school.
I might look young but I wasn't that young,
it was like twenty years ago when there was like
no internet there was like you needed to buy books
and you needed to pay for a higher education
and that was like twenty something years ago,
thirty years ago
and so I decided to study on my own.
I didn't want to study.
I was very curious about the English language
so I started watching movies,
I started watching tv shows ,
and that's how I fell in love with living in the USA,
- Yeah.
- Because I was watching those shows those movies.
And in a way , you know I'm from Colombia
and I was like maybe I want to live there
- Yeah.
- So I
- The American dream.
- Yes.
- Everything looks nice and pretty and flawless
- Until you come here and realize it was all BS
(laughter)
no I shouldn't, it could be, it depends
- it depends, it depends
- What you do with it.
- Yes, exactly.
- When I was going to class I realized that
they were boring
and I didn't want to go
and sit down for forty minutes on for an hour
- And like answer questions in books
- And reading books and you know reading copies
and It wasn't engaging enough for me
- Yeah
- So I was like, maybe I should like keep studying on my own
- Yeah.
- And I did.
Then you know I started working, I graduate,
I start working and I used my English a couple times
but I spent more than thirty years speaking only Spanish.
- Yeah so even if you learn,
you don't really put it to practice.
Unless you take action, specific action,
and then you know it goes away.
- It did give me a little bit of advantage
when I was working
because I was the one that my boss would
take to the meeting with the international contacts
or clients and that did give me an advantage
and I started learning what it meant to have that knowledge
it really put you in a different box,
it really give you that advantage
and I start feeling that I needed
to improve how I was speaking English
- Right
- So,
- Because you realize that English
was not just a language that you need to learn
it's your leeway
like its your door to like all the opportunities to
- Totally
- To fulfill the dreams or the goals
and to like live the life that you want.
- Totally
- Its just a tool
- And then
- And you get what you want
- And it's not really about not feeling like a latino
or owning my voice in Spanish
but it is about being comfortable enough
to speak to a crowd that only speaks that language.
- Yeah
- And if they understand what I want them to understand
from my own perspective on any different topic
I needed to be clear enough.
- Yep.
- Then I start pursuing learning more about English.
I was always learning grammar,
I was always learning writing or like reading from books,
but honestly Hadar I never ever ever studied pronunciation.
Or intonation.
- Right.
- Or any for that matter
so I thought I knew enough
and then I moved to New York three years ago.
To make a long story short,
I wanted to give my friends an opportunity
to work here in the states,
for us to have an apartment and the lifestyle
and have the same opportunities
as any other person in New York,
but they didn't speak English.
So I was like I want you guys to start speaking English,
so go to Youtube and find some lessons and learn.
So they said to me,
everything is so boring on YouTube,
they're like just only teachers with big boards
- White boards
- Yeah and hey its all yum
- And hey if it works for you
- I respect that
- Stick with that
- But for them that wasn't engaging enough
- Yeah
- Its funny cause I decided
to start my own channel for my friends.
I never thought that it was going to be what it is right now
this opportunities they have brought into my life
uh you have no idea I only have to make a video
only about how speaking English changed my life forever.
- yeah
- after a couple of years making videos,
I felt this need to go deeper
- yeah
- On pronunciation and that's how I found you.
And I decided to start learning more about
how could I sound better in English
and understanding why it sounded different
if I thought that I knew how to pronounce things in English.
- Why was it important to you?
- Because I thought that I had this level of knowledge
and grammar or how to express ideas and put together words
but I thought, and sometimes I found situations
that I thought I was saying something
and people understood a different thing,
and I was like why?
I am doing everything I was supposed to do
- Yeah.
- But there's so many layers to pronunciation
and I think that's why its important to go deeper in that
and that's where I'm at right now.
- And that's why you went through my online program
and what is the hardest thing as a student trying to
or as a learner trying to work on that
aspect of spoken English?
- The thing I found about your course
was there this thing that happened to me was
like called you named that regression right?
- Regression
- when you have so much knowledge
- yeah
- and you think, oh I understand now
the 't' the 'flap t' 'th' voices the 'h'
- And you can make the single sounds
- Yes
- Yeah.
- And you try to create them and you get confused.
When it comes to the vowels,
especially for me because I am a Spanish speaker
we only have like five sounds
and English has like
- About sixteen
- Sixteen, yeah.
And that for me and when you try to,
I had been watching her videos and when she's like
you put your tongue here and I'm like
- where?
- I don't get it, like how, I'm trying
it doesn't sound the same, but
- You get all tangled up with your tongue
and like it goes out through your ear
and you're like what's going on
- Man the vowels for me are the most confusing thing
- And one of the things you told me before we started is
I can't hear it, I'm deaf right
- I said that
- And I was like, first of all change that language
- Yes
- Once you say that you're brain will not hear it,
if you decide that you won't hear it, you won't hear it
- Its funny Hadar how you mention that
cause you know I like to think of myself as a person who
doesn't have those limiting beliefs and we all do
- We all do.
- We all do, oh my god that is so funny
that that happened like today with us here
when I was so self conscious
oh I don't want to speak English around her,
she's going to start criticizing everything I say
- And that's what he was thinking
and I was like at the same time thinking
wow Andres you're so expressive and fluent and engaging
and I totally see your personality
and I was totally thrilled to listen to him, you
- Thank you
- And at the same time he was like
oh she's judging me
its like we put so much pressure on ourselves
- Its in here
- Yeah and we like have so many expectations
and we put other peoples opinions
like so high up like
and its more important than our own expression.
How many subscribers do you have?
- Four hundred and sixty thousand subscribers.
- So four hundred and sixty thousand subscribers later
you know obviously have something important
to say and people want to listen.
- Yes I think so, I hope so
- And still what I wanted to talk about and show you is like
it doesn't matter where you're at in your journey
there is always something you can work on,
but especially your mindset.
You can see oh he's so successful, its easy for him.
Its not easy for him,
he's working at it every single day,
but he's still showing up.
Because you have made the decision ,
I'm not going to let that stop me the judgment
you know like what is she going to say,
still you invited me,
you were like I'm going to speak to her
you could've easily said no
you know Hadar is coming to New York,
great to see you you know
and have coffee and that's it.
Afterwards I want you to go there to Andres en ingles
and watch the video there where we talk about the mindset
and common challenging sounds
for Latin speakers and for nonnative speakers.
- We do go over different aspects of what it means
to have an accent when you're not a native speaker
- Right
- What it means to have an accent
if that's right is that wrong
how far you can go with it
and some tips if you're a Spanish speaker
on how to be more clear and confident
when you speak English
- You got it!
(laughter)
Took a while to figure out how to say the whole thing
- But no no its actually really important for
you guys to understand that those are not only words,
its a mindset.
- So I don't like to use lose your accent,
eliminate your accent or speak like a native,
cause not that its not achievable,
but it takes a lot of hard work
and I don't think that people need to do that,
but I do think that you need to learn pronunciation
to speak with clarity and confidence.
- Yes
- First of all it lets agree that
once you tell yourself something negative
oh I can't do this I can't hear that I'm just bad in this
its not reality its your perception of reality
and its called a limiting belief
and your limiting belief has become your reality
but it doesn't mean its true
- It doesn't and I wanna add to it
and I love the fact that we met today
because sometimes you need somebody else to let you know
that what you're doing is okay
thinking like that is not wrong it is part of the process.
- Recognizing it
- Yes
- Catching it is our work our constant work
- The fact that you think that you are perfect
or you need to be perfect or perfection by itself
is a limiting belief cause it is the process
- There's no such thing as perfect,
perfect is not interesting
- And I want to know what I'm doing right
and I want to know if I'm not doing it right
why am I doing it that way
- Right, so you have the power
yes
not that
Okay I have to stop here
because we have come to the end of part one.
In part two were going to talk about
the most confusing words for Spanish speaking people
and also for nonnative speakers in general
because these are tricky words in English
also get to see how I work with people
how I coach someone one on one which is a lot of fun.
Okay?
So make sure to subscribe so you'll get a notification
when a new video is out
and don't forget to check out Andres' channel.
The links are right below and you can also click here.
Have a beautiful day and I'll see you tomorrow.
Bye.