You Asked. I Answered. (This is sort of an English lesson!)

Well, hello and welcome to this video

where I'm going to answer your questions.

Earlier today, I asked you to ask me some questions, and

I got a lot of responses, so thank you for that.

I, of course, can't answer all of them, but

I will do my best to answer about 20

questions that you submitted, questions about me.

I have to admit it's a little awkward for me

to talk about myself, but I will do that and

I'll try to answer your questions in this video.

So it's not really an English lesson, but you

can kind of listen to how I answer these

questions and use my answers as a model.

If you were to have the same questions asked of you.

Okay, here we go.

First question from Zhou.

Do you sometimes feel tired

of teaching English to everyone?

Well, no, not really.

I wouldn't say that I'm tired of teaching

English, but it is kind of like work.

Like, I like YouTube.

It's a lot of fun, but at the same

time, it is a little bit like work.

So do I ever get tired of it?

A tiny bit.

I'm never tired of the people, though.

I really like all of you.

I like the fact that you're learning English, but

I do sometimes now take breaks every once in

a while, and that helps me when I'm getting

a little bit tired of teaching English to everyone.

This next question is from Youcef.

What is the most embarrassing

moment you've ever experienced?

Well, I don't know if I've told this story

before, but in my first or second year of

teaching, the principal came to observe my teaching.

So I was being evaluated by my boss, essentially.

And as I was teaching, I tripped over

the recycle bin and I almost fell.

When I teach, I usually don't stand in one spot.

So I was teaching, and I was quite active in

my teaching, and I almost tripped over the recycle bin.

That was one of the most

embarrassing moments in my life.

This next question is from Aung.

How do you stay smart and keep fit?

Well, I wouldn't say that I'm smart

and fit, but I will say this.

I walk a lot in order to stay fit.

And in order to stay smart, walking is what I do.

Now, that might sound like a funny answer.

Exercise is for staying fit,

not necessarily for your mind.

At least, that's not what everyone thinks.

But I find that when I go for a walk every day, when

I walk fast enough for it to feel like exercise, it helps me

stay fit, and it helps my mind to stay fit as well.

This next question is from Stefania. I'd like to

know about the school system where you live.

Which subjects do you teach, how many hours

each week, and what technology do you use?

So I currently teach French and business.

Those are the two classes I teach.

I also sometimes teach a computer class.

I did that last semester.

A full time teacher, I'm not full time.

A full time teacher would work from about eight till

four every day and also work at home at night.

Teaching is a very busy, busy job.

And then what are the hours for the students?

Students come to school between nine and

three, so teachers are here longer, obviously,

because we have more work to do.

So the school day starts at nine

and ends at three for students.

The technology I use, I have my tv.

I have a projector up here, so I can

use two screens at once if I need to.

I also have a MacBook.

I have a laptop that I can use.

And in my school, every student has a laptop.

We have Wi Fi throughout the building, so it's very

easy for me to integrate technology into my lessons.

This next question is from Gleila.

Why does Canada have one of the

best educational systems in the world?

Well, that's an interesting question.

I think part of it is because we spend

a lot of tax dollars on our educational system.

So as a citizen, I pay tax, and

a good deal of my money is used

to make sure that we have good schools,

good elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities.

I also think we're a country where it's important to

get an education in order to get a good job.

I know that's true in every country in the world, but

certainly in Canada, if you want a really good job, you

do need to learn a trade, or you need to go

to college or university and get a degree.

It's just a good way to get a good job.

So people are motivated and

people want a good education.

Therefore, there's a lot of incentive for us

in Canada to give that kind of education.

So hopefully that answered your question.

This next question is from Know that a longtime viewer of

the channel. Of the things you say you're bad at, which

one would you most like to be good at?

And is there anything you still regret a bit today

that you didn't do when you had the chance?

Well, the one thing I'm not good at is I can't sing.

I can't sing on key.

If you wanted me to sing a C

note, I don't know how to do that.

So that is one thing I wish I was better at.

I think if you had asked me in my late

teens I would have said my dream was to be

like a rock star or something like most teenagers.

But I couldn't sing and I

don't play any musical instruments either.

In terms of regrets though, the second question.

One thing I do regret is that I don't speak Dutch.

My parents came from the

Netherlands when they were children.

My dad spoke Dutch and my mum speaks Dutch fairly well.

My dad a bit better than my mum.

And I think I regret that

I didn't learn to speak Dutch.

I should have just asked them to

speak Dutch to me more often.

That would have really helped me.

I think I would speak three languages then.

That would be cool.

This next question is from Basurmanovvlad

Hopefully I said your name correctly.

Have you always had a beard? No.

When I was a kid I didn't have a beard.

Sorry, that was a lame joke.

No, I've only had a beard for the last 15 or 20 years.

I did not have a beard for most of my adult life.

Right now my beard grows in

thick enough that it's respectable.

But when I was younger, I didn't have

enough hair growth for it to look good.

So no, I haven't always had a beard.

It's just something I've had for the last

15 or 20 years, maybe a bit longer.

It's hard to remember,

actually. This next question is from Chih.

What's your job?

Are you retired?

What city do you live in?

Well, my day job, as we would say,

is that I am a high school teacher.

I teach at a high school every

day, but I'm only part time.

The closest city to me is the city of Hamilton.

If you look at a map and find Hamilton, Ontario,

and go south a bit eventually, when you're out in

the middle of nowhere, that's where I live.

And then am I retired?

No, I'm not retired.

I'm not quite old enough to retire.

My plan is to still teach part time for at least

another ten or 15 years and then eventually I'll retire.

But I don't think I'm going

to retire from YouTube anytime soon.

We'll see.

This next question is from Mohd Ags,

another longtime viewer. Fun question:

Do you think the chicken came first or the egg?

Now that's just a funny question.

I don't know if you've heard that

one before, but I'm not sure.

The chicken, maybe. The egg?

I'm not sure.

But the real question what's something you wish the

younger generations today had or did more of?

Well, I think they do this, but I'm just going

to say I wish they spent more time outside.

I love phones. I love technology.

I love being on a screen myself.

But I do think if the younger people these

days, if they could spend a little more time

getting some fresh air and some sunshine, I think

that would be good for them.

So that's the thing.

I think a lot of them do it, or at

least they start to do it by the time they

reach their 20s, but certainly spend more time outside.

This next question is from Gergo.

What would you do if you saw the news

that a meteorite was going to hit the earth?

That's a good question.

So I'm assuming it's a big meteorite and the

earth's in trouble and we're all in trouble.

I think I would probably just get a

lawn chair, get one for Jen, and probably

just sit outside and watch it happen.

I'm sure that's my dream scenario.

I'd be like, well, oh, well, in

reality, I'd probably be panicking and trying

to hide in my basement or something.

But certainly the thought of, well,

there's nothing we can do now.

Let's just sit and watch this

big meteorite hit the earth.

I think that's probably what I would do.

This next question is from an anonymous person.

I don't know their name, but the question is, hi, Bob.

What is your motto in life?

Oh, this is an easy one. Be kind.

Life is way too short to be mean

to people or to be a jerk.

Be kind to each other.

When you see that first person that

you see every day, say hi.

And as you go through your day,

do little things that help other people.

So my motto, be kind.

This next question is from Moogx.

Do people at your school know that you're a

teacher on YouTube with over 1 million subscribers?

Yes, they do.

When I first started YouTube, I hardly told anybody, like Jen,

my wife knew I was doing it, a few other people

that I knew, but I just didn't tell people.

But eventually people do find out,

like, especially when your channel is growing.

So, yes, my colleagues and students at school, most of

them know it's not something I talk about a lot.

It's something I'm really proud of, though.

But I owe all of it to all of you.

If it wasn't for all of you

watching, my channel wouldn't be this big.

So thank you for clicking that

subscribe button whenever you did.

It's sometime in the past you decided to click it.

Thank you.

You're awesome.

This next question is from Khalid.

What would be the best advice you can give

to novice teachers who are just starting their career.

So I teach high school, so I'm going

to talk mostly about high school students.

They're between the age of 13 to 17 or 18.

I think it's important to know

your students a little bit.

I mean, you're not their friend or anything like that,

but you need to know a little bit about them.

What are their hobbies?

Do they play a sport?

Do they like to go golfing?

Do they have a horse at home or something like that?

When you know a little bit about your students, it's

easier to talk to them and easier to teach them.

So you don't want to be nosy, you don't

want to ask a lot of questions because sometimes

people have private information they don't want to share.

But you should have conversations with your students

every once in a while about what they

like and what they enjoy doing.

If you're a language teacher, it's a lot easier

because you can ask them to write a little

bit about their hobby or some other pastime.

But number one, get to know your students at

least enough so you can enjoy teaching them and

they can enjoy having you as a teacher.

This next question is actually from two

different people, and the questions are similar.

So I'll read both of them. From Làzaro:

I'm amazed at the different things

you do on a regular basis.

How hard is it for you to accomplish

so many tasks at the same time?

And from Houcine, how do you handle

life as a teacher, farmer and father?

You are not tired all the time. You are happy.

I'm always glad to see you smiling.

So first of all, with social

media you only see happy Bob.

There is an angry Bob and a sad

Bob and all those other things as well.

But in terms of time management, I

like to describe it this way.

All of the things I do fit nicely with each other.

So farming primarily happens in the summer.

And as a teacher, I don't work during the summer.

I'm also part time.

I'm only about 70 - 75% as

a teacher, depending on the semester.

So I do have time each day to teach

and I have time to make videos for you.

And then the last one, well, I cut back a

little bit on the amount of work I did on

YouTube to spend more time as a father,

with my family.

I used to do live streams every Saturday.

I don't do that anymore.

So I try to make sure I'm efficient with my time.

But also everything I do kind of works nicely together.

And by the way, I'll step out of the

way so you can finish reading the sign.

If I was getting a little boring during that

segment, I'm sure you started to read this.

Is it time for your yearly meds

check book, a review with our pharmacist.

I think that's for older people, probably.

This next question is from Ario.

Hi, Ario.

How can we enjoy learning

English as an intermediate learner?

Well, there's a couple of things you should

do when you reach the intermediate level.

One is you should listen to a lot of English songs.

You should find some music that you love.

You should be reading books that are written

for English people, not for English learners.

So when you get to the intermediate stage, it's good to

read things that are written for you as a learner.

But you should also start reading

the same books that I'm reading.

Okay, it's going to be a little hard to read

that level of English, but you should definitely do that.

And then when you choose music and you

choose to read, choose the things you like.

That's how you can be excited, and that's

how you can enjoy being an intermediate learner.

This next question is from Nooristan.

Where did you do your English degree?

Well, here's a little secret.

I don't have an English degree.

I did go to university, though.

I'm not going to say exactly where, but I

did go to university in the state of Michigan.

And I am a French teacher by trade.

So my degree is in teaching French as a

foreign language and my degree is in education.

So I have been trained to teach languages.

The one I'm trained to teach is French,

but I'm not a native French speaker.

So I decided when I started YouTube that I would

take all of the things I know about teaching a

language and use it to teach English instead of French.

Because when I speak French, I have

a little bit of an accent.

Quand je parle français, ce n'est pas parfait du tout. So I just thought, if I'm going

to teach English on YouTube or if I'm going to

teach a language on YouTube, I will teach English.

This next question is from Pattana.

Do you ever think about retirement?

If you retire from teaching, will you

still make videos on this channel?

Well, I can't promise that I'll keep

making videos on this channel forever.

But what I will say to answer your

first question, I do think about retirement sometimes.

But I'm still quite young.

I'm in my early 50s.

But when you're a teacher, every semester you

have different students and sometimes you have classes

that are more challenging than others.

And when I have a semester like

that, I think about retirement more often.

But if you want my ultimate plan,

I don't know what it is.

I plan to keep teaching in a school part time

for many years, and I plan to keep doing YouTube,

I think I said on my live stream earlier

this year that I'm doing it for at least

seven more years, so we'll see how it goes.

But at this point in time, I enjoy my job and

I really enjoy YouTube, so I'm going to keep doing both.

This next question is from Spoede.

Are you aware of the risk of

burnout by helping us so much?

How do you recharge your batteries?

Yes, I'm definitely aware that if you work

too much, you can eventually burn out.

By the way, burnout means you're just exhausted and

tired and don't feel like doing something anymore.

So I'm aware of it.

I have adjusted my YouTube schedule

over the last few years.

I used to do four videos a week

on my other channel, I only do two.

I used to do two live streams a week.

I only do one.

But I still put a video out almost every Tuesday.

So, yes, I'm aware of it.

And in my work life and my

YouTube life, I have looked for balance.

So I've reduced the amount

I work outside of the house, so I teach part time, as

I mentioned, and I've reduced the amount of YouTube that I do,

and it seems to be a good balance right now.

So how do I recharge my batteries?

Usually by sitting and watching cooking shows.

Even though I'm not a chef, I like to play video games.

Right now I'm playing one called Against the Storm.

And I love watching British and French

television shows, so that's how I recharge.

This next question is from Louana.

I'm from Algeria.

Have you ever visited any countries in Africa?

Yes, I've been to South Africa.

I went to South Africa way back in the the 2000's.

I think it was 2007 or 2008, I went on a school trip.

We went to visit another school and to kind of help them

a little bit there and to learn from them as well.

So, yes, I've been to South Africa.

I haven't been to any other country in

Africa, but someday maybe Jen and I will

travel more and I will do that.

This next question is from an anonymous person.

How long did you study French and

how old were you when you started?

Well, formally, I studied French from age

six until about age 22 or 23.

So from grade one when I was

six years old until I finished university.

So I studied French for a

number of years. Informally, though,

I've been studying French my whole life.

You never really stop learning a language.

In fact, it's important to

keep practicing and learning.

So how long have I studied French?

Since I was six years old, and

I still continue to study French today.

This next question is from Fai.

What do you do with all the space on your land?

Well, we grow a lot of stuff.

That's what we do.

So we have hay fields. We

have the flower fields. Behind me

our biggest field right now is a wheat field.

So there is winter wheat in there.

You can actually see that it's a little bit green.

It's just starting to break dormancy and start to grow.

So we grow things in our large field.

We grow soybeans, we grow wheat.

We grow corn.

And it's kind of on a rotation.

Mostly it's wheat and soybeans and occasionally corn.

Corn is a really expensive crop to

grow, so I don't always grow that

every third year, it's usually

every fourth or fifth year.

And then we have some hay as well, and some pasture.

We have a few goats in the barn, so

they go out on the pasture and eat that.

So what do we do with all this space?

We enjoy it, but we also grow a lot of stuff.

This next question is from Hicham.

Do you think farm life is harsh?

Well, something goes wrong every year, so

in some ways it is harsh.

Last year, we had a funny insect that started

eating our flowers when they were really young.

And then last year, towards the end of

the growing season, it rained too much.

So Jen and I often say there's

always something that goes wrong each year.

But if you work at it and you learn

how to do it, well, no, it's not harsh.

The job, though, of farming is

difficult, like it's all manual labor.

We do some things with the tractor. Now, the field behind

me, the wheat field, that's all done with a tractor.

But when we talk about... when I talk about flowers,

it's mostly done by hand.

So that is hard.

As you get older, it's hard on

your body and stuff like that.

But is farm life harsh?

It has its ups and downs.

It has its pros and cons, but overall, I would

say a little bit, but it's a little bit harsh.

But I love it.

The next question is from Axmedabuukar.

Why do you only grow flowers on your farm?

Why not some fruit or other crops?

Do they not grow well if you plant them?

So, yeah, we do grow other crops, right? We grow wheat.

We grow corn.

We grow soybeans.

But fruit?

That's a good question.

Our soil is not good for growing fruit.

I think we could grow apples or pears, but

we can't grow peaches or apricots or plums or

any of the really, really yummy fruit.

And then why don't we grow apples?

If I... you know, I just said we could grow apples, well,

there's only so much time in a day.

We have enough on our plate.

There's a number of English phrases I could use.

We've simply chosen to do one thing over another.

Apples would be cool.

Maybe someday we'll get a few apple trees.

But right now we have enough work between the

flowers and the other crops and YouTube and me

going to work to teach every day.

We have enough on our plate that

we don't want to add something else.

Well, hey, thank you for watching this video where I

basically talked about myself for ten or 15 minutes.

I hope you did enjoy it.

If this is your first time here, don't

forget to click that red subscribe button.

Give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed

this video and if you have some time....

Well, first of all, you should leave a comment as well.

But if you have some time, why don't

you stick around and watch another English lesson? Bye.

You wake.