E70 - Español con Juan - The Story of Juan

In this episode, we learn more about the brilliant host of the fantastic Spanish learning podcast named Español con Juan.

Head over to https://www.myfluentpodcast.com/?p=1131 to read the full transcript of the interview!

https://1001reasonstolearnspanish.com/spanish-shy/

Juan has a YouTube channel as well: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoHJ7PkM6T92LwgJgrnDhWA

1. Part of the Interview's transcript:

Hello.

I'm fine. Thank you very much. It's so nice having you here on my fluent podcast.

It's an honor. It's an honor. Thank you. Thank you for your invitation!

My name is Juan , I'm a Spanish. I am from a small city in the South of Spain called Granada.

I started to learn English when I was about 19 or 20, more or less or very late when I was about 29 or something like that, that I decided to come to England to London to prove my English because , as in your situation, I didn't have anybody to talk to. I was reading on, um, watching movies? So I decided one summer, OK I went to the UK to London for three months. I was sure that in three months my English would be very, very good. I will become fluent bilingual and every time I have many, many high expactations, um, and then I came here and after three months I realized it wasn't enough. So I decided to stay for another three months and then another three months like that, you know, because I was never happy with my English. So, um, eventually I found here friends, I made friends, I found a job, so I stayed here and I've been here for 23 years now. My English is still not good enough. So I have, uh, I have to stay there.

And you were a Professor at the university is that right?

I studied psychology in Spain. , when I came here, , I wanted to work as a psychologist maybe, but my English wasn't good enough to do that. So, I decided to become a language teacher. I could teach, I could teach French and Spanish in the schools and then I did different things always related to languages until I found a job at the university at university college, London, which is a very good place, very prestigious university.

And I've been teaching there for maybe 15 years. Until last year, last year, I quit my job and now I'm working full time on the internet. I have a podcast and a youtube channel. It has been a long trip. Yeah.

So when did you start exactly with your podcast?

I think I started like seriously in 2017 I have been doing other things before similar, but it wasn't really a podcast because, um, I mean, , I'm not, very young now, so, uh, I didn't know how podcasts or Youtube work. I have. I have to learn how to use them. I had to learn how, you know, how to use them forlanguages to teach languages. So at the beginning I was doing like, it wasn't a podcast it was more like audio activities. You know, I was working out in university, so I wanted to create a listening practice for my students. So I created some short dialogues , or I interviewed some of my colleagues, taught university in Spanish. I was creating, like listening activities for my students basically for a couple of years. Then in 2017, I did a little bit of research and I discovered that I could do other things. Uh, So I started with the podcast yes. Three years ago. Yeah.

So was there anybody or anything that inspired you. To do the podcast or was there any idols or Do you like listening to other podcasts? Maybe Yeah

Well, I remember that he was listening to this podcast maybe, you know, a coffee break, coffee break, English, Spanish coffee break, French. They have different languages. You know it?

Yes. I know. I know it. I have listened to it, but it has been quite a while.

Yeah. I don't, I don't listen to it anymore, but I remember that, I liked the, you know, the, the boys of the, of the guy who was doing it and, uh, he was, I liked the atmosphere, you know , they, they create, , yeah. in the podcast Because I thought I could do something similar.

I didn't like the fact that it was everything in English, because for example, when they are teaching in French or German, they speak in English most of the time. So because. I didn't like that. I liked the atmosphere. The guy is it comes across very nice, you know, very closely. Um, I was trying to learn German for a while.

I was, I was listening to them until I realized that most of the time was , They were talking in English. I understand why they do. I understand why they do it, but no, they didn't work for me.

And speaking about atmosphere, I must say when I came across your podcast for the very first time. I was so impressed because yeah.

I remember, I think you were washing your, you, you were, , doing the ,...