How Did Your Favorite Teacher Learn What They Teach?

well hey there hero it’s David H
Lawrence the 17th I just got back from
having lunch with a teacher and a friend
and a peer and an awesome guy you may
have heard me talk about him earlier in
the year I took an accents class from
him
his name is Jim Johnson and he is a
college professor at the University of
Houston and he’s also the guy that
teaches with my partner Dano day the
accent class and I am fascinated with
what people do to acquire the
information that they teach
now here’s what I mean by that like I
teach voiceover I teach on-camera
performance and I’ve acquired that
information not only from reading books
and taking classes but also doing the
actual work every single day of my
performing career and that’s how I
gather that stuff that’s how I know that
it’s true that’s how I know that what I
teach is effective and so I’m always
fascinated like how do plumbers find out
what they do how do they learn how to do
those things and what I found
fascinating about Jim’s story is that he
does what I call primary data collection
and what I mean by that is he travels
all around the world finding places that
have different ways of using the English
language accents dialects etc most
accent coaches do that you know but he
does it in a way that I think is really
interesting and he was telling me at
lunch how he planned his trip through
California here’s what happened hey
you’re not gonna guess this guess who
I’m having lunch with look at this man
right here
Vanya’s that’s Jim Jonsin everybody and
we’re here at my favorite restaurant Jim
is here in Southern California what are
you doing here in Southern California
recording people’s access what an
amazing thing to be doing but on a trip
you showed me your mouse you actually
don’t like go out there and see what’s
what you plan this out don’t you yeah
it’s my anal retention that comes out
with absolutely show me what you got
just so basically I’ll go through and
I’ll identify places where I can go like
libraries and welcome centers and things
like that and identify them on Google
Maps and then I’ll go through and I’ll
figure out all the different times that
they’re open like what are their hours
in the days of the week as I’m figuring
out in my own travel plans and then I
map it out for where I’m gonna head and
then of course I’m open to it changing
as I go very strong possibility that
like this place is not going to be the
place and you record these and then you
edit them and use them in your course
for a minute
yep how cool is this I mean seriously
right so how long will you be in
California actually just till Monday I
start heading out of California on
Monday so all I’ve been here for one
week is all around and you do this all
around the world right yeah yeah so I
did it in London last summer and
New York last summer and Pennsylvania
all over the place and it really needed
your food I did my god it was so good
the the get in my belly pork flake yeah
hazing Jim Johnson everybody Jim is here
for a while I took his classes they’re
awesome so I just wanted to share that
with you and he also told me that he
used to not drive his family crazy but
they learned to live with it they would
drive across state lines and the moment
they got across the state line if there
was a Welcome Center he would go in and
try and get them to talk with him and so
that he could record them and have them
as samples and then they’d turn around
and go back across state line go to the
other state and do the same thing and
his family got used to it they were very
kind about it which is really cool but
what I love about Jim Johnson’s story is
that he has a performance background
staged for the most part but he does
work on film he does work on mic he uses
audacity I didn’t get that in the video
I didn’t get that down in the video but
we talked about that as well he uses
audacity because again it’s voice work
it’s all he needs and he goes and he
acquires the original recordings that’s
his way of gathering the information
that he needs to put together really
great classes on accents and dialects
and he does them really well himself
because you know again he eats his own
dog food just like just like I do I just
it was just so lovely to have lunch with
him and he really thought that the pork
belly Bowl was good as you saw so yeah
that’s how Jim Johnson does it that’s
how I do it
I think the most effective teachers I
don’t know maybe you maybe have a
comment on this the most effective
teachers in your life what have they
have they been people who were
book-learned have they been people who
actually acted or performed or if you
were a math teacher were they a
mathematician were they a scientist not
the teachers who just simply learn a
subject and then go teach it aren’t good
I’m just sort of thinking about what the
most effective teachers that I ever had
were
and and almost to a person it’s people
who lived the life who who go out and do
the thing that they’re teaching and so
there you go
I just thought I’d share that with you
because it was a great lunch and now I’m
gonna go get on with the rest of my day
and I’d love it for you to go on and get
the rest of your day leave me a comment
if you’d like if you want to get on my
list you can jump on the list at the
bottom of the page I’m David H Lawrence
217th I thank you so much for watching
and I will talk to you tomorrow.