Listener Interview 003: Layla from Saudi Arabia

In this special episode of The A to Z English Podcast, we talk with Layla from Saudi Arabia, a self-taught English student and one of the most active members of our Whatsapp group. (Link here: https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7)

Find the transcript here:

https://atozenglishpodcast.com/interview-with-layla/

It's a great conversation, so you won't want to miss it!

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Intro/Outro Music by Eaters: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eaters/the-astronomers-office/agents-in-coffee-shops/

Full Transcript:

 

Kevin: 

You're listening to the A. to Z. English podcast.

Kevin: 

Welcome to A to Z English where today we've got another listener interview. Today we're joined by another one of our very active members from our chats. Maybe you've talked to her in the past. We're talking with Layla from Saudi Arabia. So, good morning!

Layla: 

And good afternoon Kevin and Jack.

Kevin: 

Yes, it is. So it's great to talk to you and today I mean you're always so active in our group chats. You're such a helpful member to everyone and I guess we wanted to start with really simple things like…

Kevin: 

When did you start learning? How long have you been studying?

Layla: 

And to be honest with you at the beginning and the first time I studied English when I was in middle school.

Layla: 

But I can I can consider that not learning English seriously because you know the system is not good enough so I focus not on grammar.

Kevin: 

Yeah.

Layla: 

I think I only learned at that time the basic English letters and things like how are you, your name, like this yeah so.

Kevin: 

I’m fine and you?

Layla: 

I studied in high school and university but in university only the first two years and then they stopped teaching English.

Layla: 

So exactly I can say when I decided to learn English seriously. I think it was about 2014.

Kevin: 

Okay six years ago.

Layla: 

Yes.

Kevin: 

Cool.

Layla: 

My brother and I decided to study together.

Kevin: 

A partner.

Layla: 

Yes exactly. I have a partner.

Kevin: 

That helps.

Layla: 

So at the beginning we started by buying books. We don't we didn't have any teacher to ask questions, to know if something is right are wrong so we only studied by ourselves.

Layla: 

We continue studying.

Layla: 

To 2018.

Layla: 

At.

Kevin: 

Just the two of you studying on the internet?

Layla: 

When I find Robin’s group...

Kevin: 

Right.

Layla: 

After joining there I really started to learn English seriously. I can say I didn't miss studying for even a single day.

Kevin: 

Day.

Layla: 

I will do my best for me in the group. I started reading extensively.

Layla: 

Also I tried to meet in the group by

Layla: 

practicing with others because this is the first time for me to practice and talk to foreigners.

Layla: 

Okay it's difficult for women to engage with others so that was the first experience for me.

Layla: 

I continue studying. I think it was the best chance for me to study English and practice my English and that's the right place.

Kevin: 

And do you still talk with your brother. Does he still study these days yeah?

Layla: 

A few months ago, he got married so he moved to another house.

Kevin: 

Okay.

Layla: 

Now I study alone with my own online friends.

Layla: 

Many.

Kevin: 

Many people in the chat for you to work with.

Layla: 

Yeah exactly so I really enjoy talking with them I think.

Layla: 

You know it's a great because in that case you have to use English because you can’t explain what you want in your language so.

Layla: 

When you try to use English, I try to go ahead to search about some new words that I don't know. So that is a great place and chance for me to be there.

Kevin: 

Yeah those chats are great because exactly like you said, you have to use English. There's people from all over the world. There's no choice. You can't use your language because other people don't speak it so.

Layla: 

Yes exactly, I have no choice and no choice to excuse my language and they really don't understand me so I have to use English. I have to speak English as much as I can.

Jack: 

It sounds like you enjoy speaking in English. Is it something that makes you happy.

Layla: 

Yes, yes, I am really. I think learning English is my passion now and my hobby so…

Layla: 

Well maybe you don't believe me if…

Layla: 

So yeah exactly I really like English and then I think learning English,

Layla: 

is the best way to change my life and to make my life better and in many cases, so if I want to get a great job, I have to and I have to know English so.

Layla: 

I only tried to develop my English. I know I make mistakes and my English is not perfect…

Jack:

Who’s better: you or your brother? You’re better than your brother right?

Layla:

         I don’t know.

Jack: 

You're being modest, I think. That's good yeah. You're good, you're a good sister though. Yeah you didn't throw him under the bus there.

Kevin: 

Yeah I was gonna ask you did you also watch Shaw Online? Do you, did you use the videos, YouTube as well as the what's app group?

Layla: 

Yes I.

Layla: 

I started watching them before joining Robin’s Whatsapp group.

Layla: 

You know Teacher Esther, and there are a lot of videos, so at the beginning I started there watching her lessons.

Layla: 

So I tried to watch the end at any length any lesson that Robin

Layla: 

posted on his channel. So, I…

Layla: 

I tried to do any homework that he posted.

Jack: 

There are a lot of them there.

Kevin: 

So.

Layla: 

I can say I watched most of the videos there.

Jack: 

There are hundreds of videos now, right? I mean hundreds. Yeah yeah, do you always do your podcast homework too?

Kevin: 

You do the discussion questions and vocabulary yeah?

Layla: 

Yeah, I would like to do better as well and then to discuss more with you, but you know what? Sometimes…

Layla: 

I feel lost when there are many people in the group and then.

Kevin: 

Sure.

Layla: 

And let's see I try my best and…

Jack: 

That's the best part about podcasts as you can do other things while you're listening to them, so it's great for cleaning or driving or taking a walk yeah. It's just a very convenient way to study, so that's great.

Layla: 

Yes.

Kevin: 

They can help you.

Layla: 

If we’re listening to the podcast, we can listen to them whenever we want, whenever we are anytime in any cases, while driving, while doing chores while maybe sitting on the sofa.

Kevin: 

And I'm when I'm on the subway that's good yeah. I do my podcast listening on the subway. It’s very boring but when I'm on the way, you can just listen in and learn something. It's better than just surfing the web for other meaningless things yeah.

Layla: 

Yes please so I really enjoy and I really.

Layla: 

Yes, the time of the episode is not too long so I listen to the podcast and then after listening, I can go and search about the words that I don’t know and learn new words.

Kevin: 

Can you say that we’re easy to understand because I know that sometimes I speak very quickly.

Layla:

         Yes.

Kevin: 

Something that we need to we need to keep working on I guess that even my English is not perfect I need to make it better as well a lot.

Kevin: 

Everyone has things to work on.

Kevin: 

Sure.

Layla: 

Jack, I can understand all the words that you say.

Kevin:

Yeah I think one thing that helped me a lot when I was younger, even though I speak very quickly, I think that I speak rather clearly and when I was a kid, I did a lot of tongue twisters with my mom and my brother when we were driving, like Sally sells seashells by the seashore, things like that. When we were driving just for fun, we would just do tongue twisters with each other and just trying to go faster and faster and faster and faster and so I think that's why I'm able to speak quickly but hopefully clearly as well.

Jack: 

Very clearly yeah. I I'll give yah that.

Kevin:

Well Leila, thanks a lot for all of the compliments and we'll keep working. Just to wrap up here, is there any tip that you would like to give to everyone else listening? Is there anything that you could tell people that you found were best for you?

Jack:

Yeah what's your secret?

Layla: 

For English.

Layla: 

To be honest with you and I can say the secret is reading.

Layla: 

I try to read every day as much as I can because learning…

Layla: 

We look at the letters and words, and then you will discover the meanings of them.

Layla: 

And that will help you. While you are speaking, you will remember them and the words. So keep reading a lot.

Layla: 

Try to listen to native speakers such as podcasts.

Kevin: 

True even for natives, even reading in your language is just helpful. I mean I read English books and that helps me learn more words in English as well.

Jack:

Yeah it's good for your brain, but yeah so I agree totally with that. Reading is the best way to learn new vocabulary. Absolutely!

Kevin: 

Yeah thanks for that and everybody out there go and find a book that you want to read and read even just five minutes today. Just do a little bit of reading every day.

Kevin: 

Well thank you very much for joining us today.

Layla: 

It's my pleasure to be with you in this podcast. I am so happy and thank you for having me and this episode.

Kevin: ,

Thank you for coming and for everybody else listening, remember on our web page you can join our Whats app group and maybe you can talk to Layla as well, so we'll see you all there and everybody have a great day. See you next time.

Jack:

Bye bye!

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