hey Rene what's up? hey Stefanie I'm good how are you doing? great thanks
awesome well I'm really excited to be doing this interview with you because I
know that your journey of improving your English over the last year has been
incredible you've really improved I've gotten to witness a lot of those
improvements myself because we've been working together for I don't know how
many months has it been like nine months or something like that yeah I guess it
should be like nine months or something it's like a big journey but you know I
have been improving my English in a really awesome way I'm absolutely another person
you're another person that's how you describe it that's awesome so why don't we start there
because in this interview basically what I want to do is I just want to talk to
you about your journey of improving your English like what worked what didn't
work and then how your English has helped you advance in your career and
then of course you know you just went on a trip to the U.S. to a really important
conference so I'd love to talk about that later on in the video so first just
to start us off tell us a little bit about how you learned English and how
you started improving even more over this last year okay so basically you
know as every people I have been learning English or I mean trying to
learn English since I was at a school then in the high school and also in the
university and also I took a course in another Institute here in Ecuador but it
was kind of weird because I was studying I used to be the like the best student
or something like that but I was unable to establish a conversation with
somebody really in English you know then I guess it was all related with my lack of
confidence because my English was not really bad but it's different when you
are just solving a test or something or conjugating verbs and just writing
something it's not the same as real interaction you know absolutely not
because I mean when you're in a test you have like a hole context about where the
test is I mean you have certain topics that you're gonna try in that test but
when you are just talking I mean the other person is just trying to establish
a communication trying to communicate their ideas and you have no
idea what is the next sentence or something so you need to learn how to
listen and how to you know answer questions and establish a good
communication yeah so would you say that a year ago maybe you weren't capable of
having a conversation like we are having right now?
absolutely absolutely I remember that when I started to work in the company
that I am currently working it was kind of weird for me because I had a really
lack of confidence and when I had to talk with somebody else in the United
States it was like a big mess for me I used to be really scared you know
because I was like oh my gosh I would do something wrong here so we actually
before we continue I totally forgot to ask you this but why don't you tell
everyone a little bit about what you do because you mentioned you live in
Ecuador so you're a native Spanish speaker but what is it that you do okay
so as you know I am living here in Ecuator that's a country in South America
so I am native a Spanish speaker and I am currently working for a big company
in States actually our client is from the States but the company is from
London it's headquarters is in London, that's cool, haha, it's in London but the technical lead is in California and the guy that is in charge
of the businesses is located also in Silicon Valley and you're a software
developer yeah I am a software developer we are many several developers here in in
Ecuador actually we have offices here in Quito is the capital of Ecuador and also
in another city that is Loja we are working here from four clients you know
in the States London so when you speak with clients
are you speaking with people in the United States or in London? the most of
the time just in the United States but some co-workers are working with some
people in London so basically a year ago you didn't feel confident speaking with
the clients in the USA but today how do you feel when you speak with them? today
is like just starting a conversation with another people from the same
country you know it's a really big change because when I used to be in
those meetings I used to often ask for the help of somebody else just to listen
and try to understand you know I used to record
the whole conversation so that repeat I remember that yes you know you don't
record the conversations to listen? and.. No, now I am just taking a notebook and
writing some notes and that's it I guess and the most of the time I am just
establishing a communication and.. I have to say Rene that's phenomenal because when
I remember when we first started working together which I think was like in
January of this year 2017 that was like your biggest concern you were just like
Stefanie I have these meetings with native English speakers and I don't
understand what's going on and so you know we were talking about that and so
now here we are in the end of September and you're like yeah you know I attend
the meetings I understand all I don't have to record them anymore you just
take notes and then you're actually able to input like before you were just
listening and trying to understand now you listen understand and you're
probably able to give feedback and to speak in these meetings is that right?
yeah actually like that you know it's like a big change because when I used to
work here in Ecuator I used to be like the one in the in the meetings and all
the time providing solutions and giving ideas and things like that in your
native language yeah in my native language then when I started to work with
this company was like really weird because I I had some ideas but I was
unable to really express what I was thinking it was awful but now we have
the last meeting a couple of weeks ago and we were talking really fluent way
you know and I was I was giving them some ideas also providing feedback
asking some questions that I had it was really pretty cool so how did you get to
this place in such a short amount of time? because you were probably stuck in
the same place for years you know where you pretty much understood English but
you didn't feel fluent or confident you were stuck there for years and then you
had this breakthrough and now you're like yeah you know I speak with native
English speakers my English isn't perfect but we communicate and I'm a
leader at my company now and so how did that happen for you? yeah okay
it's absolutely different when you're going to an institute or something to
just study English and try to memorize these the grammar rules and
all that stuff and it's absolutely different when you are just talking with
somebody else when you started the Academy and we started to just
communicate talking about other careers or profession you said when I started
the Academy? yeah the Academy, the English Full-Time Academy and we were just talking I
mean if you wanna talk in English this is your advice if you wanna talk in English you just
have to go ahead and talk in English that's the only way that you can improve
that skill there isn't any other way you know and when I used to do some
Liver videos I used to play over and over again and then I figure out what were
my faults and then I started to take notes and then try to correct them you
know it's really hard because you are making a lot of mistakes all the time
but if you are paying attention to them and trying to fix them it works
ya know that was actually something that I was really impressed by with you and I
think it was our first or second call again months and months ago but
basically you said Stefanie I did my presentation video I had to do it so
many times because I wasn't satisfied with it but by doing it so many times
you know I caught so many mistakes and I learned and I was like isn't that
amazing Rene you know because this is I think what's lacking from a lot of
educational systems is the whole experimentation from the students where
you guys actually do work and analyze your own work and not necessarily rely
24/7 on a teacher to correct your mistakes because a lot of times students
are like Oh teacher correct me correct me and it's like you will find your own
mistakes if you just really start looking for them so I think that that's
phenomenal and for those who are watching who don't know what the Academy
is the English Full-Time Academy was the first program I ever started online for
English full-time and then we went from an academy to a community and then I
Shut down the community and I'm doing other projects now but I.. don't worry you
guys I'm not going anywhere I'll do more program projects and communities but
basically in that environment it was an online group where there would be like
coaching and training and feedback and the students basically were free to
interact with each other and Rene took full advantage of this
what it was like an experiment really it was a creation and he just I remember
you did one live video and your first live video I think was like two minutes
like I do live videos on Facebook you did one in our group and then your next
video was like three minutes your next video was four minutes your next video
was seven minutes and pretty soon you were just like hey you guys you started
a group like everybody needs to do this this is amazing I feel so confident and
a few days ago you made a video I think that was 17 minutes and I was like oh my
gosh this guy is on fire you know when you're just starting it's kind of really
awful when you don't because you feel you don't have something to say and you
are just thinking oh my gosh I will do a mistake and another and another one but then you are starting to
just speak and communicate things that would've really worked for other people
and then you just start to talk and in an absolutely natural way yeah and I
think that you're such a good example for other people because you really show
people that confidence is a mindset thing like right now we're talking and
you understand me perfectly but you you're making some mistakes your
pronunciation isn't perfect but it's like who cares we're having an awesome
conversation and you're confident you're more confident than other people out
there who have English that's technically better than yours is what I
mean? and so but that's what everyone needs everyone needs this kind of
confidence that you've developed because now you can go out there you can work
for you know an english-speaking company you can network with other English
speakers you can talk with the clients you can be a leader in your industry and
English is no longer holding you back and you'll keep improving it as you go
along but the point is to be able to interact confidently with others and I
think you really truly demonstrate that yeah absolutely
actually I have one friend of mine that is he is studying in a in a .. in
an institute that is really expensive here in Quito actually is one of the
best ones here but I feel he has a really big lack of confidence because his
english is awesome it's perfect he knows a lot of grammar rules he's all
the time with a big book all the time making exercises and things like that but when he has to talk
it it has a big problem that's a .. terrible, i mean his
English is better than mine but I don't know why he can't use it you see why confidence is so important it's
everything because I I know what this is like because as I you know tell
everybody I went through this when I was learning Spanish I was like you I was
the best one in my class and I was like your friend you know my Spanish was
perfect but I did not have confidence and even though maybe I was able to
speak well that lack of confidence held me back from so many opportunities I
wouldn't speak up I wouldn't share my ideas and it was a huge struggle took me
years to overcome it and I didn't have anybody helping me but confidence is
like the one thing that they don't teach you or help you with in English
Institutes it's always teaching teaching teaching
but the real-world practice building the confidence and all that stuff it's
missing its lacking so obviously when I created English full-time that was kind
of like my goal I understood I was like okay we need confidence you know Rene
I've done a lot of traveling and I see so many English speakers around the
world who don't even identify as English speakers they still think they're
English learners and I look at them and I go you're an English speaker we're
speaking English right now you're entertaining me like give yourself some
credit and give yourself some permission to call yourself an English speaker and
yeah again you'll keep improving as you go but at some point you have to cross
over and usually the crossover happens in your mind it's when you decide yeah I
speak English yeah yeah absolutely like you are just missing a lot of
opportunities because you don't wanna use your English it's as you said my
English is not perfect I'm making a lot of mistakes
but I right now I don't really care about those mistakes I am just trying to
communicate my ideas I try to really be like effective in the things that I am doing
exactly and speaking of being effective in the things that you're doing I want
you to tell us now about the conference in the USA because you wrote to me about
that conference and I was so happy for you because you're like Stefanie I was
able to ask questions and so just tell us about this conference I guess that
conference was like the graduation of your program or something for you
we were talking with other non-native speakers in the group and we will grow
in our confidence and things like that and then was like the big test for me
when the boss of my company arrived to the company to Ecuator a couple of
months ago and he had a conversation with me we were talking like one hour or
so and he is from California it was like a big test for me then he said ok you
are ready you can go to the conference and I'm going to buy the tickets for you
wow, wait, stop. That's huge
That's huge because he felt that you were ready with your English your fluency your
confidence he the boss of the company sent you bought the ticket for you so
you could have this amazing experience like this is what I try to tell people
like English will give you so many opportunities but you have to go after
them so okay sorry sorry for interrupting it's just... no you're right
absolutely then after that was like okay I'm
doing awesome here in English and then I had to go to States and then try to see
how my English is but then they're in a country that all the people is speaking
in English so then I went to this conference I was in New York and the
first thing when I arrived to States I mean New York was oh my gosh I'm here
what am I gonna do? it's so I am alone here I was with nobody else in the airport in another
country you're alone oh my gosh what I'm gonna do so I just started to
see how the things are how the people are communicated and you know in New
York the people is speaking a lot of languages people talking in Chinese
and you met Erika there too, right? yes I met Erika also there okay
it was awesome Erika was another person from our Academy group and Erika is awesome so
shout out to Erika and she was she lives in New York and she's just like Rene
you're coming to New York here you know let's hang out and you guys had a blast
right? yeah okay it was the first day and then when I arrived to New
York I remember when I was leaving the airport I didn't have idea what I will
do you know, because I just started to read all the the cards
that were there about the taxis and things like that and then I was just
talking with somebody else from Indonesia or something and then he told me that he
help me with a taxi you know we were talking in English in a really harsh
English because his English was also kind of hard to understand yeah, it was a struggle and then the taxi
arrives, arrived there and it was a big guy from New York and was talking to me
about how and things like that and then we were talking a
little bit I was scared, you know, then I remember that I had
brought some tickets to go and visit the Statue of Liberty and I just ride to
New York and without idea about where I was or something and then I asked for
somebody else to how to get to Battery Park that is a park that is really close
to the Liberty Island mm-hmm and then I was oh my gosh he was giving me
directions about how to get that Park and then I took the metro I got lost
there you know because New York City's Metro is huge but then I was able to get there and visit the Statue of Liberty and I was really
excited I was doing some videos taking a lot of pictures it was amazing because
of it and then at night I had dinner with Erika and we were talking about our
struggles and also about how amazing your community is and things like that
it was awesome you know meeting a person but not just through the webcam or
something but in person, it was absolutely great, you know yeah I think that to me was first of all it was a
dream come true because when I started my academy and community you know what
was it like a year ago over a year ago I was like I want to bring people together
from all around the world help them improve their English and then hopefully
eventually you know people can become friends and meet in real life and that's
literally what happened you guys and you guys surprised me because I had no idea
you were planning on meeting up and then you took a picture and you put it in our
group and I like I was like oh my gosh I started showing it to everybody I
don't remember who I was with my family I'm sure and I was like look you guys look look look so now that that was
phenomenal that you guys got to meet up there you know having met in our
community and then you know gotten to know each other and become friends and
then meet in real life oh my gosh and all of it is just English it's how
English can bring people together so I get really I get really excited
especially when I see like the success of the people that I work with so that's
awesome yeah it was really awesome and you know as I
know that Erika was there I was feeling like okay I have one friend in this
country and that's also yeah even that gives you like peace of mind yeah
absolutely then at the next day I had to assist
that conference and it was great I remember when I write there I was oh my
gosh this is like the big conference for developers and I am here Wow
what was the name of the conference? is QCon
yeah that one is celebrated also in Brazil in London in San Francisco and in
New York mm-hmm so now I was there and I was really Wow I don't know how to
express that I was looking to the people that was arriving they're looking to the
speakers many of them was like the big ones for me and I used to just watch
their videos or read their books or something or their blogs and then I was
there with them you know yeah it was so cool and when I attended the first session it was
awesome because it was okay we are doing many things in the in the good way but
we have to fix many many other things and I was just writing some notes and
then I started to attend to other and another session and then I was in
session that was really technical and I had a lot of questions to that guy and I
was thinking okay I have a lot of question for him
this will be the unique chance that I will have to talk with somebody like
like him you know this question so I had to just go ahead and ask him right but
my English is not perfect but it was like a big mess in my mind you
you're just like I don't know how I'm gonna do this but it's a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity yeah okay then I just I just said for
myself this will be the unique chance that you will have to talk with this guy
probably so you just have to do it maybe you'll make mistakes
probably no nobody will remember it or you won't it to nobody else you know in your
whole life you will never see them again that's exactly what I tell myself too when I have to do something scary or embarrassing I'm
like they'll never know me or see me ever again yeah absolutely then I just
started to to talk with them asking questions and it was awesome you know
they were able to understand me I don't know with my questions were well formed
or not but they were able to understand me and answer my questions and then
after the meetings also we were just drinking a coffee with them and asking
some questions it was absolutely awesome it was I can't it was phenomenal I'm sure that
that entire experience just did wonders for your overall confidence because you
were already probably feeling pretty confident after having practiced you
know with the people in our group and you had made so many improvements but
then like you said this was the test and you realized it was a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity so you just decided to go for it and that is like the difference I
think between success and failure in English or in a language because what
happens to a lot of people is they get the opportunity but then they get scared
and so then they don't do it but that's the moment when you have to say it
doesn't matter I'll never see these people again or whatever you have to
tell yourself in your mind to make yourself brave enough to overcome your
fears because once you overcome them that's like when you go over like the
hardest part the mountaintop whatever and on the other side it's just
beautiful because you feel so accomplished and it gives you the
confidence and the courage to go on and to do more right yeah yeah absolutely
you know in that in that confidence then at the lunch time I was just looking to
so many people you know from many play many countries around the world and I
just started to sit together them and just establish conversation and it was
awesome also because I was able to meet people from all
many people from South America but people also from Germany from India from
the States many States from the United States you know Philadelphia California
Florida I don't remember And you just started talking with everyone that's it was awesome no it is it is because like you said a year ago just a
year ago and actually you went to this conference I think like a month or two
ago so literally like six months ago you probably weren't prepared for something
like this but now you went it was amazing you had all these breakthroughs
and I know and you know that that moment was very important for you and for your
entire career because you have even bigger goals and more things that you
want to achieve so what's your next step what are you you know what do you have
your eye on next what do you want to do next in your career? okay you know after
I attend to these to these conference I then I went to visit our client offices
also and then I was able to figure out that the environment that they are
working it's absolutely different and they want that we have then I just
started to think that we had to transform the whole environment that we
have here in Ecuador and make it more like an environment from from from
the States do you mean like it's more productive more organized or what do you
mean? in in all aspects actually because the people in the States is absolutely more
organized in the things that they have they are owning their products that they
are building they are not wasting any minutes in the in the whole day they are
all the time doing productive things and also in that conference I was able to
gather a lot of knowledge to to Ecuador it was awesome so basically you want to like take the
ideas and everything that you learned and observe there and you want to start
implementing them where you're at to help yeah you know your company your
country everything moves forward yeah absolutely
actually I gave like four or five trainings here for the company here in Ecuator
training? yeah trainings about the same topics that I learned there and
since we have one guy that is from Iran and he speaks just in English I had to
make those trainings also in English you know it was amazing you know because you
know they're here in Ecuator there are many Spanish speakers just and in the
company too but since he just speaking English I made those trainings in
English and it was an absolutely other story that we can talk about in another conversation
that sounds like an awesome project again that a year ago you probably weren't prepared for it so it
seems like you've made some really really incredible strides in your
English and in your career you know over the last six months to a year so I think
that's awesome I bet it feels phenomenal I know there's awesome things in store
for you so what tips do you have for other
English learners that are maybe where you were a year ago like if you could
give them advice what would you tell them okay you just have to take the
challenges you know if you have challenges in your life you just have to
go for them and take them and then just we're really hard to to really achieve
all the goals that you have in your life all the goals that I used to have like
one year ago were related with English stuff so I decided to take them just
look as crazy for for a company from US and and work with them and then I
only had to use my English it was it was not perfect it's not perfect yet today
but you just have to use it you just have to take challenges you have to
don't pay attention to your mistakes to the mistakes that you are making you know
just go for it if you want to get something just go for it
that's that's the place that I can take it well I don't know I think that is
really great advice Rene and I mean it's so so simple but again everything
is in our mind we hold ourselves back I think so much sometimes just because of
fear or excuses you know and so you can make excuses for everything you know say that again if you want you can
have excuses for everything yes oh yeah you can you can but you know I think
with the internet with social media with the
way that we're now able to connect to other people around the world there's no
excuse really there's so much great information on the Internet and then you
just need to practice your English speak with other people and like you did you
joined a program that really helped so when you see the opportunity for
something like that to take it and to realize also that traditional language
education can help you in many ways it can teach you vocabulary and grammar but
at some point you have to cross over and start really using English in the real
world so to speak even if that just means on social media with other English
learners and other English speakers yeah that kind of vocabulary that you're
learning in the Institute is not really helpful because you are just learning
the words and learning the translation into your native language but you are
not using them so you just lost them really well I know I know the struggle
too because like I said I've spent years doing the traditional learning method
and it wasn't until I started speaking Spanish with other Spanish speakers it
was like boom fluency just happened I didn't even have to really even try that
just immersion method works so well because your brain the way it tries to
communicate it forces you to think in another language and like right now I'm
in Italy and the other day we were hanging out with someone who is Italian
and doesn't speak English or Spanish I have no idea how or when I learned so
much Italian but I was talking in Italian and he was understanding me and I mean I
wasn't speaking perfectly at all but you know that's what it is if we need to
have the real communication with each other so anyways Rene is there anything
else you would like to share with us any last thoughts that you have? no I guess
as I told you before I just have to say you thanks because in this year my
whole life changed I mean a lot I have another personality with the people
speaking in English I had those chances that were awesome I was visiting a lot
of cities there in the States I mean I had like the whole that the whole bunch
of dreams that I used to have in my mind when I was a child I was able to achieve
and then now I am going for four other ones you
know you changed my mind absolutely so just thank you you are welcome well thank you
also for I guess believing in me and joining my program when I first launched
because you took a leap of faith there and it worked so that's awesome and it
makes me really happy to hear that you achieved your dreams and that now you're
creating new ones and I want everyone to really hear that and know that it's like
you have dreams in your mind right now you can totally accomplish those within
maybe six months a year a couple years whatever it is you can you can reach
those goals and then you'll be creating new goals things you can't even imagine
I like to say you don't know what you don't know you don't know where you're
gonna be you know because you have to accomplish things first and then more
opportunities will come to you so Rene thank you so much for sharing this
information with us I look forward to following your journey and to learning
more about the many awesome things that you do because I know you're gonna
continue doing amazing things so thank you for joining us and we'll talk soon
okay see you
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