The Rachel’s English Podcast

REP001 – Who is Rachel?

Rachel:
You're listening to the Rachel’s English podcast, made especially for non-native speakers, where
we study the way Americans really speak. My goal is for you to listen to this podcast every week
and sound more natural when speaking English, and improve your listening comprehension.
Today’s episode will be a little different. This is the first ever Rachel’s English podcast. In this
first episode, my husband David is going to interview me so that you can learn a little bit about,
who is Rachel and what is Rachel’s English? We're getting pretty conversational here. So, if you
have a hard time keeping up with the conversation or understanding all the words, you will be
able to download a free transcript of this podcast. Just visit Rachelsenglish.com/podcast. Let's
get started.

David:
Okay. So, why are you starting a podcast?



Rachel:
Well, I've never been a huge podcast listener, and recently some friends started podcasts, and
as I started listening to them to see what they were about, I realized, this is a really fun format.
It's a really fun way to talk about things. I feel like in my YouTube videos, there, it's sort of a
formal feel. You know, I'm teaching something. Let's be serious and teach. And the podcast
feels like it has room to be a lot more conversational, and that sounds really fun to me. And,
and after all, the people who are following Rachel’s English want to know a lot about
conversational English. And so, since I'm going to have a transcript available for each podcast, I
feel like we can really speak at a normal conversational pace. And for people who are having a
hard time catching all the words, they'll have that as an option, that transcript to go back and
look it up. So, I guess it's that. It just feels like a really fun way, a new way, to talk about these
topics.

David:
Cool. So, uh, I wanted to know more about why do you think it's going to be fun? What about
pod—what about a podcast is going to be fun?

Rachel:
Well, it took me a while to decide what my different episodes were going to be like, and I don't
know if you know this, but I settled on the idea on that, actually you were going to be in almost
every podcast.

David:
Oh, interesting. That sounds great.

Rachel:
Well, because it's a lot more fun to have two people involved, because, hence, the conversation
happens. It's hard to have a conversation by yourself, and that's just another way to make it a
little different from my videos, which are generally just me teaching something. Here, it's you
and I discussing something, and I'm for—let's just go ahead and say it. I'm the expert here.
You're, you're not.

David:
No.

Rachel:
But, so, that's interesting. You can add a different perspective to what I'm saying. You may stop
me and ask me questions that I didn't think about. Um, and I, I just think that because you, my
husband, will be in on these podcasts, that, you know, potentially, it will just be a more friendly,
open kind of conversation. Maybe little anecdotes from our lives will come up. And I'm looking
forward to sharing that kind of thing more.



David:
Yeah. Cool. Yeah, and I think, um, you definitely are the expert, but one of the things that's
been interesting over the years that we've been together is, I've become an expert in how
much I'm not an expert. I mean, it's been really fun to sort of learn from you about all the
intricacies and, and nuances of language that I had no idea about. And even as a native speaker,
I, you know, I see the English language and hear the English language in a really different way.
Uh, so it’ll be fun to talk with people a little bit about that along the way, too.

Rachel:
Yeah, definitely.

David:
All right. So, let's get into some of this. Um, and I know that this is a question that, um, for you,
you get asked often whether we're at a party or you're meeting someone for the first time, and
because you don’t have a quick and tidy answer, it's been sort of annoying almost at times, but
here you go, um, in the moment, on the podcast. So, what do you do?

Rachel:
I do hate this question. It's such an American thing to ask it right off the bat. But I have a couple
different things I've been trying out lately. Sometimes, I just say, I make YouTube videos. And
then, people have no idea what to say in response to that, because I can tell they want to say,
no, I meant, what do you do for work? They, they're just not quite sure what I mean if I'm
saying, I make YouTube videos for work. Um, lately, I've also been saying, I run an online school.
I think that makes more sense. It's more direct, and it's only been the past six months that I've
been able to say that, because I just launched six months ago. So, that's what I would say. I run
an online school where I teach English as a second language to intermediate to advanced
language learners.

David:
Yeah. I think that sounds good.

Rachel:
Yeah.

David:
It's got a nice ring to it.

Rachel:
So, that's what I do.

David:
Okay. And then, I want to hear you describe for everybody a little bit about how did Rachel’s
English come into existence? Give us a little bit of the story. I mean, how—you know, where did
this thing come from?

Rachel:
Yeah. Well, it started back in 2008, and YouTube, I think, started in 2006. Might have been
2005, but at any rate, it hadn’t been around that long. I was living in Europe, and I was studying
German at the Goethe-Institut in Göttingen. And, uh, as a part of that, I was hanging out with a
bunch of people from all over the world. You know, I, when I thought, when I was thinking
about going to Germany to study German, I thought I would be speaking German all the time
with German people. I thought I'd be hanging out with Germans. But really, I was in school a lot
of the day. And so, I was not hanging out with Germans. I was hanging out with other people
studying German.

And one guy in particular, a guy from Turkey, we ended up having, I think, six months of class
together in a row. And uh, so, we became pretty good friends, and he was interested in
American English and movies, American movies, and wanting to sound more American. And so,
he was having me coach him a little bit. He'd say a couple things. I would tell him what to
change to make it sound better, and I remember describing the ah vowel to him. He was not
making it. And so, I said, well, you're missing a vowel. Let me show you what it's like. And I was
describing what the tongue should look like, and then he said, you're really good at that. And I
thought, oh. Hmm. Well. Maybe I'll start making YouTube videos about it.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
I mean, I had never posted a YouTube video before. You know, I think some people post
random videos and then they kind of end up figuring out what they want to do, and they start
sharpening that skill. But, I had the idea right from the beginning that I was going to be teaching
on YouTube.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
So, I posted my first video, and I posted off and on, not super consistently, for like a year. And
then I started getting more consistent. And I think I would have to go back and look at my stats,
but I would say it took like two years before even a handful of people were watching the
videos.

David:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds about right. And, but I think, um, another thing that's
interesting is that you were a student at the time that you decided to teach, and I think, uh, I
think you've said to me before that you were in Germany trying to learn German, and you knew
at points that you didn't quite sound like a native German speaker, and you sort of had a desire
for something—for something to exist to help you sound more like a native German speaker.
Like, that would have been nice.

Rachel:
That would have definitely been nice. Um, I remember one class where they taught us a few
tricks about, Germans don’t actually pronounce this, this way. They pronounce it this way. So, I
had one class where I learned how it, the language was really being used by actual Germans in
actual conversation. But, um, only one out of like six months of class. And I think Americans
tend to play with language a lot, a lot, a lot. Maybe other languages do as well. I don't know
other languages as well, obviously, but I do think that, you know, the way we use idioms and
slangs and reductions, that there's just so much to try to understand outside of what you might
learn in school about the English language.

David:
Yeah.

Rachel:
And the more I started teaching it, the more I found there was so much to teach. But you're
right. You know, I was living abroad. I was trying to fit in and get really good in a language at the
same time that I had the idea to start making this resource for people studying English. And the
reason why I was in Germany is because I was studying opera, and I was singing opera. So, I was
singing in foreign languages, and it was really important that I sounded native when I was
singing. And so, I was really wishing to find resources that focused more on pronunciation of
those languages. Most people, when they're studying a language, they're studying grammar
and this kind of thing. And for me, my priority was pronunciation. But it's hard to find resources
that prioritize pronunciation.

David:
Yeah. Yeah. I want to ask you some more about opera in a second, but I think, um, yeah. The
way you described it is part of what I've always thought about, is that your grounding as a
teacher comes out of being a student. And I think it helps, you know, it helps you relate to your
students. You know the experience of, um, trying to exist and live in a culture that's not your
first, in a language that's not your first. Um, I think that's, you know, that's unique. You've had a
couple of, uh, experiences living abroad. And I think that that comes into the way that you
teach.

Rachel:
Yeah. I think you're right. I mean, because when you're living somewhere, you just, you need
language in a totally different way than when you're studying it.

David:
Yeah. Okay, so, you mentioned opera, and I think that's something that, um, that, uh, I want to
hear a little bit more about. And, and sort of walk us through how you, uh, you know, how you
ended up pursuing a Master’s in opera performance. And then, also, how, you know, sort of
like, help people follow your career along and how it led to, to becoming a teacher.

Rachel:
Sure. Well, it's a good question. How did I end up going to opera school? I would be really
interested in someone asking my parents that and seeing what they say. Um, I was not—it
wasn't clear that that's what I would do in college. I studied lots of different things. I went to a
liberal arts college, which is awesome, because you can study lots of different things. So, I
started out in taking biology and chemistry. Wait. I think that's a lie. I did not take biology.
Loved chemistry and physics and math. I actually, when I was 18 in high school, looking at
colleges, I was looking to be a physics major. Loved physics in high school. I won this statewide
competition with a group. We were like the physics all-stars. And then I also won a schoolwide
competition where we had to build a car out of specific materials. My car won out of like, I
don't know, 50 cars. That's felt pretty cool.

David:
Wait, what?

Rachel:
Yeah. It was like, ah. I'm, I'm, I'm kind of good at this.

David:
Wait. What do you mean, you built a car?

Rachel:
Well, you were given a sheet that was like, you can use rubber, four rubber bands. You know, I
don't know.

David:
Oh.

Rachel:
It was like random materials that you might find in your house. And then, you built a car.
Whatever car design you could come up with, with those materials.

David:
Wow.

Rachel:
And then we raced them against each other. And I remember, I had these amazing rubber
bands, and they were better than just like, your around-the-house rubber bands, but the
materials sheet didn't say anything about what kind of rubber band. So, we used these
maximum strength boss-level rubber bands.

David:
Awesome.

Rachel:
And I remember someone saying to me, you only won because of those rubber bands. And I
was like, boom. I picked the best materials. Like, why does that matter?

David:
Right.

Rachel:
I mean, materials and design. Those are both important. I did win because I chose the best
rubber bands. Good for me.

David:
That's right.

Rachel:
Um, but yeah. Okay, so, that's—I'm getting sidetracked. I loved physics and math growing up.
And so, I thought that's what I wanted to do. I got to college, and I immediately was enrolled in
a 300-level physics class my first year because I had tested out of the general physics. And I was
like, whoa. What is this? It was so theoretical. I couldn't stand it. I'm not a theory person at all.
So, then I was like, what do I want to do? I started dabbling. And then, I kind of landed on math,
which wasn't a surprise, because I had always loved it. And as part of that math major, I had to
take a computer science class, and this was a long time ago. Computer science was barely a
thing. Okay, that's not totally true, but it was not what it is today.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
And, uh, I had, I hadn’t even owned a computer up to this point.

David:
Wait. Okay, so, what year was this?

Rachel:
I'm not saying. I'm not going to age myself on my podcast.

David:
2013. Okay, right.



Rachel:
The point is, I went to college and I had never had a computer before. That was normal. Of
course, I've worked on them before, like in the school computer lab and this kind of thing. But it
wasn't the ubiquitous thing that it is now.

David:
Right.

Rachel:
So, I was intimidated by this class. Took it, loved it. Realized that the way that you write a
computer program and the kind of logic and sequential stuff you have to do for that is exactly
what my mind does. That's how I think and deal with the world. So, I fell in love with it.
Immediately switched my major to computer science. It was programming focused, and life got
really good after that. It's so nice when you find what you want to study. So, how does that
relate to music? Well, all, all the while, I was taking some music coursework as well. I had taken
voice lessons when I was 17 and 18. I don’t really know why. I just decided that I was, I liked to
sing, so I might as well figure out how to be good at it. So, my dad got me some voice lessons
with this woman in his choir. My cousin, who was going to the same college at the same time
was applying for a music scholarship and said, you should apply, too. I said, well, what do I have
to do? She said, just record one of your, just make a video at one of your lessons.

So, I did. I sent in the videotape, and I was given a little scholarship. So, in order to keep that
scholarship, I had to be a music minor. I had no intention of being a music minor, but I wanted
to make it look like it for a couple years so I could keep that little scholarship. So, I took music
theory and I was like, whoa. Hello. This is actually very mathematical. This is actually very
pattern-oriented. I really liked music theory. And at that point, I just had enough awesome
professors that I started to get more and more into music. So, I think it was the summer before
my senior year. I was a applied math and computer science double major and a music minor.
And I said to my dad, you know, I think I want to add music as a major as well, because I just felt
like there was a lot there to understand that I didn't understand, and I wanted to. And I
remember he said, well, why? And I said, because it's interesting. Like, when else am I going to
have the chance to learn this? Never.

And so, he just kind of shook his head and said, okay. So, I added the third major, and when
graduation happened, it was time to figure out what was next. I remember thinking, if I don’t
study more music now, I'm never going to. I was not expecting to be a career musician. I was
expecting more likely to be a career computer programmer. You're not going to stop your
career in computer programming to go get a music degree. And so, I felt like, if there's more I
want to learn here and more I want to pursue, now’s the time to do it. I can always become a
computer programmer. But I have to build on this vocal momentum. So, I went to grad school,
not intending to be an opera singer. But I ended up going to a conservatory, and in that kind of
atmosphere, it's just, you know, you're constantly hearing the phrase, when you're singing
professionally, when you're out auditioning, and all of this, and I just sort of—I don't know. I
just sort of started taking that on in my head as what I was going to do, and I started doing it.

David:
Wait. You went—what do you mean? You went to the conservatory just thinking you were
going to study music theory and not performance?

Rachel:
No. I knew I was going to study performance and all of the repertoire and all of that. But I went
not intending to try to do it professionally. I went intending to know more, learn more, and
then get on with the rest of my life.

David:
Okay. That fits your personality. I didn't know that. I, I assumed that you had some notion of,
uh, I'll perform for a while at the beginning.

Rachel:
No, I really didn't. I really didn't. And actually, one of my best friends, Laura, who I went to
college with, I would check in with her periodically in like the 10 years post-college and be like,
you know what? I'm still doing this opera singing thing, and I never even really intended to.
Like, how did I get here? It's just like kind of once I started down the path, I, I don't know. I
never quite knew when to stop, really.

David:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rachel:
And so, yeah. I ended up going to grad school, getting a scholarship to study German in
Germany. Sang really a lot for several years.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
Um, like, really kept pursuing it. Moved to New York to do that.

David:
Yeah, and then, you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I, uh, I think it would be interesting to
hear you talk more about, how has the experience of being trained to sing in other languages
affected the way that you've been teaching all these years?

Rachel:
Yeah. I really got sidetracked there talking about myself, didn't I? I'm going to bring it back to
the main point. I guess I think that it's, um, a mix of that really structured way of thinking, which
I developed studying math and computer science, along with the body experience of singing
and the voice that I developed during my Master’s degree. It's those two things coming
together, I think, that have formed the foundation of Rachel’s English, of what I'm doing now.

David:
But when you say body experience, say more about that.

Rachel:
Yeah. Um, well, so, when you're singing, you're, you, I had a vocal coach and a vocal teacher.
Met with each of them once a week. So, your vocal teacher works with you on your, um, your
technique. And your vocal coach will work with you on things like your language skills, your
interpretation, this kind of thing. So, I spent one hour a week with a pretty intimidating opera
singer teacher, making all of these little adjustments to how I was breathing, how I was
standing, how I was thinking about the voice, where my voice was resonating, which is
placement. Um, and the other thing that's—you know, I was working on this with her, but the
way you work with somebody on that is really non-linear and is not black and white. And it
relies a lot on imagery and on thinking things in order to make them happen. Um, and so,
through all of that, you know, you really have to just experience your body and experience the
voice in your body and try to tweak this and tweak that, and go for this sound and this kind of
thing. And so—

David:
Wouldn't, wouldn't you also say that you learned a lot about how, what's happening in your
body in terms of placement comes out just in sound? Like, there's this—I've heard you talk a lot
about, you know, um, hear it and repeat it and imitation and the power of the connection from
your, your ear to your brain.

Rachel:
Mm-hmm.

David:
So, weren't—you were learning a lot about the bodily experience of sound. Like, I don't know.
Something about the fact that you can talk about placement and bodily experience sensations
as well as strictly auditory. Like, it's all wrapped up in one thing for you, and you got—you, you
improved your instrument. I've learned from you to say your instrument. You, you, you fine-
tuned your instrument via your, your listening.

Rachel:
Yeah. And I developed all of this just by doing, and not by studying how to do it. I might read a
book that gives me a tip or hear something from my teacher that gives me a new idea, but it's
always working with it in the body to see what is working and what's feeling right and getting
feedback from the outside world, my teacher, my fellow students, on what's working. And it's
this constant feedback loop, discovering it within yourself, trying it out, that kind of thing. So,
this is actually something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, because in my online school,
I've been—I just did a live class on placement, and I feel like placement is so hard to teach and
understand, because it does require all of this self-exploration. And I'm still learning as a
teacher how to guide this self-exploration that needs to happen in order to understand
placement as it relates to languages.

David:
I was downstairs during the live class, when you online with your students. And I heard all these
weird noises coming out of the third floor, out of your studio, and I was like, oh. Rachel’s taking
about placement, I guess, because there's some more weird noises happening upstairs.

Rachel:
Yeah, I know. I—one of the ways that I've tried to teach placement is to have people find all
sorts of different places where their voice can vibrate. Like, [high-pitched noise] really high up
in the nose. And so, yeah. I like people to play. Play with different sounds, experiences, that
kind of thing.

David:
Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay, so you've talked about, about opera, and I'm curious. What other things
do you think, life experiences, whatever, what has influenced or shaped, you know, this method
that has evolved? What are the, what are the influences on, on the way you teach?

Rachel:
Well, my personality is a doer. I often don’t sit down and plan a whole lot before I just start
doing something, um, which is why I've had a million sewing projects go awry. But it's like, I
don’t get what I need to know until I've done it. So, a lot of what I do is doing things twice.
Doing it once poorly to understand it, and then doing it once well. This is what I do rather than
researching and learning how to do it well, and trying to do it well the first time. So, I think my
approach to talking about the English language comes so much from my own personal
experience of understanding the English language in my own body, and trying to figure out how
to tell other people about that experience, rather than knowing theory about how to teach
English. I've done essentially no research on that. All of the research that I've done in this has
been studying my own body and then working directly with students and seeing what works for
them.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
Yeah, and I think that both approaches, both my approach of doing and then the approach of
like studying and academia, have value. I'm not trying to write that off.

David:
Yeah, yeah.


Rachel:
I just know that there's a lot of people out there doing that, and, um, that's not my background.
So, why would I try to do that?

David:
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. So, let me, let me shift gears a little bit, and here's
another, uh, standard question from when you're out at a party. So, one of the things, um,
people might get asked are, so, where are you from?

Rachel:
Oh, are we—what are we doing here?

David:
I want you to tell people where you're from.

Rachel:
Oh, okay. We're back in the party. I've just met you.

David:
Yeah.

Rachel:
And what do I say?

David:
Exactly.

Rachel:
Okay. Now, now I'm on the right page. I say, well—yeah.

David:
All right.

Rachel:
So, I'm sorry I didn't understand your question. It was well said. The fault is completely mine.
Um, I'm from Florida. Born and raised in north Florida, and people often do ask this, because,
uh, my students often ask this, because they want to know what kind of accent are they getting
with me? I definitely do my absolute best to teach the standard American accent, which is also
sometimes called newscaster accent, which is also sometimes called the Midwestern accent.

David:
Mm-hmm.


Rachel:
Um, my parents were born and raised in the Midwest, and that's where all my family has come
from for a few generations. So, I believe that's what I speak with, even though I grew up in the
South. Um, yeah.

David:
Okay.

Rachel:
And I've also lived in Boston and New York. So, I, I don’t—and Philly, which is where I currently
live.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
I don’t have the Boston accent, but, um, I had some exposure to it, which was really fun.

David:
Yeah. All right. So, you're from Florida.

Rachel:
I'm from Florida.

David:
You would say?

Rachel:
I mean, I guess it depends. If I was hanging out with somebody in Philly and they knew I lived
here, then I would say, oh, I'm from Florida, because I would think they meant, you know,
where did you originate?

David:
Yeah.

Rachel:
But if I was at a conference or something and someone says, hey, where are you from? Then I
assume they mean, where do I live right now? And then I would say, the City of Brotherly Love.

David:
Hmm. Good point. Yeah. Good point.

Rachel:
Philadelphia.

David:
Good point. All right. So, you've been doing this for almost 10 years, right?

Rachel:
Yeah.

David:
When did you post your first YouTube video?

Rachel:
I posted my first video—

David:
2008?

Rachel:
I think it was October of 2008, and I, but I, you know, I was brainstorming and laying some
foundation before that.

David:
Yeah. So, you've been doing it for 10 years, you could say.

Rachel:
Yeah. Almost 10 years.

David:
So, how come you're still doing it? What keeps you going?

Rachel:
Well, there are a couple things. Number one—I mean, this is exactly what took me to opera
school for—opera for graduate school, is that there's still—I still have stuff to learn here. I think
as long as I feel that, I'm going to be interested in it. I'm pursuing it because I'm still discovering
things.

David:
Well, what's an example?

Rachel:
I mean, I'm still discovering, what's the right thing to say to somebody to help them understand
placement? I'm still discovering, you know, I've been teaching linking vowel to vowel this way
for years, and I just posted to my online school some new lessons, and I got two people asking
questions, and I said, oh, okay. I'm still learning the right way to teach this. Based on the
questions I'm getting, I see where I've not been clear, and I'm making that better. I'm still, I'm
still learning how to be an effective teacher. Um, so, that's why I'm still doing that, I'm still
doing it, because all of that is very interesting to me, understanding how to do something
better. I think if I ever felt like I had come up with the best possible way to teach English, I
would probably feel done. And I'd be looking for the next interesting thing, but the good thing
is, I don’t think I'm ever going to feel that way, because there's so many different language
backgrounds that are learning English. And, you know, the language is constantly changing. I'm
working on some slang videos, and slang is constantly evolving. And, yeah. You'll just, I will
never run out of material.

David:
Right.

Rachel:
And another reason why I'm still doing it is because, let's face it. Being self-employed suits my
personality very well.

David:
Yeah. Well, that leads into my next question, actually, is, you know, you get to be self-employed
and sort create your own schedule and your, you get to constantly be a student of how to
teach. But what, what about the opposite side? What's hard about what you do?

Rachel:
Well, can I first say what I love about it? Then, I'll say what's hard. I love deciding what I'm going
to do each day, which of course, is dictating to commitments I've made like posting one video a
week on YouTube and this kind of thing. But I love, um, I love being self-sufficient, self-guiding
in that way. When I'm not sure if I fully understand something, I love researching it to make
sure that I do. And I just, I love that no one’s looking over my shoulder. I love that I'm not on
the hook to produce something for someone else. It's all for, for me and for my community, and
that's what I love. Okay. What do I hate about it? There are not very many things that I hate
about it, but it is hard living without a salary.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
And of course, I make money, but it's not predictable. And, um, I, yeah. I always have to have
that in the back of my mind. What is the, you know, financial payoff versus time investment of
doing this? Uh, so, that's, you know, that—I don’t love. I don’t love living, living by that. And I
try not to set too much store in money, but I do need to live. I do need to support my family.
So, that's, that's probably the crappiest part about it, is the, the need to make money to live.

David:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And then, um, a little bit ago, we talked about some common
questions that you get at the party. So, I'm going to, I'm going to change one of those questions
to something that I wish people said more when you first met them, because I think the world
would be a more interesting place. So, ready?

Rachel:
Mm-hmm.

David:
This—what we're doing is pretending we're at a party.

Rachel:
Okay.

David:
Okay, ready?

Rachel:
Let me get in that mindset. Okay. I'm at a party.

David:
Take as long as you need. Okay. So, describe a moment from the past week of your professional
life in which you felt passionate.

Rachel:
Wow. Okay. Well, actually, I made a video where I brought my camera to a park with a friend,
and we sat down and I recorded about five minutes of conversation. And I got home, and I
looked at it, and I was just so pleased with how fun it was to make a lesson from that. How,
when you capture any everyday moment, there are interesting vocabulary words that are
happening. There are interesting pronunciations that are happening. And that was, that was
invigorating to me. You know, it's sometimes a struggle to get good quality audio or video when
I'm out and about, and that kind of thing, but the, the content, what's there, is always good. It's
always gold. English is so rich.

David:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. And then, um, I have one more question.

Rachel:
Okay. Am I still at a party?

David:
Uh, no.

Rachel:
Okay.

David:
You can leave the party.

Rachel:
Okay.

David:
Um, the, the question is, and this is not so much teaching method or influences in that sense,
but from what or from whom do you draw inspiration?

Rachel:
Hmm. Well, this is actually pretty easy. I draw inspiration from my students. When they post
videos for me in my, um, Facebook group, which I have for the people who are in my school, my
students, there's a wide range. And I think even that range is inspirational. You have people
who have come up with all of these different ways to teach themselves English to get better on
their own. They hustle for it. They work for it, and it shows. They're getting great. Then, you
have people who are not at that level yet, and they're in some cases, really intimidated by using
their English. Um, but they're still there. They're still doing it.

And I just think about when I hear the stories of my students and the kinds of things they're
doing with English, I think, my God. The, the amount of effort that takes to be able to do that in
a foreign language, and to face all of the prejudices that you may face when you're speaking in
a foreign language, like when you can't cut into a conversation quickly enough to share your
thought. And then, people end up thinking you have nothing to say, which completely isn't true,
but it's a language issue. Um, yeah. Those, my students really inspire me. I mean, wow. Talk
about hard workers. Talk about, um, do anything to reach their goals, following their passions.

David:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. So, thanks, Rach. I, I always love hearing you go back
through your story. That's, um, you know, over the years, I've gotten to hear you talk with a lot
of different people in a lot of different situations about some of these pieces, but I learned
some new stuff today, too. So, I appreciate you, uh, talking to me.

Rachel:
Well, thanks for asking the questions. I kind of think I've shared this story a lot before, and yet,
every time—you're right. Something new gets told. Some new part of it. Um, and to everyone
who’s still listening to this podcast, I want to just do a little quick introduction of David. David’s
my husband. We've been married for like three years?

David:
Mm-hmm.



Rachel:
Something like that. And he is going to be one of the main people doing this podcast. Almost
every episode is going to be Rachel and David talking about the language and seeing what we
can discover together. So, I'm really excited to embark on this new project with you.

David:
Mm-hmm.

Rachel:
Thank you for your willingness to do that, and to be thoughtful about the English language,
even though you probably don’t have to be.

David:
No, you're right. I'm really looking forward to it, too.

Rachel:
Okay, guys. I hope this was interesting for you. Maybe you've learned something new about
me. I hope that you'll stick around. There are going to be new episodes every week on
Wednesday, and we're going to talk about a variety of topics in English conversation, English
pronunciation, and I'm going to be answering a lot of questions from you, the audience. If you
have a question you'd like to submit for the podcast, please send it to
Help@rachelsenglish.com, and put Podcast Question in the subject. And don’t forget, for a free
copy of the transcript, visit Rachelsenglish.com/podcast. To see the show notes and links to
related topics, please visit the podcast section of my website, Rachelsenglish.com. New
podcasts are released every Wednesday. Be sure to go to the iTunes store and subscribe. Also,
please consider leaving a review in the iTunes store. I'd love to hear what you think of the
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