1092 Stop Just Learning — Start Giving: Why You’re Stuck in Study Mode (transcript)

Hi, everyone.

Welcome again to another podcast from Teacher Joseph. And today we’re going to look at something very important in your journey of learning.

 Now I had an e-mail today asking me :“Teacher Joseph tell me I’m coming to England. What’s the best English school”?

Many of you in our classes are asking me: “Teacher Joseph, what’s the best book to read? What’s the best TV series to watch you’re wanting to take”?

“Give me…..” You’re looking for this perfect utopia. This one thing which is going to make your English perfect. But I want to tell you, it’s not about the taking. It’s about the giving because the only way your English is going to become perfect is if you use it. If you start to speak.

Now we’re living in a very comfortable world in Western countries because there’s enough cash to go around, and there’s always someone there to take your cash.

“You pay me, I give you”, and that is the way we see learning.

“Ohh I’ll just give teacher Joseph money. He will give me English”.

But yet there’s another healthier and better way to see this, and that is if you give your English to somebody else, it’s great practise when you’re talking with an exchange partner or a teacher. They can hear what you have to say, and they can also hear who you are.

We all have our own special gifts. Things that we need to give to other people. Perhaps you’re a good listener. Perhaps you’re someone with a beautiful voice to sing. Perhaps you want to teach how to cook in another language to show other people your beautiful food or perhaps you have some business customers that need to hear you in English.

 But this is the point. You need to start giving. It’s scary and it’s much easier to say,

“OK, Teacher Joseph, you give me English, I give you money”.

 “OK, Teacher Joseph, you tell me about a book. That’s great.

“Teacher Joseph, if you do another audio book for me, I listen. It’s great”.

But this is the world we live in. We take everything we can find, we pay for things so we can take …what do we give?

Now when it comes to practising English, you must give… you have to be able to begin to speak, be able to begin to write, read and listen. The problem though is many of you are afraid because you think “Ohh who will want to hear my bad English”.

But unless you start to make sentences, unless you begin to give… your English isn’t going to get very far.

You know, every day I talk to students and most of them want English. “Give me. Give me. I want grammar. I want books. I want something”.

There’s only, I think less than 10 students that I have. Who actually talk. They talk. They have essays. The hear. And they know that they must practise. I had one yesterday and he came and he said

“OK, teach me English”.

I said, “well, OK, what do you do every day with your English? Do you do anything”?

“No, nothing”.

I said “OK, well, what can you do every day with your English”?

“Don’t know”.

“ So I said, well, why are you learning English”?

“My company gives me free lessons”.

And I said, “Well, your English doesn’t sound bad anyway, but what do you hope to get out of our lessons”?

“ dunno, my company’s paying for them. I don’t care”.

You know, he just wanted to take, you know, if you really want to improve your English today. Find the language partner, make a blog post.

Let me explain something to you. Some of you know that I learn different languages. And one of those languages I learn is Dutch. Now one of the key things that I’ve done is I went away and I made a Dutch blog about things I like. It’s not a blog about language learning. It’s not a blog related to anything I know about the Dutch world. It’s just about me. Things I like, my hobbies, my pastimes, things which make me excited. I made a blog in a second language and why not?….. …when I do go to my Dutch teacher I can ask him, I can say

“Can you check my blog posts please so I can see….”

 I can go to ChatGPT to AI and I can say “OK so can you check…  please”.

I have pen friends, people I write to every day in Dutch, so I can practise and if I have a doubt AI is there to help me. My Dutch teacher is there to support me. But I’m giving. And this is what I want you to think about. What’s your balance between Taking “oh, I want that book because it’s in English. I want that perfect TV show, which one is better? Downtown, Abbey or the crown”?

You would be surprised how often I’m asked that question, and that’s great for your listening practise, but it needs to be balanced with how much you give when you come to the teacher, open a conversation, ask him to give you a conversation.

 Even better, if you have a conversation prepared. If you don’t, it’s OK ask me. I’ll give you a conversation. I can talk about anything but the point is this.

You need to be giving and more and more of you are booking trial lessons… you come I say

“OK, So what do you do every day with your English”?

“What? Do…. Nothing? I take”.

“I want something from the teacher. Like a book or  I want to know what TV shows are the best. But I don’t do anything I take”.

And I’m here to remind you that you need in your toolbox. A language exchange person to hear you speak. A teacher to hear you speak so he can correct you if you’re into writing bring up your passion. Bring up what you want to write about.

I have one student. She writes about aliens. I love that… I have another student who writes about food. Great. I love that too. I don’t mind. But you need to give. And this attitude of “Teach me. Give. Give me give me” isn’t going to help your expression of English. It can help your academic knowledge of English in the same way as everything else.

But you know the best chefs in the world are the ones who experiment the best musicians. In the world are the ones who invent different types of music. Can you imagine if Mozart said “Let me just see there must be some composer I can copy”.

One of them was even deaf. He couldn’t copy anyone. So you see, you have to invent your own world if you want to live in it. So instead of coming and saying give me English. Bring me your English so I can see it. I can give you feedback on it. I can tell you about it. And if that’s only two words, “I am”. Perfect. I’ll tell you how to expand it. You know, so you need to begin by facing your fears. None of us want to appear silly.

And we’re all afraid it seems to speak in a second language. But unless you begin. You’re never going to move forward.

So that’s my challenge for you this week. Instead of coming to me and saying. “Teach me”. Come to me and say “here’s my English. Beautiful, isn’t it”? And I’ll tell you what I exactly what I think of it. I’m sure it probably is beautiful, especially if it’s something that comes from your heart instead of something that comes from a book.

 We’re living in, a world where information is thrown at us at every moment. But the secret is…like a game of tennis, take the ball, hit it back with your expression, which I’m sure will bring a lot of peace and love to the world.

That’s it from me. I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Ohh, I was in the Netherlands last week. So please have a look at my YouTube videos, I didn’t put them on Spotify or my other platforms so you can go and have a little look at those and I’ll see you all again soon.

Remember, just like tennis, take the ball. And throw. It.