hello there it's drew and i am back from
my trip to Hawaii. i was out visiting
just the landscape I really wanted to
enjoy Hawaii with my family so I went to
Oahu and got to enjoy some nice beaches
down there and some great food and it
was really just a fantastic opportunity
to leave Nagasaki and Japan for a little
bit but of course there are many
Japanese people in Hawaii's I did
actually speak quite a bit of Japanese
while I was down there even helped a
japanese couple maybe some grandparents
that were at a clothing store trying to
find some clothes for their
grandchildren so that was a fun
experience in another great way to use
my language even when i'm outside of the
country
it's interesting actually I find myself
practicing my Japanese more when I'm not
in Japan I don't know why that is I
think it's more I feel like more
stronger connection to the country when
i'm outside of it when i'm outside of
japan so I'll often find my myself
speaking and practicing Japanese more in
those situations so this is kind of
another reason why it's it's not a i
guess a hindrance or a real problem if
you don't live in an english-speaking
country because you can find your way to
connect to english even if you don't
live in an english-speaking country
anyway one of the things that I thought
a lot about over the vacation was the
youtube channel and how as just like a
part of what we do we can really do a
much better job for learners and helping
people get excited about learning and so
one of the things i want to do is kind
of do i get something different i guess
maybe all maybe i'll go back this might
be a long video we'll see but the long
and short of it is and this is another
great phrase for you the long and short
of it
this just means if you have maybe
something long you want to say or a long
explanation you use this before you're
going to give a shorter explanation just
too may be communicated in a faster and
more simple way so the long and short of
it is I was thinking a lot about you and
how I can help you get fluent and really
I wanted to kind of open up the channel
you see I've got maybe a slightly
different orientation here in the studio
excuse me I don't have a lot of options
in here for you know nice backgrounds
and things but i want to i don't know i
guess like like thinking a lot about
the channel and how I can help you
improve help others like you improve one
of the most important things that helped
me was just the ability to stick to the
learning process and I know a lot of
people come through this channel and
it's not just about my channel or even
other language learning channels online
people maybe maybe this is you like you
get some kind of idea something happens
to you where maybe you should learn
English or maybe you know for your
career you're thinking about learning it
or it could be whatever reason maybe
you're clicking on videos and then you
come to this one and you watch a little
bit of it and you're okay I'm like
excited to learn but then maybe watch
two or three of my videos or something
else and then maybe you don't come back
and it's maybe not because the videos
are bad but because you know that the
learning process is a long thing and not
a lot of people do like make it through
to the end they don't stick through to
the end
so a lot of what I do on the channel is
really two things the first one is
giving you tips about how to learn how
to think about things in a different way
and i spent a lot of time talking about
psychology so how the way you think
effects the way you learn in your
confidence and all of these things and
it becomes a very important part of the
learning process
the other thing i do is giving or give
specific tips about maybe you should
learn this phrase or that phrase are all
work on a particular grammar point
something like that but all of these
things are kind of individual videos
that anybody could come to the channel
at any time and watch and you probably
notice that unless we're maybe talking
about our beginning English series for
learners may be like beginning learners
whether they're adults or kids so this
series as a particular order of things
but almost everything else on the
channel can be viewed independently so
you can watch one or two videos and it
doesn't really matter what were you
watch them in and I thought a lot about
this and it's kind of the opposite of
really what you should be doing for
learning and I'm not doing a very good
job of making the learning environment
here on YouTube really suitable for
people to do that that stick to it that
stick to witness being able to continue
doing something because you've got to
spend more
time then what you really think is
required especially for fluency almost
everything that takes time to do well
and to get really good at it's going to
take more time than most people think
and so if you have a very quick passing
idea about yeah I'd like to learn
english today and then you watch two or
three videos and then you stop and find
something else to get interested in i
probably won't be able to help you but
what i can do is try to make the channel
a bit more of a place where people that
struggle can you know enjoy watching my
journey as well as i'm also starting to
you know I guess look at different ways
for improvement beyond fluency so I'm
obviously also learning japanese and
improving my fluency in that language as
well but i really wanted to give people
the opportunity to kind of follow me on
a journey and go with me on a journey in
the way that i am an English fluency guy
and so I wanted to talk about part of
that today and I thought that if I
created something or kind of evolved the
channel where we're more taking a
journey with me and I'm giving you more
of like the insight into my personality
and what I do in my everyday real life
and like I'm trying to talk my wife and
getting on the show with me hopefully
she says yes and maybe if you put down
in the comment below like yes like yeah
drew your wife should definitely get on
the program her name is Ted to meet er
um I and she's a little bit shy but if
you put a comment down below that says
yes we want you to get on the program
and talk with Drew and you know get more
involved in the channel then she just
might decide to to do it I can't make
any promises but anyway make comment
down below and like this video and maybe
she will get excited to do that but
anyway so I thought it would be I kind
of brought this up maybe a couple of
videos ago about making a certain
challenge and giving myself something to
to look forward to in to work towards in
the same way that you're working towards
fluency and I didn't want to do
something where I'm trying to lose
weight or do other things I am trying to
dunk so I'd like been working on
stretching my legs and improving my leg
strength so i can do that but you know I
really wanted to do something a bit more
practical and i know that a lot of
people are interested in
self-development and self-improvement in
general so most people maybe you two
you're learning a language not just for
life but also because it's an
interesting goal to have it's a it's an
interesting skill to develop and when
you it's one of those really cool skills
that when you go into an environment you
can speak a different language it's
really giving you the key
almost to another world and I can walk
around in japan in the same way that I
walk around in America and I don't feel
nervous about getting into a taxi or
asking people for directions or even
offering help like I was helping that
couple back in america in Hawaii and
when I when I experience those things
especially after I struggled for so long
to learn that really became a motivating
thing for me to help other people
experience that as well now what you
probably don't know about me is that I
actually struggle with communication in
general and this is a weird thing
because I'm an educator and I i spent a
lot of time talking in an environment
like this and i think i was attracted to
you tube in the first place and just
being able to connect with people in
this way because I like i tend to move
around a lot so I've lived in lots of
different places and maybe you know it
whether I'm in America or Japan or
someplace else i'll be there for maybe
two or three years and then I'll move to
another location maybe another city in
the same country or something like that
but i notice I've gotten very good at
having lots of good friendships with
people at kind of a shallow level so
especially i'll be with people for a
little while and then I get to know them
fairly well but you know the these
relationships with people take time and
then I find I'm moving to a different
location and my problem is that i don't
really do so well communicating with
people like over the internet and now
that the scenes again like a weird thing
here i am saying i don't communicate
very well and the other thing is I don't
really communicate very well over the
internet and this is exactly what I do
like right now I'm speaking with you in
a way over the internet so i can't visit
be physically with every
body although i wish i could but this is
something that kind of as a challenge
for myself it's something that i'd
really like to improve and so one of my
things is like like I really post
anything on facebook personally and even
further like the English any 1.com
facebook page when i'm posting things
there i'm not like as excited to do it
as I am to speak with people in person
and I don't know exactly how to bring
that more personal connection to things
like Facebook maybe it's just not it's
not a skill that I'm really good at and
when I'm not living in a physical
location with someone I I rarely have
contact with them so you can imagine up
made friends and lots of different
places around the world and have lots of
learners like yourself that are also
learning with me but I have very little
personal contact with them i live in a
small town in japan and i got like
really wish i had up didn't did a better
job of that and so there are other
things like this that I'd like to work
on for myself and I thought it would be
a really great opportunity because we're
learning a language here you're learning
English I'm trying to improve my
japanese and really what we're going for
is communication and it's something that
requires the adoption of habits so
changing the way you think changing the
way behave so for me myself making more
of an effort to communicate with people
back home in Chicago or Seattle or other
places where I've made friends and again
because i'm not in that physical
location anymore I kind of lose that
connection with people i really miss
being in college for that reason
actually it was a lot of fun being there
and I've got lots of people to interact
with and I'm very social but when I'm
not physically with people i find the
internet to be almost cold in that way i
just don't really find myself making as
much of an effort and I don't really
know why that is but this is anyway kind
of one part of my communication problem
and I don't want to talk about too many
things in this video this is more just
kind of an introduction of that but I
thought it would be a great idea to have
kind of a challenge like this and maybe
change the youtube channel and you know
change where we're going with it in an
effort to like i don't i don't really
care so much about getting like more
reviews but it's really important for me
to have people at that moment where
you're trying to learn the language and
you arrive at this video you're watching
it especially if this is the first video
of mine you've ever seen that you think
okay like I'm prepared i'm i'm going to
stay with this guy i want to like see
where he's going to go where he's going
to take me and as you're learning with
me as you're moving with this you know
kind of journey this adventure with me
then you're picking up the language
naturally the same way a native speaker
would so I don't want to do the thing
where I have the whiteboard behind me
and I'm just writing out a list of
phrases that most people are going to
forget anyway I gotta challenge you to
go back and look at some of the videos
maybe like that other people are
producing that give you list of things
to remember written up on a whiteboard
and look at it even you know an hour two
hours later and see how much you
remember really what you remember
stories and so these are the kinds of
things I'd like to do more of
and these are the kinds of situations
that i think would make a really great
series here and kind of changing and
evolving the youtube channel in that way
so i may you know go back and see about
you know doing some other things while
I'm teaching specific phrases but really
what I'm trying to do is create
something have a journey that you can
follow along with me and if you're also
interested in personal development about
how we can really communicate better
with people become better people i know
it sounds a little bit weird but like
that's important to me and i really want
to be able to connect better with people
and have stronger deeper relationships
with people so I thought in addition to
the language the language is really just
a means of communication but how we
communicate all of these things it's a
much deeper topic more interesting one
and this is something that if we can
develop these skills together these are
the things that help us more in our
interpersonal relationships so if it's
just friends or other people in your
family or your neighborhood or if it's a
professional thing where you're trying
to speak more with the people at your
work or at your school or other you know
professional situation so all of these
things like following following me on a
journey and me getting to actually have
a conversation with you so I'm looking
at the comments and seeing what people
are interested in learning about and the
channel involves that way
but i think this is really what we need
to do and I need to like kind of show
more of myself and get kind of beyond
the professional looking of like okay
and maybe it's not like so professional
looking but what I mean is the
professional way of like okay we're just
going to like stop at the language we're
going to talk about how to learn the
language and here tricks to help you
learn it faster and these are things
that get clicks you know people are
interested in how you can learn a whole
bunch of words but the real thing that
gets you fluent is the journey itself
and continuing to stick with the channel
whether it's my channel or somebody else
I really want you to actually get fluid
and know what it's like to be able to
communicate in English the way you do in
your native language so anyway I will
leave it here if you have any questions
think this is a good idea or even a
terrible idea to let me know down in the
comments and i look forward to hearing
from you into to seeing where the
channel goes in to see what this kind of
challenge looks like because it's just a
new idea and I don't know exactly how it
will work but I think it'll be very
interesting anyway do let me know in the
comments section below be sure to like
this video if you'd like to see more of
these and you know become a subscriber
if you're not already and we can follow
you know this journey together anyway
have a fantastic day and i look forward
to seeing you in the next video bye bye