Chatterbox #167 – Interview With Ben M

Episode Description In today’s episode, Andrew gets to know Ben M, a new ESL teacher from the United States. Join Andrew and Ben M as they talk about everything from teaching English to Indiana slang to self-driving cars. Andrew:  Now that you mention it, I can maybe hear it a little bit, but I wasn’t tuned into it before you mentioned it. Ben: It’s not something that I love, to say I have a Southern accent. I would prefer probably not to. Not because it’s bad, just because I feel like it makes my IQ smaller. Andrew: Mmm, I understand that, actually. The other day, I took an accent quiz online and it said 100% I had a Canadian accent. And I kind of felt a little bit sad when I read that result. I was like, oh, I don’t know. Accents are weird in English; they sort of stereotype you a little bit. Ben: And when I say IQ and the South, I don’t want to at all come across offensive at all. Andrew: No. Yeah, I understand. Ben: There are plenty of smart people in the South, so if you’re from the South don’t be offended. Andrew: Cool, OK. So tell me a little bit more about where you live. What is an awesome thing about where you live? Ben: An awesome thing where I live is the IU campus, which is the Indiana University. We’re really only about 10 miles away from it, so we have a very great opportunity to meet lots of people who have English as a second language, people who came here to follow different business courses and learn to become businessmen and women. Our campus is a great resource for them. So Indiana University has been a great opportunity for me as a teacher. I volunteer at our local library, as well as on campus, to help people learn English, so that has been a neat opportunity. Something awesome would be the Indiana University, and with that comes all of the culture. So we have people, a lot from China, from Taiwan, from all over places of the world that come to this university. So it’s become more of a melting pot of people that get to meet and see all sorts of different cultures. So it’s pretty unique to have that, and so close to where I live. Andrew: Yeah, universities are great places, like you say. You get to experience lots of different cultures and see many different people, so that’s always very nice. Ben: Yeah, I love it. Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials: Me time To knock on wood Hype To stereotype All over the place Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast