Real English Conversations

Matt Cundill  0:01  
You may also like a show about the things. You may also like things like real English conversations. Curtis Davis lives in Mexico. How he got there is a story unto itself. But know that in 2016 he started a podcast that was going to feature real English conversations. He didn't even really know that there were so many people on earth searching to listen to a real English conversation in order to have a real English conversation. From there, his podcast and his learning business took off his passion for talking into a microphone, though, started long before 2016

Curtis Davies  0:46  
I have always wanted to be a broadcaster since the days where I was growing up in in Edmonton, Alberta. I was born and raised in Edmonton. I was always listening to, of course, the music. There's a passion for the music. I'm a musician as well, but the passion came from listening to the guys talk, listening to the entertainers. So I started recording more of those people, instead of the music, where my friends would, you know, have a recording of the music and they would cut the announcers out. I was doing the opposite thing. So by the time I was 15 or 16, I was begging my parents to I got the opportunity to be on the University station, cjsr 88.5 FM. It was a dance music show, and I had already had turntables at like 1012, years old from my older brothers and a huge record collection from my dad and my older brothers being nightclub DJs the mix show. Opportunity came to me at 15 or 16 years old, and I remember going to talk to my mom and saying, Okay, I've got this opportunity. I'm going to be on the radio. And she was all proud of me, and oh, great. What time's the show? Midnight till 6am and she was like, No way you're doing that. Go talk to your father. So my dad, who is a musician as well. He's 84 years old. He plays electric bass guitar, and he knew my passion for music and radio and everything like that. And there was a guy that did the show from 10 to midnight that I really, really grew up listening to and break dancing to. He was the person that brought, you know, hip hop and break dancing and all that kind of culture from the United States to Canada. His name was Teddy. He was an influential guy for bringing that music scene into Edmonton. And I always, you know, he was my first radio idol. Always wanted to meet him, and I went to my dad, and I said, Yeah, this is, this is what time the show is happening, and he's like, all, I'll talk to your mom. Don't worry about it. So I took that as dad saying yes. And my friends picked me up, like, 1015, minutes later, and I was I was gone, so my parents are still together, so it didn't cause any sort of divorce or disagreement. They may might have had a bit of a conflict. Then that took me into going to pursue education of being an announcer and a broadcaster. So I started to pursue where I could, where I could make that happen in my life. And the first thing was high school. I went to the Victoria composite High School for the Arts, and they were the reason why I chose that high school was it was the only high school in Edmonton at the time, I don't know if it is still that had a professional television and radio program in the high school part of things. So that was my choice to go there. And I was all over the high school radio station. I was all over television and radio part of those courses in high school, and at the same time, close to where I was graduating in grade 12, I got the opportunity to go to Drayton Valley. My parents paid for a portion of the program, and there was a school there, C, H, I T, Big West Country in Drayton Valley, Alberta. And wow, did that ever, you know, put a realness to it. It was a hands on. It was strict, it was tough, but it was exactly what, what I needed to start this dream. I graduated successfully from there. I don't remember what year it was, maybe in 96 or 97 And then by 99 there was a change that needed to happen in my life. And my parents were retired and moving to Kelowna, BC, so I got all the demo tapes and the Air Checks recorded on cassette tape. I guess I'm dating myself here. I'm 49 years old, so it was quite a while ago and decided to join my parents in Kelowna, British Columbia, and move from Edmonton to Kelowna. And I did some promotions work at a few local stations there, but it never really amounted to to anything that I possibly dreamed of of being an overnight guy, an evening guy, or in a more Morning Show situation. So, yeah, it was my, my wife at the time, who said, why don't we, why don't we start a podcast? And you're used to, you know, cracking a mic and doing your thing. What? What can we do to to to start a podcast and and she was a natural. She she's moved on to other things and different businesses, and I'm the main host of the podcast now. Yeah, she was really an inspiration to me to say, Hey, maybe I can have a bigger, better audience, but at the same time as having the audience, you can educate that audience and take them to the next level with their with their speaking of a second language. So this inspiration came from learning a second language myself. I'm still on my journey of learning Spanish. I live in Mexico now, it was how I started studying real communication in a second language. Was from one of my first Spanish teachers having his podcast in Spanish, where he talked in his native language to other people in a natural way. And I thought, What a great way to learn, what a great way to do that, and it really helped my Spanish. So I took English as a second language, teaching English as a Second Language course to improve my skills. Started teaching on multiple different online platforms, because I live in another country, and I have to do everything online, and then it evolved into, well, creating my own website and bringing people into my own website. I still teach on a couple different other platforms, but everybody that is a student of mine has a podcast episode to learn from with a transcription. So they're really learning to improve their skills. What

Matt Cundill  7:45  
came first? Was it the business for the podcast? Well, the

Curtis Davies  7:51  
the podcast turned into the business. Really it, it all became one thing, all that at the same time. So the podcast really came first, and then my upskilling, very, very soon after that, and then we just started to develop transcriptions and lesson plans out of every conversation. So the latest two episodes, I've got vocabulary lists, I've got speak in practice questions. So so every podcast really turns into an English lesson for for my adult learners, they're intermediate to advanced level, and most of them are immigrants living in Canada or the United States that are working for international companies and living and working in English speaking countries. So we wanted to keep everything real and realistic to real life, real conversations. It started off as more of a natural conversation type of thing, but now I've niched it more into business English and English for the workforce and English for the work world. So they kind of happen very close to the same time. I don't know which, you know, it's the chicken before the egg kind of thing. I guess the podcast came first, and then then very, very soon after that, it was, it was more the educational aspect coming into it as well. So for

Matt Cundill  9:20  
context, you're starting this in 2016 podcasting is at a particular point where it's cereal has come out, and people now want to get their own podcast, and you realize that it's easy enough to do. And then all of a sudden, you know, there's a business that comes with it, and you being one of the only ones in your format, which is, you know, English conversations and encouraging people to learn English and then subsequently, you know, registering for the class. Tell me about how the podcast drives the business when an

Curtis Davies  9:49  
episode is released, there is an opportunity, a call to action at the intro and the extra of the podcast. Podcast. The intro tells you what type of student, what type of person we're targeting. The extra is, I've got limited trials available each month, and from that, you are able to book a trial lesson with me. So when an episode is released, just released one this morning, it's already got over 4000 downloads on it. Trials will come my way from the show notes and the links in that, in in that podcast episode, to directly come to my website to book a trial with me. And then when they book a trial with me, it's an evaluation of their speaking, their pronunciation, what their main goals are. And then from there, they go into a 90 day challenge program to get those you know, main things conquered usually it's low confidence. People are scared of how they sound. People are scared of what they're going to say and what others might think of them. So we conquer that in in the first two to three lessons, and then everything else in English gets easier. And so the comfort level and how people come in is, is natural. It's it's very easy for me to release a podcast and get trials out of it, where I'm like, great, I get to help the world, tons of different countries, name, name a country, I've got listeners in it. I've got students who are willing to relocate to other countries to improve their careers and their situations. So from those episodes, they might hear something, whether it's in the episode itself, or the intro or the call to action extra at the end, that that brings them in, that knows that they can know like and trust me to help them with their their second language goals, and to to make better lives for themselves in English speaking countries.

Matt Cundill  12:13  
That's an incredible number of downloads to have for a podcast, and I can only imagine that you are getting traffic from all across the world, and just by knowing this, tell me about the value and the currency it is for anybody to pick up English as a language. Because a lot of us know whether Canadians, Americans, British people who speak English, yeah, there's a lot of people around the world who would just love to speak English for the opportunities. What stories do you have to share about that? From what you know from your students?

Curtis Davies  12:45  
Wow, I've got some amazing stories. There was a student from China who is probably living in the United States right now, and he joined my 90 day challenge program. Heard one of my podcast episodes about deliberate practice, or, you know, improving their their skills for for the jobs that they want to do. He joined my three lessons a week, one, two or three, you know, three different packages of lessons per week, and he had chosen, he had a money saved up where he could quit his job and only focus on improving his English. So he stuck with me, and in the first week or two, I said, Okay, you have really low confidence, but a high level of English because you're comfortable with me, and there's no no problem with how you're speaking with me. But he couldn't get past his own fears of other people. So when they're in the room with me or on a live call like this, they they feel comfortable with me, which is great, but they don't know how to feel comfortable with everybody else. So for the first, I don't know, one or two weeks, I told them, okay, we'll work on the things that we've we've planned out and mapped out in our plan. Every student gets a strategy plan. I said, bear with me here. We'll work on, you know, pronunciation, accent, fluency and all of this, but we have to start with confidence, because you're terrified. You told me you're terrified to speak in business situations. And let's role play these and do this. I had a whole plan for him, and then in the first week or two of lessons, he focused only on his confidence training and homework that I put him through. I have a program called Lift. Lift up your confidence so you have to listen to your inner voice. You have to identify what you're telling yourself. You have to find. Another way to look at it, and then you have to try again, lift, listen, identify, find another way, and then try. And so I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks, and I was like, You got to schedule some lessons. I just typing this in, and he sends me a result of his idles test that he took in China, and he was his first goal was to get a 6.5 band score on it, and just within only working on confidence and nothing else, he got a 7.5 so he sent me his his IELTS score or his certificate, that's what it was, certificate on online or through email, and I had a lesson. You booked the lesson with me the next day. I was literally in proud years of saying, Wow, dude, you did this and you we didn't even work on anything in English. We just worked on his confidence. So that's just one example of how confidence really gets in the way of of speaking for better opportunities, being ashamed that it's not as comfortable as your first language, but I'm a learner of a second language. I know that the it gets to a point where your second language can be just as comfortable as your first so that would be one of the biggest success stories, and there are many more like him that had been afraid I'm working with a student from Poland right now, and she hadn't had a job interview in English in over 10 years, and now she's had five or six of them now, after working with me for a month or two. So it's really breaking through. It's using those and the testimonials on my website as well. They're real life students who continue to work with me as well.

Mary Anne Ivison (Voiceover)  17:11  
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Matt Cundill  17:26  
What was the biggest surprise you saw from the countries that were listening? What's a country that I wouldn't expect where you're getting a lot of lot of attention from?

Curtis Davies  17:35  
Well, my top 10 countries, South Korea, United States, China, Japan, Brazil, Vietnam, Canada, Germany, Taiwan and Mexico. But I wasn't expecting to get countries like if I click over to the Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, places like that. I wasn't expecting the Middle East, United Arab Emirates very high in the rankings. So it's, it's even like little, little, little tiny countries where you wouldn't even expect Morocco, Malaysia, Iraq, Sweden, Portugal, Azerbaijan, I hope I'm saying that, right? Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, like into the 1000s of downloads. I'm like, what I'm in every country in the world. And that's that's gratifying. I'm talking to the world. I love that, and I'm helping them at the same time, when they when they listen to a podcast, and they listen all the way through, and then they're like, I need help with my English. Curtis is the teacher for me. And then into a trial, into a program, into helping the world become better communicators.

Matt Cundill  19:05  
Tell me about any or some of the friendships that you've made along the way.

Curtis Davies  19:09  
Wow, a lot of friendships. Barry Evans, that was just an online friendship, an inspiration. I started following other podcasters and listening to their podcasts and and that was a instant friendship. He was really easy to talk to and sit down with no stress. You're the same way, and seeing the appreciation from you as well, and having the opportunity right now to be on with you is a dream come true. If you know you had your stint in Edmonton, and I've heard you on the air there as well. So is another influence, and it's a way to really develop connections and friendships with other people who are doing the same thing as you. I think that's collaboration. I think many of my students would like to be. My friend, there was only one student that I met. He's one of the testimonials on my website, and he came to Puerto Vallarta, we had coffee and breakfast together, and he's the only student I've met, but we're in contact with each other, so you never know who you're going to meet. Or you know, if I go to Brazil, he's like, or he's actually in Canada now, but he goes back to his home country every now and then. But he said, Yeah, every anytime you want to come and visit, my doors are wide open to you. So it's, it's almost like instant trust and friendship that I get from from from meeting people through the podcast.

Matt Cundill  20:41  
So one of the things I really like is how you've called it real English conversations, yeah. And, you know, I think the pandemic taught us, oh, let's pick up a language along the way, maybe using Duolingo. And then we're finding out, I'm never going to be able to say my dog is got a beautiful shade of green. No, you know, for furry coat, whatever it's, these are not sentences we're going to use. But you know what the real situations and the real ones are? And I like, for instance, a driver's test, getting a driver's license, you're going to need a conversation for that. And you've tailored, you know, episodes and lessons towards that,

Curtis Davies  21:20  
yeah, and like, job interviews too, which I ran my own liquor delivery business in Kelowna for 10 or 12 years, and I was the owner operator and hiring manager for that. So there was a lot of hiring and firing going on. So I put together a method before, you know, having that business. I was out there, you know, hustling and trying to get my own job, and I was like, I've never had a problem in a job interview, from being interviewed to try to get a job, and I've never had a problem hiring people. So I know both sides, so when they come to me for job interview or business presentation advice. I know that I've been in a lot of business presentations because the company grew to restaurants and other things where I had to go into restaurants and beer and liquor stores in Canada and talk to the managers, dress up in a nice suit and and use that professional communication where they knew I just wasn't another delivery service. I was here to help both businesses grow. And when I do that with my students, they're like, Wow, you're you're a specialist in both sides of the job interview. So during my my 90 day challenge, that's one of the special bonuses, is a special training that I did about a methodology I use for job interviews. So anything and everything from, you know, going to the grocery store, ordering food at a restaurant, all that kind of stuff is is is seriously immersefully practiced in the class. And then they practice on their own, and then they get to show off to me what they've improved through practicing the improved version of their English in the next class. So it's always evaluating what they can do better, what they can say better, what can get them better opportunities, and what can make their lives feel more complete and comfortable in Canada and the United States? What's it like living in Mexico? It's great. It's different. It's completely a different world. But the the culture here is is beautiful. The people here are so helpful, especially in the city of Guadalajara the the locals are known as tapatios, which are, you know, guadalajaras? I guess you could call them in English, but they're known all across the country for being the most polite Mexicans in in the entire country. So the food is amazing. The people go out of their way to help you and to assist you in any way possible. And of course, Mexico has its challenges and it's, it's, it's safety concerns and problems, but if, if you know what to do to minimize those you don't go out at night. If you do, you take an Uber. If you ever feel unsafe, you get out of there. You don't participate in, in, in anything illegal. You know those can drop your risks of anything happen happening to you. So it's great, of course, you I have to be in this bigger city of Guadalajara. It's the third biggest city in Mexico, just like any big city like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, you have to use caution. But not be paranoid. You have to be aware of your surroundings. I'm a bit of a target because I'm a foreigner, so I don't take any more than, you know, a couple 100 pesos. I always tell myself enough for some tacos, and that's about it. And I don't, you know, wear any flashy jewelry. I fit in and blend in quite well. I speak the language fairly well. It's still on my journey, but it's at an intermediate, just almost upper intermediate level. But I've got a teacher. I've got language coaches. I put myself out there every day in in situations with native speakers and with no fear. They know I miss a word here and there. I might know it too, but they don't judge me. So that that's the message I portray to my students as well, is if you're living in Canada or the United States, no Canadian or American is really going to judge the way you speak, and if they do, then just don't hang out with them. Leave the situation.

Matt Cundill  26:08  
My thanks to Curtis for joining me on the show. You can listen to his podcast called real English conversations on Apple Spotify and other podcast listening apps. You can go to his website tour in English, real English conversations.com this show is produced by Evan straminsky. It has been edited by Santiago budoya, Music provided by mega tracks, and it's built with passion from everyone here at the sound off media company.