Hello, everybody, it's Lisa here and I'm glad to welcome you at today's live stream. So this live stream is provided by ITTT, a leading TAPL and TESOL provider. I hope that you are doing great and if you see me and hear me clearly, please let me know via the chat box so that I could know that you are guys here and you hear me and stuff like that. So feel free to comment on the chat box and we're going to discuss whatever points and whatever things you have on your mind today because it's a Q&A session. So if you have any questions related to TAPL and TESOL certification, if you are a non-native ESL teacher, feel free to ask me whatever questions you have. So let's have this conversation going and I hope you'll get some useful tips and maybe you'll learn something useful from me today. Hello guys, also let me know where are you tuning in from. I'm located in Russia, in the rural region of Russia. So it's a beautiful city of Yekaterinburg. It's pretty far from Moscow. However, I really love it because it's greenish during this summer period and it's warm, so it's really nice here. Where are you from? Okay, so let me know so that I could know that we are like global here. I know that many people come to these live sessions from different parts of the world like India, Thailand and even some Western countries. So let me know where are you guys from. And if you have any questions TAPL or TESOL teaching in general, please let me know right in the comments section. So the first question is here. Let me share it with you. Okay, so hello Fatih. I hope I pronounce your name correctly. So let me look through the question quickly. Okay, all right, so you're an English teacher and you are pretty experienced, like 10 years is a great experience. And of course, the answer is yes, you are able to work abroad, but you have to meet the requirements of those countries you are going to teach in. For example, I taught in China some time ago, and as a non-native teacher, I had to have my TAPL certificate. At that time, it was possible to work without this native speaking country passport. So I wasn't a U.S. passport holder or something like that. So I found a job in China. But when I was at the end of that, when I was in the end of my teaching career in China, the year policies got severe. And it was harder to start working at that time. Also, as for China, I had to be over 24 years old, which was just impossible for me because I was 21 at that time. And yeah, I had some troubles. They couldn't provide me with a working visa, so I was on my business visa. And that was the main reason I actually left China. But they had opportunities to provide a working visa for those teachers who were over 24 years old, who had bachelor's degree, TAPL certificate. And yeah, they provided working visas even if they weren't from native speaking countries. And by the way, if you are interested in working in China, you can check out one of my previous live streams, which I did together with my friend who is actually teaching in China right now. He's not a native teacher. His name is Eugene. And I did an interview with him several weeks ago. I strongly recommend you watching that video, because he gave a lot of useful tips on how to go to China and how to travel there without this US passport or without this, you know, like Canadian passport. So there are possibilities to work in China, even if you are a non native speaker, but you have to be really flexible. And you have to be super picky when finding jobs there, because not all the schools are eligible to hire foreigners in general, not not just native speakers or non native speakers, but foreigners from any countries. Okay. All right, so here is actually a person who is currently staying in China. And the Doreen, am I pronouncing your name correctly? Are you a non native teacher or a native teacher? Let us know. And what about your visa status if you're allowed to talk about it actually. Okay. So all right, so nice to see you guys. Thanks for joining. Thanks for coming to this live session, because I was a little bit scared that if I do this Q&A session, no one is interested. But it looks like there are some questions to me. Okay. The next question, how can I develop my teaching methods? Like, are you talking about your teaching methodology and about your teaching approach? If yes, then the first suggestion would be if you don't have a TEFL certificate, start your course as soon as possible in your teaching career, because TEFL certification provides you with this basic knowledge of methodologies, teaching approaches and stuff like that. For example, as for me again, I can give you examples based on my experience, because I wasn't a TEFL teacher. I was trained as a linguist. So I got my bachelor's degree in English linguistics, and I learned how to translate from Russian to English and from English to Russian. So that was, teaching wasn't my major. And when I finished my university, I knew that like I didn't want to work as a translator or as a linguist. And I knew that I, at that time, I was actually, like, I had some experience in teaching, because I worked as a tutor, as a private tutor during my university years. So I was like, I want to be a teacher. This is what I can do. And this is what I like in general. So I decided to look for different opportunities, like how to become proficient in teaching, even if I was pretty skilled in English, as an English learner and stuff like that. I didn't know how to teach. And the first suggestion was, like, take a TEFL certificate, take a TEFL course. And when I went to China, well, it was actually a requirement to have a TEFL certificate. So I just did that course, and I got some pieces of knowledge about this methodology and teaching approaches. And I think that it worth it. So this is probably the first way to understand how English teaching works. If you're a lifelong learner in English, but then this is probably not enough. So if you have already have a teaching certificate, TEFL or TESOL, whatever, that's actually not enough. You have to work on your experience and skills. So speaking of some teaching approaches, the best way to get this experience is by teaching regularly. So I would recommend you to look for students as much as it is possible. And another point is check out different resources. We have the internet, actually, and it is super easy to find whatever points you are interested in. And here I can actually recommend you several free resources. So I really like to read information on the Cambridge website. So if you know Cambridge, I think all teachers know Cambridge. So go to Cambridge.org. They have a huge section related to teaching, teaching methodology and all stuff related to that. So this is probably the first resource I'd go to. The next is that it is also possible to get some free courses on future learn or what else, course error. So there are many massive, massive online courses, which you can actually attend. But if you want to get a certificate, you have to pay some extra fee for it. But if you don't want to get this paper, then it is possible just to watch and listen during the course. And this is the way you can learn about methodology as well. And as for future learn, for example, it's a really great resource which contains courses from the leading universities and institutions like Cambridge, British Council, Oxford. So you can actually find whatever trainings you are interested in. For example, some time ago, I was really fascinated. I really liked the idea of teaching special needs children. And I found a lot of courses related to special needs education on future learn. So that was how I learned about dyslexia, orthoism, autism. And yeah, so that resource is just great. And I know that many professional teachers actually take such courses because these resources just super cheap if you want to get this certificate. But if you don't need the embossed certificate, it's just allowed to watch their courses, to watch their videos, to attend them, and that's all. So if you are really interested in teaching methodology, it's just 100% on you. Look for as many resources as it is possible on the internet. But if you're at the beginning of your teaching career, probably tuple certificate is a great idea as well. Hello, guys. Thanks for coming. Thanks for joining actually. It's okay. Yeah, so today we're talking about tuple teaching and all stuff related to it. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. Yeah, I give some pieces of advice based on my non native teaching experience. And if you're a non native teacher, and if you have any questions related to it, please feel free to ask me. I'll try my best to help you out. And we've already discussed teaching in China. And Doreen gives several tips over the comments section on how to teach in China. Okay. Well, actually, unfortunately, I don't have any contacts in China anymore, any longer, because I don't work there. And I just deleted my WeChat. The only person who I contact is that guy from the interview. I mentioned it earlier today. So if you're really interested in teaching in China, I would recommend you watching that video because it actually contains tips on where to find jobs, where to find those contacts, and stuff like that. But as for now, unfortunately, I cannot share any contacts because I simply don't have them. Okay. So, all right, so guys, if you have any further questions, feel free to ask me right now. So we've already discussed China, we've already discussed what we've already discussed teaching methodology. Okay. The next question. Okay, so personal ideas on being a professional non native English teacher, and a native speaker with no teaching experience. Okay, so it's a really hard question, but I'll try to explain like my point of view here. Well, so both sides have benefits and drawbacks. I believe that native English teachers, what they can give learners best is pronunciation and this language exposure. However, non native English teachers might be more comforting, especially for beginners. And at the same time, we can actually explain English grammar better. And that's probably because we have the same like, we have the same experience, we have the same experience of learning this language. And this is probably how we can relate to our English students. But I can't actually add more. I still believe that it's a great idea to combine like, classes with a non native teacher and with a native English teacher. Even if, for example, your advanced or proficient, sometimes native English teachers are not that helpful. But it really depends if teachers are professional, if native teachers are professionals, if they have this experience in teaching ESL, if they have education related to ESL teaching, they can help you out a lot. They can help out ESL students a lot. However, if they aren't experienced, it's just a waste of time probably and a waste of money sometimes or vice versa. Like sometimes it's a waste of money. Sometimes it's a waste of time because they just can't explain you some specific details. For example, several years ago, I decided to work on my pronunciation. And what I did first was finding a teacher, just a random teacher on italki. I really liked her pronunciation. I believe she had like neutral American pronunciation. And I just contacted her and explained her my goals. And she said, like, okay, I can help you. But we finished up doing regular English activities and tasks related to general English versus pronunciation activities. And I was like, well, probably that's not the person who I have to work with. However, she was a great ESL teacher because she had this specific training. She knew how to approach non native speakers. And yeah, she was just a great person. However, she couldn't give me this specific training in pronunciation. And that's how I actually started looking for a specific course. And that was actually more helpful compared to taking private classes with a teacher who wasn't trained as a speech coach. Yeah, I hope that I answered the question to some extent. But yeah, it's really hard to explain what's better and what's worse. But yeah, as for as for non native teachers, of course, we have to get this special training. We have to be we have to work on our professional skills. And we have to learn English as hard as it is possible, because we compete with somehow compete with native teachers. And just thinking of my time in China. Of course, at that time, I had less experience. I was younger, and I had like more problems in teaching than today. But I was really sorry to see those classes who were taught by native teachers having no experience, having no training in teaching. Because it was so pathetic, they simply taught like one and the same song every day. And that was actually all they didn't do their job well. But they were paid higher, because they were just native teachers. And yeah, finally, it's it's all about personal qualities, probably, because, you know, if you are really interested in doing your job well, you will you will do whatever is possible in terms of getting experience and professional education, and so on. All right, so that's all probably. As for this point, and if you guys have any further questions related to TAFOL, TESOL, what else, ESL teaching, online teaching, probably, go ahead and ask me whatever questions you have on your mind. And I just want to mention that last week, I did a really nice workshop on how to organize lessons based on video materials. And if it is something you are interested in, if you want to give your students a little bit more value in terms of content, make sure you check out that video, because I think that was really interesting. And I actually get a really positive feedback. Yeah, after that live stream. And I also want to share the final result of the lesson I was creating last week. And yeah, I'm going to do it as soon as it is possible, because I decided to spend some time on designing the lesson and also adding some teaching tips like providing a specific lesson plan so that you guys could use it as a ready-made lesson plan and as a ready-made lesson in general. So, stay tuned. I'm going to share that lesson on my Facebook group. If you didn't see my Facebook group yet, just feel free to join via this link. Yeah, I'm not that active on the Facebook group yet, but I'm trying to understand how to approach this content creation and stuff like that, because they have a lot of things to do apart from this group. But I really want to be consistent there and share useful tips and materials. So, I hope that today or maybe tomorrow I'll share this final result of the ESL lesson plan based on the previous live stream. Yeah, and the lesson plan is actually about ecology because it's one of my favorite topics. I really like discussing this point with my students and I like to be proactive in terms of recycling, waste sorting and stuff like that. Hello, guys. Thanks for joining. I can see your greetings on the chat box. If you have any questions related to TEFL, TESOL, online teaching, teaching abroad and whatever just comes to your mind, feel free to ask me over the chat box. I'll try my best to answer. Yeah, so yeah, just feel free to ask me whatever you want. Okay, so teaching kids. Again, I have two types of experience as for teaching kids. When I was in China, I taught children from two and a half to several years old and that was really hard. Probably the first reason why that was challenging, that was due to my age. I was super young at that time, like 21 years old was just not suitable for small children. However, that audience was really demanding. Well, Chinese companies, they had a slightly different vision, which I actually had at that time and which I have right now. They wanted me to come up with a strong lesson plan and I had to teach specific points and children had to show that they learned something. However, life is slightly different and in reality, none of us like not, children couldn't come up with all of those vocabulary units. I couldn't provide them the best training as it was possible. So it was a disaster probably. However, we spent some great time together and we had a really nice bonding, especially with the youngest students. I don't know why, but they were so open. They really liked to spend time with me. I like to spend time with them. I tried to teach them. They tried to teach me and we had this two-sided communication and exchanged our experience and exchanged our cultures. That was really great. But as for teaching, that was complicated. Nowadays, I actually work with older students. I teach them online and I should say that this is probably the most comfortable way of teaching for myself as a teacher. School kids are really great learners in terms of online teaching. I don't know why, but they do everything so fast. They learn so fast and they benefit from this online teaching mode. It's just really strange how fast they can assimilate and get this understanding of how to learn online, but it's probably the best way to teach. But children are older. When you work with them online, they should be older. They shouldn't probably be younger than eight years or something because younger kids still need this game and activities and as much physical activity as it is possible as well. You cannot provide it via the internet probably. What else should I tell here? Let me think. It is also extremely important to organize your lessons properly and to lead your children, lead your young students like step by step so that they could focus on the content, but at the same time feel that it is fun and that they are engaged. I would recommend using whatever resources you find based on game. For example, here I could recommend your word wall. Let me write it via the chat box. The resource called word wall is just an incredible thing for creating your games. There are different game techniques. Let me just actually show you because I pay for the subscription and I use word wall from time to time with different levels, not only with kids, but also with older students as well. Let me share my screen and I'll show you how it actually looks because word wall is just awesome. I've created several activities based on my teaching content. You can see it here. For example, let's see this one. I taught my student, not a young student, but an older student. However, you can actually try the same technique with younger students as well. It looks like a random wheel. What you have to do is spinning it and then giving directions to your students and asking to do what is shown as an option. We learned functional language. I pre-taught functional language before this game. Then I showed pictures and they had to respond using the functional language. It's actually hard to see what is here in the picture, but it's related to a movie. I forgot the name of the movie. It was about the movie and they had to say something related to the movie using the word absolutely. That was the idea of the game. There are several other options and they had to practice the vocabulary. Also, I taught this teaching point like should we or should have. They also had to open boxes and they had to do something related to should and should have, like giving some pieces of advice or criticizing. That was the idea. You can create different game types using WordWall. It's super interesting, super convenient. Also, it is possible to find any other games that were created by other teachers in the community. If you don't want to spend time on creating an activity, you can actually pick from hundreds of ready-made activities. Let's say this one. It looks great. I think this one is possible to use with young children. There are actually also a lot of options how to create and how to design your games. For example, you can choose a template out of interactive, but also it is possible to create a printable activity. As for printables, I actually create a printable using this resource. Then I just put it on my mirror and we can work together on mirror. Probably, yeah, but you can also print it out and just scissor, cut, and that's all. As a teacher, you can be flexible with this resource and it's super helpful when you teach either children or adults. But as for teaching children, make sure that you choose the most fun interactives. Yeah, so that's it probably. There are some other options like how to approach to teaching children, but I would probably ask you for more details like what exactly do you want to learn, what is your actual problem like, maybe you are lacking something. Let me know. Let's see the next question. I'm not sure. Am I right to understand that you completed our T-SOL certification course in Bangladesh? And what's next? I'm not sure. Because was it an online course or an in-class course? Please provide me with some more information because actually, if you are talking about ITTT TAPL courses, you are actually not required to provide a TOEFL exam because TAPL, T-SOL, and TOEFL are different things. The best teaching methods for teaching non-native people, okay, or let me see, what are the best methods of teaching to non-native people? Well, actually, all methods of teaching are perfect for whatever speakers you teach. It's a strange question to me because there are teaching approaches which can be applicable to teachers or to speakers of different languages. There are many ESL teaching methods, for example, grammar translation, which is a slightly old-fashioned approach, however, some students still prefer being taught by this method. Lexical approach, TPR, so there are many various teaching approaches and they all are suitable for ESL students, okay. If you want to learn about a specific teaching approach or teaching methodology, let me know, okay. And by the way, if you know that ITTT has a YouTube channel, we actually have a lot of useful videos related to teaching methodology. Let me show it right now. I'd like to show you our YouTube channel as well so that you could find our best teaching methodologies and the most interesting content related to it. Okay, so let me share my screen right now. Okay, so this is our YouTube channel and you can find different videos on the playlists and we've got tips on in-class courses, for example, what else. Teaching methodologies like evaluation and testing, coursebooks and materials, lesson planning, what else. English, grammar, ESA methodology. So there are actually many videos related to teaching methods, teaching specific students and so on. So feel free to check out our ITTT YouTube channel. We try to share different stuff on various social media. Please go ahead. All right, guys, I hope that I answered your questions fully, at least to some extent, because some of the questions weren't completely clear to me. If you still want me to explain something in details, please ask me specific points. For example, if you're interested in specific teaching methods, feel free to ask me about those methods. Okay. All right, I think we will stay here for several minutes more and yeah. So the answer is if you want to try a specific methodology for your classroom, in your classroom, you just have to follow the guidelines for this specific methodology and try it with your class. It depends like if you teach a group of students, if you teach a large group of students or, for example, if you work one-to-one, just make sure that when you apply this or that teaching methodology, you are flexible now because when you work with a large classroom, it's not the same as when you work one-to-one. I cannot give you a specific answer like how to take and apply this methodology because it's always unique and it's always different. Just try different ways to apply this methodology based on your students and based on their needs because what you have to think about is what are your teaching goals and what are your students' needs and based on that, you actually choose the most appropriate methodology. Yeah. Okay, guys, I think that is all for today. That was a really nice discussion. I hope I could help you to understand how to apply this or that method. It's actually really hard to dig deeper into details because all cases are different and we all are unique. What I can suggest is try to apply whatever approaches, whatever methods are possible when you work with your students because we cannot understand how to do this or that when we don't try, when we don't practice. That's probably it. I hope to see you guys next week. I'll try to come up with an interesting topic next week because I want to give you more benefits and more useful ideas. I hope to see you next time. Just a reminder, I have a group on Facebook. I'm going to share some useful tips there and I'm going to share a lesson plan on this group from the previous week. If you're interested, yeah, just go ahead and follow the group. I hope to stay in touch with you if you want to add me as a friend on Facebook and ask me some special questions. Feel free to do that. I'm open to any conversations. That's all for today and I'll see you next week, guys. Thanks for joining and bye-bye.


What's up everybody? Ricky Caruth here. Welcome back to my channel. So today I want to get into how to stand out if you are one of the many real estate agents in your market or any industry. If you're a sales person amongst many sales people in the same industry in the same market, how do you stand out? There's many many things I want to get into in this video. So I'm just going to dive right in here. And if you're looking for some more inspiration, I'm going to link two more videos below. One is is how to stand out. It's where I'm actually screaming at the camera. And you'll really get a lot of value out of that one. Also, if you're a brand new real estate agent looking for a motivational video to help you build more confidence, I'm going to link a video below for that. Okay, I want to approach this in two different ways. I want to talk to you about how to stand out amongst so many agents. I want to show you a different way to look at that situation. And then I want to show you how to actually stand out. Things you can do that will actually make you sound different than all the other agents or sales people or whatever you are. I want you to sound different to your prospects where they actually feel that you are different and you are the one that they want to do business with. Okay, so let's take real estate, for example, because that's most of you who are watching my channel. All right, let's take Manhattan. Okay, there's 80,000 agents with only 40,000 transactions. All right, now this is round number speaking. I think there's like 44,000. There's probably 80,000 transactions give or take per year.  All right, that's an average of one half of a transaction per agent. Okay, and you think, oh my gosh, there's no way. There's no way. How am I going to stand out? How am I going to even get one deal? The average is a half a deal. All right, so I want you to think about that for a second. I want to reverse your mindset here. I want to turn a 180 with the way you think about these type of situations. To me, this is a glass half empty mentality. All right, because this is the way that I look at it. When I look at the population of Manhattan, I see 8 million. Okay, when I see 8 million people that live in Manhattan and only 80,000 agents, it makes me feel like there's not enough agents in Manhattan. Okay, to service 8 million people. Okay, and so this is the way you got to think about it. When you think of business in terms of relationships, not transactions, okay, when you think of the possibility of the amount of relationships that are available to you, okay, it creates this moment of aha, where you realize that business is 100% unlimited. There's no way you can talk to all 8 million people and see what you can do to help them, go through the process, create those relationships, build that brand. You can never get to every single person in that market ever. So you only got 80,000 agents and let's face it, you know, maybe the top 10% of agents really understand how to sell, okay, and maybe only the top 1% actually understand what I'm talking about with this world of abundance that we live in. Okay, so you got maybe 800 agents in Manhattan who understand that business is unlimited, okay, and now your job is focused around how many people can out of that 8 million, can we reach, can we talk to, can we get to know, can we create a relationship with, can we create a bond, can we make them feel comfortable with us, can we create that trust, can we build our brand with, okay, and so, you know, when I used to roof houses, you know, and builder was building, you know, maybe like 300 houses in a subdivision, well that's going to take us years and years to roof every single house, all right. That's the way I think about this, like this is a job, okay, our job is not to try to create transactions, our job is to help as many people as we can help. Through that, we're going to do so many transactions and we're going to, we're going to, like, we're going to reach our goals and go beyond our goals when we operate like this. So when I look at a market like Manhattan or any market, okay, this is any market, I look at the population or the number of properties in the, in the market, I'm thinking, okay, that's my job is to contact all these people and let them get to know me, me get to know them and see what I could do to help them. I'll never accomplish that entire task ever in my career. I'll never get to the end of that task of contacting every single one of those property owners. There's no way you'll never get to the end. So you have enough work to do for the rest of your life regardless of what the market does forever and it doesn't matter how many agents are in your market. It's not enough to service every single person there. And so if you are one of the very few who view the business like this, okay, and you look at it as a relationship building business, how many relationships can I put in place? How many people can I get to know who I am that know me like me, trust me and will do business with me when it comes time to do business? See, that's what you want.  Okay, there's going to be a small percentage that want to do business now. Sure, let's live off those. But this larger percentage of people that don't want to do deals now but love you enough to do a deal that you're just not ready, they'll contact you when they do and they'll send all their friends and family to you because they know you like, you trust you. You didn't try to pressure them into anything you created a relationship with. That's how you build a big business. Okay, so we conquered the different view, the different point of view of looking at a market in terms of abundance and the glasses have full mentality. All right, I want you to get away from looking at number of transactions, number of agents, number of listings, number of agents. I want you to get into looking at the number of households, the number of the population and realizing that it's a sea. Okay, it's an ocean. You cannot do all the business. Now we're near it. The industry is this large. Okay, it's massive and we're not even a little dot. Okay, Zillow is not even a little dot. Okay, none of these companies are even close to the size of this industry. This is a relationship industry and it's something that just will never be taken away. All right, you know, old school techniques, you know, are you are you going to get left behind with the new technology and digital and video and all the different things coming?  Right? That's what's going to matter. I don't care what era we're in. Okay, I don't care what technology comes our way. People are going to want people who know that they can trust to get the job done and will work the hardest. Now let's move over to how you can actually stand out with what you say, your actions, so on and so forth. So I think a lot of the just basic things that we can do to stand out is by being the hardest worker. Everyone loves a hard worker. Okay, and if you actually are a hard worker, which means you work hard, even when no one's watching, all right, people know. Okay, you can tell people that are working harder. Okay, the hardest workers have the biggest results. Okay, you can just look at the results and say, okay, they're a hard worker. All right, so when you put the results together with the content that they're putting out through their weekly email, through their social medias, wherever you distribute your content, okay, that you're building your brand with, okay, that's on a consistent basis, that's original content, you're building your brand, they can tell based on those two things. Okay, he's not just putting on a front by posting all this stuff on social. He actually produces results. This guy's the real deal. See, that's what we want. So how we can actually come across as different and stand out is by not asking people if they want to buy ourselves, but by asking them if there's anything we can do to help them. Okay, and what that does is it opens, it makes the prospect let their guard down.  But if you're there for their best interest and not your best interest, they let you in, they tell you everything, and now you're actually able to help them because you have information, you have data, you know why they're trying to do what you're trying to do. You know what their motives are. When you know what their motives are and you know why they're trying to do what they're trying to do, then you can actually help them and create a game plan around what they're trying to do and help them do it. So that's how you stand out. It's your approach that you're there to help people, right, genuinely, and you talk to them like they are your friends or family. F-E effect, I call it. Okay, it's when you give the effect that you are an extended part of their family or one of their best friends. That's how you should talk to them and that's what's going to make you stand out.  After that, the name of the game is to talk to as many people as you can, whoever talks to the most people wins and has the most connections and starts to build that brand. Okay, so I hope this video helped you a whole lot. Please click that like button, click subscribe if you haven't already, and if you're not part of an absolutely free real estate coaching program, I'm the first completely free coach. You can sign up in the link below or go to zero to diamond.com, complete the 90 day action plan, and then me and you will get on a one-on-one coaching call and I will promote you to Jim and we'll start moving you up the ladder. So I look forward to that call. I look forward to seeing you in the program. Let me know if there's anything in the world I can do for you. Leave me a comment below. We'll see you guys on the next video. Let's go. Okay, now I got to go.  One, two.


As Christian Faithful around the world look forward to the Christmas celebration, Nigerians across states raise alarm over the high cost of foodstuff and other items for celebrations. Our correspondents across some states report that fares have also skyrocketed as the volume of travellers has drastically reduced the report. The period before Christmas comes with a lot of shopping and travelling. At Fokano resident, the prizes of commodities have soared beyond the reach of many, especially the very less privileged. In this market, traders complain of low sales and less profit, which makes it difficult for them to make their expected returns. No much profit because things is very high. It's on a higher side, so people will be complaining, for you to put the price on a higher side. People are complaining. Last year, since it's very low, we made more gains more than this year. With food prices rising at a geometric progression, many residents have to pay more for less or make do with very little. Yesterday, I bought a basket of tomatoes. It's so high, more than $20,000. You know, in Africa, we take care of not only the nuclear family as well as the extended family. So it's really a burden for especially civil servants to be able to meet up with those units. And the high price of food this year is really, really high. Fares are on the rise due to the scarcity of petrol as government power supply is still epileptic. When travellers making it out of the state say they can only afford road travels irrespective of the insecurity, as air tickets are now at cutthroat prices. I get the high, so now that will make the problem, the higher the price, the lower the quantity. There is no good money, so when they get the money, people must come and buy. The situation is not different in Kaduna state, not west of Nigeria. Majurians have continued to express dismay over the high-cost price of foods and non-food items with traders count low patronage in the market. Gumis central market is one of the busiest markets in the state. People come from far and near to shop but they say the purchasing part this year is low. Some resort to low quality clothes and shoes for their children as they say the cost of chicken and rice have doubled beyond imagination. A lot of things in the market now has gone relatively high because the rush for Christmas is there and coupled with the first scarcity. People that are carrying things from one destination to another, the distance too has made it high. Traders look to be the hardest hit here in Kaduna, like Otis. Because of the fact that the transportation, because there is increase in the price of the transport, like there is a difference for me, so it actually went up. They are still patronizing because you just have to travel and all that, so we have no choice. It's not funny. In those streets, I have to trek half way, so that I feel pain when I feel pain, go which way I need to go. 100 Naira, 200, with Ibeke, 150, 170, we don't even know to the apple. What a new currency, I've been to old currency, we don't know to the apple. Made them wake up, made them make things, they come out for, they come out man.  At the motor park, very few passengers are seen. They lament the high first, just as some motorists frown at the low patronage. This is Jimerta Metropolitan, where some essential food items have become difficult to purchase for people with a low. As you see, these that are coming, they are bringing it from Kano, some are bringing it from Zaria. So it depends on how we bought the back and then it depends on how much we are paying for the motor, for transportation. For the parts of transportation, we are giving it each one motor, 100,000, but now each one motor, 170,000 per motor. The prizes of food items in Adamoa are on the recent flood which wreaked havoc on fan produce. This motorcycle now is 1000, or like normal before you can buy like 500, 600, even onions very cost. Onion. Onion, very small portion of onions, 500, 900 to 7, 8. In Lagos, traders of clothes and accessories are of the opinion that the biting economy is responsible for more window shopping as buyers lament of the high cost of commodities needed for Christmas celebrations. Perhaps the decorations in some areas and the sound of Christmas songs gives hope for a better day ahead.


Almost everyone has taken a tumble at one time or another, but few people take falls seriously. Nearly 7,000 people die each year as a result of falls at home, and each year another 4,600 die as a result of falls on the job or in public places. In the mining industry, slips, trips and falls account for a large number of injuries every year, particularly in our surface mines, where it's especially important for you to protect yourself from slips, trips and falls. Basically there are two kinds of falls, slips and trips on the same level and falls to a different level. Usually people don't fall very far because they avoid extreme heights or use extra caution when working in high places. Still, during a recent three year period, slips and falls from machinery accounted for over 1200 accidents in surface mines. Half of these accidents occurred while mounting and dismounting, the most common type of slips and falls. Even when safe access onto and off of the machine is provided, a person may be tempted to take a shortcut and jump from a height that could cause an injury. In this instance, the miner had second thoughts and dismounted the safe way. Surface mining often involves large machinery located in very rough terrain. There are more tripping hazards here than most people would suspect. Areas around drag lines sometimes have very deep potholes, high banks of dirt and muddy slippery walking surfaces that should be avoided whenever possible. Whenever you're in pits and drag line areas, it's extremely important to keep alert to these hazardous conditions. Ground conditions in mill or plant areas are also places where workers should use more attention and caution. These areas have algae growths or are slippery with mud, oil, grease or other chemical leakage. Clay in a mining operation is slick and slippery. Additional precautions should always be taken when handling or working around mining clays. Whether it's earth, concrete or metal, care must be taken when working or walking on all surfaces where mud and product materials may collect. You should continually check your boots for any material that could cause a slip or fall. Miners who are injured or killed in slips, trips and falls never plan to get hurt. The people at this operation have a very proactive safety program so workers can plan how not to get hurt. Slips and falls can be serious and safety training is the best way to prevent them. Mounting and dismounting machinery is where the majority of slips, trips and falls in the mining industry occur. Always follow the basic safety procedures to avoid injury getting on and off your machine. First, use the handholds provided and make sure you have a firm, secure grip and don't get into a hurry. Good ladder ways are usually provided on front-end loaders but they must be used correctly for your safety. You may not see the grease, mud or early morning dew that can cause a slip on a ladder step. To prevent a slip, never jump down. Face the handrails and remember the three-points contact rule. Keep two hands and one foot or one hand in both feet in contact with a ladder at all times. When ladders must be used to reach high places, carefully check the stability of the ladder and make sure it's positioned properly on a firm and level surface. You need both hands for climbing. Use a tool pouch secured to your belt or strapped over your shoulder. On some jobs you may have to hoist tools and other equipment with a rope or chain hoist. While on foot, observe the ground for hazards such as spilled loose material, grease, oil, water and algae on concrete or steel walkways. Good housekeeping plays a major role in eliminating slip, trip and fall hazards. When you see a hazard, take care of the problem yourself if possible or tell your supervisor. Don't just step over or ignore the hazard. Be alert for openings in walkways. Make sure before you step that you have something to step on. Report any hazards you see to your supervisor to prevent what could be a dangerous accident. Dredges, work boats and boats used to transport workers to the dredge are also potential sites for slips and falls. Dredges can have slippery surfaces. Diesel dredges may have oil and fuel spilled on the deck. When mixed with water, this can be disastrous to workers who must walk over such hazardous surfaces. Electrically powered dredges have areas where winches or other moving parts need to be lubricated. These areas must be kept clean of spilled materials. Tools, cables, spare parts and other objects left lying about on the deck can become dangerous. Housekeeping, putting things in place and general safety precautions are needed when walking around on the dredge. Any tripping or slipping hazards found on the dredge should be removed or corrected immediately. There's no time like the present, like now, to follow good housekeeping practices. A dropped tool can cause injuries as well as falls from high places. Wipe grease from tools frequently. Use tool belts or pouches, buckets or some other means to prevent dropping them. Mining areas and processing plants are generally considered highly hazardous areas. But offices and other inside working places have a potential for slips, trips and falls. Wipe your shoes clean when entering offices and control rooms from the outside. Mud, clay, grease and oil brought inside could be dangerous. That first cup of coffee in the morning could become a slip hazard. You can prevent an accident by wiping up spills as soon as they happen. Open desk and file drawers, extension cords, open boxes or cartons. Loose carpeting or something as small as a pencil or pen on the floor could cause a serious fall. Such potential hazards must be corrected or eliminated for your own safety and the safety of go-workers. A blind or unmarked corner could also result in an injury. This can often be corrected by simply posting caution signs or markings. Store rooms also have a potential for slips, trips and falls. So you need to think safety and perform your work in a safe manner. Most slips, trips and falls can be foreseen and prevented by following safe working procedures, observing hazardous walking conditions and exercising good housekeeping practices. So take the extra time to walk and climb safely. Don't take shortcuts. The real key to safety is thinking whether you're on the job or not.  Remember, thinking safety conscious employees work more efficiently and make smarter decisions. And they live longer.


This is my solar-powered lumber mill. I seriously used to have dreams about this. Ever since I saw the first lumber mill at someone's house, it was a gas-powered one. But still, just the idea of being able to go into nature and get a log for yourself and cut it.  I've got six solar panels up in the roof here. And four of them connect directly to the motor to turn the motor on. And then the other two charge these four batteries here. Now these four batteries here, I'm not sure how long they could run the lumber mill. However, they're constantly being charged. So between every cut, the batteries recharge. And if I have a reasonably sunny day, the batteries are always charged and all they end up doing is making sure that I can get through one full cut without slowing down. Even if it gets cloudy. I gotta say it's so cool to be able to do something like this and have zero cost. Obviously there'll be some kind of maintenance cost at some point, but the fuel is the sun. All right, so whenever I wanna set up a cut here, I can see where the previous cuts are on the boards below. So if I've got a flat edge on a board, I can just line it up right there and I don't have to cut that part. And then over here, I've got a bunch of numbers. And I happen to be using imperial noodle units, otherwise known as inches at the moment. And I'm cutting two inch boards. So let's set it to two, tighten my little clamp here. And when I first made this lumber mill, I put this clamp here thinking, well, I'll make some kind of integrated clamp system later. But I mean, this is so easy to use, loosen it like that. Retighten it like that. I haven't felt like I need to change it at all. Now, I should go over a few other things this saw can do. Right now the blade is set to cut vertical, but if I grab this, lift it up. Now the blade can cut horizontal. So if I have a big log that I wanna put down here, I can make a vertical cut, come back to a horizontal cut, and I can cut dimensional lumber without having to move the log. The motor here is an old golf cart motor. It's actually a really good motor. I think it's at 24 volts, which is what I'm running it on. It's about a horsepower and a half and it runs directly to the blade, no gearing or anything. And this blade, I think it was like $20 or something like that. It's a 12-inch diameter blade. And originally it had 40 teeth, I think, but I cut off three teeth, left one, cut off three teeth, left one, so now it only has 10 teeth on it, which means it cuts much faster. Not quite as smooth, but the cut is still plenty smooth. So down here, I've got my left and right and I just lock it in place with that clamp. And over here is the up and down.  And it gets locked in place with a string attached to a carabiner and I just clip it on whichever spoke I need. And I've got a little mark here for just at the bottom of the boards and since the boards are a little wobbly sometimes, I cut a little bit deeper so I let it go a little bit further down and that guarantees I cut right through. So that gives me this direction and that gives me up and down. And to come this way, we've got a really simple rail system, which is just two pipes laying on the ground. This one's getting mostly buried by dust, but it's in there. And as long as these two pipes are parallel, the wheels will roll on it. If you look down here, you can see the wheels at the bottom. So each one of these posts has a wheel at the bottom to roll on this cart, to roll on this track. And I built this very cheap. The motor there is an old golf cart motor. I got really cheap from someone who was just getting rid of it. A lot of this stuff came from the junkyard. This wheel, motorbike wheel, is a little bent and it was free. And most of this frame, this part, like this whole part here and on the other side, that whole part is from the mast of a ship. And the ship actually came with two masts and this is the smaller one. The bigger one is holding up the third floor of my house. And then this stuff is just stuff that I got from various places. It might have cost me, I don't know, a couple hundred dollars to build this total. The batteries I got for free recently. The most expensive thing was the solar panels because I did buy those new about 10 years ago.  You know, I can't tell you how cool it is to be able to do something like this at no cost. Things always ready to go, it's always charged. This morning when I started cutting, I just came up, put the board there, turned the switch on, started cutting. And these boards came from the jungle. And although I can cut vertical and horizontal cuts with this saw, so I could bring giant logs here and just do all the cutting right here. They're really heavy. So what I've been doing is going into the jungle with a chainsaw, I say I find a log that's like this. I'll cut that into slabs. Now first I was just cutting into slabs the full thickness, but the wood always ends up splitting down the middle. So I ended up just doing a cut right down the middle, taking the two halves and then cutting those into slabs. And I'll get boards maybe around that wide and then put them here, cut them to exact widths. So these were joists in my second floor.  All right, let's do some cutting. Wobbly, it's a little cloudy, but already the batteries are charging up by the time I get the saw going again the batteries will be full. I can just do this all day at no cost. So cool.  This high-tech item I have is the rock here which stops the whole thing from rolling. Man, the difference between this and a table saw, there is just no comparison. Not to mention the view from up here. Ah, look at that.