J           Eric, I heard about your Part 2. Can you talk about it in 10 minutes?

Eric      Certainly. But before I start, I have a request. Can I rename Part 1 “How to pick up English without trying” and Part 2 “How to succeed in business without trying”?

Eric      Yes and no. In Part 1, I teach students how to pick up English subconsciously, with speed and ease. Certain things are so obvious and natural that we take them for granted. It is obvious and natural that the only logical way to learn the second language is the way you learned the first language. When you were small, you heard adults talk, you copied them, you picked it up. You didn’t think “I am learning”. You didn’t even know what learning was. Nobody told you, “this is a noun”, “this is a verb”, “don’t use double negatives”. No. You hear the sound, you hear it again, it sinks in, one day you start to make the same sound, and it is right. There was no conscious effort. That’s how the system works – listen, repeat, converse. One day you’ll be thrilled to know that you have learned the second language just as your parents were thrilled when you learned the first language.

Eric      Part 2 builds upon Part 1. I’m teaching students how to communicate with people at workplace and improve their relationships without feeling the heaviness of “I have to do it”. I’m making them “want to do it”. I have a student Cathy who just started a new job. She’s scared of tomorrow when it’s a workday. By workday I mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It’s not the job she fears. She can handle the job, no problem. It’s the people or rather, interaction with people, she fears. She can’t handle the conversations. She tried to avoid them. But sometimes they’re unavoidable. She’s afraid of being caught and looking like a fool in front of people. The humiliation can crush her for days. Let me show you this email I got from Cathy: “Eric, Can you please write me a few sentences so I can memorize and use and survive tomorrow?”

J           I feel for her. Is that something your Part 2 will do, giving students a few sentences that will work magic?

Eric      It’s no easy job. Workplace is naturally a stressful environment. I mean, you’re supposed to hate your work, that’s the definition of work.

J           Woa, Eric. I’m surprised you said that.

Eric      Well, I said what most people want to say. If you watched Office Space, you wouldn’t forget Peter Gibbons, a young programmer working at an IT company. He hated his work and went to see a shrink, who hypnotized him. The next morning he walked in the office in a happy mode. That interview he had with two consultants was a classic scene. When they asked him to describe his typical day, he was dead honest to say he spent everyday staring at his computer screen to make him looked like he’s working. Then he said: The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care. (Bob: Don’t care?) It’s a problem of motivation, all right? The reality is most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough not to quit the job.

Eric      Let me tell you, only 5% of the people actually work the whole time. Most people work below their potential, in some cases, way, way below. So the key is to help them find the motivation and make them “want to do it”, to communicate with people at workplace and improve their relationships. I’ve interviewed some Chinese who are doing well in their careers in Canada. Without exception, they have good workplace relationships. It’s amazing when relationships are good, things like raise, recognition, and promotion start to fall into place and take care of themselves. But when relationships turn sour, it doesn’t matter what you do, you always hit a brick wall.

J           I hear you. And what’s the difference between Part 1 and 2?

Eric      Part 1 is 2/3 lecture and 1/3 practice. I feel 1/3 practice is not enough. We don’t speak good English because we don’t speak enough English. What I found from teaching Part 1 was students were all too busy. They don’t practice after class. They have come to my class once a week, enjoyed the three hours, but done nothing after class. They have done enough reading, listening, and watching in class but not enough writing, speaking, and acting after class. They have taken in a lot (吃进去很多) but spit out very little (吐出来很少). They have had a good time but as Cathy described the relationship between English and her: it’s it, I’m me (它是它，我是我).

Eric      Part 2 is about doing it, all practice facilitated by me. I don’t expect students to do homework from the beginning. I assume zero practice on their own. But slowly I get them interested in what we do in class and form a habit of doing it after class, most importantly, at their workplace.

J           How? Remember most people are not motivated. Where’s the motivation?

Eric      Good question. We realize in a long run, work doesn’t work without play. We don’t enjoy work. We enjoy play. But we would enjoy work if it felt like play. Part 2 is about play. We are a bunch of people looking for creative solutions to workplace problems in a fun and interesting way. We will work individually or in groups to learn four skills: direct, write, speak, and act. DIRECT: Tudou.com has a famous tagline “everyone is your life’s director” (每个人都是生活的导演). You’re directing a play. Your bosses and co-workers are actors and actresses in your play but they don’t have to know it, only you know. This secret pleasure can get you excited and make you look forward to tomorrow, because you want to see how much of it will play out as you direct it, 50%, 60%, … if it’s a significant percentage, you will feel you’re in control of that day. You direct every workday like play and learn a very important skill, because if you can direct a day, you can direct a life. WRITE: record your ideas, if you don’t have any, steal! Steal other people’s ideas. SPEAK: script enriches content, adds depth to improv, it also boosts your confidence. ACT: improv allows you to speak on your feet, make you sound and look natural.

J           Sounds interesting. I heard improvisational theater and thought it’s only for actors and comedians.

Eric      No, improv is not just for actors and comedians. It’s for everyone. Improv lessons are valuable and can teach you confidence, creativity, and humor.

Eric      When you’re in the play mode, everything becomes easy. So let’s play, do it before you think too much, don’t try to be perfect, just play, and care less about the outcome. And creativity is something you already have, you just need to remove the mental blocks, and creativity will come out.

Eric      If you like, let’s play an improv game called “Yes, and …”. One has to say yes to everything the other says and add more to it. Can you and I get up, please? Remember when you leave your seat, you are a different person. Here’s the scene: It’s a hot sunny day. We’re two cowboys working in a ranch. We stand here facing each other with an imaginary fence between us. We talk as we paint the fence. Now you go first.

J           What a hot and miserable day to do this paint work.

Eric      Yes, and the boss said we won’t get water until we finish the fence.

J           Yes, and isn’t he the meanest boss we’ve ever worked for?

Eric      Yes, and he’s made me want to quit this job and go to San Francisco.

J           Yes, and I’ll go with you to San Francisco.

Eric      Yes, and I’ll make a fortune someday and come back and buy this ranch and make the boss work for me.

Eric      The scene can go on forever if we follow the “Yes, and …” rule. But if you say “What a hot and miserable day to do this paint work” and I say “No it isn’t” then the scene is dead.

J           Can you disclose what you have for the first lesson?

Eric      It’s 3 hours long. You’ll play “Yes, and …” to be nice to a new hire on her first day or impress your boss with a bar chart. You’ll do the worst parental motivational speech like “You want to end up like me?”. You’ll write a speech on “Every Day A Friday”. You’ll have a business meeting to debate the motion: “each employee should bring his or her own chair to work.” Is it enough?

J           Yes. Out of curiosity, Eric, why are you doing all these, acting and directing?

Eric      I can tell you in my marketing pitch “Cathy is the reason I started Part 2”. But I’m really doing this for a selfish reason: I teach acting because I want to learn acting. I’ve learned speaking by teaching Part 1 in the past 5 years. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from my 500+ students. Everyone of them is a teacher. Everyone has a spark in them. Everyone is an inspiration to me.

J              And directing? Where did you get the inspiration from?

Eric      Ang Lee. After I watched his Life of Pi, I want to be a director like him. One day I woke up and realized I’m already a director. I’m a Scotiabank director, right? I like this title. I’m a director so I should direct. Perhaps I should direct a movie or play or something, and the practical way to start is to start with this class.

J           10 minutes is up. What last words you want to say to interested students?

Eric      Confucius said it the best: You hear, you forget; you see, you remember; only if you do, you understand. So please join us, live and work everyday like play, and succeed in business and life “without trying” or wait and struggle for another year – your choice.