English With Michael



Please note that there are probably a few mistakes in the transcripts. There is a lot of text to look through and its very time consuming. You can use it as a guide to practice your English but not everything is necessarily perfect. If you have any questions you’re welcome to ask me.Michael:00:00Hello and welcome to the English with Michael Podcast, the best place to come to study English as a second language as well as to practice the British accent with me, Michael Lavers as your teacher.Michael:00:21Hello English learners. And welcome back to the English with Michael podcast. Today is interview day, so once a month I am trying my best to do one interview. So that's one interview every four podcasts. And today I've got a very special interview. I'll be talking with Estela from Spain. She is an online Spanish teacher and she's also one of my students as well. So we know each other and we have done for quite some time. English is fantastic and she has a lot of really great things to say, uh, on the topic of English learning and teaching online. Um, she's got some very funny stories as well. I really hope you enjoy our conversation today. I really enjoyed it a lot. So now let's jump into our conversation with Estella. Yeah. So I always never know how to start it, but.New Speaker:01:29You are the owner of the podcast. Michael!Michael:01:35I am here today talking with Estela. How are you?New Speaker:01:40Hello, Michael, I'm fine. I'm fine. A bit sleepy stillMichael:01:44Yeah, it's quite early isn't it? But yeah. Very good to be talking with you today. Yeah. Yeah. So could we start, maybe could you tell me a little bit about where you're from?Estela:01:54Yes. So I am from Alicante, which is, Eh, a medium city in the south east part of Spain. So I live on the Mediterranean coast basically. Um, I was born here and I've been living here all my life basically.Michael:02:14Perfect. And I, as you said before, because you know, we've had some lessons together before. It's maybe there are a lot of British tourists there. Is that right?Estela:02:22A lot, yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of British tourists and well, European tourists in general, but especially British tourists, I guess they are normally English.Michael:02:34Yeah. And I always, I can't help but feel a little bit guilty about that, but well...Estela:02:40But yeah, here in, in, especially in, in all the towns that are on the beach, so there are all the British there. So if you go more to the mountains there, you don't find many tourists.Michael:02:55Okay. That's a good idea. So if I ever come there, I'll try and do that. I'd be the one tourist in the mountains.New Speaker:03:00Yeah, that's perfect.Michael:03:02If I remember correctly, you have been to the UK before, is that right?Estela:03:06Yes. I've been many, many times to London, that's all. So I been there with my parents, my friends, and also my sister was living there for a year, working as an Aupair that job where you take care of our, of our child. And you leave with a family. So during the year, I think I went like three or four times to London, but I've just visited London and then outside the UK I went to Ireland as well.Michael:03:39Okay. I've never been to Ireland actually. But that's really cool. I'm always interested when people come to the UK from another country, like about your experience and especially how it compares to your, you know, your hometown, your home country. So how would you say it compares to Spain generally?Estela:03:57Well, the weather is very different actually. So I'm also from a kind of a small medium city. So for me London is squad big. I'm always like, like an ant lost in a town, but I really like London because it offers you many opportunities to taste food from different parts of the world to visit like many places, museums if you like them. Um, one thing that I don't like it from London is that it's really, really difficult to find. I like a real British person, so there are many people, like many immigrants there, so it's hard to, to, how can I say that to, to talk with, uh, like I'm a real native speaker. Do you know what I mean? Like a real British accent. So, you have like many accidents, which is really nice too to practise your English because when English is spoken around the world, so it's really nice to hear different accents but if you want to find a British accent. It's very difficult because all the people in shops in like restaurants, they are from Spain, from other parts of Europe, from Poland, from, from Pakistan or India, you know, so if you want to find an English speaker from there it's really difficult in my opinion.Michael:05:25That's a really good point. Yes. I so maybe that's a good piece of advice for anyone who's thinking about going to the UK for the first time is London is great. I love London and the diversity is really amazing to see so many different cultures in one place. But on the other hand is maybe quite hard to find someone to practice, you know, a good English conversation with because everyone is from all around the world. So that's an interesting point.Estela:05:51Which is fine because when you speak English, I mean all the people in the world normally speak English so you are going to find always different accents and that's fine - to practice and to listen to different accents. But some people when they traveled to London or when they travel for example to Spain, they are always looking to find native or local people. And I think there in London it is quite difficult. Probably if you go to the outside part of London, you will find more native or more local people there. But in the city centre, all the shops, restaurants and taxis, like Eh, buses, everything that I think they are not from there. It's like immigrants, like many Spanish people there as well.Michael:06:35Yeah, generally that that is true. Yes. So maybe if you do this is to the listeners, if you do come to the UK, maybe travel outside of London and especially in the south of England, which is where I'm from because I think the accents are a little bit more like what you're used to, you know, like received pronunciation. So yeah, that might be a good idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one, one reason I was really, I really wanted to talk with you was because not only are you learning English and your English is very good, but also you teach Spanish online, don't you?Estela:07:11Yeah. I've been teaching Spanish online for around four years. So I started one day I was at home, because, well, I started education at the university and I'm a primary school teacher - this is what I started. Um, because it's really, it's really hard to find a job here in Spain as a primary school teacher because we have to do public exams and everything. I did my master's degree and then one day I was, I remember in my living room thinking like probably again did Spanish online. So now I, started on Google and looking for websites and everything. And finally I, I, I came across some useful websites to teach many languages, not just Spanish so I started, I did my profile there and I started teaching like four years ago. That's it.Michael:08:09Okay. That's great. Yeah, so we actually started online roughly about the same time, so that's interesting. What do you think made you interested in becoming an online teacher initially? Like, was it, was it just something you really wanted to try? Like did you want to help people or, I mean, did you have any kind of hidden motivations to do that?Estela:08:30Yeah. So well the first motivation is eh, was in that time (be)cause I was helping some Erasmus students in my university. So I liked the experience of helping students to learn Spanish in that case. The second reason it was because I was looking for something that I could do at home as well without moving to any place. And I think the third reason is because I'm a teacher so because the other possibility of being a primary school teacher, I'm working in a, in a school was quite difficult at that time I decided to try with the online lessons and that's what I do know.Michael:09:15Okay, perfect. Yeah, I mean that's definitely a great point as well is it's of course it's rewarding to help people and it's a good feeling, especially when the interested in your culture and your language. But yeah, as well as like it does give you that a bit more freedom and yeah, you kind of have the control over when you work and how you work with, which is nice. Yeah, absolutely. So one question I asked you about, well I will ask you about but prepared you for, I wanted to know if your experience teaching helps you learn English at all or maybe the other way around. Like does it kind of connect in some way?Estela:09:55Yes. So I have, because English is the first spoken language around the world and will now Spanish is growing up on, yes. So I have many, many, many beginners students. Some of them they have, like they have started Spanish from scratch. So we need like a language, like a bridge language, a language to communicate and that language is English. So if my student doesn't speak Spanish and doesn't speak English, it's really difficult to communicate. So I have to speak English with those students that normally are, American students, Canadian students, Australian students on students from the UK in general. So I have to use English with them. Obviously it's not a class because they don't correct me, but I have the opportunity to use my English mostly every day. And the other way around. Well the other way around this impossible obviously because it's Spanish - I was thinking that the, I connect with them, with many of them in English, it's a bit tiring actually because obviously it's a Spanish lesson so I should be speaking just in Spanish but teaching online - what I feel as well as that all their nonverbal communication is a bit lost. It's not the same as being in a classroom where you can do many movements and you can move around around the class. So I need to use that a bridge language, which is really fine because I can practise everyday.Michael:11:30Yeah, that's a good point. So that, that is one disadvantage of online lessons is or these kind of like body gestures and even like your subtle facial expressions, they're not so clear, over Skype talk for example. Um, but yeah, I guess in those cases it's useful to, if you can incorporate some pictures or presentations or like that, that might be helpful.Estela:11:54Yeah. This is what I do, obviously I don't speak English forever, so I started speaking English for the, for the first lessons. And then we gradually, we move into Spanish, but it depends also on the students because there are some students that they study a lot. Maybe in five lessons we can just speak Spanish, but some of the others, maybe they, they are not as good in learning languages as other students. So they need more time to finally have like a whole class in Spanish.Michael:12:24Yeah, yeah, of course. Maybe someone like me, I learnt Spanish a few years ago. Then I stopped. But yeah, it took me ages and I was always like, it's always mostly English. We have a little bit of Spanish in between so I can imagine how you feel and I can imagine it's good practice.Estela:12:41Yeah, it's good practice but its tiring as well because honestly I feel more comfortable speaking just Spanish. Obviously it's my native language and although I can speak English quite well in my, my brain gets quite tired because I'm always changing from English to Spanish, from Spanish to English. And when I change my chip, for example, if I'm now speaking in English, if I want to think in Spanish words, I can't. So it's very difficult because sometimes the students ask you, oh Estela, how do you say that word in Spanish? And it's like, I don't know. I have to use a dictionary. And it's very tiring for your brain to change all the time, like between languages.Michael:13:20Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So, so in, in a way your job is, I guess much harder than mine cause you're using two languages all the time.Estela:13:27Yes, it is. But well I like it anyway.Michael:13:30Yeah, it's good. And it's a great motivation for you to work on your English because you actually, it does play a role in your job. Yeah go ahead..Estela:13:41I've learnt many expressions, many vocabulary and many things with my students. The problem is that I was, like used to hear(ing) and listen and speak to British people. Not too many Americans, but now I have many American students. So they get crazy with all the expressions and all the words that then I use with British speakers and normally say: "Estela I think that's American - we don't use that here." And it's like, okay, okay, but well it is really great anyway because when I listen to or I watch films and series, they are normally from, from the US or America in general. So it's, it's nice to understand them as well.Michael:14:24Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. It's good to learn kind of different dialects and stuff like that. Um, yeah. So, so you said you have a lot of students from America? For me, maybe it's different because for me, I think most of my students are from like the big countries. It's like China, Russia, Brazil, those kind of big countries. How so, how about you? Like where do most of your students come from?Estela:14:46Most of my students come from, from the US. So I guess around 70 or the 80% of them are from the US. Then I have eh, many Chinese students as well and Russian as like, like you and the others are, well, I have some students from Canada and the others are normally from, from Europe in general, like the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, you know.Michael:15:17Okay. I see. I see. I'm a bit surprised actually. I fought most of the American students who would want to learn more of like a, you know, Southern American Spanish dialect, you know, Latin America.Estela:15:28Yeah. But many of them came here when they were probably at college or something to study Spanish or I have also some students that come here to do the Camino del Santiago and they have like Spanish friends from here. So they studied these Spanish anyway, you know, I will say the same. Even if you study Latin American Spanish or Spanish from Spain, we can communicate with each other without any problems. It's just some different vocabulary and expressions and accent, obviously.Michael:15:59Yeah. Maybe. Maybe it's a little bit like American and British English. Something similar. Yeah,Estela:16:03it's more or less the same. It's not like Portuguese from Portugal and Portuguese from Brazil or I have some like friends students who say that the French from France and the French from Canada is totally different like Portuguese as well. So they have, sometimes they have problems communicating. It doesn't happen with, it's Spanish. I have friends from Columbia, Paraguay and Argentina and I can communicate with them without, without problem.Michael:16:31Yeah. Okay. That's perfect. Perfect. I just want to make sure a minute ago you mentioned the Camino del Santiago, so that's like the, like a long walking trail in northern Spain. Is that right?Estela:16:43Yeah, normally I think it starts in friends and you go all along the north part of Spain and you finish in Santiago de Compostela, which is where we, you have the big cathedral. Um, yeah. So you can do, I think I'm not very into these things, but I think you can do the Camino del santiago like during all the year, but now in summer because people have holidays and everything. So you can, you can do it now as well, yesterday I saw in (the) news and it's full of people.Michael:17:12Oh, I can imagine it. It's a very busy, very busy at the moment. Well yeah, these days. I would love to do it one day, but yeah, maybe. Maybe it's becoming very touristy as well. I don't know.Estela:17:23Yeah especially in summer, I think October or something like that. It's really good to do it. Not now.Michael:17:28Okay. We'll keep that in mind. I, one thing that I'm always very interested in talking about is kind of the study routine and habits, because I think one of the things that stop people from improving and learning is that they don't have good habits in place or maybe they don't have that kind of a mindset to study every day or something like that. So I want to ask you about your study routine or maybe lack of study routine, whatever the case is for you.Estela:18:03I have to laugh here, so, well, I have to say that nowadays I don't study English as much as I have to. But I'm in contact with English every day, which is good as well because I say I speak English with my students. I'm always watching series in English, movies, documentaries, I speak with, eh, sorry I speak with, with British and American friends. But when I was born like kind of an intermediate student, I studied a lot. So basically I was attending lessons and then at home I try to read too. I'm sorry, I try to read. Yeah. English Books. Yeah, I tried to read English books and am doing, I had like many grammar books to complete. Um, what else? Let me think Michael it's difficult. I don't remember. It was like probably six or seven years ago when I was an intermediate student.Estela:19:03So basically now what I do to continue more than improving, because I know at my stage is very, very difficult to make improvement. So at least the students, we don't feel it. And what I do is basically listen (to) English every day, try to speak English every day and well, what I didn't do, it's reading because, I don't want to say that I hate reading because I don't hate it, but it's like kind of, um, can I say like a trauma? Yeah. Like something because when I was a child or a teenager, I had to read many books. I didn't want to. So now reading for me, it's like kind of something that I have to do instead of I want to do. So, well, I'm reading now a book but it's in Spanish, not in English. So basically I try to listen and speak every day. That's what I can say I do every day, but I should do more.Michael:20:05No, that's perfect. That's good. Yeah.Estela:20:07Probably reading. Yeah.Michael:20:09The, the, word, The word trauma is fine. I mean trauma is usually something very serious. Like if you attacked as a child, it stays with you.Estela:20:16Well, it's kind of a trauma for me because I well, obviously. Obviously it's not like real but when I have a book in my hands, like I get anxious because I remember that feeling I had when I was a teenager.Michael:20:27Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think trauma definitely works. It can be used in many ways so that that's a good example. And Yeah, I think reading can be really helpful to help you improve in the language and improve your vocabulary. But I think it's very important not to do something that you really despise doing. So if you hate reading, you're not gonna really enjoy studying. If you, if you, if you try and do that. So I think that's fine. I wouldn't worry about it. Yeah.Estela:20:55Yeah. I'm a teacher. I don't have to say that. I should love reading and I mean I read, I read sometimes like just sometimes I prefer, I'm more like a visual learner. So I like more to watch things, videos to listen to podcasts and to like kind of use my English, you know? I know reading, you learn a lot of vocabulary and you learn a lot of like structures and everything. But well, I prefer to do it in another way.Michael:21:24Yeah. I think that's a really important point is maybe you might find a list or advice online or from a friend that says, this is how you learn a language, but at the end of the day, everyone learns in a different way. So it's important to understand how you learn best and the way that you're kind of, your mind can absorb information the best.Estela:21:45Yeah, that's totally true. So in my opinion, for me, listening and speaking is a way that works now.Michael:21:53Yeah, no, that's really good. That's really good. It a little bit like me, I don't do so much reading maybe five or 10 minutes a day, um, by kind of want to do more. But yeah, it's not so easy to find something enjoyable to read.Estela:22:07I started reading, one friend gave me a books from Stephen King, so, because I liked horror stories and everything. So I have them in my ebook for I think probably two or three years and I haven't read them. I'm a very bad student.Michael:22:19Yeah. At some point it kind of becomes like a a chore. It's like weighing in the back of your minds like, Oh I have to read it but I don't want to and.Estela:22:31yeah, I know the books out there. But I haven't read them.Michael:22:35It's for the, it's the thought that counts. It's for the future. This is a question that I have asked some of my guests before and it's always my favourite one. I don't know if you have anything good to say. I want to ask you, uh, when you're talking English or I don't know if you have any other language knowledge or perhaps when, um, someone is talking, you know, a non-native Spanish speaker is talking with you. Do you have any like funny or embarrassing situations that have come about that have happened because of, you know, not fluent language knowledge?Estela:23:11Yeah. So I can say both in Spanish and in English in English is not my experience. It was a friend's experience, but in Spanish, especially beginners, they, when I asked him how old are you, they always say like 23, 24, 25. And then they say Anos instead of anos. Anos means years. Right.Michael:23:33Aw I can guess what the other one means.Estela:23:35And I Anos it means like Anus in English.Michael:23:39So, anus, right?Estela:23:40Yeah. Or assholes, right?Estela:23:43They say in Spanish. Sounds to me like if you say I have 23 assholes and it's like that's impossible. I did have fun. So I always say be careful with that. But well, when I explained the funny, the funny thing, they always laugh because it's so good experience. They will remember that. So in the in the next class or if someone asked them like how old are you? They are going to laugh because they are going to remember that situation in class and they will say Anos instead of anos. So that's one of the of the Spanish funny things I get like, mostly every month with all the beginning students. And in English I don't have, probably I have, I don't remember. But I have one story that happened to a friend. I wasn't there. So my friend told me that she was here in a city in Alicante called Benidorm, which is full of British people and she was in a restaurant and see what's going to order a coke. So a, well she, she went to the bar and everything and she was like very confident and she said may have a cock and then the guy was looking at her like laughing obviously like what do you want? Like a cock, obviously. Obviously she wanted to see a coke right, but well. We have many problems with all the vowels in, in English because it's Spanish we just have five on five vowel sounds. So it's really difficult to make all the English vowels sounds so do you have,Michael:25:18yeah, it's very hard And this, there are so many cases where that can be true. Um, so just in case people don't know, (I don't want to teach too many bad words), but cock is another word for penis. Um, it's like a kind of a slang word. So that's a very, it's an embarrassing mistake, but I think it's probably quite common. It's not a big deal. Um, and another one, I don't think I'll explain these, but uh, well I can say this one. There's beach and bitch. They sound very similar. Beach is good. Bitch is bad.Estela:25:51Yeah. We do have problems with that as well.Michael:25:53Yeah. And one more which is much worse is "sheet" like your bed sheets, you don't want to say I you went to say E so be very careful with that.Estela:26:06It's really, really difficult. Because I don't, I don't, it's really difficult to know all the vowels in English so we always say things that we don't want to say actually.Michael:26:18Yeah. But I love those examples. That's really good. But as you said, it's kind of, it's really important to be happy to make those mistakes and kind of laugh at yourself because it will be a funny story in the future. And once you've made that mistake, you probably won't make it twice because you'll always remember that can a funny experience, won't you?Estela:26:40Yeah, you do. I know all these mistakes they say, but then when I try to pronounce them, I don't really know the difference because we didn't have that, you know, those vowels in English. It's like what (am) I saying? So I just say it very fast.Michael:26:54Yeah, yeah, Sometimes that works yeah.Estela:26:58That's what I do.Michael:26:59I love those stories. Thank you. Um, what, what would you say you find hardest in English at the moment? Because as we said, I think you're in advanced level. You're very good. But do you still, is there something that you still really struggle with particularly?Estela:27:16Yes, always like prepositions. This is one obviously pronunciation things because we have many different sounds in English and in Spanish, so it's difficult. Um, like prepositions and phrasal verbs. I always say the same. I think I've studied all the tenses in English and I know when to use them even. I mean, I make mistakes with the tenses because it's difficult to, sometimes it's difficult to remember the tense you want to use in conversation because you didn't have the time to think. But I would say the most difficult thing is prepositions and phrasal verbs, which are with propositions as well. This is the most difficult part of English right now, I think.Michael:27:56Yeah, I think most people would agree with you. That's very, very difficult. And there are, it's not quite the same as tenses because tenses - you can learn the rules and then you're finished. But with prepositions there are almost an endless number of rules and exceptions.Estela:28:12Exceptions. That's a problem. Yeah. Because we have, we have like different, maybe we have like the same... We have the same expressions in Spanish and in English, but in English you use a proposition and in Spanish you didn't use the translation of that proposition. Maybe you use another one. So it's really difficult sometimes.Michael:28:27Yeah. No, I, I can, I can totally, totally understand that. So when things do get hard for you and maybe you feel a bit down, maybe you feel like you're not improving. I don't know if you ever feel that way, but what motivates you to keep going and not give up or not feel too, too bad about yourself?Estela:28:48Yeah, I had that time. I think especially when I was preparing for the Cambridge exam, like the B2, the FCE. So as I failed the exam three times, no, sorry, two times I passed it on the third. So I felt like my English wasn't good on the, I was very stressed and anxious because when I think when you just study, because the exam was kind of an obligation for me, so I need to do it because we needed to work here as a teacher in Spain and everything. So I was very, very, very nervous at that time. When I passed the exam, I think I took like a long time again to, to, to keep up with my English. When I have those situations I just, maybe I stop for the time I need and then I started getting learning English. So in my case I can't stop learning English because I'm also a primary school English teacher here in Spain. So I help kids to learn English in Spain. So I need to be in contact with English all the time. So if I have like a bad time, maybe I stopped for two, three, four weeks and then I can start again. This is what I do.Michael:30:04Okay. Okay, so if you feel, if you feel like you're not in the right mindset to study, you'll just allow yourself some time to have a break. Is that what you mean?Estela:30:12Yeah. I have a break and then I continue. I will always continue because I can't stop learning English. I need it for my job.Michael:30:20yeah, I really liked that. I think that's, that's the advice I expected actually, but that's really good, because I've heard before that apparently it's really beneficial to your mind to sometimes take a break from language and I've noticed this myself, like I've been studying Japanese for many years and sometimes I feel like, oh, I'm just not improving, I'm not getting anywhere. Then when I take a break maybe for a week or even longer and I come back to it, I feel refreshed. I feel like I know a lot more than I actually realized. So yes, sometimes a short break can be a good idea. Just as long as it doesn't turn into a permanent break.Estela:30:59Yeah, of course. So my breaks are like short breaks, like just like a few weeks. So if I, if you took six months, probably then when you come back you don't remember many things. So my breaks are like short breaks, like two, three, four weeks, not more than a month. Actually. This is what I do. But obviously it also depends on your level. If you took probably, sorry, if you take probably three weeks or four weeks as a beginner, you're going to lose many things in that way. So this is one of the things, probably, it's not the best advise, but it's what at the Mormon works for me and in the past probably if I felt like stuck with my English or something. So I just try to learn or to watch things that interest me in that time. Um, I think that helps you to, to be more motivated to, to learn new stuff. Because normally when we go, well, we attend English courses. I, for example, I went to my university courses. Sometimes you learn things that you, you don't like or topics that are not from your interests. So if at home you do things that you really like, you get more motivated I think.Michael:32:14Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. No, you're definitely right. I...., The last question I want to ask today, I want to ask if you have any recommended language resources or books or anything like that that you think might be helpful to other people to uh, improve that English at any level.Estela:32:33So I don't remember very well the things I did when I was a beginner or an intermediate student because that was long time ago because I started learning English when I was six, you know, so it's really difficult. But in that, in my stage - what I do is basically I watch a lot of Netflix shows, Amazon prime shores and HBO shows. So if you are an advanced, Eh, level, a student - an advanced students sorry - the best advise I can say is that watch everything in the original version with English subtitles so you can see how a word is written because in English you write things totally in a different way that you pronounce them. So it's really good to see the word and how it's written. And there are obviously many shows to to watch. Then for vocabulary, sometimes - not always - I use Quizlet which is a website where you can create flashcards.Estela:33:34It's like similar to Anki. I'm not really like a good student with a anki. I don't really know how to use anki. So I use quizlet and you can put all the flashcards or you can play games with flashcards, who can create topics and you can have like words in context if you want. It also has like a translation into your language if you need to. And then I also listen all the podcasts and I watch a lot of, a lot of TED Talk, youtube videos and podcasts as well. This is what I do as a beginner. I don't really do many writing or reading things as I said, but listening, this is all I do and everyday - I do it every day. I think it's important to have a routine.Michael:34:13Yeah, great advice. Great Advice. Yeah. And of course the number one thing that helps you is the English of Michael podcast. Right? That's the best thing.Estela:34:20Of course. Yeah. I listen to it when I'm driving always.Michael:34:25You're too kind. Um, yeah. So Quizlet was the first thing you mentioned. Um, I haven't really used it, but I know about it so I can put a link to that in the show notes for this podcast. Um, I guess I'll make a link for you. I call it estela just for you. And um, I completely forgot what else you mentioned now what was it?Estela:34:52I said I just said Quizlet, right. And then I said a lot of TV shows like, but I think it's important to watch them with subtitles in English (be)cause yeah, it helps me because sometimes they speak very fast or they have different accents. So if I read what they are, for example, I can learn a new expression and word and they need to know how it's written. So if I have the subtitles it's easy to remember. And then I said podcasts.Michael:35:18I remember it was TED talks.Estela:35:18Ah yeah Yeah, TED talks. Yeah. So I like to watch a lot of TED talks. They are, well you have the website and then you have on youtube if you type Ted talk in English, you have ted talks like many of them.Michael:35:31Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah, I'll also put a link to Ted talks on, on the website too. And yeah TED Talks are great because you can watch something really interesting. It's always really interesting and it's got the whole transcript below that you can read or print or whatever you like to do.Estela:35:49Yes. I, I have a last, uh, last thing. The last app that I use on my phone is BBC learning English. Probably you know it. Um, you have my anything. So I love the grammar videos. So they do like kind of like games and contests. So you have to to remember the tenses. Maybe one day they explain the present, Eh, well, the present tense or the past perfect. And they do a lot of games and everything. It's like a video. Um, you have more things. Like I love the podcast from six minutes English, I think it is. Where you listen to our podcasts during six minutes and then you have questions normally. So it's really an, it was really nice. Um, I think that's all I use at the moment.Michael:36:31Yeah, no, that's really good. Um, yeah, the, the BBC App is amazing. Um, yeah, my girlfriend uses the, well, she listens to the podcast in the shower. So it's, um, I think it's like the perfect length for like a quick shower maybe.Estela:36:44It's really nice to listen to British English. In that case I don't have many apps for American English because I, as I said at school on, during all my years learning English, we learn very this English. So I know more things for British English than for... but Anyway, Ted Talks probably you find more American accents than British accent.Michael:37:05Yeah, that's true. That's true. But yeah. Fantastic. That's really good. So before we say goodbye today, I want to know if there's anything you would like people to know about you. So do you want to advertise, uh, any kind of social media or websites or anything like that?Estela:37:21Yeah, I can do a bit of spam, right? So, well, yeah, I have, I don't have my own website, but I have my Instagram page. So if my, if your students are people that are learning Spanish and listening to that podcast, you can follow me on. Ah, Eh, how do you say at? At Spanish with Estela. Spanish with a Estela that's all. And I post their like videos with vocabulary, with expressions. Sometimes I do lives with other teachers. Um, yeah. Basically I try to have my feed always with different things.Michael:37:58Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, I follow Estela on Instagram and she always put so much work into it. So if you are learning Spanish, that's a great place to go to. And I'll again, I'll link to that on the show notes as well. Yeah, I like your name as well. It's just Spanish with Estela and it's just English with Michael. You know, we're very create people.Estela:38:16I change it many times because you know the Instagram is American, so you didn't have the ?. So I cannot write Espa?ol con estela. I have to write espanol con Estela. And this is like the same thing with a?os and anos, right?Michael:38:34It's a different thing yeah.Estela:38:34So I don't to write Espanol, so I changed it to language with Estela, but then I say okay, Spanish with Estela is fine. So also when people find teachers on, on Instagram, you can also put, if you, if you put Spanish with, probably you have like hundreds of students. But yeah, it's, I think it's easy to find a Spanish teacher and obviously, Well for all the listeners, if you want Spanish lessons, I'm here as well.Michael:38:59Yes. I'll make sure they're aware of that. Yes. Get the kids to get the name simple, isn't it? Yeah. Well thank you so much. It's been really good to talk with you today and I'm really, I really appreciate your time to, to come on and yeah, share your knowledge with us.Estela:39:13It was a pleasure Michael. Thank you very much.Michael:39:15Thank you very much. Bye Bye. Thank you guys very much for listening to today's podcast. I really hope you enjoyed listening to Estela as much as I enjoyed talking to her. If you want to connect with her again, you can go to her Instagram. I think that's Spanish with Estela. I'll put a link to that in the show notes and yeah, I'm always looking to have more guests on the podcast, so if you think you know someone who would be a good guest to talk to or someone who I should interview and let me know, you can get in touch with me on my website, or you can email me at info@ but that's it for today, so thank you very much for listening and I will see you next week.Michael:40:07Bye ByeMichael:40:13You have been listening to the English with Michael Podcast to view the podcast notes for this episode and to listen to previous episodes. Head over to podcast ................
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