Intro
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| Kyejin: Welcome to the inner circle. |
| Peter: This is the monthly No holds bar newsletter giving You tried and tested learning methods to help you reach your language goals this year, |
| Kyejin: I'm Kyejin, and I'm joined by my co-host, the founder of innovative language, Peter Galante. |
| Peter: Hi, everyone, Peter here. |
| Body |
| Kyejin: Last time, you learned about the power of adjusting your goals when plans change and life gets in the way. |
| Peter: And that's because the last time neither of us was able to get a seat at the DELF exam in November, which kind of impacts our goals for the year. And by the way, Kyejin, I think it only impacts my goal because you already achieved your goal way back in June. |
| Kyejin: Indeed. So I have a question for you. Did you hit your October goals? |
| Peter: Yes, I did. So yes, one of the goals was to resume the routine after being sick, which, again, it's not as easy as it looks because you're not only missing this goal but lots of other goals in your life, whether they're career or family-oriented. So, back on track there, and I found a way to take the DELF exam, not officially, but the school that I'm going to will arrange a serious mock test for me. So kind of works. |
| Kyejin: Serious mock test. |
| Peter: Still a mock test, but serious. I don’t know, Kyejin, do you think it counts? |
| Kyejin: Yes, please share the score with us. |
| Peter: I will do that. |
| Kyejin: So when is your exam date? |
| Peter: Um, it is the… hang on one second… 20th of November. |
| Kyejin: Oh, wow. So, can you share the results in November inner circle, or that will be the December inner circle topic? |
| Peter: Maybe December. But we don't have to wait for the results, right? They can get them much quicker than a standardized test. |
| Kyejin: Sounds very good. I'm really, really excited about that. Good luck. So, are you taking A2 or B1? |
| Peter: A2 |
| Kyejin: Hmm, A2 is so useful. Good luck, Peter |
| Peter: And Kyejin, how about you? Did you hit your October goals? |
| Kyejin: Yes. My goal was to increase speaking hours by adding FrenchPod101 private classes. And yes, I'm taking the private classes, and this is amazing, Peter. Wow. I love it so much. |
| Peter: How do you think I can never take your classes? And then you get into these. How did, who are you talking to here to get all of the things that I can't, |
| Kyejin: You have to be more consistent. I think you are very busy. So you can't find the good time slot but you can, this is really nice, Peter. I strongly recommend it. |
| Peter: Yes, I am somehow on the waiting list, and you're off the waiting list for this feature. But first, let's back up and talk about this in a minute. You had one other goal? A slightly different goal. How did that work out? |
| Kyejin: Yes. Find a different goal for the year because I failed to take B1 again this year. |
| Peter: I don't know, but I think you already passed B1. So I don't think… I think it's ok. I think you just need a different goal. So, did you manage to create a goal around speaking or something? |
| Kyejin: Yes. I talked to my teacher, and I'm going to have a five-minute presentation for specific topics. We haven't decided on topics yet, but I will have a serious presentation for my teacher. |
| Peter: Wow. This is really interesting. Now, a few questions: your private classes at the same time every week? |
| Kyejin: Yes. |
| Peter: OK. And once a week, |
| Kyejin: Yes, once a week, |
| Peter: 30 minutes or one hour? |
| Kyejin: For the FrenchPod101 private classes, it’s 30 minutes. |
| Peter: Yeah, I really like that amount of time. I think 30 minutes is really efficient. |
| Kyejin: I 100% agree with you. I actually have another class, and that lasts one hour. And honestly, I cannot say I'm always focusing on it because it's very long. Before 30 minutes, I can totally focus on it, and it was very effective. Plus, I don't have so much pressure for an hour. I feel like this week I'm so tired, where I have to do this, and it's like I have to make one hour to take this lesson. But for 30 minutes, I mean, we have 30 minutes a day, like lunch hour or when you take a break. So I feel much better with this 30-minute lesson. |
| Peter: Yeah, I think for the teacher, too, it's much nicer because you can really focus on the conversation element. Often, if it's an hour, they're doing reading… they're doing listening because they're trying to fill the lesson that they're filling that hour, right? |
| Kyejin: Right. So this 30-minute lesson is very intensive and totally focusing on my weaknesses. |
| Peter: Your teacher can also see what you're doing on the site, right? It's integrated. |
| Kyejin: Exactly. And my weaknesses are actually some pronunciation. I think French pronunciation is hard and I make mistake often. There plus there are several French words that I cannot pronounce correctly. So my teacher actually focused on that, and oh, I improved that. |
| Peter: Yeah well, I feel a little differently about pronunciation. I think it's not…. Again, it |
| depends on the person. Some people are very pro pronunciation. So let me just back up one minute here. I'm trying to kind of condense and organize this. So we started off about speaking about our goals, and we'll get to my goals and what's going on in a minute. But for now, let's talk about what Kyejin's done. She had a goal, she reached her goal, and then she was aiming to improve her, you know, slightly better score. However, she was not able to take the test. So, therefore, she pivoted or switched her goal to be more language-centric, and she took the FrenchPod101 private class. And the interesting thing about what she's done here is it's a shorter class, which allows the time to be used more efficiently. |
| Kyejin: Yes, exactly correct |
| Peter: From the teacher's side, there are some tools that the teacher can see what Kyejin is doing on other areas of the site. Is she using the site? Is she taking the tests? Is she doing the Premium PLUS? This teacher is different than your Premium PLUS teacher? |
| Kyejin: No, he's the same teacher. |
| Peter: Yeah, that's one of the most important things the teacher can see Kyejin’s work that she does outside of the lesson. So maybe when you get there, it's a very efficient use of the time. Right? |
| Kyejin: Right. And I can also ask the follow-up questions after the lesson using my teacher messenger app, and it's very good. |
| Peter: Yeah, I don't want this particular session to be an infomercial, but it took us 15 years to get to this point where what you do on the site can be seen by the teacher, and the teacher can see what you're doing by texting. So, the Premium PLUS is centered around input of text or audio. So it builds towards a portfolio of like work that you've done, you've produced. And now, the same teacher that's teaching your live lessons, the conversation, could see what you're doing outside. So they're getting a lot of information to make your classes better and better. |
| Kyejin: Mhm Exactly. |
| Peter: And Kyejin, you know, you're one of the first few people to try this. Tell us a little more about this experience. So you have a 30-minute class. What do you do outside the class to prep for this? |
| Kyejin: So before the class, I always get some lesson materials. So I have to take some audio or video lessons. I check the vocabulary and grammar before the class. So when I actually take 30 minutes lesson, I can focus more on practicing instead of learning. Because the learning part, I already learned it from the audio-video lessons. So, I can spend my time more effectively by practicing because having a teacher is great for practicing the language. I mean, you can learn the language from the teacher too. But you know, the great part of having a native teacher is for practice. So after that, I also have assessment. So, I see how much I understand. And if I make a mistake, I review that part again. So it's very useful. So, from learning to practice and also test, those three components are very well organized. |
| Peter: And that's on the student side. The teacher can then see like, “OK, I helped Kyejin try to understand this; we practiced this,” and then the teacher can then see, “Wow, Kyejin got it, or she didn't get it right.” The teacher can then see how you've done, right? |
| Kyejin: And he also give me some feedback like, “Kyejin, this is your weakness. I mean, you make a lot of mistake with this grammar. So please review this lesson again,” and that's very nice. |
| Peter: Yeah, so this keyword integration, right? The material you use is similar to the material on the site, the person judging your or assessing your speaking is also looking at your reading pronunciation. And you know, I compare this to some of the teachers I have now and depending on the teacher, we're using different material that they're sharing that I don't have access to. So each teacher kind of has a favorite material they're familiar with and they want you to use that as a student, but it's only available, often shared via the tool we're using to have our lesson. So that's why I have to do the reading and everything there. They'll send me it through the private chat, but then they don't have the tools to follow up and stuff. |
| Kyejin: And do your private teachers also test your knowledge because you learn a lot of grammar, vocabulary, and is there any test to see yourself how much you understand? |
| Peter: Yeah, that's a great question. So, what my most teachers do is they're assessing it as we go. But it's in their head. It's in the teacher's head assessment, like, "oh, you need this, and you need that," and then maybe they'll share it with me, or maybe they'll forget, but again, after the lesson, they'll write down, the good teachers will write down some notes based on what they remember, right? So it's usually a one or two line, good job. You need to practice on pronunciation, but they don't really test properly. I mean, it's quite a challenge for a teacher to be a very good teacher, a very good person to collect the materials. So they have to get the good materials. They have to present very well, and then they have to test; that's a lot to ask of one person to do. So most of the teachers are great. But it's just too much for them to do in their one hour. |
| Kyejin: Yeah. True. I just felt the test that I'm taking is very effective. I thought I understood some parts. But when I take a test, I realized, "oh, actually, I didn't understand enough." So that makes me review what I make the mistakes or my errors and weaknesses. So I recommend it, Peter. |
| Peter: Well, I hope I can get it. But so, so Kyejin right now. So when you started the year, you had several teachers, and you were doing this, and… How does our solution now compare that we've… that you have a private teacher? How does that compare with some of the other solutions that you've had? |
| Kyejin: The other teachers were great, too. But I feel like the learning materials are very inconsistent, and it's sometimes not well structured. So sometimes the teacher just asked me on the day, what do you want to talk about today? So I'm like, oh, I don't know. And maybe she just finds it on the internet. How about this topic? And I said, ok, but if I knew that topic in advance, probably I could look up some words, and I could present a little better. But with these FrenchPod101 private lessons, I know what to do this week. And I am so prepared, and I can fully practice what I learned from the lessons, and also I can test myself. So I feel like it's very well organized and very well structured. Plus, the curriculum is very effective. I feel that I can improve if I follow these curriculums consistently. But if there's no curriculum like this, I feel like sometimes I don't know where I'm going with some teachers, but again, the teachers were all great. It's just a different system, and I really like this well-structured system. |
| Peter: Yeah, for me. I like all of my teachers. I have quite a few teachers. So today is Italian and Hebrew, and the Hebrew teacher is very, very structured, but it's his material, and I have a lot of trouble following up after class. So we have a good lesson, and then what I'm supposed to do and the material I'm supposed to do is in a private chat that I have to open, download, look at. Not interactive, right? It's a static PDF, and that's kind of one of the solutions, like one of the problems we were trying to fix with our solution, right? So it's a little bit different for you, right? You have an interactive solution now. No? |
| Kyejin: Yes. |
| Peter: So you can look at your homework and then put it through the Premium PLUS and get feedback on it. The way my teacher kind of works now is I'll get the feedback If I remember to do it, which is often hard, and because there's no integrated system, the feedback will then also be given at the beginning of my class. I kind of have to wait a week to get that feedback. Whereas the Premium PLUS teacher is about a 24-hour turnaround time. At the latest. |
| Kyejin: Yes. And when I write it at night, then I got the answer in the morning or afternoon so I can practice writing every day. |
| Peter: Yeah. And that production element actually producing language matters so much, especially when you're starting. Wow. I'm really happy to hear this because we've just started this, and there aren't so many slots available. It's still very closed. |
| Kyejin: Yes, because these private classes are very popular. So I was so lucky. |
| Peter: I cannot even get a French… I need it more than you. |
| Kyejin: Because I pushed like, “I really need it. I really need it.” But I guess you didn't push it enough. Yeah, but we have limited number of teachers, and we have lots of students who want to learn with the teachers. So it's very competitive. So, good luck, Peter. |
| Peter: So, yeah. No, it's, it's quite exciting what can be done in the coming days. It's really, really exciting, but, you know, having the integration and then someone there to hold you accountable for what you're supposed to do. These are the two things that I think add a lot of value when you're trying to really make progress. |
| Kyejin: Yep. I agree. |
| Peter: Yeah, I'm still a bit behind you, so I am now taking the test next month. So, I shifted my focus in order, in addition to catching up, back to the school where I'm going. And the reason again, the school is again integrated, and they have someone holding me accountable. It's just that again, I can only do it at the school. They don't have that offline element yet. |
| Peter: We might be better off leaving this lesson kind of focused on what you worked on with our solution. The FrenchPod101 solution using a live component to practice conversation, the Premium PLUS component to practice speaking, writing and also reading, listening. This is a very interactive way to work with your teacher. And since your live teacher, the teacher you have in person, is the same teacher that you have kind of in this distance learning, it really helps with the efficiency. Plus, you have the content on the site to go over on your own and take your own assessment. So this integrated approach might be really, really nice just to focus on this. |
| Kyejin: Yeah, that’s right. So, what is your goal for November? |
| Peter: So my goal for November is a test prep, a lot of test prep. And I think I have a strategy very similar to yours. Like, I will try to do well on the areas that are good, easier reading and listening, the passive ones. And try to get just enough on the speaking and writing to pass the test. |
| Kyejin: Sounds very good. If you have any questions, let me know. I already took B1 so I can give you some advice. |
| Peter: Well, you already helped with that textbook very much. |
| Kyejin: Great. Awesome. |
| Peter: Although there was no CD, you didn't give me the audio component. |
| Kyejin: Peter, there is a QR code. Nobody has CD-ROM these days. No, I'm joking. People have CD-ROM. But these days, QR code is a thing. |
| Peter: Ah, that's what the QR code is for. |
| Kyejin: Yeah, because I don't have the CD. Nobody gave me the CD, but there is QR code. You need to download an application, but it's not difficult to use it. I'll teach you, I'll show you. |
| Peter: Thank you. Yeah, most of the books here come with CDs. So I was looking, I was like, still in Japan. Yeah, I don't know. |
| Kyejin: That's true. But this is a French book, and we are now in 2023. |
| Peter: OK. So, anyway, I will do my best to… so I have, not too long. I will cram study and then take a practice test in November. |
| Kyejin: Sounds good. For me, I'll continue with my FrenchPod101 private classes. Plus, I have five-minute presentations for some topics. I'll let you know the topics later, but I'm so excited about that. For now, I'm planned 2 5 minute presentations, and, oh, I'm a little nervous. |
| Peter: So, do I get to see the presentation? |
| Kyejin: Yes, I can share that. I was a little nervous, like, oh, my boss is watching me speaking French. But ok, I'll do my best. Actually, they give me more motivation than I have to do very well. |
| Peter: Well, thank you very much, Kyejin. So, this sounds good. And so, will this be for November, or you have one more month? December? |
| Kyejin: Yes. The presentation is scheduled for November, and for December, I can increase the presentation time not five minutes from eight minutes or 10 minutes, but I start from five minutes. I don't want to go too hard from the beginning. |
| Peter: Excellent. Ok. Listeners. What about you? Let us know your small measurable monthly goal and email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com and stay tuned for the next inner circle. |
Outro
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| Peter: Bye everyone. |
| Kyejin: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time. |
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