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Interdependence - VIP Commentary

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the commentary for this month’s lesson. Let’s talk more about this idea of interdependence. This topic was inspired by a few different books that I’ve read and just really by this idea which has been something I’ve thought about for many years. It’s kind of a common idea. You may have already thought about it somewhat, but I encourage you to think about it more deeply especially this month. If you like the idea of homework, then think of this as your homework this month or think of this as some thing to focus on this month.

Each month in the commentary I usually encourage you to focus on some specific idea or some activities or something related to the topic and in this way you can take the topic and make it more a part of your life. By doing this each month you may not realize in one month or two months or three months a big change. You may not think anything is happening, but over a period of five months, six months, eight months, 10 months, a year, if you actually do these things each month, if you actually do the activities I encourage you to do, if you actually think about the idea more deeply as I encourage you to do you may, in fact, start to notice some fairly large changes in your life and with your confidence as you speak English. So we want to do both.

Let’s go back to this idea of interdependence. A few books that I recommend that might help you think more about this topic, one book is called The Tao of Physics. I think I mentioned it in my Power English lessons in the past, so I’ll recommend it again. Tao is spelled t-a-o, but we pronounce it ‘dow’ because it comes from a Chinese word. I don’t know why we pronounce it that way. Anyway, that’s how it’s supposed to be pronounced. I used to say ‘taw’ and then I got correct all the time, it’s Tao. So anyway, Tao of Physics.

That’s a great book and it’s kind of a book that explains some of the more modern ideas of physics, especially related to this topic, but it explains it in a way that a non-physicist can understand. Now, it’s certainly going to be a more advanced level of English and it’s going to have a lot of scientific terms and scientific vocabulary, but that could be helpful to you.

In fact, people all the time ask me, how can I improve my score on the TOEFL exam?

The TOEFL exam is the exam probably most popular in North America. People in other countries they want to come to the United States or Canada to study at a university they have to take the TOEFL exam for their English. For British English it’s the IELTS.

They’re both similar, but what they’re both measuring or at least they claim to measure, what they’re both claiming to measure is academic English, the kind of English that is used in universities and colleges.

What you’re going to find on those tests are a lot of topics that are related to the kind of core academics; in other words, science, some math, history, politics, that kind of topic.

So people ask me all the time, how can I prepare for this? How can I prepare for this?

The most common way to prepare is to study these big study books, you know test preparation books. So a lot of people go out and they study the TOEFL exam books.

If you really need the TOEFL exam, that’s fine. Go ahead and do that, but don’t make that the main focus of your study. I encourage you to get a TOEFL exam book and maybe do a few of the practice tests. It will give you an idea of how the test works and you’ll be more comfortable with it, but to really improve what you need to do is listen to academic-style English and read academic-style English. To do that I recommend reading real books instead of test preparation books.

In other words, what I’m saying is if you’re preparing for the TOEFL exam and you want to improve your knowledge of vocabulary related to science, I highly recommend reading a book like The Tao of Physics. That will help you much more than just reading some test preparation book. If you can get through even half of The Tao of Physics you’re going to get a lot of great English vocabulary related to science and, of course, specifically to physics. It’s also going to be much more interesting because it’s real.

This is a book that is written for native English speakers. It is a book that is focused on teaching you some very interesting ideas and that’s much better to study than something that’s just helping you for a test, that’s just giving you a bunch of test-taking strategies. Those test-taking strategies will help you a little bit, but they are not going to raise your English level a lot. So if you want to improve on an exam, you want to improve your academic-style of English then read real books.

So to focus on science, read things like The Tao of Physics. So, anyway, that’s my little tangent, my little side recommendation for those of you who really are focused on that kind of English. Even if you’re not taking a test, if you just want to talk about these kinds of topics, if you want to raise the level of your English to a more academic level, I highly recommend reading books like this. You know popular science books, popular books about business and economics and history, things like that. It’s a great way to improve your vocabulary at an academic level.

Now, other books you could read, you might read philosophical books. There’s a Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh who’s a great writer. His English is very simple and direct, but he manages to communicate some deeper ideas in a direct and simple way. So that’s another great writer. Just do a search on Amazon or online Thich Nhat Hanh – it’s a Vietnamese name – and you’ll find a bunch of books that will discuss this idea of interdependence. It’s another way to deepen your understanding of this idea and at the same time to increase your vocabulary and improve your English.

Now, at a more practical level what I’d like you to do is to focus on this idea in your own life and especially on our social website. The reason the social website exists is to give you a place to put these ideas into action. We have a very special community. It’s a very supportive community, very positive, very helpful. It’s a place that you can get outside your comfort zone. You can try new things. Communicate new ideas. Share more about yourself and you’ll know that nobody is going to criticize you. No one is going to attack you.

We don’t all that kind of thing on our site. We have even gotten rid of people if they’ve been a little bit too negative or if their attitude hasn’t been good. You don’t have to worry about that, so this is a good place to practice this idea of interdependence in a very practical direct way and, as I mention in the main lesson, the simplest way to do this is just to have a balance in your life between giving and being strong and independent and being a leader and all of those things that I know that our VIP members are focused on, but at the same time to balance that is to also be a receiver and to ask for and get help and encouragement and to willingly look to other people who are leaders or who are role models for you.

So the idea is that you’re both a leader and I don’t like the word follower, but you’re a learner at the same time. You’re a teacher and a learner both. So you can teach to people things that you’ve learned and that may help them, but then you can also learn from other people or from those same people other things. So I’d like you to practice that giving and taking. Sometimes we get stuck in one role. We become comfortable just being one or the other. This is why I personally try to be careful about not being too strong of a teacher or leader on our site.

You’ll notice on our social site that I often do not answer people’s questions myself. That often times if I post something that it might be just maybe practical or just something a little more light. The reason for this is that I want to encourage all of our members to be leaders so that if you ask a question I know that we already have several very advanced members who can answer those questions very well. So I want to just kind of stay quiet and let those people come in and give their answers. Usually their answers are better than mine anyway.

I’m teaching you as a native speaker, someone who grew up as a baby speaking English so that gives me certain strengths and advantages as an English teacher, but at the same time it also means I have certain weaknesses as an English teacher. I don’t understand what it’s like to learn English as a foreign language because I never had to do it.

Our other members, our advanced members have done that. They did start with no English. Many of them started really improving and learning their English as adults, so they understand the struggles and the difficulties of being a non-native speaker and reaching a high level. They know how to do it. So they can share some ideas and they can help you in ways that I cannot and I can help you in ways that they cannot.

So this is the idea, again, of interdependence. Not looking too much to one person as the leader and everyone else as a follower. That’s a hierarchy. We don’t want that in our group. What we want is, again, this idea of a web where everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. You’re both a teacher and a learner at the same time. In some ways you’re a teacher and in other ways you’re a learner and it’s the same for me.

I’m usually not learning English from you all, but I do learn other things. I learn a lot of kind of life lessons and I learn so much about different cultures, different societies, different ways of thinking, different ways of solving problems, different ways of overcoming challenges and difficulties, all of these things. So I’m constantly learning from you and I hope you’re learning from me too.

So, overall, what I’d like you to do, think about this idea. This month is really a lot about thinking deeply and I would like you to then get on to our social site and share your feelings and thoughts on this topic. Specifically, I would like you to share ideas and your thoughts about how in your life you typically act as a leader, as someone who’s giving and helping, and then I’d like you to also discuss how you act in your life as a learner, as someone who receives help.

So get on the site. Share your feelings and thoughts and ideas about this. Talk about your experiences and comment on others as well. I look forward to hearing your topics, hearing your thoughts and hearing about your life experiences.

I will see you again. Have a great day, bye-bye.