Speaking English with Confidence

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[00:01:41] will be talking first about confidence, boosting our students' confidence, our own confidence sometimes. And then we'll be joined by our guest, Natalia, who's had a lot of experience working specifically with Spanish speakers and with helping students, you

[00:01:58] know, gain that little bit of a boost and some strategies that we can use with our own classes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we'll be hearing from Natalia, who's going to talk about her experience and how she helps Spanish speakers who face issues and difficulties and how

[00:02:12] to boost them, our potable confidence. And it is, you know, not just about Spanish speakers. It's obviously relevant for all students in all languages, but there's a lot of takeaways from that. So as we usually do, let's talk a little bit about our

[00:02:24] experiences with this, Faye. And again, you know, I'm sure everyone listening can think about situations where they've had shy students or students who don't want to speak or don't have any confidence. So what are some situations for you that come

[00:02:38] to mind, Faye? And you know, what were some things that you did to help with that? You know, I whenever I think about building confidence, it always brings me back to mostly students taking exams or my students. Three, three, I think three groups

[00:02:54] that I've worked with that where this was key. It was students taking exams, students preparing to become teachers. So teacher trainees and also business English students. And in those three groups, I find that the thing in common is

[00:03:08] that their stakes, the stakes were high. Right? So exams, obviously, the confidence was key in helping them pass a speaking test, especially speaking. Right. And for teacher trainees, especially, I think, is a huge thing because if you don't present yourself as a confident person, and I don't say

[00:03:30] if you're not confident, but if you don't present yourself as confident, because I always used to tell my trainees you can fake it till you believe it. But believe it. Yeah. And then then your students won't believe it.

[00:03:43] Right. And then obviously, students in business English often they need that confidence to be in meetings and do presentations and so on. Right. Would you add anything else to that list of groups where this is really like?

[00:03:59] I think when I was starting out as a teacher, I liked a lot of confidence myself. Right. Like how am I going to instill that confidence in my students? And I would say a lot of the time it's, which we'll talk about

[00:04:12] in the interview, it's about building a safe environment where you feel comfortable, where your students feel comfortable. That's a really good starting point to help them build confidence with their speaking and with their ideas. But again, it depends on the context, the type

[00:04:26] of student that you have. And it's always a good idea to be very confident yourself in your approach, so you can replicate and you can model what you expect from students. But again, sometimes we have very young learners or very inexperienced learners who are new to English, low

[00:04:46] level students. So we have to work a little bit differently with them. So I know you have quite a lot of experience with newcomers, immigrant groups, people who speak little or maybe even know English. How do you

[00:04:58] help them to boost confidence? Because my experiences have kind of been generally being with students who have some English or they enjoy it or they're very receptive to it, but that's not always the case. So what's been your experience?

[00:05:10] Yeah, that's an interesting point because I didn't use to consider myself experienced in those areas. I used to mostly work with high level students as well. But now when I look back on my career, mostly when I was training new teachers, the students that they were

[00:05:26] practicing with during their practicum were very low level. And the students I currently have are like new arrivals and literacy students. And I feel like what you said before is the main thing in that situation is safety. They need to feel safe to make mistakes, to

[00:05:45] sound silly, to be silly. And I find that a few things help with that. First of all, creating that personal connection with the students. So finding things in common with them. What really helps me is the fact that I'm also an immigrant. So when I'm working with these

[00:06:02] newcomers, especially now that I'm working with refugees and recent immigrants, it's just always tell them right away that I'm not from here, which is something that I in the past used to be sort of I wouldn't say ashamed of but I used to delay that information because

[00:06:17] we've talked about imposter syndrome before. Right? I used to feel like and again, speaking of confidence, I sometimes lacked that confidence when I moved to Canada because I felt like, well, who am I compared to a native speaking teacher? And that's a topic for another

[00:06:32] podcast which we've we've dispelled that we've dispelled that many times, but you know, but it's natural, natural, of course, of course. Yeah. And so creating that connection, that sense of community and also what I like to do with my students is try to speak

[00:06:51] their language sometimes. So when I'm teaching the low level students, I ask them for words in their language, and I try to say it and I know I'm doing a terrible job. And they kind of laugh at me, you

[00:07:01] know, and they're like, no, teachers, not like that. And then I keep trying to repeat it. I don't even have to try hard to be terrible at it. I just do my best and it's still not good

[00:07:09] enough. Now I have a lot of students from Afghanistan. So they speak Farsi and Dari, which are completely foreign to me. And but I'm trying to like when they tell me the word for a certain food, and I know I'm a complete fool to them sound

[00:07:25] terrible. But they like that. And it makes them feel safe that okay, so obviously, if they can't speak my language, yes, yes, but she's trying. She's failing. Exactly. But it's trying. Yeah. Yeah. Now what do you think changes

[00:07:40] when we talk about high level students now speaking of your, your, you know, Yeah, with I mean, it's ironic because we're saying high level learners or, you know, very competent English speakers who lack confidence, which doesn't really make sense on

[00:07:54] the face of it. But generally, what we're saying here is more about, you know, specific context, specific situations, specific functional language that they might need technical language, etc. So, you know, as we talk about sometimes, you know, and we will talk about with some of

[00:08:09] our guests, you know, some students or some clients that teachers work with their business people, their master students, they're PhD students, and they have a very good level of English. But when it comes to speaking in front of others, when it comes to presenting being

[00:08:23] critical, and, you know, maybe arguing or, you know, refuting someone's point, that's where the confidence really drains. Some of that might be cultural, some of that might be due to negative experiences they've had in the past. Some of it might be because of in their culture, in

[00:08:39] their first language, it's something that's not done. So it's more about identifying what those barriers are and trying to overcome those barriers. You know, sometimes I have conversations with students who let's say for example, they might be from Latin American countries.

[00:08:55] And they're very natural and speaking and just talking and talking and talking and I kind of have to rein them in conversation. Fantastic. However, for this message or for this purpose, we need to be very clear, direct, specific, you have, you have to condense that into one

[00:09:10] minute. So and they lose confidence, they think, oh, I'm saying too much. And then they start to second guess themselves and doubt themselves. So, you know, the approach is obviously going to be different for higher level students, because it's going to be about okay,

[00:09:22] understanding what they're doing well, and harnessing it in the right way and kind of getting them to think in a step by step logical way, which, which we can do with all learners, but it's just going to be slightly different depending on the activities. But I think just

[00:09:38] to summarize, for lower learners, it's about low level learners building a safe environment, giving them opportunities to make mistakes and again, modeling, like you said, Faye, higher learners more identifying what the particular barriers might be specific to that skill or

[00:09:53] that aspect of English and working through it that way. It might be more of a sense of I think it might be there might be might be more work identifying individually for each student what they need to work on, right? Yeah,

[00:10:06] versus with the lower levels. It's more of a global thing. Right, right. And you know, I'm sure you've had it too, where you have groups or you give group tasks or you know, paired work and there's always one student who

[00:10:17] dominates or one student who wants to say more and it's, again, it's a good opportunity for you to help identify and pinpoint and give feedback and, and use your skills as a teacher to better utilize, you know, the way that you're doing things in the group, the

[00:10:32] way that you group and things like that. Because students have told me like, well, in my country, we don't do this, we've never done this. So this is how we get better. This is how we build confidence. So again, yeah, you know, going step by

[00:10:44] step and modeling, it's a really useful way to do it as well. How have you how have you found, you know, with with this situation you're in right now with those students, how have you found, you know, building confidence? How have you done that to

[00:10:56] help them kind of go beyond and start speaking and start opening up? Is there any specific strategies or skills you've used? You know, I think we do need to have, we need sometimes to be a little more empathetic and understanding about students backgrounds and

[00:11:14] where they're coming from literally like the place of orange, but also the different baggage they might bring into the classroom. So it's we can generalize, obviously, we can go and say like, oh, Brazilian students in general seem very confident because they're married to more

[00:11:31] talkative and you know, speaking might not be a huge problem for them. And what versus let's say Japanese students that are not so used to public speaking or especially, or they're more self aware when it comes to making mistakes and stuff like that. But then you also have

[00:11:49] certain students for so right now I'm working with some students from South America, so some Latin students, Spanish speakers, which usually say, oh, the Latin students don't have trouble expressing themselves. But I'm working with fragile eyes, marginalized groups, women. So a

[00:12:05] lot of them come with trauma. And a lot of them come from oppression, or you know, they've they're in their shells a lot. And so you have to kind of coax them to come out and help them feel again, feel safe and understand

[00:12:21] that not every student I think knowing having this general idea of what the background normally entails is good. But I think we also need to remind ourselves that each student has a different background has, you know, a different history behind from where they where

[00:12:40] they're coming from and how they got here. And that is key. And it's a lot of work for the teacher. But once you know that you break through that, then you can really use some strategies. So for these specific students, again, I have to make them feel safe.

[00:12:56] Repetition, repetition, repetition. Oh, my gosh, like even I sometimes when I'm planning my lesson, I feel like, oh, my god, this must be so boring for them. We're doing this for like, literally 10th time, I start the class every day the same way. But I

[00:13:11] change it slightly. So we talk about what's the day to day every day we do that. But now we're at a point where I don't prompt them, I'm teaching them to say it more naturally. They are now asking each other rather than

[00:13:22] me asking them and and they love it. They feel so confident now they're like smiling, I can do this teacher, I can do this now, you know, so just repeating, repeating, repeating and making them giving that little bit of grace and making them feel the

[00:13:37] little the small wins. I think it's really important, right? In fact, perfect. All right, that's a great start and a nice way to open up today's episode. So let's now go to our interview with Natalia where we're going to learn more about this topic.

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[00:15:59] com slash weight loss. That's plush care dot com slash weight loss. Alrighty. Hello, Natalia. Welcome to ESL talk. Thank you very much for inviting me here. I'm very excited to speak to you guys. We are too because you have a really interesting topic about speaking English with

[00:16:18] confidence because I know for me as a native speaker and for Faye who's lived in Canada and has spoken English pretty much her whole life, right? It can be a struggle and we can lack confidence sometimes. So could you share your journey, Natalia, in helping Spanish speakers

[00:16:33] become more confident and what inspired you to start on this path? Sure. Well, it all started when I was in university and I had a friend that he was really shy with like speaking English. He just felt very scared. And because I grew up, I was raised with

[00:16:52] my Canadian dad. I spoke English all my life with him and with my mom Spanish, right? So I had like a background that was multicultural because my family is from Italy, Canada and Costa Rica, right? Well, I'm really into languages and I would tell him, no,

[00:17:14] practice with me. And he was like, no, I'm so shy. I'm so shy. And I'm like, don't worry about your mistakes. No, you know, like I'll give you feedback. And little by little, he started like speaking to me in English, like during break times, you

[00:17:30] know, and all of that. And so I could feel that he started to open up more about the struggle of speaking English with confidence. And that's where I started to see that need. Awesome. Interesting. Now, having that background of both languages, so you kind of get the best

[00:17:49] of both worlds. What do you think are the most common challenges that Spanish speakers specifically have when learning English? And how do you address those specific challenges in your teaching? Sure. Well, most of it is like the mindset that there is because there's this

[00:18:06] idea of like English is really hard. Also this idea that maybe some people can speak it, but I can't because I didn't have like the resources when I was younger. And so they have this idea that it's too late now that they're older. Right? Also pronunciation just

[00:18:25] feeling like afraid of expressing themselves and that they're not that like they don't like to have an accent or they feel comfortable with their accent. Right? Yeah, this doesn't even seem exclusive to any group, right of learners. So so common for adult learners to have those filters, right?

[00:18:44] Yeah, definitely. And with Spanish speakers as well, there's certain sounds in English that are very hard, like the you know, there's some harder sounds like H sounds and J sounds and TH sounds that can be very, very difficult. So I think it's right what you say

[00:18:56] Natalia, sometimes they hear themselves or other people maybe English because kind of what did you say? Sorry. And then they lose confidence, right? So it's really, really, yeah, it's really understandable. So in talking about confidence, what are your top strategies for building confidence in your students?

[00:19:11] Well, first of all, it's a change in the mind. Like it's okay to make mistakes. It's okay that we're learning and it's going to take time. It's not automatic. Also this thing of many of them want to achieve a level of proficiency that is really

[00:19:29] high in the beginning, like they want to express themselves in the same way that they express themselves in their native language, right? And so that's not possible and they get frustrated. They say, Oh, my English is bad. And I say, okay, no, no, we don't have

[00:19:42] to express ourselves in the same way as in Spanish, we're going to go little by little, you know, so it's like starting to build up with simplicity first and getting rid of all the complexity of structures that are too advanced and frustrating and starting to

[00:19:57] develop that. Also, another thing that I do is I work in the natural, like a natural method and just in general, like different methods that help them in according to their level, right? Like listening this thing of immersing themselves in the language instead of

[00:20:17] forcing them to speak right away. Like, no, we're going to listen, we're going to also be reading and we're going to try our best to just say simple things. Yeah, that's a really good point is just keeping it manageable for them, right? Those brand objectives,

[00:20:33] we've talked about this before, like I want to be a fluent speaker. Well, what does that mean? And what are the steps to get there? But you mentioned also the idea of like when they make mistakes and they're like, oh, but I can't speak it

[00:20:45] that way. The pressure that students put on themselves is so high. And speaking of mistakes, this can be a bit of a taboo, right? In language learning, students always say, I make too many mistakes, I don't want to make a mistake or I made a

[00:20:58] mistake. How do you encourage your students then to embrace these mistakes? Like you said, you'd tell them it's okay and little by little. How can you encourage them to do that as part of the learning process? Yeah, well, I have this phrase that is love is

[00:21:12] the opposite of fear. So when I teach them about topics that encourage them emotionally that I can connect with them. And it's a lot deeper than just grammar and you know, like let's study this lesson in a dry way. But we're like actually learning interesting topics

[00:21:31] where I'm connecting with them emotionally to as human beings, then they start to receive this like nurturing process instead of feeling like they're bombarded by grammar, exams and pressure. Because the like, anxiety cannot happen when somebody's acquiring a language. And because in the, like, let's say traditional educational

[00:21:56] system, we see a lot of that we see a lot of stress, a lot of evaluation. And so we think that, oh, that's what we should do with our students because that's the pressure they need. But when a person is learning another language, a new language,

[00:22:12] they shouldn't feel anxious, they shouldn't feel this pressure. So what I feel in is that that idea of nurturing. Yeah, it's about creating a safe space. And you know, if students feel like they're safe, they can make mistakes, they can share their fears, their strengths, their

[00:22:28] weak, whatever it is, then they can they can flourish and they can develop a lot more positively, which I think is a wonderful message to share with your students. What about cultural context? Because you know, this is something that a lot of teachers talk about, you

[00:22:42] know, students need cultural context, and they need to understand not just the language, but also the culture. So how do you implement that? And how do you kind of balance both Spanish and English cultures to enhance fluency in Italia? Yeah, so I understand their culture, right?

[00:22:58] Because it's my culture in a way. So then I'm like, guys, if you say this in this context, in English, it would be a whole different thing. And like, oh, really? So I teach them about collocations, idiomatic phrases. But I also we also like research about different cultures,

[00:23:15] different accents. I don't know if you guys have heard of like the Valley Girl accent. It's a very big thing. And they don't know they don't know what it is, right. And so it's like this thing of like, this actually exists. And it's not all very difficult

[00:23:30] for a person who's learning the language. But then they're like, oh, yeah, it sounds different. Right. And then we also learn about religions like different types of religions, geography, how to pronounce states like in the United States. Right. That builds up also confidence when they're speaking with native

[00:23:50] speakers, because then they're like, oh, it's Ohio. Right. How do you say that? Right. And so it's all these different cultural elements to it. Yeah, that's that's great because that's true because that can definitely impact their confidence because they feel like they have they can have a

[00:24:06] conversation that's not just about the language, but about the culture related to what they're learning. It's interesting what you said about the Valley Girl, because I have a client who's from Argentina and her boss is in San Francisco. And she was like, I think my boss

[00:24:21] hates me because he doesn't say yes. And I'm like, what do you mean? She's like, well, you know, we might say in English yes, which becomes yeah. But apparently in California, yeah, yeah. Like this kind of sounds so it was kind of dismissive. So she lost her

[00:24:33] confidence. So it's really good that you made that connection and you explain those things because she doesn't feel like what's going on. This isn't what I imagined. Right. There's a bit of a disconnect. So it's an interesting experience. Yeah, exactly. And I would like to

[00:24:46] add there even the small talk topics. Yes. One of my students, he's like, he has a very good English like B2 level, but he feels so bad at work. And I'm like, why do you feel so bad? Like your English is so good. And he's like, because they

[00:25:00] start their meetings talking about the weather and things that are trivial. And then they asked me and then I answered them these long answers and they get really frustrated with me. And I'm like, oh, you're talking about. Yes. He like totally changed like his approach to communicating with

[00:25:19] them. And now it's super good because now he applies the small talk. Definitely, definitely the case, especially when we're doing a lot of online meetings and using a lot of tech as well. Right. So it can definitely change things. Yeah. And that that ties into what

[00:25:34] I wanted to ask about like all of the nowadays we have a lot of access to information and we can actually expose our students to all these different cultural backgrounds and things affecting their English, but specifically technology. What do you think is the impact of technology on

[00:25:50] learning English today, especially for those that may not have access to our traditional classroom settings? Yeah, for sure. I think sometimes we think that technology can be the enemy for English teachers. But I do think that it's a tool for us and a tool for them

[00:26:09] if it's used wisely, right? Because it's also this part of the cultural, the natural way of communicating that technology cannot teach people how to communicate in that in that way. But when it comes to emails, when it comes to like communicating in a way that is

[00:26:28] more like corporate, then oh, that could really help somebody. I have students that keep always messaging me like, Nathie, is this email OK? And I'm like, well, just use chat GPT like to be honest. I'm not going to be like checking every single day your email.

[00:26:45] But they sometimes they say no, but it doesn't sound like I want it to sound. It sounds very artificial. And no matter how much then it's like too informal. So there's not like a kind of lukewarm thing that they're looking, you know, for. So it's this thing of

[00:27:01] that human part is so important because they feedback. Then I also was recommending like this app. I don't know if you guys have heard of Alpha speak and how to speak. I started using it to check it out and see, but it didn't really give the right feedback.

[00:27:19] It was like inaccurate. So I told my students sorry guys, if this was good, I would recommend it. But it's not help you. So it's this human feedback that they need. But we can also use technology for the written part and more corporate kind of. Yeah, it's interesting

[00:27:37] you say that on that because I've heard a lot of students say to me, oh, I just use this app and it's going to help me speak like a native or it's going to help me speak like I'm British or American. And I'm like, well, well, is it

[00:27:49] is that what it's about in terms of communication? It's you know that I don't feel like that's what you need to be successful. But, you know, it's more than just expression, right? So, you know, I always talk about students, you know, if you have an accent, that's OK.

[00:28:02] If you pronounce some words a little different to me, that's fine. You have an identity as an English speaker, you have an identity as a Spanish speaker, whatever it is like you need to maintain and, you know, be proud of that voice and that identity

[00:28:13] because that's who you are. So how do you help students find their voice in English while maintaining their identity? Because I think this is a really important sometimes, you know, overlooked aspect of learning a language. Yeah, like I do give a lot of feedback on pronunciation.

[00:28:29] I try to I really try to give them this thing of OK, you got to sound as clear as possible, right? But without feeling ashamed of their accent or their differences and the way that they say things. But they do appreciate this thing of like,

[00:28:48] oh, I didn't know, you know, like instead of on the table, they would say on the table. Right. And it's just that little sound that makes a big difference. And then they start doing this thing of on and then they feel like, wow, this is huge.

[00:29:01] So even though they still have the eyes that are a little bit more Latin sounding, most of it sounds pretty good in the sense of like more native. But I do say to them, guys, enjoy, enjoy your cultural background. You should be proud of yourself.

[00:29:18] You shouldn't feel bad because also the thing of like I have to sound perfect and then the other people, they they have to adapt. Like you have to adapt to them. Like that's how they feel. Right. Like I have to adapt to them. And I'm like, no,

[00:29:33] we all have to adapt to each other. Right. People from the States or Canada, if they're learning Spanish, they have to adapt to that culture. But usually they're like, oh, no, if I just say one word, I'm like, wow. Right. So it's the thing that we say,

[00:29:48] we need to be careful with how we perceive cultures. And yes, keep that identity, the music, the sayings. Yeah. The one thing that I say is that if there is a dish, a meal, a staple dish that they say like, oh, how do I translate that to English?

[00:30:06] I'm like, don't translate it to English. That's right. Yes. Say it in Spanish and explain what it is. Exactly. And that's it. Right. Yeah, that's awesome. I like that idea. And one thing I'll always say to all my students is if you actually listen to native speakers and,

[00:30:23] you know, general everyday conversations, we make mistakes. We get things wrong. We use incorrect tenses or prepositions or skip things or miss things. So it's OK. Don't worry. Yeah. Even when you teach them about all the different kinds of like the Valley Girl accent. Yes, oftentimes it's like

[00:30:39] quote unquote wrong English. Right. But it's just their identity. So I love that. And I find that I've always found very challenging to convince my more advanced learners that the accent is not a problem. Right. And you've touched on this already about the clarity, just making them clear.

[00:30:56] That's what we want to focus on. But in your experience, what do you do to kind of help that advanced level student polish their English a little bit? What do you focus on in that case? If not their accent, which we shouldn't. Yeah.

[00:31:12] What I focus on is collocation. So I teach them collocations in different context. I also use improv in my classes. What we do is we do a lot of improv because I myself learned about it. And so I apply this to my classes. So everything is like

[00:31:32] we're doing two things at the same time. So, for example, we're acting as if we're cooking together in a house. And at the same time, we are like improvising, like talking about life. So I say to them, guys, when you invite somebody over, you're not just like,

[00:31:47] here is the flower and I put it in the bowl and bowl and this and that. Right? Like they are talking about, oh, so how does it work? Oh, can you pack me the salt? Can you give me this? And so it's like doing two things

[00:31:59] at the same time in a natural way. And then they're like, hey, how do you say this? And oh, you say that. Right. And so that's how we start. And then what I also do is that I accumulate in vocabulary and I go over and over it

[00:32:15] instead of like keeping it aside and just forgetting about it. But like over time, we review things from, you know, even October of last year. Yes. To that point. I love that. I love that authentic, authentic immersion and like real life situations. This would actually happen

[00:32:33] because we do it all the time. We were having two or three simultaneous conversations. So it's really great that you implement that into your teaching. Nati, what advice would you give to ESL teachers to keep their students motivated and engaged? Because, you know, we generally talk about

[00:32:51] this language plateau when should get kind of B2 level maybe towards C1. It is a real drop off. And we might see the improvements, but our students might not and other teachers say, well, my students don't feel like they're learning. They're not improving.

[00:33:03] So what advice would you give, especially with Spanish to English? Yeah. So what I recommend is stop focusing so much on like grammar because grammar is just like a tool, but it's not the structure of our communication when it comes to advanced level. Like people can master grammar

[00:33:25] even when there would be one. But then their limitation is maybe in like expressions in vocabulary or even just the fluency. So what I recommend is this part of like doing these improv activities with them, like just work on communication and different settings and using like recycling

[00:33:48] the words that your students have studied in the past and like just use them in different contexts. Like, OK, we studied 20 words last week. OK, let's use these 20 words, but in a different context. Let's use these 20 words in a story now. Let's use 100 words,

[00:34:05] but from October to January. It's this thing. And then they start to use these words in a very natural way. And they're like, Oh, now I just say these words and even thinking about them right when they feel like they're growing, right when they're absorbing vocabulary without memorizing,

[00:34:24] without exams, without quizzes. And it's just through this thing of immersion, like immersing themselves in these natural conversations. Right. I love that because it's so easy for us to fall into that trap. Of feeling like we're only teaching them if we're giving them something new.

[00:34:42] You know, for a teacher is to be like, Oh, these are today's words. And then the students feel like, Oh, I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning. But are you? You're not retaining any of this. And the teacher also feels like, Oh, I'm teaching them so much. Yeah.

[00:34:54] But then they're like, No, not really. It's not sticking. But just to wrap things up, I'd love to hear about a success story that you've had that particularly stands out to you, where you saw a student overcoming their struggles and now speaking English with confidence.

[00:35:12] Well, that's hard because I could say that almost all my students. That's good. Well, the ones that have been consistent, of course. But I would say that I have a story that was very funny and at the same time, inspiring, which was a student

[00:35:30] that he was really shy and he just simply was very blocked with English. He had some kind of in speaking inhibition in a way, even in his native language. But he could speak, but it was hard for him, even in his native language.

[00:35:48] And for him to achieve this fluency in English has like it has been a long journey for him. And one thing that was amazing was that one day he met this celebrity at a I don't know, it was like a festival. And the celebrity only spoke English.

[00:36:06] So he wanted, you know, like some kind of I don't remember what it was, but like a signature. Right. And so the the my student was like, how do I ask for this? And I, you know, I'm not ready, but he tried and in the end

[00:36:24] he got to talk to this celebrity and they even took a photo together and like so happy. And he said, I would not have been able to do this because I was so shy. But you were able to take me to that level of asking,

[00:36:41] of interacting with this person that is very famous. I think he was like in a movie or something like that. I'm really not updated with who this person was, but my student was really excited about it. And so I saw I'm happy

[00:36:55] that I'm able to, you know, help. Exactly. That's the whole point of this journey. Right. Exactly. And we deliver the results that the students are looking for. That's wonderful. And so we always say, you know, even if you can play a part in something like that,

[00:37:11] you might have helped just a tiny bit, but still the result, the confidence you give that student is huge and you've helped them achieve new things and do things they never thought possible. So it's really inspiring. That's awesome. Thank you, Nati. You got the autograph. There we go.

[00:37:27] The proof's in the pudding. So, Natalia, why can our guests find out more about you? How can they connect and reach out to you? Yeah, I'm in English with Grisol Instagram and Facebook. Fantastic. English with Grisol and Grisol, what it basically means is a melting pot.

[00:37:44] That's the translation. And so what it is that it's a container where you put, you know, refine the gold, because that's what I think that language learning is. You refine it through taking it to the fire, right? And that's awesome. Where English becomes gold. There we go.

[00:38:01] Beautiful, beautiful. That's a really great note to end on. We will leave links to the socials in the episode description. So definitely check that out and connect with Natalia. I'm sure she'd love to to share her experience and talk more about this. All righty, Natalia, thank you again

[00:38:15] for taking time to talk to us today about how you help your learners build their confidence and how they might struggle, especially with learning English as Spanish speakers. So that is it for another episode this week. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget, as always,

[00:38:29] to subscribe, follow us and you can also send us an email esltalkpodcast.gmail.com or Instagram ESL Talk Podcast as well. Don't forget as well our website. You can get all of our episodes from the last seven plus seasons. Wow. I know, unbelievable. That's the new website address

[00:38:49] esltalk.ca That is it for another week. We'll see you next week. Thanks, Faye. See you then. Thank you. This is Craig Robinson from Ways to Win and support for this podcast comes from Invesco QQQ. Invesco QQQ is proud to sponsor this episode and even prouder

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