Episode 43

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Published on:

18th Oct 2026

Episode 43: "MovieTalk Is Not a Free Day (Even Though It Looks Like One)"

MovieTalk gets accused of being a free day more than almost any other CI strategy, and this episode of Comprehend THIS! makes the case for why it's actually some of the most demanding teaching a CI classroom sees. Pamela and I are joined by veteran language teacher Liz Groothof Croddy to talk through what separates input-rich video teaching from genuine filler, and how to defend a MovieTalk day with confidence.

It's spooky season, video clips are everywhere, and an administrator walking past a MovieTalk lesson might assume it's a break day. In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, Pamela, Liz, and I share our MovieTalk origin stories, the moment we each realized it was real comprehensible input and not just entertainment, and what we say when someone accuses us of just playing a movie.

We're also being honest about the times video-based teaching has genuinely just been filler, because that happens to every CI teacher at some point, and pretending it doesn't helps nobody figure out the difference. We break down how to choose a clip on purpose, how to build language around it, and how to keep yourself honest about whether a lesson is actually input-rich. By the end, you'll have a ready answer for the next administrator, parent, or coworker who assumes MovieTalk is a break.

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Liz Groothof Croddy is the owner of Girasol Languages, where she teaches privately in a variety of languages and occasionally takes on interpretation and translation work. She spent 30 years teaching in public high schools, mostly Spanish and Japanese, plus two earlier years in private schools. She's taught languages she's fluent in and languages she's still learning (and she'll tell you she never stops learning any of them). Now retired from public education, Liz teaches adults at home and on Zoom at all levels, specializing in Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese. She has also served as an alpha tester for Duolingo. #grammarrulz

Not sure where your comprehensible input skills actually stand right now? Take the free CI Proficiency Quiz and find out in a few minutes: https://imim.us/ciquiz

If you want a done-for-you way to keep your CI instruction consistent, including video-based lessons that hold up to scrutiny, check out the CI Survival Kit - monthly, ready-to-teach materials built for exactly this: https://imim.us/kit

CONNECT WITH US

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comprehensible input, MovieTalk, CI teaching strategies, world language teacher, TPRS, video based language teaching, language teacher podcast, Spanish teacher, French teacher, Japanese teacher, Italian teacher, teaching adult language learners, classroom management

Hosts:

Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion

Pamela Parks - https://imim.us/pamela

Liz Groothof Croddy - https://www.instagram.com/groothofcroddy/ and https://www.facebook.com/liz.groothofcroddy/

Resources & Links:

CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit

Dynamic Discipline: https://imim.us/discipline

Seeing People - Jeff Brown: https://amzn.to/4i2AqZH

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Transcript
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Good morning everybody and welcome to

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another episode of Comprehend This.

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It's spooky season.

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Someone's about to throw on a fun video

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and an administrator is

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walking by the room already

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forming an opinion about what a

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"breakday" looks like.

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We know that opinion.

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We've seen that face.

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This week, Pamela and I are joined by Liz

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Grotoff-Krotty, owner

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of Hirasol Languages,

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who spent 30 years in

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public school classrooms teaching

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(oh

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my gosh, I'm almost there, I'm

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at year 25), Spanish and Japanese and a

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slew of other

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languages, and now teaches adults

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at home and on Zoom.

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Together we're defending movie talk and

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video-based CI as real, demanding,

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high-input teaching.

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While also being honest about the times,

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it's genuinely just filling a period.

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Because pretending that

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never happens helps nobody.

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We're talking about our movie talk origin

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stories, the moment it

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clicked as actual instruction

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and not just entertainment, and what we

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say when someone

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accuses us of just watching a

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movie.

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Plus, the framework for telling the

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difference between

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input-rich and just background noise

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so you can walk into your next movie talk

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day with an actual answer ready.

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If you've ever felt the need to justify a

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video day like you're defending a thesis,

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this one's for you.

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We'll be back after these short messages.

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Love teaching but hate the part where

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you're the classroom bouncer?

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Your sanity will thank you.

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Welcome to Comprehend This, real talk for

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real language teachers.

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No drills, no dry theory, just honest

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stories, practical ideas,

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and a reminder you're not

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alone in the CI trenches.

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Let's dive in.

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Well that was all a little bit of skip.

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You don't know exactly why that one is.

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But welcome Liz and welcome back Pamela.

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How is everybody doing today?

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My time is getting safe now.

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I am so excited.

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I am your greatest fan.

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Yes.

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We are so glad you're here.

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I am so excited that Liz is here.

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Liz and I have known each other for a

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long time through the

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Duolingo forums back when

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Duolingo had forums.

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And I'm so excited.

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You've even got your duo mask.

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So excited.

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We have always typed to each other and

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never heard each other's voices.

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So this is like a thrilling day for me.

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Oh, awesome.

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Liz is like cut from the same cloth.

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I'm so happy you're here.

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I have heard your voice though.

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I've listened to all your

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YouTube videos and things.

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You are so amazing.

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Scott, I'm listening to the

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podcast and past podcasts.

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The work you've done in

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your software skills, etc.

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I just want to clone you.

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Both of you are just amazing teachers.

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I appreciate that.

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I would like to clone

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myself too because I am tired.

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Sunday is my work day.

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After this, I work all

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the way until four o'clock.

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I take my dog to the park.

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But I have got so much to do that Sunday

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is like my work day.

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I don't leave this computer all day.

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I know.

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Tell us a little bit

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more about yourself, Liz.

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Yeah, so I've been in foreign languages

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for a long time, as you've seen.

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I'm so lucky.

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I started out with a

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year in ESL back in the day.

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There was one Spanish teacher and one

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French teacher per school.

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Maybe one German and you had to wait for

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them to die before you got a job.

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So I got a job in ESL and that's all

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comprehensive input.

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Yeah, I mean the kids that I had adults,

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the kids come from any place and it's all

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going to be in English.

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And when I was in college, I took a film

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my freshman year, a film

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studies class my freshman year.

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And I really got into film.

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How to analyze a film,

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how to think about film.

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And you know, I just I

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was on board from day one.

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Yeah, awesome.

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Awesome.

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So and Liz, you've taught like everything

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you've taught Spanish and French and

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Japanese and Italian, right?

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And she was born in Germany.

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I'm accidentally

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teaching some German now.

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Isn't that crazy how we kind

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of stumble into these things?

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Yeah.

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And I'm learning.

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I'm teaching myself.

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My heritage language is Dutch.

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So I'm always working on that.

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You know, I and you too studying Maltese.

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I saw Pamela.

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You're doing some Chinese now.

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And do a lingo.

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Yeah, I do Mandarin

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every Saturday morning.

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Yeah.

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Wow.

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That's that's what

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makes a dynamic classroom.

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The teacher himself herself is learning.

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Yeah.

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Lifelong learning.

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Yeah, I feel with my kids when they're

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when they're

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struggling, I feel it too, because

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at least I am teaching with

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comprehensible input.

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My my instructor is not a bad instructor

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in Maltese, not by any chance.

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He's a native speaker.

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He's in France right now and he's

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actually taking some other classes.

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He's in this program for something.

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I don't know because that's what we had

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to do it today because he

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was in Brussels yesterday.

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But he's just an old-fashioned teacher.

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And so they're teaching very standard and

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it's, you know, theme taught and he's not

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being comprehensible.

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He speaks at the regular language level

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and I can't pick out all the words.

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He's not trying to be comprehensible.

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He gives me all the instructions in

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Maltese and I might be

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grabbing a word keyword here.

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And what I do afterwards because he gives

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me the lesson about a half an hour before

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and then I will go through and I will

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have chat GPT do a side-by-side.

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So Maltese and then English so I can kind

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of follow but I wish I had it the day

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before so I could

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actually go through the lesson

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beforehand so that when we do it live

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together, I feel a little bit more

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prepared because I don't because he's

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like he learned and we teach the

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vocabulary right here and the next we're

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using them right away.

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And there is no time to process.

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There's no internalizing of it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So like today we learned all the

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different kitchen utensils.

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I mean some were useful for tonight those

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but I don't use a stock pot.

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I have never cooked with

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a stock pot in my life.

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So if I've made it to 55 without ever

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doing that I probably don't

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need to use that word at all.

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You know platter.

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I don't use that word either but that was

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another word that we taught.

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Let's just say big dish right.

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Yeah.

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So I mean we're talking about the big

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dish you circum look your way

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around it until you know it.

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I learned wooden spoon

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along with regular spoon.

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I'm like so it was just it was a lot.

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It was a lot and so I can understand

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where my kids are from and so I think

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that is really helpful to them because

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and it's a language that is not from any

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family of languages that I already speak

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because I speak German

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and French and Spanish.

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So an English and it

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doesn't come from any of those.

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It's an Arabic base.

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It's a Semitic based

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language with Italian thrown in.

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So it's just very different and it's a

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category for language which is you know

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German is the hardest one I've learned

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before and that's only

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a category to language.

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So I jumped a couple categories.

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I haven't got to the five ones.

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That's the Chinese and Arabic I think our

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fives and Japanese Japanese

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Japanese with a five or a four.

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But I did some Arabic and boy I would put

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Arabic in level four because you know

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it's basically the same alphabet.

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Japanese will throw you for

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a loop but it's so much fun.

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Oh Arabic is not the same alphabet.

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Yes it's basically the same alphabet but

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backwards and incurs

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of it is easy to teach.

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It's fun.

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Those letters don't look

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anything like my alphabet.

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Maltese is actually Arabic written in

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Latin letters though.

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Oh that makes it easy.

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Yeah that does make it easier but all the

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grammars from Arabic but

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let's get to our topic today.

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So movie talk.

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Let me first start because I forgot his

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name and I'm horrible.

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If you listen to his podcast you know I'm

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horrible with names.

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I'm horrible horrible horrible.

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So the only reason I remember Pamela's

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name is because it's

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written on my screen every day.

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It's written right there.

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It's written right there.

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But the guy who

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invented he's now retired.

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He was an ESL teacher and he took

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objection with us calling it movie talk.

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Right because I do movie talk.

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I do it the way he intended but a lot of

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people swapped and did something modified

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it and he said yeah.

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Movie talk.

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So let me define movie talk is taken

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either a full length movie or shorts.

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It doesn't matter that and you are

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narrating over on top of it but you are

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not targeting anything.

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You are picking it solely based on either

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the culture or the

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interest level of your students.

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You're not looking for a video goes I

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need to teach family vocabulary.

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Let me look for a family video.

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It's completely untargeted.

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And it's really you know it's practiced

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over and over again.

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So kids become more fluent and it only

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goes up to intermediate low that you he

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said you don't get any benefits beyond

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intermediate low through the movie.

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You got to stop at that point.

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It doesn't does not work well for

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intermediate mid and above.

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Now what they modified is

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what they call now clip chat.

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And that is targeted where someone goes

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through and it's deliberately trying to

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teach a set of vocabulary.

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They are looking for a video that

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actually targets that vocabulary and it's

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regardless of the interest level of the

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students and for me I'm going to say why

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don't do that is because if I don't have

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the interest of the students that I'm

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just wasting my time.

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And the kids kind of know when you're

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force feeding them vocabulary that's so

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it doesn't really work for me that way

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I'm looking for something where the kids

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are going to laugh or enjoy the video or

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it's got some cultural relevance to it

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and then that's how I do that.

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That's the way it works for me.

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And then my kids look forward to them and

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I don't do them all the time.

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I do a maybe four times a year.

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It's a break from what we

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all what we otherwise do.

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That's kind of how I just want to

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differentiate between the two things.

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So the techniques that we're talking

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about the stuff that we're

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talking about work for both.

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But just please for the respect of the

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guy who invented the thing

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call it the right when it is.

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It's either movie talk if you do it the

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way that he intended or it's clip chat if

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we've done the modified version where you

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are targeting vocabulary.

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So with that out of the way a little

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disclaimer who would like to go first and

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tell us how they got into movie talks.

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I remember my very specific case but go

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ahead who wants to go first.

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Let Liz go first. Liz you were talking

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about your college course.

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Yeah so I've always used film in the

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classroom but back in the day you had to

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personally move the

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television monitor to the class.

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Oh yeah.

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And the video tape and all that kind of

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stuff you know so it was a big deal.

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But I think all clips and

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all movies are a big deal.

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It's always an emotional experience for

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the student and I'd like to just give a

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little shout out to a colleague of mine.

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He doesn't teach foreign language.

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He is a teacher with autism.

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Oh I'm moving this wrong way.

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Just wrote this book called Seeing People

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and in the book is a QR code to a giant

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diagram which shows how

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his autistic brain works.

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He teaches things like like film like one

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of them is Encanto for social

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relationships and his name is Jeff Brown

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and I really recommend people look at a

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film carefully to see what is the social

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connection that's happening there.

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If it's a giant film you'll probably want

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to talk about history and other cultural

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things but all that scaffolding up front

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before you see a big film

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and then for clips I mean for clip chat

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you don't need to do

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a lot of scaffolding.

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You just kind of go to the clip and it

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serves your purpose and it's fun.

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And it's you know I

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wouldn't even call it a break.

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For me movies are dessert and I never

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give a movie to a sub.

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I am there.

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Oh yeah absolutely.

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No I agree.

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I don't do the movies for the subs either

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because that just gives them an excuse to

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miss have mischievous intentions.

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It's actually it's an

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insult to the students.

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It doesn't respect their time.

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They're not moving forward

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in their in their curriculum.

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Yeah no it's this movies are for me.

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Yeah.

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Thank you.

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How about you Pamela.

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All right.

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Well you have to remember before I became

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a teacher I was a professional translator

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and the whole reason I became a

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professional translator was because I

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wanted to watch more movies.

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Okay so I have translated

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150 movies professionally.

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It turns out I have an

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Internet movie database page.

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Who knew.

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But when I became a teacher of course

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like naturally I was going to gravitate

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towards movies that just makes sense

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because that's that's a

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window into the culture right.

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Liz you are absolutely right.

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When I first started teaching I was a sub

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and when I got a movie like oh I'm a sub

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and I have to show a movie.

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That's when the kids are trying to sneak

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out their cell phones and the days before

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the cell phones they were doing their

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math homework and I'm like they're just

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not focusing on the movie but this movie

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could teach them so much

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if they just pay attention.

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So what am I going to do differently when

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I get my own classroom

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and see what else do I want.

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I have so many thoughts of my head.

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I apologize for my coughing.

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I'm getting over a terrible cold.

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I thought I had dodged

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a bullet but I hadn't.

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Yeah.

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So to me when I show a movie I'm not

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showing I'm not putting on a Disney movie

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and changing the length.

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I'm not saying it's not a movie.

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I'm saying it's a language of French.

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Forget that.

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When I show a movie it has got to be

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culturally relevant.

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It can't be.

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Oh I know you've seen this in English.

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I'm going to show it to you in Japanese.

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No no no it's got to be culturally

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relevant because I want to teach the

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culture while I teach the language.

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So to me that's very important.

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And I take a little

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bit different approach.

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See if it gets the right button.

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No I did hit the right button.

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So I'll tell you I remember I can't

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remember which conference it was but it

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was a conference and Michelle Whaley

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presented movie talk back

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before anybody had heard of it.

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I don't know how she discovered it though

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the guy who invented it I

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believe also taught in Alaska.

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I could be wrong there but I know it was

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at least up in the Northwest somewhere.

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So I do know that he was a college

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professor and they showed us the video on

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black hole where it's the original

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classic one where the guy has a Xerox of

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a black hole and he puts his hand in and

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his hand like goes through third

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dimension and he can pick things out

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through the hole and stuff like that.

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So I'm not going to spoil it.

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There's it's a fun video.

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That's my first exposure to it.

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She demonstrated and then I did it in my

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classroom and the first time

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I did it was an ultimate fail.

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I taught middle school kids and I didn't

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have to wheel out the projector.

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So that was good and I tried doing the

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pause and stop and rewind and pause and

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stop the live and this is what my middle

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school kids kept selling.

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Just show us the video.

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They couldn't handle the stop rewind

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because they didn't understand the whole

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point and so I wasn't the only one who

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experienced this when we started doing

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movie talks a lot of teachers were

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getting this kind of thing because the

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kids didn't realize what the point was

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when the inventor did it.

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He was a college professor.

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So the kids weren't

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they're not kids anymore.

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They didn't have an attention span type

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of thing and they were

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there more for their paying.

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So they're more there for the education.

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Whereas our kids are not they're being

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dragged into the classroom.

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Many of them so they just wanted to get

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to the to the end of

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the the end of the video.

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So then how we adapted and I did this and

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other teachers started doing the same

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thing was we took

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screenshots of the video beforehand.

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Yeah and then we talked about them.

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Number one that was easier for a couple

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reasons not having to you know all I

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rewinded too far back or I fast forwarded

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too far back or I didn't

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pause at the right moment.

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So that set that out there.

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And so I did the screenshots and then I

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right before the punch line because I

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like animated shorts.

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I'm not going for the culture.

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I teach culture in other ways but I'm

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going for the animated shorts.

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I'm going for the laugh.

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I'm going for the high interest level for

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the kids that they want to know about it.

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So the right before the punch line I will

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show the video in full without talking

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over it just let him see the video and

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then I do the punch lines screenshot.

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We talk about that one at the end for me

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and I know I'm the unusual one.

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I take a week to two weeks to teach one

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three minute video because I make like a

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hundred and fifty screenshots because

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there's so much that are going on and I

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can milk it and work it

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and milk it and work it.

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And then at the end I rewrite it.

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I write it as a text so

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they can read it as well.

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So I get at least a week if not two weeks

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on a three minute video and then I spend

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a lot of time going on YouTube looking

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for animated shorts and my qualifications

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are it can't have any sound other than

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sound effects or music.

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I want no dialogue because it interferes

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with what we're doing and I have a whole

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bunch of different ones.

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Some are animated some are not

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some I've got some from Asia.

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I've got one about it's a monster and

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she's blind and she's selling dumplings

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and he's throwing teeth

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in there in his little jar.

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He's taking his teeth out and throwing

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them in there and she thinks

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she's making all kinds of money.

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She doesn't realize that she's making it.

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She's only he's only getting teeth in

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there and then he ran out of teeth and so

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he's got seven eyes.

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He gives two of his eyes to her and she

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can now see and now she's terrified of

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him because it's a monster and then it

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comes out as a happy ending at the end.

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I have different ones I go on YouTube I

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find them and then here's my

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recommendation download them go to a

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search site and go to find them.

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Oh my god one time I'm doing a movie talk

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and vaping had just become a thing and I

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had to sit through the vaping commercial

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and I'm like forget it.

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I'm a pirate guys from now on I'm

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pirating everything.

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I'm a professional educator.

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There is no way I'm letting my kids see

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another vaping commercial.

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So yes absolutely I pay for YouTube so I

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don't have those commercials but what

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comes in at the end the end the suggested

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videos afterwards

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might not be appropriate.

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That's true and my biggest thing though

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is is twofold the Internet's out and I

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had a whole plan or they

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remove the video that happens.

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Yeah so I download when I have a whole

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folder on my Google

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Drive of all my movie talks.

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Most of my never taught their potential

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movie talks for me to do.

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But at least I have them because when I

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find the good ones I want to save them

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and keep them or if someone suggests them

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but I like I said earlier I never ever

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ever ever pick one based

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on thematic vocabulary.

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If it's family if I'm teaching family I

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can add that in any movie talk.

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We can add that to anyone but when it

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comes and I'm losing my voice

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to Pamela bad for a podcast.

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So I just find something is going to be

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highly interesting to the

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students and I do take it back.

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There is one cultural one that I do.

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It's a real it's a news showing of

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running of the Bulls.

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Oh yeah so I do that.

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Well the reason I choose this one is

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because the one of the

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guys gets his comeuppance.

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Yeah, the bull go gets his revenge on him

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and he actually gets his

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pants off is not naked.

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He's got his underwear on.

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No but I think I show that one too.

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Yeah, so the kids love it because they're

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like and then the pants come

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off and it's kind of funny.

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I'm like he got what he deserved.

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He got what he deserved.

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So that's when I do show and that little

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punch line is when

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the guy loses his pants.

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It's kind of funny that he jumps over the

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fence to get out of there.

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Yeah, I think I show that one too.

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Yeah, so that's similar to you.

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I'm similar to you that I

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take a million screenshots first.

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Now the way I kind of stumbled upon all

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this was I took a class with Bryce

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Headstrom many many years ago and he was

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talking about embedded reading and I was

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like I love embedded reading everything.

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I thought you know what I should do that

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with movies too because sometimes I show

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a movie and the kids are just it's just a

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little too n plus 15 of you know like out

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of their zone of

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proximal development, right?

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So I do I make I take all my screenshots

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and I make an embedded reading of the

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five minutes that we're going to watch or

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the 10 minutes that we're

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going to watch or whatever.

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So I just do it in little chunks and

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while we do the embedded reading I can do

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all my circling if I need to or whatever

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but the students understand the basic of

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the story and then

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you're absolutely right.

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I don't give the punch line while I'm

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like doing my little thing there and then

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I show that one that I have to make some

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predictions also like before.

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We even start I'm like

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okay here's a picture.

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What do you think is going to happen?

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What words are you going to listen for

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and at this point they're allowed to

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write in English little notes to

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themselves because I feel like if they

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think it's going to be about a gorilla

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and they don't know the word for gorilla

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if they write it down and they're

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listening for the word gorilla when they

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hear it they'll make that

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connection a bit stronger.

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So I do that and then I show them the

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clip and then I have them partner up and

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talk about if their predictions were

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right or not and what they need to adjust

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what they what they now that they've seen

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it what what do they expect from it and

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then if if it's a good clip and the

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students are really into it I'll show it

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to them again so they get to hear all

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that vocabulary one more time.

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Yeah I think it's really good I did it

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that I don't do an embedded reading I

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just do a reading but I do it afterwards

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after we've already gone through the

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video so they can kind of see because I

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know I cannot make a word my

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own unless I see it written out.

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It's the same way with names they stick

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better if I can see them spelled out I

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don't know why that is

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with my brain but like when I.

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You need that you need many different

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modalities until you understand something

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so I know some people only they only do

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their TPRS by talking I always have

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things written on the board because I

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feel like students need they need some

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kind of visual support when they're

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hearing something and if they're if we're

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just reading something they need some

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kind of auditory

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support you know and all that.

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Yeah I forgot the method I can picture it

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again I know it it's just audio method

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what is that method called.

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The audio link will method no not audio

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link will just like they

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have a whole series of.

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Pimsler that's a Pimsler Pimsler Pimsler

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okay yeah so it frustrated me because I

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you can't find anything in Maltese on

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this side of the planet you just cannot

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find anything and I knew Maltese was a

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die an ancient dialect of Arabic so I

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thought if I learned some Arabic that it

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would help me with my Maltese so I tried

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listening to Pimsler and when I'm driving

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and such in the car but.

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Without the confirmation of the sounds

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with the letters absolutely it was

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frustrating me I couldn't tell if they're

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pronouncing an R or an L because those

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are very similar letters in the mouth and

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so I could never tell how they were

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pronouncing it and I was frustrated and

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the only written

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versions of Pimsler were.

Speaker:

Against copyright when they transcribe

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some people transcribe them but that was

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against the copyright because Pimsler

Speaker:

only wants the auditory.

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Right nothing else yeah but I couldn't

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tell and so really frustrated me more

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than anything with those

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that type of thing I need.

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I'm not necessarily need a picture but I

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need to see how it's spelled so that I

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can attach the sounds with the letters

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and have them in my brain that way and

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it's very long that

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way with Mandarin yeah.

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I just.

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Yeah it's the French classroom in the

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Japanese classroom yeah that's a lot of

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audio input before you can actually spell

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the words or even read the words.

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Yeah I had several ideas on first of all

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I was counting how many of your sweet

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sixteen verbs you use as you described

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the monster in the dumpling.

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And I mean you did the whole thing it

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would work great for them.

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Just need to teach dumpling to sell and

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maybe teeth you know that's an excellent

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example of how any video can work itself

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into your classroom.

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Absolutely yeah absolutely absolutely and

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those words I don't care I call those

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throw away words I don't expect you to

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know him after the story

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if you do that's a bonus.

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But I just need them to express the story

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and I always try to find the simplest

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like one teacher one teacher told me we

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were working together and

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she goes why do you call.

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Bare feet naked feet.

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I said because I didn't want to teach you

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know the actual word for bare foot it's a

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much more complicated word than if I just

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say pierce this new those.

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You know I can just say that and be done

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with it they get the idea and I'm also

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teaching circumlocution as well yeah and

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I don't want to go into that when they're

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not going to use that word.

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Otherwise where I can say you know.

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It's just because I don't like that word

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I go well then don't use it use whenever

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you want but that's what I used and I was

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teaching middle school kids and so they

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say naked their minds perk anyways and

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we're just talking about

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feet here you know nothing.

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Nothing nothing you know tawdry or

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anything like that but I do that to kind

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of simplify the language for them and I

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have to teach them the

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exact words and I think it was.

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God I'm gonna mess up his name too I can

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picture looking right at him.

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You need a cheat sheet I do I'm horrible

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with names and I apologize to everybody

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that I'm messing up your name why am I

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think he's a French teacher.

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Ben Slavik.

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It's really hard names I can see him and

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it's like my tongue is spinning like

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spinning wheels and I can't

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get the thing Ben Slavik said.

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Sometimes there are words it makes no

Speaker:

point in trying to look them up if you

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don't know them just keep them in English

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and he was using snail

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as a example he goes.

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I just need this for this little moment

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the kids asking about a snail we don't

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need to know what that word is it doesn't

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matter I'm not going to take the time to

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look it up just keep it in English and

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let it go after that

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so sometimes words are.

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That works well also I usually like to

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look up my words but I try to keep

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everything as simple

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for comes up in there.

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That like a dumpling or something I

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wouldn't say a dumpling I would say

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something like just food.

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Right something like that I don't have to

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actually go into I'm not teaching Asian

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culture so the idea of a dumpling is not

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you know not important at that point so

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that's kind of what I.

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How I handle those things and I think

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that's good for the kids to when you get

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them code switching because.

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I'm so many students will just stop dead

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when they don't know a word.

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Yeah so if you can encourage them okay

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say it in English but put it into French

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grammar say it in English but put it into

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Japanese grammar whatever.

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Yeah I do that you don't stop dead and

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that's that's when we can start getting

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them to circle acute and everything but I

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do think that's very

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important skill that.

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Man when I'm arguing with my colleagues

Speaker:

about the textbook and they want to teach

Speaker:

that word for deep pot and they want to

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teach the word for clam go to

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and cheese fork and all that.

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And I'm like no no the students don't

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need that and they're not going to

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remember it and they're going to get

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frustrated and we don't want to get that

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we don't want to raise their effective

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filter we want them communicating.

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And this is one thing

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that I disagree with.

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I'm.

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Crashing about that my classroom should

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not necessarily be 100 percent.

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Comprehensible.

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Because.

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Because here's my thing.

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Because like the teachers would always

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tell me my group like you can't put that

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on the test because we didn't teach it.

Speaker:

I'm like but it's so obvious from the

Speaker:

context clues and in real life nobody's

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going to work to make their language 100

Speaker:

percent comprehensible to a foreigner who

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doesn't speak the language they're not

Speaker:

going to do that so instead of having my

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kids freak out in public

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when they don't understand.

Speaker:

I let them have a mild freak out in class

Speaker:

they can always ask me but I do put words

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in a test that aren't necessarily been

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explicitly taught before no question on

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the test is reliant upon that word so

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it's not being unfair.

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But I want them to know oh it's OK that I

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don't know every word I still got the

Speaker:

gist of what's going on I got the idea

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because in real life you know I am not a

Speaker:

fluent speaker of any other languages

Speaker:

that I speak I don't know every word a

Speaker:

native speaker uses with me but I

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understand what they're saying.

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And I don't freak out about that my kids

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are this should be the same way I don't

Speaker:

want them to freak out because they used

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a word they've never used like they used

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felith instead of contento I don't want

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them to freak out from that.

Speaker:

I want them to use context clues to

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figure it out and realize I don't need to

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know every word so we always got in the

Speaker:

fights with my colleagues even my CI

Speaker:

colleagues you can't put that word in the

Speaker:

story because they don't know that word

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I'm like but no question

Speaker:

is dependent upon that word.

Speaker:

See this is part of my problem is we

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should be working at i plus one right.

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Which means there's going to be a couple

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of words that you don't know you're going

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to have to figure out from context so.

Speaker:

I've been given my students parental

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credit if they didn't like my sentence on

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a test and they changed it somehow so it

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makes sense by circular.

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Yeah you didn't remember the word I

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wanted well I'll give you some credit for

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getting around that.

Speaker:

Yeah yeah absolutely the AP test does the

Speaker:

AP test does that they give credit for

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circumlocution they give

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a lot of credit for that.

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Because in real life even in your native

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language you don't know what every word

Speaker:

is in sometimes like me when I forget

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words because it's not just names of

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people its names of things like stores I

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forget the word for target

Speaker:

and walmart and coke and Pepsi.

Speaker:

I have some kind of there is something in

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my brain that says names do not stick so

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I mean I describe them like that store

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that's got the red target on it and

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they're like target.

Speaker:

But we do that in our own language so

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it's it's something that is a skill

Speaker:

that's really important to be able to do.

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Absolutely 100% every five years did you

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have you noticed that we

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all have to learn a new thing.

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Yeah oh yeah right oh yeah and sometimes

Speaker:

you roll our eyes right but Scott well

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you're talking about

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your monster and dumplings.

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You know when you hit it several times in

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a row you are doing the thing that made

Speaker:

the most sense to me which

Speaker:

is the eight intelligences.

Speaker:

Math intelligence art intelligence music

Speaker:

intelligence social intelligence I mean I

Speaker:

just really love that theory and we for

Speaker:

language teachers are the luckiest

Speaker:

teachers of all because we can teach

Speaker:

whatever we want if you like.

Speaker:

That's if you like soccer if you like my

Speaker:

and you know culture you can teach it you

Speaker:

can teach you that is absolutely true.

Speaker:

And we are the only almost the only

Speaker:

lessons film class the only subject that

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has showing movies as a standard.

Speaker:

So when math start showing some movie

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right before Christmas because they are

Speaker:

checked out they are not sticking within

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what they're supposed to the curriculum

Speaker:

where I can show a movie and put it in

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the target language and it could be a

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Disney movie which is fine because one of

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the ones I know family you don't like the

Speaker:

Disney movies because it doesn't have a.

Speaker:

I love Disney I'm a huge Disney fan but

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I'm not going to show them in class but I

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do at the end of level one I show Nemo.

Speaker:

I put it in Spanish it's got the English

Speaker:

subtitles and here's why I do that one

Speaker:

because at the end of level one.

Speaker:

Students can understand the Spanish in

Speaker:

Nemo most of the kids not every sentence

Speaker:

but it's really low it is a really low

Speaker:

language is not a lot of difficult like

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it's not a lot of language in that movie

Speaker:

and so they feel successful at the end

Speaker:

when they can watch that

Speaker:

movie the whole hour and a half.

Speaker:

And then they know and I know they're

Speaker:

getting it because when they all tell me

Speaker:

you know he inked himself in Spanish

Speaker:

because they learned that little phrase

Speaker:

they like that or they go when I have a

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kid we did it once and I think it's a

Speaker:

seagulls one of the seagulls farts at the

Speaker:

end and the bubbles come up and in

Speaker:

Spanish he goes he goes he leaned on and

Speaker:

so I have a kid a kid

Speaker:

farted in class he goes.

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Ke lindo.

Speaker:

And it was just you know so they're

Speaker:

picking up things too from that and they

Speaker:

are basing a lot of it on familiarity

Speaker:

with the movie because most kids have

Speaker:

seen it but they can actually understand

Speaker:

a lot of that one other days I have not

Speaker:

found another cartoon.

Speaker:

That is so comprehensible for a level one

Speaker:

where Nemo is when I'm listening to like

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yeah my kids know that they know a

Speaker:

version of that they can understand that

Speaker:

and then they can prove it they prove it

Speaker:

to me by their picking up some language

Speaker:

do from it so I do use some of those

Speaker:

things to base off familiarity but I.

Speaker:

And I like as I said I like that one

Speaker:

because the kids at the end feel

Speaker:

successful when they can understand a

Speaker:

portion of that video whether or not can

Speaker:

understand any of the superhero videos

Speaker:

that they watch they're not going to an

Speaker:

even Shrek is too difficult for them to

Speaker:

understand but Nemo

Speaker:

really works well for that.

Speaker:

Well you bring up a good point about the

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math class putting on a

Speaker:

movie and it's it's break time.

Speaker:

And I've certainly I've certainly seen

Speaker:

that in other classes and I think this is

Speaker:

one of the challenges we have is it's not

Speaker:

just the admin walking past our door

Speaker:

thinking oh you're

Speaker:

it's break time for you.

Speaker:

It's also the students in class it takes

Speaker:

a while for us to program deprogram them

Speaker:

that hey I'm putting on a movie right now

Speaker:

but this is not break time I need your

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attention because this is going to help

Speaker:

you learn you need to hear the language

Speaker:

you need to hear the language in context

Speaker:

this is going to help you learn faster

Speaker:

but the students I initially like the

Speaker:

first time you do it it's

Speaker:

it's always a little bit of a.

Speaker:

Like okay I know you're expecting this

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but no this is this is

Speaker:

a work time right now.

Speaker:

And I think also with parents because

Speaker:

they question too because when the kids

Speaker:

shared a picture with his parents of

Speaker:

another kid playing twister in the

Speaker:

classroom and the parents emailed me goes

Speaker:

what does this have to do with Spanish

Speaker:

and I'm like wow colors and body parts

Speaker:

body parts what else.

Speaker:

So we are playing a game we're playing it

Speaker:

in Spanish they're practicing left right

Speaker:

foot hand and sometimes I play advanced

Speaker:

twister we have to use knees and elbows

Speaker:

and chins and stuff like that once they

Speaker:

know the basics and then the colors I'm

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like yeah we don't have to be strict in a

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textbook memorizing lists and making it

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boring we can do all

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different kinds of things.

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You know I play heads up seven up and

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duck to goose in Spanish Pato Pato Ganso

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or heads up seven up because I think so

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and so talk touch you know

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okay I can't say that out loud.

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I don't know how to say that name without

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someone being inappropriate but you know

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I think I think so and so chose me you

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know that kind of thing in there because

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it's a fun way the kids can learn and use

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things so same thing with movies kids

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like videos they like YouTube they like

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movies and if we can use

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that to keep their attention.

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To be able to learn the language that's

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what we do and so I do the games and you

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know my friend my kids love you know even

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my new school loves that sink and swim I

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learned from Pamela.

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They love that game and so lots of

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different things you can do so it doesn't

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have to be all dry and crusty you can

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find ways and Pamela is the queen of

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games she game fights her old classroom

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so I love games so it works really really

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well kids can have fun

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and learn at the same time.

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And I think movie talks

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do that really really well.

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Yeah yeah and if our goal is

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differentiation that every student is

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getting what they need games do that

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beautifully because the students who are

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high flyers are going to use higher

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language and the students who are

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struggling are just going to

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do the base to win the game.

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But when you talk also if it's a visual

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the students have that support there and

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so if they don't understand every single

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line of dialogue coming out of the

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characters mouth they can tell what's

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going on because of the picture.

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Absolutely and I think this is where you

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know why it works so well for so many

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students because this adds that visual

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layer on there and not

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just a static visual layer.

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We've got motion up there because it's

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one thing to have just a static picture

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up there. You know there's I can't

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remember the series of vocabulary books

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but I love them their picture vocabulary

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books they've got them in all the

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different languages.

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I love them. They've got way too much

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vocabulary them but they've got it's just

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a static scene of like a house and

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everything in the house is

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labeled. I love those books.

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Thousand words in Spanish. It's not that

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one. It's not that serious though I can't

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think what it is up top my head but I

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love them. I have a Spanish one sitting

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at school. I love those books.

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It helps with the visual but it's static

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and there's something else it's one for a

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static image and another one completely

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when it's an animated image. It's kind of

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like I remember the film strips when I

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was a kid the film strips were just the

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static with the narration over it.

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It was a static picture and then you like

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the videos that we have to watch in

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school that were like yeah.

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And then then there is the projector and

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they brought the projector out you knew

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was actually going to be moving pictures.

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It wasn't just going to be like a slide

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show with narration over top of it.

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So I mean there's just a difference

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there. So I mean I do love movie talks

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and to be honest if you're using CI and

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using stories what we do every day is

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absolutely the same thing whether it's a

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picture talk or it's a movie talk.

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Or if you're doing a song you're telling

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a story it's just what you use as your

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source material changes but the kids

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think it's different even though it's not

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because the source material has changed.

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But what we do is we're still telling a

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story. It's just not made up by the kids

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this time it's coming from the video or

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it's coming from a picture or it's coming

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from a song or whatever

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you happen to be using.

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But I like it to break up what I'm doing

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because it does it takes a lot. I think

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we talk for me is twofold. It can be a

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scaffolded story if you're not

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comfortable telling stories

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of your kids it's scaffolded.

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But for me it takes much more energy and

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work to do a movie talk than for me to do

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a story with the kids. I don't know why

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that is but it does it takes more for me.

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So for me because I like

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it all those great shots.

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It's a change but I enjoy doing the movie

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talks every single time.

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Excuse me. What about you Liz what are

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you thinking. Yeah. Well I was thinking

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with you. You could make a story based on

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a movie that you don't tell the kids

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about or even just a clip right. And you

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could make it go a thousand different

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directions you know.

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And then when they finally see the clip

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maybe weeks later it'll bring back that

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emotional element all those vocabulary

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words and once again you know viewing a

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film is an emotional experience.

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I listen to you two of you talking about

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the kid you can't reach the kid that

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won't engage. Well there is a chance.

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There's a chance that showing a clip or a

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movie will give him or her that emotional

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engagement that maybe you

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aren't able to provide for them.

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Yeah I know when I first started teaching

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before I even knew about movie talk we

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would have a fun Friday and that was when

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the Simpsons were at the height. I mean

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they've been going on since I graduated

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from high school so

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they've been going since eight.

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So they've been going on for a long time.

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I think it's the longest running series

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period in history. I think there's more.

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There's others once in Japan that have

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gone longer but it's

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certainly the longest in America.

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Yeah. Okay. Maybe maybe it's just America

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but it's been on for 40 some years. And

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so I used to I had the videos of the

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Simpsons before we had you. YouTube was

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not even invented yet.

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Yeah. And you couldn't download a video

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either because I get mine now because of

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Apple because Apple you can when you

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download them and you buy them from Apple

Speaker:

they have the alternate languages built

Speaker:

in where if you buy them

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from Google they don't.

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So I buy them. I've got the Simpsons the

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DVD set and I would show an episode in

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the target language and a lot of kids

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liked those. You know they like the

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Simpsons they enjoyed them. So they

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perked up and they really wanted to

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understand it because we're already

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watching the Simpsons at home.

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So it wasn't something you know that was

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new to them and they they enjoyed that

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those characters and it was still simple

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enough language where

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they could understand it.

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Would you believe that I teach a German

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film in my Spanish classroom.

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A German film really. Yes one. My dear

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colleague who taught German across the

Speaker:

hall from me and I would get the upper

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level kids IB AP kids

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Spanish four and five.

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Together once a year or two study a film

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by Werner Herzog. It's called a Gary the

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Wrath of God. I've seen it 50 times.

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There's so much in that film. But anyway

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it's really great when teaching about you

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know the Spanish conquest of the Americas

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and it's good from the

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German point of view.

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And we just would work together and get

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so much out of that film. And of course

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we would talk about the film in Spanish

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but it was an intense cultural experience

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for all of the students.

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When you can find a good film like that

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that makes it really powerful doesn't

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again like I chose

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that Chinese anime video.

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It doesn't have to be from the culture.

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It can be you know something that's

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really authentic and that can get that

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emotion out of the kids to get them that

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interest to want to pay attention to be

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able to understand the

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language to actually try.

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It's kind of like when the kids always

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like they think up they're getting off

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task and they go so tell us about your

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prom or your first girlfriend or

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something like that. They think they're

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getting me off topic and I tell them in

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Spanish and they're all on the edge of

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their seats trying to hear.

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And they're like beautiful. They're like

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we didn't hit anything on the agenda

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today and I'm like score because my only

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my only goal was to speak Spanish as much

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as possible in class. Yeah. Make it as

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understandable as

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possible and get engagement.

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And I got that with what I was doing so

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that was much better than

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the lesson I had planned.

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Yeah.

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And so it works out really well. You can

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get them in there. So using those other

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things really really helps. I have a lot

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of Russian and Ukrainian students who

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have a huge

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population that in our school.

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And so I'm trying to find ways to

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integrate some of that culture into my

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Spanish class to get them more engaged

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because they're usually fresh off the

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plane Russian or Ukrainians.

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When they talk to their friends are

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talking in Russian in the middle of my

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Spanish class. So you know so I'm trying

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to find a ways to engage them and make

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and bring references back to them for the

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grammar and such like that.

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And I made a we do we did a speaking test

Speaker:

a couple of weeks back and my Russian

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students were making a weird mistake and

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it was like wait you're defaulting to

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English. You're not defaulting to Russian

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which is their native language and

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they're not heritage speakers.

Speaker:

These are kids who spent a good portion

Speaker:

of their childhood in Russia and came

Speaker:

over and they are doing the date English

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style with the month and the day.

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Oh I like that's weird because English

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kids I know why English kids American

Speaker:

kids result to that. But if you learned

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it as a kid day then month then why would

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you resort to English.

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But it was interesting because not all

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the Russians were doing that most of the

Speaker:

Russians did it fine but I had a few that

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didn't and I double

Speaker:

checked I went and checked.

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Does Russian do it the way that you know

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Spanish does it with day then month which

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90 percent of the world does it day then

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month. It's only America's

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the oddball out like usual.

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And now they do it that way too so that I

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said just use it the way you do in

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Russian just put it in Spanish words it's

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the same way as it's in Russian just put

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it in Spanish words and so that helps

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just over correction interesting.

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In your brain you've got a foreign

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language drawer and if you have studied

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German and you to a Spanish class you're

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going to go to the foreign language

Speaker:

drawer for a long time until your brain

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opens a Spanish drawer so that's what

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students are doing out.

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And I constantly because I know so many

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languages I mean I don't know as many as

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you do but I am constantly comparing

Speaker:

because like Maltese and Arabic do

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numbers like German with the ones before

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the tens which makes sense

Speaker:

because one comes before 10.

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So I'm you know we say five and 20 that's

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how they do it and then Maltese and

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Arabic does the exact same way so I

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compare that but they do their adjectives

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like Spanish and French where they come

Speaker:

after the now so I'm constantly using

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that foreign language door like you said

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to make comparisons so that I can pull

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from here pull from there

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pull from here and I remember.

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I just lost the word we

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let the word for strainer.

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In Maltese was a weird word and I saw a

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German word in it and so that made me

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think of it here it is oh it's pass a

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tour okay pass a tour is a strainer so I

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took my and tour in German is a door so I

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said it passes through the door.

Speaker:

That's how I'm trying to remember that

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word right now that we're going to make

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these weird connections and using all my

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language to make it and I have to tell

Speaker:

you this funny anecdote that my Maltese

Speaker:

teacher told me today he goes this

Speaker:

Maltese guy went to Australia and he

Speaker:

needed to use word strainer and didn't

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know the word in English for a strainer

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and he said it is

Speaker:

broken English he said okay.

Speaker:

Noodles stay water goes.

Speaker:

Yeah beautiful and so he's using the

Speaker:

circle of fusion which is so valuable but

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he told me that it was really funny

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that's exactly what a

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stranger is noodle stay water goes.

Speaker:

Yeah yeah and I'm sure in German as

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probably what they say because German

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describes most of the words they don't

Speaker:

have words for things they

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described them it's very.

Speaker:

A lot of yeah exactly they probably do

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say noodle stay water goes I don't even

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know what a straight or is in German

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again I've never needed it you know so I

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don't know those words

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don't know those words.

Speaker:

We're getting close to the end so I'm

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going to ask does anybody have a favorite

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film or clip that they like to use for

Speaker:

movie talk to recommend to some people.

Speaker:

I got one in Japanese for pummela.

Speaker:

Yeah what do you have

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Liz. The algorithm March.

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Have you heard of it. No I have. Oh it's

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hilarious and it's great for getting your

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kids up and moving. It's a row of people

Speaker:

and they all do a different action as a

Speaker:

things as they say things like push push

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and you're a great dude.

Speaker:

And anyway I love it. We would fantasize

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about doing it at a pep rally you know

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what everything's got a little boring in

Speaker:

the classroom. We put up the algorithm

Speaker:

March and we would do it and the kids

Speaker:

never got tired of it and they learned so

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many fun little things.

Speaker:

They all memorize

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this that is great. Yeah.

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Well that reminds me ever since I broke

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my leg and my leg will not heal so it's

Speaker:

I'm going on year four now of not being

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able to walk properly amputation.

Speaker:

I've been there because I've been totally

Speaker:

paralyzed head to toe which is why the

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leg won't heal now is because 23 years

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ago I was like we talk about the

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Simpsons. The Simpsons saves my life

Speaker:

because there I was in the hospital on a

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ventilator. I don't know if you can see

Speaker:

my scar here and the doctors told me I

Speaker:

was going to be dead in five days and I

Speaker:

knew if I could make it to 6 p.m. when

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the first Simpsons episode was on then

Speaker:

I'd made it through the

Speaker:

day and then at 7.30 p.m.

Speaker:

there was a second Simpsons episode on

Speaker:

and I was on a ventilator and I couldn't

Speaker:

I couldn't speak I couldn't laugh but the

Speaker:

Simpsons would make me try to laugh so I

Speaker:

adore the Simpsons they saved my life

Speaker:

okay because I kept me

Speaker:

kept me going but anyway.

Speaker:

So four years ago I could tripped over a

Speaker:

student's backpack because we were

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playing a game and the students know they

Speaker:

get backpacks are supposed to be against

Speaker:

the wall with a student for some reason

Speaker:

because just pulled her backpack out and

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I didn't notice tripped over those

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backpacks are friggin heavy.

Speaker:

Broke my leg in three places and because

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I was paralyzed 23 years ago when the

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nerves haven't regrown that somehow just

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learning to walk again for the third time

Speaker:

of my life has been really difficult so I

Speaker:

was thinking about I was like well you

Speaker:

know I'm teaching Spanish, French,

Speaker:

Japanese and English now they put an

Speaker:

English class on me.

Speaker:

I haven't been able to carve out time to

Speaker:

do the exercises that I know are

Speaker:

essential so I started I went through and

Speaker:

I you know I know from my days in Japan

Speaker:

there's that you're tight so there's

Speaker:

radio exercises and I went through the

Speaker:

YouTube and I just

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scoured it for five minute.

Speaker:

It's your mom in French and just five

Speaker:

minute stretches in Spanish and then I

Speaker:

make my students do it with me I'm like

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hey this is this is me here.

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She's your.

Speaker:

She's your.

Speaker:

And I put it on and they got to know

Speaker:

their body parts they got to know left

Speaker:

and right and up and down and they do

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whatever five minute exercise with me so

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that I get my exercise bike.

Speaker:

Golly.

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Absolutely.

Speaker:

So yeah there's a lot of me of that but I

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do that with all the

Speaker:

languages now so I'll tell you.

Speaker:

You reminded me of the year that I lost

Speaker:

my voice for a whole month.

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Oh my gosh what happened.

Speaker:

Just luckily it was the

Speaker:

third day of the semester.

Speaker:

So I had taught the hiragana half the

Speaker:

hiragana chart in Japanese and I had I

Speaker:

had upper level Spanish students so they

Speaker:

all knew I spoke Spanish but I lost my

Speaker:

voice for an entire month and I either

Speaker:

silent classroom that was.

Speaker:

And luckily I can type really fast but

Speaker:

one of my colleagues Carrie she used to

Speaker:

carry around this giant book everywhere

Speaker:

she went and I would see her with that

Speaker:

giant book and I finally had

Speaker:

to find out what are you doing.

Speaker:

She was using American sign language in

Speaker:

the classroom to avoid English.

Speaker:

What a treasure for the students. They

Speaker:

might be working somewhere.

Speaker:

And you know they could go

Speaker:

to in for the price of one.

Speaker:

They might be seeing a news clip with a

Speaker:

translator on there you know using ASL.

Speaker:

It's just like teach to your love.

Speaker:

Do things out of the

Speaker:

box. What can you do that.

Speaker:

It'll serve the

Speaker:

students for their entire life.

Speaker:

I use some talk about that more because I

Speaker:

dabbled in that but I found the cognitive

Speaker:

load of teaching two

Speaker:

languages at once was just too much.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

There was one time when I asked a

Speaker:

question of the students and I didn't

Speaker:

expect them to remember it was something

Speaker:

like strainer. It was some esoteric word

Speaker:

and I was like they're

Speaker:

not going to remember it.

Speaker:

I'm going to fill it in but I'm going to

Speaker:

give them the wait time and I gave them

Speaker:

the wait time and a student shouted it

Speaker:

out at exactly the same time that I gave

Speaker:

them the answer and the other students by

Speaker:

reflex they shouted jinx.

Speaker:

And so I was jinxed and I decided to

Speaker:

reward the student because I was so

Speaker:

impressed that the student remembered it.

Speaker:

I was going to reward her by being jinxed

Speaker:

for the rest of the class period.

Speaker:

So it's a good thing I had studied the

Speaker:

silent way so that I could teach class to

Speaker:

entirely with no language whatsoever just

Speaker:

gesturing and calling on the students and

Speaker:

getting them to like truncate their sound

Speaker:

and late in their song.

Speaker:

It was all that silent way stuff that I

Speaker:

thought I would never use

Speaker:

and here I was using it.

Speaker:

And I was like baby sign language you

Speaker:

know like this means more because babies

Speaker:

understand way more than they can say.

Speaker:

Oh yeah.

Speaker:

So to our students our students can

Speaker:

understand a lot more than they can say.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

And so I I do the ASL thing but only for

Speaker:

words that I don't can't think of another

Speaker:

gesture for. I try to think of a more

Speaker:

logical gesture and sometimes the ASL

Speaker:

ones aren't logical or at least from my

Speaker:

non ASL trained brain.

Speaker:

They're not logical but I've had to avoid

Speaker:

like I did one for makes and it's this is

Speaker:

the gesture but the kids

Speaker:

took that as a dirty gesture.

Speaker:

So I can't use that one anymore so now I

Speaker:

use a hammer we're hammering a nail in

Speaker:

and that is we're making something I use

Speaker:

that one but some of the other ones I do

Speaker:

use if I can't think of other ones

Speaker:

because sometimes like for years years I

Speaker:

couldn't think of the one for stay.

Speaker:

So I guess like we firmly planted our

Speaker:

feet. That's what we did right.

Speaker:

From the plant our feet and

Speaker:

one of the kids goes logical.

Speaker:

Duh. What do you do to a dog.

Speaker:

Stay.

Speaker:

I'm like yeah.

Speaker:

Makes sense.

Speaker:

I have dogs.

Speaker:

Why didn't I think of that.

Speaker:

So sometimes the kids will come up with

Speaker:

them sometimes I'll come up with them.

Speaker:

I am not a teacher as a

Speaker:

different gesture for every class.

Speaker:

There are classes that do that.

Speaker:

I cannot keep that many straight.

Speaker:

That's crazy.

Speaker:

I have the ones and the ones I've been

Speaker:

using for years stick with me.

Speaker:

So I know like is located.

Speaker:

It's like here you're at the map at the

Speaker:

mall and they have that

Speaker:

little arrow right there.

Speaker:

So I show them that that

Speaker:

that's what we do for that one.

Speaker:

So I have my gestures but I do resort to

Speaker:

ASL when I can't think of and I used to

Speaker:

have to look them up online but we teach

Speaker:

ASL at my school so I just go down the

Speaker:

hall and I go can you

Speaker:

show me the gesture for this.

Speaker:

So she shows me what it is.

Speaker:

I'm like oh I can't

Speaker:

use that one in class.

Speaker:

Thank you very much.

Speaker:

I'll do find something else because

Speaker:

sometimes they just.

Speaker:

I wait for it every year.

Speaker:

The ugly moment arrives when a student

Speaker:

thinks something you said or did is

Speaker:

inappropriate and that's

Speaker:

my moment to say nothing.

Speaker:

I do or say is to be used or interpreted

Speaker:

in an inappropriate way and there will be

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words in Spanish that remind you of an

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inappropriate word and absolutely not.

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We're never going to go there.

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You have to have that conversation with

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the students but you wait for the moment.

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Yeah.

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That's an emotional hook but

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they don't always stick to it.

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So I don't.

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Plus I'm really bad.

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My friend my one of my best friend

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teachers from Vegas I taught with.

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She's like yeah you do it to yourself

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because I say things and I

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don't think like a teenager.

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And so I'll say it and then afterwards I

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see their face like oh

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crap what did I just say.

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And then I realize oh crap because like

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the first time I explain the difference

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between PELOTA and BALON in Spanish.

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I didn't know best way to explain it.

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So I said one's a small hardball and the

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other one is a ball you blow.

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And I wasn't thinking the other way but

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all the kids started cracking up.

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So now I know I'm very careful but I do

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this without thinking

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because I don't have that mind.

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I'm not always thinking like they are.

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And she goes you do it

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even at lunch with us.

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You say things were like did he just say

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what we think he just said because I'm

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not thinking that way and

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they're all so trained to think.

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So trained to think like a teenager.

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Yeah.

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And it goes on.

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Now I say a small

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noninflatable ball and an inflatable ball.

Speaker:

But when I said my first year of teaching

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I wasn't thinking like that.

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So I get myself like that.

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Or we're like you guys are such children.

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Oh the best one.

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Oh the best one.

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This is so funny.

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The kid got it called.

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It's so funny.

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The kid had his he was wearing sweatpants

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and he had pulled up the legging the

Speaker:

bottom of the legs past his knees.

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Try to make him shorts.

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And so I wasn't thinking I

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said pull your pants down.

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But the kids didn't know the context.

Speaker:

And I'm like that's not what I meant.

Speaker:

That's not what I meant.

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Your pant legs down

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pull your pant legs down.

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But in the spur of the moment you don't

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think about all the possible ways it

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could be interpreted.

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So we all got a laugh out of that one.

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I laughed too.

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So I'm like oh yeah now I hear that one.

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That one was pretty bad.

Speaker:

But you know what I meant.

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You know what I meant.

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But back to our movie

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talk so we can end today.

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I'll tell you some movie

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talks that I really enjoy.

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I do like that black hole one.

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The one that was

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introduced to me by Michelle Whaley.

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I like that one.

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I like also the wildebeest one.

Speaker:

That's really a simple one.

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It is two wildebeests.

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They see what looks

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like a log in the river.

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And then he's going it's a log.

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The other one goes no it's a crocodile.

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He goes no it's a log.

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No it's a crocodile.

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And then he pokes it and

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prods it and nothing moves.

Speaker:

He goes see it's a log.

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And he goes oh it's a

Speaker:

log and he steps on it

Speaker:

and the alligator the crocodile eats him.

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And then another

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wildebeest comes in and he goes

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that's a log.

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And the other guy goes

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nope it's a crocodile.

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And it plays like that.

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I like that one.

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Okay.

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There's another one called car park.

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And it's about a guy who can't find his

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car in a parking lot.

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And he's trying to find his car and he's

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doing the remote control beep thing.

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But he's still not finding his car.

Speaker:

So he thinks he's at his car.

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He's got his arm full of groceries.

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And there's a dog ferocious on one of the

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other cars in the car locked up.

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And he's barking at him.

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And then he realizes

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the dog can't get him.

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So he's teasing the

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dog and teasing the dog.

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And then the dog realizes if he hits this

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button the window comes down.

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And so the guy is freaking out and he's

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trying to get in his car

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but he's got the wrong

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keys for the wrong car.

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So he takes one of the

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cans from his groceries.

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He breaks the window jumps in the car hot

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wires it and then drives away.

Speaker:

And the last scene is a giant black dog

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comes up from the back seat

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and the person is going "rrrrrr" because

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it's the wrong car and he didn't check.

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So that's another funny one.

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And then the other one I

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like to do is Mouse for Sale.

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I like this one

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because it's about bullying.

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It really works about bullying.

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They see this little mouse and these kids

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come in the pet shop to look at him

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and he's got these really big ears.

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They start making fun

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of him for his big ears.

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And there's a little roly poly bug who's

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also in the cage with him.

Speaker:

And he's laughing at the mouse too.

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And so there's this other kid who's

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interested but

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doesn't want to buy a mouse.

Speaker:

He's looking to buy something else.

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He's got these big

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headphones on his ears.

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And he says "So the mouse is

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trying to get his attention."

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So he's using this

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little...he's jumping up and down.

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He's dancing on his wheel.

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He's doing all these different things.

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And then this little bug is like driving

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him crazy and laughing at him.

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So then he just gets up.

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He takes his ear and he bats that little

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bug across the room.

Speaker:

And it hits the sound on his earphones

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and turns the sound off.

Speaker:

And then the kid looks over and looks at

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the mouse, picks up

Speaker:

the mouse, looks at him,

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smiles, he's getting ready to buy him.

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And he takes off his earphones.

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And he's got huge ears too that pop out

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from underneath his earphones.

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And he buys the mouse and goes away.

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So that's another good one.

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It works with

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bullying and stuff like that.

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So see none of mine are

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under any thematic topics.

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But I can teach whatever I

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want to teach with those.

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And I really like...oh there's one other

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one from my level 3's.

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I teach it.

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It's about...a parent

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got upset about this one.

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I'm like "Why are you

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teaching about online dating?"

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I said "I'm not

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teaching about online dating.

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I'm not teaching what

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not to do on the internet."

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Because this guy, he's online.

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He's got an online dating site.

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And I don't know if

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you've ever heard of...

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But we have one out here

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called farmersonly.com.

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And the kids all know the

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jingle for the farmersonly.com.

Speaker:

And I know it ends with something like

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"You city folks just don't understand."

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Is the end of it.

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Find something on farmersonly.com.

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You city folks just don't understand.

Speaker:

So that's the internet

Speaker:

site that we put on there.

Speaker:

But the kid gets catfished.

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There's this...that comes on.

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He's not a really

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good looking guy himself.

Speaker:

So then we talk about the morals.

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He sends a fake picture.

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One of his cousins is

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much better looking.

Speaker:

And then a rather ugly

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woman comes back as a picture.

Speaker:

And we're like "Is that a real picture?"

Speaker:

Or "Is that a fake picture?"

Speaker:

They're like "Oh no, it's

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got to be a fake picture."

Speaker:

Because if it was a real picture...

Speaker:

It's got to be a real picture because she

Speaker:

wouldn't put that

Speaker:

picture out as a fake one.

Speaker:

And it goes through the whole thing.

Speaker:

And at the end we find out that he's

Speaker:

being catfished by another guy.

Speaker:

And he sent out this female there.

Speaker:

And it's all about this warning about

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don't communicate with people that you

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don't know in person.

Speaker:

Because you don't know who they are.

Speaker:

I told the father, "It's a warning one.

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That's why I'm teaching it.

Speaker:

It's in a funny way and

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less scary than it could be."

Speaker:

But it's a funny way.

Speaker:

And it's teaching them also about don't

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judge a book on its cover.

Speaker:

Because this guy sent

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out a good looking picture.

Speaker:

And she sent out what was not considered

Speaker:

a good looking picture.

Speaker:

And we made some good predictions.

Speaker:

So that's another good

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one that I like doing.

Speaker:

Just to teach them...

Speaker:

I didn't design it to teach a lesson.

Speaker:

I designed it because it was a funny one.

Speaker:

And I knew that we could talk

Speaker:

about all the morals about...

Speaker:

Between judging someone by the cover.

Speaker:

And then also about being honest.

Speaker:

And then about who you meet.

Speaker:

Because these kids friend

Speaker:

anybody and anybody who says,

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"Let me be your friend on the Instagram."

Speaker:

And whatever. All the

Speaker:

different social medias.

Speaker:

And so this is a safety one.

Speaker:

It just turned out to be a really good

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one for that as well.

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So those are my top ones.

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Yeah, that reminds me of my autistic

Speaker:

teacher friend again, Jeff Brown.

Speaker:

So he's got a chart

Speaker:

with how his brain works.

Speaker:

It's like your brain

Speaker:

working on a foreign language.

Speaker:

Am I making appropriate gestures?

Speaker:

Am I doing too much?

Speaker:

Did I respond in a

Speaker:

culturally appropriate way?

Speaker:

He has to think about that

Speaker:

every time he opens his mouth

Speaker:

or enters the classroom.

Speaker:

And you know you mentioned that Liz.

Speaker:

I just watched a video yesterday.

Speaker:

And it was, "How do you

Speaker:

know your autistic if?"

Speaker:

And I never thought about this.

Speaker:

And he goes, he's from an autistic guy.

Speaker:

He's got an autistic channel.

Speaker:

And he says, "I never know

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how I should present myself

Speaker:

in a room by myself."

Speaker:

He goes, "I want to watch TV.

Speaker:

Do I sit on the couch?

Speaker:

Do I sit on the floor?

Speaker:

Do I lie down?

Speaker:

Which couch do I sit in?

Speaker:

Which chair do I sit in?

Speaker:

I don't have any social cues to help me."

Speaker:

And he doesn't know.

Speaker:

He goes, "I end up just standing and

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watching a whole TV show,

Speaker:

standing up watching it because I don't

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know what to do with my body.

Speaker:

I don't know what to do with my hands.

Speaker:

I don't know what to do with my face."

Speaker:

Because he's been taught as an autistic

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to kind of pay closer

Speaker:

attention to social cues

Speaker:

so that he can look, appear normal if

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there's even a word,

Speaker:

if there's any normal in there.

Speaker:

And he doesn't have any social cues.

Speaker:

He says, "I don't have this problem when

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I have a friend over

Speaker:

watching a movie because they

Speaker:

sit down so then I sit down.

Speaker:

They sit on the floor.

Speaker:

I sit on the floor."

Speaker:

Those kinds of things.

Speaker:

He goes, "I don't know

Speaker:

if I should have a snack

Speaker:

or if I'm even allowed to have a snack."

Speaker:

He goes, "This only

Speaker:

happens to me when I'm by myself.

Speaker:

And sometimes it takes me 15 to 20

Speaker:

minutes just to even determine

Speaker:

what I'm going to do before

Speaker:

I can even watch the movie

Speaker:

or the TV show or a video or

Speaker:

whatever he's going to do."

Speaker:

I thought that was very, very interesting

Speaker:

because none of us think about that.

Speaker:

I sit down on TV.

Speaker:

I lie down because I like to lie down

Speaker:

when I watch television.

Speaker:

So that's what I do.

Speaker:

I've done that since I was a kid.

Speaker:

Another thing, going back to ESL,

Speaker:

some cultures, kids are not supposed to

Speaker:

look adults in the face, in the eyes.

Speaker:

Those are all things you can talk about

Speaker:

in the foreign language classroom

Speaker:

and it's real language.

Speaker:

It's useful and it's life skills.

Speaker:

It is.

Speaker:

I tell them about how

Speaker:

the Colombians point.

Speaker:

Colombians don't

Speaker:

point with their fingers.

Speaker:

They point with their lips.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

So they'll go, "Look over there."

Speaker:

And they do their

Speaker:

gesturing with their lips.

Speaker:

And then if someone goes

Speaker:

to Colombia and sees it,

Speaker:

they're like, "What is

Speaker:

going on with their face?"

Speaker:

And Americans just

Speaker:

outright will say something.

Speaker:

They won't keep to themselves.

Speaker:

They will outright say something.

Speaker:

And then you're like,

Speaker:

"No, this is how they point.

Speaker:

They don't do it with their fingers

Speaker:

because that's rude,

Speaker:

but this is how they do it."

Speaker:

Or I explain to them, I told them about

Speaker:

it because they always go,

Speaker:

"Oh, I went to Disneyland."

Speaker:

And they go, "All these Asian people,

Speaker:

they keep cutting lines."

Speaker:

And I'm like, "They

Speaker:

don't realize that we cue.

Speaker:

Not every culture lines up."

Speaker:

And correct me if I'm

Speaker:

wrong, but from my knowledge,

Speaker:

my limited knowledge of Japanese culture,

Speaker:

because there are so many people,

Speaker:

they have the elevator and the subway or

Speaker:

the train car pushers

Speaker:

who push people in because they have to

Speaker:

maximize all the space.

Speaker:

And they don't cue up.

Speaker:

They just get in how they are.

Speaker:

And so it's very different.

Speaker:

And they bring that culture over here,

Speaker:

and you're going to go to some other

Speaker:

place that doesn't line up,

Speaker:

and you're going to be waiting in line,

Speaker:

and you're going to be waiting forever

Speaker:

because nobody's ever going to help you

Speaker:

because they don't do

Speaker:

that in their culture.

Speaker:

And so you've got to

Speaker:

look at it from a thing.

Speaker:

They always say, "Do as Roman."

Speaker:

"When in Rome, do as the Romans."

Speaker:

But not everybody does that or

Speaker:

even knows what they're doing

Speaker:

is not culturally appropriate.

Speaker:

And I find that very

Speaker:

interesting to look at that.

Speaker:

I saw another video and I had no idea.

Speaker:

In Spain, they don't cue up either

Speaker:

because I've been to Spain many times,

Speaker:

but I've never had to

Speaker:

line up for anything.

Speaker:

If they're waiting for a prescription or

Speaker:

something and they're going in,

Speaker:

they don't line up.

Speaker:

Everybody's sitting around, and you don't

Speaker:

even know who's in line.

Speaker:

But you go in, you

Speaker:

ask, "Who's the last one?"

Speaker:

You make note of who the person is, and

Speaker:

when they go up, you know you're next.

Speaker:

That means some people also will leave.

Speaker:

If they know there's all

Speaker:

these people in front of them,

Speaker:

they'll go, "Okay, there's 15 people.

Speaker:

The last person says it's me."

Speaker:

And all the other people are still there.

Speaker:

They know they've got 15 minutes.

Speaker:

They might go to the next store, do

Speaker:

something, and then come back.

Speaker:

And they know they're

Speaker:

still behind that person.

Speaker:

It's not a line to get back in, like cut

Speaker:

in line to get back where you were.

Speaker:

It's just that that's how they do it.

Speaker:

You can wait in line all you want.

Speaker:

No one's going to help you that way.

Speaker:

That's not how they do it.

Speaker:

And I didn't know that.

Speaker:

I just learned that

Speaker:

about a month ago in Spain.

Speaker:

I was watching a video about some

Speaker:

cultural differences.

Speaker:

You could use that in the classroom.

Speaker:

Instead of going down the

Speaker:

row, "Who's the next one?"

Speaker:

They just keep trying.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So it's kind of these cultural things

Speaker:

that you talk about,

Speaker:

body language and cultural things.

Speaker:

Culture is not just

Speaker:

always about holidays and food.

Speaker:

It's about ways of doing

Speaker:

things, the way that they think,

Speaker:

the way that they experience the world.

Speaker:

And that's what I like

Speaker:

teaching about a lot more.

Speaker:

Many of you know I teach that

Speaker:

multicultural class.

Speaker:

We just started our third unit.

Speaker:

And our third unit is school and being a

Speaker:

teenager in other countries.

Speaker:

And so the kids are learning

Speaker:

all these different things.

Speaker:

They're like, "The French

Speaker:

have a two-hour lunch period?"

Speaker:

What the heck with that?

Speaker:

Lunch is important.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Food is an important

Speaker:

part of French culture.

Speaker:

They take their food seriously.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So there's that.

Speaker:

Or the Koreans who go

Speaker:

to school during the day

Speaker:

and then go to school at night till 10

Speaker:

o'clock at night afterwards.

Speaker:

For Japanese too.

Speaker:

Yeah, Japan too.

Speaker:

And Japanese, we talk about

Speaker:

them cleaning the classrooms.

Speaker:

They have to keep the classrooms clean.

Speaker:

Uh-huh.

Speaker:

So these things are really different.

Speaker:

And so they were...

Speaker:

And we were talking about

Speaker:

Kenyans who have to walk

Speaker:

two or three miles each

Speaker:

way to school every day,

Speaker:

some up to 10 miles that they walk.

Speaker:

And that's just part

Speaker:

of their school days,

Speaker:

to walk to school like that all the time.

Speaker:

So we compared and compressed.

Speaker:

We just started the unit the last week.

Speaker:

But learning about these different ways

Speaker:

and different approaches and why.

Speaker:

And we keep going back to what is the

Speaker:

same and what's different.

Speaker:

And what can you tell about their values

Speaker:

by doing some of these things.

Speaker:

You know, the Japanese

Speaker:

value of everybody contributes

Speaker:

to the success of everything else.

Speaker:

And that's why they're

Speaker:

cleaning to keep the school...

Speaker:

The classroom?

Speaker:

Exactly.

Speaker:

It's everyone's classroom.

Speaker:

So everyone has a piece of the pie,

Speaker:

kind of like classroom jobs, has a piece

Speaker:

of pie and invested.

Speaker:

That was the piece I needed

Speaker:

when you convinced me

Speaker:

to do classroom jobs.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Yeah. It makes a big difference.

Speaker:

So I think those are

Speaker:

actually more important for me

Speaker:

to teach as culture than

Speaker:

teaching holidays and food.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

The reason why and

Speaker:

where they're coming from.

Speaker:

So I always approach culture as,

Speaker:

"How can I make students not

Speaker:

look like an idiotic American

Speaker:

when they go to these countries?"

Speaker:

And I'm not doing that to

Speaker:

offend anybody who's American.

Speaker:

I'm American, obviously.

Speaker:

But we do do weird things

Speaker:

because many of us, not all of us,

Speaker:

many of us go to other countries

Speaker:

expecting everything

Speaker:

to be the way it is in America.

Speaker:

And it's not.

Speaker:

And it's obvious when

Speaker:

they do because they're like,

Speaker:

"Well, that's not how

Speaker:

we do it in America,

Speaker:

but you're not in America."

Speaker:

Or they don't even take

Speaker:

the time with a phrasebook

Speaker:

or even Google Translate to be able to

Speaker:

order what they want

Speaker:

in the target language.

Speaker:

They'll say, "I want a..."

Speaker:

And I've seen people do

Speaker:

that where they're pantomiming

Speaker:

the animal that they want to eat.

Speaker:

And I'm like, "Oh, my gosh.

Speaker:

I know you're an American.

Speaker:

You don't even have to tell me.

Speaker:

I can tell it right now

Speaker:

that you are an American."

Speaker:

And that embarrasses me.

Speaker:

You know, I tell my students,

Speaker:

"This is one of the

Speaker:

reasons why you need to study

Speaker:

another language.

Speaker:

Maybe you're not

Speaker:

going to use the language.

Speaker:

Maybe you're never going to go overseas.

Speaker:

Maybe..."

Speaker:

You know, whatever.

Speaker:

But there's a lot of

Speaker:

stuff we do in America

Speaker:

that you have never thought about.

Speaker:

And this will give you

Speaker:

something to reflect back on.

Speaker:

Why do we do the things we do?

Speaker:

And not even that.

Speaker:

They don't have to travel anymore.

Speaker:

They don't have to

Speaker:

because the world is so small.

Speaker:

You can go on FaceTime

Speaker:

and have someone in there.

Speaker:

And business stuff.

Speaker:

We're now doing more international

Speaker:

business than we ever did.

Speaker:

You know, Apple is an American company,

Speaker:

but look at all the countries that

Speaker:

contribute to making

Speaker:

all the Apple products.

Speaker:

Vietnam, China, Korea.

Speaker:

They have to be able to

Speaker:

communicate with these people.

Speaker:

And you can't rely that

Speaker:

they're all going to speak English.

Speaker:

That's arrogance.

Speaker:

So it's really important.

Speaker:

You may never go to Spain

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or France or Japan or China.

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But you probably will

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have some kind of contact

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with someone who speaks that language.

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Yeah.

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And I just like to add.

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And this is culture that can be very different.

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Yeah, I'm sorry.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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When students say in America, that's a

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teaching point for me.

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I never say in America unless I'm talking

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about all the Americas.

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I always, whether I'm speaking English or

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not, I say in the USA.

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I'll say, what?

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What do you mean?

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You know, are you talking

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about the United States?

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Because they're not aware

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that the rest of the world,

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my Ecuadorian mom, when she went to

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Spain, was introduced

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as their American friend.

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American, right.

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Canada is America.

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I talked about that too.

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The kids don't understand.

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They go, there is a word in

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Spanish that you are a USA in.

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Yeah.

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You know, there is a specific word.

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Yeah.

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There is a specific word because

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everybody on this hemisphere is American.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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It's just, are they North American?

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Or are they South American?

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Yeah.

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Uh-huh.

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And in Spanish, North and South America

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are considered one continent.

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There's a statue in Buenos Aires.

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It's a beautiful giant silver flower.

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It's got six petals, one for each

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continent, not seven.

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I didn't know that.

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That's interesting.

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I had no idea.

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I had no idea.

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That's interesting.

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But I go, and I also say that, you know,

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Mexico's in North America.

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They go, no, it's not.

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I'm like, yes, it is.

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Are you serious?

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There are three.

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Oh, no.

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Geography is a problem in my classroom.

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And we have a geography class.

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And I'm like, because one kid got Alaska

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and Antarctica mixed.

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I'm like, Antarctica

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is not even a country.

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It is a continent.

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A continent.

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And nobody owns Antarctica.

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Oh, my gosh.

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There's an international agreement that

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nobody can own Antarctica.

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It's its own continent all by itself.

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Right.

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And like, oh, I

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thought that was the state.

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No.

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And it's on opposite ends of the globe.

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And then I showed when I was talking

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about Deir Eirata last

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week and explaining the--

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I had to explain the whole-- all the way

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from the beginning, all

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the way to getting Columbus.

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And I'm showing the flat earth because I

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can't-- I don't have a globe.

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So I'm showing a Google

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image picture of the whole earth.

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They're like, oh, my gosh.

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Russia is so big.

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I'm like, well, it is big.

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It's the largest

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country in the world by area.

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But it's not that big.

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And only a few kids knew

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what I was talking about.

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When you flatten out the globe, it

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exaggerates the poles.

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And so Alaska is big too, but it's not as

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big as it shows on a flat map.

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And only a few of my kids knew this.

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I'm like, what?

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This is common stuff.

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I thought.

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I mean, I learned this.

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I remember in middle school.

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This is what makes foreign language

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teaching so awesome.

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We can talk about anything.

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Look at all the

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topics we've covered today.

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Everything from online

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danger to Antarctica.

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Yeah.

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Or here's the best one.

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Because I'm doing the same thing.

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I say, why going around the Horn of

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Africa, it was so dangerous back then.

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Partly because two oceans

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meet right there as well.

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And they're like, well, they don't mix.

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I'm like, no, they don't mix.

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They're like, what do

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you mean they don't mix?

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It's like it's like oil and water.

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They don't mix.

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And you can go that there's a temperature

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gradient difference.

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And there's a salinity variant

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difference and they don't mix.

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And they're like, really?

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I like and I showed pictures and you can

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see the different colors where they meet.

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They don't mix.

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And there's a white line that happened to

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go in one of the pictures I had.

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And the fish goes,

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who drew the chalk line?

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I'm like, nobody.

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Nobody drew the chalk line.

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That's just where the water's breaking

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and how it turns white when the waves go.

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You know, and they're like,

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can fish swim across that?

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Yes, fish can swim across it.

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Their bodies adjust to the different

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temperatures and different salinities.

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You can sail right across.

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But temperature is one of

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the big factors of weather.

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And this differential causes a whole

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bunch of weather phenomena that happened

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that make it very dangerous.

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That's why Christopher Columbus was

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looking to go the other way around.

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It was supposed to be safer

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and supposed to be quicker.

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He just didn't know that whole landmass

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was right there in his way.

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So, yes, we get to talk

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about a whole lot of stuff.

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Yes.

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Well, with that, we went to our hour and

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a half, which has

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been our standard lately.

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We're going to have to make it a goal to

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be like 45 minutes, then we only go like

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an hour and five minutes.

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Then we go to an hour.

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But we do talk about a lot of stuff.

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We did.

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We kind of have to be experts

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at a lot of different things.

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We do. We have to wear a lot of different

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hats in our classes.

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And I like just before I'm going to start

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a whole other topic.

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But I also, when I don't know something,

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I let them know I don't know something.

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I look it up.

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Yes, I think that's good modeling.

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Yes, absolutely.

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Which I'm doing with German.

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In my multicultural class, a kid brought

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up and said, "Why are they

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fighting in France right now?"

Speaker:

I'm like, "They're fighting in France?"

Speaker:

I didn't know that because what I have

Speaker:

been obsessed with news-wise lately was

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the poor man who passed away from the

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roller coaster accident.

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And we had a shooting in Oregon.

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The school's shooting in Oregon.

Speaker:

So that's where my mind has been going.

Speaker:

And I didn't know that France was having

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a big-- now it's in

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my newsfeed a lot more.

Speaker:

They're always fighting in France.

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I know, but it's really bad right now.

Speaker:

It's really-- I mean, they burn down

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buildings and art and

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huge things. It's bad.

Speaker:

So I looked it up.

Speaker:

And so right in front of the students, I

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said, "I don't know. Let's

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find out why they're fighting."

Speaker:

And so we looked it up right away to see

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why they're fighting.

Speaker:

It started by high schoolers who were

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fighting about education, about the

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shortage of teachers and

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stuff going on in France.

Speaker:

What's more relevant than that?

Speaker:

Yeah. So it worked.

Speaker:

You know, we talked about that and we

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learned because guess what?

Speaker:

We were also talking about school that

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week as my multicultural class.

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So it was-- we were learning about--

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It fits right in.

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It fits right in, exactly.

Speaker:

So with that, does anybody have any

Speaker:

parting things they would like to say?

Speaker:

I just want to say thank you so much.

Speaker:

This has been so much

Speaker:

fun. I could go on forever.

Speaker:

We all could go on

Speaker:

forever. We're all talkers.

Speaker:

So we all could go on forever.

Speaker:

And you're welcome to join us again.

Speaker:

I know we're--

Speaker:

Please do.

Speaker:

We are booked. We have guests all the way

Speaker:

through to December.

Speaker:

I think we have like two episodes left.

Speaker:

So we have got guests all

Speaker:

the way through November.

Speaker:

And I believe it's December that we are

Speaker:

lacking for this season before we end.

Speaker:

Because this season ends--

Speaker:

let me get my calendar here.

Speaker:

We're going to end this season on--

Speaker:

The 13th of December.

Speaker:

December 20th.

Speaker:

No, December 20th.

Speaker:

Oh, do we have one December 20th?

Speaker:

Okay, so it's December 20th.

Speaker:

Yeah, I want that up to 50 here.

Speaker:

Okay, so December 20th.

Speaker:

And we have nobody for the

Speaker:

6th, the 13th, and the 20th.

Speaker:

So those are our three dates.

Speaker:

Then we'll take a month off and then

Speaker:

we'll come back in

Speaker:

January, the end of January.

Speaker:

And we'll have season number six.

Speaker:

I can't believe I've

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done six seasons already.

Speaker:

Wow.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

So you're welcome to

Speaker:

join us back again, Liz.

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We love having you in your Insight with

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your multitude of languages

Speaker:

and being a Heritage speaker as well.

Speaker:

That also brings another Insight in, so

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we'd love to have you back.

Speaker:

Absolutely.

Speaker:

Thank you so much. It would be my honor.

Speaker:

You're welcome.

Speaker:

So everybody, that is episode number 43.

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Thank you for spending your Sunday

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defending video-based teaching

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alongside three people who

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absolutely had a movie talk day,

Speaker:

and they were like, "Blop in real time,

Speaker:

like that day I first did.

Speaker:

Oh my gosh. Just play the video."

Speaker:

Liz, thank you so much for joining us.

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30 years in the classroom

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across Spanish and Japanese

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and a multitude of other languages,

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and now teaching adults who

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actually choose to be there,

Speaker:

that perspective is exactly what this

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conversation needed.

Speaker:

If you're looking for private lessons in

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Spanish, French, Italian, or Japanese,

Speaker:

go find Liz at Hira Sol Languages.

Speaker:

Pamela, thank you

Speaker:

especially for admitting on air,

Speaker:

which completely bombed for you. Why?

Speaker:

That kind of honesty is why people

Speaker:

actually trust this show.

Speaker:

So if you need the

Speaker:

framework for telling input-rich

Speaker:

from just filling time or an

Speaker:

answer ready for the next person

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who assumes it's a free day because

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you're showing a video,

Speaker:

you got it today.

Speaker:

Subscribe, leave a review, and send this

Speaker:

one to the teacher in your building

Speaker:

who's scared to try movie

Speaker:

talk because they're worried

Speaker:

it'll look like slacking off.

Speaker:

It won't. If you do it,

Speaker:

right? And now they know how.

Speaker:

Catch us live on YouTube or find the

Speaker:

replay on your favorite podcast app.

Speaker:

Ditch the drills, trust the process, and

Speaker:

we'll see you next

Speaker:

time on Comprehend This.

Speaker:

Goodbye everybody.

Speaker:

Thanks for joining us. Salud.

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About the Podcast

Comprehend THIS!
Real talk for real language teachers—because comprehension isn't optional.
Welcome to Comprehend THIS!, the podcast for language teachers who are tired of the same old textbook chatter and want the real talk instead.

Every episode is like pulling up a chair in the copy room or leaning on the hallway wall at your favorite conference — except it’s not awkward, the coffee’s better (yours, not mine), and nobody’s grading you.

Host Scott Benedict sits down with 1–2 guests — teachers, trainers, authors, CI rebels — to swap stories about what actually works in a comprehension-based classroom.

We talk the good, the weird, the messy middle — first wins, facepalms, reading that actually sticks, grammar without drills, surviving department side-eyes, grading for real proficiency (without losing your mind), and everything in between.

It’s casual. It’s honest. It’s LIVE — so you get all the “did they just say that?” moments, unfiltered.

Pull up your favorite mug. Laugh, nod along, steal an idea or two for Monday, and remember: you’re not the only one doing it different — and doing it better.

Watch LIVE: Sunday mornings at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern, on YouTube at youtube.com/@immediateimmersion — or listen soon after on your favorite podcast app.

Comprehend THIS! — Real talk for real teachers. Ditch the drills. Trust the process. Stay human.

About your host

Profile picture for Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict

Scott Benedict has been teaching Spanish since 2001—which means he’s survived more textbook adoptions, curriculum rewrites, and “revolutionary” teaching fads than he cares to count. He runs Immediate Immersion and hosts the Comprehend THIS! Podcast, where he tells the truth about teaching with comprehensible input: the good, the bad, and the “did that student just say tengo queso again?”

After two decades in the classroom, Scott knows what actually works (spoiler: not conjugation charts) and isn’t afraid to say it out loud. On the podcast, he dives into CI strategies, teacher survival hacks, and the occasional story that will make you question your career choices—but in a good way.

When he’s not recording or coaching teachers, you’ll find him traveling, taking photos, or wandering yet another zoo because apparently, one giraffe enclosure is never enough.

Comprehend THIS! is equal parts professional growth and comic relief—because let’s be honest, if we don’t laugh about teaching, we’ll cry.