u/EnglishWithLindsay

I recently heard a fitness instructor who was being interviewed say, "Most people don't really want to work out, but they'll do it because they want to spend an hour with me."

Something really clicked when I heard that. I was like, oh yeah...that's right! It's not just that I'm knowledgable and good at teaching - my students like spending time with me!

I think we undervalue ourselves...it seems too egocentric to even think such a thing, let alone say it. But people do like spending time with you. You're not just a source of information. There are enough fitness Youtube videos out there right now that people should never hire a personal trainer again. And yet, the personal trainer market is actively growing. You won't be replaced by AI because studying is hard, and your students like spending time with you.

I find this fascinating because of how language shapes our perception of the world/our perception of the world shapes our language.

I've found so many specific words that exist in English and don't exist in Spanish, that I finally Googled how many words there are in each language, and when I saw that English has 30 to 50% more words than Spanish, it all made sense.

For example, there's no word for murder vs assassinate in Spanish (when it comes to verbs). The word "drown" and "choke" are the same in Spanish. There's no verb for "ache" when specifying that type of pain - the opposite of a sharp pain. Like, in Spanish you can say, "it's burning" but you can't say, "it's aching" - you just generalize with "it's hurting". There isn't one word for "smirk" and many other very specific verbs (you just have to say that you smiled in a particular way) To glower at someone? Nope. To gaze? Nope. Each of these words has a very specific feeling for me, which feels much different than saying, "he looked at him with his brow furrowed" or "she looked at him in a fixed way / she looked at him contemplatively / she observed him - none of those ways of saying it in Spanish feel equivalent to "gaze".

However, Spanish does have a lot of specific nouns for making fun of people/describing a particular physical characteristic of a person hahaha. "Chimuelo" is a guy who's missing teeth, frentón is a person with a big forehead, etc. And I like that the word apapachar both means to literally "cuddle" with someone, and also to "comfort" someone through acts of service. So then, making chicken soup for my sick friend is "cuddling" them. It gives me a physical sensation of affection when I talk about comforting a friend...I don't actually think I'd even use the word "comfort someone" in everyday conversation - like, "Oh, Sara's sick? Make sure to comfort her." And "take care of" doesn't feel as affectionate to me as "apapachar".

I remember 20 years ago when I learned the term "me da pena ajena", we didn't have a common expression for that in English. But now we've created, "that's so cringe/cringey". I think it's because of how tiktok and instagram culture has made us so hyper conscious about how we're perceived and whether or not what we're doing will be accepted by everyone, whereas before we were culturally a bit more individualistic - there wasn't as much importance placed on having everyone else's approval the way there often is in communal cultures.

The only other language 'discovery' that comes to mind is that I remember once I was telling a story to my ESL class about how my roommate had so little "presence" in a room, that I once walked into 'our' tiny 5 table cafe around the corner from our apartment, sat and had a coffee, and only as I was leaving did I notice that he had been there, sitting at a table the whole time! A Japanese student immediately said, "ah, ghost person!" Hahaha, I was like, oh wow, that's the perfect way to describe it!

What have you all come across?

Hi all, can anyone recommend some good Youtube channels which focus on A1/A2 level American English listening practice for adults?

Hi all, the most recent posts I was able to find on the topic of pay rates were from at least 6 months ago...and I've seen a lot of conflicting information. I saw a post from 2 years ago with extensive comments agreeing that highly qualified native English speaking ESL tutors should never accept less than $50 USD per hour. But is that actually happening on the internet these days? First of all, nobody cares if you're qualified - you can just make a degree and any certificate with Canva if it strikes your fancy - it's the internet - the only thing that really matters is merit - being a native English speaker and actually being a good teacher (I'm not saying you have to be a native English speaker to be a good teacher - but if students care about learning a particular accent, that makes sense.) In my case, I post on Superprof Mexico, and there the majority of native English speaking tutors who are willing to meet in person for lessons or to teach online are charging $18 USD per hour at the MOST. I decided to test the waters and set my rates on that same platform at $36 - which is close to double the highest rates and is literally the highest rate anyone is asking for in Mexico City. Honestly, I felt really cheeky for even asking for this rate. Like, who am I to think I should get double what other experienced, native English ESL teachers are making?? Anyways, at that rate I've been getting about one new student per month. So, it's been a very slow but steady build. In my case, I spend most of my time developing materials for online ESL teachers, so I actually don't have time for more than a handful of teaching hours per week (it's a huge help with regard to refining and improving these materials, and it's also a great motivator for me to have real students who I'm excited about developing lessons for). Anyways, seeing that "you should be charging at least $50 an hour" kind of talk made me think - really? Should I push my rates up to what is actually more than double the going rate on Superprof Mexico? If I felt a bit cheeky asking for $36 an hour, asking $50 just feels...weird? I know, I know, obviously I could just do it and see what happens - see how the market responds. But at my current rate, my students are CEO's of large companies, the odd person who just has extreme wealth (you know when they talk about how on their last vacation they were driving Porsches on the ice...you know, remember that time you went to Finland and drove Porsches on the ice?) and then I have other more "normal" people who are just professionals in their mid 30's who have solid middle management jobs and want to invest in improving their English speaking skills. And I feel like my $50 an hour rate would just eliminate that group of people...which I don't want to do because I like spending time with them...and what is life but the people we spend our hours with? Ok so, I think I've just talked myself into my own answer of not raising my rates...but I'm still curious. Are people out there charging and actually earning $50+ USD per hour for one on one speaking lessons online? Because I just don't see this on the platforms I've been on. And if you are making this kind of money, what kind of students are you getting, where do you find them, and how frequently do you acquire new students?

(P.S., I only felt like I could 'ethically' charge even $36 an hour if I had some really unique, highly polished, "meaty" lesson materials to use with my students - and then I developed materials so great that I decided to focus most of my time on doing that! If you'd like just message me and I'll send you some 😄)