What I Cover in This Episode

I took a month off and went to Mexico City to visit family after 10 years away. Coming back to recording felt surprisingly hard — I made mistakes, got frustrated, and questioned whether I should even publish. That experience got me thinking about what happens when you step away from something and lose your rhythm, and what it takes to get it back.

I also started working with a business coach, and the very first session was eye-opening. I had been feeling stuck — like I was driving in first gear and didn't know how to shift up. Getting an outside perspective showed me things I was too close to see, like the fact that I had removed my podcast introduction and my show had become generic. I put it back, and I'm already working on making it better.

I'm also switching to weekly episodes for the next six months to get my reps in and rebuild my comfort and confidence behind the microphone.

Then I sit down with my business coach for an interview about what I do and how I help people prepare for the CELPIP exam.

Let's work together to get ready for your CELPIP exam.

What You'll Learn From the Interview

What CELPIP is and why it matters. It's a language proficiency exam used in the Canadian immigration process. The higher you score, the stronger your application for permanent residency or citizenship. Even native English speakers from the US have had to take it.

How CELPIP differs from IELTS. You don't talk to a human examiner — you record your speaking responses into a computer, which makes it less intimidating, especially if you're an introvert. It's also 100% focused on Canadian English, so if you've been living in Canada, your ear is already tuned to the accents you'll hear on the test.

The biggest misconception about the exam. You can't just study harder and expect your score to go up. The CELPIP measures your actual level of English. If you're stuck at a seven, the exam is telling you that you have an intermediate level. To score higher, you need to build your general English skills — and that might take a year of focused work. Stop throwing $300 at retakes and start investing in your language foundation.

Strategy matters as much as language. The exam is you versus the clock. Every task is timed. You need to learn what to do and what not to do so you don't run out of time before you finish.

Why voice chats work for practice. In a group class, you spend most of your time listening and waiting — not speaking. With voice chats, there's no hiding. You record short, timed responses on your phone whenever you have time — even at 2 AM on a night shift break. You can listen back, spot your mistakes (like switching from past to present tense mid-response), and get precise, focused feedback. Nobody has time to re-listen to a full hour-long Zoom class, but you can review a one-minute clip easily.

Confidence is half the battle. A lot of introverts carry a negative narrative about their English. That self-doubt drags you down on exam day. When you practice in a low-pressure way and start to see improvement, that attitude shifts — and your score follows.

Real student results. One student went from an 8 to an 11 and a 12 across his exam after two to three months of daily practice — despite a speech impediment. Another went from a 5 to an 8 once she learned the right strategies for reading and writing. In both cases, the language ability was already there. They just needed to learn how to show it under pressure.

Takeaways for You

1.Check your current level of English before you retake the exam. If you're stuck at a seven, ask yourself honestly: is my English at an upper-intermediate level? If not, no amount of CELPIP studying will bump your score. Build your language skills first.

2. Be ready to receive constructive feedback. When someone points out what you're doing wrong, it can sting — especially if you've been at it for a while. But that outside perspective is exactly what helps you break through.

3. Do things differently if you want different results. If you keep doing the same thing, you'll keep getting the same score. If you've been working alone, using ChatGPT, and hoping for a better outcome — it's time to ask for help.

4. Get your reps in. Use your English as frequently as you can. Record yourself speaking for set amounts of time. Practice finishing within the last 10 seconds of your time limit. Put yourself in high-pressure situations at home so the real thing doesn't throw you off.

5. Don't avoid your weak spots. We all tend to skip the things we're not good at. Face them directly — that's where the biggest improvements happen.

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Want to Work Together?

I have over 17 years of experience teaching English and I'm a certified CELPIP trainer. I can help you build your confidence, figure out what you're already doing well, and pinpoint where you're getting stuck. Click here to get started.

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Top 5

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to the Celpip Success Podcast.

The most introvert friendly podcast on the planet, dedicated to helping you prepare for and conquer the CELPIP exam.

If you're tired of feeling stuck and getting ready for your exam, then, my friend, this is the podcast for you.

Who am I?

My name is Aaron.

I've been an English teacher for over 17 years.

I'm a certified Celpip trainer and I can't wait to help you get ready for your Celpip exam.

So for the month of July, basically, I have been on vacation.

I've not been recording new podcast episodes and sending them out to you.

I've just been sending out pre recorded episodes that I had done before we went away.

And by the way, if you're wondering, on my time away, we went to Mexico City to visit family and just spend a couple of weeks with them, which has been wonderful.

It was so good to be back in Mexico City where I lived for, oh gosh, a little over 16 years.

So it's been about 10 or 11 years since I had been back home, back to Mexico, and it was just lovely.

But like I was saying before, during that time I wasn't doing any, you know, active work here in my business with you recording podcast episodes.

Like I said before, I had pre recorded some episodes that I scheduled out to go live during my time away for me so that I really didn't need to do hardly anything except for enjoy some amazing tacos, enjoy family and just unplug and try to kind of rest and relax.

And it was badly, badly needed.

But on my way back and having to get back into the, the practice of recording podcast episodes.

And this week, well, the past week was my first podcast episodes.

That podcast episode that I recorded and released in the old, what's the word I'm looking for in the old routine that I was following before of, you know, recording an episode on the weekend before releasing it on Tuesday.

That was the first time getting back into that routine and full confession here, it was really, really hard.

It was surprisingly hard for me to sit down and record the episode.

I made so many mistakes.

Even though I had scripted out a lot of what I wanted to say.

I made so many mistakes, got really frustrated at times, had moments of thinking to myself, maybe I shouldn't even release this episode.

I have one more pre recorded episode that I could release which would give me a little bit more time to, you know, get back into Normal, but I had all of that going on in my head.

But at the same time I knew I needed to just get started and I forced myself to hit publish on the episode that I.

That you maybe have already listened to.

But the one that went out last Tuesday, that was my first episode back.

And like I said just a second ago, it was, it felt so hard and so frustrating because it had been, you know, over a month since I had sat down to record a new episode and I just felt frankly out of practice and that was an eye opening experience for me.

And that kind of leads into something else that I want to tell you about.

I've started to get coaching for my business.

If you've been following me for a while, I think I've been recording now these podcast episodes for over two years.

I'd have to go back in time.

I guess maybe I should have done that before I started talking with you right now.

But I've been at this for a while and I've been working with clients for about the same amount of time for the past maybe three years on the, on helping people get ready for the supplement exam.

But I've like, before going away, I was feeling like I was stuck.

I was feeling like I wanted to find a way to somehow serve more people and to do a better job of serving the people that I was already serving.

Not because I think I was doing a bad job, but I want to be able to reach more and help those who come to work with me even better than what I am.

But I didn't know how.

Like I feel like I was doing everything that I could think of to do.

I was listening to other know podcasts around online business and trying my best to learn from them.

And I've been trying to put those things into practice in, in what I'm doing.

But I would just get to a certain level, a certain velocity or speed in my business and it would just kind of level out and I would not be able to go like I didn't know how to go to the next level, if you want to call it that.

Like in thinking about a car, one of the things that I've been talking a lot about with my wife and just thinking through myself is I feel like I'm in a car driving like a standard, a standard vehicle, you know, that you have to use a, A, a gear shift in order to go faster, you know, And I'm totally messing up my words here, but what I'm trying to say is that I felt like I was stuck in first gear.

When with my business, knowing that there are other levels that I could move to, knowing that there are a lot of people out there who need to get past this CELPIP exam, who need to build their English skills so that they can get the score that they.

That they desperately need for their immigration process.

I know there's a lot more people out there than I am.

I am currently reaching and I know I can do a better job and at helping them, and I just didn't know how.

So I just felt stuck in that first gear.

And I've been thinking about this for a while and that I need to ask for help.

I need to have a coach or somebody come alongside and help me look at my business differently.

Because I've talked about this before with you.

If we keep doing the same things, we're always going to keep getting the results that we've always been getting.

Like, we're not going to magically get different results by continuing to do the same things over and over again.

If those same things keep producing results that are not exactly what we needed, you know, doing more of the same thing will.

Will just keep getting us more of the same things that we've always been getting.

So I've been thinking about that a lot and that if I want to see an improvement in my podcast or if I want to see an improvement in my business, if I want to see an improvement in my ability to reach other people and help other people and go beyond what I'm doing right now, I need to learn new ways of doing things.

So I decided to take a big step for me and ask for help.

I hired a business coach to help me work through what I am going through, what I am trying to improve.

And we have just started working together.

We've probably come close to almost a month of working together.

And our very first session together was probably near the end of July.

We met together on Zoom and we talked for an hour about what's going on inside of my business.

And the very first session, let me tell you, was eye opening for me, absolutely eye opening.

And at the same time, like, it was one of those moments where you're like.

Where I felt like, well, duh, I don't know why I didn't realize this or see this before.

You know, the lady who is helping me pointed out some very obvious things about my podcast that I used to do, but that I stopped doing.

And what I was, what I used to be doing wasn't updated to what I'm doing now in my podcast.

Let me explain what I mean, you heard it.

If you heard today's.

If you're, well, you're listening to today's podcast, so you heard it.

If you listened to last week's podcast, you also heard it.

But if you listen to the previous episodes, you would notice that there's something missing that used to be there.

And that is my introduction.

At the very beginning of my podcast, at the very.

Like when I first started recording my episodes, I had a little, maybe one or two minute part where I introduce myself and let you know who I am and why, what I do and who I like, who I serve.

But for some reason, maybe, I don't know, I don't know how long this has been going on, but for the past, let's say, maybe year or so, I cut that part out thinking that maybe this was boring for you, that maybe I shouldn't be repeating myself all the time, that maybe it just wasn't necessary to put all of that beginning stuff at the beginning, you know, But.

But my coach pointed out to me almost immediately that my podcast was kind of generic.

Like she was struggling to figure out, okay, who is this for?

And she asked me to put back in an updated introduction.

And actually the introduction that I had before even that was out of date.

Because at the beginning, if you've been following me since the start of my podcast, my focus at the beginning was trying to help people with their general English skills, you know, and so my introduction was more in tune with that sort of an objective.

But the content of what I was talking about in the podcast was almost 100% focused on the CELPIP exam.

So already there was like this disconnect going on.

If you started listening to the podcast because you wanted to just build general English skills, maybe you would pick up some good ideas.

And I hope you did.

But in general, I was talking about the CELPIP exam, and my introduction was not letting you know that that was something that I was going to be doing in the podcast.

So my first piece of homework from my business coach was I needed to put back in that introduction and make sure that it is focused on the CELPIP exam and how I can help you with.

The reason being if I'm wanting to connect with people who are looking for help on their celpip, I have to give them every reason to want to keep listening to my podcast, not only in the title, the cellip Success Podcast, but also in my introduction.

They need to know that I'm talking to them and what I'm going to talk about is going to be helpful for them.

So having said all that, I just want you to know that you, you've probably heard me trying to put that back into practice in my episodes.

I've got my introduction back and I'm talking about who I am, but connecting it to the CELPIP exam and even doing that felt awkward because it's been such a long time since I've done it.

So I'm having to get back into the practice of that kind of talking about those kinds of things and I'm not happy with that introduction.

So you're going to be hearing me, hopefully making it better as we go along.

So that has been a super eye opening experience for me.

Having someone look at what I've been doing now for the past three years who is not, you know, like looking at it from the outside and helping me to see things that I was missing that I wasn't noticing because I was so involved in it, I guess you could say.

So for me, just this first month alone has been powerful and eye opening and hopefully it's translating over for you and helping you to better know what the show is all about.

And going back to me being away for a month and coming back to trying to record episodes and having it be different, difficult.

The next thing that I realized after this last weekend's experience of trying to record an episode and feeling like it was very difficult to get back into the rhythm of it, I've decided at least for the next maybe six months or so, I'm going to be doing weekly episodes, not every two weeks like what I have been doing before with the whole objective of being that I want to get my reps in, I want to get back into feeling comfortable and confident behind this microphone so that I can do, so I can record these episodes with ease or a little bit easier than what it was before.

And, and the only way to do that is to get my reps in, to put in the repetitions to increase the frequencies that I'm doing it more.

Which is why you're hearing from me now like on a week after the, the last episode that I put out.

So that's the next change that you're going to hear.

I'm going to be putting out weekly episodes until I get my, my confidence back, until I build my comfort level back to doing this again, I guess, until I feel I can do this, I guess, yeah.

And what I want to share with you now is my business coach decided to interview me about what I do and that has been really helpful for me as well.

So I'm going to play the interview that she did with me so that you can hear what we talked about so that you can get a feel for what this podcast and what I'm trying to do is going to be all about and how, most importantly, it can help you.

So I hope you enjoy my interview with my business coach.

Let's say I want to move to Canada and I want to get my permit or whatever else I need to do.

So maybe you can tell me more about this test.

Is this optional for me because I speak English or how does that work?

Yeah, actually, it is pretty much mandatory if even, even for like, if you are an American citizen.

I've even had friends who have had to take it who are from the United States.

But basically what it is, is a language proficiency exam.

One of.

I think there are like four possible ones that you can take.

And it's what the Canadian immigration wing of the government uses to gauge.

Well, it.

They.

They use the results of your exam in your application process to be a permanent resident or a Canadian citizen.

And you're like, they have it set up as in a score system, which I don't understand and I don't even want to attempt to try to understand the scoring system.

But the higher your grade or your, the higher your level on the celpip, the stronger your points are.

And you need to have a certain number of points in order to qualify for certain immigration programs.

And so it is a very important exam, along with several other ones.

It's not.

This one is not.

The CELPIP is not the only exam that you can, that you can do to aid in your, in your immigration process.

But when you compare it to a couple of the other exams that are out there, you are probably familiar with the ielts.

I think that that's one of the most common comparison ones that, that people use, like, how do I decide which exam is.

Is right for me?

I think that the thing that makes CELPIP unique is that one, you don't actually have to talk to another human in the, in the speaking section, for example.

And it's designed that way on purpose in order to make it a little bit less intimidating for people because for some who are quiet or introverts, just talking to an examiner who is real a person can be a huge obstacle and that could be what lowers your score, you know.

So that's one thing that's unique about this.

You, when you're doing the speaking section of the exam, it's Just like this.

You're recording your answer into a computer using a microphone.

Right.

And the other thing that is unique, I think, about the.

The CELPIP is that it is 100 focused on Canadian English.

So you're gonna hear, like, in the listening section, you'll hear Canadian accents, which I find a little bit weird because Canada has so many different people.

Right, exactly.

Living here.

I don't know if we have, like, a firm Canadian accent or not, but that's what you'll hear.

And that's a huge advantage, because if you've been living in Canada for a while, your ears are already used to hearing Canadian.

Whatever that is, Canadian English.

So it's a little bit more of an advantage over the ielts, for example, because they'll be.

You'll be hearing international English accents.

It could be British, it could be American.

It could be, you know, from all parts of the world.

Yeah.

Which can be a challenge in.

In and of itself is training your ear to hear those accents.

So.

Yeah, I think that that's what.

I hope that that's what you were looking for.

Yes, yes.

So.

So it's pretty important.

And I guess the higher the score, the greater your chances, because they want you to.

To not only get.

Once you get the citizenship, then doesn't it also affect your employment, your level of English?

Did you.

Do people, like, ask or how's that work?

Yeah, it depends on, like, there are certain programs that you can apply for permanent residency or citizenship through.

Some of them are kind of based on, for example, if.

If you want to have a study permit.

Right.

You would have to apply.

It would be more of a.

Your results will help you to get that exam, get that study permit, and it will help you along in your permanent residency status.

But there are permanent resident programs that are linked to work and jobs, and.

Yeah, there are certain score levels that you need to achieve in order to.

To be selected in that program to apply for permanent residency.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah.

So score.

The higher you score, the better it increases your possibilities of being invited to apply for permanent residency.

Yeah.

So where do you think students go wrong with this test, for example, if they decide to.

To take it and maybe they want to wing it, or maybe they go online or ask ChatGPT how they do today.

Like, how do I take cell poop?

Yeah.

What do you think goes wrong here?

I think the most common.

I think it's more of a misconception more than anything, and it's super common.

And that is they think that if I study really hard for the CELPIP examination, I can get the 10 or 12 I need on this.

Like, the 12 is the maximum score that you can get, which means that you are like a proficient or an advanced English speaker.

So the, the idea is they.

They think about the CELPIP like a regular university or school exam, that if I cram really hard or if I study really, really hard, in theory, my score will go up.

But in reality, the CELPIP measures your level of English, and that's it.

So if you are consistently getting stuck at like a seven, for example.

No, like, like, I, I've.

I know cases of people who have tried the exam like six and seven times, which is really expensive.

I mean, each exam is like $300 Canadian.

Wow.

So they've tried it like seven or.

Or six or seven times, and they keep getting that seven, seven, seven, seven.

And they're still thinking, I just need to study harder.

But what the exam is telling you is, no, you have an intermediate level of English.

That's what a seven more or less equates to.

And if you want to get a higher score on the exam, which everybody does.

Yeah.

What you need to do is stop throwing money at the CELPIP and start working on improving your general English skills, which may or may not take a long time.

You know, like a year or so.

For example, to bump yourself up from a seven to a nine, you might need a year or so of really focused hard work in order to build your language skills.

And I think that that is the most common misconception about the exam.

It's.

It's not a study harder to get a better score.

It's a.

What is my current level of English?

Yeah, and that's.

That's a really important thing to, to be aware of, I think.

And, and the other part to that really quick would be it's also there's.

There's strategy involved in passing this exam.

It's.

It's very much you versus the clock.

Like, there's a lot.

It's.

It's.

There's timed.

All the activities are timed.

Like, you need to speak for a certain amount of time.

You only have a certain amount of time to read a really complicated piece of, of text and then respond to questions.

So you need to learn how to manage your time.

And you need to learn, like, there are things that you should do on the test and things that you should definitely not do because you'll.

You'll run out of time on the test before you.

Before you finish.

I think that those are the most common misconceptions with the first thing that I was talking about being the most common one.

Right.

So I want to actually dive more into this whole struggle and the challenge that students have that obviously come to you, that you help them with going from seven to nine.

I mean, that's a big jump considering that they can't do it on their own.

So I mean, it's really amazing they were able to get to seven.

I mean, whether they were watching YouTube videos or just practicing or taking language courses here and there.

But then they get stuck.

So can you tell me more about like how what are those tweaks that actually can take the person to a nine?

Well, first of all, it would be making sure that they're language level is already at that upper intermediate level of English.

Right.

Like if, if we can establish that that is true, then more what we need to focus on are strategies like the things like.

And for many, I, I'm blessed to work with a lot of introverts.

I am an introvert, I'm a card carrying intro introvert.

And I seem to attract them, which is wonderful.

For many it's a lack of confidence.

For example, they get tongue tied when it's time to start speaking and it's a lot of pressure, honestly.

Like when you see on the exam day when you are going to record your speaking responses, for example, you'll see a question pop up, random, you don't know what it's going to be about.

And at the same time as seeing the question, you'll also see a timer and it just starts to tick away and you have to get as close to like the most common time limit is one minute.

You need to talk for one minute about a certain topic.

And before you start talking, you have usually about 30 seconds to think about what you're going to say before you start saying or speaking.

And if you're not ready for that, it's high pressure and it can throw you off completely.

And I know this is true.

Just in the process of me recording my podcast, for example, just me sitting here with a microphone in front of me, it's brutal.

At the beginning, when I was first learning how to podcast, it was so hard just to get used to putting my ideas out and having a machine recording.

Right.

Exactly.

And especially the time are going off in front of you and you're constantly looking at it.

Yeah, yeah, it's rough.

That's why I was saying it's you versus the clock.

Very much so.

And you need to get used to doing that.

And so one of the things that I help a lot of people with is just practicing, putting themselves in that high pressure situation at home, you know, doing the.

And the most common way is using your cell phone, you know, like recording yourself speaking Exactly.

For those set amounts of time and not going over and not finishing too soon.

And like, we use.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but we use voice chats to help us to practice, which is great for introverts because, I mean, there's no large groups that you have to worry about.

There's nobody else watching you unless, you know, you're practicing in a group at home or.

Exactly.

With your family or whatever.

But the way that it's designed is so that you have to record your answer for a specific amount of time based on what the question, like the, the.

The assignment is asking you for.

Like, there are eight different speaking tasks, and each speaking task has a unique.

Right.

Time limit, you know?

Right.

And so what we do together is I give them questions similar to what they'll face on the exam, and then we're like, very.

I'm very particular about making sure that they one are, are thinking about the answer for the correct amount of time right beforehand.

I mean, it's basically an honor system there.

They have to just.

Of course, yes, you can't track that.

All right.

But I can see how long their response is on, on the phone when they, when they send me back their answer.

So I know, hey, you're going too long, you need to cut, you need to shorten your answer a little bit or you're finishing too soon.

Like, you're allowed to finish your answer within the last 10 seconds of the.

Of your recording limit and just learning how to get used to finishing your response inside of that sweet spot.

Yes, exactly.

Because otherwise people will assume that you don't know what to say.

And if you don't know what to say, that means you are not confident, et cetera, et cetera.

And so that lowers your grade.

So, you know, actually, I don't think you're jumping ahead of yourself.

I actually want to explore that.

How would you compare, you know, teaching your students through voice chats to prepare for celpip, specifically speaking, versus doing it through regular, you know, Skype lessons.

They're still one on one.

But you are Skype.

Why did I say Skype?

It tells you how long I've been doing this.

Yeah, and I know.

Yes, Zoom lessons.

So tell me the difference, because sometimes people are like, well, I'm not sure about These voice chat things, are they even effective?

I think it's quite unique with celpip.

Yeah, and I think it's unique.

I think it's helpful across the board, even if you're not preparing for this LPIP exam.

Because, I mean, I've taught English for 17 years in person and online.

And one of the things that.

So I don't know how many thousands of hours I've logged in a classroom with students, like in corporate company settings.

Right, exactly.

Where you only get an hour and a half each class in person.

And usually the groups that we were working with would be like you know, 10 students at some times.

And out of that hour and a half of everybody being in the room, first of all, not everybody arrives in the room on time.

So there's people that are, you know, showing up five minutes late, 10 minutes late, sometimes not able to show up at all.

And when everybody does show up, when it's time to have that interaction when you're talking, for example, depending on how many people are in your, in the group, it kind of reduces by an order of magnitude how much time you have to actually speak yourself, you know, because you spend a lot of the time listening, which is great.

You, you spend a lot of time waiting your turn.

You spend a lot of time hiding.

Because maybe you don't want some people.

That's what I was about to say.

Right.

Some people actually.

That's great, especially for introverts, that that's a great opportunity for them to kind of sit it out and wait.

Yeah, and I totally get it.

I'm one, I'm an introvert.

I don't like, you know, being in front of a lot of people, honestly.

But so, yeah, that's what I've noticed is that you don't nearly get as much speaking time as you think you do when you're joining like a group setting, either in, in person or online.

I feel like online it's even more difficult to be in a group setting.

Yes, it just is.

And that's one of the things that attracted me a lot to the, to the, to the voice chat approach.

Because one, there is no hiding.

You don't have the pressure of having people listening to you making a mistake or struggling to find the right words.

It's just you talking into your, your device, you know, and sharing it with, with me.

So that pressure, although I know you feel the pressure of, you know, oh my gosh, they're going to hear me making all these mistakes.

But to me that pressure is, is reduced quite a Bit.

And I also really like it because you can listen to what you said, whereas in real time, once it's out there, it's pretty much gone.

You know, you can, you can try to remember what you said, but on your phone you can listen back.

And that's something that I do with my students a lot.

Like if they make a, if they're, if they're trying, like one of the celpip questions is asking them to talk about a past experience.

And actually we just did this with one of, I just did this with one of my students was they.

You need to consistently use the past tense all the way through your response.

Right.

But very frequently, and this is one of the most common mistakes actually in that, in that section is you, you get your, your tenses all mixed up.

You start in the past correctly and then you switch to the present and then you get talking about the future.

So one of the benefits of doing a voice chat is that you can actually ask the student, okay, replay what you said and you see if you can notice if you were consistent all the way through using the past tense.

I'm not going to tell you right now if you were, but I want to see if you can notice it first.

And if you can't, then I'll point out, okay, here, this is where you could have used the, the past.

And you, in yours, you used the present.

So I guess what I'm trying to say with that is that the feedback that you can get is more focused and more precise and it's directed 100% for you.

You don't have to be listening to what happens to Johnny or to Lorraine.

It's just you and your teacher.

Yeah.

And I think even if we're talking about zoom one on one lessons, there's still that lack of structure in a sense that you can't go back and listen to yourself.

That's one of the things that teachers tell me when we talk about teaching through voice chats, which I've been doing this for a while.

And one of the feedback, some feedback that I get from teachers is they say that it's ideal if students, after having like a one hour zoom class, would go and listen to their recordings.

Right?

Yeah.

But nobody does that because it's one hour long.

Who has time?

Who has that time?

Right.

But however, if you have just one minute segments or two minute segments that you're doing, you can actually go back and listen to yourself.

And depending on what you're using for Telegram, for example, or any other app, there's Apps that can actually read your text back to you.

So you can click the subtitles or whatever script and it will generate the actual script of what you said.

So if you don't want to listen, for example, you can actually read and see whether or not in your case did I use past tenses or did I switch somewhere?

And that's really good because then, because people can never constantly consistently be, you know, learning the language and learning how to autocorrect or self correct.

Right, for sure.

So.

And actually that you raised a really sorry, but you maybe remember one of my other favorite things about the voice chat and that is with regards to having time, you can record your responses anytime you want from anywhere.

I mean I've had students who work the night shift because that's the only time that they can get a job.

So they're.

And during the day they're asleep, but at nighttime, like I've had students recording at 2 in the morning on one of their breaks, sharing their responses with me because that's when they had space to practice.

So it's something that's very flexible for you.

You don't have to wait for that hour long class at Wednesday at seven at night which you probably will struggle to get to because it's right.

And another thing too, about our long lessons.

Well, and specifically because your students are probably living in Canada or they already busy and all.

But I remember when I was learning a language and the only option I had with a teacher was one on one classes.

When my schedule changed I just had to stop because the teacher didn't know how to use voice chats.

But also I found that my level of resistance when you're learning something and you're constantly facing your mistakes, mistakes and you're constantly.

It's something new.

I was learning a new language.

It's something new and it just feels like there's so many things that you need to know and it's so easy to give up.

And when you have a one hour class, I remember it took me literally almost an hour to just talk myself into showing up.

And I couldn't believe that here I am, I have such a long experience learning languages, teaching languages and I could just feel this resistance building up in my bones.

Like can I cancel it?

Can I?

Yes, I can.

Like, can I run away?

Because I cannot just, I cannot be in that space and be reminded that I still cannot speak.

And it's going to be for a whole year maybe or a year and a half, you know.

No, totally agree.

It's A huge time commitment in and of itself.

And I've found that students.

I don't know, it just feels like students are even busier nowadays, especially the ones that I serve.

Some of them are trying to work two and three jobs just to, you know, keep the bills paid.

Right, Exactly.

Time is a premium, and carving out an hour isn't always easy.

Right.

So I was wondering also maybe as, like, we wrap up and talk a little bit about the results that your students are getting.

So what I'm hearing from you, that mainly students come to you to work on their speaking, considering that they're introverts.

So, like, I have two questions, like, is it just if it's speaking, what kind of results they're getting?

How do they feel after they've gone through, you know, a series of these programs with you?

And if there are other skills that you're teaching, maybe you could talk about that as well.

Well, I'll backtrack a little bit.

I do offer all of the skill sets.

Like, the exam covers speaking.

It covers listening, reading, and writing.

So we work on all of those things.

The most frequent, the most frequent two skill sets that people want to work on is reading and speaking.

And the most common results that students have expressed with me has been one, the most frequent one at the very beginning is a sense of I can do this, of self confidence going up.

Because they have been struggling on their own for such a long time trying to do this.

They had nobody to practice with.

And that whole narrative going on in their head is, I keep getting a low score on the exam.

That must mean I suck.

I'm a terrible English speaker.

Or even if they don't take the exam, just be feeling so what's the word I'm looking for?

Not confident in their.

In their speaking skills with.

With English, that they just feel like I'm never going to be able to get the result I want on this exam because I'm such a bad English speaker.

And so that's typically one of the very first comments that students make is I feel more confident in my ability to speak, which begins to increase their ability to respond well on the exam because they feel like I can do this.

So that attitude of hope kind of starts coming in.

And that's the first one.

And the most.

I think the most dramatic improvements have come.

I'm thinking of, of 10, one of my students that we worked together for, oh, probably about two to three months almost.

He.

He began with a level eight.

He was getting eights on his exam, but he needed he needed a 10 or more in order to get into the program that he was hunting for, but he just couldn't get past that eight.

And for him, it wasn't just language skills.

I mean, his fluency in English was strong enough that he could expect to score that higher score.

But what was holding him back was a speech impediment.

He had a lot of trouble getting words out because of an impediment.

And during our time together, we just practiced again and again and again the same styled responses.

And he was able to not only build his confidence, but he was able to do an amazing job.

When he actually did his exam, he went from an 8 all the way up to an 11 and a 12 all the way through his exam, which blew my mind.

And he was, he was like, way more mind blown than.

Than I was.

But for him, that represented everything.

I mean, it opened up the door for him to, to live here, but it also opened up the door for himself, you know, personally, you know, just that sense of accomplishment.

And.

But that was probably one of the most dramatic improvements.

And, and he put in the work.

I mean, every day he was on our, our voice chats.

He was in there every single day.

He didn't miss a single day of practice, hardly.

That's great.

And that, that is huge.

Like, he had that level.

He.

He just needed to practice the, the strategies, like finishing on time of including enough ideas with, with each response and not just giving simple ideas, but explaining them, you know, providing adjectives and, you know, going into details on each response.

So that's one.

And I'm thinking of another person who went from a five up to an eight.

And also their level of English was at that eight, but they were just missing the strategies to work through.

Or the.

How do I correctly respond in the right.

The reading section, for example, or how do I express my ideas correctly in the writing section and in the speaking section?

They had all the skills, but they just weren't.

They were just getting stuck on the exam part and the pressure of it and the nerves of it.

And by working together, they were able to get used to the style of questions that they were facing on the.

On the test.

And they were able to move that eight to.

To a nine or.

What was it?

I can't remember what I just said.

Five to eight.

Five to eight, Sorry, five to eight.

Yeah.

Which was a dramatic improvement for them.

It is as well.

Yeah, it's incredible.

So it's almost like you're helping people actually communicate at the level that they are Already at.

But they don't know how to get it out.

So you help them.

That's probably what, what you do is you help people get that level and present it.

Yeah.

Because otherwise they are.

They're kind of choking themselves.

Absolutely.

I mean the confidence part is big.

It's very big.

Especially if you are.

If you have like a negative view of your language abilities, which a lot of introverts tend to do.

Like they're very kind of.

I don't generalizing.

But they're hard on themselves.

Yeah.

And that being hard on yourself, it's a, it's like a, A huge break.

It's always going to be dragging you down and, and helping you to realize I can actually have really good conversations and using my English, it's.

It will help also on the exam.

So.

Yeah, helping to express themselves for sure and feeling like they can do it, but also understanding how the exam works and practicing, especially in the places where they feel weak, that's a big deal because I mean we all, we all tend to avoid the things that we're weak on and one of the things that we do together is I don't let you get away from your areas of weakness.

Exactly.

We do try to avoid things we're not confident in.

So we cannot see ourselves vulnerable.

So maybe as we're wrapping up here, maybe you have some closing remarks or things you wanted to share with the listeners.

I think what I would say is sometimes, if you want to.

Not just sometimes, all the time.

If you want to get a different result, you have to do things differently.

And if you've been consistently getting not the score that you've been hoping for on the Exam 1, check in with your current level of English.

Like, like if you've been taking courses on the side not directed at the celpit, but just building your language skills, check in and see what your, what level your English courses are.

Like.

Are you at a pre intermediate level or are you at an intermediate level, for example, and, and be realistic with yourself and realize that no amount of studying for the Celtic is going to bump your score from that seven to a nine.

If you don't already have that strong upper intermediate level of English.

That's really important to do just to, you know, be kind to yourself.

Right, exactly.

Not to push yourself to do stuff that you're not yet able, you're not.

There ready yet to do.

Yeah.

And to do things differently if, if you know you have that level of English that would command a 10 or a 12 on, on the celpit.

But you're just not able to to get the score, maybe doing the same thing that you've always been doing, like working on your own, using ChatGPT, you know, not asking for help.

Maybe it's time for you to ask for help.

And I would love it if you would ask me.

I would be very happy to work with you.

And yeah, thank you for sharing.

Yes, yes, thank you for sharing.

And I'm sure if your listeners hear that and they feel like, oh, that's me.

This is an invitation.

Consider that an invitation or sign for you to make some changes in the actions that you take, because we really cannot take the same action, expect different results.

And that's really is magical thinking.

That's like, well, maybe this time it will work.

Well, it won't, right, because we don't have magical powers.

But Aaron, thank you so much for sharing.

I'm sure this will be helpful to your audience and I appreciate your time.

Well, I appreciate yours.

Thank you for talking with me today, Elena.

You're welcome.

So what does all of this mean for you?

Like, why am I sharing this with you?

Number one, I want to show you that I'm learning too.

I want to show you that I need to ask for help.

And it's sometimes in order to improve, you just need to ask for help from someone who's, who is not directly, you know, involved with what you're doing every day.

Someone who has more experience than you so that you can grow.

And if you are feeling stuck, I want you to hear this message that it's okay for you to ask for help in order to grow past or to get past wherever you are feeling stuck.

And if it's for this help up exam for you, I want to make myself available to you that you can come and ask me for help.

And I will help you to get past that feeling of being stuck.

The next thing that I want to share with you is that you be prepared to get constructive feedback.

For me, hearing the things that I heard about my podcast at the beginning, it was a little bit hard to swallow because I really like my podcast and I really enjoy making it.

And it was not challenging, but it didn't come easy to hear that there are things that I was doing wrong or things that I was missing and that I needed to.

To do to improve what I was doing.

Like I was asking for help.

But then when somebody offered constructive feedback on what I could do to improve, yeah, it took me a minute to absorb that and to realize, oh, yeah, I really do need to do these things.

So that is something that meant a lot for me.

And the next one Be willing to do things differently than what you're already doing so that you can get different results and finally get your reps in.

If you want to see improvements happen with your English skills, for example, make sure that you are getting out there and putting your reps in.

Make sure that you're using your English as much and as frequently as you can.

And like I was saying before, if you need someone to help you spot where you're on target, where you're doing well, but also can help you to point out or help you to pinpoint where you can improve, I want you to come and work with me.

I have over 17 years experience teaching English and I'm a certified CELPIP trainer.

I can help you build your self confidence, figure out what you're doing well at already, and most importantly, help you identify and improve areas where you're getting stuck.

Get in touch with me today to get started.

There's a link in today's show notes.

Thank you so much for listening.

I hope that you'll come back again next Tuesday.