Extra Content for Episode 101: Script

There is an extra content for the first episode of the "Hello, this is my English homework" video blog. It contains full-text script of the episode that available for registered users. Subscribe, it is free ;)

Episode 101. Script

Hi, everyone.

My name is Pasha and this is my English homework.

This is the first episode where I'll introduce myself and I will tell you about my way to English.

So, my full name is Pavel Fedotov. I'm 38 years old bearded and bald man from Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan city. I'm mad about programming, psychoanalysis and linguistics. I work, swim and learn English. It is my everyday activity and sometimes I will talk about it.

This is my first channel and vlog on YouTube, so be nice and polite, please ;) I'm using this to improve my English and I ain't trying to get any other purposes. Feel free to contact and tell me about mistakes I did or do. You could use comments under the video or send me a personal message, it doesn't matter because I will be glad for any feedback.

So, I will make videos where I tell you all about my life, places where I live or travel to and other funny, serious or stupid stuff. Subscribe (if you want), relax and click the 'Play' button.

I'm from Kazakhstan, one of the biggest countries in the world located between Russia and China on the Eurasian continent. I was born on June 19, 1984 (the-nineteenth-of-june-nineteen-eighty-four) in Tselinograd town. Tselinograd is the original name of my hometown which now is known as Nur-Sultan. So, honestly, between these names, it had the other two: Aqmola and Astana.

The first rename happened in 1991 when Kazakhstan got independent. And the second renaming occurred in 1998 when our city became the capital of Kazakhstan. I like my motherland and I will tell you about it in the next episodes.

I'm a professional programmer and web developer who has a few hobbies such as psychoanalysis, linguistics and sport. Definitely, psychoanalysis isn't my only hobby because it is my second bachelor's degree I'm getting now in the East European Institute of Psychoanalysis. I have a lot of lessons every day because besides psychoanalysis I'm still learning the English language.

As I said, I'm still learning English. Sometimes it seems like I speak good and fluent English and the level of my knowledge is more than I demonstrate. I write the texts for the blog, I try to speak more and I suppose I speak a little English. You could think I misleading you but, actually, I don't.

The real level of my knowledge is between A2 and B1.

I have strengths and weaknesses. My strengths are writing and reading. Listening isn't as strong as I want, but it's not bad. But I have the main weakness — speaking. Every time I need to speak with somebody my brain fails and I can't say any word. But in my thoughts, I make up speeches very fluently and without problems. I speak confidently and find necessary words fast.

That is because I had never learnt English before. Twenty-seven years ago I started learning French at school and I was learning it for seven years. Why French? It’s difficult to explain but I’ll try.

The ex-USSR schools had a system of education when pupils had a choice between two foreign languages to learn. Some schools had a choice between English and German, some had between English and French.

The reason for the existence of two foreign languages system in schools was the presence of foreign language teachers. If the principal employed a German language teacher — they would learn German. On the other hand, if a French language teacher was employed — everyone would learn French. But the English language was presented in every school. And every grade was divided 50/50 (fifty-fifty) and children were distributed between different languages.

In my school, we had a choice between English and French. Why did I choose French?

There was a very popular movie called “The Three Musketeers” in my childhood — it's a cool Soviet movie with excellent actors. This movie tells the story of male bonding, adventures, horse chases and sword fights. Every boy in former USSR countries dreamed to be a musketeer and male friendship.

I dreamed about it too. When my classroom teacher asked me what language I wanted to learn I thought about it like “Hey, man! You could learn French and move to France where you will become a musketeer!”.

Yes, I know it was a stupid motivation. Remember, I was a child at that moment. So after I made that decision I was learning French for seven years at school.

There wasn't anything special in our education — day by day we came to the lessons and memorized new words, grammatical rules and idioms. The main problem was with our teacher. She was a great person but she had never been to France and her French was a classical version of French-from-university-books.

Dialogues used during lessons weren't related to actual life. Often, it was stories about fictional characters. After 7 years of learning my level of French is stuck between "Bonjour! Comment ça va?" and "C'est une fenêtre, mon ami!". That is why I feel ashamed about my French today.

After school, I joined a bachelor's degree program as a system engineer. Yes, it required knowledge of English. In addition, at the institute, I had a choice between English and German only. They had no French in their syllabus!

OK, I chose English. So, you can laugh but I was learning English for two years at the institute with advanced students and I felt like a dummy with my seven-years-French. Can you imagine how terrible it was?

I had no idea about the pronunciation of English words but had to read advanced English topics. I didn't know any grammatical rules but had to do homework. The only thing that helped me was that English is common in everyday life.

Interfaces in computers, programming languages, and hundreds of websites on the Internet are contained by English words. I had to read dozen of manuals and references about computer science in English and a lot of words and grammatical patterns settled in my head.

It helped me in English lessons because I could answer the questions correctly — I didn't know why it was correct, but I remember something similar from my books.

Today I learn English more systematically. I have lessons with a teacher and I study new English words with the Anki application. In addition, I listen to podcasts in English with interesting topics every day.

My purpose is free and fluent conversation and chatting with native speakers. I don't want to speak about food or work only, I want to impress my vision of the world and life freely, in any situation and about any subject.

A few months ago I thought the video blog would be a great tool to grade up to my speaking abilities. On the other hand, if I prepare for recording the video I write the scenario and it improves my writing skills too.

What should I say at the end? I will be glad for new buddies and contacts in English. Feel free to comment on my videos, text me something, or tell me about my mistakes. I will be pleased with any help and assistance in my way of learning English.

See you next week.