Meet the latest teacher to join the Intrepid English Team! Juliana sat down with Lorraine for a special video interview to chat all about teaching, studying, learning languages, dancing and choreography!
Check out the video right here!
Book a trial lesson with Juliana today! Or if you’re already an Intrepid English student, why not say hello in the Intrepid English Community!
You can find the complete transcript for the interview below:
Lorraine Venables 00:02
Hi, Juliana, how are you doing?
Juliana Kakembo 00:04
Well, thanks, and you, Lorraine?
Lorraine Venables 00:06
I’m really well, thanks, Juliana. Yeah. Why don’t you start by introducing yourself for us?
Juliana Kakembo 00:12
Sure. So, hi, everyone. My name is Juliana. I’m a student and English teacher from Port Elizabeth, which is a small city on the coast of South Africa. Fun fact about me – my parents are originally from Uganda, which is a country on the east coast of Africa. I was born and raised in South Africa, but I can understand the native language in Uganda, which is called Luganda. I just don’t speak it very well. And I’m currently doing my masters in Geographical Information Systems, which sounds pretty complicated, but it really isn’t. It’s just dealing with creating maps. And I just started teaching with Intrepid English. Exciting! I just joined the team. And yeah!
Lorraine Venables 01:08
That’s lovely. Thank you very much for that, Juliana. I’m particularly interested in your master’s degree in Geographical Information Systems, which you very helpfully simplified as ‘dealing with maps’. Can you tell us a little bit more about it and what you’re doing during your master’s degree? Because I think that that’s really interesting,
Juliana Kakembo 01:31
I guess, sure. So, Geographic Information Systems is basically just creating digital maps. So in the past, people were creating maps by physically drawing them and obviously that would take way too long. So now with the development of technology, Geographic Information Systems, or as we like to shorten it, just to GIS, you’re just creating maps using software. And you could either make them 2D or 3D, and these days you’re able to add things such as terrain, so like gentle land, sloping land, you know, rough terrain. It’s really interesting. And for my masters, because GIS is such a broad field, I’m specifically looking into using GIS for land use, cover change. So basically looking at how an area’s… specific area’s land has changed over the years. So years ago, maybe, I can use my master’s, for example, the area that I’m working with currently is a forest. But maybe like, more than fifty years ago, it wasn’t a forest, like it was just dry land. And then people started planting trees and now it’s a forest that people are trying to protect right now because locals aren’t really using it in a sustainable way. But you can’t really blame them, because they don’t have a proper education into how cutting down trees is actually really bad for the environment. But basically, I’m just looking at how when the virus started to grow, how it started to deteriorate because of the way the locals were using it. And now how it’s growing back to what it used to be, and different ways that we can protect it, so that they can still use the trees for what they need to use it for, but in such a way that this forest isn’t in danger.
Lorraine Venables 03:45
Wonderful. That sounds like, firstly, a really interesting topic, but secondly, really, really valuable now to protect… well, all forms of wildlife and biodiversity. So that’s fascinating. It sounds simple, you know, drawing maps. But it’s a very, very complicated topic, isn’t it? But it’s really helpful to hear how you implement that knowledge in a real world situation.
Juliana Kakembo 04:15
Yeah, and this, essentially, GIS just helps with the fact that you don’t have to physically go to the location and do any sort of fences, or figure out what type of soil is in that forest. You could get that information from your data online. So yeah, because sometimes you want to work on a place like, say now, if it’s the Amazon forest, that’s all the way in South America, but with GIS and satellite images, it makes it easier for you to. And also the use of Google Earth. That’s a really big help. You can work in any area you’d like.
Lorraine Venables 05:01
Yeah, amazing. Well, firstly, I hope that that there is more focus on the Amazon rainforest because obviously, that’s been under attack since Bolsonaro has been in power. So hopefully, wonderful technology and knowledge that you’re gaining and working towards building, that’s available to the people that need it there. Or maybe you’ll be travelling around the world and saving different rainforest in the future hopefully! Yeah, fantastic. So I remember when you when we first met, and you told me about this topic, and I was like, oh, we need to hear more about this! So I’m looking forward to hearing all about this particular topic and how valuable it is, how much you’re helping the locals to farm in a more sustainable way, to get what they need, but also in a way that doesn’t negatively impact the environment. That’s super nice. Yeah. All right, there’s lots of other hobbies that you have as well. And they are different to the other teachers that we’ve got on our team already. So I really wanted to ask you more about them. So, you list your hobbies as video editing, specifically adding music to videos, and also dancing. So tell me about these things and how did you get into them?
Juliana Kakembo 06:28
So, I think with the dancing, I’ve always enjoyed dancing. Ever since I was younger, I just found myself constantly doing it when I was alone. But then social media came along and I realised that… this is before Tik Tok made just with Instagram, I realised that when I dance online and I post a video online, that’s when I would get the most engagement and people liked it and encouraged me to do more. So I was like, okay, and then, um, Tik Tok came along during lockdown 2020 when the whole world was stuck at home, so we had nothing else to do but just make TikToks! And then, I think, in creating those TikToks, but also realising, as I kept watching, that people were making these cool edits, and using whichever type of music they liked, I was like, OK, I could do this. So that’s when I started going on YouTube and figuring out OK, what are the different editing apps I could use? I already knew which music I liked, because I’ve always been making my own playlists here and there. So it was more about just learning how I could use the music that I liked, and putting it to videos that I liked creating. So yeah.
Lorraine Venables 07:54
So creative! So it sounds like you were doing TikToks before TikTok was a thing.
Juliana Kakembo 08:00
I mean, I was watching them a lot. I was still really shy to post. I think I only really got comfortable with the app this year actually. ‘Cause I would post it. There’s a setting where you can post the video, but not no one can see. And so it’s basically just private for yourself. And then when I finally got the confidence. It’s weird. I was scared to post on TikTok, but I didn’t mind posting on Instagram. But now I’m more comfortable posting on TikTok.
Lorraine Venables 08:31
Oh great, great. Yeah, it’s, taken me a long time. I’m not somebody who posts a lot on social media normally. But I started using LinkedIn as a way of, you know, sort of, personal branding as well as putting the word out about Intrepid English. And yeah, I’ve spoken about her before, but a friend of mine now, Leah, Leah Turner, she’s a bit of a LinkedIn queen, and she really encouraged me to try with it. So it’s become a really nice influence on me, a really nice place to hang out, which I never thought I would say about social media, because I’ve always been quite, you know, wary, let’s say, about social media. So now having quite a nice community of people who genuinely care. You know, recently I had some time off, and my LinkedIn buddies were reaching out to me. “How you doing? Haven’t seen anything from you for a while. I hope you’re okay.” And it was like, oh, there’s genuine care behind these, which really is my bag. So that’s really nice. But yeah, posting on Instagram and Tiktok does not come naturally at all to me, so hopefully you can do teach me those things. I’m not dancing though! I’m not doing that.
Juliana Kakembo 10:05
I just realised that, because you think that editing is complicated, but it’s really not, especially because they’ve even made it easier where people literally create editing templates where you just have to slot in your videos. And that’s all you need to do. You don’t have to actively go and do the edits yourself. So it gets easier and easier every day.
Lorraine Venables 10:29
Nice. I went away for the weekend, last weekend to the Scottish Highlands and had quite a few photos and videos, so I used an app to edit them into a one-minute video. And actually I was really pleased the way it came out. If you can edit it with the timing of the music, it just has a really, sort of, clean effect to it and I really enjoyed that. So yeah, I posted that on LinkedIn and sent that to my family and friends who were like, did you do this? And I was like, yeah! It’s a free app. It helps you to do it. But I love trying new new things, you know, in terms of technology, or in terms of music as well. So yeah, I’m looking forward to geeking out with you about that. Not only do you love dancing, but you’re into choreography, is that right?
Juliana Kakembo 11:27
Yes.
Lorraine Venables 11:28
Tell me about that.
Juliana Kakembo 11:31
That is on a very small scale, but I realised that from Tiktok, like a lot of people were just creating their own dances. So I was like, OK, I know that when I’m listening to my music, I can literally just zone out. And then I’m like, creating dances in my head and slightly like doing them with my body, but I always have in my head. So when I have like free time, when I do remember that, oh, hey, I had this, you know, these few steps in my head. Let me try them out. I’ll do them and then film them, so that I can watch them back and see how I can, like, change something here, you know, tweak something there. So yeah, I haven’t taught anyone any of my dances, but they’re still for myself. So let’s talk about languages. You speak a few languages, don’t you? Would you like to tell us a little bit about them? OK, so the language I speak the most, and that I know very well is English. I’d say because of the schools that I went to, were predominantly English-speaking school. So that is why. But I have, I can speak a little bit of Luganda. I’m still going to lessons for it because I think growing up I was very insecure about the way I was pronouncing certain words, I always stayed away from speaking it, which I now regret, because I would have been really good at it at this age. But I do understand it though pretty well. And then Hausa, it’s the same, I would say I understand it. I understand Luganda more, because that’s what I was exposed to most. But Hausa I learned from the nanny that used to take care of me, the shows that she used to watch, because I spend most of my time with her when I was younger. So just learning from that, picking up certain ways, and also because most, African language would maybe like East African and Southern Africa, you will notice that their languages are pretty similar because of Bantu. So there are some words in Hausa that are the same in Luganda, and even in Zulu, so, I find that very interesting. I find that really cool, that there’s a similarity with most of the languages. There’s just different things that they’ve changed, obviously.
Lorraine Venables 14:25
Yeah, you get that a lot with European languages, as well. There’s a lot of words that English has borrowed from French and, you know, Germanic languages as well. Yeah. But then sometimes that can be a bit difficult because you’ve got things like false friends, where you think, oh, I know that word. But actually, it means something slightly different because the languages have evolved differently. So it can sometimes be a little bit of a false sense of security where you’re like, oh, yeah, I understand that word. And and then it’s difficult to unlearn that.
Juliana Kakembo 14:56
Yeah, it’s like, I have some friends, ’cause in Africa, we have a language called Afrikaans, which obviously came about from Dutch. So sometimes you think that, yeah, I know! You basically you feel like you know Dutch. But then you realise OK, it’s actually really different. It can be kind of misleading.
Lorraine Venables 15:21
Yeah. Yeah. So, it might be that if you were to go to Holland, you would understand a little bit of what people were saying, probably from words and phrases here and there. But the ability to speak it would be very different. Yeah, even now, because I learned German years ago, when I go to Germany, I can understand so much more than I can actually say. Mainly because I understand the main words and main vocabulary, but the grammar that glues it all together just goes right over my head.
Juliana Kakembo 15:53
Yes, that’s exactly what happens with me with Lagonda and Hausa because, obviously, I know the main words. I always have an idea of what they’re saying but when it comes to structuring my own sentences, that’s why I’m going to lessons for the language, so I know how to do that myself.
Lorraine Venables 16:12
As a teacher, I think it’s really great that you’re also a language learner, because you’re learning Luganda with a teacher now, aren’t you? So that’s great, because it will inform your teaching in a way, I think,
Juliana Kakembo 16:26
Yes, it will. Because obviously, I could use the techniques that I’m learning from my teacher to teach the language that I want to teach myself.
Lorraine Venables 16:38
I used to do that with my German lessons. I’d go, oh, that’s a really good idea. Can I do that for my students? Yeah, that’s great. But generally, I think having learned another language, or in your case several, it will help you to be more empathetic to the specific issues that language learners have. As a teacher, it helps you to be generally more, sort of, I guess, understanding or have personal experiences that students can relate to, which is always really good, isn’t it?
Juliana Kakembo 17:10
Yeah, probably the most common feeling you have in learning a languages is that you feel really discouraged when you’re around people that speak the language so well.And, you know, most people would be will just say, “Yeah just read books, just read books!” But I find that with any language reading is the most difficult way to learn a language. But when you have things, good thing that these days is TV shows and music and the fact that people are making music in their native language that helps a lot. And just surrounding yourself with people that will encourage you to speak the language and are OK with you making mistakes, because I know I had certain bits of family that I just didn’t want to speak Luganda around, because instead of helping me and encouraging me to try, like, if I said something incorrectly, there was just laughs and giggles. And that didn’t really make me feel good. But now I have the part of my family that I feel comfortable speaking around, and then also my teacher. So I think just finding the right people to help you is also really important.
Lorraine Venables 18:31
One hundred percent. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I think many students come to us for one-to-one English lessons because they dislike the pressure of a group class where they feel like people will judge them for making a mistake, which unfortunately, sometimes people do, even though they’re in the process of learning something. It does take quite a lot of vulnerability to make mistakes, doesn’t it? So having a one-to-one lesson with an understanding teacher, especially one who’s either been through her own learning journey, or is going through her own language learning journey now, that’s really…. it takes the pressure off.
Juliana Kakembo 19:12
Yeah, I think that maybe one-on-one is better until you get to a point where you feel comfortable being in groups. Because also at the end of the day, you can’t learn anything in isolation. So yeah. When you get to that point where you feel comfortable, and also not caring what people think ,that’s when you can, you know, take things seriously.
Lorraine Venables 19:36
It’s so hard to do that though, isn’t it? I mean, we all care about what people think. But like you said to me earlier when I was trying to pronounce Gqeberha, the new word for Port Elizabeth. It was renamed recently. You know, you’re like, at least you’re trying, you know, you’re trying to say it correctly. And I think a lot of people think that about others who are speaking a second language. They think, oh wow, you know, that’s great. You know, at least they’re trying. But unfortunately, people who are speaking a language, a second language, they focus only on the people that ridicule them or make fun of them or something or people who are better than them, whereas a lot of people will silently be quite impressed. So you’ve told us about some of your hobbies and interests. And there’s another one that I’d really like to ask you about. You are into fashion aren’t you? And you used to do some modelling.
Juliana Kakembo 20:39
Yes, I did. I’m actually quite tall. Tall and slender. So when I was in high school, I was always asked if I was a model, if I’d done modelling. And the answer was no, but because I kept being encouraged to do modelling and to give it a try, I started looking into it and realised, OK, I do enjoy taking pictures, and I am photogenic, and I don’t feel… I feel comfortable in front of the camera. So why not give it a try? So I entered this competition, got scouted, and that’s when I started modelling. And one thing led to another. It’s a really fun… it is a fun industry. One thing for sure is that it teaches you confidence, because obviously, you do get a lot of rejection, just as much as acceptance, obviously, but it teaches you about rejection. And I learnt about rejection at an early age because of the modelling that I started, I hadn’t started applying for jobs yet. So obviously now at this age and I’m applying for jobs, I don’t feel as affected when I don’t get the response that I want to get. It taught me a lot of people skills because you work with a lot of people on set, you have people touching you on your face, photographers, this, that… and just being confident and working with different types of clients, and oh! Independence, because you’re moving around by yourself a lot, you’re having to fly to this city and that other city and you’re living by yourself. And you’re also transferring by yourself a lot, so you just learn how to become independent. So I’m glad that I started it at that time. Most people when they get into modelling love fashion, working with clothes, but I don’t think it was the fashion that I liked, the fashion that drew me to modelling. I think it was the fact that I enjoy cat walking. And I wanted, I think the goal with modelling was afterwards to become a scout or an agent to help people get into the industry as well. And then maybe if I developed a passion for design later on, I wouldn’t mind giving that a try. But it was mainly just because I liked, finding that specific look that they found in me and other people.
Lorraine Venables 23:36
It may be a misconception, but my perception of modelling industry globally, is that it can be quite a toxic place. That wasn’t your… or was that your experience?
Juliana Kakembo 23:52
I know it definitely can be toxic because, you know, some people talk to me about things that maybe the agency that you’re working with, they always want me to change something. So sometimes we think that there’s something wrong with you, even though, no, it’s not that there’s something wrong. It’s just that in that particular season they know that clients are looking for this specific look. And so because they want you to fit that look, they’ll say OK, maybe change your hair like this, or lose a little weight there and you know… The best thing is to just not get attached to any sort of look that you have. I guess it can be toxic in that way.
Lorraine Venables 24:37
Yeah. But then you say that it instills confidence in you. So that’s good, I guess. From what I’ve read, obviously, my modelling career did not take off. I’ve read that, you know, younger people, younger girls generally, you know, it’s difficult for them to build their confidence when people are focusing on on the deficits or perceived deficits. But yeah, it sounds like you had a good experience and it actually instilled ome really cool values in you so that was that’s unusual and quite good.
Juliana Kakembo 25:17
Yeah, I think also just being… I’m also really happy that I started modelling in a country where they are, I would say, models, my skin tone. I think if I had started somewhere in Europe, it does… I know, it does get to you when you’re the minority, and you’re not booking as much. So building the confidence here to get me ready for Europe, which is where I want to eventually go, that also helps.
Lorraine Venables 25:50
Yeah, I think that’s true of most industries as well, isn’t it? If you’re the minority in that company, or that department or team even, that can be quite, you know, destructive in many ways. So that’s why diversity is so important to make people feel more welcome. And then everyone wins. OK Juliana, there’s one thing I always ask new teachers, at the end of their Meet the Teachers podcast, and that is, if you’ve got any advice for English learners. But it could be advice of any kind for success in life. What would you like to pass on to the audience before we leave today?
Juliana Kakembo 26:36
Um, one thing I’d like to pass on is that don’t limit yourself only to what you know. I think as someone growing up, since high school, I only knew two things that I was good at. And that was modelling and geography or geosciences. And I stuck with those two things during my undergrad, but I got to a point where I was just like, you know what? I want to branch out, it’s important to branch out and realise what else you could be good at. And a great example is learning another language, you can start off there. And then from there, learning different skills like how I did with my video editing, and dancing, and you don’t always have to be perfect at those things. And you don’t always have to monetize those things, because I realise in today’s world, people are always trying to monetize their hobbies. But it doesn’t have to get to that point. It’s just making sure you step out of your comfort zone is really important. And not caring what people think before you start any of those things because if you care about what people think, then it’s not gonna make it any enjoyable.
Lorraine Venables 27:46
Yeah it’s so true! I love that advice. Yeah, it’s true, these days we are encouraged to monetize all of our hobbies, aren’t we? But yeah, doing something for the joy of doing it, not for the validation that other people can bring but for the joy of doing it. I think that that’s such an important thing to learn. I’m still learning that. I hope that I one day get a bit better at it but, you know, it’s absolutely valid to do something just because you enjoy it. And if you can do that, then you will probably end up making progress faster than if you had these strict goals and put lots of pressure on yourself to achieve these end goals in time.
Juliana Kakembo 28:33
Yeah, people can always tell when you’re doing something for the wrong reasons. So it’s better you enjoy it and know that you’re doing it because it’s something you love.
Lorraine Venables 28:44
Yeah, absolutely. What a great note to end the podcast on. Thank you, Juliana. All right. It’s been lovely talking to you and I look forward to many more conversations.
Juliana Kakembo 28:55
Yes, me too.
Lorraine Venables 28:57
Bye, thanks so much!
Juliana Kakembo 28:58
Bye!