A simple goal. I share that goal, I have all of my life. I expect that if you are here, you have this same goal. Let’s work together toward this goal. This is why I am here, why I created SamBen. You?
If you just want to know the details about how I work, it might be a good idea for you just to go ahead to the Services and Topics pages.
But if you want to read more about my philosophy as a language teacher and as coach, then click below.
SamBen offers all types of interactions with the English language, but the goal always remains the same: to promote better understanding of and advancement in the language. Do you want cours particuliers, en binômes, ou en collectif? This and more is all possible with SamBen.
You may need help with that challenging client, trying to help the client better understand why that negotiating tactic simply will not work in this situation. Perhaps you need to give a presentation to a room full of unknown individuals. You hope not only to be able to persuade them your approach is correct, but even perhaps to have them warm up to you.
Maybe you and your firm want to deepen your understanding of the American legal system for an advantage in the litigation you currently have underway? Again, this all works and SamBen is here for you. Perhaps you want an intense seminar in how jury trials are actually conducted in real life, not just what is portrayed on television. Or do you need to better understand U.S. regulatory agencies?
SamBen’s purpose is to teach English, and much more. The goal is to help professionals like yourself communicate, understand, argue, explain, persuade and respond ever more effectively in English in the situations that matter to you and your clients. Even mundane emails can be problematic, or a huge help to your work, depending on how you approach them.
Language is not merely vocabulary and grammar; it is precision, economy, clarity, and attention to what one is actually communicating.
That lesson ultimately informs the way I teach French professionals today. It is also how I learn. So it is easy and natural for me. With a little bit of time and effort, it will be for you as well.
The GAME
Do you know what “yucky” means? Almost no one really does, and vague words like illustrate how poor expression casts a haze and hinders effective communication.
As Voltaire said : “Définissez les termes, vous dis-je! Ou jamais nous ne nous entendrons.”
At the root, this is what all language acquisition is.
Imagine a public school classroom. The locale is rustic, even plouc-like. Not surprising, it is after all East Texas (yes, formerly la Louisiane). Insert a fairly iconoclastic public school teacher. She is faced with a classroom full of rather bright yet very rambunctious students. Her challenge: to help them master English.
This is where the GAME started. Click here to read more about it.
Rather than try to control or force-feed information to the students, the teacher calmly told them they were free to do whatever they wanted while in her classroom, so long as they were civil and reasonably quiet.
She explained she was willing to discuss anything with any student. However, drawing upon Voltaire, she set down one rule. If you want to talk with me, you must define your terms.
She gave a simple example: a student who comes up to her and announces, “I hate broccoli. It’s yucky.” She simply was not going to engage with that student since she had no idea what yucky really meant.
It means different things to different people. To some people it might mean it is an ugly green color, to other people it might mean the item in question smells bad. And so on and so forth. So for the teacher that vague term stopped the conversation before it really even started.
Having given the rule, and the example, she sat down and waited.
In this way, little by little, she drew those students in, teasing and enticing them with smart conversation, challenging them to understand and to think about what they were saying. And conversation began truly to flourish. And the students began to grow. Not just because they were teenagers, but because their minds were sharpening and becoming inquisitive.
Then came the Rules. Just one or two at first. Bad grammar was discouraged. Obscenities even more : think whatever you like, simply be civil in expressing it. Then vague and uncertain utterances had to stop. They were space fillers and thus simply wasted time.
That teacher and I became great friends. She easily would have held her own with Clemenceau if they had known each other. Even with Voltaire I suspect.
This is my background, and what I bring into all of my classes and to my life.
