Fluency, confidence and teaching English on YouTube | With @andreseningles

English with Hadar Shemesh

22

- Hey everyone its Hadar,

Welcome to my channel

and today I have a special treat for you

so you are exactly where you need to be

because today we have a special guest

and that guest is Andres from Andres en Ingles.

Andres is a remarkable youtube creator

based in New York City.

He is originally from Colombia.

His videos are engaging, fun, and creative

and he has helped thousands and thousands

of English learners change the way they speak english.

This video is going to be divided into two parts.

The first part is where Andres will share with us

his inspiring story about turning from an English learner

to an English teacher and coach on his channel.

And how he started his channel just because

he wanted to help his friends learn English in a fun way.

And on the second part we are going to answer questions

from Andres' community about how to pronounce

the most difficult words.

And yes, the word world is going to be there.

Oh my god it is groundbreaking.

- Also I appear as a guest on his channel,

so definitely go and check out the video there

where we had a beautiful conversation about English,

English learning, different methods, fluency,

limiting beliefs, and so much more,

so make sure you check it out as well.

And when you're there make sure to subscribe,

especially if you're a Spanish speaker.

So what are we waiting for,

let's check out the interview I had with Andres.

- Hi welcome to my channel.

- Thank you so much for inviting me.

- Oh Its such a pleasure actually you're inviting me,

because I'm in your apartment in New York City

and why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Wait I'm gonna say that Andres is a good friend

and he is also my student

- and we're gonna talk a little but about that

but I think that the most incredible thing

about you is your journey.

- Um so I know it

and I think a lot of people don't necessarily,

why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself

and how you got to do what you're doing now.

- How much time do we have?

So my story started thirty something years ago.

I'm already from Colombia

and my whole life I wanted to live in the states,

New York and I didn't have the means to study English

when I was younger my family didn't have enough money

to study to put me through bilingual school.

I might look young but I wasn't that young,

it was like twenty years ago when there was like

no internet there was like you needed to buy books

and you needed to pay for a higher education

and that was like twenty something years ago,

thirty years ago

and so I decided to study on my own.

I didn't want to study.

I was very curious about the English language

so I started watching movies,

I started watching tv shows ,

and that's how I fell in love with living in the USA,

- Because I was watching those shows those movies.

And in a way , you know I'm from Colombia

and I was like maybe I want to live there

- So I

- The American dream.

- Yes.

- Everything looks nice and pretty and flawless

- Until you come here and realize it was all BS

no I shouldn't, it could be, it depends

- it depends, it depends

- What you do with it.

- Yes, exactly.

- When I was going to class I realized that

they were boring

and I didn't want to go

and sit down for forty minutes on for an hour

- And like answer questions in books

- And reading books and you know reading copies

and It wasn't engaging enough for me

- So I was like, maybe I should like keep studying on my own

Then you know I started working, I graduate,

I start working and I used my English a couple times

but I spent more than thirty years speaking only Spanish.

- Yeah so even if you learn,

you don't really put it to practice.

Unless you take action, specific action,

and then you know it goes away.

- It did give me a little bit of advantage

when I was working

because I was the one that my boss would

take to the meeting with the international contacts

or clients and that did give me an advantage

and I started learning what it meant to have that knowledge

it really put you in a different box,

it really give you that advantage

and I start feeling that I needed

to improve how I was speaking English

- So,

- Because you realize that English

was not just a language that you need to learn

it's your leeway

like its your door to like all the opportunities to

- To fulfill the dreams or the goals

and to like live the life that you want.

- Its just a tool

- And you get what you want

- And it's not really about not feeling like a latino

or owning my voice in Spanish

but it is about being comfortable enough

to speak to a crowd that only speaks that language.

- And if they understand what I want them to understand

from my own perspective on any different topic

I needed to be clear enough.

- Yep.

- Then I start pursuing learning more about English.

I was always learning grammar,

I was always learning writing or like reading from books,

but honestly Hadar I never ever ever studied pronunciation.

- Or any for that matter

so I thought I knew enough

and then I moved to New York three years ago.

To make a long story short,

I wanted to give my friends an opportunity

to work here in the states,

for us to have an apartment and the lifestyle

and have the same opportunities

as any other person in New York,

but they didn't speak English.

So I was like I want you guys to start speaking English,

so go to Youtube and find some lessons and learn.

So they said to me,

everything is so boring on YouTube,

they're like just only teachers with big boards

- Yeah and hey its all yum

- And hey if it works for you

- I respect that

- Stick with that

- But for them that wasn't engaging enough

- Its funny cause I decided

to start my own channel for my friends.

I never thought that it was going to be what it is right now

this opportunities they have brought into my life

uh you have no idea I only have to make a video

only about how speaking English changed my life forever.

- after a couple of years making videos,

I felt this need to go deeper

- On pronunciation and that's how I found you.

And I decided to start learning more about

how could I sound better in English

and understanding why it sounded different

if I thought that I knew how to pronounce things in English.

- Why was it important to you?

- Because I thought that I had this level of knowledge

and grammar or how to express ideas and put together words

but I thought, and sometimes I found situations

that I thought I was saying something

and people understood a different thing,

and I was like why?

I am doing everything I was supposed to do

- But there's so many layers to pronunciation

and I think that's why its important to go deeper in that

and that's where I'm at right now.

- And that's why you went through my online program

and what is the hardest thing as a student trying to

or as a learner trying to work on that

aspect of spoken English?

- The thing I found about your course

was there this thing that happened to me was

like called you named that regression right?

- when you have so much knowledge

- and you think, oh I understand now

the 't' the 'flap t' 'th' voices the 'h'

- And you can make the single sounds

- And you try to create them and you get confused.

When it comes to the vowels,

especially for me because I am a Spanish speaker

we only have like five sounds

and English has like

- About sixteen

- Sixteen, yeah.

And that for me and when you try to,

I had been watching her videos and when she's like

you put your tongue here and I'm like

- I don't get it, like how, I'm trying

it doesn't sound the same, but

- You get all tangled up with your tongue

and like it goes out through your ear

and you're like what's going on

- Man the vowels for me are the most confusing thing

- And one of the things you told me before we started is

I can't hear it, I'm deaf right

- And I was like, first of all change that language

- Once you say that you're brain will not hear it,

if you decide that you won't hear it, you won't hear it

- Its funny Hadar how you mention that

cause you know I like to think of myself as a person who

doesn't have those limiting beliefs and we all do

- We all do, oh my god that is so funny

that that happened like today with us here

when I was so self conscious

oh I don't want to speak English around her,

she's going to start criticizing everything I say

- And that's what he was thinking

and I was like at the same time thinking

wow Andres you're so expressive and fluent and engaging

and I totally see your personality

and I was totally thrilled to listen to him, you

- And at the same time he was like

oh she's judging me

its like we put so much pressure on ourselves

- Yeah and we like have so many expectations

and we put other peoples opinions

like so high up like

and its more important than our own expression.

How many subscribers do you have?

- Four hundred and sixty thousand subscribers.

- So four hundred and sixty thousand subscribers later

you know obviously have something important

to say and people want to listen.

- Yes I think so, I hope so

- And still what I wanted to talk about and show you is like

it doesn't matter where you're at in your journey

there is always something you can work on,

but especially your mindset.

You can see oh he's so successful, its easy for him.

Its not easy for him,

he's working at it every single day,

but he's still showing up.

Because you have made the decision ,

I'm not going to let that stop me the judgment

you know like what is she going to say,

still you invited me,

you were like I'm going to speak to her

you could've easily said no

you know Hadar is coming to New York,

great to see you you know

and have coffee and that's it.

Afterwards I want you to go there to Andres en ingles

and watch the video there where we talk about the mindset

and common challenging sounds

for Latin speakers and for nonnative speakers.

- We do go over different aspects of what it means

to have an accent when you're not a native speaker

- What it means to have an accent

if that's right is that wrong

how far you can go with it

and some tips if you're a Spanish speaker

on how to be more clear and confident

when you speak English

Took a while to figure out how to say the whole thing

- But no no its actually really important for

you guys to understand that those are not only words,

- So I don't like to use lose your accent,

eliminate your accent or speak like a native,

cause not that its not achievable,

but it takes a lot of hard work

and I don't think that people need to do that,

but I do think that you need to learn pronunciation

to speak with clarity and confidence.

- First of all it lets agree that

once you tell yourself something negative

oh I can't do this I can't hear that I'm just bad in this

its not reality its your perception of reality

and its called a limiting belief

and your limiting belief has become your reality

but it doesn't mean its true

- It doesn't and I wanna add to it

and I love the fact that we met today

because sometimes you need somebody else to let you know

that what you're doing is okay

thinking like that is not wrong it is part of the process.

- Recognizing it

- Catching it is our work our constant work

- The fact that you think that you are perfect

or you need to be perfect or perfection by itself

is a limiting belief cause it is the process

- There's no such thing as perfect,

perfect is not interesting

- And I want to know what I'm doing right

and I want to know if I'm not doing it right

why am I doing it that way

- Right, so you have the power

Okay I have to stop here

because we have come to the end of part one.

In part two were going to talk about

the most confusing words for Spanish speaking people

and also for nonnative speakers in general

because these are tricky words in English

also get to see how I work with people

how I coach someone one on one which is a lot of fun.

So make sure to subscribe so you'll get a notification

when a new video is out

and don't forget to check out Andres' channel.

The links are right below and you can also click here.

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you tomorrow.