 yeah English is weird yeah definitely very very weird but it's cool and it's weird yes so I had this idea that I did this and I went to a few drafts I was gonna take a look at maybe that instead and then I kind of thought maybe that you know and then I went like that and then I thought no that's actually only one grammar correction away from my friend Matt's presentation if I just change that into into presentation so I decided to go after something that maybe I could get my teeth into a little bit more something much bigger and language acquisition as a strategy or as a tool in itself for people and I decided to go after something very big in fact much bigger than smartphones or language or you or me something like that you know yeah so I thought about that and then I thought I don't really want to alienate anybody too much with stuff like that right and actually frankly I'm in danger of alienating myself with what which is kind of the point but not the point so I kind of went through a few other drafts and I thought maybe that but you know I'd have to put a doctor before my name for one of that and have citations and I don't have time to look deep to get references so I kind of thought maybe that's a little bit more fluffy you know that we can all kind of relate to a little bit so yeah I wasn't sure exactly what my presentation is in the end to be honest but something like that you know they're thinking about the experience of the learner as some kind of a journey that they're right and in a way I've got I've gotten this this impression over the last couple of years of teaching students that a lot of them come to Galway and it's more than just learning the scale of learning the language it's it's a kind of a spiritual journey it's kind of like other people might go to India or something like that right and so I was kind of playing around with this idea and I thought yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of comparisons you could drop right I mean in a way you very much are taking a pounding to your ego when you're learning a language it's a very brave thing to do you're having to divorce yourself from your culture and your language and really really just become a kind of a non-human for a while a kind of a jellyfish without without any kind of you know just a membrane you know people people are laughing groups and you're part of the group and you know if you've learned another language you know what this is like you can't you can't get involved you don't have a role you don't have any kind of responsibility which is not necessarily good thing and yeah you're basically you've lost your identity so it's a total loss of ego in a way right and kind of have to do it alone and I guess that comes with raising your consciousness right and learning a language is very much consciousness raising process right and I suppose if we're going to be teaching like they're really encouraging us to teach now where we're focusing more on learner autonomy then it's up to us to not so much give the grammar and the information but to kind of act a little bit like a spiritual guru for the students some kind of guide and it's as much about personal development and managing stress and being conscious of your own motivations and your own processes as it is about knowing the difference between the present so that that was that's my kind of an idea and you guys know this already at least I think you're all aware of it but I know that we kind of forget about it sometimes and we're better teachers when we are that little bit more aware of it I think we teach better we empathize more and more less regardless of the material regardless of the actual tools we're using we're somehow connecting better with the students and that's why yeah I don't have much I don't have any citations I don't have any studies to back this up so I want to keep things a little bit mysterious for now so here's a question has anybody had a fight with their partner yet today I suppose it's a little bit too early for that but another question why why is it when young men travel abroad that they want to always learn first the bad words in another language what's that all right and it's you know it's not just young men it's it's lots of us we all we all somehow want to know these these very powerful things that are gonna affect somebody on a psychological level does anybody know why form stuff yeah yeah it can be useful to show our disapproval in a situation and if you're learning a foreign language those better call it funny rather than a serious situation and you make yes but if you curse in foreign language and then you get a kind of humorous reaction like that right you know whatever I did was funny so yes however bad or good it pronounced us will be yeah exactly and and you yeah that's it I mean it's all about really just trying to feel a little bit less alone in the universe right if you're if you're getting some kind of an emotional response from somebody then in a way you're kind of winning at life because that's the whole point it's a connection I suppose right and it's kind of the most the most okay in an articulate way of trying to get some kind of an instant reaction of somebody and it doesn't matter it's even as adults it doesn't matter cases so I try to be a little bit more sophisticated when I travel but essentially it's the same thing I ask this question how could you you don't just say that randomly somebody how could you in a very emotional way and you'll instantly get a response because that's just hardwired into them and then you sit right because you've affected somebody you know on some level and you know if you got it right or right another thing I'd like to ask maybe it's something like don't you dare you know and the opportunity for these things come up all of the time and then another one you know you could ask something like have you forgiven your mother yet it's just just to kind of put people on edge with the language right and that's my other little idea first one is the guru thing and then the other little idea I was thinking is okay we want to learn a language we want to learn a language we don't want to learn it on an intimate intellectual level we want to learn it on a kind of a good level and I always try to use ways of getting that into the students as much as possible and somehow harking back to into their emotional reservoir and experiences and using that as a tool to remember stuff right and so yeah their experiences as children by the way also means are incredibly good because they just represent they're really good as an emotional shorthand to something some situation and use them I use them if you want to talk about how I use them I can do that I was gonna talk about that in my presentation but I think I think you guys are creative enough to figure out your own ways of doing that and but I do use them all the time because you know instantly you got it or you didn't get it and it's and you can scroll through just a lot of memes and something will hit you and you'd be like there got it okay I remember that because it hits you on an emotional level that's that's the idea and I just want to talk a little bit about my experience I was traveling a little bit and actually I did have to say that line as part of a show that I was doing kind of theater music show and I wanted to say it in in the language of the place where I was visiting and I found I had trouble with German and you know I studied German in school I shouldn't have any trouble with German and it wasn't it wasn't really the grammar although that's hard it was my motivation actually I was having trouble with my own motivation with German and also with Dutch and I and I didn't I wasn't really aware of the fact that I was having trouble with my motivation with it until I went to Brussels and I was just walking around the Congolese district and hearing how people speak there and they're just much more emotive in the way that they express themselves they really enjoy the words in their mouths French and you can really get into that and although my French is much much worse than my German I found myself speaking a lot more French and trying a lot more French maybe failing more but but really just enjoying it and that's leading in for those of you who are like what about smartphones so yes I asked my students every week to record themselves speak I don't like listening in on conversations I actually am terrible I can't focus on one conversation and I tried I just don't have that talent so what I asked them to do is record yourself anytime you want you can even walk out of the closet anytime cord yourself for one minute two minutes whatever speaking about something and I can set them a task if they need it but usually they don't because very often they're addressing you directly and they're probably going to talk about something that's most important to them at that point right and of course you can focus it in the direction of grammar but I listen back and okay it's great because they're addressing me directly I can I can really get into the nitty-gritty of where they're going wrong for them it's a consciousness raising process because they're hearing themselves back they do different drafts of it as well but the main thing I really want to focus on is what are the qualities of this person's voice and what is the character that they're conveying or that they're trying to convey and what kind of character do they want to be in English or try on at least I found myself the French what it was very much like going into some kind of second-hand shop and trying on a coat that I would normally try on or like a Hawaiian shirt you know it's not me but it's fun yeah I'll get into it it's exciting and get that idea with the with the student when they're speaking to kind of reflect a little bit on experimenting with their own voice and enjoying that enjoying that process so that's I don't really have much of a conclusion either except except that yes I find myself saying that more and more with students here are your mistakes here's everything that you did but experiment I see that you you have an interesting voice or you you phrase that in an interesting way maybe you were more present with the language and the student the production of the language at that point why was that and they'll find them they're the learning will take care of itself