Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Welcome back to another edition of Speak English Fluently. I'm your host Steve Hatherly. My guest today is Adam Benn. Adam has been teaching English for over 20 years now and has done so in many different countries around the world. He's made some very popular teaching videos for EngVid.com. He has his own very popular YouTube channel called Write to the Top. And recently, very interesting, he did a talk for TedX on the importance of writing. He's written his own books. And we're going to talk about all of those things today, Let me say hello to my fellow Canadian and, uh, guest today, Adam Benn. How are… how are you doing, sir? I'm very good Steve, thanks. How are you? I'm great thank you. You're from Toronto, yeah? I'm from Toronto, yeah. Actually, I should say “Toronto” like non-Torontonians, but… Very good, uh, so let's see now where do we begin? You've been teaching English for 24 years in total - a long time. And you've lived in so many different countries around the world. So what inspired you originally to move away from Canada? And where was your first destination? And you can talk about that a little bit. So I was in… I was in Toronto. And I loved traveling. So I just wanted to travel around the world. So originally, my first idea was to, you know, learn how to cook. Maybe become a chef because people have to eat everywhere. I can always go somewhere and find a job as a chef. So I went to culinary school for a year. I did that. I worked in a few restaurants and I realized that I really hated that job. Oh, really. So I needed something else. And one day, I saw an advertisement, it said, “Do you want to live overseas and teach English?” And I thought, “Yeah, I do.” So I applied. I got a job and I went to Japan. That was my first overseas teaching experience. Very good. Where… what other countries have you lived in? So I lived in Japan. I actually taught in Toronto and Vancouver. Oh, OK. In Canada. I lived in Turkey, in Israel, and now in Korea. Wow. So Israel was your last stop before coming to live in Korea? Uh, well a while ago, I went back to Canada since then, but then I came here, again, yeah. Oh, very good so… What made you come to Korea this time having experience in so many other countries? Uh, I actually met a very nice Korean woman. Oh, there it is. Oh, there it is. So we came here. Plus, uh, I live in Busan which is on right on the coast. So I live… I have the ocean right in front of me. I have the mountains right behind me. It's… it's a beautiful place to live. Oh, Busan, uh, if… if our… our audience members have not been… is one of the prettiest cities in Korea. There's no question, yeah. Yeah, it's a very nice place. So let's talk about EngVid first. Sure. Uh, the videos that you do for EngVid.com that's engvid.com are insanely popular. They have nearly what - 2.96 million subscribers I think was the number that I saw. That's just from my channel – there's other teachers. Yeah, so that's incredible. They've made you one of the most popular English teachers in the world. So how did that… how did that all come to be? Uh, interestingly, I worked for the relatives of the guy who owns EngVid. Like, while I was living in Toronto, I was also teaching there. And I… and I worked with, uh, his mom. And when I came back from some travels, she contacted me, and asked me, “Do you want to make some videos?” Because she knows I know how to teach. And I know English, and world experience, so I said, “Yeah, sure. I'll go try it.” And I did it. And it took off. And I have kept doing it. Wow, how many years has it… how many years has it been now? It's funny. I was just looking at it. I was looking at my first video just to see what it was like. It was 10 years ago. Goodness me. Well done. Congratulations on your success. Almost 3 million for just for your channel. That's incredible. Yeah. What types of videos do you enjoy making for EngVid? To be honest, I... I like making the grammar videos. I know a lot of teachers don't like to teach the grammar. I know the students don't necessarily like to learn grammar but it's very important I like grammar I like But it's very important. I like grammar. I like to see a student's face when he or she… Oh, I get it. You know that “Ah ha” moment. Right. And so, I… I like the grammar, so I like to teach that. But, I do all kinds of lessons. I do general English. I do like phrasal verbs, vocabulary, some pronunciation, writing, test prep, a little bit of everything. I remember talking to my students when I taught university here in Korea, and I said to them, I bet your grammar in English is better than my grammar in English. Yeah, yeah. Because that's a large focus. That's where they learned the most, yeah. Uh, in in their younger years, right? Have you noticed that? You know, after moving to Korea and living in Turkey and Israel and teaching in Toronto and Vancouver… Have you noticed that that Korean students maybe have some different skills? Second language-wise or third language wise ….? Yeah, they focus. They focus very heavily on the grammar. And they do work on the vocabulary, but they don't necessarily go outside… like they… they look at the technical aspects and they don't… I don't think they do enough practice, which I think is why it's a little difficult for them so… To like integrate those grammar lessons and to use that vocabulary, etc. But I find that this is a Asian issue, like the way Asian education systems work. A lot of them focused very heavily on the grammar and not enough about on the speaking and the writing and the conversation. But that being said, having a strong grammar foundation makes it a whole lot easier, I think, to become a great speaker in your later years, right? Yeah, but again, if you're willing to actually apply it, so that's the, that's the key, use it. That's the EngVid videos, but what about your channel - Write to the Top? How, how did that come to be when you decided to… to make that, you decided to focus it on writing specifically? Yeah, so where did the idea for your own channel come from? Well, I again, I've taught in many places and I've I especially started teaching a test prep like IELTS and TOEFL. And I… I looked at statistics, and I looked at my own students, and other people students, and I realized that like very consistently, it doesn't matter what country you come from, everybody's worst scores are in the writing section. And a lot of teachers, as much as they can, they try to avoid teaching the writing because it's a very hard skill. So a lot of teachers don't like to teach it. Some, even English teachers are not the best writers, like native speakers are not are not great writers. And so I realized that I should focus on that because I like it for one thing. The students need it for another thing. And if it helps them, especially with tests and like getting a job and all that… A lot of people don't realize that writing is something you're going to do your whole life. You're going to write resumes. You're going to write cover letters, you're going to write memos, you're going to write all kinds of things in business, outside of business, even on social media. Your captions have to be understood, right? So it's all about writing. So that's why I decided to open this channel. I think you're absolutely right. That even… even native English speakers are not necessarily good writers because it's something that we learn perhaps in elementary, middle, high school, maybe in university, depending on what you study, but that that's kind of it. That's… that's kind of when it stops, right? And if you're never really, if you're never really taught specifically how to be a good writer, then it's not something that's going to come naturally, correct? No, it… it doesn't come naturally because it takes a lot of focus, which is again another reason I think a lot of people tend to stay away from it. And also people take for granted that they… they speak well. They can communicate well. So that's it's good enough when it comes across, the message gets across in the writing, but it's not always the case, so... When did you… when did you start the channel? This one is about five years ago. Five years ago and what almost 300,000 subscribers you're at now? Yeah, 265, yeah. Wow, that's wonderful. Congratulations on that as well. Thank you. Does that surprise you, I wonder? Because you said that, you know, teachers don't necessarily enjoy teaching writing and students also. Oh gosh, I have to write this again. Maybe something they don't love doing, but obviously your channel is extremely successful. Has the success surprised you at all? A little bit, because for one thing, it's a little bit higher level English. It's not… it's not for beginners. It's… you have to have a certain base of vocabulary and grammar to be able to write well. Plus, I think that, again, a lot of people don't want to learn writing - They need to. So surprised, but not surprised. EngVid, there's people who needs to learn English, and those who want to learn it. Right. Whereas my channel, I think it's more about needing to than wanting to. Understood. What are what are some of the… the basic tips that you give students to try to improve their writing skills? The key is, like anything else, practice. You have to get practice, but as much as possible get feedback as well.? Because you can write all day, but if nobody, excuse me, if nobody is pointing out the mistakes you're making, you're just going to keep making them right. So that's the hard part. I used… I used to tell my students… I used to make them keep a diary. And I would tell them to write about any topic they want every day. And I realized after I gave the assignment teaching so many different classes at university that I had created a ton of extra work for myself. But I didn't mind. I didn't…. I didn't want to bring that up, but that's another reason a lot of teachers don't teach writing. So very true, right? But I didn't mind because the students – “Do I have to do this?” And I said, “Well, yeah, because this is really going to help your speaking because you're just taking the words out of your mouth and you're putting them down on paper.” Yeah. And then once I would correct it, then I'd say, “OK, now repeat this 10, 15, 20 times that paragraph that you just wrote.” So do you agree with me? There's a strong connection between writing and… and conversation? So there's absolutely a connection, because again, listening and reading are passive skills. You're taking in the language and you're processing it and making it work inside your head. Speaking and writing are active skills. You need to produce the language. So writing, forces you to think very clearly and arrange very and construct very clear sentences. Now, if you can do this regularly, it'll come out in your speaking as well. And you're speaking will be much better. Because normally, otherwise speaking, you can just go around in circles to get to a point. Writing will help you focus your speaking as well. Oh, that's an excellent point. Yeah, because when you speak you can kind of say the same thing 10 times over in a different way. But when you're writing, you can't do that. You have to start at… at point A and get to point B by the time you're done. And there's no, there's no in between. Yeah, yeah. As quickly as possible. It's a great point, I didn't think about that. Well speaking of writing, you've written some books as well. Tell us about those. So again, both of these are the I've written two books like one is a series of books. It's all for the IELTS exam right now. It's to help people preparing for the IELTS exam. The first one is called The Right Idea. Vocabulary and ideas and examples. Because again, if you if we're thinking about Korean students, for example, one of the hardest things I've found that they… one of the most difficult aspects of the exam, is coming up with ideas quickly, right? They're focusing too much on their vocabulary, focusing too much on the grammar. And then they panic because they don't have any clear ideas. And this cost them a lot of points. So I always tell them think of ideas before the exam. So you mean on the IELTS? On the IELTS test? The essays, yes. They have to create something out of nowhere. They get a prompt. They get a question and then they have to write like a 250 words minimum essay to support their idea. OK. But they need to give reasons and support like examples but they don't know what to say in like a very timed situation and they panic and then everything falls apart. If you have ideas before the test, you're much more prepared for any question that comes up. So, for example, can you put that in a context for me? Sure, so you're at, you're saying like, OK, a very common question. Is it better to live in the countryside or in the city? So, you have to choose one, like you have to have your introduction. “I believe it's more important… It's better to live in the city…” And then you have to give reasons. You have to have two body paragraphs suggestion… suggesting why the city is better than the country. So, you have to give examples like better transportation, better infrastructure, better job opportunities. Then you have to give a bit of a contrast. So, in the country you get more privacy, more leisure time. But you don't make as much money and the cost of living is a little harder, dot, dot, dot. Very basic essay there, but they… That's a that's a great tip, though. I mean, if you're just talking about a basic structure for.. for writing, that's a really excellent tip is that, you know, list one or two or three or four ideas to support what you're saying, but then say, “But, also, on the other side,” 1, 2, 3 maybe and then come back and say, “But, ultimately…” That's it. The most important don't forget to come back to your side. Yeah, yeah, that's... That don't forget that last paragraph. It's amazing how many people forget to do that. Oh, is that right? Oh, that's interesting. And they lose a lot of points because of that. Well, I guess I… I guess I kind of get that because you're so caught up in the moment. Exactly. I suppose. So I guess another tip for… for writing is… is go back and check, read what you've written, if you have the time. Always go back to your thesis and make sure you're supporting that thesis. My… my father was a teacher for 34 years. He was a high school vice principal and he taught English, and he was frustrated at his students not reading, um, the things that he was asking them to read. So when he gave a test, he said, “Read all these questions before you answer any of them.” That was at the top of the page. And the very last thing on page two of the test was, “Don't answer any of these questions.” And he said that. None of the student, not one student handed it back an empty paper. They all wrote… wrote the answers as they came. That's a mean, but effective. Any more books coming out and coming out for you? So, I just recently, like a couple of months ago, I published another again IELTS book. I have about 40 samples of summaries and essays - fully edited, with, some with notes on where people lost points and what they could do better next time. And now I'm working on a prepositions / collocations book. Very nice. Oh, that's a great… that's a great book. Where you have examples of essays and then the mistakes that were made. Yeah, so. So it's a real practical exercise for students. I'm also an editor. So my edits are very… very detailed. But it's good for them to learn from so… Well, that's your main job, right? You're… you're an editor down in Busan? I am online basically, so mostly I do everything online. I have it. Students from all over the world coming to me to help them with their stuff. Oh, that's really cool. How how's your experience been in… in Busan so far? It's… it's… it's interesting for the foreign community. If they… if they live in Busan, they tend to live in Busan for their duration in Korea. For the Seoul expats, they tend to stay in Seoul for the duration of their times. But everyone I've talked to who lives in Busan say that they absolutely love it there. You've enjoyed, you've enjoyed your work there? Yeah, very much. I mean, I lived in Tokyo, so I think I'm, I think I'm done with the Big city experience. I don't think I want to live in Seoul. Plus again, when I feel like it, I go down to the beach, hang out, go paddle boarding, whatever, then come home and work on the computer. So it's nice. Perfect. I left 5 minutes from the beach. Perfect. Uhm, let's talk about the TEDx talk or that that you that you did recently. I watched it. I think you did a great job. I think it was a very interesting topic. You talked about the importance of writing as we've already talked about a little bit today. How did the… did the TEDx talk happen? They contacted you, obviously. Yeah, actually I'm friends with the organizer. And she's been wanting me to come for years, but there was never a theme that I would fit into. But this year, this year's theme was Empowered, and being able to write is a very empowering thing, so it actually fits nicely this year. Well, I watched it, but I'll let you share. What… what were some of the things that you talked about in your in your speech? So, one thing I… some of these we already mentioned, like the difference between writing and speaking. But how writing you have, it's just you and the text, and then it's just the reader and the text. Whereas speaking, you have your hands, you have your face. You can go back and forth. And it's like, express different ideas until you reach an understanding. But writing is only the text, and if the reader can't understand you, can't understand what you're saying, you didn't say anything. So it's very important to know how to write well and I gave some tips. For example, the 3C's. Be clear, be concise, be correct. Right? Make sure you're doing all these things when you're writing. Hold on, I gotta write that down. Three Cs. Use this for myself. Yeah, every anything you write, emails, essays, anything. It's all about being clear. Writing less is actually better than writing more. A lot of people misunderstand that they think more words is more impressive. It's not. It's just more confusing. And just make sure you're writing correct things. Don't confuse your reader. Make sure you know who your reader is so they can get to your message and all that, yeah. Uhm, again, to use my dad as an example, he always liked cars that had windows that you had to roll up instead of power things. Old school. Old school stuff and I… I said, “Why do you? Why do you prefer that?” He said, “The more things you have in a car, the more things can go wrong.” Absolutely. And I think, I think that's a good, uh, a good way to think about writing as well. Just because you're using more words, doesn't necessarily mean those words are effective. And I remember Doctor Terry Whalen, one of my professors in university, he would make us, after we finished an essay, he would say, “Go back and take out every single word that is not absolutely necessary, to the point that you're taking and just strip them all away and then you get a very clear, very concise piece of writing.” That's what you're talking about, yeah? I… I… I tell my students like when I teach writing classes, I tell them when you're whenever you have your first draft, first step, cut out 5% of the word count. If you're good enough, make it 10%, but start with 5%. Right away. Just get rid of words you don't need and then see how much clearer and more effective your writing is already before you do any other changes. Your students must hate that, though, because you're you probably give them a word count, right? Like, OK, I need a I need a 800-word essay or something, and everybody is trying to. Yeah, exactly like thanks, Professor Benn. How's the response been from your students when you give them these types of lessons? Do you get that feedback that you so much enjoy? Uh, I do. I… I love the feedback. A lot of them tell me how much it's helping them, and that's, again, that's why we're here at the end of the day - to help them get to where they need to get. And again, it's that “ah ha” moment where something clicks and they can go to that next step and get even better and… When I hear students who like got into university or graduated university and they say, “Thanks. You helped me a lot,” I… but that's huge for me. Yeah, that… It's really rewarding, I guess, right. Yeah, very much. I'll see you too, right? Oh, absolutely. No doubt. No doubt about it. The point that you made about being clear and concise and… and comparing that to speaking is something that I never really thought about before. When we talk, you… as you mentioned, we have our facial expressions, we have our hands. As I'm using my hands now, there are all of these, um, hidden messages, if you will, that that I'm conveying to you just… just from using my voice tone or my facial expressions or my hand gestures my body language. So, you can easily understand perhaps what the… the main point of what I'm trying to say, but in writing you don't have any of that extra help, and that's why you say it's so important to be clear and concise, right? Absolutely 'cause it's not even… it's not even your physical self. Like how you say a particular word. Where you put the stress in a sentence changes the meaning of the sentence, and your listener generally will get that. But you don't have these points. Like, yeah, there are tricks to writing to convey anger or to convey humor, but it's a little bit more nuanced, whereas in speaking, it's very obvious. If you're angry, you're going to say something angrily. If you're happy, you'll say it happily sort of thing, so… It's very different. I am the king of misunderstanding text message, text message tones and that's exactly, but that's exactly what you're talking about, right? But text is so short, that text messages, so short there's no room for tone. Right, really interesting. So, the TEDx talk - Did you.. Did you enjoy the experience? I've… I've done one of those as well. I did one here in Seoul. And I… I was… I mean, I've worked in media for years and years and years, but I was, I was very nervous in… in the lead up to that. How did you feel about it? I… I was so scared. Like after I have finished, like after I got off the stage… Uh, huh. I said I was… I said to my friend, I'm the most relaxed person in Spain right now. It was over. Right. But until then, like even a few days up that moment, it really, really nervous and sweaty and shaking and you could hear it in my voice. My mouth was so dry from being nervous, I didn't even know how the words came out. But I was prepared. That's the key. Uhm, I almost said no when they asked me to do it because it's not something that was outside of my comfort zone. And I also didn't know that you don't have cue cards. You're not allowed to have cue cards. Exactly as member. You don't have a podium. You don't have a microphone to hold onto. I thought, oh, at least if I can have that as a security blanket. But they said no, no, no, you've just got the mic on your cheek and the rest is up to you. You gotta memorize it. If you have any slides, that's it, yeah. Oh my goodness. But you… you… you enjoyed it overall? You're happy that you did it? The experience, I'm happy I did it. You're talking about comfort zone. Completely out of my comfort zone. I'm like, I'm, uh, at the end of the day, I'm a pretty shy person. I have no problem with a camera. I have a huge problem with a live audience. It's totally different. So, but I'm glad I did it. Like I… I tend to… the more something scares me, the more I'm likely to actually do it. Oh really? That's why I'm a little strange that way. Oh, that's good. I mean, it's better for your future. Well, speaking about writing in general, has it changed or has it changed I… I mean the way that we, right? Has that, has that developed or or… or… or… or gone in a different direction over maybe the last 10 or 15 years, academically or otherwise? Or does it always kind of stay similar? I think writing at its base stays similar, but there are changes. Like if you read newspapers today and you read them before, everything is much tighter now. I think also social media like captions and tweeting and all that. People got used to reading short. And young people today, their attention span is much shorter than it used to be. So people have to be more direct, more concise with their whatever they're writing. And I think even novels have taken that on a little bit because you don't see as much flowery language. You don't see as much, you know, expansion like if you read Gabriel Garcia, Marquez, whatever. That guy goes on and on and on with adjectives but I'm not sure how popular he would be with a younger generation now. Do you know what I mean? The story is amazing. The writing is amazing. But I don't know if they have the attention span for that these days, so… Yeah, I mean, you make a good point. Because even when you watch YouTube videos, for example. Yeah. Some, some, some of them have to be extremely short because people just don't have the attention span, nor the wants, nor the desire. I guess what it is these days in our culture, our society is that it's gotta be immediate. We want things immediately. One of my favorite comedians, Ronny Chang, talks about, you know, in American culture, just like we want it now. Like Amazon… Amazon now, like, deliver it to me before I want it, so you can see inside my brain. Use AI to guess what I want. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's interesting. So that's had an effect on… on writing on writing as well. I think so a little bit, but again, at the end of the day you still have to be clear, so. This is… but I think if you were coming back to earlier question you asked me like, am I surprised by my channel doing well? I am a little bit because my videos are not that short and it is writing and again, but people don't want to do it, they need to do it. I think that's the big thing. How would you tell your students, because it's when we talk about being clear and concise in our language and in our writing, there is a line though where you still want to be perhaps descriptive or you still want to be eloquent, eloquent in your in your in your writing, so where… where do students, how are… how are the students supposed to know where that line is of of kind of going too far in the opposite direction and overcompensating and not being descriptive enough. Yeah, I think first of all, it starts with who's your target audience and what's the context? Ok. If you're in business and you're writing an e-mail, the shorter, the absolute shortest, the better. 'cause people don't have time that like, if you're lucky, if they even open your e-mail. If you're writing an essay… again if you have to fill up 4 pages and but you can actually answer the question in two, then yeah, obviously you cannot expand and give a bit more, but…. If you're getting into creative writing, then there's no limits. Do whatever you feel will make the reader interested, right? So it's all about context, I think. Yeah, and I… I think knowing your audience is a… is an excellent point as well. Because, you know, if you're talking to a group of people who perhaps are not familiar with certain technical vocabulary, then it's better to not use that technical vocabulary if you can, because you're going to be, the expression is to talk over someone's head, right? And in writing people do… people don't like that in speaking and they definitely, definitely do not enjoy it in writing because your audience is immediately lost, right? Exactly, like I always say, one of the first things I say, “Avoid jargon.” If you're in a specific field and… your make sure you know who you're writing to. So sometimes I help people apply for, let's say, medical residencies. They want to go do a medical residency in the States. And they need help with their personal statement, statements of purpose, etc. And some of them get very detailed into the things that they actually do, like the medical procedures. Right. And I tell them just understand that yes, medical people will be reading it, but also some non-medical people. Don't lose them, right? Be very general 'cause the medical people will understand you, but you'll also keep the non-medical people interested, right? It's the same idea. Yep, that's a great point. And… and you said it extremely well, you're going to lose them. And then it you start to use words that they don't know, your audience is gone, right? Yeah, and they're and they're scanning too. If they scan it, I can't get this. That's it. They have no problem putting you in the rejection file right away. It reminds me of… I've interviewed a lot of musicians over the years, and I always find that with jazz musicians they use a lot of you know, when they talk about like inspirations for their career, there's always a list of names that I have no idea what they're talking about. But those names always come out, right? Yeah, the references. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Even if… like for students who are watching like sitcoms to learn English, I know that a lot of the jokes or a lot of the big points made, have to do with references, and it's so if you don't understand what's going on, don't worry, because it's not about English. Yeah, right. It's about the cultural references. If you don't know them, you don't know them, so… Yeah, that's true. That's an excellent point. Well, very good. Well, we'll… we'll wrap it up here shortly, but once again, congratulations on. I mean, a lot of different things, really, right? You're, you're, you're EngVid videos are extremely popular. You're continuing to work there, so you can go and find Adam at engvid.com Are those… those videos are not just at the website, but they're also on YouTube as well. Is that correct? They're on, yeah, if you go 'EngVid Adam,' you'll find my videos. Very good. You can also find Adams homepage or his home channel Write to the Top and that's W-R-I-T-E To the Top. A really popular channel there. You can watch Adam's TEDx talk on his channel, as I did before saying hello today. Your books are available on… tell us… tell us where we can find your books? On Amazon and is there another location? Uh, writetotop.com no 'the' in the website address, yeah? OK, writetotop.com no 'the' as you mentioned, right? You can find Adam's books there as well. Well, very good, sir. You are an extremely busy man with all of the content that you are constantly creating. So once again, congratulations. Right. Yeah. It was a real pleasure to… to chat with you and… You as well. Best or luck. And if you ever make it up to Seoul, then give us a call and we'll get a cup of coffee or something. Absolutely. Thank you. Adam Benn, thank you. Thank you for joining us once again on Speak English Fluently. I've been your host, Steve Hatherly, and if you're interested in my own channel then you can find me. Search story time Steve Hatherly and you can find me there. Hope you come back for the next video. And Adam, thank you, sir. Have a good one. Thank you. You too.
A2 writing engvid grammar write adam busan engVid Adam Benn from Write to the Top Interview | Speak English Fluently with Steve Hatherly 13 0 Summer posted on 2022/09/24 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary