원어민 영어 수업 전, 내가 준비해 간 것
전화영어, 화상영어, 어학원도 마찬가지
얼마 전 영국 원어민 선생님께 30분 영어 수업을 받았습니다.
아무런 준비 없이 그냥 간다? 이 비싼 기회를 그냥 날려버리는 겁니다.
그래서 저는 예전부터
학교 영어 수업이든, 회사 영어 회의든, 전화 영어든
반드시 이 한 가지를 준비해 갑니다.
바로 '영어 라이팅'입니다. 즉, 영어로 할 말을 '미리' 써가는 것입니다.
글 마지막에
1. 제가 쓴 라이팅
2. 실제 영어 수업 영상
을 붙여두었습니다!
왜 굳이 영어 라이팅을 써가는가?
영어 수업은 영어로 말할 '기회'에 불과합니다. 절~대로 영어 수업 자체가 실력 향상을 가져다 주진 않습니다.
이 기회를 잘 살리면? 다시 말해, 주어진 시간 동안 최대한 밀도 있게 영어로 말을 많이 하려면? 영어 라이팅이 최고라고 봅니다.
무작정 영어 수업에 갔을 때(◎)와, 미리 사전 라이팅을 써갔을 때 (●)를 비교해 봅시다.
◎ 모르는 단어는 아예 말하지 못함
● 사전 검색으로 미리 찾음
◎ 한국말로 해도 별로 할 말이 없음
● 할 말이 풍부함
◎ 긴 문장 말하지 못함
● 천천히 복잡한 문장도 써볼 수 있음
◎ 맨날 같은 영어만 씀
● I think 등은 다른 영어 찾아서 교체할 수 있음
◎ 배운 표현 써먹지 못함
● 미드에서 배운 표현 넣어서 쓸 수 있음
◎ 그 결과, 거의 선생님말을 듣기만 함 (스피킹이 아닌 리스닝 공부 해버림)
● 말하는 분량도 많을뿐더러 그 퀄리티도 평소보다 훨씬 높음
그렇다면 저는 30분 영어 수업을 위해서 어떻게, 얼마나 영어 라이팅을 썼을까요? (당연히 많이 쓸수록 좋겠죠?) 영어 라이팅과 그 후 실제 영어 수업을 달아둡니다. 부디 도움이 됐으면 좋겠습니다!
미리 쓴 영어 라이팅 (17,784자)
Today’s topic that I’ve picked is something you must also find interesting. I will walk you through 3 positive aspects (advantages) of running my own business. For those of viewers who don’t know me, I’ve been running online English business for almost 7 years and I’ve been generally happy with my work comparing to if took another job, for example, worked for a company 9-5.
Don’t get me wrong. Running a business itself is neither good nor bad. Everyone’s different. It just happens that having my own business fits me better than any other type of work.
You also hire yourself and have your own business, more than that, you work in the same field as mine, English education in a different way.
As always, It would be appreciated if you would recommend expressions or give corrections or just add your opinions.
1. Autonomy
The first upside related to having my own business relative to getting a job, is, I don’t necessarily have to compare one another but it helps to make a point clear, is Autonomy. Now what I mean by Autonomy, simply speaking, I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do. I’m not saying I love every aspect of my job. There is no such thing as PERFECT job. No matter what work you do, no matter how much you love your job, by the nature of work, it comes with things you hate to do. It goes same to me.
Some of my work feel boring, for example, I don’t like editing videos because , most of the time, it feels mechanical repetitive which doesn’t take much thoughts. Other people might enjoy it but for me, it’s just repetitive & mindless work which I feel like I have to do rather than I enjoy. It’s something I would happily outsource (=hand off) to others if I could afford.
In contrast to editing videos, planning videos make me feel excited. I love to give creative thoughts to how I start a video, what channel I benchmark, what target I need to aim for and so on. But Is it something I always look forward to? Absolutely not. even the pleasant tasks feel dull or less important depending on how I feel that day or what kind of monthly goals I set that month. If I am swamped with other work like managing my students, planning a video would, all of sudden, become the last thing I want to do because I am too drained and exhausted to generate some thoughts.
In a word, just like everyone else, there are tasks I love to do and there are works I would aviod doing if I could.
Even though I cannot avoid doing work I hate to do all the time, what brings joy that could not come with other work is that I can make choices about what to do and what not to do. Because I’m the owner of my business, everything is up to me.
For example, when it comes to make a video, let’s stick with a video exmaple while we are talking about it, I can make a choice about a subject. I can go for whatever topic I like to cover without anyone telling me. Even today’s topic, 3 upsides of running business is what I chose.
It even goes further to how I run my class. There are countless ways to help students improve their English not to mention how to bring profit. Everyone holds their own views about them. Among infinite number of ways, I can decide how to run my service based on my opinion which others would not agree on. If I worked for an English Institution, I would have to do as I was told, the one who hired me even if I disagree. Even the idea of doing what I don’t agree already makes feel sick and demotivate me. Being told to do by someone is one of the worst case scenarious I could imagine.
I’m not saying I always do what I want to do. At the end of the day, I need to make ends meet. I have to earn enough money, much enough for my wife not to ditch me and and go to another man. But it’s me who make a final call about what task I take on and I don’t.
However, I don’t think that having autonomy always work in favor of everyone. Some people might like follow someone’s lead instead of actively making decisions which comes with responsibilities. They might not like make decisions or might love having freedom and being independent but not so much that they are willing to take the full responsibility that comes with it.
After all, having independence affect people differently depending on what their personalities are and what value they hold. Whether freedom have a positive impact or negative impact comes down to who you are. And I just happed to prefer freedom over anything else. If there’s a spectrum of how much I value freedom, let’s immgaine freedom lies on one end and control lies on the other, I’m at the extreme end of freedom on the spectrum. I’m the last person who you want to mess with my freedom.
It’s not only autonomy but also a sense of autonomy that brings happines to my work. The typical example that demonstrates this point clearly is wake up time. Most of the time, I have to start my day no later than 9 in the morning. I am expected to check assignments from my students and give them feedback and the next assignments by 3 otherwise, they will complain. It’s my duty. But it’s different than I would be required to get to work by 9:30. If I worked for a company, the rule was made and forced by a company, not me. It’s the same that I have to get to work by certain time but it feels different in that when it comes to my business, I’m the one who make the rule that I have to head out the door before certain time.
there is a huge difference between having to do something I’m in control of and having to do something I am out of control even if what I have to do is exactly the same.
Let me check if there is anything I forget to mention.
Now that I think about it, it’s the same with others that autonomy is restricted to some extent. It would be more accurate to say that I might have more autonomy that others given that I choose what I have to do and what I give up. Even when it comes to work that I love to do, if I look into it carefully, there are parts I would avoid. For example, running my YouTube channel definitely falls into a category of wanting but editing videos, which is not my thing, is just a part of work.
2. Ownership
Another thing that I love about my business, related to running my own business instead of being hired by someone or a company is ownership. I believe it’s one of the biggest reasons why people start their own business. If I was not an owner of my business, there is no way I would be working this hard. It speaks to the human nature, at least to my nature. I work in my own interest. I would be motivated the most when I think what I am doing now is for me, not anyone else. Let me give you more detail.
On the surface level, the fact that what I earn is all mine, after taxes are deducted, after the teachers’ salaries are taken out / drive me to work hard even without anyone telling me. In other words, the more I work, the more fininncail outcome I get, hence I work as hard as I can.
It doesn’t apply to 9-5 workers because most of the time, salarires are not proportional to how much they work. Monthly pay is fixed which is neither good nor bad. In some ways, fixed salary means stability. Even if you mess up, you would be still guranteed the same amount of money as the last one.
Compare to them, on the plus side, having my business means I am super motivated but on the downside, it’s constantly stressful because I will take a financial hit the moment I work less. Even if I earn enough money, there is no absloute standard to say “enough”, let me be precise, even if I bring in the amount of money I am satisfied with, I wouldn’t be able to stop working because I can bring in more. It’s true that there is no limit to what people want. If I hit 1000만원 a month, then I would want to reach 1500만원, and the endless loop keeps going.
In this sense haivng a ownership could have a dynamic pattern depending on what kind of person you are and how well you can keep your greed in check. It’s just that I love the fact that what I do has a direct connection to what I have. That’s it.
Let me give you clearer comparison. In case of 9-5 workers, how much they work don’t directly affect how much outcome they get, I assume. It’s natural that they feel fine or sometimes are willing to slack off (relax, slow down) when things are slow. There is nothing wrong, if any, it is desirable to take a break when you are not busy.
However, there is no time when things are slow for me. Let me explain. To run my business in a organized and structured way, with a longer term view, I also set weekly goals or monthly goals and give my all to reach them within the deadline.
Let’s say, I get everything I planned done earlier than I planned. I could get off work earlier that day. But it barely happens. Most of the time, instead of chilling out, I end up jumping into the next task which I plan to do tomorrow. Why do I rush? Because I know, the more I work, the more goals I accomplish, the earlier I can see the outcome. If you locked in this pattern of thinking, it will never come when I feel like “it’s enough”. Nothing is enough.
Let’s go beyond financial motivation. Having ownership means more than that. To put it another way, aside from making money, undoutedly the top motivator to drive me to work, there is something else that sparks my passion to work. I think it’s ownership itself. Let me explain.
I’ve run diffrerent social media including YouTube. To be honest, I don’t expect youtube to bring me money in the foreseeable future. Yeah, it’s true that some people from YouTube sign up for my class and bring me money in a form of class tuition but it’s just too little, means almost nothing considering how much time I’ve put into growing YouTube. If I aimed to recruit more students and this was the only goal, then I would have put time in another area like paid marketing. It proves I have a different type of motivation behind it besides financial factor.
What is it that is not financial but still incentivizes me to work on youtube? It is the fact that I own this channel. It’s not my boss who owns this channel. It’s not my wife, not my fatehr or mother but me who have onwership of it. The idea that it belongs to me inspires me to drag my ass out of my bad, film a video and enudure the dull process of eiditing the videos.
If I were hired or worked for a company, I still would work hard because I would get money and am a responsible person or I would want to get promoted. you know people never work only for money but I could not work as hard because I know it’s not mine. A project I would be assined, profit I would generate belongs to a company, not mine and once I leave a company, it has ntohing to do with me which is not bad because work always come with not only good things but also bad things.
In contrast, all the things I’ve been doing, recruting my students, grwoing social network, making content, growing the lists of potential students, whether they generate money now or not, they are all mine and it happens to fuel my energy, doesn;t mean it would work the same way for tohers, but at least in my view, in my world, having ownership work in favor of my happiness.
3. What I love + Problem
The last good aspect of hiring myself is…technically speaking, it’s not a merit of having my own business itself but I will say it anyway. If it was the speaking test where I have to stick to the topic and stay consistent without being sidetracked off the topic, I would get terrible score but it’s not a test or anything like that. The ultimate goal of this class is speaking as much as I can regardless of what topic it is and how many mistakes I make or how much I stick to the topic.I always tell my students “don’t try to write perfectly. You are not taking a literaure writing class. Don’t give too much tought to what to say to stay consistent. As long as you speak much, write much, any story would help you to delopve better fluency and I am now proving it.
One of the major reasons I feel generally contend with my work is that I’ve been doing what I love. It does not come from having my own business. If I worked in a different field, let’s say, if I was selling shoes, I would not be saying this. It’s just that my business and what I love happend to be aglined on the same line. What is it that I love? English! In other words, even if I worked for a company, as long as my job involves teaching English, I would enjoy working. But what could not be better is that my business area or field happens to be English education so that it’s like I earn money while doing what I enjoy doing.
Regardless of what I love, even if my business had nothing to do with English education, I would still do have my own business in any field, probably something to do with football. 2 Reasons alone are enough for me to prefer my business over anything else; automony, I don’t want to do what other people tell me to do and ownership, everytying I do and buikld and develop is after all belong to me. But the 3rd factor, working in a English education field is something that makes my job even more exciting. It’s like the drizzling source over the main dish.
It’s truly lucky that what I do for a living is also what I love. Not everyone gets to do what they love for a living. There is something that’s been on my mind. From time to time, it just hits me out of nowhere while walking down the street. There are not many things I want to buy or get. I’m already contend as it is right now. It’s not that my life is perfect or I have saved up enough money not to worry about anything. There is long way to go in many ways.
Then why am I still generally satisfied with my life? A couple of reasons lie behind it but one answer that sounds solid to me is I’m already doing what I want not only at work but also after work in my personal time. Most of my time is already packed with what I want.
On the one hand, at work, it’s growing my own business. It’s helping students to speak better, in particular, making sure that they avoid the same mistakes that I’ve made which is the very reason why I began my business from the beginning.
On the other hand, in personal life, I learn English. Yes, compared to the beginning, it’s amazing how far I’ve come. I never imagined I got better this much. But at the same time, it’s also true that there is still huge room for improvement. The more I learn English, the more I feel how much I still lack. If I had to put into words what my goal is, it would be reach a native-level. Now I understand it’s impossible no matter how long I stick to English, but getting closer little by little is what keeps me going. Even if I worked 9-5 and even if my work had nothing to do with English, I would still spend most of my time learning English. It’s just what I enjoy.
In fact, It’s not enough to say I simply like my job. If I had chosen what kind of business I would launch only based on what I like, It would be relevant to football. As much as I like English, football beats it hands down. Beyond liking it, I believe I have to do it. In other words, not only does Teaching English bring me true happiness and fullfiment, but also it’s something I’m meant to do, I’m obligated to do. For you to understand it better, let me take you back to the very early time, the beginning when I started my business.
I didn’t plan to start a business by any means from the beginning. It just turned into one as I tried different things. By the time when I was senior, I opened two hour one day class about the best way to improve your speaking skills. It was free. Money was not my goal. Then why was I giving the lecture for free while I was busy? I could have done part time job. It was because I had a deep awareness of one particular issue. I don’t want others to make the same mistake I have made when learning English. I already wasted a lot of time and money with wrong approaches and ideas towards learning English. I should not let other people waste their time the way I did. It would be nothing but a waste for society. I didn’t start what I’ve been doing for a living, I did because I wanted to fix a problem, the problem that people invest a huge amount of resources but still have not seen any outcomes. The last thing I want is wasting.
But then one of the students suggested that I had better turn it into a paid course which I would have never imagined. one of them taught me platforms where I could sell my lecture. One of them proposed to launch an course that became the foundation of the service I’m running now. One led to another and boom! before I knew it, I’ve been doing it for 7 years straight. I cannot remember who made the suggestion for me, but I wish I could find them and buy them decent dinner.
The other day, a friend of mine, who also runs a business asks me if I would exit my business if were offered 10 billion, I didn’t remember the exact number but big enough not to worry about the future. And I gave him a straight answer. Even if I got more than that, I would still carry on with my work because regardless of money, Not only I’m enjoying my work so much that it doesn’t feel like work but also my ultimate goal is not number but helping people to learn English more effectively, and by nature of it, there is no end to this goal.
