It’s been a busy week.
On Monday morning I launched a YouTube channel that I’ve had in the works for quite some time.
Between travelling through South America seeing new things and hanging out with wonderful friends followed by dealing with the consequences of my father’s passing, I couldn’t find the time or energy needed to launch.
It became a constant niggle in the back of my mind.
Whilst pounding away on the treadmill of my local gym a couple of weeks back, I asked myself, “Why does it have to be everything you wanted from the get-go? Why can’t you launch the content in a simple and pure form and grow from there?”
A tiny lightbulb hovered six inches above my head.
I say tiny as I’ve had some doozy lightbulb moments in my time.
“That’s true,” I thought as my feet quickened their pace, “The channel will morph and grow with time as all projects do.”
As I went about my days, some wonderful ideas began percolating in the recesses of my mind but I needed to get the channel up and running before launching any of them.
And so the work began.
The idea sparked from a conversation with Juciano, a wonderful student who has become an even more wonderful friend.
“I like listening to audiobooks on YouTube,” he said during one of our lessons.
“Why on YouTube?” I asked. “What about podcasts and audio files?”
“I like to read along with the subtitles,” he said. “It’s better for understanding.”
Our discussion naturally moved into what content is out on the interwebs for intermediate English language learners and we agreed that there wasn’t much. YouTube is full of teachers giving basic grammar lessons and making content for beginner students whilst the majority of advanced students can watch content made for native speakers.
But where is the content specifically designed for the intermediate students?
The ones who don’t want to feel that they aren’t progressing because they struggle to understand the quickness and complexity of native speakers.
“Your accent is very clear,” Juciano said for the umpteenth time since we started our lessons years ago. “You don’t speak too fast and are easy to understand. You have the perfect voice to read books,” he said earnestly.
I thanked him for his kindness and realized this wasn’t the first time I’d heard that particular sentiment. It was quite common for students to mention it.
This is by design. One of the most important things for me as an English teacher is to make sure that students not only feel heard but feel that they can understand as well. I want students to believe that they are making progress.
“I can’t read other people’s books,” I said, “There’s copyright attached to them… but I can read my own writing,” I remarked slowly as the idea formed. “I can write short stories for students to listen to.”
“That’s a good idea,” Juciano said as his mouth broke into a sincere smile.
We spent a few lessons fleshing out what would be helpful to him and what he thought other students would be looking for. By the end of each session, I fell more and more in love with the idea.
Cut to almost a year later and it has finally come to fruition.
The first two videos were uploaded and released at midnight on Monday morning, June 10th. Another four are made and scheduled for release weekly over the next month. Every Monday morning at 12 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +2, a new video will make its way onto the interwebs.
As I pen this piece, the stats on the channel are low. It’s new and I have not yet made a concerted effort to get the word out. This is about to change.
Should any of you lovely readers know of, or are in, any ESL groups or chats, please feel free to send out the YouTube link. The sooner I can get my subscriber count and watch hours up, the sooner I can gain some traction in the YouTube algorithms.
While the birth of my online baby may be a small step for mankind, it is a giant leap forward for me and hope is high. The more successful the channel becomes, the closer I get to my dream of settling in my beloved Canada, and the closer I get to helping others fulfill theirs.
Thank you all for your support. I appreciate it more than you could ever know.