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  • Welcome to another edition of Speak English Fluently.

  • I am your host, Steve Hatherly.

  • And I thank you for joining us once again.

  • I'm very excited today because my guest is Mr. Eric Wesch.

  • He is originally from South Africa.

  • He's been in Korea for about 10 years now, in total, teaching English.

  • But in 2019, that's when Eric decided to start a YouTube channel,

  • and the channel is called Etacude.

  • Now, it's an interesting channel because it's about education.

  • But it's focusing on teachers.

  • It's a channel that is dedicated to helping teachers become, quote, and I quote from the

  • YouTube channel, “An unstoppable force in the classroom.”

  • Mr. Eric Wesch, thank you very much for joining me today.

  • It's a… it's a real pleasure to meet you.

  • Hi, Steve.

  • Thank you so much for having me.

  • It's… it's a pleasure to be here today.

  • I've just come from visiting your YouTube channel and watching some of your videos

  • and we're going to talk a lot about Etacude.

  • Andand what it is, and what it's for.

  • But first, let's start by talking about you.

  • You are from South Africa originally.

  • Whichwhich part may I ask?

  • Well, South Africa is very interesting.

  • Um you've got Johannesburg, or Johannesburg at thein the north, and then you've got

  • Cape Town in the South.

  • Um the easiest way for me to explain, is that I live about an hour away from Johannesburg.

  • Okay, very good.

  • Would that be considered the countryside a little bit?

  • A little bit, yeah.

  • It's… it's not a city.

  • I grew up in a town with a population of 200,000 people so not very big.

  • Well that's… that's huge.

  • I really enjoyed it.

  • It's big, yeah.

  • Very good.

  • Uhwhat made you come to Korea originally, I wonder?

  • Well, I started teaching in 2007.

  • And I taught in South Africa for a couple of years.

  • Okay.

  • But, because South Africa is so far away from, well, the rest of the world, I wanted to explore

  • and see other places.

  • So, I did some research on countries to travel and to teach at.

  • And I heard some good things about South Korea.

  • And then, yeah, just came to South Korea to teach.

  • And I've been here ever since.

  • And you learned that all of those good things that you heard before were very very true,

  • right?

  • Most of them, definitely.

  • Were you teaching English as a second language in South Africa, or were you teaching in the

  • public school system?

  • I was teaching in the public school system.

  • And I had to teach a few topics, a few subjects.

  • Uh one was, uh, English, and the other one was, um, I had to teach some social sciences.

  • So I've uh I had a few classes, but it wereit was at a public school.

  • I see.

  • From looking at your YouTube channel, and reading your channel description, I saw, and

  • learned, that you've taught almost all ages here in the country.

  • I have.

  • Uh, I have.

  • I'm very fortunate to have taught all ages.

  • I've taught kindergarten.

  • I've taught elementary school a lot.

  • I've taught high school.

  • And now, currently, I'm teaching at a university.

  • Um, I've also had the opportunity to work with adults to teach business, and other types

  • of career related topics, too.

  • Very good.

  • Is there any particular age group that stands out to you as your favorite?

  • Well, every age group has its, uh, benefits and well also its struggles, or its challenges.

  • And I feel with younger learners, they have a lot of energy, and you can have fun with

  • them.

  • But, it's also very draining.

  • Then with all the students, they are very self-motivated.

  • Butand you don't have to struggle with classroom management.

  • But it's sometimes difficult to get them to talk and to be excited about a topic.

  • So, um, to answer your question, I actually prefer, right now, to teach adults, or students

  • because they are much easier.

  • But, every now and again, I like to go and work with young learners because they're so

  • much fun and uh it's… it's a… we can play so many games, and it's very engaging.

  • So you were teaching for about seven years in Korea and you're living down in Daegu now

  • is that correct?

  • That's right.

  • Well I taught three years in South Africa.

  • Five years in Busan, where I taught at a science high school.

  • I really enjoyed it, very smart students.

  • And now I'm currently teaching at Daegu.

  • And I've been here for five years, so 10 years in Korea.

  • If you're not familiar with the geography of Korea, Daegu is on the South Eastern side

  • of the country, right?

  • Great geography there.

  • I had to kind of check my memory first.

  • Um, well, like I was getting to, so you were in Korea for about seven years I guess when

  • you decided to make the YouTube channel called Etacude.

  • So let's talk about that decision to start a channel in the first place.

  • And then maybe you can segue into talking about what the channel is actually about.

  • Well, I'd love to.

  • Um, you know I've

  • I've been teaching for a long time andand I remember when I first started teaching.

  • I was so desperate to find answers.

  • I was so

  • I really wanted someone to help me toto help me, how do I run a class?

  • How do I deal with students?

  • How do I make lesson plans?

  • What activities can I use with my students?

  • And I remember, I wasthis was while I was studying.

  • I was a student.

  • Many years ago.

  • Many years ago, when I was a student.

  • And I was so desperate for help, and even though I had professors, and other teachers

  • there, I…

  • I felt like I still needed more support.

  • I've

  • I felt like, um, they have failed me.

  • I tried to read books, um, YouTube didn't exist back then.

  • But I was looking for information everywhere, and I just couldn't find it.

  • And then, for years, I just had that feeling of I want to give back because I knowhow

  • it was to start without any help.

  • And for years, I had this feeling, oh I need to try and find a way toto help other

  • teachers.

  • But the problem wasthe problem was that I was deathly afraid, andof being in front

  • of a camera.

  • Oh, interesting.

  • I hated the sound of my own voice.

  • It's still very bad.

  • And whenever somebody would take a video, I would almost run out of the room.

  • And so, at some point, I just realized that, this need for me to try and help other teachers

  • out there, um, outweighed thethethe fear of cameras.

  • And the fear of learning something new.

  • So, eventually, I just bit the bullet.

  • That means, uh, I decided to do it.

  • And I started the channel.

  • And three years later, here I am not that afraid of video.

  • Actually embracing it, and learning something new about, um, video and audio, and, um, writing

  • scripts and YouTube every single day.

  • Well I guess you are being a great teacher in that sense because you are leading by example.

  • You are showing your students that, hey, I was afraid to learn something new, but I did

  • it, so you can, too.

  • Yeah, definitely.

  • You know, as teachers, uh, we are supposed to be role models, and I think if we can show

  • our students that, listen, here is this huge obstacle or, that I have to overcome, or this

  • wall between me and my goals if you apply yourself, and you work very hard, then you

  • can cross that wall, and you can achieve your goals.

  • So especially with language learning, uh, oneone of my greatest skills, I believe,

  • one of my greatest skills is to try and get my students to talk.

  • Because as a language learneras a language teacher our students are very often shy or

  • they don't want to speak out loud.

  • They don't want to communicate with their friends.

  • They aretheythey hate public speaking.

  • So um, one of my skills is to try and get that out of my students.

  • Um, I think it's so important toto show them that you knowthere's byby applying

  • yourself by trying

  • trying new things, uh, you will learn, and you will grow, and there

  • there's nothing to be afraid of, only you know, there's only success that will come

  • in the future.

  • I think you did a great thing by recognizing that there was a need for a channel like Etacude.

  • Because I remember, I've been in Korea for 20 years now and I haven't been, uh, teaching

  • in a classroom forfor quite some time now, but in the very beginning, when I first

  • came, I could have used all the help that I… that I could get.

  • And there were no resources outside of like you said, uh, my co-workers and things like

  • that.

  • So you had this idea, okay, so I'm gonna make a YouTube channel dedicated to helping

  • teachers.

  • But that's a very broad, that's a very broad topic, so how did you decide where you were

  • going to start?

  • Wellwell thatthat's very interesting, um

  • Well before I started, I knew that my first video and my first idea won't be perfect.

  • It won't be perfect, um, and I just decided to start making some videos on topics that

  • I'm interested in.

  • And also, topics that I've heard people need some help with.

  • I started out with, I think, a couple of, um, words in Korean for new teachers to use.

  • Okay.

  • Come to Korea.

  • So I did some even though my Korean isn't very good.

  • I…

  • I wanted to share somesome tips and tricks to new teachers.

  • Those videos weren't very good, but I was

  • I was, um, I was so proud of myself for being in front of a camera and trying.

  • And then after that, um, I started trying new things.

  • Um, trying to do videos on activities, or if somebody mentioned that they needed some

  • help with the first day of class, I started making videos on whatever the need was.

  • And now, I've got all these ideas of videos that I make.

  • And whenever someone suggests it, I do some research and I try to present something useful

  • to them.

  • Well that's great because you have an audience of teachers who are constantly learning themselves

  • and asking you questions and that helps you create your content, right?

  • 100% Um, one of the things that I do is, for the

  • past two years, every Satevery Sunday night at 10 p.m.,

  • I have a one hour live stream.

  • Where, um, I've got teachers joining and sharing what's going on in their lives and

  • in their classes.

  • I've got English learners coming to the live stream just to chat.

  • And I get so many ideas from teachers saying, listen, I'm doing this in my class and it's

  • working.

  • Or I've got this problem, or what

  • what advice would you give?

  • So for

  • I've almost done

  • I've done 150…

  • I think it's 150.

  • Almost 150, um, live streams of just talking for an hour.

  • And I've learned so much from teachers, um, out there, you know

  • When we're only one person, we've only got one experience.

  • But I'm so grateful to be able to talk to many teachers and learn from them.

  • It's true because everybody has a different experience in the classroom, right.

  • That's really cool you've done 150 live streams.

  • And that's great practice for you to get over your fear of being in front of the camera

  • that you obviously don't have anymore.

  • Yeah, I don't think I've got that fear anymore.

  • I…

  • I just realized you know, I just realized that whatever happens, just let go, um, relax,

  • you know, and do your best, you know, that's… that's all that can be expected of you.

  • I think so

  • So often we

  • we

  • we think that we're being watched or that we should be better than we are, but you know

  • I can only be who I am in the moment and hopefully I can do my best, you know.

  • The channel now is doing extremely well.

  • Somewhere in the area of what almost 89,000 subscribers now.

  • I think was what was the number that I saw.

  • Was that immediate success for the channel, or has it been growing consistently over the

  • three years?

  • Three years for a YouTube channel is not really a long time so you'vecongratulations you've

  • done really really well for yourself.

  • Thank you so much.

  • Um yeah, I've

  • I've been

  • I've been very fortunate to have so many teachers support me.

  • Um, I think um I…

  • I… even though I work very hard, I'm very fortunate to have many teachers out there.

  • And also, English learners, um, so eager to learn new things and that has really pushed

  • me toto be more active and to find more useful resources to share.

  • So I think, um, you know, whenever we do something and it comes from, uh, from a place of trying

  • to help and assist others, you know, you will only have positive results and that's… that's

  • kept me going.

  • Etacude, and you informed me of this just before we started, and it was a kind of a

  • mind-blowing moment for me.

  • Uh, you can tell the audience what you told what you told me before we started today.

  • Okay, so it's Etacude, e-t-a-c-u-d-e, um, I've had so many teachers say, “Eric,

  • that's such an interesting word.

  • What does it mean?”

  • I've had long time viewers that have watched me forfor years saying Eric, um, and then

  • in a live stream they say

  • they asked me Eric how did you come up with the name?

  • What does it mean?

  • And actually Etacude, if you read it backwards, is 'educate,' right?

  • And, um, I picked that up.

  • I'm so happy to pick that thatthat name, but you know what happens, Steve?

  • It's… it's actually funny, um, uh, one of my friends, Robin Shaw actually gave me some

  • good advice.

  • Originally, my YouTube channel's name was just Etacude.

  • Okay.

  • And I liked it.

  • I knew what it meant and it was for teachers.

  • It was unique.

  • And then my friend, Robin suggested, “Eric, I like the name but people don't know what

  • the channel is about.”

  • So I thought, yeah, he's right.

  • And I changed the name to Etacude English Teachers.

  • Now whenever someone sees the name, they know, okay well, this is aboutthis is for English

  • teachers.

  • And the other problem is, if somebody wanted to search Etacude, um, theythey might

  • not know what the what

  • what the name means, so it might be difficult to search for it.

  • So, um, after changing the name, I've

  • I've had, um, I've seen a lot more progress.

  • So I'm very grateful to Robin for giving me that advice.

  • Great advice indeed.

  • So let's talk, uh, a little bit more in detail about the channel.

  • What kind of videos can teachers see there?

  • If the teachers or students, I should say, should they visit your channel?

  • Okay, my goal is to make useful videos for teachers.

  • So whenever I have some tips, some activities, or free resources, I share it with the community.

  • When

  • when Covid happened, I… teachers had to move online, so I created a whole series about

  • how to teach online.

  • And then I've also done videos on activities.

  • Because teachers need to keep their students busy, so I did lots of videos on activities.

  • Especially I like activities about everything but activities about special events, like

  • Christmas activities, or you know Halloween activities, so those are very popular.

  • For myself, I also like making videos on classroom management.

  • Because when you start as a new teacher, you don't know how to control a class.

  • So a lot of my videos that I enjoy making, is all about how to teach… a teacher to

  • not just be strict, but be a good teacher and control the classroom and help them.

  • And so those are the videos that I make.

  • I make videos on activities and videos on teaching tips, teaching online.

  • And in the future, I plan on making videos on how to teach grammar.

  • So that is something that I will be working on for the future is how to teach some topics

  • related to grammar.

  • What is one tip?

  • If you could give us a little, uh, peek behind the curtain, if you will, in how to run a

  • classroom successfully?

  • What is Eric Wesch's number one tip for teachers on that?

  • Okay, um, the first tip I would give, I've got a billion tips that I can share, but

  • Well share as many

  • share as many as you like then.

  • I think the most important tip I can give anyone, is to, and this is going to sound

  • very corny, but it's going to be believe in yourself.

  • It sounds corny, but let me explain.

  • When a new teacher starts teaching, they look towards other teachers for advice.

  • They look towards someone to save them.

  • Someone to tell them what to do.

  • Because their whole lives

  • when they wastheir whole lives when they were students, they were told what to do.

  • They were list

  • they would listen to their teacher.

  • Now that they are the teacher, they've never had the experience of control of teaching

  • students and now they have to learn.

  • So what I would tell a teacher is trust yourself.

  • You will learn faster if you take responsibility for your actions and you are the one in control

  • of the class.

  • And that is a leadership, um

  • um, that is something to do with leadership where you're the one in control of the students,

  • you're the one leading them, helping them to be successful.

  • So if you trust in yourself, you know that the more you're going to teach this class,

  • the more you're going to learn.

  • You will grow and you will improve.

  • And just that knowledge that you should believe in yourself, that you will improve, will give

  • you the confidence to be a better teacher.

  • So that is probably my number one tip that I would give teachers out there.

  • Well I feel motivated myself after hearing that speech.

  • That was wonderful.

  • Um, is thatthat's one of the challenges that new teachers face.

  • And you taught in the public education system in South Africa.

  • And you've taught many different levels hereage groups here in Korea.

  • What do you think are some of the challenges that teachers face, perhaps in general, or

  • teaching English as a second language, albeit here in Korea, or anywhere around the world?

  • Um, it's… it's different around the world.

  • Some things are similar, some things are different.

  • When you teach your younger learners, you have to engage them in a fun playful way because

  • maybe they don't have that internal motivation to study language.

  • So you've got to engage them with your delivery, with your activities, with the content, you've

  • got to make it colorful.

  • And then, with all the students, how you motivate them, is you're going to have to make it as

  • useful as possible, make it practical, so that they feel like they're learning.

  • So motivation is very important across the board.

  • Itbut itit's different also the way that students are able to interact and do

  • activities.

  • For example, in South Africa, and other countries, you know in the West, we love talking about

  • ourselves.

  • We

  • we love talking about ourselves.

  • Um, you know, uh, and uh, we like, we love sharing our experiences.

  • We have no problem with talking to a group about who we are, you know.

  • A very individualistic society.

  • Whereas in Korea, the students might be shy because they might get judged in a group.

  • So, um, it's… it's very important to set up your class for success, to show the students

  • that in this class you're going to have fun, but you have to speak andand it's, it's

  • very important to get that out of them.

  • So yeah, um, different challenges, some things are the same, but there are things that you

  • can change that are a little bit different between the countries.

  • That's a great point because I remember when I, uh, began teaching.

  • Um, I think it was middle school or high school students here in Korea, and I would ask them

  • a question expecting like it would be in Canada, where I'm from, where you know many students

  • would raise their hand - and nobody would raise their hand.

  • And I thought, this is quite frustrating.

  • I don't know why

  • why doesn't anyone want to answer me?

  • I don't understand.

  • And then a co-worker of mine said they're not being rude, they justthey're not used

  • to doing this type of thing in the classroom because that's not normal activity in a Korean

  • classroom.

  • So I guess another one of the challenges would be understanding little cultural tidbits,

  • too, um, when you're dealing with students in Korea, or wherever you are in the world.

  • Understanding where the students are coming from can help you a lot, too, I guess.

  • 100 percent.

  • Um, I think this is an interesting concept in education and that is scaffolding.

  • 'scaffolding' is basically when you build a house you want to you want to scaffold it

  • - you want to create certain parts first, and then add on top of that.

  • Now scaffolding, scaffolding, can be used in different ways.

  • When you scaffold a lesson for example, you can scaffold by first introducing some vocabulary,

  • Then you can give some examples in a sentence.

  • Then you can give some examples from your own life.

  • You giveyou show the students how to do it.

  • You write it on the board and then you ask them simple questions so that, little by little,

  • they are learning instead of giving them a whole sentence, or a whole dialogue to do,

  • you're doing it step by step.

  • And that is very important to understand when you teach any level of student.

  • If you're teaching young learners, you're going to start in a very simple way and then

  • work it up.

  • If you're teaching advanced students, the same concept, the same idea applies where

  • you're going to teach them step by step.

  • And scaffolding, I believe, can also be applied to communication with students.

  • When a student comes into class, you want to ask them simple questions to get them talking

  • and get them comfortable.

  • So you can ask, “Oh, how was your day?”

  • And they will say, “It was fine,” or uh, “Do you like

  • Did you eat lunch?

  • Yes?

  • No?”

  • So it gets them talking.

  • Then when you start the lesson, you're going to start off by asking simple questions, uh,

  • creating simple dialogues making them comfortable to speak in class.

  • I believe that's a vital skill to learn is to scaffold the way that you teach and scaffold

  • the way that you communicate with others.

  • Very good.

  • So let's talk about the live streams that you do.

  • You touched on it briefly.

  • You do them every single weekend.

  • Every Sunday night at 10 p.m.

  • At 10 p.m. correct.

  • 10 p.m. Korean time or 1 p.m. GMT.

  • And then you do these for about an hour eacheach time or does the time vary?

  • One hour exactly.

  • Andand sometimes I invite other teachers, or interesting guests to come on.

  • So for example, um, yesterday Tueswhat's the date today?

  • Today's Tuesday.

  • Two days ago, uh, I had an Indian teacher on and she was just brilliant sharing a lot

  • of knowledge and wisdom with us.

  • Very good.

  • So, sometimes, it's just me talking very fast and talking to other teachers.

  • And other times, I invite guests on.

  • Fantastic, uh, what a wonderful resource for teachers and students alike.

  • And maybe you can talk about that a little bit because, uh, the website is not necessarily

  • just for teachers, correct?

  • Or the channel, excuse me?

  • Well, it's interesting.

  • Many language learners have joined my channel because they come for listening practice and

  • they interact with me.

  • They send me messages, or they ask me questions, or they share parts of their lives.

  • And I think

  • I hope that it's useful for them, too, because a lot of thethe lessons and the videos

  • I put out, can be used by language learners, too.

  • Obviously, my

  • my viewers are mostly teachers because I try and help them, but if it's useful to language

  • learners, itit makesit makes me happy that I can help other people, too.

  • Are there books as well?

  • I do have some books.

  • I've got one book that is 1,000 English Questions and Answers.

  • Oh, wow.

  • So basically, I found 50 topics and I wrote out 20 questions for each topic and 20 answers.

  • And a lot of my viewers, teachers, use it in class with their students.

  • And a lot of English learners use it to learn what are somesome basic questions and

  • how to answer it.

  • So that is one of the books that I created.

  • Very cool.

  • Why should teachers visit, uh, Etacude English Teachers?

  • What's the number one main reason teachers should visit your channel?

  • I believe that, um, if you're a teacher, you can come to the channel, and you're going

  • to find out some interesting information about education.

  • You're going to find hundreds of activities that you can use in class.

  • You're going to find a community of teachers that support each other.

  • And a lot of free resources that you can use in your class to make life as a teacher just

  • much better.

  • There's literally no reason not to visit Etacude English teachers.

  • Everyone's welcome.

  • Um, I…

  • I'm so grateful for every teacher, and English learner, or person, or whoever wants to come

  • to the channel.

  • Um, I love to help and that's what the channel is for.

  • Very good.

  • Well Mr. Eric Wesch, it was a pleasure to speak with you.

  • It was wonderful to learn about Etacude English Teachers.

  • Congratulations on your success that you've had and I wish you more of that in the future.

  • It was a real pleasure to meet you andand chat with you today.

  • And I thank you.

  • Thank you so much Steve for having me and everybody else out there watching that I hope

  • you have a fantastic week and, uh, we'll see you next time.

  • Visit Eric's channel Etacude English Teachers.

  • And if you're looking for more of me, you can visit my own channel, called Story Time:

  • Steve Hatherly.

  • You can find that on YouTube as well.

  • Eric you have to you have to subscribe to my channel for sure, yeah?

  • 100%.

  • Fantastic.

  • And I'll

  • I'll return the favor as well, uh, all right.

  • Well once again Eric thank you so much.

  • Be safe.

  • Be happy.

  • Be healthy and I hope to chat with you again someday.

  • Bye.

Welcome to another edition of Speak English Fluently.

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Etacude English Teachers Interview with Eric Wesch | Speak English Fluently with Steve Hatherly

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    Summer 發佈於 2022 年 04 月 27 日
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