Episode 12: “Wait, Am I Doing This Right?” — CI Impostor Syndrome
Feeling like a fraud in your CI classroom? You’re not alone — welcome to CI Impostor Syndrome.
Take the CI Proficiency Quiz and see where you stand on the CI journey: https://imim.us/ciquiz
In this hilarious and brutally honest episode, Scott sits down with Monique Francis and Peter Riehl to talk about why even experienced teachers question themselves, how to stop comparing your chaos to others’ perfection, and how to recognize the subtle signs that prove CI is working.
Ready for done-for-you lessons that make CI easier? Check out the CI Survival Kit at https://imim.us/kit.
#ComprehendTHIS, #CITeaching, #LanguageTeachers, #ImpostorSyndrome, #ComprehensibleInput, #WorldLanguage, #CIClassroom, #TeacherPodcast, #LanguageAcquisition, #TeacherHumor
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Monique Francis - https://www.instagram.com/@japaneasyreads
- Peter Riehl - https://www.instagram.com/chillsatwillpodcast
Resources & Links:
- Assessment Academy https://imim.us/academy
- CI Survival Kit https://imim.us/kit
- Diane Neubauer - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFtCASxFEa9ym88EUrWZxFQ
- Janique Vanderstocken - https://www.youtube.com/@janiquevanderstockencllft
- Ben Slavic - https://benslavic.com
- AnnMarie Chase Magic Cards - https://senorachase.com/2018/01/23/magic-cards/
- Rock Paper Scissors Movie Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VZi6cfUZQ4
Join the Conversation:
Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
Watch & Subscribe:
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Connect with Scott:
Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion
🌐 https://immediateimmersion.com
📧 Scott@immediateimmersion.com
Youtube: https://youtube.com/immediateimmersion
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Facebook: https://facebook.com/immediateimmersion
TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@immediateimmersion
Transcript
Good morning and welcome everybody to
Speaker:Comprehend This Podcast.
Speaker:Have you ever scrolled through teacher
Speaker:Instagram and think,
Speaker:"Wait, why do other students look like
Speaker:they're in a Pixar short while mine are
Speaker:reenacting a soap opera?"
Speaker:Yes, same.
Speaker:In this episode of Comprehend This, I'm
Speaker:joined by Monique Francis and Peter Riehl
Speaker:to talk about CI impostor syndrome,
Speaker:that sneaky little voice that whispers,
Speaker:"You're doing it wrong."
Speaker:We'll talk classroom flops, comparison
Speaker:traps, and those tiny signs that remind
Speaker:you you're actually crushing it.
Speaker:Even if you spilled coffee on your lesson
Speaker:plans and your admin just asked when
Speaker:you'll start real teaching.
Speaker:Grab your cold brew because this one's
Speaker:therapy is disguised as
Speaker:professional development.
Speaker:And here we go right
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher planner, just hoping
Speaker:today's lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for teachers who love
Speaker:comprehensible input,
Speaker:but also love not reinventing
Speaker:the wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready-to-use
Speaker:lessons, time-saving tools,
Speaker:and just enough structure to keep your
Speaker:teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us.survival and let the
Speaker:Survival Kit do the
Speaker:heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for
Speaker:real language teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas, and a reminder
Speaker:you're not alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome, welcome. Good morning,
Speaker:Monique and Peter. How
Speaker:are we doing this morning?
Speaker:Doing great. Thank you.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:I'm glad to have both of you here.
Speaker:Peter is right in my backyard in Northern
Speaker:California, but Monique, originally from
Speaker:Australia, is joining
Speaker:us from Belgium today.
Speaker:So it's her evening. So welcome to both
Speaker:of you. I'm so glad that you're here.
Speaker:Monique, why don't you give us a little
Speaker:bit about yourself to let
Speaker:everybody know who you are?
Speaker:Sure. Yes, so I'm a Japanese
Speaker:teacher based in Australia.
Speaker:I'm actually over here in Belgium.
Speaker:I've been travelling around for six weeks
Speaker:with my daughter, and we came over to
Speaker:check out the sites,
Speaker:but also to attend the World Language
Speaker:Teachers Conference in Basel.
Speaker:And that was fantastic. So Dr. Liam
Speaker:Printer was the
Speaker:keynote, along with Jo Dale.
Speaker:And it was fantastic. I actually did a
Speaker:little CI demo in Japanese, which was
Speaker:fantastic because, of course, nobody
Speaker:there spoke Japanese.
Speaker:So it was a perfect example of putting
Speaker:yourself in the shoes of your teachers,
Speaker:putting themselves in the
Speaker:shoes of their students.
Speaker:So that was great. I'm currently in
Speaker:Belgium, which is why I'm able to attend,
Speaker:because otherwise in
Speaker:Australia would be stupid o'clock.
Speaker:So I'm grateful to have the opportunity
Speaker:to be here. But yes, I'm a Japanese
Speaker:teacher. I've been
Speaker:teaching for about 35 years now.
Speaker:But I only discovered CI in 2017, and
Speaker:that changed everything. And yes, I just
Speaker:couldn't, I can't look back.
Speaker:So since then, I've been using CI and
Speaker:delving into some research. And yeah,
Speaker:it's like, you know,
Speaker:it's just like my candy.
Speaker:And yeah, in the last two years, with a
Speaker:shortage of CI readers, I started
Speaker:Japanese Reads and I write and self
Speaker:publish little grade and CI readers.
Speaker:So that's my passion project, really.
Speaker:Awesome. I love that. I love that. We
Speaker:need always need more readers, especially
Speaker:in languages other than Spanish.
Speaker:There's so many from Spanish nowadays.
Speaker:But yeah, we need so many in other
Speaker:languages to help
Speaker:spread the love a little bit.
Speaker:So yes, thank you so much, Monique.
Speaker:Awesome. I just want to say one thing
Speaker:about that experience in a
Speaker:language you were talking about.
Speaker:Someone asked me a question a couple of
Speaker:weeks ago about she goes, you know, I
Speaker:don't know about keep
Speaker:asking the same questions.
Speaker:I'm getting bored and, you know, they
Speaker:should be I feel like I'm talking down to
Speaker:my students and I'm like, well, you know,
Speaker:you've never
Speaker:experienced another language.
Speaker:Right. Because you think it's talking
Speaker:down to your kids. But you got to
Speaker:remember your kids are like in
Speaker:kindergarten and first grade.
Speaker:You do have to water it down for them.
Speaker:But take a language like Japanese or
Speaker:Russian or Mandarin or Hebrew or one of
Speaker:those languages that are
Speaker:so far from your language.
Speaker:Then you're going to realize, oh, crap, I
Speaker:need to be keeping it simple. I need to
Speaker:be repeating over and over
Speaker:again because those sounds.
Speaker:And it's funny because as a coach, I've
Speaker:coached teachers who do
Speaker:Japanese and Mandarin.
Speaker:I got to keep my ears open to understand
Speaker:what they're saying as well. And those
Speaker:ones don't hurt my head as much.
Speaker:And it's going to be a funny one. Latin.
Speaker:Latin hurts. I physically get a brain. I
Speaker:don't know what it is.
Speaker:No offense to Latin teachers. But that
Speaker:language, it hurts my head
Speaker:trying to keep up with it.
Speaker:And me being a Spanish, you know, I can
Speaker:speak Spanish, I can speak French, a
Speaker:Latin based language.
Speaker:I should be coming a little bit easier,
Speaker:but I can listen to Russian and I can
Speaker:listen to Japanese and I can listen to
Speaker:Mandarin much longer than I can.
Speaker:And my brain starts to get really big
Speaker:fatigued. But if you've not experienced
Speaker:another language, then I
Speaker:highly recommend that you do that.
Speaker:And let me put a little link in here. A
Speaker:great place to get practiced in another
Speaker:language is that fluency.
Speaker:I can spell fluency fast dot com. She's
Speaker:got Karen Roman has got multiple
Speaker:languages that you can take classes in
Speaker:and then you can experience that.
Speaker:And I highly encourage you to take a
Speaker:language that is far from your own. So if
Speaker:you do French or Spanish, do
Speaker:not pick Spanish or French.
Speaker:It's too close. You're not going to get
Speaker:the same feeling. You need to take
Speaker:something that's really far.
Speaker:So you can really understand that, yes,
Speaker:you're bored because you're fluent in the
Speaker:language and you understand it and you're
Speaker:thinking you're being.
Speaker:But you really need to experience it. And
Speaker:one of those other languages to really
Speaker:know that you're probably going too fast.
Speaker:You probably aren't asking enough
Speaker:repetitive questions for those kids to
Speaker:truly acquire that language.
Speaker:They need to hear it hundreds and
Speaker:thousands of times to be able to get
Speaker:those patterns in their head.
Speaker:So I like that it was a really good
Speaker:thing, especially in Europe where, you
Speaker:know, they speak multiple languages.
Speaker:So they've got the Germanic groups.
Speaker:They've got the Latin
Speaker:based groups covered.
Speaker:But Slavic based groups, the Russian
Speaker:groups, the Japanese, the Asian
Speaker:languages, they don't have.
Speaker:And they need to hear more of that to be
Speaker:able to experience that truly what it is.
Speaker:And Scott, if just while you're sharing
Speaker:some resources, this one might be helpful
Speaker:to your listeners as well.
Speaker:Yesterday, last night I attended an
Speaker:online. It's free now and
Speaker:it's being posted to YouTube.
Speaker:But it was a Dutch demo for teachers.
Speaker:So I took part as a student and I 100
Speaker:percent agree with you.
Speaker:I was craving the reps. I just needed to
Speaker:hear it over and over.
Speaker:I'm mentioning this because it's such a
Speaker:fantastic experience for if you have if
Speaker:you want to if you can't attend training.
Speaker:This is something that you can dip your
Speaker:toes into and see not only with the
Speaker:lesson, but also Diane UBauer,
Speaker:who's a fantastic advocate for second
Speaker:language acquisition and research.
Speaker:And she did a debrief with the all the
Speaker:teachers that attended.
Speaker:So it was yet to really powerful one hour
Speaker:if you would like to look a little bit
Speaker:more into comprehensible input and start
Speaker:an acquisition teaching.
Speaker:Absolutely. Thank you so much. I'll put
Speaker:that in there was unique there.
Speaker:And it was her lesson. So she was the
Speaker:teacher. She is fantastic. She is
Speaker:amazing. I love unique.
Speaker:She's a great teacher. I haven't seen her
Speaker:a few years. But yes, she
Speaker:did a great job. Yeah. Awesome.
Speaker:OK, Peter, your turn. What about
Speaker:yourself? Well, shoot, I'm
Speaker:sitting here taking notes.
Speaker:I really appreciate it. And money
Speaker:bringing up that idea of like this, the
Speaker:teacher as the student.
Speaker:I think of like in faculty meetings, like
Speaker:we're the worst
Speaker:sometimes. Right. As far as. Yes.
Speaker:That's a different story. Right. We're
Speaker:the ones on our phones.
Speaker:But we appreciate that idea of I really
Speaker:want to go in and observe as a Spanish
Speaker:teacher in a Japanese
Speaker:class or or another language.
Speaker:That's awesome. But yeah, my name is Pete
Speaker:Reel and I'm a teacher in Sacramento in
Speaker:the Sacramento area.
Speaker:I've been teaching for 22 years, 22, 23,
Speaker:depending on there's
Speaker:a half year in there.
Speaker:So but I'm just a real language learner.
Speaker:I'm just a real
Speaker:passionate about language.
Speaker:I guess that I teach English and Spanish.
Speaker:I love literature. I love the fact that I
Speaker:am a language learner, that Spanish is
Speaker:not my native language.
Speaker:I do regret never having studied abroad.
Speaker:You know, as you know, based on the name
Speaker:of this, immersion is everything.
Speaker:I wish I would have had a chance to do
Speaker:more of the immersion. But yes, I've been
Speaker:teaching 22, 23 years and really
Speaker:passionate about language.
Speaker:And see, I as far as the eyes, it's hard
Speaker:to say how many years I think we really
Speaker:kind of put it into
Speaker:effect right before COVID hit.
Speaker:And that kind of threw everything into
Speaker:chaos and to put them out.
Speaker:I'm having I still have nightmares about
Speaker:those what do you call those rooms where
Speaker:the students got together?
Speaker:The awkwardness for
Speaker:those rooms, right? Yeah.
Speaker:And so that wasn't obviously conducive to
Speaker:the back and forth as much. Right.
Speaker:But yeah, so I don't know, maybe four or
Speaker:five years with with CI and
Speaker:just love the love the model.
Speaker:I think what you're just saying now about
Speaker:we're probably not asking enough
Speaker:questions that really hits home.
Speaker:I do my best to do those to do that
Speaker:repetition. But I think you're right. I
Speaker:probably don't do enough.
Speaker:But anyway, I'm rambling. That's a bit
Speaker:about me. I've I've also been a
Speaker:basketball coach for years.
Speaker:And my passion project that really
Speaker:started with COVID is my my podcast,
Speaker:which is about
Speaker:writing writers and writing.
Speaker:It's called the Chills of Will Podcasts.
Speaker:I've had a pleasure to speak to some
Speaker:really great names, great people.
Speaker:It's been 99 percent fun and even done a
Speaker:couple of them in Todo en Español.
Speaker:Awesome. Awesome. That's excellent.
Speaker:Yes. We don't always think of English as
Speaker:a language, especially here in America,
Speaker:though, like in my school, we've got 43
Speaker:different languages
Speaker:represented at our school.
Speaker:We're all 2200 students, especially with
Speaker:a lot of the refugees
Speaker:from Afghanistan coming in.
Speaker:We've got a lot of different
Speaker:representations. So, you know, English is
Speaker:a second language here in America and
Speaker:English as a language period.
Speaker:In other parts of the country is really,
Speaker:really important as well. And I've always
Speaker:said, and this is a controversial issue,
Speaker:but I have never enjoyed and no offense
Speaker:is going to come out
Speaker:offensive, but no offense.
Speaker:I have never enjoyed truly learning the
Speaker:beginning aspects of the language from a
Speaker:native speaker because I'm a wide kid.
Speaker:I need to know why this is. And they
Speaker:can't usually explain it. I can't in
Speaker:English. I can't tell
Speaker:you why. Go goes to went.
Speaker:I can't explain that. And like just like
Speaker:when I go to a native Spanish speaker,
Speaker:I'll go, why does, you know, go to they
Speaker:can't it just does or why
Speaker:is the stem changing verb?
Speaker:It just does. But those of us who learn
Speaker:the language, we kind of learn the why
Speaker:behind some of those things and they can
Speaker:explain it a little bit better.
Speaker:I am horrible. I could not explain
Speaker:English. So I think that's really
Speaker:difficult. And here in America, we don't
Speaker:even have your teaching
Speaker:English as a second language.
Speaker:You don't even have a common language to
Speaker:build on to make it comprehensible. So
Speaker:that makes it really, really challenging.
Speaker:But I always get frustrated when I would
Speaker:ask a Spanish teacher who is native, why
Speaker:does it do this? And they
Speaker:usually couldn't answer.
Speaker:In fact, one of the first teachers I
Speaker:taught with she was from Chile. And she's
Speaker:like, the textbook says I've got to teach
Speaker:these things called AR, AR, AR verbs.
Speaker:She goes, What are those? I've never
Speaker:heard those. And I'm a native speaker.
Speaker:And I'm like, well, have you not noticed
Speaker:like 80% of the verbs in Spanish and an
Speaker:AR, and maybe like 16 to 17% and an ER
Speaker:and the last like four or 5% and an IR?
Speaker:Not really. So yeah, it's it's an
Speaker:artificial construct that we know as
Speaker:learners, but not as, you know, native
Speaker:speakers. And the only reason I know that
Speaker:English verbs are grouped into weak and
Speaker:strong verbs is because of my German
Speaker:background, because that's
Speaker:how they're linked in German.
Speaker:They're not called irregular verbs and
Speaker:regular verbs are called weak and strong.
Speaker:And I know that from that experience, I
Speaker:learned all my English grammar from
Speaker:German and such like that.
Speaker:So I like native speakers for upper
Speaker:levels when you want to really working on
Speaker:fluency, but for the basics, the basic
Speaker:grammar and structure, I'm kind of
Speaker:partial towards people who learn the
Speaker:language because they're in the same boat
Speaker:that I was in
Speaker:different of a boat in there.
Speaker:So I would be a really bad English
Speaker:teacher because I couldn't explain why
Speaker:these verbs are irregular and why they
Speaker:follow this pattern versus that pattern,
Speaker:or why we say it this
Speaker:way and not that way.
Speaker:You know, you we have that rule can't end
Speaker:a word in a preposition. But then there
Speaker:are certain phrases that you do and in a
Speaker:preposition, but it's
Speaker:not really a preposition.
Speaker:It comes from German with the separable
Speaker:verbs that we have in German, you know,
Speaker:right? So that kind of stuff.
Speaker:You're saying four to five percent or IR
Speaker:verbs in Spanish, huh?
Speaker:Yes, it's the smallest part.
Speaker:That's the sounds. I mean, right. I mean,
Speaker:when we're when we're trying to do
Speaker:conjugations or whatever, just examples,
Speaker:it's like, OK, VV, it is
Speaker:an automatic VV to live.
Speaker:And it's like, maybe I see Steve, maybe.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I I didn't know the exact
Speaker:numbers. That's that makes a lot.
Speaker:I'm not even giving exact numbers.
Speaker:They're pulling out of my head. But I
Speaker:just know I are whenever I'm trying to
Speaker:find an IR example outside of VV.
Speaker:I can't think of one off top my head
Speaker:that's not irregular.
Speaker:Like I can do salir, but then it goes
Speaker:regular on first person. So, yeah.
Speaker:So that's what the stick one. But I don't
Speaker:even think that way anyway.
Speaker:I don't teach them that way in the
Speaker:suburbs. But I know we're leaving her
Speaker:money out because she teaches Japanese.
Speaker:So let's go to our first
Speaker:little bit of topic here.
Speaker:Why do you think even veterans feel like
Speaker:beginner, see I teachers?
Speaker:I don't care whoever
Speaker:wants to start that can start.
Speaker:The wrong button.
Speaker:I like. Well, I just I think that I think
Speaker:I can again, speaking for for Spanish, I
Speaker:would I would think other languages
Speaker:learning a second or third language is
Speaker:that we're so conditioned to
Speaker:the way that we were taught.
Speaker:And we were taught like drill and kill.
Speaker:Right. Like, yeah. So, you know, so many
Speaker:cried the idea of the
Speaker:three types of verbs.
Speaker:A R E R I R. It's like, well, we're gonna
Speaker:we're gonna do yo yo hablo
Speaker:class repeat yo hablo do habla.
Speaker:We're gonna repeat. We're
Speaker:gonna repeat. We're gonna repeat.
Speaker:We put them into these, as you say, with
Speaker:your friend that's a teacher from Chile,
Speaker:we put them into some pretty I guess you
Speaker:could say arbitrary
Speaker:categories in some ways.
Speaker:Right. If a native speaker doesn't even
Speaker:know those. And so I just think we've
Speaker:been conditioned like that. I've had some
Speaker:really I've had some great Spanish
Speaker:teachers over the years.
Speaker:But that was just the
Speaker:way that it was done. Yes.
Speaker:I taught her for 10 or 12 or 15 years of
Speaker:my teaching career in
Speaker:some ways modified it.
Speaker:But I just think it
Speaker:again, just that conditioning.
Speaker:And I always tell myself, well, the way
Speaker:that we learned our own original
Speaker:language, whether I learned English as my
Speaker:first language was not by grammatical
Speaker:charts, but by repetition, repetition,
Speaker:right, using it in context, using it with
Speaker:images, pairing it with
Speaker:images, pairing it with gestures.
Speaker:I'm half Italian. So the gesture things
Speaker:comes easy to me. But I think
Speaker:it's just that conditioning.
Speaker:Yeah, I would agree with that. I think
Speaker:there's definitely that conditioning and
Speaker:well, it sort of worked for us. So, you
Speaker:know, we'll do it for our kids too.
Speaker:But I have to say that didn't work for
Speaker:me. And that's why perhaps I'm just so,
Speaker:yes, this is the way and, you know, it
Speaker:just makes so much sense.
Speaker:I think I think that a lot of teachers,
Speaker:at least in Australia, we have quite a
Speaker:crowded curriculum. So I think that we've
Speaker:had pressure from leadership to, you
Speaker:know, got to get it done.
Speaker:We've got to get through the curriculum.
Speaker:And I just think that it's not working.
Speaker:It's not an inclusive way
Speaker:that we are currently using.
Speaker:And, you know, the research is would back
Speaker:that as well. And so I just think we need
Speaker:to have a little bit more support from
Speaker:leadership to maybe look at a different
Speaker:way to approach the language learning.
Speaker:It works. It works for those top, you
Speaker:know, for centers, the kids that love,
Speaker:yeah, love learning, congregation charts.
Speaker:I wasn't one of them. So, you know, I
Speaker:just, but I think it's from the pressure
Speaker:of having to cover the curriculum.
Speaker:And, yeah, I think that
Speaker:needs to be looked at.
Speaker:I would agree if administrators knew that
Speaker:the traditional way of teaching only
Speaker:reaches approximately, and I'm not sure
Speaker:where the number comes from, but it's
Speaker:often quoted that four percenter.
Speaker:When you do that on a class of 30 to 35
Speaker:students, that's one student. If an
Speaker:administrator knew that you are only
Speaker:teaching to one of your students to the
Speaker:exclusion of the other
Speaker:29 or 34 whatever it is.
Speaker:They would give you low marks.
Speaker:But that's the truth of the matter
Speaker:because I know I could I let's see. I
Speaker:learned about the language really well I
Speaker:took French, German and Spanish in high
Speaker:school, I took three years of Spanish in
Speaker:high school to use a German and one year
Speaker:French, and I could learn the
Speaker:conjugations but I learned them, but they
Speaker:didn't come out of my
Speaker:mouth naturally, you know,
Speaker:I learned about the language really well
Speaker:and I could pick up the vocabulary and
Speaker:all that stuff, but I couldn't
Speaker:communicate. When I look back at how I
Speaker:can communicate in Spanish. I have to
Speaker:attribute it to
Speaker:Carlos Alfonso Rueda Pena.
Speaker:I do not know why they associated with
Speaker:where they put me with him, but Carlos
Speaker:Alfonso Rueda Pena was a, an exchange
Speaker:student I use the term lightly because he
Speaker:was actually escaping the, the drug trade
Speaker:back in Colombia at during the 80s, and
Speaker:his family was involved in that and they
Speaker:were getting him out for safety.
Speaker:He did not learn English he did not know
Speaker:English so the normal rules of at least
Speaker:having one years of English were coming
Speaker:over didn't apply. He didn't care to
Speaker:learn English he refused to learn English
Speaker:he was in English for half the school
Speaker:day, and then the other half
Speaker:school day he was in my schedule and he
Speaker:followed me around at my schedule. I was
Speaker:in Spanish one I had no business
Speaker:communicating with this kid. I didn't
Speaker:know any Spanish to communicate with
Speaker:them. I'm the one who walked around with
Speaker:the dictionary because he wasn't trying
Speaker:to learn English at all.
Speaker:So I'm the one who had to make the effort
Speaker:on the one who had to translate and
Speaker:figure it out. And I have that's what I
Speaker:had to do in my classroom experience
Speaker:didn't help me at all to communicate with
Speaker:him, because it wasn't about topics that
Speaker:you really would talk about with another
Speaker:teenager, it wasn't about how does he
Speaker:order and McDonald's I had no idea how to
Speaker:do that stuff we hadn't got to the food
Speaker:chapter yet you know
Speaker:those kinds of things.
Speaker:And I remember when I, you know, we, I
Speaker:don't know about how Japanese grammar
Speaker:works money, but we have this one verb in
Speaker:Spanish to like, but we call it a
Speaker:backwards verb, because it works like
Speaker:discussed in English.
Speaker:So, it disgusts me. But in Spanish it's
Speaker:it gusts me like me, I like it so it
Speaker:works backwards the subject becomes the
Speaker:object the object becomes a subject.
Speaker:So, I didn't realize this so I would
Speaker:conjugate it like a regular
Speaker:verb, which makes no sense.
Speaker:No sense. Yeah, it doesn't make sense in
Speaker:that form and I remember the first time
Speaker:that I said it right because we got to
Speaker:that verb he was like applauding me.
Speaker:But I was learning like when I would use
Speaker:one word he goes, Oh, we don't use that
Speaker:word for this we don't use. That's where
Speaker:I learned my language from from the
Speaker:actual experience and
Speaker:not from that textbook.
Speaker:So I think that you're, you know, if it
Speaker:was a community purpose fair. Yeah,
Speaker:exactly. Yes. Yeah. And it was almost
Speaker:immersion. I like you, Peter regret never
Speaker:having done a foreign exchange I always
Speaker:thought I would fall behind in my
Speaker:schooling so I never did it.
Speaker:And that was the first thing I've got to
Speaker:immersion because I had no English to
Speaker:fall back on he didn't understand English
Speaker:and he didn't care to even
Speaker:try to understand English.
Speaker:So, I had to immerse myself in in Spanish
Speaker:in an English speaking country. And I
Speaker:remember even had a girlfriend, and I had
Speaker:to be the third wheel and translate for
Speaker:all of that, because he didn't know
Speaker:Spanish, he didn't know English, and I'm
Speaker:sitting there trying to do
Speaker:it so that's how I kind of
Speaker:learned my language. And I think most of
Speaker:us, even though we may have booked
Speaker:learned parts of the language, if we
Speaker:really go back to how we learned. It
Speaker:wasn't about that we have some kind of
Speaker:experience and I want my friend said, she
Speaker:was I didn't really learn Spanish till I
Speaker:got drunk and went to a
Speaker:club, where her innovations
Speaker:started communicating. And so a lot of us
Speaker:have stories like that where we actually
Speaker:have learned it in there. And I will say,
Speaker:you know, I was talking with Monique
Speaker:before we started where, you know, every
Speaker:year I feel like a beginner and see I,
Speaker:and I've been doing see
Speaker:I almost my entire career
Speaker:2425 years I started my second semester
Speaker:of teaching. So I've been doing it almost
Speaker:from the beginning. But every group of
Speaker:kids is different. And even though I
Speaker:start the same on the very first day,
Speaker:they quickly branch off by the second or
Speaker:third day into different personalities
Speaker:and ways of handling it right now, my
Speaker:second period I got four more weeks of
Speaker:this second period, they are duds
Speaker:individually as students, they're great.
Speaker:That's not what I'm talking about. But as
Speaker:a class, they're not motivated. They're
Speaker:not interested. They don't answer the
Speaker:questions. They don't want to play games,
Speaker:all the things that we do to get them
Speaker:engaged. They are completely flat line.
Speaker:They are like the, you know,
Speaker:no emotion emoticon, nothing.
Speaker:They're just like this the whole time.
Speaker:And I'm working really hard to try to get
Speaker:them engaged in there. So I feel like a
Speaker:beginner all over again, like I have no
Speaker:idea what I'm doing. And every semester,
Speaker:because we get new kids every semester
Speaker:starts differently. And so I always feel
Speaker:like a beginner, I don't know what my
Speaker:class is going to turn out to be my first
Speaker:period, I started the exact same way, the
Speaker:same kind of kids, you know, ninth and
Speaker:10th graders in American schools.
Speaker:And they are participatory, they enjoy
Speaker:the games, they beg for the games, they
Speaker:want to do the stories, they enjoy them.
Speaker:But the other class is just weird. So I'm
Speaker:always feeling like a
Speaker:beginner in that particular way.
Speaker:What you're saying reminds me about how
Speaker:physical teaching is, how physical
Speaker:teaching CI is, of course, it's mentally
Speaker:exhausting, but it can be physically
Speaker:exhausting too, right? You're, you're
Speaker:gesturing, you're showing pictures,
Speaker:you're playing the games or all that. And
Speaker:when you're talking about with your, with
Speaker:your story with your friend from Colombia
Speaker:and Monique, I don't know if there's like
Speaker:a verb or a couple words you can think of
Speaker:in Japanese, but like, I kind of half
Speaker:joke with my students that say that the most important word is,
Speaker:I got that, I got that, just like, right
Speaker:to grab, get, and it because it's like
Speaker:me, I never knew how to say that. It's
Speaker:just so much what a native speaker was
Speaker:someone would actually use versus what
Speaker:you get book is like, what I say, like
Speaker:Plato tenor, like, can I have like, oh,
Speaker:once I learned I got it was
Speaker:like, that's a very usable.
Speaker:Yeah, I call them, you know, I teach from
Speaker:the suit, the sweet 16 verbs, and
Speaker:they're, it's a combination, the sweet 16
Speaker:is a combination of the high frequency,
Speaker:but more so the more impactful, because
Speaker:some of those verbs probably aren't in
Speaker:the top 16 verbs, if you go to the top
Speaker:20, not all of them are going to be in
Speaker:the top 20 verbs, but you get more bang
Speaker:for your buck with
Speaker:some of these verbs from
Speaker:I know it came from Mandarin, that's
Speaker:where the idea came from
Speaker:for the super seven. And then
Speaker:Mike Peter, he expanded to the 16, but
Speaker:like, here to go, my kids can say that
Speaker:they can't say to drive or to walk or to
Speaker:lie. But they can talk about to go and
Speaker:that can cover 90% of the instances
Speaker:because it's more impactful.
Speaker:It's got more bang for the buck. Same
Speaker:thing with kireya to want. They might not
Speaker:be able to say, I need, but want is close
Speaker:enough to where they can express. So if
Speaker:they know they come out of language class
Speaker:knowing these 16 verbs, or even the first
Speaker:seven, they can communicate 70 to 80% of
Speaker:what they need to
Speaker:communicate in real life, albeit
Speaker:at a very basic level, but at least they
Speaker:can get their ideas across. And where if
Speaker:you're teaching the verbs that order them
Speaker:like to talk is one of the first verbs
Speaker:they teach in Spanish, because it's a
Speaker:simple verb, it's regular, it's
Speaker:conjugated really easily. But how often
Speaker:do you use that word says is a much more
Speaker:common verb to use and much more
Speaker:impactful, but it's not regular in
Speaker:English in Spanish. So we can't
Speaker:follow the same pattern. So I think
Speaker:that's a really important point that
Speaker:finding the words like thumbtack is in
Speaker:our, in our stupid school chapter, what's
Speaker:the odds of them using that word outside
Speaker:of class? It's not really a good use of
Speaker:my time when my time is so limited. And
Speaker:they put so many vocabulary words in the
Speaker:textbook. It's, you know, and I'm sure
Speaker:Japanese does the same way.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it is the same. And, you know,
Speaker:I think, also, my curriculum is based on
Speaker:the super seven and then you know, for
Speaker:the older grades, the as you've said, the
Speaker:sweet 16. And then all those other words,
Speaker:you know, on a need to know basis. So
Speaker:certainly, if we need to use them, we,
Speaker:you know, we, we find out how to say
Speaker:thumbtack. I can't tell you right now
Speaker:what that is in Japanese, for sure. But,
Speaker:you know, on a need to know basis, it's a very simple way to use them.
Speaker:You know, on a need to know basis. And
Speaker:then there's purpose for the language
Speaker:that you're using. So there's much more,
Speaker:in my experience, the chance of the
Speaker:students actually acquiring that, if they
Speaker:need to want to be able to use it, if
Speaker:they have some strong connection to
Speaker:thumbtacks, for example, need to use it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Scott, come on, let me see your thumbtack
Speaker:in this one, you know.
Speaker:I don't even remember.
Speaker:I don't even remember because I don't
Speaker:even teach it. It's in the book, but I
Speaker:don't teach it. Now I'm going to make me
Speaker:look it up. I'm going to figure it's in
Speaker:the book, but it's when I don't even
Speaker:bother teaching that one.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And, you know, yeah, just just on that,
Speaker:you know, I think we've we've covered a
Speaker:lot of different I'm thinking of the
Speaker:traditional school unit when I started
Speaker:looking at a different way of trying to
Speaker:cover cover that that list.
Speaker:And I started using movie talks and, you
Speaker:know, there's that fantastic. I'm sure
Speaker:you know what the it's a commercial of
Speaker:the rock and the scissors and the paper
Speaker:and they go to the school and it's
Speaker:actually a, you know,
Speaker:it's a school for stationary.
Speaker:And it's called Rock Paper Scissors.
Speaker:Anyway, it's a fantastic little short
Speaker:clip that we can easily talk
Speaker:about in an interesting way.
Speaker:And it's like, you know, it's like a
Speaker:passami, which is scissors and and pizza
Speaker:and the rock that's so but there's a
Speaker:story attached to it. And, you know, if
Speaker:that narrative, that's when you start the
Speaker:interest in, you know, the
Speaker:communication becomes real.
Speaker:And that's, as I said, the purpose and,
Speaker:you know, storytelling is just so such a
Speaker:powerful way of connecting with that and
Speaker:putting meaning to the language that
Speaker:you're using in the classroom.
Speaker:And that was a nice little change that
Speaker:success for me when I started using a
Speaker:C.I. and trying to cover
Speaker:those long lists of vocab.
Speaker:Monique, how long approximately is the
Speaker:Rock Paper Scissors video? Oh, it's only
Speaker:about three minutes. Yeah. Yeah. That's
Speaker:the shout out to my to my colleagues who
Speaker:put me on to movie talks.
Speaker:There's so much bang for your buck.
Speaker:Absolutely. I love them. Yeah. And I will
Speaker:say also that when I get to
Speaker:keep hitting the wrong buttons.
Speaker:There you go. And I was going to say what
Speaker:I found by focusing on the sweet 16,
Speaker:that's my curriculum that I use. I have
Speaker:to teach from a textbook too, but that's
Speaker:what I want them to go away with.
Speaker:Everything else comes naturally in
Speaker:between the nouns, the prepositions. They
Speaker:all if I can focus on those 16 verbs,
Speaker:everything else comes. I don't have to
Speaker:teach boy and girl. They come up
Speaker:naturally in the language.
Speaker:And one thing that I see everybody
Speaker:asking, and this is the wrong way to
Speaker:approach movie talks and they've actually
Speaker:had to change the name for people who do
Speaker:it this way because the inventor of it
Speaker:said stop using my term movie talk if
Speaker:you're not doing it the way that it was
Speaker:intended to be used.
Speaker:So movie talk is non targeted, meaning
Speaker:you're not going I need to teach both
Speaker:family vocabulary. I need to find a video
Speaker:clip that highlights family vocabulary
Speaker:that they he said that is not movie talk.
Speaker:That's not what we do.
Speaker:Can't call it that. So they came up with
Speaker:clip chat, which I can't stand the term.
Speaker:I don't like that term. It just doesn't
Speaker:fit well with me. I do movie talk as
Speaker:movie talk because I pick a
Speaker:short. I like animated shorts.
Speaker:Because they're naturally don't have
Speaker:words in them most of the time. They're
Speaker:funny and the kids have a punch line at
Speaker:the end and they're about three minutes
Speaker:long. So they work
Speaker:out really, really well.
Speaker:And you can use them for multiple
Speaker:languages because they have no text and
Speaker:there's no sound. There's sound effects
Speaker:in them, but there's no words in them.
Speaker:And see with with the way that he did it,
Speaker:the original guy did it. He would take
Speaker:turn the sound off because the dialogue
Speaker:would start to mess it up.
Speaker:But then you miss the sound effects which
Speaker:are really important in the music that
Speaker:goes with it. So what I pick based off
Speaker:interest. So what will my kids really,
Speaker:really, really enjoy watching? I pick
Speaker:that high frequency vocabularies that
Speaker:sweet 16 is naturally going to come in
Speaker:because they're high
Speaker:frequency, high impact.
Speaker:I don't have to work at those. But if I
Speaker:need to teach family vocabulary or
Speaker:whatever vocabulary need to, I can use
Speaker:any movie talk for that because my
Speaker:subject could be the mom and not a girl
Speaker:this time. It could be a mom or a grandma
Speaker:or a sister or a daughter.
Speaker:And then I can add, is her brother in the
Speaker:story? How old is her brother? I can add
Speaker:all of that kind of stuff in. But I find
Speaker:that when you pick something that the
Speaker:kids are going to be interested in and
Speaker:adapt it to what you have to
Speaker:teach, you get more impact.
Speaker:If you search for a family oriented one,
Speaker:then the kids feel like you're force
Speaker:feeding the book to them. That you're
Speaker:teaching them at that moment rather than
Speaker:them just being engaged in a fun story.
Speaker:Scott, I have two questions for you about
Speaker:that. The first is like when you're
Speaker:talking about like you're doing the movie
Speaker:talk and it's like,
Speaker:okay, how old is this girl?
Speaker:How are you, Defense
Speaker:tells James' Marina Cuetwo
Speaker:they're not giving me if it's flat they
Speaker:don't understand then I'll give them a
Speaker:couple of choices yeah they all go either
Speaker:or or you know which choice to do
Speaker:or sometimes I'll get different ones and
Speaker:I'll have them vote on one or I know
Speaker:that la maestro loca she absolutely hates
Speaker:class voting she absolutely hates
Speaker:it so she has a whiteboard dice so it's
Speaker:got six sides but each side is a white
Speaker:board so she'll write the choices on the
Speaker:die and then she'll throw the die
Speaker:however it comes I've done it but without
Speaker:the die because I'm cheap and I
Speaker:don't want to spend that kind of money
Speaker:and my kids will steal it and play with
Speaker:it and then ruin it anyway so I get
Speaker:there's those online spinners that you
Speaker:can do yes you can type in you know your
Speaker:options right away really quickly in a
Speaker:little list and it will put on a spinner
Speaker:and we'll do the spinner but I usually
Speaker:vote or I'll combine so if one kid says
Speaker:14 and one says six I'll make it 14.6
Speaker:as the age so I let it I start open-ended
Speaker:but if I have to narrow it
Speaker:down I'll narrow it down depending on the
Speaker:language level of my kids but I let
Speaker:it be open-ended as much as possible so
Speaker:they tell it the stories themselves I'm
Speaker:trying to picture the the dado de pisa
Speaker:Rita how big is this this this whiteboard
Speaker:dice you're talking about you know it's a
Speaker:big one like a little bit bigger the
Speaker:kind that used to be hung on a back of
Speaker:your windshield I see your mirror right
Speaker:okay I see on you on Amazon you can buy
Speaker:them on there but it's just a toy that
Speaker:my kids I have a ball that we play trash
Speaker:get ball with and I have to hide the
Speaker:ball after we play because then they all
Speaker:want to play with the ball and steal the
Speaker:ball so I can't like I put it in the
Speaker:freezer of my mini-refridge because
Speaker:they don't look in there how do you know
Speaker:they might someday huh so um they haven't
Speaker:found it yet so they
Speaker:always wonder why it's cold but they
Speaker:don't get why it's cold because they'll
Speaker:just go around with it yeah now that's
Speaker:not yeah my second question is like when
Speaker:you talk about the movie talks and you
Speaker:said they're not targeted which I really
Speaker:appreciate and I understand and I want to
Speaker:do more of that how do you make it so
Speaker:that's not so like so distinct or so
Speaker:siloed in other words like one day
Speaker:you're doing a movie talk about you know
Speaker:flowers and the next day you're doing
Speaker:one about movies in 18th century Cuba
Speaker:like how do you get it that it's that
Speaker:there's some sort of through-line or is
Speaker:that not the point I'm it's not the
Speaker:point I don't make there's a through line
Speaker:and I don't do them all anything
Speaker:you do often enough gets old so I don't
Speaker:do I maybe do movie talks right
Speaker:because I only have my kids for four
Speaker:months I'll only do two movie talks in a
Speaker:semester so I'll do one in the second
Speaker:month and in the fourth month is how I
Speaker:kind of do it when I taught all year
Speaker:round I might get four movie talks in
Speaker:you know when I taught when I had a
Speaker:traditional school year where we went
Speaker:from you know August to May but I teach
Speaker:from August to December and then from
Speaker:January to June right so I usually get
Speaker:two in there but they don't have to be
Speaker:related they're just stories it's just a
Speaker:way it's it CI is about telling these
Speaker:stories and getting the kids involved and
Speaker:there's three different ways you can
Speaker:get well four different ways you can get
Speaker:stories in you can make up a story
Speaker:which I do most of the time you can use a
Speaker:picture talk where we start with a
Speaker:picture and describing that picture and
Speaker:then I turn it into a story like I've
Speaker:got a picture that's got a an orangutan
Speaker:who's got like seven green apples in his
Speaker:mouth and so we start by just describing
Speaker:him and then we talk about the apples and
Speaker:then we go why does he have these apples
Speaker:did he steal these apples and he's
Speaker:running away with them or did he collect
Speaker:these apples he's gonna share them with
Speaker:his family so I have the kids vote which
Speaker:way we're gonna go and then we go in
Speaker:that direction and make that story she's
Speaker:done an event on this one y'all yeah
Speaker:and then so that's the second way the
Speaker:third way is movie talk which is I call
Speaker:stories with training wheels because you
Speaker:don't have to come up with the story
Speaker:yourself it's there for you so that's
Speaker:that third way and then the fourth way
Speaker:is using a story kids already know like
Speaker:the three little pigs a little red
Speaker:riding hood those types or if you want to
Speaker:bring in cultural stories like
Speaker:cultural Japanese stories that you can
Speaker:make and really simplify that are really
Speaker:important to Japanese kids that they
Speaker:would understand you know in German the
Speaker:Grimm's fairy tales you can water those
Speaker:down in there and use those as your
Speaker:story points but from the teacher
Speaker:standpoint it's the same activity from
Speaker:a kid standpoint those are all different
Speaker:activities because the way you're
Speaker:presenting the story is very differently
Speaker:but the goal is still the same but it
Speaker:allows the kids to think that we're doing
Speaker:something different each time so
Speaker:that's kind of how I kind of work they
Speaker:don't all work their way together you
Speaker:know there's not a common thread
Speaker:sometimes I do a movie talk and it is a
Speaker:cultural based one it might be unlike the
Speaker:less Muertos or an art piece or you
Speaker:know whatever I may find on there and
Speaker:whatever it works and I don't have that
Speaker:it's just a different like a different
Speaker:unit they don't all have to kind of flow
Speaker:together and because you're gonna have to
Speaker:use high frequency vocabulary no
Speaker:matter what it doesn't really matter
Speaker:because the set the high frequency
Speaker:vocabulary is always gonna rise to the
Speaker:top and be very repetitive Loni ka
Speaker:wonder I mean in Spanish we're so lucky
Speaker:to have so many cognates like Spanish
Speaker:one I mean you know there's you know
Speaker:there are some students who had to have
Speaker:some background maybe in junior high or
Speaker:middle school but some who literally
Speaker:have none and there's so many cognates in
Speaker:Spanish yeah we're very jealous very
Speaker:very jealous my Japanese colleagues yeah
Speaker:yeah just rub it rub it in a bit
Speaker:there Peter yeah no we're very jealous of
Speaker:the cognates and we have a few but
Speaker:what's interesting is what seems to be
Speaker:really obvious to our ears sometimes is
Speaker:not the case even if it is a very true
Speaker:you know it's like here's a what do you
Speaker:think it sounds like you know pizza you
Speaker:know but sometimes because I guess they
Speaker:beginners anyway I still working on
Speaker:listening for the beginning and the
Speaker:start and the end of words as you know
Speaker:where it starts and where it ends so
Speaker:yeah that has been something that I've
Speaker:noticed is shouldn't be a given for the
Speaker:kids because you know often it does go
Speaker:over their heads but yeah we have got a
Speaker:few but just not as many as you guys what
Speaker:a great point and Scott you're
Speaker:saying you have 43 different languages
Speaker:represented your school and if you have
Speaker:a lot of English language learners yeah
Speaker:cognates are not always to be to be
Speaker:taken for granted but even for even for
Speaker:English native speakers cognates are not
Speaker:always they don't hear them they come in
Speaker:thinking that the language is going
Speaker:to be foreign to them so even if they
Speaker:hear a word that sounds like or looks
Speaker:like an English word they're not
Speaker:necessarily gonna go to that's what it
Speaker:means and this is where I disagree with
Speaker:Blaine we've argued about this I'm like
Speaker:he's like you don't have to teach
Speaker:cognates I'm like oh yes you do I teach
Speaker:cognates just like any other vocabulary
Speaker:word because they may see them but
Speaker:their consciousness saying that can't
Speaker:possibly mean what it looks like because
Speaker:it's a foreign language and just because
Speaker:they can see it and recognize it when
Speaker:they see it can they recognize it when
Speaker:they hear it there's another thing and
Speaker:then the third thing is if they can
Speaker:recognize when they hear it and they can
Speaker:recognize when they see it can they
Speaker:produce it when they need to produce it
Speaker:and that's where I think his way of
Speaker:skimming over the cognates falls apart
Speaker:they may be able to recognize it if they
Speaker:see it and they hear it but then if I
Speaker:asked them to tell me how to say cereal
Speaker:in Spanish they can't come up with
Speaker:seria because they if they saw it they
Speaker:know what it means cereal if they heard
Speaker:it they might know but they can't produce
Speaker:it and I don't think a word is
Speaker:truly your own it's not truly acquired
Speaker:and learned if you can't produce the
Speaker:word and so for me that's one of the ways
Speaker:because a lot of my kids can't
Speaker:hear it and I don't know the cognates in
Speaker:Japanese but I've heard a few of them
Speaker:in Mandarin and they don't sound
Speaker:cognitive to me at all
Speaker:I'm bow Wow is a hamburger I would never
Speaker:have known that it sounds like a dog
Speaker:barking to me that's what it sounds like
Speaker:so cognates are I say cognates are
Speaker:only cognates to teachers and I have to
Speaker:teach those words through there and I'll
Speaker:tell my kids in Spanish because it works
Speaker:in Spanish and French and in German but
Speaker:it doesn't work in Japanese or Mandarin
Speaker:or Russian where the alphabet is
Speaker:different I'll go if it looks like the
Speaker:word then it means what it looks like
Speaker:unless I tell you different so I know
Speaker:we're coming up with a ktoil which kids
Speaker:are gonna think means actual I'll go no
Speaker:it means current I tell them right away
Speaker:I don't even give them a second to think
Speaker:that it could possibly mean actual
Speaker:because that's not what it means in
Speaker:Spanish so cognates that are true
Speaker:cognates I let them sit and I'll say it
Speaker:looks like English it means what it
Speaker:looks like but if I stop you right away
Speaker:and tell you that it doesn't mean that
Speaker:like lot of go which means long not large
Speaker:I tell them right away so they
Speaker:don't even get that they don't have time
Speaker:to get that in their head but I think
Speaker:cognates need to be actively taught so I
Speaker:don't think there is easy or we can
Speaker:rely on them as much as we want like some
Speaker:of the ones in French too they're
Speaker:similar to the English ones but they mean
Speaker:something different they're not
Speaker:false cognates so they're not something
Speaker:completely different but they it's not
Speaker:the the first thought that comes to mind
Speaker:in some of them and so I think they
Speaker:still need to be taught and Blaine still
Speaker:says no you don't have to teach them I'm
Speaker:like oh yes I do so we have that argument
Speaker:back and forth I really
Speaker:appreciate that now is I always say that
Speaker:my English gets better when I teach
Speaker:Spanish like if you are teaching a
Speaker:cognitive like a cognate would be really
Speaker:really sad really sad but it means to
Speaker:realize not like oh it's really sad like
Speaker:as in I realize my potential so there's
Speaker:just so much yeah like it's I always
Speaker:don't the myriad meanings of a word you
Speaker:know yeah I tell them the Spanish and
Speaker:French vocabulary that comes in it's the
Speaker:SAT vocabulary in English yes because
Speaker:in English we don't we find but in
Speaker:Spanish we encounter and all the root
Speaker:words all those really ones those come
Speaker:from German all the more elevated words
Speaker:come from Latin French and Spanish and
Speaker:Greek to some extent but all the basic
Speaker:words Finden to find German hoon hound
Speaker:dogs house all those basic words in
Speaker:English come from German and all those
Speaker:more elevated words come in Spanish so
Speaker:our French or Latin in that way and they
Speaker:all have their uses right I mean German
Speaker:is so practical it's so practical and
Speaker:there's a need for that there's also
Speaker:need for the for the elevated ones Monika
Speaker:one if there are any funny false
Speaker:cognates in Spanish we have embarassado
Speaker:which does not mean embarrassed it means
Speaker:pregnant yeah oh that's that's one that
Speaker:you'd like to get right for sure or you
Speaker:might be embarrassed I can't really think
Speaker:off the top of my head Peter um
Speaker:yeah I'm sure there will be and as soon
Speaker:as we log off I'll think oh that's a
Speaker:good one yeah okay well bring it back to
Speaker:our CIA imposter syndrome yeah what
Speaker:whoever you saw or whoever you however
Speaker:you learned CI from did you have that
Speaker:first impression that I can't do it the
Speaker:way that they could do it and I don't
Speaker:know if I can do it at all because the
Speaker:only version I saw was that person
Speaker:anybody have that kind of an experience
Speaker:well look when my very first experience
Speaker:was with I was really fortunate because
Speaker:it was the first CI down under conference
Speaker:and it was with Blaine Ray and Terry
Speaker:Wells so I think that I was really
Speaker:fortunate to get two different styles and
Speaker:they are very different yeah very
Speaker:very different and you know that that
Speaker:actually worked in my advantage because
Speaker:I I didn't and then since then I went
Speaker:down the rabbit hole of looking into
Speaker:your work Scott and the maestro Loca and
Speaker:Tina Hardigan and more recently Diane
Speaker:you bow and they're all very very
Speaker:different and that's I guess what I
Speaker:would encourage any teachers that are
Speaker:looking at CI and think that maybe you
Speaker:know it's not for me it's that's not the
Speaker:case at all it's it's can be adapted to
Speaker:anyone's personality and I think that's
Speaker:what I love most about CI is that it's
Speaker:so inclusive not just for the kids but
Speaker:also for the teacher you know it's you
Speaker:can you can use it the way that is
Speaker:comfortable for you and I'm not an out
Speaker:there person I I I enjoy having a joke
Speaker:with my kids but I wouldn't say that I'm
Speaker:I'm you know the circus performer but I
Speaker:can I've had lots of positive response
Speaker:from students since using the CI approach
Speaker:and so yeah I guess that's what
Speaker:I would I would like any listeners to go
Speaker:away with is you know well there's
Speaker:many different ways that you can skin a
Speaker:cat and there's many different ways that
Speaker:you can DC I yeah what I do here yeah
Speaker:money you're talking about Blaine Ray
Speaker:and it's like yeah seeing someone like
Speaker:him was like man they're gonna be there
Speaker:at the top of their game some of my early
Speaker:ones so the idea of the la persona
Speaker:special interview yep Bryce headstrom
Speaker:yeah and so Bryce headstrom I got to
Speaker:talk to on my podcast which is pretty
Speaker:awesome he's he's such a great guy and
Speaker:he was the first guy that I saw do the
Speaker:person this best yeah and he did it with
Speaker:a group of teachers and we were all just
Speaker:like yeah so we were you know we were
Speaker:an incredibly passionate audience as well
Speaker:and helping out and and I really
Speaker:loved how you demonstrated so I was like
Speaker:oh man that's a really high bar come on
Speaker:my colleagues all of my colleagues at my
Speaker:school do a great job with it and
Speaker:even before we were technically doing CI
Speaker:they've been doing person special for a
Speaker:while and I just saw how smoothly they
Speaker:were keeping the the conversations going
Speaker:and I feel like I do a good job with with
Speaker:repetition but I think in
Speaker:personal especially how sometimes I do I
Speaker:do too much repetition that I'm not a
Speaker:guy anymore I'm like the I'm like the
Speaker:sage on the stage more than I'm the guy
Speaker:and so that's been tough and like you
Speaker:said that you find your own find your
Speaker:own pace and I do feel more confident but
Speaker:even just the other day I was
Speaker:observing my my colleague and she was
Speaker:standing up with the students sitting
Speaker:down and I've done that before but I went
Speaker:back to sitting down but we're both
Speaker:sitting so it's kind of more like
Speaker:collegial if you will more conversation
Speaker:but I'm like I want to go back to
Speaker:standing up just because it's more of I
Speaker:don't know not authority necessarily but
Speaker:it's a good chance to like okay time out
Speaker:explain just things like that I'm always
Speaker:just kind of really trying to massage
Speaker:and massage the process but yeah seeing
Speaker:Bryce and seeing my colleagues right away
Speaker:I'm like man they they do very well with
Speaker:this I got a lot to learn. Peter can I
Speaker:just say I last no two weeks ago in the
Speaker:Netherlands I did the two two-day
Speaker:workshop with with Bryce and it was
Speaker:fantastic yes so such a great guy and
Speaker:yeah I shared my big flop of CI and as I
Speaker:said I experienced CI in 2017 and I just
Speaker:went crazy and I wanted to do everything
Speaker:and one of the things was I got Bryce
Speaker:has lots of free resources that he shares
Speaker:on his website and one of them
Speaker:was the special person interview and he
Speaker:had the question is there so I downloaded
Speaker:that and and I was all set to do it and I
Speaker:had you know beautiful grade of year
Speaker:nines at the time and I picked one
Speaker:student and popped her up there and I
Speaker:started with the questions and I was sort
Speaker:of going through the questions and
Speaker:I could see all the kids are just rolling
Speaker:around and you know it was so
Speaker:bad it was terrible and I remember
Speaker:thinking everyone was raving about this
Speaker:you know this special person interview
Speaker:and it's the absolute bomb and you know
Speaker:that's such a great CI activity and it's
Speaker:only since I've sort of yeah built up a
Speaker:few questioning skill techniques I
Speaker:suppose and the circling that things
Speaker:changed and in the workshop a couple of
Speaker:weeks ago Bryce made that he was
Speaker:talking about the special person
Speaker:interview and he was saying the the
Speaker:biggest thing that you can do is ask a
Speaker:follow-up question and that is what I
Speaker:didn't do and that is why it absolutely
Speaker:crashed and burned when I was doing it
Speaker:and since then you know I've tried to
Speaker:build up my skills I suppose and
Speaker:confidence to do those follow-up
Speaker:questions because that is when you make
Speaker:that connection with your students and
Speaker:it's real conversation then not just
Speaker:let's practice these sentences you know
Speaker:so that was that was a
Speaker:learning point for me
Speaker:so if I was a student Monique and you
Speaker:might ask you to ask in Japanese what is
Speaker:your name are you moving on is that too
Speaker:simplistic or are you gonna move on to
Speaker:like you know what does your name mean or
Speaker:like is that the follow-up question I
Speaker:usually go you know so Peter what's what
Speaker:you know what's your name you know it's
Speaker:Peter do you have a nickname and so you
Speaker:might say yeah and then I might say have
Speaker:you got one nickname or two nicknames
Speaker:what are your nicknames and so then I'll
Speaker:go through and then I'd say to the the
Speaker:other mistake that I was making in the
Speaker:early days was not including the rest of
Speaker:the class so then I'd say I do a little
Speaker:check with the class and say you know
Speaker:class has Peter got a nickname and you
Speaker:know has he got five nicknames no he's
Speaker:got okay what's his favorite nickname
Speaker:and then I'll check with you which one do
Speaker:you like the most which is your
Speaker:favorite one yeah and you're just getting
Speaker:lots of those as Scott has said
Speaker:you know those high-frequency natural you
Speaker:know hits of the super seven and
Speaker:sweet sixteen so that's how I do it now
Speaker:whereas before it was like what's your
Speaker:name how old are you it was so bad it was
Speaker:so so that up to price yes some
Speaker:great jokes yeah yeah and I was gonna say
Speaker:cuz back in the day when I started
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about two things the one
Speaker:about the the imposter cuz I've got
Speaker:that in there but going on with your
Speaker:special person interviews when we first
Speaker:started with TPRS way back when I started
Speaker:in 2001 there were seven steps I
Speaker:can't remember all the seven steps but
Speaker:we're supposed to seven steps in one
Speaker:day and it was like you had to go really
Speaker:really quick and one of them was PQA and
Speaker:I never understood what PQA was I
Speaker:understood what the words were
Speaker:personalized questions and answers but
Speaker:coming from a textbook you see you that
Speaker:question you're supposed to ask the same
Speaker:question to all 30 kids that was how it
Speaker:was personalized do you play basketball
Speaker:do you play basketball do you play
Speaker:basketball do you play basketball then
Speaker:you had an X question do you play hockey
Speaker:do you play hockey do you play hockey
Speaker:that was personalized Q&A in a textbook I
Speaker:never understood so I skipped that step
Speaker:until I read a book by Ben Slavitt
Speaker:called PQA and a wink and I read that
Speaker:book and I go oh I now understand what
Speaker:we're doing here and stop calling it PQA
Speaker:because that makes no sense it's a
Speaker:conversation and when you tell them it's
Speaker:a conversation then we all know how to
Speaker:do it it's small talk that you have at a
Speaker:party you keep talking you keep
Speaker:asking your follow-up questions just like
Speaker:you would at a party and when it
Speaker:gets boring you excuse yourself to go to
Speaker:the bathroom or get a drink and you
Speaker:find someone we're interested to talk to
Speaker:that's what you do and it's the same
Speaker:thing in a classroom and that's what
Speaker:special person interviews are that just
Speaker:like you know we have our talking points
Speaker:for today but we're not sticking to them
Speaker:strictly we're going where the
Speaker:conversation goes and it's the same thing
Speaker:with kids that may be one kid may say I
Speaker:don't have any nicknames and you move
Speaker:on to the next question and that second
Speaker:question becomes more interesting for
Speaker:that kid but that kid might have you know
Speaker:I've got a nickname with my friends
Speaker:I've got a nickname with my family I've
Speaker:got a nickname that everybody calls me
Speaker:you know and so you can really go hard on
Speaker:that particular question so when I
Speaker:realized that per special person
Speaker:interviews that PQA was just a
Speaker:conversation about whatever you wanted to
Speaker:talk about that day then I could do
Speaker:it and I could do it for a whole hour
Speaker:without even thinking about it and when
Speaker:it got boring with one a kid I just said
Speaker:okay let's move to second kid number two
Speaker:we went to the number two and I would
Speaker:compare and contrast and just like you
Speaker:said Monique you have to include the
Speaker:class so I called that gossiping so we
Speaker:when I'm talking like that and
Speaker:interviewing the kid I'm focused on that
Speaker:kid in that moment so we are the only
Speaker:ones in the room at that moment so they
Speaker:feel I've got their full attention and
Speaker:then we take a pause and I talk to the
Speaker:kids around the rest of the class as if
Speaker:they didn't just hear the dang
Speaker:conversation and I call it positive
Speaker:gossiping did you hear that he's got
Speaker:seven nicknames can someone tell me what
Speaker:one of his nicknames was who can tell me
Speaker:the second nickname and I'm ignoring the
Speaker:kid for the moment because now I'm
Speaker:including the class and I go back and
Speaker:forth I fish for more details and then I
Speaker:feed the rest of class with that fish
Speaker:that I caught with those details so I
Speaker:call that back but it didn't hit me until
Speaker:Ben Slavik's book and it was just a
Speaker:conversation so I don't like jargon if I
Speaker:have to explain what jargon means that
Speaker:completely missed the boat of the point
Speaker:can we just call it what it is a
Speaker:conversation and then I don't have to I
Speaker:don't have to have a 10-minute lesson to
Speaker:teachers to explain what it is because
Speaker:everybody knows what a conversation is
Speaker:small talk at a party you don't have to
Speaker:explain it and I will say when I started
Speaker:teaching we didn't have as many gurus as
Speaker:we have now we had Blaine we had Karen
Speaker:Rowan and we had Susie Gross those three
Speaker:and I saw the first one I saw
Speaker:wasn't even a guru the one who taught it
Speaker:to me was Louie and I want to say his
Speaker:name is Armstrong but I can't remember I
Speaker:forget me Louie if I got your last name
Speaker:wrong I know it starts with an A but
Speaker:after that I can't
Speaker:remember I heard from him
Speaker:first and then I saw Karen Rowan and then
Speaker:I saw Susie Gross and then I saw
Speaker:Blaine if I had sought seen Blaine first
Speaker:I would not be here today because
Speaker:I can't do it Blaine does and Blaine
Speaker:can't explain what he does Susie Gross
Speaker:is the one who explains she watched
Speaker:Blaine and she put words to what Blaine
Speaker:does because Blaine has no idea one day I
Speaker:remember him saying I'm gonna teach
Speaker:Pobre on in the book he started the first
Speaker:sentence and for the next hour he
Speaker:never got to the book he said I talked
Speaker:the book the whole hour no you didn't
Speaker:Blaine you didn't touch the book but he
Speaker:thought he did because he went with that
Speaker:one sentence that was there and we always
Speaker:said when we were part of the
Speaker:NTP RS when NTP RS was big and going we
Speaker:did not like to put Blaine in the
Speaker:beginning level because he didn't convert
Speaker:people over to the method they
Speaker:were all in awe of what he could do and
Speaker:what the results that he got but because
Speaker:he was so good at it and his personality
Speaker:was such his way people said I can't do
Speaker:that it won't work in my classroom and so
Speaker:people went home and not doing it and
Speaker:when we put some less intimidating people
Speaker:in there some everyday people in
Speaker:their teaching level one and let him
Speaker:teach the more advanced classes then it
Speaker:worked a little bit better because people
Speaker:could go oh I can do that and now
Speaker:like Monique says there are so many
Speaker:people that you can watch and you can
Speaker:say well I can't be La Maestro Loca I'm
Speaker:not like her but I can be like Diane
Speaker:Nubauer or I can be like Michelle Whaley
Speaker:or I can be like Dr. Terry Waltz
Speaker:because those personalities match a
Speaker:little bit better to who I am as a
Speaker:person so it's much easier now to find
Speaker:someone and I highly recommend do
Speaker:YouTube searches there are so many videos
Speaker:online that you can find people
Speaker:who are more like your personalities that
Speaker:you don't feel like I can't do this
Speaker:because I don't have that type of
Speaker:personality I'm not that outgoing I'm
Speaker:not that funny I'm more boring I'm more
Speaker:subdued I'm more introverted those types
Speaker:of things so I think that's a really
Speaker:strong point that you made Monique it's
Speaker:it's a constant challenge to be
Speaker:comfortable with silence when you're
Speaker:doing these techniques that's so true yes
Speaker:I'm not the greatest at but I'm
Speaker:getting better yeah yeah giving that wait
Speaker:time it's just and I know again I
Speaker:go back to if you are a student again a
Speaker:language student a beginner zero you
Speaker:know how much wait time well I do I'm I
Speaker:need a lot of wait time yeah and yeah
Speaker:that's yeah I'm still working on that too
Speaker:Peter yeah so I was just gonna say
Speaker:you do it you do a lot of those
Speaker:competitive games and the students really
Speaker:get into them when it's fun but then if
Speaker:our whole point is like you do need to
Speaker:take the time to think about it and let
Speaker:it you know let it simmer a little bit
Speaker:you know we're teaching like with Kahoot
Speaker:or something like that it's like answer
Speaker:it now you know it was some game that
Speaker:we're playing it's like answer it now
Speaker:now now now versus that no it's okay to
Speaker:take some time and think about it and
Speaker:that's that's normal and that should get
Speaker:normalized and I think it's a happy
Speaker:medium because I do want them to get to
Speaker:think of it like this because I want
Speaker:them to to feel so comfortable with that
Speaker:vocabulary with that grammar structure
Speaker:with that sentence structure that it
Speaker:comes naturally out of their mouths so
Speaker:we got to start with that wait time but I
Speaker:think the competitive games after we've
Speaker:done we've worked with a particular
Speaker:vocabulary set or structure can get them
Speaker:to make it more confident and come out a
Speaker:little bit quicker so you can't do one
Speaker:to the exclusivity other but I think you
Speaker:need to do it in the right order and
Speaker:give it enough processing time so you
Speaker:have the wait time and you're reducing
Speaker:that wait time to then you get to the
Speaker:competitive games to where you can get
Speaker:them to think on their feet so that
Speaker:they're not you know stumbling over the
Speaker:words trying to figure out what to say
Speaker:because in a real-life conversation
Speaker:nobody's gonna be that patient yeah
Speaker:exactly I don't I mean I think most of
Speaker:us have not all of us have been in the
Speaker:situation where it's not exclusive to
Speaker:any to foreign language just like that
Speaker:student just answers every question then
Speaker:the hand goes up and you're like oh but I
Speaker:was gonna raise my hand and sometimes it
Speaker:just makes you give up
Speaker:he's got it Scott's gonna handle this
Speaker:question money he's got this one
Speaker:you're gonna put in that work to like
Speaker:figure out figure it out for yourself
Speaker:that's one of the things I do with
Speaker:suggestions I'm getting suggestions I
Speaker:mentally I go I've got to have at least
Speaker:three to five suggestions so I will take
Speaker:the first two or three people who've got
Speaker:to raise their hands and then I'm
Speaker:gonna deliberately call on the kids who
Speaker:don't raise their hands who I know are
Speaker:confident to give me an answer I'm not
Speaker:gonna pick on a kid that I go I'm gonna
Speaker:put him on the spot and he's gonna look
Speaker:you know know the answer but the kids
Speaker:who are quiet and they know the answer
Speaker:but they hold themselves back so I let
Speaker:them their voice be heard because they
Speaker:won't be the one to raise their hand
Speaker:but they have the answer so I'll ask
Speaker:those kids along the way just to
Speaker:encourage that a little bit more to make
Speaker:sure I have enough options so I'm not
Speaker:always calling on the kids who always
Speaker:raise their hand in there but I never
Speaker:want to embarrass it's like I always say
Speaker:it's like a lawyer a lawyer never asked
Speaker:the question they don't already know the
Speaker:answer I never asked a student a
Speaker:question then I'm not reasonably
Speaker:confident that they can answer cuz they
Speaker:never want to put them on the spot and if
Speaker:it ever happens where I misjudged I
Speaker:fixed it right away I'm like oh and I
Speaker:fixed it right away and I'll say I'll
Speaker:come back to you in a minute let me go to
Speaker:this kid real yes I don't make them
Speaker:feel embarrassed or feel dumb at all in
Speaker:the classroom at all every class has the
Speaker:one or two or three whispers that they'll
Speaker:whisper the answer and somebody
Speaker:when you sometimes when you you know the
Speaker:area where it came from you like oh
Speaker:thanks Scott what was that and they'll
Speaker:look around like no that wasn't me so
Speaker:you got it you got to draw those people
Speaker:out because they have the right answer
Speaker:and it's like yeah answer what can I need
Speaker:to make you say the answer with
Speaker:concianc and that's why some people use
Speaker:white boards and have them put the white
Speaker:answer and white board everybody shows
Speaker:the white board at the same time that's
Speaker:another way to do it I know especially
Speaker:with the lower levels like the lower
Speaker:elementary and stuff they do the
Speaker:countdown they go you can't give an
Speaker:answer until my hand goes like this so I
Speaker:go five four three two now you can
Speaker:answer so kids everybody that wait time
Speaker:to be able to think of an answer before
Speaker:they all shout it out so there's
Speaker:different ways to do that to allow that
Speaker:in there but for me I just I just know
Speaker:who my silent kids are and I'll ask them
Speaker:outright because after I've gotten the
Speaker:hand thrower uppers I'll ask the quieter
Speaker:kids to give me their opinions because
Speaker:lots of times their pains never get
Speaker:added in and then their choices never get
Speaker:added in and I want them to have a
Speaker:voice in the classroom as well I had a
Speaker:colleague way back in the day who said
Speaker:and obviously it's the it's the holy
Speaker:grail I don't necessarily think you can
Speaker:do it every single day but she she went
Speaker:out of her way to hear from every single
Speaker:student every day that's that's a great
Speaker:goal to have yeah that is yeah and one
Speaker:way to do that is that whiteboard because
Speaker:then you can see everybody and
Speaker:then you can pick the answers that you
Speaker:really like out of that where you can
Speaker:see them all hanging up there at once and
Speaker:you can buy a set of whiteboards
Speaker:really cheap or some people buy what do
Speaker:they call it it's a special board you
Speaker:can buy at Home Depot for cheap and Home
Speaker:Depot will cut it up for you really
Speaker:inexpensive washboard or something like
Speaker:that yeah I just bought I bought the
Speaker:small ones on Amazon they weren't that
Speaker:expensive and my kids have white you
Speaker:know whiteboard markers so it's easy to
Speaker:do mmm one thing that I I really like
Speaker:doing for that you know making sure that
Speaker:you touch touch points with each kid and
Speaker:this came from Amory Chase her idea of
Speaker:magic cards and so she has the a bit
Speaker:like this actually you know like an index
Speaker:card and she'd have you know
Speaker:speaking listening reading writing and
Speaker:the students name and you set set the
Speaker:expectation so that the kids know and
Speaker:again like you said God I choose the
Speaker:questions that I know that the kids can
Speaker:answer but the expectation is that I
Speaker:will have these and you know I might be
Speaker:after the special person interview I
Speaker:just sort of do a shuffle and then ask
Speaker:different questions and you know say
Speaker:Scott you know and then I actually won't
Speaker:say your name I'll say the question
Speaker:first and so they're listening to it and
Speaker:then I'll pick the person who I want to
Speaker:target so Scott but if I know that Peter
Speaker:is a faster processing student I
Speaker:might you know change the question or
Speaker:make sure that I choose Peter because I
Speaker:know that he can answer but those were
Speaker:really good for accountability in a in a
Speaker:low sort of stakes way and the other
Speaker:point that I just wanted to make with
Speaker:that probably before that I just I do
Speaker:have a conversation with the students
Speaker:say you know how language acquisition
Speaker:works and why like a conversation this
Speaker:is a different style of teaching it's
Speaker:different to your math and your science
Speaker:you know this is this is the way that
Speaker:we're all going to help each other to
Speaker:acquire a language and that means that
Speaker:you can't check out that you you know
Speaker:you need to follow along with you know
Speaker:follow along with the conversation and
Speaker:be apart so as much as possible I like to
Speaker:encourage the students to do that
Speaker:and once we've set that up that's the
Speaker:norm the class norm and if they know
Speaker:that they've got the wait time with the
Speaker:questions yeah it's it has helped me to
Speaker:make sure that I'm making that connection
Speaker:with each of the kids not
Speaker:just those Hermione Granger's I had a
Speaker:variation of magic cards before I even
Speaker:knew what amary chase had those magic
Speaker:cards I for my own memory I made little
Speaker:cards with all my kids names on them and
Speaker:I color-coded them so first period is
Speaker:blue second period is green so I can keep
Speaker:track of which classes they were
Speaker:but I stacked my deck my kids didn't know
Speaker:I did this so the kids I knew who
Speaker:I'm there my barometer students the
Speaker:students who really that were trying but
Speaker:weren't always getting it they needed
Speaker:more frequent touch points they were at
Speaker:the top of my deck and the kids who
Speaker:needed less frequent touch points
Speaker:because they usually got it right away
Speaker:we're at the bottom of my deck and
Speaker:every day I would shuffle my deck before
Speaker:class started in that particular
Speaker:way so I would ask like three to four
Speaker:kids of the kids who I needed that they
Speaker:needed touch points but so it wouldn't
Speaker:look like I was only picking on these
Speaker:particular kids I would then pull from
Speaker:the bottom every once in a while for one
Speaker:of my top kids in there and so that
Speaker:worked really really well and allowed me
Speaker:to know that I went through the whole
Speaker:deck before I started again so that I
Speaker:made sure I got through every kid this
Speaker:way and I could make little notes on the
Speaker:back I was an organizer amory chase I
Speaker:usually only put their speaking noted
Speaker:notes on the back because I tell them
Speaker:anytime I have a conversation with them
Speaker:that's a speaking grade that could
Speaker:possibly be and I'll take three or four
Speaker:of them and average them together and
Speaker:give them a speaking quiz just based on
Speaker:you know four or five weeks of
Speaker:conversations that we've had over the
Speaker:time but I would make little notes on the
Speaker:back of that card on that way I
Speaker:didn't do it for the other aspects
Speaker:reading and listening and writing but
Speaker:that's how I did it so I didn't know the
Speaker:concept of Anne-Marie Chase's magic
Speaker:cards but I had always done that because
Speaker:you know I wasn't a popsicle stick
Speaker:person number one they're much more
Speaker:cumbersome to keep track of than they
Speaker:cost money when it's much easier for me
Speaker:to just get cardstock and you buy one
Speaker:pack of cardstock it comes in like five
Speaker:different colors you teach five
Speaker:different classes every class has its own
Speaker:color I would just print their names
Speaker:off from a word doc on that color paper
Speaker:cut it up and I had my deck of cards
Speaker:relatively cheap because a whole stack of
Speaker:paper was maybe seven dollars for
Speaker:that cardstock so it worked really really
Speaker:well for me and I always knew
Speaker:which class it was because I had I have
Speaker:my standard you know first period since
Speaker:I started teaching was blue second period
Speaker:was green it happened came from
Speaker:my textbook colors level one was blue
Speaker:level two was green and so I just kind
Speaker:of masked with that and I've kept it all
Speaker:these years even my hand in baskets are
Speaker:those colors I still have first period
Speaker:blue second period green third period is
Speaker:orange I have all mine it's all that way
Speaker:so that's how I kind of did that kind
Speaker:of same kind of thing so I agree well
Speaker:we're a little bit over so let's go
Speaker:ahead and wrap up with any last-minute
Speaker:words anybody wants to say before we
Speaker:close it out today oh I'm just
Speaker:reiterating what I said before is just I
Speaker:think for people new to see I it's just
Speaker:really really important to find your
Speaker:tribe to find I was very very fortunate
Speaker:when I started using CI that I had a
Speaker:colleague who was learning along with me
Speaker:and she she's the reason why I'm still
Speaker:doing CI now and I think that if I hadn't
Speaker:had her as a support as a
Speaker:standing board I I just wouldn't I
Speaker:wouldn't have had the confidence to keep
Speaker:going through those massive errors and
Speaker:you know stuff ups that I had
Speaker:experienced in the beginning and still
Speaker:you know it's every day you're
Speaker:learning more but in the early stages I
Speaker:just think it's really important to
Speaker:find somebody or a group connect we're
Speaker:we're lucky in Australia we're growing
Speaker:slowly in the Japanese CI world and you
Speaker:know there's some supportive spaces that
Speaker:teachers that are really welcoming and
Speaker:share resources so that's I get my
Speaker:takeaway connect with people that going
Speaker:through the same journey or have
Speaker:been through that absolutely thank you so
Speaker:much what about you Peter yeah just
Speaker:like like you were saying earlier I've
Speaker:had a colleague say and I feel like that
Speaker:was really a turning point for me was the
Speaker:idea that we're teaching the
Speaker:language we're not teaching about the
Speaker:language you were talking about when you
Speaker:were a student you felt like you knew a
Speaker:lot about the language you didn't
Speaker:necessarily know the language as well as
Speaker:you wanted to and and that's those
Speaker:are the advantages of CI is that you are
Speaker:you are learning the language you're
Speaker:using it in practical ways rather than
Speaker:learning about the language oh there's
Speaker:the AR ER IR verbs cool like what does
Speaker:that really get you in the long run right
Speaker:and just the idea to that like we talk
Speaker:about movie talks and the special person
Speaker:interviews which could be which could be
Speaker:hyper focused if you want the
Speaker:simplicity a lot of times is better
Speaker:simplicity is worse at and when you say
Speaker:that you could make an hour conversation
Speaker:not an interview not a me talking at you
Speaker:when you said you can make an hour
Speaker:conversation based on one person I
Speaker:believe you like you really could and
Speaker:there's something that goes in different
Speaker:directions obviously take some practice
Speaker:to be able to to develop those questions
Speaker:and be a facilitator but simple
Speaker:oftentimes is better like you said
Speaker:there's so many gurus online and just the
Speaker:idea that yeah you are teaching the
Speaker:language so be confident about it because
Speaker:you're teaching the language not
Speaker:about the language and that's gonna pull
Speaker:in more more learners for sure
Speaker:absolutely absolutely and I thank you
Speaker:both for joining us today and if I can
Speaker:thanks again you're so welcome and
Speaker:joining us from Belgium all the way
Speaker:that's so wonderful so let's go ahead and
Speaker:wrap it up today so guys thanks you
Speaker:for hanging out with us on comprehend
Speaker:this and a huge thanks to our guests
Speaker:Monique and Peter for reminding us that
Speaker:even the pros question themselves
Speaker:sometimes if today's episode gave you
Speaker:that okay maybe I am kind of doing it
Speaker:right energy share it with your favorite
Speaker:teacher friend who's one bad observation
Speaker:away from a breakdown don't forget to
Speaker:subscribe leave a review and tell the
Speaker:algorithm we're worth it you can watch
Speaker:live on YouTube or catch the replay any
Speaker:time on your favorite podcast app until
Speaker:next time ditch the drills trust the
Speaker:process and I'll see you next time on
Speaker:comprehend this thank you Scott thank you
Speaker:you
