A rule changer from the get-go, Lia Andrews majored in languages in college, but not with the intention to get a teaching degree. Then during a study abroad program inspiration struck. As she traveled around Western Europe she observed cross-cultural interactions where language wasn't an obstacle. It was then that she decided she wanted to bring that concept back to the US and begin breaking down the barriers of language. Listen to hear her tell the story of Language University. Go to www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com to learn more.
www.languageuniv.com
TRANSCRIPT
Diane Dayton 0:02
This is Changing the Rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by Casey Dempster and Ray Loewe, the Luckiest Guy in the World.
KC Dempster 0:14
Good morning, everybody. This is KC Dempster, and I'd like to welcome you to Changing the Rules. I am your host, and with me is also our co host Ray Loewe. And Changing the Rules is our answer to the concept that there are Luckiest People in the World. And the reason that they're lucky is that they've learned how to make rules work for them. You know, when we're born people are setting up rules for us. And most of the time they're intended to keep us safe and teach us how to live in society. But as we get older, sometimes they're not relevant anymore and the luckiest people in the world recognize that they choose which rules work for them. They create their own rules and they end designing our own lives and living it to the fullest. So good morning, Ray.
Ray Loewe 1:04
Good morning, KC and I noticed KC decided to be safe this morning. She was in those wild and wooly countryside of North Carolina. And so she is self quarantining and behaving and following the rules, but I don't know we're gonna let you back on the show after this.
KC Dempster 1:22
Well, it was rules that I made for myself.
Ray Loewe 1:24
Okay, you're forgiven that. So anyway, we have a wonderful guest today. But before we get into the guest specifically, one of the things that we triy to do is to highlight one of the luckiest people in the world on our show every week. And Lia, you're going to find out is certainly one of those luckiest people. She deals well with changing the rules and in fact, she's crafting her own rules. She knows what she wants, and she's going after it. And number three is this was kind of a new one but it's one that I find fascinating and and important is that she's following what's fascinating and motivating to her. And she's trying real hard not to let anybody get too much in the way of that. So, Lia, welcome to changing the rules.
Lia Andrews 2:13
Thank you so much for having me.
Ray Loewe 2:15
Okay, so let's start out with a little bit of background. Because in college, you started out and you majored in languages. So tell us a little bit about what you were trying to do and what what you thought you were going to do with it at that time?
Lia Andrews 2:31
Well, um, I actually really didn't like when people asked me about what I was majoring in, because I told them I was majoring in straight English, straight French, no teacher certification and a minor in Spanish. And they were like, "What are you planning to do with that?" And I was like, "I don't know." But I love them and I will figure it out. Just let it be. So it wasn't until I studied abroad that I really realized what I could possibly do and how I could, you know, change the course of my life. As well as others. And so when I got back in 2010, I was like all the more determined to graduate and get started and figure out exactly what my plan was and how I was going to go about it.
Ray Loewe 3:10
So tell us a little bit about the study abroad. I mean, first of all, it fascinates me that people can do that. And you've obviously done it, and you're making something really critical, critically good out of it. So you're on?
Lia Andrews 3:26
Yeah, thank you. Um, well, yes, it took place in 2010 in Cannes, France, which is on the French Riviera. And, um, yeah, when I was done studying abroad, and my cousins and my sister, you know, had come with me and we were going through Western Europe and galavanting and eating and just having so much fun. I was realizing when I was looking at the people that like, met, like, from country to country, they are speaking one another's language, they're intermingling. There is a lot of multiculturalism. And I was so much so that it was like I would I'd find myself like stopping and staring because I was like, wow, these people are so integrated in one another's lives. So I just found that to be really special. And it meant a lot to me too, because languages, I didn't see them until sixth grade. And I missed out on an opportunity as a child to, you know, learn a language and have it be a part of my identity. So it was really becoming quickly very important to incorporate that opportunity into what I was planning and what I wanted for the future.
Ray Loewe 4:28
Yeah, anybody can learn a language if they put their mind to it, but kids learn languages faster, and especially if they're involved in it. So So obviously, this all kind of got woven into a concept. Tell me a little bit about what was on your mind as you went through this and I understand that to a large extent you didn't know you were kind of feeling your way. But But what was the next step what happened?
Lia Andrews 4:55
So after study abroad, I came back graduated and was a server I was like trying to piece together how I was going to be able to teach children all through something engaging the entire time. Like I didn't want them to feel like they were going to be in their seats. I didn't want them to feel like you know, music and crafts couldn't be a big part of things. So I slowly kind of created this program where every couple minutes we're doing something different so that children are considering learning a second language as something extremely fun versus something that is putting pressure or stress in their lives.
Ray Loewe 5:30
Yeah, now you said your server I know my one of my experiences. I had French when I was in elementary school and through the seventh grade, and then it kind of ended. And I never followed up but I we took a trip to Paris and I made the mistake of sitting down and trying to order in French. And it was not a very pleasant experience to say the least. Okay, and KC get in on this a little bit because KC decided to learn French pretty much As an adult, right?
KC Dempster 6:01
Yes, I did, in fact, well to just go back a little bit when I was in high school, I got excellent grades in French. And so I decided that when I went to college, I was going to major in French. And I wasn't going to teach it. I was going to be a simultaneous translator because that was back in the days where that's what they did at the UN. And so I went to college, and several weeks into my first semester, I realized how unprepared I was. Unfortunately, in my school, while they taught us grammar and vocabulary, they never really did conversation. And so I was way way behind my classmates and ended up dropping it. But then later in life, I decided that I was going to give it another shot and I started taking classes and one of the opportunities that arose was another classmate had discovered a woman in Quebec. Who would invite you to live in her home with her and her husband and son for a week and she would teach you French. But largely it was an immersion thing they did not speak English to me at all. And and we would have a class for two hours in the morning and then she would take me someplace in the afternoon and leave me in old Quebec, which, you know, if people who know Quebec is a is the French speaking province in Canada, and I was supposed to use my skills, and I admit I cheated a little bit because for some reason, when people look at me, they automatically speak English. But it but I did find that by the end of the week, I was starting to think in French without trying real hard, but I was so tired that I back slid and so I've lost it, but I really have always wanted to have a second language and i i appreciate parents Who if they have a second language that they teach their children, both of them.
Ray Loewe 8:05
So it's not too late to be a kid again and get and get in this Lia over here to teach you how to learn and do this stuff. So let's, let's talk a little bit about technique because you light up when we talk about this, you get this big smile on your face. And you were on one of our coffee hours, and you had this fantastic background of color and, and characters and things like that on there. So I can just imagine what you do with kids. So first of all, tell us your favorite person to teach to, and then give us some idea of what goes on in the process of doing it.
Lia Andrews 8:45
Well, I guess, um, my favorite, gosh, that is hard. I love the preschool age. And I'm specifically going to get into I just did a blog about teaching a second language to two year old so I Love that age group because when I'm teaching them, people, outsiders will look in and be like, she's bombing they are not singing along, they're not really enjoying, they just kind of stare. And within like the first two or three classes, all of a sudden, there's like a switch where the communication, you know, comes into play, they're singing in a second language, they love to use their shaker shakers, and, you know, Mandarin or Spanish is actually becoming a part of their identity and they're enjoying themselves. So I think that's a really special age to start engaging them in a second language. Specifically,
Ray Loewe 9:38
I gotta go back and become a two year old, otherwise, I'm going to fail, right? I can do this, by the way, I can act like a two year old really easily. So
KC Dempster 9:46
I was gonna say that if you didn't,
Ray Loewe 9:48
yeah, so, so. Okay, so how are you going to do this? I mean, you know, why are you gonna put this program in schools with older ages? Are you doing it in home? In a class, what what? Which the way you think you're gonna deliver this?
Lia Andrews 10:04
So we do, what we do is we specialize with younger children. So you know, will there be a day where adults could sit around and we could do language University language? I'm sure. I mean, I'm always and we can sing songs. Yes, we can sing songs know have a glass of wine, do some French Yeah, as long as you're not stressed, you're going to learn and you're going to want to continue on. So the biggest thing like stopping anybody is like that confidence or that, you know, you have to be humble when you're learning a second language. So going back to your question, I like working with that age group and getting into schools themselves. Just because that age group is so confident in themselves they're excited to learn. So how we're going to be doing this is right now we're doing Zoom classes with families and pods and educational groups as something fun as an extracurricular and then we are also offering a digital program within the schools themselves. where they can have weekly videos and music videos and crafts and things sent directly to them, or they can get those off of our Google Classroom hub. So there's a lot of different ways to actually, you know, introduce a second language now to your children.
Ray Loewe 11:17
If I'm a stressed parent trying to work at home with kids that are not going to school yet, you can come in and rescue us, right?
Lia Andrews 11:26
Absolutely.
Ray Loewe 11:27
How do you do that? What do you just have a contract with somebody and you go in on Zoom and, and we try and get our two year old to sit in front of the iPad, and how does that work?
Lia Andrews 11:37
So you or school could do it for you. Families can do it on their own as well. But the great thing is, is when we started going digital, I was freaking out because I was like, our whole thing is making a connection with children. How are we supposed to make a connection with them over the computer, and you know what, every single class they came with smiles they came to sing, they came to play games. They came to laugh with us and You know, they learn and parents tell us like they're using the vocabulary. They're so excited for next class. And that is the truly the way to their hearts into their minds is, you know, introducing getting to them young so that they're excited to continue on with the language as they grow.
Ray Loewe 12:15
So grandparents can buy this should stress children.
Lia Andrews 12:22
You know what, that is an amazing idea. Yes, absolutely they can,
Ray Loewe 12:25
and how would they do that?
Lia Andrews 12:27
So we have subscription services, and those are monthly, and that would arrive to the grandparents house or the child's house. And then they would, you know, open up that package or open up their email and all of that stuff is available. There's going to be a different video with a different theme every month and we'd never ever require our families or our teachers to have a background in that language We are the teachers were taking it on. We don't want you to be stressed, you're stressed about enough. So we are here to take care of it for you. We're here to have them have fun.
Ray Loewe 12:58
So our kids will teach us songs.
Lia Andrews 13:00
Exactly.
Ray Loewe 13:01
And then we'll learn a language to maybe. Yeah. Okay. All right,
KC Dempster 13:05
Leah, what let Why don't you give us the website address where they can do this?
Lia Andrews 13:10
Sure. Yeah. So our website is www.languageuniv.com.
Ray Loewe 13:19
And we'll post that along with the notes on our, on our subscription page, right. So people will actually be able to remember that and find that. Okay, so you have this thing now you're the founder of Language University. All right. So what happened with us? Well, you know, you went here from this kind of, I'm trying to think that you wanted to break rules from when you were in college, right? You didn't want to become a teacher with a teacher certified. You wanted to teach kids your way, right. You went in and out into the hinterland and explore one on one with real people Speaking these languages, and then you come back and you're trying to organize this into language University, so, so tell us a little bit about that and how it occurred and what's happening.
Lia Andrews 14:09
Sure. So like I said, it was a thought in the back of my mind that I was slowly working on and on a whim, my fiance boyfriend at the time was talking to somebody he had been working with. And he, this guy, Paul Calvarese, who is my now business partner, was about to take a flight to China and live there, like indefinitely. And we had one meeting together completely on a whim. And by the end of that, you know, two hour conversation, he was like, I'm going to help you do this, like I'm the language expert. I'm the music expert, you are great with people you love the program. You know, you love the children. Let's see what we can do. So very quickly went from like an idea and a couple of written down like program ideas to a full blown curriculum that we were implementing within that year.
Ray Loewe 15:00
So how many languages do you speak?
Lia Andrews 15:03
I speak French. I speak in the present tense of Spanish.
I dabble in Mandarin. I really, mainly I'm trying to make the language assessable to the little ones. So that's primarily when I'm using my language. So French, you know, I'm good to have a conversation with but the other two, you know if we're gonna have a conversation about our likes, dislikes, sing songs, I'm there for you.
Ray Loewe 15:36
Okay, so so what do we expect if we have a two year old three year old five year old or, in my case? 78 year old. Okay, and we have sessions with you and what do we expect to be able to do at the end of some period of time here?
Lia Andrews 15:54
Um definitely like I said, expresses likes and dislikes. Talk about you. You know, foods, and it's mainly more vocabulary based. But what's even more important than the language itself? Is that confidence, I believe, because every parent when you tell them that you have a foreign language program, they're like, Ugh, remember when I had it in high school, like you always get that story. And I'm not saying like, I'm not empathetic or sympathetic to their experience. That's exactly why I'm here. And I'm trying to change that I want the first introduction to a foreign language be like, wow, I want more of this. And I want to meet people and I want to travel and I want to, you know, have these opportunities for my family and my children. And instead of like that intimidation factor, we want it all stress free. So that's really what language university does.
Ray Loewe 16:44
Outstanding. Okay. So I asked you a question when we were prepping and I don't remember what the question was, but you came back in your response and you said if I'm allowed to dream, so if you're allowed to dream Which going to happen with all of this?
Lia Andrews 17:02
If I'm allowed to dream Oh, I love that if I'm allowed to dream every single household in the entire world will be will have a Spanish through fun or a language through fun program completely 100% acssessable affordable to them and that we will break these boundaries and these cultural gaps and we can get back to being, you know, a happy human culture that, you know, says Go team.
Ray Loewe 17:31
Okay, so we are unfortunately at the end of our time already. But with a dream like that. That is why you are one of the luckiest people in the world. There's no question. I think when you look at what happened to you, you did it your way. You're not afraid to change the rules. You're not afraid to think outside the box. And you had this amazing dream of how to how to conquer this language barrier and I have to agree. I mean I never dealt with language because I never dealt with it and now it is it problematic thing for me and most of it, I think you're right is a confidence. So, you know, welcome to our luckiest people in the world tro you know. We'll need to talk more about this and find out how this progresses as we go. And Taylor we're going to take a short break and KC is going to come back and talk for a minute about our friends connection coming up.
Diane Dayton 18:29
You're listening to changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the luckiest guy in the world. We will be right back with more exciting information.
KC Dempster 18:40
Welcome back, everybody. And glad that Ray gave me that lead in I wanted to remind everybody that we are going to offer our virtual Friends Connection conference in about two weeks. If you recall, we did an annual conference last year and we had another one scheduled for this year. And it was cancelled due to the covid virus. So we're trying to keep things going by doing them virtually. And we have a great program on September 16. It is free to everyone because we have some great sponsors for it. And the sponsors are Passeros Coffee, and also Springpoint Choice. You can register and find out more by going to our website, www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com. And we hope to see you on September 16. In the meantime, have a great week.
Ray Loewe 19:38
Yeah, one last comment. I'm sitting here with Lia and she is singing and dancing. While she's sitting here. She did this through the entire program. So I can't imagine what she does with two year olds. I'm gonna have to disguise myself as a two year old. I'm wearing the shirt right now that says "don't grow up. It's a trap." Okay, and I want to revert and learn to speak of foreign language. So, again, Lia, thank you so much for being with us and we look forward to talking with you more in the future. Have a great day everybody.
Diane Dayton 20:08
Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a podcast designed to help you in your life the way you want, and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us in two weeks for our next exciting topic on Changing the Rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.