Lesson Transcript

Intro

Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be hosting today's lesson with my co-host, the founder of Innovative Language... Peter Galante!
Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here.
Becky: Listeners, you’ve set your goal, you’ve set your routines, but how do you stay motivated?
Peter: Today you’ll learn how to stay motivated within your learning routine with 3 simple secrets.
Body
Becky: In last month's Inner Circle, we spoke about adjusting daily routines so you don’t fail at your goals.
Peter: In other words... making sure your routines match your goals and getting rid of habits like checking your phone before your study sessions.
Becky: But once you’ve got your goal and routines set, and after you put in some some study time...
Peter: ...You’ll notice that STILL, consistently sitting down and studying is hard to do.
Becky: It is, isn’t it? We all know what we should be doing.
Peter: I should be studying more Italian...
Becky: Ah, so how did your February goal for Italian go?
Peter: Well... If your goal is not going well, let’s just say you’re going to HATE me.
Becky: Hate is a pretty strong word...
Peter: Or, it could go the other way...This might just be the thing you need to hear.
Becky: Okay...first, what exactly happened to your goal?
Peter: Okay Becky ready? My goal, I smashed it! I mean I doubled my goal of 5 minutes, and now I’m at 10 minutes.
Becky: Smashed it? Really? What happened?
Peter: 3 keys to success: #1 Talented Tutor #2 A Little Bit of Cheating and #3 Technological Tricks.
Becky: #1 Talented Tutor #2 A Bit Cheating #3 Technological Tricks….Can you walk us through these?
Peter: Finding the right Tutor for you is critical. In fact, from a motivational perspective this could be the most important thing you do.
Becky: So what makes a good tutor?
Peter: That’s a great question Becky, it’s probably a very personal thing, but I can share what I absolute love about my tutor.
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Becky: That would be great.
Peter: Okay,one, and every great tutor I met does this: they always answer you in their native language, even if you speak English first.
Becky: So if you say something in English, they’ll repeat it back to you in Italian.
Peter: Exactly. This keeps at least part of the conversation in the target language, and most importantly, builds confidence.
Becky: Okay, what else do you like about your tutor?
Peter: She can take a joke, and she understands my, mmm creativity?
Becky: Understands my creativity? what are you talking about?
Peter: Well, when we role play, the stories that I create can get,umm lets just say a little bit off the beaten path. And my tutor will go with them, rather than trying to confine me within a standard scenario.
Becky: She seems like a great match for you.
Peter: She really is. But my absolute favorite thing is that, if I make a mistake in Italian she will parrot back the incorrect sentence in correct Italian. Now, this is a sign of a great tutor.
Becky: I’ve taught before, and yeah, these are all essential skills for teachers and tutors, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t actually use these techniques.
Peter: Exactly and this tutor actually goes a bit above and beyond. Not only does she correct my Italian and parrot it back, she’ll also type out a version of what I said into the Skype Chat Window.
Becky: Wow, that is impressive.
Peter: Becky, because of my tutor, I’m having so much fun with Italian. So much fun in fact that I doubled my weekly time with her from 1 hour to 2 hours!
Becky: 2 hours. That’s a huge leap! Are you sure that’s not too much?
Peter: Well, I’m not quite sure yet...but I have 2 things going for me.
Becky: Is it the cheating?
Peter: Becky, You know me too well.
Becky: I thought so.
Peter: In fact both of these things are related to the cheating.
Becky: Alright, what’s first!
Peter: Okay, the additional hour is broken into 2 30-minute lessons.
Becky: Shorter is definitely better when starting.
Peter: And when cheating. (smile) The initial conversation of each lesson is essential the same, right?
Becky: Sneaky...How are you?
Peter: How’s the weather?
Becky: And you probably talk about what you both have been doing...
Peter: Exactly. And as we do the same thing week in and week out...
Becky: You get better at talking about it.
Peter: So each lesson starts with conversation that centers around basic greetings and formalities, and then we’re talking about a topic I know and I’ve already discussed in the previous lesson…
Becky: You get better and better each time...
Peter: And that brings me to a few minutes at Italian each lesson. And each conversation tends to go longer...
Becky: and longer... Well, I don’t know if I’d call that cheating...
Peter: Then I will take it Becky! Because, I was a little worried you were going to consider that cheating.
Becky: I’ll pass you this time.
Peter: But it does help me reach my goal.
Becky: Okay, so you have your super tutor. You have your first few minutes on auto-pilot...tell me about the technological tricks.
Peter: Okay, as I said before, the lessons are done over Skype.
Becky: Okay.
Peter: And in the browser window, I have google translate open.
Becky: Does it work well?
Peter: It works well enough. My tutor can usually get the gist of something I want to say.
Becky: And she then parrots back the correct version. Writes it into Skype.
Peter: I read and repeat what she wrote.
Becky: The conversation stays in Italian. Even if it is broken Italian.
Peter: Very very true. And here’s the best part Becky, at the end of the lesson I have the digital notes for the lesson.
Becky: Sounds like you have a great thing going.
Peter: Becky, I know I’m on a bit of a “honeymoon” period with the language, but right now, I’m really enjoying it!
Becky: I like that. A honeymoon period. It’s kind of like you found a great trainer at the gym, and are starting to seem some results.
Peter: Don’t know about that Becky. I don’t go to the gym. Lets not make this about you.
Becky: OK, it’s like you got married to Italian! And you’re on a honeymoon period.
Peter: Okay...but the point of it is that, the right tutor is so important.
Becky: You know, I wanted to ask, how did you find the right tutor? Are you just lucky?
Peter: Actually, Becky, not that lucky at all. It’s a great question because it does take a bit of time to find the right tutor. But it is worth it, in the end.
Becky: How many tutors before you found this one?
Peter: I interviewed two others and hired one before finding this one.
Becky: I see.Now you said to look for: #1 they repeat back in their native language even if you speak in English.
Peter: This is a must.
Becky: What do you ask about from there?
Peter: I pay attention to how much time the tutor prepped for the lesson. What kind of study material did they prep, etc.?
Becky: And for you, the most important thing is….if they parrot back incorrect sentence or phrases in correct sentences or phrases.
Peter: This is a sign of an amazing tutor. It’s a very rare skill and if a tutor does this, you found a keeper.
Becky: Yes, great tutors really can make a difference.
Peter: And in my case, it helped me double my tutor time.
Becky: Which means you have to study more in preparation, right?
Peter: Exactly. But I’m having fun on my honeymoon.
Becky: Okay to recap...finding a Talented Tutor can make a massive difference!
Peter: A Bit Cheating...the more you speak about yourself and what you’re into, the easier it becomes.
Becky: And finally, use Technological Tricks to make your life easier. Use Google Translate to stay focused inside your target language. If you’re wrong, your tutor will correct you.
Peter: Becky I have one more story that you may or may not want to hear it.
Becky: Go for it, shoot.
Peter: And this has to do with why I absolutely adore my tutor.
Becky: Ok.
Peter: So, as I mentioned, another technological trick that I kinda stumbled upon was... Google maps. My tutor told me her hometown, where she lived. From there, I was able to Google Map around her town. So, what I did was, I took a bunch of screenshots of various places around her town, and then I skyped over all the links so that she could see my screenshots.
Becky: Interesting!
Peter: Not a bit stalkerish?
Becky: I mean I’ve never heard of this. I know you’re creative and you already mentioned that, but, I’m sure she appreciated it and... could’ve bonded you ... could’ve been part of that bond that you and her have with each other.
Peter: It was either a bond or legal action but...
Becky: I mean has she mentioned she’s gonna take legal action?
Peter: No, so it worked out really well. And this is what I meant by appreciating the creativity. Our next 2 lessons focused around not a coffee shop or a not a supermarket but actually the names of the restaurants and coffee shops and supermarkets near her house. so, it was so interesting it added a much more personal element to the conversation and the conversation wound up going much better than using the standard pictures from a textbook from the eighties.
Becky: Yeah, I could see how you’d be much more motivated, after that. If you can find a common... something in common between you and your tutor and really get into that conversation it inspires both of you.
Peter: So while you may not want to ask for your tutors home address, you can ask for the hometown and find things around there!
Becky: Yeah, that’s a great tip!
Peter: So these 3 things kept me really motivated this past month.
Becky: Listeners, put these to use,and also let us know... do you have any tips or secrets to staying motivated?
Peter: Let us know in the comments or send us an email at inner.circle@innovativelanguage.com

Outro

Becky: Okay, well that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson!
Peter: Bye everyone!
Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.

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