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What is going on, guys? So, I thought
I would do this impromptu video, as
you can probably see, I've got a
smile on my face and it is because I
just received the newspapers in which
the story that was done on me was
published today. So that was really,
really cool. And I thought I would
tell you about that story and make
this podcast episode and chuck it up
on YouTube just so that, you know,
you guys stay up to date with how
Aussie English is going.

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So recently, as you may or may not be
aware, I was contacted by a guy
called Sha Sha, who's from Taiwan,
and he is living in Australia. He's a
student. I think he was studying
media, doing a documentary course or,
I guess, subject at university at
Deakin up in Melbourne. And he was
interested in doing a story on Aussie
English for this subject, because
they had to do a short documentary of
like six minutes on a subject that
wasn't one of them. They weren't
allowed to use other subjects at
university or, you know, everyone
would just do it on each other.

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00:01:10,260 --> 00:01:23,159
And so he reached out to me, got in
contact. I was like, yeah,
absolutely. You know, I'm interested
in this stuff as well. And I want to
share my story. And, you know, it's
just another way that I can help
students like himself as well
improve.

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So, he came down to my house two
times over a few weeks in August and
had all the kit and caboodle, all the
jazz, all of the different equipment
like lighting, sound, you know,
different video cameras, different
cameras to do photos and shoot B roll
as well as A roll. It was really
interesting. They sat me down on a
chair and interviewed me for like an
hour. And then we went out and did
some, um, some, I guess, like sort of
interviews whilst also getting B roll
out at the beach as well.

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00:01:54,816 --> 00:02:15,249
So, we did that over two days. Really
interesting. They ended up publishing
that video, which you can see on my
YouTube channel, And which I
published on the podcast as just the
audio. So, I was talking about my
story and a bit about how I changed,
right. That going from being a
scientist all the way through to
giving up that career and becoming a
podcast and content creator for
people learning Australian English.

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00:02:17,700 --> 00:02:36,957
And so, when he published that or
when the team that were working on
that published that documentary, they
gave me permission to publish that on
my YouTube channel and on my podcast.
Thanks again, guys. And then I
decided, you know what, maybe I can
share this a little bit with some of
the newspapers, news outlets around,
the local ones, you know, like
Geelong and the local Bellarine
Times.

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00:02:43,444 --> 00:03:10,835
So, I just went online. And I'm
telling you this just to sort of give
you an idea of how a lot of stories
end up in the newspaper. So quite
often these news websites or news
companies have some way that you can
submit suggestions for stories,
whether it's about yourself, you
know, ashamedly, or non-ashamedly,
unashamedly*, or about other people
or, you know, people you know, or
stories you hear of. So, the
newspapers always want to find out
what's happening and the best way
they can do that is quite often by
just asking people to submit stories
to them.

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00:03:17,424 --> 00:03:35,652
So, I thought, you know what? It's a
long shot, but I'll share my story,
you know,  I'll send them the
documentary and see if they're
interested in interviewing me briefly
and putting the story in the
newspaper so that, you know, I share
the story with other Australians and
they can, you know, find out about
Aussie English and what it's doing in
the whole purpose of it.

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So I sent that to a few different
places, but the Bellarine Times
picked it up. They emailed back
pretty much the next day, I think,
because I'd send it out on the
weekend. And the journalist Hannah
Kenny was like, "We want to chat to
you over the phone. Can I interview?"
And they organised a time. And then
they also, when we were on the phone
chatting about this stuff. She said,
"We're going to send out a
photographer.".

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Now, it's really funny because they
sent out a photographer and when he
got here, I was like expecting they
just wanted a headshot, you know,
like a photo of my face. They'd put
it on the story, you know, nothing
too complex or crazy. And then he was
like, "Actually, you're going to be
one of the main stories in the
newspaper that week." And I was like,
"What? I wasn't expecting that.".

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00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:43,981
So, that was really interesting. And
he came with all of this, again, kit
and kaboodle, lots of different
equipment. He had his camera. He had
some flash stands and some light
boxes and everything, and was trying
to incorporate the chaos around
behind me here. So, you know, my desk
and everything as well as my. Well,
what do we got here? The floating
thong and the books and everything to
get some really good photos for the
newspaper and then also took some
outside.

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And so, that was really interesting,
too, as a process to kind of learn
about how they actually do that and,
you know, see how they work out how
to make these photos look really good
in the newspaper.

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00:05:00,673 --> 00:05:26,129
So, yeah. Anyway, that got published
today and it was really funny,
because it wasn't on the front page,
and they they didn't put it on the
front page apparently because the
front page changes from suburb to
suburb, and they wanted to obviously
share this story with, you know, it
wasn't suburb specific. So, they
wanted to share it with the whole
Bellarine Peninsula, the whole region
where this newspaper's distributed.
So, they put it on the inside.

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And I was... I went... I got
impatient today. So, the newspaper
normally gets delivered and it hadn't
been delivered yet. And so I was
like, well, I'm really curious to see
what this story's like, because I
don't know, you know, how it's going
to turn out. Which photos they use.
You know, big, small. What? I just
wanted to see what it was.

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00:05:40,734 --> 00:06:11,697
So I went down to Coles. And the
supermarkets here have like a little
stand where they put the newspapers,
the local newspaper that's free. So,
I wasn't on the front and I was like,
okay. Opened it up, wasn't in there.
Lots of ads, other stories. And I was
like, "Oh, man, maybe they decided
not to run the story.". But lo and
behold, towards the middle, I found
at the front of, I guess, the section
called Living, there was my big, you
know, ugly face on the front page of
that section. So, that was really
kind of surreal seeing that.

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Anyway, so I've got the story here.
And I thought I would read it to you
just so that one, if you're listening
to the podcast or watching the video,
you can, you know, hear the story
firsthand, but also to give you an
idea of how journalist...
Journalistic writing works. So, it
tends to be a little different from,
say, just, you know, normal essay
writing. There's a certain style to
it. All right. So, let me read this
out for you.

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00:06:39,635 --> 00:06:44,699
G'day mate! Content creator teaching
foreigners Aussie English. By Hannah
Kenney.

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00:06:46,170 --> 00:07:09,959
Not many people would be game enough
to sink their teeth into a secondary
project while tackling PhD, but Ocean
Grove's Pete Smithson is living proof
that creativity has no bounds. The
scientists turned content creator is
the mastermind behind Aussie English,
a multifaceted web tool that focuses
on teaching foreigners Australian
English culture, history, and current
affairs.

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00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:42,240
From evolutionary biology to Aussie
slang, Pete said switching the
microscope for the microphone was a
decision he didn't make lightly. "It
was difficult at the start. It's a
pretty small nation in terms of
English learners, but it was much
needed. So many people were
encouraging me to do it. It was
definitely one of those things where
I was like, am I shooting myself in
the foot? I spent so much of my time
at university and letting go was like
being in the jungle, swinging from
one vine to another and wondering if
I was going to fall off.".

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00:07:43,590 --> 00:08:00,850
Fortunately for Pete, the niche
demographic he was slightly
apprehensive about tapping into was a
career move that has paid off in
spades. Having recorded material for
Aussie English since 2015, Pete
believes he's the only podcast with a
strong focus on Australia.

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00:08:01,590 --> 00:08:29,244
"They've [foreigners] prepared
overseas to learn British English and
American English, and when they get
here, they don't know that the accent
is so incredibly different. It's very
hard for them to turn somewhere to
learn that. My avatar tends to be
someone who's highly educated at
university and looking for jobs in
commercial industries and academia.
And they're very concerned about
progressing their careers, but they
also really want to immerse
themselves in Australian culture.".

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00:08:29,250 --> 00:08:50,712
Conscious of his target market, Pete
said he hoped his listeners felt they
could better integrate themselves
into the Australian way of life. He
said he tried to cover a range of
true-blue topics, including
indigenous Australians, Captain Cook,
and Ned Kelly, so newly-minted
Aussies could not only engage in
conversation, but form their own
opinions. While it's been an
interesting ride, Pete said he has
had the most rewarding outcomes.

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"When I was doing science. It was me
on my own with the podcast. I was
getting feedback, emails, comments,
and words of encouragement. You also
hear about these stories of people
selling everything they have to come
over to Australia and they often have
no support network. I was getting
emails from this one guy who said
that he was at his wits end after
being knocked back at an interview
because his English wasn't good
enough to continue. It was
gut-wrenching, but it's what
motivates me to keep going and help
people overcome barriers."

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To find out more about Aussie
English, visit AussieEnglish.com.au.

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So, there you go, guys. That is, you
know, a short story that is in the
newspaper. You can see there that
she's really filled the story out
with a lot of expressions, especially
a lot of Aussie English expressions,
right? So, she said things like
'true-blue', meaning like
authentically Australian and, you
know, 'g'day mate' at the very start
of it, as well as things like 'in
spades' and 'sink your teeth into
something'.

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So, that's one of those. Journalists
write in a very kind of unique way,
where quite often the writing tries
to reflect the very subject they're
talking about and they use a lot of
puns and, you know, expressions and
wordplay, especially with things like
titles quite often for different
pieces.

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Anyway, this is probably enough,
guys. Hopefully, it wasn't too much
of me, you know, tooting my own horn,
playing my own trumpet, you know,
showing off. I just thought I would
share this with you guys. I thought
you might find it interesting. And I
want to thank you guys for supporting
Aussie English, because obviously
without all of you guys on YouTube,
on The Podcast, as well as the
members in my Academy and The
Podcast, everything at Aussie
English.com.au, I could not be doing
what I am doing. I couldn't be
supporting the family that I have. I
couldn't be living the life that I
have. I couldn't be helping other
people like I am at the moment. So,
I'm very grateful for you guys doing
what you do, coming over to
Australia, and trying to improve your
Aussie English. So thank you once
again, guys.

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Anyway, that's enough. Chat to you
later.