Answering Your Questions about Me (with @TeacherMikeEnglish and @AmericanEnglishBrent )

- So today's English lesson will be a little bit different.

Last week, I asked on Facebook and YouTube for some of you

to ask some questions about me,

and in this English lesson, I'm going to answer them.

It's an English lesson in the sense that you can study

the way that I answer these questions.

These are all questions about me,

kind of like talking about myself, sometimes.

So as I answer the questions,

you might be curious to know the answer,

but you should also look at how I put my answer together,

how I answered the question.

So, welcome to this English lesson about me.

Hopefully, it helps you learn to talk about yourself.

(upbeat music)

Okay, here we go.

First question from Triskelion from YouTube.

I would like to know who was your favorite teacher

in school and why?

And my second question is what personality trait

do you value most in people?

Well, my favorite teacher

was my French teacher in high school.

He was very encouraging.

He was always happy, and he was very encouraging.

So I really liked him.

In fact, a lot of how I am as a teacher

is modeled after how he taught.

He was a really nice person.

And what's my favorite personality trait?

It would be something called sticktoitiveness.

I'm not sure if you know that word.

It's when someone does something,

and they do it really well and they don't quit.

They have a lot of sticktoitiveness.

It is an actual English word.

Maybe, I'll put the definition on the screen here,

but yes, my favorite character trait, sticktoitiveness,

and maybe second to that would be competence.

When someone's just really, really good at something,

because they practiced it a lot.

Question number two from MajkeL from YouTube.

How do you keep your motivation to do what you do?

Are there times when all you want to do

is stay in bed and not care about anything?

How do you avoid procrastinating?

So there's a couple ways I avoid procrastinating,

but I will back up and say this.

There are days where I would love to just lay in bed,

but I can't.

I think because I'm a dad, and because I have a job,

and I have to support my family.

There are a lot of obligations

that I have that I can't ignore.

If I wasn't married and if I didn't have any kids,

and if I was 21, I would lay in bed a lot more often.

But because I'm 51, and because I have obligations in life,

that helps me quite a bit,

and I have never really been a procrastinator,

so I don't know really how to answer that one.

I've always made plans, and then I stick to the plan.

The next question is from Doina from Facebook.

I saw your childhood pictures last time.

I am curious to know how life back then

in Canada compared to nowadays?

Well, life back then wasn't as easy.

That would be the biggest difference.

When I grew up, my parents didn't have a lot of money.

My parents worked very hard.

We worked very hard.

Even as a child, I worked on the farm.

Life was a lot harder back then.

It's certainly a lot easier now even though food prices

are going up and there are other things

that make life difficult, life for me,

is much different now.

When I was a kid, it was a lot harder.

The next question is from Olga from YouTube.

I'm interested to know a little bit about your childhood.

What did you enjoy doing as a kid?

What games did you play?

Did you like to learn in school?

Thank you.

So my favorite game as a kid

was a game called "Kick the Can".

It's a lot like hide and seek.

I played it with my brothers, and sisters, and cousins.

It was a lot of fun.

And did I like school?

Yes, I was one of those people that always liked school.

I liked reading, and I liked learning new things.

I still do that today.

I like reading, and I like learning new things.

This next question is from Soregi.

How often do you go to a restaurant, maybe once a month?

What do you like to eat,

Asian, European, or American style food?

We go to a restaurant about once a month.

You're probably right.

We do order pizza two or three times a month,

but we go to a restaurant about once a month.

When we go, I usually get a hamburger and fries.

It's pretty boring.

I guess, I prefer American or a North American style food.

The next question is from Tammy from Facebook.

Do you get more satisfaction being a farmer or a teacher?

If you had to choose one, which one would you pick?

Oh, that's a great question.

Here's the funny answer.

I love teaching, but if I had to choose,

I would choose farming.

I think I like being outside

more than I like being inside teaching,

but it would be a tough, tough decision.

My ideal life would be to farm and to teach on YouTube,

and not teach in a school someday.

I still like it a lot, but I'm looking forward to the day,

where I can just teach on YouTube,

and then work on the farm.

That would be ideal.

The next question is from Mary from YouTube.

If you weren't Canadian,

what other nationality would you like to be and why?

Oh, that's a great question, but if I answer it,

I'm going to annoy over 185 people.

I don't know how many countries there are in the world.

I would love to be from France.

I would love to be French.

I just love the French language.

If I had to choose, if I had to be from a different country,

which obviously is impossible,

I would choose to be from France.

Sorry to all of you from all those other countries

in the world, but that to me, would be really fun.

And the reason why is I love the French countryside

whenever I see it.

I would love to visit your country someday,

if you're from France.

Okay, we're halfway, but do make sure you watch to the end,

because the last two questions

are from two other English teachers from YouTube.

I think you'll be surprised to see who they are.

The next question is from Makhbuba.

What do you think about immigration?

In particular, many people are going to Canada these days

to work or to stay permanently.

It seems some Canadians aren't happy about it.

I would like to know your personal opinion

and feelings about this situation.

Thanks.

I think, it's fine.

I like it when people come to Canada.

It's a really, really big country.

And yes, there are probably some people that don't like it.

That's just the way the world works.

Have you ever noticed, there will be a large group

of people that don't mind something or like it,

and then there will always be a few people

that don't like it.

So I would say this.

Go to the Canadian government website,

go to the immigration section,

and research how you would immigrate here and come on over.

That's my opinion.

The more, the merrier.

This next question is from Javed from Facebook.

How do you manage your time?

Well, in our kitchen, we have a gigantic calendar,

and I put everything on that calendar that I need to.

Jen puts things on there, my kids put things on there,

and we're regularly talking about what's going

to happen the next day.

Often, when we're done eating supper as a family,

we look at the calendar and we talk about

who needs a ride where the next day,

and all those kinds of things.

For myself personally, I'm fairly organized.

I can remember what I need to do for work

or for YouTube over the next few days.

But I do keep lists.

I do love lists, and they're really handy

when it comes to staying organized.

This next question is from Peyman from YouTube.

What is the best lesson that you have learned

from being a teacher?

Probably the best lesson I've learned from being a teacher

is that whatever behavior you see,

there's always a story behind it.

It's worth getting to know students,

so that you understand them better.

If you see a student misbehaving

or if a student doesn't finish their homework,

it's always good to, first of all, address the behavior,

but also make sure you understand

why the student is behaving that way.

So I would say that's the biggest thing.

And then the other thing would be this,

repetition is boring, but it's a great way

to learn things and memorize them.

This next question is from a regular viewer

from YouTube, Judit.

Have you ever thought of buying a foal?

So a foal is a baby horse or a young horse.

We have not.

One thing I know about horses is that they eat a lot of hay,

and then they eat more hay, and then they eat oats,

and they just keep eating things,

and they're kind of expensive.

I don't wanna buy anything that costs me a lot of money.

I'm sure it would be fun to learn to ride a horse

and to ride the horse, but for now I just think, no.

We haven't thought about it, because Bob's too cheap.

I don't wanna spend money on hay

and other kinds of horse feed.

This next question is from Bohdan.

Is there something people do that annoys you?

The reason I'm asking is that you seem like a very kind

and generous person, but I know that it couldn't be

that way all the time.

Tell us about some of the things that bother you.

So one of the things that bothers me is when someone

takes credit for someone else's work.

I don't like it when people do that.

It has happened to me before,

where I've done a certain amount of work,

and someone else has said that they did it.

Another thing that really bothers me

is people who throw junk out of their cars

while they're driving.

They eat a chocolate bar and they throw the wrapper out,

or they drink a coffee and they throw the coffee cup out.

That really, really bothers me.

When I go for a walk down my road,

there's just so much garbage in the ditch.

It annoys me, and we have to clean it all up

in front of our farm.

So those would be two things that really, really bother me.

This next question is from Raihan from Facebook.

Did you have any difficulties

when you started teaching online?

Were you camera shy?

I wasn't camera shy, but I would say,

it took me a while to get comfortable.

I'm used to talking in front of people

and talking to a camera is very, very similar.

What I would say though, something that still is challenging

for me is making a video in public.

When I go to my local town to make a video,

when people are walking around and looking at me

while I'm trying to teach an English lesson,

that makes me very self-conscious, we would say.

So, yes, I did have a little bit of a challenge at first

in the sense that filming in public places

is still difficult for me,

but everything else seemed to work itself out.

The more you do something, repetition is good,

the more you do something, the better you get at it,

and the more comfortable you are doing it.

This next question is from Teacher Mike English.

So if you don't know Mike,

he teaches on Facebook and on YouTube.

If you ever need English lessons that clearly

and logically explain something,

go watch some of his there.

Great.

His question though is...

- Hey Bob, it's Mike from Teacher Mike English,

and my question is, what is the best Canadian food

that most non-Canadian people do not know about?

- So I would say this.

Nanaimo bars, a really yummy dessert.

I think it was invented in Nanaimo, BC.

I would say ketchup-flavored chips.

I know some countries have those,

but in Canada, we have them, I love them.

And let me think of it.

Oh, pea soup.

When I lived in Quebec, pea soup with ham.

Ooh, that was a really yummy, yummy kind of soup.

So, those would be three.

Of course, there's also poutine

and some other Canadian things like maple syrup,

but those would be three that maybe people don't know about.

Thanks for the question, Mike.

This last question is from Speak English With This Guy

on YouTube, also known as Brent,

another really, really good English teacher.

- In English, when you have a difficult decision to make,

you can say, "I don't know."

It's like you're asking me,

which of my children is my favorite?

Well, Bob the Canadian, my question for you

is of your five children, which one is your favorite?

- Which one is your favorite?

Brent, you are a parent as well,

and you know that according to the parent code,

you never have a favorite child.

You love all of your children the exact same amount.

So good question, but I think you're trying

to be a little bit tricky there.

Anyways, Brent, again, also a teacher on YouTube.

You can find his his channel,

Speak English With This Guy, if you do a little search.

Anyways, thank you so much for watching this English lesson.

I hope you learned a little bit.

I hope the model responses I gave you can modify

some of them to answer similar questions

in a future English conversation.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to hit that red subscribe button.

Gimme a thumbs up, leave a comment,

and I do want to apologize

for not showing you nicer scenery.

It's another really windy day here,

and it was just kind of hard to find spots

where the wind wasn't affecting the audio and the mic.

So, maybe next time, I will stand in some nicer locations.

Bye.

(upbeat music)