Video Podcast – Episode 58

New Social Accounts

Guest: Lydia Grm

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the English coach podcast. Now I’m going to get straight to the point with this. The episode that you’re about to hear was actually made as a video podcast – which I intended to publish in my normal podcast player as a video. However, things didn’t work out as planned, so you might notice that the way I talk it’s as if it’s a video – and that is because it is. So, if you’re interested in seeing what exactly I’m talking about, please feel free to head on over to EnglishCoachPodcast.com from your PC or from your mobile – and you can watch the video that this was made for.

I do apologize for any inconvenience, but it’s just the NORMAL show as I usually do. So do enjoy the show.

About

Hello. My name is Ian Antonio Patterson host and producer of the English Coach Podcast. Now it’s a very special day today. I am doing a video podcast. Now, the reason I’m doing this is threefold. Now, first of all, I am checking out to see how this video podcasting offer really works from my podcast host company – Libsyn.

The second reason why I’m here is to show you a little bit about how I work, where I work – and give you an idea of the work that is involved in producing the podcast show and also in working as an online trainer.

Third reason why I’m here is to actually give a proper introduction for a little production that I have done with a very good friend of mine. A young lady called Lydia. One I had a chance, had the privilege of seeing on stage, seeing in practice and one with whom I have worked a lot in studio for photo shooting and for video shooting. Lydia has also been on my podcast I think it was episode 15 and she has helped me a lot with lots of dances. I think two projects to be exact.

The first one was actually dancing a grammar rule. I have not published that yet, but that is coming. It was quite a while back, but I’m going to be publishing that at some point – did that together with another dancer called Pia (Schackenberg). And this, this production that I want to introduce to you in a proper way is one called Lydia “Being Sybille”.

Now Sybille is short for “Sybille von Spitzen” and Sybille von Spitzen is a little character that I like to have fun with sometimes on my show. No, this character is what you could call an overzealous grammarian with a “tick” or an English teacher – with a “tick”. Now, if you are interested in finding out what “tick” this little English teacher, well, not little, she’s actually quite competent in her skill yes – and very much persuaded and, you know, very confident with what she does – What exactly or what kind of “tick” this teacher has. Just watch the video. You can watch it here at the end of this introduction, or if you don’t have a podcast player that allows you to watch videos as well, you can just head on over to EnglishCoachPodcast.com and look for episode 58, it will be there – in the show notes.

So again, thank you to Lydia. You have been instrumental in getting this out and the character that I wanted Lydia to do, wasn’t actually the easiest because you know what I mean, only a professional dancer could actually do that I think because – this character, you know, has her – her way. And I had to explain to Lydia how this person is, what this person believes, how they dress, how they move and all of that. And I really did need a professional to interpret that and, embody this character. And I’m very happy to say that, uh, Lydia has managed to do that – and I am very happy to be able to share that with you today.

All right. So please check it out and feel free to tell me what you think. It’s not long. It’s probably about one minute and 20 seconds, I think. And then after that, there is another small interview with Lydia, uh, talking a little bit about her profession as a Professional Dancer. So why she does it and you know, the things that drive her, what she likes and so on and so forth.

All right. So please do stick around and check it out.

Now the other reason why we’re here is, um, I want to show you exactly how I work. I want you to have an idea of how I do things, right? So, first of all, I am looking into my second camera right now. This camera is over here and it is a 45 degrees to my main camera, which is right here looking straight at me. Now I’m pointing at it. And both of these cameras are getting their sound delivered to them from this microphone.

Now this microphone is a so-called condenser microphone. It is actually analog side-dress. That means I have to speak from the side. The city of black thing is preventing the gusts of wind from going into the microphone, because I want my direct voice to go straight in from the side and not from the top, but I don’t want the direct gusts of wind.

That doesn’t sound too nice so we need this little thing here. Underneath that, this fancy looking high-tech thingy, looking a little bit retro, I think – this is to absorb shock that might happen – that might travel through my table, into this arm and into the microphone. It is supposed to kind of, you know, dampen that sound a little bit and it holds the mic quite nicely.

It also looks quite fancy I think – I like the look of it. Now, this analogue sound that is going into my microphone goes naturally, along this cable down and into my fancy little audio interface, that’s sitting over there just out of view, that audio interface is from Steinberg and it promises me 32 bit float sound.

So that gives me a lot of headroom or a lot of space to. To work on the sound after I have captured it. It gives me a lot of room to, to make adjustments – and, um, it also protects me from (the ill effects of) being too loud. As a matter of fact, if I’m too loud on the microphone, I can adjust the sound. It can capture very loud sounds without distorting them. And also very quiet sounds as well. So it’s just a better quality sound for you right now.

So, that from my auto interface then goes into my PC, which is right here. It is capturing everything as we speak into my audacity. So now I’m gonna give you a little live view of what it looks like, the sound coming in. And as you can see the sound waves there, it’s running off to the right-hand side, and I can tell from the look of these sound waves or the “wave pattern”. If the quality sound going in is good or not so good. I’m also able to watch the levels, as you can see at the top, there, there is a little green bar.

Ideally, I should not be yeah, that’s actually a good range. Yes. It’s hitting 24 decibels right now. And uh, you know, I don’t want it to get to like six. So, what this says to me, is that the, with this sound, I can turn it up a little bit. And with this quality mic, the full richness of my voice (any voice) is coming over. So, it shouldn’t hurt to listen to my voice on the podcasts or on my training – training courses. Yes. So that is what is happening there.

Now, the other thing, and part of my tools is basically my glasses here. I do not wear glasses. I do not really need glasses for seeing at a distance, but right now I have some cue cards which are standing right behind this camera. And these are helping me to talk about all the things that I planned to talk to you about. And I need that for reading. So that’s why I’m wearing them. And to be honest, I do feel more beautiful in glasses, whoever doesn’t like it, can bite it.

All right. So now moving on, what else, do we have, yeah, just being a little bit cheeky there. All right. So, I’m gonna now show you – something else. All right. Now, as you can see on this screen, um, I also have a little program that is helping me to capture the screen as you’re looking at right now, as well as – these two microphones (CAMERAS). Now you can see the screen top left and you can see also the side camera, which is there I’m pointing at it now – pointing at it. And then the other camera, which is in front of me pointing to it right now. Right on the screen – the screen itself, which is being recorded and capturing also sound from my audio interface over there.

Now the reason why I’m showing you all of this. Now you’ve seen my microphone. You’ve seen or, you’ve heard of my, um, audio interface, my computer, which has to also be a pretty powerful computer. The sound treatment that is in this room, the background here, which is, um, as I said, I don’t know if I said it, but it’s a screen.

And behind it, there is sound treatment not sound proofing because sound proofing is a little overkill. I don’t need soundproofing here. I just need something that will catch all the – or – prevent, any other direct sound from going into this microphone. So funnily, the sound treatment for this kind of microphone is actually behind the speaker. So, what that does is any other sound that would probably bounce back and come into the microphone is stopped and the only thing going into this, mic is no reflection, no echoes, just my direct voice. And that is why the sound treatment is behind me. There’s also some to the right, to my right over here. The floors are also carpeted. There is some above me as well. The table is usually padded with a sound absorptive material. And when I’m podcasting, I even have a cushion on my lap and all of that helps to stop all this stray sound bouncing around and, you know, make it a little nicer for you to listen. You know, I do care about your listening experience.

Another thing that is here that I use still is my white board. As you can see, it is there. You can see from this camera – over there. And I still use it sometimes, especially when I’m explaining timelines. I use it to show, you know, with, drawings, what I mean when I’m explaining time forms to my students.

Right. So that’s, uh, another thing. Is there anything else? Well, usually I put something to drink here. Right here on this pedestal. And there are some books all around, but I wouldn’t show you all those books. I think as we speak, my cat is actually above the own treatments stuff over there. She likes to sit there and either watch me or listen to me. And I still think she’s my biggest fan. She’s been there since day one. You know, kitty, kitty yes. Kitty puss. That’s her name. Right. Moving on – now that was the second reason for me being here. I wanted to, you know, just, just show you what is what’s going on here.

I want you to have an idea of the work that goes into it. And also, to give you an idea of, you know, the quality that is involved. I mean, when I, go online to give whether it be, a live, private live streaming, as I’m now offering, I’ll tell you a little bit about that now. Um, whether I’m doing that or I’m teaching online, it’s not just me grabbing an iPhone or some other smartphone and chatting into it.

I do pay attention to quality, uh, pay attention to lighting. There’s a huge light fixture over there. And I have to think about all of that as well. Light reflecting into my glasses. My face has to be properly lit. You know, I’m a black man as well – so, you know, I need a little bit of extra light – if you want to see more than a shadow. And, um, things like that. And I want you to have an idea of the, work that is involved in producing something that is going to give you value and give you results.

All right. So, moving on. Now the other thing that I wanted to show you today was my website. Now I’m just going to give you a quick overview.

It’s not really so much. If you go to EnglishCoachPodcast.com, it takes you directly to the podcast page. And from this page, you can find everything about me. And I’m just gonna quickly walk you through. At the top left is the logo for my “Working site” (TrainingTree.de), this is my working site. I don’t really push this in any way. It is just a functional place where, you know, I’m not trying to sell in a kind of, solid user experience here or anything like that. It’s just a function of place where certain things live.

First of all, my podcast lives here and also my training rooms.

So, as you can see, the first link says training rooms, but below that on the page, EnglishCoachPodcast.com – it will take you to TrainingTree.de – and as you can see here, my podcast is listed from episode 57, soon to be episode 58, all the way down to the very first episode. Now, if you missed one or you want to go back or you want to see how good or how bad I was when I first started with podcasting, you can go all the way back to the very first episode. If you want, these are all of them listed. Now if I go all the way back up you can see on the right side, there’s an option to follow the show. You can click this link if you want to see the apps, within which you can watch the show.

There is my signature sound. Thanks to Andy that sound here was produced by him. Thanks, Andy. Big up.

And, uh, let’s see, uh, directly under that there is a special feature, which is actually the. The video interlude short – of why I’m doing this introduction, this proper introduction right now. So, it’s already there – if you, if you want to just jump to it, you can also just go to the website.

I mean, you will anyway. If you want, you can go straight here and just watch Lydia’s performance. Now right beside Lydia, you will see something that probably doesn’t exactly fit, but SIA is my favourite pop artist, and she has been on my site – actually it was there as a test video on my site since day one, and I refused to take it off because I still like her.

And speaking of pop, you should not underestimate the power of pop. There is strong poetry there sometimes, especially from SIA – and I’ve met at least three or four people who have learned English from listening to music. I didn’t believe them at first, but after talking to them, I recognized that they really did.

You should never – take music and other free time activities – gaming and so on for granted, because these are the things that are gonna help you to get to the level of fluency – that you want.

Now, coming back to the website. What can you see here? I also have, oh, yes – there’s a little box here – if you want to support the show, I would recommend, or I would ask you to do it directly. I have here a PayPal link. If you want to buy me a coffee or buy me a slice of cake, because you like the show so much, you can do that here – DIRECTLY via PayPal.

Now I don’t know – if you can, (maybe) you can call me a friend and then there won’t be any charge for it. I mean, all these middlemen tend to take something, but – the other usual middleman for giving donations or support, like Patrion or Buy-me-a-coffee or whatever – I don’t use them because I don’t like the idea of having someone between me and you. I don’t see why I should, for example, ask you to buy me a coffee and they have to get some. So, um, that is why I really do prefer – if you feel as if you wanna – do this for the show, you like the show and you wanna help me as well to keep the level of quality to keep this flavour of authenticity going for you. You can do that directly using this link on the page.

Another link on the page, you can also send in a voicemail. If you click this orange button, you will be taken to a page where you’ll see – another orange button, which says start recording. And here you can send in your feedback or any little comment you have on any show episode, I’d be happy to hear anything.

It doesn’t have to be all positive. You know, I really don’t take anything personally because at the end of the day – directly said – this is a free show. This is one of the advantages of being independent. You’re not really under the pressure to perform according to anyone else’s notion of perfection. So, I mean, you can be honest and true with your feedback – tell me what you think. You know, it won’t cost me a job or anything like that. If you want, you can even get featured on an upcoming episode. So, say your name, what you do and your links to your Instagram, your Facebook, your website, what have you, and, um, you can get featured on the show.

I’d be really happy to hear from you from anywhere you are anywhere, anywhere. But most importantly, there’s also contact. There is a login for anyone who is taking part in any of my online courses. They can login. You have to log in for the Private Live Streaming. Yes, for example, and I have two groups of people serving here. The live streaming doesn’t show on YouTube or on LinkedIn or Facebook or anywhere. You know, to be honest, I don’t do my show for everyone. I don’t do my live streaming for everyone. I’m not gonna put myself under Google’s whip and burnout like a lot of, sad, poor YouTubers, Creators, Trainers – that I know. I just want to serve my people. And that’s always been my plan. So yes, it is live streaming, but you have to login to see it. It’s for English for Work.

And if you go here to training rooms, you will see the page for that. Yes, here it is. There are two groups standard and premium, and you can access all live streaming that is happening.

I think to start out is going to be Tuesdays and Thursdays at about seven o’clock (19:00 Berlin (GMT+1)), we’re kind of settling on that time and. If you’re a member, if you’re a course participant of mine, then you can log in to see. And it seems to be going quite nicely already – I mean, I have been doing this for seven years, so, um, it’s pretty easy – actually. Yes. And it’s something that I like.

All right. So now that is my web page. I think that is it for the most part. Another thing I don’t know if you’re new to the show are new to who I am. If you’re interested in finding out who that is, you can always go to my kind of – this is my personal “presence-online”. This is my personal link tree, so to speak. Um, you can find it at www.ian-antonio-patterson.com/work or much easier www.iAntonio.com and at iAntonio.com you will find all the links to everything I do – my service offer as you can see here – the podcast, my Triner-profile with my CV and everybody who’s interested in finding out if I studied what I studied and where, and – number two, you see my media, this is my media listing. Of course, there are many different channels. I do not limit myself to any of them. Uh, I think on the last podcast I spoke a boat giving my – I can’t think of any good reason – to give my media content to any platform exclusively.

I can’t, I can’t think of any reason to do that. I’m not so much into the Instagram and Facebook thing, you know – the meta-verse (facebook’s new persona) as it is now known as because, you know, I honestly believe that we should take ownership our digital identities, which I’ve said before online, many times – I’ve have written about it.

You should take ownership of that. This is also what the “Democratization of the Learning Experience” means – it’s a part of it. It’s taking ownership of this space, this identity that lives online – your Metadata, everything, all your movements online. Everything you have to, you have to take ownership of that and write your own story, because guess what a story is being written anyway.

Right. This is my attempt to take ownership of my stuff and it’s all listed here. So this (link) is to my shows. You can see first there are – let’s see the following options. This is the listeners group. You can join the listens group, for example, if you want to be the first to see videos when they come out. Yes, ours. I write my lessons group maybe once a month. Yes. It’s not like every week. I’m not like spamming people with 10 emails a week. It’s a, sometimes I think the last one I did was in June and, um, no, the last one I did was about two weeks ago and the one before that was in June.

Right. So, it’s not like some kind of spam magic funnel I’m trying to build here anything. It’s contact with my people. Yes. But, um, it’s not some kind of spam machine – right. So, you can, sign up for that group if you want to be notified. Here again is a voicemail link. Here is my service on, um, not videos, but photography service. I don’t do that so much anymore. It’s kind of like now a hobby that I do in a professional way when I can find the time. Yeah. So I still do it. And, here I have featured artists. These are -this is a link to the artists who have – stayed close to me over the past few years.

There are people there listed, like Farida did a lot of work with Farida. We tried some things, some things didn’t work out as planned, but, the material is still there and you can see some of it here at this link. I’ve worked with people like Yuna, of course with Lydia, I’ve worked with Anna Elva for example, the soundtrack that, you’ll hear in Lydia’s video, I’ve used it also working with Anna Elva. She just did it freely, she wasn’t doing any kind of character or anything like that. She just danced through it. I like to see different interpretations of one musical piece.

I’ve done that also with another musical piece called Raqs El Gamal. And, uh, that I’ve done with, a young lady called Jessica Farina. You will also be able to find that here and another interpretation of the same piece from Raqs El Gamal.

From – by Farida – my good friend Farida – so if you go to this link, you’ll be able to see all the performances from these two young ladies. Right. And there are some other things there just in case. You know I mean I Work with dance because I’ve learned a lot from dance. It is – it is that only some kind of decadence that I follow. That’s not the only reason why I do it. I do it because. For me, I’ve said it before – dance represents it, depicts the way we have to move through life. The way we have to adjust to situations. When you see a dancer on stage moving to different things, then it shows you how – it’s a depiction, it articulates – how we have to live – and that is the core meaning of, dance to me.

It’s also interesting to see how music moves people. I also use dance as an opportunity to – let’s say I have used dance and dance photography as an opportunity to get to know my camera. Yeah. Um, if I didn’t take up a camera and started photographing flowers first, and then dance. Learning how to capture a moving subject through different scenarios at different speeds and knowing how sound gets into the camera and how to capture media and present to in a presentable way – the equipment that is involved and all of that, I would not be able to be doing this right now.

So just, just, just think about it. Yes. Preoccupation with a camera has led through a hobby that has taught me lots of things also about the human condition. I’ve learned a lot about people working with dance – people in media and so on. Right. Wasn’t it for that preoccupation, I would not be right here right now talking to you – doing a podcast, audio podcasts, video podcasts – and I would not have had the understanding that I did have going into online training and private live online streaming. So again, do not underestimate free time activities and hobbies. Yes. Is probably your best source of learning.

All right. So that was it again. Um, I won’t be waxing too much Lyrical now on dance – but since we’re on that topic, I want to take this opportunity also to thank many of the people with whom I’ve worked on this particular podcast. People from the dance world as one of the first – was Olga she’s an aeronautics engineer.

And, um, she was one of the first on the show.

One of the second was Said el Amir he’s also a train just sent me. So he’s of the same trainer persuasion – he is a dance practitioner at master of science level. So, you know, he has a few things to say, you should check out his episodes. We did three together in the beginning. I’ve worked with people like Dschinny. Yes, very good. Friend of mine also worked with her on photo shoots. She has also been an inspiration in many ways. I’ve worked with, another good friend of mine – mathematician called Rebecca, Dr. Rebecca Waldecker. She was on the show recently – she’s also podcaster like me – I’m also very thankful to her.

I’ve worked with people like Elena, Russian dancer. Who’s also into martial arts or Kampfsport (DE)comfort sport. And of course, I’ve worked with people like Pia and Anna Elva and last, but by no means no means least the lovely Lydia. All right.

So now that has taken us – back to Lydia I’m really anxious to see how this cell video podcast works out. Again. If you got, watch it in your podcast via your favourite podcast player, just visit the site www.EnglishCoachPodcast.com – And – Lydia, again, I really hope, you know, I’m really trying here to get people to go and see her performance – and I’m sure they will, it’s well worth it.

I want to take this opportunity again to say thank you to you directly. I could not have done this without you naturally – and Sybille von Spitzen this wonderful character that we both expressed together.

I think I’ve done pretty much everything that I wanted to do, shown you how I work. I think I’ve mentioned the fact that this is season five and I’m not switching over to video podcasting. I’ve introduced Lydia in a very nice way. So without further ado, I want to invite you to just head on over to the show or stick around, listen or watch, uh, Lydia’s performance.

And as I always say:

With a small win is always a good way to begin.

Interview (short)

Lydia: Hi, I’m Lydia. I’m a dancer and, that’s why I know Ian. We did some dance shoots together and, it was really nice. I’m a dancer. That’s basically everything I do the whole day. That’s who I am – I am what I do, that’s it.

Ian: That’s a nice way to say it. I am what I do. Well, you know, the good thing about that is that, you can just change what you do and change who you are. Is that fantastic?

Lydia: Yeah, it is. And I can live my dream now. That’s really fantastic.

Ian: Great. That’s great. That’s great. Well, you know what, Lydia, I have known new for quite a while and it’s always fun working with you. It’s great. Now, I know that – well – you dance professionally, what kind of dance do you do? Tell, tell everyone what kind of dance you do.

Lydia: I’m doing contemporary dance. that’s, that’s the main thing I do. I also like doing jazz or ballet. But contemporary is the thing I can do my best, and I love the most.

Ian: Today we’re doing something experimental and, um, well, you know, as I, as I mentioned to you earlier, it’s all about training. If somebody wants to find you, tell us again, where can we find you, maybe find out what shows you’re doing, or a website or Facebook or Instagram or whatever, how can we find?

Lydia: I’m on Facebook and on Instagram. And it would be very nice if you follow me. Um, my name is Lydia G R M in Facebook and Instagram (@lydia.grm). And then can you see what I’m doing? And, also the shows and photo shootings and stuff – all I do.

Ian: All right, good, fantastic! So I’ll make a note of that and I am sure – I’m looking forward to the improvisation after this, and I’m sure people will also be looking out for you. Okay. Thank you, Lydia. Now let’s go.

Film Release Will Appear Here in November 2021

The English Coach Podcast – never intentionally takes a prescriptive, patronizing, or condescending stance to the adult learning experience, but is rather driven by inclusiveness – of people, approaches, personal experiences thoughts and ideas. This show episode is neither a formal lesson nor a substitute for such but aims to supplement the adult learning experience in a true-to-life way. The show is independent and self-sponsored – brought to you by me – a practicing language Trainer / Coach – and draws on a whole gamut of tools and tips in support of providing information, entertainment and what I like to call sustainable language acquisition in an authentic, relatable, and vastly collaborative – human way.

English Coach Podcast – Living the Language – iAntonio

Thanks for listening, looking forward to hearing from you and bye for now.

Ian Antonio Patterson – ShowHost

Sustainable Language Acquisition = Nachhaltiger Spracherwerb.

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Being Sybille – Show and Tell #58