Seth: Mary moving on uh, let's just talk about one last question. Um, I know you're a master teacher of English. But have you learned anything considered hard? And what have you done to succeed in learning it?

Mary: Oh, uh, I mean, I think I've learned a lot of hard things. Um, but like, we kind of discussed in an earlier question. I've definitely chosen to stay with things that feel easier to me or where I feel like my natural gifts or my natural talents are. So I certainly haven't done anything that I felt was impossible, but maybe have done things and worked it things that, um uh, worked at things that I never thought that I would be as good at as I am. And so that's been encouraging. Um, I think that for a lot of people, learning the language is really hard. Um, there're people that have a real gift for it, and there are the people that can pick up a language quickly, learn it quickly.

I remember when I was 15 years old and I was in English class. It was an advanced English class, and we had to take a grammar test. And up to that point, um, when you're learning your own language, you don't really learn the grammar as intensely as you learn it when you're learning another language. Okay, so there were a lot of words and vocabulary that I wasn't familiar with, but, um, I took that test in an advanced English class and I failed it. I got, like, out of 100 points. I got like, 30 points,

Seth: Mary!

Mary: I know! So I mean, I was 15. I didn't know I was going to be an ESL teacher when I grew up, but I was really shocked and surprised because I was an advanced English class and I thought: "How hard can it be to know the grammar of my own language?" But you take a lot for granted when you, um, are native speaker of a language with just how complicated it can be to follow specific rules and things like that.

But after learning a second language, um, I really learned to love grammar, for example, like I really loved how accurate it was and how easy it was to follow. It was almost like following a math lesson. Um I needed this part plus this part to equal this part. The result. And I liked how predictable it was and how structured it was so that when I was ready to finish up schooling. I thought, this is something I know I would really enjoy. And then I started taking linguistics classes and, um, grammar classes and really enjoying the pattern of language and finding that I had a knack for it and also that I really enjoyed it. And I think really what it took was understanding where my strengths were. But then also really applying myself and I mean all of the things that we've talked about so far in this lesson, you know, like being courageous to try something hard, understanding what you're passionate about and having the desire to do it. And then, um, just believing that you can do it. It makes a huge difference in how successful you're going to be. And when you apply those things, no matter how hard something is. If you have those elements, you could be successful.

Seth: Thank you, Mary!