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English LingQ 2.0 Podcast, English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Learn English with Your Favourite English Teacher, Rupa Sensei!

English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Learn English with Your Favourite English Teacher, Rupa Sensei!

Elle: Hello everyone. And welcome to the LingQ English podcast with me Elle and today I have a treat for you listeners. I am joined by YouTuber Rupa Sensei, Rupa Sensei, how are you?

Rupa: Oh, brilliant you know, I'm feeling good today. Uh, woke up and just felt amazing today. Cooked some breakfast. I did a little bit of work and now I've got some coffee in me. So might be a little hyper today.

Elle: That's fine. That's fine. So you're joining us from Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne. Is that right?

Rupa: That's right, so Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. This is where I was born and raised. And oh brilliant place. And it's actually getting a little, a little nippy these days. We had summer, but now it's starting to chill down a little bit.

Elle: Of course, right...

Rupa: How about yourself, you're over in Vancouver, right?

Elle: Yes. Yeah.

In Vancouver.

Rupa: Shout out to all the Canucks.

Elle: Nice! Were just starting to get warm here. I mean...

Rupa: Oh brilliant.

Elle: Not, not very warm. It's very wet. It's basically a rainforest. So, but, uh...

Rupa: OKay. How's the summers though, you get pretty hot in the summer?

Elle: You know, I'd say like 26, 27 degrees is hot here.

Rupa: That's not too bad.

Elle: It's nice. Yeah.

It might hit 30. That's like, that's a very hot day. Nothing like you, Australians.

Rupa: We get very hot. And it's very dry, hot and dry summers.

Elle: Right?

So you're from Melbourne, Australia, and that's where you are now, but you're usually based in Japan, right?

Rupa: That's right. So, uh, that's where I went when I was 18. So I finished high school and then I got a job opportunity to go be an ESL teacher in Japan. So I thought hey, well, what a brilliant opportunity. I was going to take a gap year anyway. So all the stars aligned and I was off to Japan and then I was stationed in a place called Ibaraki. Okay. So have you, have you ever been to Japan?

Elle: Yeah, I actually, I lived there for three years. I did the ESL thing too.

Rupa: That's great. And yeah so Ibaraki is kind of like north of Tokyo and, well, it's pretty countryside or Japanese they say "inaka". And you know, but I felt that was such a great starting point into Japan. I could get so much of the culture there, they were so open and willing to accept me and treat me as one of their own.

So, you know, I think of Japan as, as like my second home, you know, just the, the way that they treat me over there. It's brilliant. And I've got the utmost respect to, uh, to Japan.

Elle: Excellent. So you went over 18, that's really young to leave your home country.

Rupa: I was a young chap. Straight after high school and yeah over in Japan and I was...

and the funny thing is I was teaching the students, they were around 15 years old, middle school students. So there really wasn't much age gap at all. If I happened to be teaching, um, high school students, they would have been the same age as me. What about that?

Elle: Wow, that's great. So you went over and then, so had you studied any Japanese before Japan?

Rupa: So, so how, how I kind of got the, the job opportunity was because my, my high school, they, they taught Japanese lessons. And they had a partnership with one of their sister schools to kind of do a bit of like a, a transfer of the teachers. So some of the teachers from that school would come over here to teach Japanese and vice versa.

So I managed to snag in at the perfect time and I was, had a golden opportunity there and I feel blessed for the, for that. And that was what's called a working holiday. So you do a bit of work, you do a bit of travel. Um, so after I finished up with the, with the school, I traveled around Japan, went over to Tokyo and ended up working in a, in a bakery.

And that was a great opportunity too. Just a random Australian bloke working in a Japanese bakery that would have been a surprise for them.

Elle: So your Japanese must have been pretty good, even then you started working in a bakery, your interacting in Japanese every day. So you enjoyed the language? Yeah?

Rupa: Oh, definitely. I think, you know, just having that kind of, um, The pressure of the bakery, you know, the, the, the head, uh, head baker he's kind of talking to you in Japanese and all the customers are talking to you in Japanese. It gives you a lot of motivation to learn quickly.

Elle: I bet. Yeah.

So how did you go from then... um, so you went over, you were teaching English, you worked in this bakery, learned Japanese.

And how did you then start your youTube channel, which is a really successful YouTube channel for English learners, um, for Japanese, Japanese speakers or Japanese people who are learning English. Um, how did you move from... how did you start the channel?

Rupa: Yeah. Good question. So I started the, um, actually started off on Instagram.

So I, I, it was pretty much just like a real casual thing to do, and that was back when I was 19. So after I returned home from Japan after the first time. You know, I was 19. I was just about to start uni at university. And, um, I dunno, I think actually one day I watched on TV and this bloke, he was like, just doing this, um, like cooking show or something, travel show, and then he just dropped this, uh, one point, um, Japanese lesson.

So I thought, well, that's a brilliant thing to do. So every day on Instagram, I did the, I did the reverse. I did the one point English lesson in Japanese, and it was also a really good way for me to, to keep motivated, to study Japanese because you know, back in Australia, most of my mates, uh, are Aussies. Um, I mainly just use English with all my family, friends and for school.

So I didn't really have much motivation to keep learning Japanese. Um, but, but that was a way to just, you know, at least study for myself and then if people can benefit and learn English at the same time. Wow. That's a, that's a win-win isn't it? So, so I kept doing that and I, I continued that for about 650 days.

Every single day I did that hour teaching one phrase on Instagram. Um, and then I decided to go over to YouTube and make more kind of long-form content. Much more kind of, you know, professional looking, uh, at least as professional as I can be. And then, and then, yeah, that started to takeoff really well, and actually going on from there, that's about the time when I went to Japan for the second time and that way was through my university.

So just through like a study abroad and I did a one year over in Osaka.

Elle: Love Osaka. I went there one Golden Week and it was amazing. Yeah.

It's such a vibrant...

Rupa: Yeah. They just had their Golden Week, last week, I think.

Elle: Right. Of course. Yeah.

It's that time of year. Yeah.

I guess it, maybe wasn't such a crazy Golden Week this year.

Rupa: Oh, that's true. Yeah, absolutely.

Golden Week at the home, you know?

Elle: Yeah. Yeah.

So amazing. Your, your channel is just excellent. I was looking through some of the videos. I love how, especially the videos where you, um, kind of go through the, the English used in a movie or a TV series. Um, it's just great for, you know, that immersion style.

It's excellent so...

Rupa: THank you. Cause during the, the lockdown, cause I used to do much more kind of interactive videos where I would, you know, talk to people on the street or maybe interview someone like I did the interview with Steve. Uh, and he did his, he kind of showed up and spoke 20 languages and that video got, went really well

so that's kind of how, I'm how I got into contact with LingQ. And that was so fantastic, but then once I got back to Australia and we had the lockdown, I just started watching a whole bunch of movies, almost a movie every day. And I think movies are such a fun way to learn a language. I learned Japanese through a lot of like media, like movies or TV shows.

So I thought, Hey, probably my viewers they want to do the same thing, but learn English instead of from me all the time. Maybe Tom cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio. And it makes it a little bit more interesting.

Elle: For sure. Yeah.

So I wonder, so your channel, you have almost, I think it's like almost half a million subscribers right now.

Fantastic.

Rupa: Blows My mind, you know, I don't know how I did that.

Elle: It's excellent. I mean, you can see that you have just such an enthusiasm too, um, yeah, it just kind of, it's great to watch, you know? It gets people into it.

Rupa: I think that's just proof that anyone can do it. You know, I'm just some random bloke from Australia and I speak Japanese okay. But I'm only teaching English and that's my native language.

So I think if, if I could do it, anyone can do it. If they want to start YouTube or some social media business, any, anything like that.

Elle: I wonder then if you get, you must get lots of messages and obviously comments on your videos. I wonder if there are some standout questions that you get from English learners.

Are there any areas that people... you get the same kind of questions about, whether it be pronunciation, you know, certain grammar points, um, are there things that crop up more often?

Rupa: Yeah. So I think, especially because my content kind of focuses a lot on listening and listening to native speakers in particular from the movies and stuff like that.

So I do get a lot of questions from, uh, you know, how to improve my listening or, or maybe the student they, they watched their movies and TV shows with thsubtitles, which is fantastic, but they want to, uh, start watching like English shows with English, subtitles, you know, make that transition, which is a pretty hard transition, you know? Even sometimes when I'm watching Japanese shows, I'll, I'll try my best, then I'll check on the subtitles.

But sometimes it's too overwhelming. So I'll have to go back to the English subtitles. But really, I think for, for listening, one of the best advice I can give you is just time on the task, you know, where, um, this probably for, for all the skills in learning a language or, or all the skills in generally in life is just focus as much time as he can, and really give your, your brain time to get used to the sounds and the sound differences from your own language.

And that's really gonna help you kind of get the, get the ease of the language you're trying to learn.

Elle: That's excellent advice. Um, and what would you, so that's, uh, that's great advice for listening, is there anything that you could, I wonder if there's something for English learners that they could take action on, maybe like right now, tomorrow, soon, when they stopped listening, is there something that, um, some piece of advice you have that can help them really improve their English?

Rupa: Yeah, absolutely.

Elle: You know...

Rupa: as fast as possible. Hey, I guess that's one thing, a lot of people, um, they say they want to learn like overnight, or, you know, after one week or one month, I think the, the most, uh, advice, the best advice I could give for that is just understand. It's going to take a time. It's going to take a long time.

I've been learning Japanese for about eight years on and off. You know, sometimes I study harder sometimes I don't. Um, but it's just going to take a long time to really get to, to a high level. But one, one good advice for kind of speeding up that process. If the student did want to, I actually got this from Steve.

When I was interviewing him, he said, just make a routine. So make it a daily habit. Um, he gave a great, uh, point. He said every morning when he's cooking his breakfast, he'll just listen to a podcast. Or some kind of, you know, listening content in the language is trying to learn. And I've been trying to try to pick that up as well.

I'll put on a Japanese podcast or something and, or YouTube video. I think now we're so blessed with a whole bunch of media formats, podcasts, YouTube, and everything like that, Spotify. Um, so yeah, I guess, yeah, I'm kind of rambling on here, but I guess my point would just be kind of try and make it a habit, make it a, really a habit and stick to it because I think this goes for any kind of habit, whether you want to lose weight or anything like that, we kind of do it for about 30 days or something.

And then we kind of, we kind of brush it aside and it becomes a once a week habit rather than an every day habit. But just really just trying to try and soldier on, you know, um, stick to that habit every day. And the best way to stick to a habit from my experience is try and make it as enjoying as possible, as joyful as possible.

So, yeah, so, you know, if you, if you want to improve, you're listening and you're trying to make that a habit, you have to really find some content that you would be interested in. So, so maybe not find a, like a dedicated um, English podcast, but maybe find an English podcast that you're interested in. And it might be a little bit difficult at the start, but once you pick up a word here and a word there, you might be able to start connecting to dots, connecting the dots.

And I think LingQ is pretty good for that. You know, I've been playing around on that app and you can do a lot of, um, things like that.

Elle: Excellent. Yeah, it's so true what you say, you fall, you get into a habit... most people bad at this, you get into the habit, you feel great, and then you just stop even one day you miss,

and then you're like, oh, you know, it's over. I may as well stop. But, uh, yeah, I think, I think you're right. Find enjoyable content. Work it into your routine in a way that makes sense for you and is fun.

Rupa: Exactly.

Elle: Right?

Rupa: Yeah. Probably my other, my other main hobby, other than like doing English lessons and YouTube and stuff like that is fitness.

I'm really into fitness and. Yeah, going to the gym and dieting, and I have the exact same kind of, uh, advice for that. A lot of people will come to me and say, oh, how can I lose weight? How can I stick to a diet? The key to a successful diet is making the diet food delicious so that you want to eat more of them.

And I guess we can, we can put that same context to our, to our language learning, make that delicious language content.

Elle: Exactly. I like that. I like that. I was, um, I am still studying French and I also am studying just, just using, uh, Netflix shows and movies, and it almost feels wrong in a way, I've been kind of struggling with this.

I'm like, am I really studying French? You know, I I'm just watching movies and I LingQ through the transcripts and I am. Yeah, I am. Because like you say, you're, I'm, I'm interested. I want to know what's going on in this TV show in this movie. And then, so the French I'm, I'm getting it. I'm understanding more and more.

So, yeah, it's kind of hard to move away from this, uh, traditional, you know, way that we're taught in school. That's it's just textbooks and lists and, you know, it doesn't have to be that way, especially... I mean, if you're studying for a test, of course it's different, you know.

Rupa: For sure,

Elle: Studying for fun. Yeah.

Rupa: Yeah. No, I think, um, I think, yeah, you know school, we kind of just did it for textbooks.

That's the way I learned Japanese in school at, and actually no, I did... Sometimes the teacher would show like a movie or something and I always remember the, when they did show the movie, I was way more excited to learn, you know, rather than just textbook page 42 and just writing out notes and stuff like that.

Elle: Yeah, exactly. I remember our French teacher used to play us. It was like a French Simpsons or the Simpsons dubbed in French.

Um, so you're, you're now in Melbourne, is that, will you be going back to Japan or are you now based in Melbourne for good?

Rupa: So well, that's one of the brilliant things about, you know, uh, working online and through YouTube and stuff like that. You can pretty much live anywhere as long as you've got internet connection and your trusty laptop.

Um, and a camera, I guess that's pretty important. So yeah, absolutely. As soon as this whole situation starts to calm down a little bit, I'd love to do some traveling, you know, back over to Japan, um, and see some more of the world because I kind of went to Japan when I was 18. And then I went to Japan again when I was what, 21.

Um, and now I'm back here. So, so I would also like to see some other parts of the world too. So. I dunno, just go and, and, uh, go travel the world for a little bit.

Elle: Sounds good. Excellent. And what about for your channel and for the rest of the year, are there any plans, do you, um, are you planning to focus on the kinds of content that you've been putting out that fun kind of movie TV show based stuff?

Rupa: So yeah keeping up with the English lessons. And, uh, I think what's important for any kind of content creator or YouTube is just listen to what the people are requesting, listen to what they want to see and, you know, check the analytics. We can kind of go in the back end, check the analytics, see what the people watch more of and, you know, keep doing that.

So, so that's, that's how I've done YouTube so far and it seems to be going all right. And, um, yeah, I just plan to keep, keep making YouTube videos. I think I'm so lucky to be in the position I am for, for being able to, I was able to leave my job. I used to work as a full-time as a salesman, and I was able to leave that.

And now I'm just pursuing this, uh, the YouTube lifestyle and it's been going all right. And I plan to do it for, for many more years.

Elle: Fantastic. Fantastic.

Well, anyone who is interested in checking out your channel, I will pop the link, uh Rupa Sensei is the name of the channel and, um, best of luck with the channel and any, anything else for the rest of the year and beyond.

And thank you so much.

Rupa: Oh, no, thank you. It's my pleasure. Um, shout out to all the LingQ team, Steve, Mark, yourself, everyone there. So it's such a brilliant app. So guys, if you, if you're wondering for what tool to use hey go download LingQ as well. I use it and I recommend it.

Elle: Amazing. Thank you Rupa Sensei.

See ya.

English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Learn English with Your Favourite English Teacher, Rupa Sensei! Englisch LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Lerne Englisch mit deinem Lieblings-Englischlehrer, Rupa Sensei! English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Learn English with Your Favourite English Teacher, Rupa Sensei! English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Aprende inglés con tu profesora de inglés favorita, ¡Rupa Sensei! English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22 : Apprenez l'anglais avec votre professeur d'anglais préféré, Rupa Sensei ! Podcast LingQ 2.0 inglese #22: Imparate l'inglese con la vostra insegnante di inglese preferita, Rupa Sensei! 英語 LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22:大好きな英語の先生、ルパ先生と一緒に英語を学ぶ! 잉글리시 링큐 2.0 팟캐스트 #22: 좋아하는 영어 선생님, 루파 선생님과 함께 영어를 배워보세요! LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Leer Engels met uw favoriete leraar Engels, Rupa Sensei! Angielski LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Ucz się angielskiego ze swoim ulubionym nauczycielem angielskiego, Rupa Sensei! Podcast LingQ 2.0 Inglês #22: Aprenda Inglês com o seu professor de Inglês preferido, Rupa Sensei! English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Учите английский с вашим любимым учителем английского языка Рупой Сэнсэем! İngilizce LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22: Favori İngilizce Öğretmeniniz Rupa Sensei ile İngilizce Öğrenin! Подкаст English LingQ 2.0 #22: Вивчайте англійську з улюбленою вчителькою Рупою Сенсей! English LingQ 2.0 Podcast #22:与您最喜爱的英语老师 Rupa Sensei 一起学习英语! English LingQ 2.0 播客 #22:與您最喜愛的英語老師 Rupa Sensei 一起學習英語!

Elle: Hello everyone. And welcome to the LingQ English podcast with me Elle and today I have a treat for you listeners. I am joined by YouTuber Rupa Sensei, Rupa Sensei, how are you?

Rupa: Oh, brilliant you know, I'm feeling good today. Uh, woke up and just felt amazing today. Cooked some breakfast. Cociné un poco de desayuno. I did a little bit of work and now I've got some coffee in me. So might be a little hyper today.

Elle: That's fine. That's fine. So you're joining us from Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne. Is that right?

Rupa: That's right, so Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. This is where I was born and raised. And oh brilliant place. And it's actually getting a little, a little nippy these days. En het wordt tegenwoordig een beetje, een beetje pittig. We had summer, but now it's starting to chill down a little bit. We had summer, but now it's starting to chill down a little bit. Tuvimos verano, pero ahora está empezando a enfriarse un poco.

Elle: Of course, right...

Rupa: How about yourself, you're over in Vancouver, right?

Elle: Yes. Yeah.

In Vancouver.

Rupa: Shout out to all the Canucks. Rupa: Un saludo a todos los Canucks. ルパ:カナックスのみんなに声をかけてください。 魯帕:向所有加人隊大聲喊叫。

Elle: Nice! Were just starting to get warm here. I mean...

Rupa: Oh brilliant.

Elle: Not, not very warm. It's very wet. Está muy mojado. It's basically a rainforest. So, but, uh...

Rupa: OKay. How's the summers though, you get pretty hot in the summer? Wie ist es denn im Sommer, wird es da nicht ziemlich heiß? Sin embargo, ¿cómo son los veranos? ¿Tienes bastante calor en el verano?

Elle: You know, I'd say like 26, 27 degrees is hot here.

Rupa: That's not too bad.

Elle: It's nice. Yeah.

It might hit 30. Podría llegar a los 30. That's like, that's a very hot day. Nothing like you, Australians.

Rupa: We get very hot. Rupa: Nos ponemos muy calientes. And it's very dry, hot and dry summers.

Elle: Right?

So you're from Melbourne, Australia, and that's where you are now, but you're usually based in Japan, right? Así que eres de Melbourne, Australia, y ahí es donde estás ahora, pero por lo general vives en Japón, ¿verdad?

Rupa: That's right. So, uh, that's where I went when I was 18. So I finished high school and then I got a job opportunity to go be an ESL teacher in Japan. So I thought hey, well, what a brilliant opportunity. I was going to take a gap year anyway. Iba a tomarme un año sabático de todos modos. So all the stars aligned and I was off to Japan and then I was stationed in a place called Ibaraki. Así que todos los astros se alinearon y me fui a Japón, a un lugar llamado Ibaraki. Okay. So have you, have you ever been to Japan? Entonces, ¿alguna vez has estado en Japón?

Elle: Yeah, I actually, I lived there for three years. I did the ESL thing too.

Rupa: That's great. And yeah so Ibaraki is kind of like north of Tokyo and, well, it's pretty countryside or Japanese they say "inaka". And you know, but I felt that was such a great starting point into Japan. Y ya sabes, pero sentí que era un gran punto de partida hacia Japón. I could get so much of the culture there, they were so open  and willing to accept me and treat me as one of their own. Pude captar mucho de la cultura de allí, eran tan abiertos y estaban tan dispuestos a aceptarme y tratarme como a uno de los suyos.

So, you know, I think of Japan as, as like my second home, you know, just the, the way that they treat me over there. Entonces, ya sabes, pienso en Japón como mi segundo hogar, ya sabes, la forma en que me tratan allí. It's brilliant. And I've got the utmost respect to, uh, to Japan.

Elle: Excellent. So you went over 18, that's really young to leave your home country.

Rupa: I was a young chap. Rupa: Yo era un muchacho joven. Straight after high school and yeah over in Japan and I was... Justo después de la escuela secundaria y sí en Japón y yo estaba ...

and the funny thing is I was teaching the students, they were around 15 years old, middle school students. y lo gracioso es que estaba enseñando a los estudiantes, tenían alrededor de 15 años, estudiantes de secundaria. So there really wasn't much age gap at all. If I happened to be teaching, um, high school students, they would have been the same age as me. Si hubiera dado clase a alumnos de secundaria, tendrían la misma edad que yo. What about that?

Elle: Wow, that's great. So you went over and then, so had you studied any Japanese before Japan? Así que fuiste y luego, ¿habías estudiado japonés antes de Japón?

Rupa: So, so how, how I kind of got the, the job opportunity was because my, my high school, they, they taught Japanese lessons. Rupa: Entonces, cómo, cómo obtuve la oportunidad de trabajo fue porque mi, mi escuela secundaria, ellos, ellos daban lecciones de japonés. And they had a partnership with one of their sister schools to kind of do a bit of like a, a transfer of the teachers. Y se asociaron con una de sus escuelas hermanas para hacer una especie de transferencia de maestros. So some of the teachers from that school would come over here to teach Japanese and vice versa.

So I managed to snag in at the perfect time and I was, had a golden opportunity there and I feel blessed for the, for that. Así que me las arreglé para enganchar en el momento perfecto y yo estaba, tenía una oportunidad de oro allí y me siento bendecido por la, por eso. And that was what's called a working holiday. So you do a bit of work, you do a bit of travel. Um, so after I finished up with the, with the school, I traveled around Japan, went over to Tokyo and ended up working in a, in a bakery. Cuando terminé la escuela, viajé por Japón, fui a Tokio y terminé trabajando en una panadería.

And that was a great opportunity too. Just a random Australian bloke working in a Japanese bakery that would have been a surprise for them. Solo un tipo australiano al azar que trabaja en una panadería japonesa que habría sido una sorpresa para ellos.

Elle: So your Japanese must have been pretty good, even then you started working in a bakery, your interacting in Japanese every day. So you enjoyed the language? Yeah?

Rupa: Oh, definitely. I think, you know, just having that kind of, um, The pressure of the bakery, you know, the, the, the head, uh, head baker he's kind of talking to you in Japanese and all the customers are talking to you in Japanese. It gives you a lot of motivation to learn quickly.

Elle: I bet. Yeah.

So how did you go from then... um, so you went over, you were teaching English, you worked in this bakery, learned Japanese.

And how did you then start your youTube channel, which is a really successful YouTube channel for English learners, um, for Japanese, Japanese speakers or Japanese people who are learning English. Um, how did you move from... how did you start the channel?

Rupa: Yeah. Good question. So I started the, um, actually started off on Instagram.

So I, I, it was pretty much just like a real casual thing to do, and that was back when I was 19. So after I returned home from Japan after the first time. You know, I was 19. I was just about to start uni at university. And, um, I dunno, I think actually one day I watched on TV and this bloke, he was like, just doing this, um, like cooking show or something, travel show, and then he just dropped this, uh, one point, um, Japanese lesson. Y, um, no sé, creo que en realidad un día vi en la televisión y este tipo, estaba como, simplemente haciendo esto, um, como un programa de cocina o algo así, un programa de viajes, y luego dejó este, uh, un punto , um, lección de japonés.

So I thought, well, that's a brilliant thing to do. So every day on Instagram, I did the, I did the reverse. I did the one point English lesson in Japanese, and it was also a really good way for me to, to keep motivated, to study Japanese because you know, back in Australia, most of my mates, uh, are Aussies. Hice la lección de inglés de un punto en japonés, y también fue una muy buena manera de mantenerme motivado y estudiar japonés porque, en Australia, la mayoría de mis compañeros son australianos. Um, I mainly just use English with all my family, friends and for school.

So I didn't really have much motivation to keep learning Japanese. Um, but, but that was a way to just, you know, at least study for myself and then if people can benefit and learn English at the same time. Um, pero, pero esa era una manera de, ya sabes, al menos estudiar para mí y luego si las personas pueden beneficiarse y aprender inglés al mismo tiempo. Wow. That's a, that's a win-win isn't it? So, so I kept doing that and I, I continued that for about 650 days.

Every single day I did that hour teaching one phrase on Instagram. Todos los días hice esa hora enseñando una frase en Instagram. Um, and then I decided to go over to YouTube and make more kind of long-form content. Much more kind of, you know, professional looking, uh, at least as professional as I can be. And then, and then, yeah, that started to takeoff really well, and actually going on from there, that's about the time when I went to Japan for the second time and that way was through my university. Y luego, y luego, sí, eso comenzó a despegar muy bien, y de hecho a partir de ahí, fue más o menos cuando fui a Japón por segunda vez y de esa manera fue a través de mi universidad.

So just through like a study abroad and I did a one year over in Osaka.

Elle: Love Osaka. I went there one Golden Week and it was amazing. Fui allí una Semana Dorada y fue increíble. Yeah.

It's such a vibrant...

Rupa: Yeah. They just had their Golden Week, last week, I think.

Elle: Right. Of course. Yeah.

It's that time of year. Yeah.

I guess it, maybe wasn't such a crazy Golden Week this year.

Rupa: Oh, that's true. Yeah, absolutely.

Golden Week at the home, you know?

Elle: Yeah. Yeah.

So amazing. Your, your channel is just excellent. I was looking through some of the videos. I love how, especially the videos where you, um, kind of go through the, the English used in a movie or a TV series. Um, it's just great for, you know, that immersion style.

It's excellent so...

Rupa: THank you. Cause during the, the lockdown, cause I used to do much more kind of interactive videos where I would, you know, talk to people on the street or maybe interview someone like I did the interview with Steve. Uh, and he did his, he kind of showed up and spoke 20 languages and that video got, went really well

so that's kind of how, I'm how I got into contact with LingQ. And that was so fantastic, but then once I got back to Australia and we had the lockdown, I just started watching a whole bunch of movies, almost a movie every day. And I think movies are such a fun way to learn a language. I learned Japanese through a lot of like media, like movies or TV shows.

So I thought, Hey, probably my viewers they want to do the same thing, but learn English instead of from me all the time. Maybe Tom cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio. And it makes it a little bit more interesting.

Elle: For sure. Yeah.

So I wonder, so your channel, you have almost, I think it's like almost half a million subscribers right now.

Fantastic.

Rupa: Blows My mind, you know, I don't know how I did that.

Elle: It's excellent. I mean, you can see that you have just such an enthusiasm too, um, yeah, it just kind of, it's great to watch, you know? Quiero decir, puedes ver que tienes tal entusiasmo también, um, sí, simplemente es genial verlo, ¿sabes? It gets people into it. Hace que la gente se interese.

Rupa: I think that's just proof that anyone can do it. You know, I'm just some random bloke from Australia and I speak Japanese okay. But I'm only teaching English and that's my native language.

So I think if, if I could do it, anyone can do it. If they want to start YouTube or some social media business, any, anything like that.

Elle: I wonder then if you get, you must get lots of messages and obviously comments on your videos. Elle: Me pregunto entonces si recibes, debes recibir muchos mensajes y obviamente comentarios en tus videos. I wonder if there are some standout questions that you get from English learners. Me pregunto si hay algunas preguntas destacadas que recibes de los estudiantes de inglés.

Are there any areas that people... you get the same kind of questions about, whether it be pronunciation, you know, certain grammar points, um, are there things that crop up more often?

Rupa: Yeah. So I think, especially because my content kind of focuses a lot on listening and listening to native speakers in particular from the movies and stuff like that.

So I do get a lot of questions from, uh, you know, how to improve my listening or, or maybe the student they, they watched their movies and TV shows with thsubtitles, which is fantastic, but they want to, uh, start watching like English shows with English, subtitles, you know, make that transition, which is a pretty hard transition, you know? Even sometimes when I'm watching Japanese shows, I'll, I'll try my best, then I'll check on the subtitles.

But sometimes it's too overwhelming. So I'll have to go back to the English subtitles. But really, I think for, for listening, one of the best advice I can give you is just time on the task, you know, where, um, this probably for, for all the skills in learning a language or, or all the skills in generally in life is just focus as much time as he can, and really give your, your brain time to get used to the sounds and the sound differences from your own language. Pero realmente, creo que para, para escuchar, uno de los mejores consejos que puedo darte es simplemente tiempo en la tarea, ya sabes, dónde, um, esto probablemente para todas las habilidades para aprender un idioma o todas las habilidades en general en la vida es simplemente concentrarse todo el tiempo que pueda, y realmente darle a su cerebro tiempo para acostumbrarse a los sonidos y las diferencias de sonido de su propio idioma.

And that's really gonna help you kind of get the, get the ease of the language you're trying to learn.

Elle: That's excellent advice. Um, and what would you, so that's, uh, that's great advice for listening, is there anything that you could, I wonder if there's something for English learners that they could take action on, maybe like right now, tomorrow, soon, when they stopped listening, is there something that, um, some piece of advice you have that can help them really improve their English? ええと、あなたは何をしますか、それは、ええと、それは聞くための素晴らしいアドバイスです、あなたができることはありますか、英語学習者のために彼らが行動を起こすことができる何かがあるのだろうか、多分今、明日、すぐに、いつ彼らは聞くのをやめました、ええと、彼らが本当に彼らの英語を上達させるのを助けることができるあなたが持っているアドバイスのいくつかはありますか?

Rupa: Yeah, absolutely.

Elle: You know...

Rupa: as fast as possible. Hey, I guess that's one thing, a lot of people, um, they say they want to learn like overnight, or, you know, after one week or one month, I think the, the most, uh, advice, the best advice I could give for that is just understand. Hey, supongo que eso es una cosa, mucha gente, um, dicen que quieren aprender como de la noche a la mañana, o, ya sabes, después de una semana o un mes, creo que el, el más, uh, consejo, el mejor consejo que podría dar para eso es sólo entender. It's going to take a time. Llevará un tiempo. It's going to take a long time. Va a llevar mucho tiempo.

I've been learning Japanese for about eight years on and off. He estado aprendiendo japonés durante unos ocho años de forma intermitente. You know, sometimes I study harder sometimes I don't. Um, but it's just going to take a long time to really get to, to a high level. But one, one good advice for kind of speeding up that process. Pero uno, un buen consejo para acelerar ese proceso. しかし、そのプロセスをスピードアップするための1つの良いアドバイスです。 If the student did want to, I actually got this from Steve. Si el estudiante quería, en realidad obtuve esto de Steve. 学生が望むなら、私は実際にスティーブからこれを手に入れました。

When I was interviewing him, he said, just make a routine. So make it a daily habit. Um, he gave a great, uh, point. He said every morning when he's cooking his breakfast, he'll just listen to a podcast. Or some kind of, you know, listening content in the language is trying to learn. または、ある種の、あなたが知っている、言語でコンテンツを聞くことは学ぼうとしている。 And I've been trying to try to pick that up as well. Y he estado tratando de recoger eso también. そして、私もそれを拾おうと試みてきました。

I'll put on a Japanese podcast or something and, or YouTube video. I think now we're so blessed with a whole bunch of media formats, podcasts, YouTube, and everything like that, Spotify. Um, so yeah, I guess, yeah, I'm kind of rambling on here, but I guess my point would just be kind of try and make it a habit, make it a, really a habit and stick to it because I think this goes for any kind of habit, whether you want to lose weight or anything like that, we kind of do it for about 30 days or something. Um, así que sí, supongo, sí, estoy un poco divagando aquí, pero supongo que mi punto sería tratar de convertirlo en un hábito, convertirlo en un hábito de verdad y adherirse a él porque creo esto se aplica a cualquier tipo de hábito, ya sea que quieras perder peso o algo así, lo hacemos durante unos 30 días o algo así.

And then we kind of, we kind of brush it aside and it becomes a once a week habit rather than an every day habit. Y luego lo dejamos de lado y se convierte en un hábito de una vez a la semana en lugar de un hábito diario. 然后我们有点,我们有点把它放在一边,它变成了每周一次的习惯,而不是每天的习惯。 But just really just trying to try and soldier on, you know, um, stick to that habit every day. And the best way to stick to a habit from my experience is try and make it as enjoying as possible, as joyful as possible. そして、私の経験から習慣に固執するための最良の方法は、それをできるだけ楽しんで、できるだけ楽しくすることです。

So, yeah, so, you know, if you, if you want to improve, you're listening and you're trying to make that a habit, you have to really find some content that you would be interested in. So, so maybe not find a, like a dedicated um, English podcast, but maybe find an English podcast that you're interested in. And it might be a little bit difficult at the start, but once you pick up a word here and a word there, you might be able to start connecting to dots, connecting the dots.

And I think LingQ is pretty good for that. You know, I've been playing around on that app and you can do a lot of, um, things like that.

Elle: Excellent. Yeah, it's so true what you say, you fall, you get into a habit... most people bad at this, you get into the habit, you feel great, and then you just stop even one day you miss,

and then you're like, oh, you know, it's over. I may as well stop. Bien puedo parar. But, uh, yeah, I think, I think you're right. Find enjoyable content. Work it into your routine in a way that makes sense for you and is fun. あなたにとって意味があり、楽しい方法でそれをあなたのルーチンに取り入れてください。

Rupa: Exactly.

Elle: Right?

Rupa: Yeah. Probably my other, my other main hobby, other than like doing English lessons and YouTube and stuff like that is fitness. おそらく、英語のレッスンやYouTubeのようなもの以外の、私のもう1つの主な趣味は、フィットネスです。

I'm really into fitness and. Yeah, going to the gym and dieting, and I have the exact same kind of, uh, advice for that. A lot of people will come to me and say, oh, how can I lose weight? How can I stick to a diet? The key to a successful diet is making the diet food delicious so that you want to eat more of them.

And I guess we can, we can put that same context to our, to our language learning, make that delicious language content.

Elle: Exactly. I like that. I like that. I was, um, I am still studying French and I also am studying just, just using, uh, Netflix shows and movies, and it almost feels wrong in a way, I've been kind of struggling with this. 私はまだフランス語を勉強していて、Netflixの番組や映画を使って勉強しているだけですが、ある意味でほとんど違和感があり、これに苦労してきました。

I'm like, am I really studying French? 私は本当にフランス語を勉強しているのですか? You know, I I'm just watching movies and I LingQ through the transcripts and I am. Sabes, solo estoy viendo películas y LingQ a través de las transcripciones y lo estoy. ご存知のように、私は映画を見ているだけで、トランスクリプトを通してLingQをしています。 Yeah, I am. ええ、私はそうです。 Because like you say, you're, I'm, I'm interested. あなたが言うように、あなたは、私は、私は興味を持っているからです。 I want to know what's going on in this TV show in this movie. この映画のこのテレビ番組で何が起こっているのか知りたいです。 And then, so the French I'm, I'm getting it. そして、私はフランス人なので、私はそれを手に入れています。 I'm understanding more and more. 私はますます理解しています。

So, yeah, it's kind of hard to move away from this, uh, traditional, you know, way that we're taught in school. Entonces, sí, es un poco difícil alejarse de esta, uh, tradicional, ya sabes, forma en que nos enseñan en la escuela. だから、ええ、これから離れるのはちょっと難しいです、ええと、伝統的な、あなたが知っている、私たちが学校で教えられている方法。 That's it's just textbooks and lists and, you know, it doesn't have to be that way, especially... I mean, if you're studying for a test, of course it's different, you know.

Rupa: For sure,

Elle: Studying for fun. Yeah.

Rupa: Yeah. No, I think, um, I think, yeah, you know school, we kind of just did it for textbooks.

That's the way I learned Japanese in school at, and actually no, I did... Sometimes the teacher would show like a movie or something and I always remember the, when they did show the movie, I was way more excited to learn, you know, rather than just textbook page 42 and just writing out notes and stuff like that. Esa es la forma en que aprendí japonés en la escuela, y en realidad no, lo hice... A veces el profesor ponía una película o algo así y siempre recuerdo que cuando ponían la película, me entusiasmaba mucho más aprender, ya sabes, en vez de sólo la página 42 del libro de texto y escribir apuntes y cosas así.

Elle: Yeah, exactly. I remember our French teacher used to play us. It was like a French Simpsons or the Simpsons dubbed in French. それは、フランス語のシンプソンズやフランス語で吹き替えられたシンプソンズのようなものでした。

Um, so you're, you're now in Melbourne, is that, will you be going back to Japan or are you now based in Melbourne for good?

Rupa: So well, that's one of the brilliant things about, you know, uh, working online and through YouTube and stuff like that. You can pretty much live anywhere as long as you've got internet connection and your trusty laptop. Puedes vivir prácticamente en cualquier parte siempre que tengas conexión a Internet y tu fiel portátil.

Um, and a camera, I guess that's pretty important. So yeah, absolutely. As soon as this whole situation starts to calm down a little bit, I'd love to do some traveling, you know, back over to Japan, um, and see some more of the world because I kind of went to Japan when I was 18. Tan pronto como toda esta situación comience a calmarse un poco, me encantaría viajar un poco, ya sabes, volver a Japón, um, y ver un poco más del mundo porque fui a Japón cuando era 18 And then I went to Japan again when I was what, 21.

Um, and now I'm back here. So, so I would also like to see some other parts of the world too. So. I dunno, just go and, and, uh, go travel the world for a little bit.

Elle: Sounds good. Excellent. And what about for your channel and for the rest of the year, are there any plans, do you, um, are you planning to focus on the kinds of content that you've been putting out that fun kind of movie TV show based stuff? ¿Y qué pasa con tu canal y para el resto del año? ¿Hay algún plan? ¿Estás planeando centrarte en los tipos de contenido que has estado publicando? Ese tipo divertido de películas basadas en programas de televisión. ? そして、あなたのチャンネルと今年の残りの期間についてはどうですか、あなたは、ええと、あなたはあなたがその楽しい種類の映画テレビ番組ベースのものを出している種類のコンテンツに集中することを計画していますか? ?

Rupa: So yeah keeping up with the English lessons. And, uh, I think what's important for any kind of content creator or YouTube is just listen to what the people are requesting, listen to what they want to see and, you know, check the analytics. We can kind of go in the back end, check the analytics, see what the people watch more of and, you know, keep doing that.

So, so that's, that's how I've done YouTube so far and it seems to be going all right. And, um, yeah, I just plan to keep, keep making YouTube videos. I think I'm so lucky to be in the position I am for, for being able to, I was able to leave my job. Creo que tengo mucha suerte de estar en el puesto que tengo, por haber podido, pude dejar mi trabajo. I used to work as a full-time as a salesman, and I was able to leave that.

And now I'm just pursuing this, uh, the YouTube lifestyle and it's been going all right. そして今、私はこれを追求しているだけです、ええと、YouTubeのライフスタイルとそれは順調に進んでいます。 And I plan to do it for, for many more years. そして、私はそれをもっと何年も続けるつもりです。

Elle: Fantastic. Fantastic.

Well, anyone who is interested in checking out your channel, I will pop the link, uh Rupa Sensei is the name of the channel and, um, best of luck with the channel and any, anything else for the rest of the year and beyond. さて、あなたのチャンネルをチェックすることに興味がある人は誰でも、私はリンクをポップします、ええと、ルパ先生はチャンネルの名前です、そして、ええと、チャンネルと他の何か、今年の残りとそれ以降の幸運を祈ります。

And thank you so much.

Rupa: Oh, no, thank you. It's my pleasure. Um, shout out to all the LingQ team, Steve, Mark, yourself, everyone there. ええと、すべてのLingQチーム、スティーブ、マーク、あなた自身、そこにいるすべての人に叫んでください。 So it's such a brilliant app. とても素晴らしいアプリです。 So guys, if you, if you're wondering for what tool to use hey go download LingQ as well. Así que chicos, si se preguntan qué herramienta usar, descarguen LingQ también. ですから、もしあなたが、どのツールを使うべきか疑問に思っているのなら、LingQもダウンロードしてください。 I use it and I recommend it.

Elle: Amazing. Thank you Rupa Sensei.

See ya.