مکالمه

Hello.

Hey AJ, sorry I had to cut off that last call.

It’s okay, no worries.

Yeah, y’know, I’m, I’m just really glad that we’re on the same page when it comes to, um, our teaching techniques and ideas on… AJ: Yeah.

…teaching.

Well, it’s, it’s really exciting actually, that, uh, that we’re kind of doin’ all this together. I think it’s, it’s really great.

Oh, I agree. Yeah, it’s very exciting.

I think it’s exciting for the um, uh, too. I think it’s just exciting that we’re makin’ all this great stuff for, uh, y’know for students. Because, y’know, as a, as a language learner myself, I’m very frustrated. I think that’s one thing that has motivated me to be, uh, a better teacher… and improve and improve always as a teacher… and make the lessons really good… is because my own language learning, uh, y’know, efforts have been so frustrating.

Mm-hm.

And I, I saw such a difference… Like, for example, Spanish… Y’know, uh, I learned Spanish in the traditional way in school. So, y’know, I’m just al-, I’ve always struggled with it.

Mm-hm.

But then Tomoe just started learning Spanish. I mean she’s just a low beginner.

She had zero Spanish. I mean she’s Japanese. They don’t learn Spanish in Japan.

But she took this four day intensive, uh, course using the story telling technique.

Yeah, I remember.

Yeah, the same one we use.

Yeah.

And, um, I couldn’t believe how much she learned in four frickin’ days. It was amazing [laugh].

And then we went down to Guatemala for two weeks and, uh, by the end of that two weeks she was speaking, I’d say, easier, more easily, flowing more, uh, than me.

I mean I had a bigger vocabulary just ‘cause I have so much more experience. But, uh, she was speaking with more ease. Y’know, I, I was const-, speaking slowly. I ca, I was thinking all the time about grammar rules, still. I didn’t want to. I know it’s not good. But it’s kind of like those things are stuck in my head.

Right.

So it…

Yeah.

…was amazing to see her after four days classes and then two weeks in Guatemala and she’s just start-, it’s just startin’ to come out. And I’m just like, oh my god! Wow…

Oh, you never told me about…yeah, you never told me about this.

Yeah, yeah, it-, it’s pretty cool [laugh].

So she, she wouldn’t be stressed at all, it would just kinda come automatically.

Right, exactly. And I think that’s the main thing, too. It’s just like emotionally it’s so different to learn with, y’know, this effortless system. Because, uh, you just feel so much more relaxed and enjoy it more. Like, I was stressed [laugh].

Mm-hm.

Because I learned this traditional way, y’know, and I’ve tried to take a different approach, but, um, uh… Y’know, by just listening…. But I have a lot of that old, uh, method to, to overcome, y’know, and…

[laugh] It really is. Y’know, I remember… Who was it? Uh, it was David Long, I think, in, in Thailand. He used to talk about how, y’know, that, that traditional language teaching methods… They’re not only ineffective. They actually damage you. Y’know, they create, they create damage that you have to then heal. And it takes time, to… If you’ve learned with traditional methods for a long time, it takes time to sort of undo that.

Right.

You’ve got to go and use, use this kind of effortless system for a while so you can forget all that old crap.

Um-hm.

I can see that, y’know, certainly my Spanish, uh, improved some as I started to focus on just listening and tried to forget about the grammar rules. It definitely was better than in high school or college or university.

Um-hm.

But, um… But still compared to Tomoe who has only used the effortless methods, it was, it’s amazing, she, to see her. It was pretty cool [laugh].

I’m sure you’ve seen as well in the classroom, I know I have, students themselves struggling with it. Because you were sayin’ you’ve, you’ve, y’know, seen it with yourself, within yourself, but trying to overcome, uh, the old ways that we’ve been taught.

Oh yeah, the, the, y’know, most of the problems are psychological.

Yeah.

Y’know, when, when, like… If the students in my classes, um… The biggest challenge for me… It’s like, y’know… The, the method I know it works. And it’s got all this research. I, no doubt about it… But the, the problem, the challenge is to get the students to accept it, to change their mentality and relax and just, y’know, really believe me. Forget your grammar books. The students who, who would do that, who would just, just have a, kind of a leap of faith, y’know, and say “Okay, I’m gonna, I’m gonna believe AJ, I’m gonna try these methods,” they would learn so fast. And the ones who struggled were the ones who just couldn’t do it. Y’know, they, they were like “No, but I have to study grammar.” And they, they would just keep… Kristin: Forcing it.

…they would come to my class but they would keep forcing it. They would keep using their grammar books. They’d keep trying to memorize vocabulary. And they would learn so slowly.

Yeah.

And then they would be frustrated because they would be… They’d be asking me “Why am I learning slowly?” and compared to the other students, who were learning so much faster. And I would tell them every time, y’know, it’s because you keep using these old methods, y’know. Forget it.

Right.

But it’s, it’s a psycho-, it’s psychology. I, I think, y’know, it’s not just the method that people have to… to have a psychological change… Kristin: Yeah.

…to succeed with this method.

Kristin: Well, it’s very fitting that you’ve named your lessons effortless, Effortless English.

[laugh] It’s hard to get that across because, uh, uh, people are taught that the-, that they always need to have effort and struggle…

Yeah.

…I get people to relax, that’s the, that’s the maybe the big challenge for us as teachers.

Kristin: Right. Well hey, I gotta, um, get ready to go to work. So tell Tomoe I said hello and I will talk to you later.

Okay, will do. And yeah, talk to you later.

Okay, bye.

Bye.