Etacude English Teachers Interview with Eric Wesch | Speak English Fluently with Steve Hatherly

Welcome to another edition of Speak English Fluently.

I am your host, Steve Hatherly.

And I thank you for joining us once again.

I’m very excited today because my guest is Mr. Eric Wesch.

He is originally from South Africa.

He's been in Korea for about 10 years now, in total, teaching English.

But in 2019, that's when Eric decided to start a YouTube channel,

and the channel is called Etacude.

Now, it's an interesting channel because it's about education.

But it's focusing on teachers.

It's a channel that is dedicated to helping teachers become, quote, and I quote from the

YouTube channel, “An unstoppable force in the classroom.”

Mr. Eric Wesch, thank you very much for joining me today.

It's a… it's a real pleasure to meet you.

Hi, Steve.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's… it's a pleasure to be here today.

I’ve just come from visiting your YouTube channel and watching some of your videos

and we're going to talk a lot about Etacude.

And… and what it is, and what it's for.

But first, let's start by talking about you.

You are from South Africa originally.

Which… which part may I ask?

Well, South Africa is very interesting.

Um you've got Johannesburg, or Johannesburg at the… in the north, and then you've got

Cape Town in the South.

Um the easiest way for me to explain, is that I live about an hour away from Johannesburg.

Okay, very good.

Would that be considered the countryside a little bit?

A little bit, yeah.

It's… it's not a city.

I grew up in a town with a population of 200,000 people so not very big.

Well that's… that's huge.

I really enjoyed it.

It's big, yeah.

Very good.

Uh… what made you come to Korea originally, I wonder?

Well, I started teaching in 2007.

And I taught in South Africa for a couple of years.

Okay.

But, because South Africa is so far away from, well, the rest of the world, I wanted to explore

and see other places.

So, I did some research on countries to travel and to teach at.

And I heard some good things about South Korea.

And then, yeah, just came to South Korea to teach.

And I’ve been here ever since.

And you learned that all of those good things that you heard before were very very true,

right?

Most of them, definitely.

Were you teaching English as a second language in South Africa, or were you teaching in the

public school system?

I was teaching in the public school system.

And I had to teach a few topics, a few subjects.

Uh one was, uh, English, and the other one was, um, I had to teach some social sciences.

So I’ve uh I had a few classes, but it were… it was at a public school.

I see.

From looking at your YouTube channel, and reading your channel description, I saw, and

learned, that you've taught almost all ages here in the country.

I have.

Uh, I have.

I’m very fortunate to have taught all ages.

I’ve taught kindergarten.

I’ve taught elementary school a lot.

I’ve taught high school.

And now, currently, I’m teaching at a university.

Um, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with adults to teach business, and other types

of career related topics, too.

Very good.

Is there any particular age group that stands out to you as your favorite?

Well, every age group has its, uh, benefits and well also its struggles, or its challenges.

And I feel with younger learners, they have a lot of energy, and you can have fun with

them.

But, it's also very draining.

Then with all the students, they are very self-motivated.

But… and you don't have to struggle with classroom management.

But it's sometimes difficult to get them to talk and to be excited about a topic.

So, um, to answer your question, I actually prefer, right now, to teach adults, or students

because they are much easier.

But, every now and again, I like to go and work with young learners because they're so

much fun and uh it's… it's a… we can play so many games, and it's very engaging.

So you were teaching for about seven years in Korea and you're living down in Daegu now

is that correct?

That's right.

Well I taught three years in South Africa.

Five years in Busan, where I taught at a science high school.

I really enjoyed it, very smart students.

And now I’m currently teaching at Daegu.

And I’ve been here for five years, so 10 years in Korea.

If you're not familiar with the geography of Korea, Daegu is on the South Eastern side

of the country, right?

Great geography there.

I had to kind of check my memory first.

Um, well, like I was getting to, so you were in Korea for about seven years I guess when

you decided to make the YouTube channel called Etacude.

So let's talk about that decision to start a channel in the first place.

And then maybe you can segue into talking about what the channel is actually about.

Well, I’d love to.

Um, you know I’ve…

I’ve been teaching for a long time and… and I remember when I first started teaching.

I was so desperate to find answers.

I was so…

I really wanted someone to help me to… to help me, how do I run a class?

How do I deal with students?

How do I make lesson plans?

What activities can I use with my students?

And I remember, I was …this was while I was studying.

I was a student.

Many years ago.

Many years ago, when I was a student.

And I was so desperate for help, and even though I had professors, and other teachers

there, I…

I felt like I still needed more support.

I’ve…

I felt like, um, they have failed me.

I tried to read books, um, YouTube didn't exist back then.

But I was looking for information everywhere, and I just couldn't find it.

And then, for years, I just had that feeling of I want to give back because I know… how

it was to start without any help.

And for years, I had this feeling, oh I need to try and find a way to… to help other

teachers.

But the problem was… the problem was that I was deathly afraid, and… of being in front

of a camera.

Oh, interesting.

I hated the sound of my own voice.

It's still very bad.

And whenever somebody would take a video, I would almost run out of the room.

And so, at some point, I just realized that, this need for me to try and help other teachers

out there, um, outweighed the… the… the fear of cameras.

And the fear of learning something new.

So, eventually, I just bit the bullet.

That means, uh, I decided to do it.

And I started the channel.

And three years later, here I am not that afraid of video.

Actually embracing it, and learning something new about, um, video and audio, and, um, writing

scripts and YouTube every single day.

Well I guess you are being a great teacher in that sense because you are leading by example.

You are showing your students that, hey, I was afraid to learn something new, but I did

it, so you can, too.

Yeah, definitely.

You know, as teachers, uh, we are supposed to be role models, and I think if we can show

our students that, listen, here is this huge obstacle or, that I have to overcome, or this

wall between me and my goals if you apply yourself, and you work very hard, then you

can cross that wall, and you can achieve your goals.

So especially with language learning, uh, one… one of my greatest skills, I believe,

one of my greatest skills is to try and get my students to talk.

Because as a language learner… as a language teacher our students are very often shy or

they don't want to speak out loud.

They don't want to communicate with their friends.

They are… they… they hate public speaking.

So um, one of my skills is to try and get that out of my students.

Um, I think it's so important to… to show them that you know… there's by… by applying

yourself by trying…

trying new things, uh, you will learn, and you will grow, and there…

there's nothing to be afraid of, only you know, there's only success that will come

in the future.

I think you did a great thing by recognizing that there was a need for a channel like Etacude.

Because I remember, I’ve been in Korea for 20 years now and I haven't been, uh, teaching

in a classroom for… for quite some time now, but in the very beginning, when I first

came, I could have used all the help that I… that I could get.

And there were no resources outside of like you said, uh, my co-workers and things like

that.

So you had this idea, okay, so I’m gonna make a YouTube channel dedicated to helping

teachers.

But that's a very broad, that's a very broad topic, so how did you decide where you were

going to start?

Well… well that… that's very interesting, um…

Well before I started, I knew that my first video and my first idea won't be perfect.

It won't be perfect, um, and I just decided to start making some videos on topics that

I’m interested in.

And also, topics that I’ve heard people need some help with.

I started out with, I think, a couple of, um, words in Korean for new teachers to use.

Okay.

Come to Korea.

So I did some even though my Korean isn't very good.

I…

I wanted to share some… some tips and tricks to new teachers.

Those videos weren't very good, but I was…

I was, um, I was so proud of myself for being in front of a camera and trying.

And then after that, um, I started trying new things.

Um, trying to do videos on activities, or if somebody mentioned that they needed some

help with the first day of class, I started making videos on whatever the need was.

And now, I’ve got all these ideas of videos that I make.

And whenever someone suggests it, I do some research and I try to present something useful

to them.

Well that's great because you have an audience of teachers who are constantly learning themselves

and asking you questions and that helps you create your content, right?

100% Um, one of the things that I do is, for the

past two years, every Sat… every Sunday night at 10 p.m.,

I have a one hour live stream.

Where, um, I’ve got teachers joining and sharing what's going on in their lives and

in their classes.

I’ve got English learners coming to the live stream just to chat.

And I get so many ideas from teachers saying, listen, I’m doing this in my class and it's

working.

Or I’ve got this problem, or what…

what advice would you give?

So for…

I’ve almost done…

I’ve done 150…

I think it's 150.

Almost 150, um, live streams of just talking for an hour.

And I’ve learned so much from teachers, um, out there, you know…

When we're only one person, we've only got one experience.

But I’m so grateful to be able to talk to many teachers and learn from them.

It's true because everybody has a different experience in the classroom, right.

That's really cool you've done 150 live streams.

And that's great practice for you to get over your fear of being in front of the camera

that you obviously don't have anymore.

Yeah, I don't think I’ve got that fear anymore.

I…

I just realized you know, I just realized that whatever happens, just let go, um, relax,

you know, and do your best, you know, that's… that's all that can be expected of you.

I think so…

So often we…

we…

we think that we're being watched or that we should be better than we are, but you know

I can only be who I am in the moment and hopefully I can do my best, you know.

The channel now is doing extremely well.

Somewhere in the area of what almost 89,000 subscribers now.

I think was what was the number that I saw.

Was that immediate success for the channel, or has it been growing consistently over the

three years?

Three years for a YouTube channel is not really a long time so you've… congratulations you've

done really really well for yourself.

Thank you so much.

Um yeah, I’ve…

I’ve been…

I’ve been very fortunate to have so many teachers support me.

Um, I think um I…

I… even though I work very hard, I’m very fortunate to have many teachers out there.

And also, English learners, um, so eager to learn new things and that has really pushed

me to… to be more active and to find more useful resources to share.

So I think, um, you know, whenever we do something and it comes from, uh, from a place of trying

to help and assist others, you know, you will only have positive results and that's… that's

kept me going.

Etacude, and you informed me of this just before we started, and it was a kind of a

mind-blowing moment for me.

Uh, you can tell the audience what you told what you told me before we started today.

Okay, so it's Etacude, e-t-a-c-u-d-e, um, I’ve had so many teachers say, “Eric,

that's such an interesting word.

What does it mean?”

I’ve had long time viewers that have watched me for… for years saying Eric, um, and then

in a live stream they say…

they asked me Eric how did you come up with the name?

What does it mean?

And actually Etacude, if you read it backwards, is ‘educate,’ right?

And, um, I picked that up.

I’m so happy to pick that that… that name, but you know what happens, Steve?

It's… it's actually funny, um, uh, one of my friends, Robin Shaw actually gave me some

good advice.

Originally, my YouTube channel's name was just Etacude.

Okay.

And I liked it.

I knew what it meant and it was for teachers.

It was unique.

And then my friend, Robin suggested, “Eric, I like the name but people don't know what

the channel is about.”

So I thought, yeah, he's right.

And I changed the name to Etacude English Teachers.

Now whenever someone sees the name, they know, okay well, this is about… this is for English

teachers.

And the other problem is, if somebody wanted to search Etacude, um, they… they might

not know what the what…

what the name means, so it might be difficult to search for it.

So, um, after changing the name, I’ve…

I’ve had, um, I’ve seen a lot more progress.

So I’m very grateful to Robin for giving me that advice.

Great advice indeed.

So let's talk, uh, a little bit more in detail about the channel.

What kind of videos can teachers see there?

If the teachers or students, I should say, should they visit your channel?

Okay, my goal is to make useful videos for teachers.

So whenever I have some tips, some activities, or free resources, I share it with the community.

When…

when Covid happened, I… teachers had to move online, so I created a whole series about

how to teach online.

And then I’ve also done videos on activities.

Because teachers need to keep their students busy, so I did lots of videos on activities.

Especially I like activities about everything but activities about special events, like

Christmas activities, or you know Halloween activities, so those are very popular.

For myself, I also like making videos on classroom management.

Because when you start as a new teacher, you don't know how to control a class.

So a lot of my videos that I enjoy making, is all about how to teach… a teacher to

not just be strict, but be a good teacher and control the classroom and help them.

And so those are the videos that I make.

I make videos on activities and videos on teaching tips, teaching online.

And in the future, I plan on making videos on how to teach grammar.

So that is something that I will be working on for the future is how to teach some topics

related to grammar.

What is one tip?

If you could give us a little, uh, peek behind the curtain, if you will, in how to run a

classroom successfully?

What is Eric Wesch's number one tip for teachers on that?

Okay, um, the first tip I would give, I’ve got a billion tips that I can share, but…

Well share as many…

share as many as you like then.

I think the most important tip I can give anyone, is to, and this is going to sound

very corny, but it's going to be believe in yourself.

It sounds corny, but let me explain.

When a new teacher starts teaching, they look towards other teachers for advice.

They look towards someone to save them.

Someone to tell them what to do.

Because their whole lives…

when they was… their whole lives when they were students, they were told what to do.

They were list…

they would listen to their teacher.

Now that they are the teacher, they've never had the experience of control of teaching

students and now they have to learn.

So what I would tell a teacher is trust yourself.

You will learn faster if you take responsibility for your actions and you are the one in control

of the class.

And that is a leadership, um…

um, that is something to do with leadership where you're the one in control of the students,

you're the one leading them, helping them to be successful.

So if you trust in yourself, you know that the more you're going to teach this class,

the more you're going to learn.

You will grow and you will improve.

And just that knowledge that you should believe in yourself, that you will improve, will give

you the confidence to be a better teacher.

So that is probably my number one tip that I would give teachers out there.

Well I feel motivated myself after hearing that speech.

That was wonderful.

Um, is that… that's one of the challenges that new teachers face.

And you taught in the public education system in South Africa.

And you've taught many different levels here… age groups here in Korea.

What do you think are some of the challenges that teachers face, perhaps in general, or

teaching English as a second language, albeit here in Korea, or anywhere around the world?

Um, it's… it's different around the world.

Some things are similar, some things are different.

When you teach your younger learners, you have to engage them in a fun playful way because

maybe they don't have that internal motivation to study language.

So you've got to engage them with your delivery, with your activities, with the content, you've

got to make it colorful.

And then, with all the students, how you motivate them, is you're going to have to make it as

useful as possible, make it practical, so that they feel like they're learning.

So motivation is very important across the board.

It… but it… it's different also the way that students are able to interact and do

activities.

For example, in South Africa, and other countries, you know in the West, we love talking about

ourselves.

We…

we love talking about ourselves.

Um, you know, uh, and uh, we like, we love sharing our experiences.

We have no problem with talking to a group about who we are, you know.

A very individualistic society.

Whereas in Korea, the students might be shy because they might get judged in a group.

So, um, it's… it's very important to set up your class for success, to show the students

that in this class you're going to have fun, but you have to speak and… and it's, it's

very important to get that out of them.

So yeah, um, different challenges, some things are the same, but there are things that you

can change that are a little bit different between the countries.

That's a great point because I remember when I, uh, began teaching.

Um, I think it was middle school or high school students here in Korea, and I would ask them

a question expecting like it would be in Canada, where I’m from, where you know many students

would raise their hand - and nobody would raise their hand.

And I thought, this is quite frustrating.

I don't know why…

why doesn't anyone want to answer me?

I don't understand.

And then a co-worker of mine said they're not being rude, they just… they're not used

to doing this type of thing in the classroom because that's not normal activity in a Korean

classroom.

So I guess another one of the challenges would be understanding little cultural tidbits,

too, um, when you're dealing with students in Korea, or wherever you are in the world.

Understanding where the students are coming from can help you a lot, too, I guess.

100 percent.

Um, I think this is an interesting concept in education and that is scaffolding.

‘scaffolding’ is basically when you build a house you want to you want to scaffold it

- you want to create certain parts first, and then add on top of that.

Now scaffolding, scaffolding, can be used in different ways.

When you scaffold a lesson for example, you can scaffold by first introducing some vocabulary,

Then you can give some examples in a sentence.

Then you can give some examples from your own life.

You give… you show the students how to do it.

You write it on the board and then you ask them simple questions so that, little by little,

they are learning instead of giving them a whole sentence, or a whole dialogue to do,

you're doing it step by step.

And that is very important to understand when you teach any level of student.

If you're teaching young learners, you're going to start in a very simple way and then

work it up.

If you're teaching advanced students, the same concept, the same idea applies where

you're going to teach them step by step.

And scaffolding, I believe, can also be applied to communication with students.

When a student comes into class, you want to ask them simple questions to get them talking

and get them comfortable.

So you can ask, “Oh, how was your day?”

And they will say, “It was fine,” or uh, “Do you like…

Did you eat lunch?

Yes?

No?”

So it gets them talking.

Then when you start the lesson, you're going to start off by asking simple questions, uh,

creating simple dialogues making them comfortable to speak in class.

I believe that's a vital skill to learn is to scaffold the way that you teach and scaffold

the way that you communicate with others.

Very good.

So let's talk about the live streams that you do.

You touched on it briefly.

You do them every single weekend.

Every Sunday night at 10 p.m.

At 10 p.m. correct.

10 p.m. Korean time or 1 p.m. GMT.

And then you do these for about an hour each… each time or does the time vary?

One hour exactly.

And… and sometimes I invite other teachers, or interesting guests to come on.

So for example, um, yesterday Tues… what's the date today?

Today's Tuesday.

Two days ago, uh, I had an Indian teacher on and she was just brilliant sharing a lot

of knowledge and wisdom with us.

Very good.

So, sometimes, it's just me talking very fast and talking to other teachers.

And other times, I invite guests on.

Fantastic, uh, what a wonderful resource for teachers and students alike.

And maybe you can talk about that a little bit because, uh, the website is not necessarily

just for teachers, correct?

Or the channel, excuse me?

Well, it's interesting.

Many language learners have joined my channel because they come for listening practice and

they interact with me.

They send me messages, or they ask me questions, or they share parts of their lives.

And I think…

I hope that it's useful for them, too, because a lot of the… the lessons and the videos

I put out, can be used by language learners, too.

Obviously, my…

my viewers are mostly teachers because I try and help them, but if it's useful to language

learners, it… it makes… it makes me happy that I can help other people, too.

Are there books as well?

I do have some books.

I’ve got one book that is 1,000 English Questions and Answers.

Oh, wow.

So basically, I found 50 topics and I wrote out 20 questions for each topic and 20 answers.

And a lot of my viewers, teachers, use it in class with their students.

And a lot of English learners use it to learn what are some… some basic questions and

how to answer it.

So that is one of the books that I created.

Very cool.

Why should teachers visit, uh, Etacude English Teachers?

What's the number one main reason teachers should visit your channel?

I believe that, um, if you're a teacher, you can come to the channel, and you're going

to find out some interesting information about education.

You're going to find hundreds of activities that you can use in class.

You're going to find a community of teachers that support each other.

And a lot of free resources that you can use in your class to make life as a teacher just

much better.

There's literally no reason not to visit Etacude English teachers.

Everyone's welcome.

Um, I…

I’m so grateful for every teacher, and English learner, or person, or whoever wants to come

to the channel.

Um, I love to help and that's what the channel is for.

Very good.

Well Mr. Eric Wesch, it was a pleasure to speak with you.

It was wonderful to learn about Etacude English Teachers.

Congratulations on your success that you've had and I wish you more of that in the future.

It was a real pleasure to meet you and… and chat with you today.

And I thank you.

Thank you so much Steve for having me and everybody else out there watching that I hope

you have a fantastic week and, uh, we'll see you next time.

Visit Eric's channel Etacude English Teachers.

And if you're looking for more of me, you can visit my own channel, called Story Time:

Steve Hatherly.

You can find that on YouTube as well.

Eric you have to you have to subscribe to my channel for sure, yeah?

100%.

Fantastic.

And I'll…

I'll return the favor as well, uh, all right.

Well once again Eric thank you so much.

Be safe.

Be happy.

Be healthy and I hope to chat with you again someday.

Bye.