engVid Adam Benn from Write to the Top Interview | Speak English Fluently with Steve Hatherly

Welcome back to another edition  of Speak English Fluently. 

I’m your host Steve Hatherly. My guest today is Adam Benn. 

Adam has been teaching English for over 20  years now and has done so in many different  

countries around the world. He's made some very popular  

teaching videos for EngVid.com. He has his own very popular  

YouTube channel called Write to the Top. And recently, very interesting, he did a talk  

for TedX on the importance of writing. He's written his own books. 

And we're going to talk about  all of those things today, 

Let me say hello to my fellow Canadian  and, uh, guest today, Adam Benn. 

How are… how are you doing, sir? I’m very good Steve, thanks. 

How are you? I’m great thank you. 

You're from Toronto, yeah? I’m from Toronto, yeah. 

Actually, I should say “Toronto”  like non-Torontonians, but… 

Very good, uh, so let's see now where do we begin? You've been teaching  

English for 24 years in total - a long time. And you've lived in so many different countries  

around the world. So what inspired you  

originally to move away from Canada? And where was your first destination? 

And you can talk about that a little bit. So I was in… I was in Toronto. 

And I loved traveling. So I just wanted to travel around the world. 

So originally, my first idea was  to, you know, learn how to cook. 

Maybe become a chef because  people have to eat everywhere. 

I can always go somewhere  and find a job as a chef. 

So I went to culinary school for a year. I did that. 

I worked in a few restaurants and I  realized that I really hated that job. 

Oh, really. So I needed something else. 

And one day, I saw an advertisement, it said,  “Do you want to live overseas and teach English?” 

And I thought, “Yeah, I do.” So I applied. 

I got a job and I went to Japan. That was my first overseas teaching experience. 

Very good. Where… what other countries have you lived in? 

So I lived in Japan. I actually taught in Toronto and Vancouver. 

Oh, OK. In Canada. 

I lived in Turkey, in Israel, and now in Korea. 

Wow. So Israel was your last stop  before coming to live in Korea? 

Uh, well a while ago, I went back to Canada  since then, but then I came here, again, yeah. 

Oh, very good so… What made you come to Korea this time  

having experience in so many other countries? Uh, I actually met a very nice Korean woman. 

Oh, there it is. Oh, there it is. 

So we came here. Plus, uh,  

I live in Busan which is on right on the coast. So I live… I have the ocean right in front of me. 

I have the mountains right behind me. It's… it's a beautiful place to live. 

Oh, Busan, uh, if… if our… our audience members  have not been… is one of the prettiest cities in  

Korea. There's no question, yeah. Yeah, it's a very nice place. 

So let's talk about EngVid first. Sure. 

Uh, the videos that you do for EngVid.com  that's engvid.com are insanely popular. 

They have nearly what - 2.96 million  subscribers I think was the number that I saw. 

That's just from my channel  – there’s other teachers. 

Yeah, so that's incredible. They've made you one of the  

most popular English teachers in the world. So how did that… how did that all come to be? 

Uh, interestingly, I worked for the  relatives of the guy who owns EngVid. 

Like, while I was living in  Toronto, I was also teaching there. 

And I… and I worked with, uh, his mom. And when I came back from some travels,  

she contacted me, and asked me,  “Do you want to make some videos?” 

Because she knows I know how to teach. And I know English, and world experience,  

so I said, “Yeah, sure. I’ll go try it.” And I did it. 

And it took off. And I have kept doing it. 

Wow, how many years has it…  how many years has it been now? 

It's funny. I was just looking at it. 

I was looking at my first video  just to see what it was like. 

It was 10 years ago. Goodness me. 

Well done. Congratulations on your success. Almost 3 million for just for your channel. 

That's incredible. Yeah. 

What types of videos do you  enjoy making for EngVid? 

To be honest, I... I like  making the grammar videos. 

I know a lot of teachers don't  like to teach the grammar. 

I know the students don't  necessarily like to learn grammar  

but it's very important I like grammar I like But it's very important. 

I like grammar. I like to see a student’s face when he or she… 

Oh, I get it. You know that “Ah ha” moment. 

Right. And so,  

I… I like the grammar, so I like to teach that. But, I do all kinds of lessons. 

I do general English. I do like phrasal verbs, vocabulary,  

some pronunciation, writing, test  prep, a little bit of everything. 

I remember talking to my students when  I taught university here in Korea,  

and I said to them, I bet your grammar in  English is better than my grammar in English. 

Yeah, yeah. Because that's a large focus. 

That's where they learned the most, yeah. Uh, in in their younger years, right? 

Have you noticed that? You know,  

after moving to Korea and living in Turkey and  Israel and teaching in Toronto and Vancouver… 

Have you noticed that that Korean  students maybe have some different skills?  

Second language-wise or third language wise ….? Yeah, they focus. They focus  

very heavily on the grammar. And they do work on the vocabulary,  

but they don't necessarily go outside… like they…  they look at the technical aspects and they don't… 

I don't think they do enough practice, which I  think is why it's a little difficult for them so… 

To like integrate those grammar lessons  and to use that vocabulary, etc. 

But I find that this is a Asian issue,  like the way Asian education systems work. 

A lot of them focused very heavily on the  grammar and not enough about on the speaking  

and the writing and the conversation. But that being said, having a strong  

grammar foundation makes it a  whole lot easier, I think, to  

become a great speaker in your later years, right? Yeah, but again, if you're willing to actually  

apply it, so that's the, that's the key, use it. That's the EngVid videos, but what about  

your channel - Write to the Top? How, how did that come to be when you  

decided to… to make that, you decided  to focus it on writing specifically? 

Yeah, so where did the idea  for your own channel come from? 

Well, I again, I've taught in many  places and I've I especially started  

teaching a test prep like IELTS and TOEFL. And I… I looked at statistics, and I looked  

at my own students, and other people students, and  I realized that like very consistently, it doesn't  

matter what country you come from, everybody’s  worst scores are in the writing section. 

And a lot of teachers, as much as  they can, they try to avoid teaching  

the writing because it's a very hard skill. So a lot of teachers don't like to teach it. 

Some, even English teachers are  not the best writers, like native  

speakers are not are not great writers. And so I realized that I should focus  

on that because I like it for one thing. The students need it for another thing. 

And if it helps them, especially with  tests and like getting a job and all that… 

A lot of people don't realize that writing is  something you're going to do your whole life. 

You're going to write resumes. You're going to write cover letters,  

you're going to write memos, you're going  to write all kinds of things in business,  

outside of business, even on social media. Your captions have to be understood, right? 

So it's all about writing. So that's why I decided to open this channel. 

I think you're absolutely right. That even… even native English speakers are not  

necessarily good writers because it's something  that we learn perhaps in elementary, middle,  

high school, maybe in university, depending  on what you study, but that that's kind of it. 

That's… that's kind of when it stops, right? And if you're never really, if you're never  

really taught specifically how to  be a good writer, then it's not  

something that's going to come naturally, correct? No, it… it doesn't come naturally because it takes  

a lot of focus, which is again another reason I  think a lot of people tend to stay away from it. 

And also people take for granted  that they… they speak well. 

They can communicate well. So that's it's good enough  

when it comes across, the message gets across in  the writing, but it's not always the case, so... 

When did you… when did you start the channel? This one is about five years ago. 

Five years ago and what almost  300,000 subscribers you're at now? 

Yeah, 265, yeah. Wow, that's wonderful. 

Congratulations on that as well. Thank you. 

Does that surprise you, I wonder? Because you said that, you know,  

teachers don't necessarily enjoy  teaching writing and students also. 

Oh gosh, I have to write this again. Maybe something they don't love doing, but  

obviously your channel is extremely successful. Has the success surprised you at all? 

A little bit, because for one thing,  it's a little bit higher level English. 

It's not… it's not for beginners. It's… you have to have a certain base of  

vocabulary and grammar to be able to write well. Plus, I think that, again, a lot of people  

don't want to learn writing - They need to. So surprised, but not surprised. 

EngVid, there’s people who needs to learn  English, and those who want to learn it. 

Right. Whereas my channel,  

I think it's more about  needing to than wanting to. 

Understood. What are what  

are some of the… the basic tips that you give  students to try to improve their writing skills? 

The key is, like anything else, practice. You have to get practice, but as much as  

possible get feedback as well.? Because you can write all day,  

but if nobody, excuse me, if nobody is pointing  out the mistakes you're making, you're just  

going to keep making them right. So that's the hard part. 

I used… I used to tell my students…  I used to make them keep a diary. 

And I would tell them to write  about any topic they want every day. 

And I realized after I gave the assignment  teaching so many different classes at university  

that I had created a ton of extra work for myself. But I didn't mind. 

I didn't…. I didn't want to bring that up,  but that's another reason a lot of teachers  

don’t teach writing. So very true, right? 

But I didn't mind because the  students – “Do I have to do this?” 

And I said, “Well, yeah, because this  is really going to help your speaking  

because you're just taking the words out of your  mouth and you're putting them down on paper.” 

Yeah. And then once I would correct it,  

then I'd say, “OK, now repeat this 10, 15,  20 times that paragraph that you just wrote.” 

So do you agree with me? There's a strong  connection between writing and… and conversation? 

So there's absolutely a connection, because  again, listening and reading are passive skills. 

You're taking in the language and you're  processing it and making it work inside your head. 

Speaking and writing are active skills. You need to produce the language. 

So writing, forces you to  think very clearly and arrange  

very and construct very clear sentences. Now, if you can do this regularly,  

it'll come out in your speaking as well. And you're speaking will be much better. 

Because normally, otherwise speaking, you can  just go around in circles to get to a point. 

Writing will help you focus your speaking as well. Oh, that's an excellent point. 

Yeah, because when you speak you can kind of say  the same thing 10 times over in a different way. 

But when you're writing, you can't do that. You have to start at… at point A and get  

to point B by the time you're done. And there's no, there's no in between. 

Yeah, yeah. As quickly as possible. 

It's a great point, I didn't think about that. Well speaking of writing, you've written  

some books as well. Tell us about those. 

So again, both of these are the I've written  two books like one is a series of books. 

It's all for the IELTS exam right now. It's to help people preparing for the IELTS exam. 

The first one is called The Right Idea. Vocabulary and ideas and examples. 

Because again, if you if we're thinking  about Korean students, for example,  

one of the hardest things I've found that they…  one of the most difficult aspects of the exam,  

is coming up with ideas quickly, right? They're focusing too much on their vocabulary,  

focusing too much on the grammar. And then they panic because  

they don't have any clear ideas. And this cost them a lot of points. 

So I always tell them think  of ideas before the exam. 

So you mean on the IELTS? On the IELTS test? 

The essays, yes. They have to create something out of nowhere. 

They get a prompt. They get a question  

and then they have to write like a 250  words minimum essay to support their idea. 

OK. But they need to give reasons and  

support like examples but they don't know what  to say in like a very timed situation and they  

panic and then everything falls apart. If you have ideas before the test,  

you're much more prepared for  any question that comes up. 

So, for example, can you put  that in a context for me? 

Sure, so you're at, you're saying  like, OK, a very common question. 

Is it better to live in the  countryside or in the city? 

So, you have to choose one, like  you have to have your introduction. 

“I believe it's more important…  It's better to live in the city…” 

And then you have to give reasons. You have to have two body paragraphs  

suggestion… suggesting why the  city is better than the country. 

So, you have to give examples  like better transportation,  

better infrastructure, better job opportunities. Then you have to give a bit of a contrast. 

So, in the country you get more  privacy, more leisure time. 

But you don't make as much money and the cost  of living is a little harder, dot, dot, dot. 

Very basic essay there, but they… That's a that's a great tip, though. 

I mean, if you're just talking about  a basic structure for.. for writing,  

that's a really excellent tip is that, you know,  list one or two or three or four ideas to support  

what you're saying, but then say, “But,  also, on the other side,” 1, 2, 3 maybe  

and then come back and say, “But, ultimately…” That's it. 

The most important don't forget  to come back to your side. 

Yeah, yeah, that's... That don't forget that last paragraph. 

It's amazing how many people forget to do that. Oh, is that right? 

Oh, that’s interesting. And they lose a lot of points because of that. 

Well, I guess I… I guess I kind of get that  because you're so caught up in the moment. 

Exactly. I suppose. 

So I guess another tip for… for writing is… is  go back and check, read what you've written,  

if you have the time. Always go back to your  

thesis and make sure you're  supporting that thesis. 

My… my father was a teacher for 34 years. He was a high school vice principal and he  

taught English, and he was frustrated  at his students not reading, um,  

the things that he was asking them to read. So when he gave a test, he said, “Read all these  

questions before you answer any of them.” That was at the top of the page. 

And the very last thing on page two of the test  was, “Don't answer any of these questions.” 

And he said that. None of the student, not  one student handed it back an empty paper. 

They all wrote… wrote the answers as they came. That's a mean, but effective. 

Any more books coming out and coming out for you? 

So, I just recently, like a couple of months  ago, I published another again IELTS book. 

I have about 40 samples of summaries and  essays - fully edited, with, some with  

notes on where people lost points and  what they could do better next time. 

And now I'm working on a  prepositions / collocations book. 

Very nice. 

Oh, that's a great… that's a great book. Where you have examples of essays and then  

the mistakes that were made. Yeah, so. 

So it's a real practical exercise for students. I'm also an editor. 

So my edits are very… very detailed. But it's good for them to learn from so… 

Well, that's your main job, right? You're… you're an editor down in Busan? 

I am online basically, so  mostly I do everything online. 

I have it. Students from all over the world coming  

to me to help them with their stuff. Oh, that's really cool. 

How how's your experience  been in… in Busan so far? 

It's… it's… it's interesting  for the foreign community. 

If they… if they live in Busan, they tend to  live in Busan for their duration in Korea. 

For the Seoul expats, they tend to stay  in Seoul for the duration of their times. 

But everyone I've talked to who lives in  Busan say that they absolutely love it there. 

You've enjoyed, you've enjoyed your work there? Yeah, very much. 

I mean, I lived in Tokyo, so I think I'm, I  think I'm done with the Big city experience. 

I don't think I want to live in Seoul. Plus again, when I feel like it, I go  

down to the beach, hang out, go paddle boarding,  whatever, then come home and work on the computer. 

So it's nice. Perfect. 

I left 5 minutes from the beach. Perfect. 

Uhm, let's talk about the TEDx talk or  that that you that you did recently. 

I watched it. I think you did a great job. 

I think it was a very interesting topic. 

You talked about the importance of writing as  we've already talked about a little bit today. 

How did the… did the TEDx talk happen? They contacted you, obviously. 

Yeah, actually I'm friends with the organizer. And she's been wanting me to come for years,  

but there was never a theme that I would fit into. But this year, this year's theme was Empowered,  

and being able to write is  a very empowering thing, so 

it actually fits nicely this year. Well, I watched it, but I'll let you share. 

What… what were some of the things that  you talked about in your in your speech? 

So, one thing I… some of these  we already mentioned, like the  

difference between writing and speaking. But how writing you have, it's just you and the  

text, and then it's just the reader and the text. Whereas speaking, you have your hands,  

you have your face. You can go back and forth. 

And it's like, express different ideas  until you reach an understanding. 

But writing is only the text, and  if the reader can't understand you,  

can't understand what you're saying, you didn't say anything. 

So it's very important to know how  to write well and I gave some tips. 

For example, the 3C's. Be clear, be concise, be correct. 

Right? Make sure you're doing  

all these things when you're writing. Hold on, I gotta write that down. 

Three Cs. Use this for myself. 

Yeah, every anything you write,  emails, essays, anything. 

It's all about being clear. Writing less is actually better than writing more. 

A lot of people misunderstand that they  think more words is more impressive. 

It's not. It's just more confusing. 

And just make sure you're writing correct things. Don't confuse your reader. 

Make sure you know who your reader is so they  can get to your message and all that, yeah. 

Uhm, again, to use my dad as an example, he always  liked cars that had windows that you had to roll  

up instead of power things. Old school. 

Old school stuff and I… I said, “Why  do you? Why do you prefer that?” 

He said, “The more things you have in  a car, the more things can go wrong.” 

Absolutely. And I think, I think that's a good,  

uh, a good way to think about writing as well. Just because you're using more words, doesn't  

necessarily mean those words are effective. And I remember Doctor Terry Whalen,  

one of my professors in university, he would make  us, after we finished an essay, he would say,  

“Go back and take out every single word that is  not absolutely necessary, to the point that you're  

taking and just strip them all away and then you  get a very clear, very concise piece of writing.” 

That's what you're talking about, yeah? I… I… I tell my students like when I  

teach writing classes, I tell them when you're  whenever you have your first draft, first step,  

cut out 5% of the word count. If you're good enough, make it 10%,  

but start with 5%. Right away. 

Just get rid of words you don't need  and then see how much clearer and more  

effective your writing is already  before you do any other changes. 

Your students must hate that, though, because  you're you probably give them a word count,  

right? Like, OK, I need a I need a 800-word  essay or something, and everybody is trying to. 

Yeah, exactly like thanks, Professor Benn. How's the response been from your students  

when you give them these types of lessons? Do you get that feedback that you so much enjoy? 

Uh, I do. I… I love the feedback. 

A lot of them tell me how much it's  helping them, and that's, again,  

that's why we're here at the end of the day  - to help them get to where they need to get. 

And again, it's that “ah ha” moment  where something clicks and they can  

go to that next step and get even better and… When I hear students who like got into university  

or graduated university and they say, “Thanks.  You helped me a lot,” I… but that's huge for me. 

Yeah, that… It's really rewarding,  

I guess, right. Yeah, very much. 

I'll see you too, right? Oh, absolutely. 

No doubt. No doubt about it. 

The point that you made about being  clear and concise and… and comparing  

that to speaking is something that  I never really thought about before. 

When we talk, you… as you mentioned, we have  our facial expressions, we have our hands. 

As I'm using my hands now, there are all  of these, um, hidden messages, if you will,  

that that I'm conveying to you just… just from  using my voice tone or my facial expressions  

or my hand gestures my body language. So, you can easily understand perhaps  

what the… the main point of what I'm trying  to say, but in writing you don't have any of  

that extra help, and that's why you say it's  so important to be clear and concise, right? 

Absolutely 'cause it's not even…  it's not even your physical self. 

Like how you say a particular word. Where you put the stress in a sentence  

changes the meaning of the sentence, and  your listener generally will get that. 

But you don't have these points. Like, yeah, there are tricks to writing  

to convey anger or to convey humor, but it's a  little bit more nuanced, whereas in speaking,  

it's very obvious. If you're angry,  

you're going to say something angrily. If you're happy, you'll say it happily  

sort of thing, so… It's very different. 

I am the king of misunderstanding text message,  text message tones and that's exactly, but that's  

exactly what you're talking about, right? But text is so short, that text messages,  

so short there's no room for tone. Right, really interesting. 

So, the TEDx talk - Did you..  Did you enjoy the experience? 

I've… I've done one of those as well. I did one here in Seoul. 

And I… I was… I mean, I've worked in media  for years and years and years, but I was,  

I was very nervous in… in the lead up to that. How did you feel about it? 

I… I was so scared. Like after I have finished,  

like after I got off the stage… Uh, huh. 

I said I was… I said to my friend, I'm the  most relaxed person in Spain right now. 

It was over. Right. 

But until then, like even a few days up that  moment, it really, really nervous and sweaty and  

shaking and you could hear it in my voice. My mouth was so dry from being nervous,  

I didn't even know how the words came out. But I was prepared. 

That's the key. Uhm, I almost said  

no when they asked me to do it because it's not  something that was outside of my comfort zone. 

And I also didn't know that  you don't have cue cards. 

You're not allowed to have cue cards. Exactly as member. 

You don't have a podium. You don't have a microphone to hold onto. 

I thought, oh, at least if I can  have that as a security blanket. 

But they said no, no, no, you've just got the  mic on your cheek and the rest is up to you. 

You gotta memorize it. If you have any slides, that's it, yeah. 

Oh my goodness. But you… you… you enjoyed it overall? 

You're happy that you did it? The experience, I'm happy I did it. 

You're talking about comfort zone. Completely out of my comfort zone. 

I'm like, I'm, uh, at the end of  the day, I'm a pretty shy person. 

I have no problem with a camera. I have a huge problem with a live audience. 

It's totally different. So, but I'm glad I did it. 

Like I… I tend to… the more something scares  me, the more I'm likely to actually do it. 

Oh really? That's why I'm a  

little strange that way. Oh, that's good. 

I mean, it's better for your future. Well, speaking about writing in general,  

has it changed or has it changed  I… I mean the way that we, right? 

Has that, has that developed or or… or… or… or  gone in a different direction over maybe the last  

10 or 15 years, academically or otherwise? Or does it always kind of stay similar? 

I think writing at its base stays  similar, but there are changes. 

Like if you read newspapers today and you read  them before, everything is much tighter now. 

I think also social media like  captions and tweeting and all that. 

People got used to reading short. And young people today, their attention  

span is much shorter than it used to be. So people have to be more direct, more concise  

with their whatever they're writing. And I think even novels  

have taken that on a little bit because  you don't see as much flowery language. 

You don't see as much, you know, expansion like  if you read Gabriel Garcia, Marquez, whatever. 

That guy goes on and on and on with adjectives  but I'm not sure how popular he would be with  

a younger generation now. Do you know what I mean? 

The story is amazing. The writing is amazing. 

But I don't know if they have the  attention span for that these days, so… 

Yeah, I mean, you make a good point. Because even when you watch YouTube videos,  

for example. Yeah. 

Some, some, some of them have to be extremely  short because people just don't have the  

attention span, nor the wants, nor the desire. I guess what it is these days in our culture,  

our society is that it's gotta be immediate. We want things immediately. 

One of my favorite comedians,  Ronny Chang, talks about,  

you know, in American culture, just like we want it now. 

Like Amazon… Amazon now, like, deliver it to me  before I want it, so you can see inside my brain. 

Use AI to guess what I want. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

That's interesting. So that's had an  

effect on… on writing on writing as well. I think so a little bit, but again, at the end  

of the day you still have to be clear, so. This is… but I think if you were  

coming back to earlier question you asked me  like, am I surprised by my channel doing well? 

I am a little bit because my videos are not  that short and it is writing and again, but  

people don't want to do it, they need to do it. I think that's the big thing. 

How would you tell your students, because it's  when we talk about being clear and concise  

in our language and in our writing, there  is a line though where you still want to be  

perhaps descriptive or you still want  to be eloquent, eloquent in your in your  

in your writing, so where… where do students, how are… how are the students supposed to know  

where that line is of of  kind of going too far in the  

opposite direction and overcompensating  and not being descriptive enough. 

Yeah, I think first of all, it starts with who's  your target audience and what's the context? 

Ok. If you’re in  

business and you're writing an e-mail, the  shorter, the absolute shortest, the better. 

'cause people don't have time that like, if  you're lucky, if they even open your e-mail. 

If you're writing an essay… again if you have to  fill up 4 pages and but you can actually answer  

the question in two, then yeah, obviously  you cannot expand and give a bit more, but…. 

If you're getting into creative writing,  

then there's no limits. Do whatever you feel  

will make the reader interested, right? So it's all about context, I think. 

Yeah, and I… I think knowing your audience  is a… is an excellent point as well. 

Because, you know, if you're talking to a group  of people who perhaps are not familiar with  

certain technical vocabulary, then it's better  to not use that technical vocabulary if you can,  

because you're going to be, the expression  is to talk over someone's head, right? 

And in writing people do… people don't  like that in speaking and they definitely,  

definitely do not enjoy it in writing because  your audience is immediately lost, right? 

Exactly, like I always say, one of the  first things I say, “Avoid jargon.” 

If you're in a specific field and… your  make sure you know who you're writing to. 

So sometimes I help people apply  for, let's say, medical residencies. 

They want to go do a medical  residency in the States. 

And they need help with their personal  statement, statements of purpose, etc. 

And some of them get very detailed into the  things that they actually do, like the medical  

procedures. Right. 

And I tell them just understand that  yes, medical people will be reading it,  

but also some non-medical people. Don't lose them, right? 

Be very general 'cause the medical people  will understand you, but you'll also keep the  

non-medical people interested, right? It's the same idea. 

Yep, that's a great point. And… and you said it extremely well,  

you're going to lose them. And then it you start to use words that  

they don't know, your audience is gone, right? Yeah, and they're and they're scanning too. 

If they scan it, I can't get this. That's it. 

They have no problem putting you  in the rejection file right away. 

It reminds me of… I've interviewed a lot of  musicians over the years, and I always find  

that with jazz musicians they use a lot of you  know, when they talk about like inspirations  

for their career, there's always a list of names  that I have no idea what they're talking about. 

But those names always come out, right? Yeah, the references. Yeah. 

Yeah, exactly. Even if… like for students who are watching  

like sitcoms to learn English, I know that a lot  of the jokes or a lot of the big points made,  

have to do with references, and it's so if you  don't understand what's going on, don't worry,  

because it's not about English. Yeah, right. 

It's about the cultural references. If you don't know them, you don't know them, so… 

Yeah, that's true. That's an excellent point. 

Well, very good. Well, we'll… we'll wrap it up  

here shortly, but once again, congratulations on. I mean, a lot of different things, really, right? 

You're, you're, you're EngVid  videos are extremely popular. 

You're continuing to work there, so  you can go and find Adam at engvid.com 

Are those… those videos are not just at the  website, but they're also on YouTube as well. 

Is that correct? They're on, yeah, if you go ‘EngVid  

Adam,’ you'll find my videos. Very good. 

You can also find Adams homepage or  his home channel Write to the Top  

and that's W-R-I-T-E To the Top. A really popular channel there. 

You can watch Adam’s TEDx talk on his  channel, as I did before saying hello today. 

Your books are available on… tell us…  tell us where we can find your books? 

On Amazon and is there another location? Uh, writetotop.com no ‘the’ in the  

website address, yeah? OK, writetotop.com  

no ‘the’ as you mentioned, right? You can find Adam’s books there as well. 

Well, very good, sir. You are an extremely busy man with all of the  

content that you are constantly creating. So once again, congratulations. 

Right. Yeah. It was a real pleasure to… to chat with you and… 

You as well. Best or luck. 

And if you ever make it up to Seoul, then give us  a call and we'll get a cup of coffee or something. 

Absolutely. Thank you. Adam Benn, thank you. 

Thank you for joining us once  again on Speak English Fluently. 

I've been your host, Steve Hatherly, and if you're  interested in my own channel then you can find me. 

Search story time Steve Hatherly  and you can find me there. 

Hope you come back for the next video. And Adam, thank you, sir. 

Have a good one. Thank you.  

You too.