Hello. Hi. Welcome to another live session. My name is Linda from ITTT. And as you can see today, we're going to talk about China's ban on private ESL tutoring, everything you need to know, what we know so far. There's still a lot of ambiguity, but I've done a lot of research. I talked to a lot of people. So hopefully I'll be able to tell you something you might not know yet and give a little bit of clarity into this topic. But disclaimer, things change all the time. And there's still, like I said, a lot of ambiguity around this whole topic. A lot of even experts aren't sure yet how everything is going to be implemented, how it's going to look like in the future. So just want to say that upfront and ITTT, this is also not something that we have control over or we are particularly like involved with or have, you know, any sort of you know what I'm saying. So this is all based on my own research and what other people from China who are in the ESL industry have told me about this. So I just want to say that upfront. Thanks so much for tuning in. Oh, somebody says Facebook sound is not working. Can you hear me? Is everything all right? Is the sound working on your end? Can you hear me? Can you see me clearly? I hope you can. Let me know if you can't and then maybe I'm going to try and figure it out, but we'll just go with it right now. Cool. So before we jump in, do let me know where are you guys right now? Where are you watching from? I would really love to know. And I am in South Korea. I'm about an hour and a half south of Seoul. It is 1030 a.m. Friday morning. I'm super excited to be here today again and super excited to talk about this topic, even though it is a little bit, you know, ambiguous and wishy washy at the moment. Even though it's been a couple of months since this has been out, it's not super fresh, fresh, but I wanted to wait and see, you know, this band was introduced in the summer and it's October now. So it's been a couple of weeks and months since then. And we have seen a little bit of the developments. That's why I wanted to wait until I talk about it, but do let me know. Guys, where are you? Hi, we have Byron from Ecuador. Hi there. Then Gwen is back. It's been a while, Gwen. Yeah. So glad to see you again. Juliana is here as well. Hey there. Great. Okay. Adam, everything is clear now. I'm glad. Good. We have someone from India and also Zaka from India. We have Carlos from Punta del Este in Uruguay. Awesome. And EG from Dubai. Cool. Very nice. A pretty international group here everywhere around the world. That's awesome. Thank you so much for tuning in. Also Ara from Mexico. Awesome. Cool. Very nice. So I guess you're all here because you're super curious about what's happening in China. Gwen is tuning in in Malaysia. Great. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah. And as always, I like to say, please don't forget to like and subscribe. 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We have a link that you can also use which looks like this. It ends in Facebook live minus Linda. Looks like this. You should see it in the comment box now. You can click on that. And then if you apply through this link, you get 30% off any TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT. Also, if you're listening to this as a podcast episode, this link will be in the description, in the podcast episode description. We do have a podcast. As I always say, we turn our live episodes or live sessions into podcast episodes like that. So if that's something that you're interested in, you can check out our podcast. It's called the TEFL and TESOL podcast by ITTT. It's on all major podcast platforms, iTunes, Google podcasts, Spotify, you name it. We're on there. You can check that out. Good. So that's the intro spiel I think. That's about it. And you already told me where you are. So we got that down. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We got that. Good. Okay. Perfect. Then I think we're ready to jump in. There will be a Q&A section at the end as always if you've watched before, you know how it works, but also at any time during this live session, feel free to add your comments. You know, if you are maybe teaching in China, you taught English in China, you are in China right now, or you know anything else that you want to add, add it and also just ask away at any time, feel free. And then at the end, during the Q&A, you can ask any other questions that you might have that maybe don't fit with today's topic. That's usually how I do it and it works. And I always say, don't be shy.  I like to have a conversation. I like to engage with my viewers. I don't want it to be just me talking. I want to have a conversation with you guys. All right. Okay. Cool. Then let's jump right in. I always make myself a little bit smaller. I'm still here. I hope you can still see me so that you can see the slides. I have a lot of information prepared come in your way today. As I said in the beginning, disclaimer, we are not in any way affiliated with this ban. We are just reporting on this ban. It's information I found from speaking with ESL recruiters, people who are in China, teachers in China, but also from a lot of news articles reporting on this issue. Okay. So things change all the time. And like I said, there's still so much ambiguity around this whole topic. So we might not have all the answers that you're looking for. I also have a lot of more questions about this that I don't have answers for and we were not provided any answers yet. So today what I'm going to tell you is just everything that we know so far about the situation. Okay. All right. So let's start. And I just want to introduce myself real quick before we jump in. I think we have a lot of new people here watching today. So my name is Linda. I'm a traveler writer and content creator under the name Linda goes east. You can also find me at Linda goes east.com and on Instagram at Linda goes east. I love sharing a lot of my photos on Instagram. So if you're interested in that, I'm from Germany and America, but I am based in South Korea for the past. I've been based there for the past six and a half years. And before that I also lived in China actually. And I also taught English in China. I lived in China for I lived in China first in 2012. And then I went back again 2014. And I taught there, but a lot has changed since then as well. And also obviously this new band, it's all fresh. So just keep that in mind. And then also I am a TEFL and TSOL marketing professional for ITTT, which stands for international TEFL and TSOL training. And you can find ITTT at TEFL course.net and on Instagram at international TEFL training. And we are a leading TEFL and TSOL course provider worldwide. And I know that many of you watching are already at TEFL ITTT TEFL certified or TSOL certified or from a different provider. So that's awesome. That's your first step towards teaching English abroad. So good. And so why is this band interesting? Because China used to be the biggest ESL market there is, right? China is so big. Their English education industry is very, very big as well. We're going to talk about it in just a minute. But that's why this is such an important thing for us in the ESL industry. Because now things are looking very different. Things changed literally like overnight from one day to another. A lot of especially online teachers have lost jobs from one day to another. I've read many articles from people, especially people in North America teaching, they were teaching English to Chinese students. And from one day to another, it just stopped. So a huge part of their income just ceased from one day to another. So it was a huge shock for many people. Many people have lost an important income avenue. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. But first, let's see what's the fuss all about. So what is this ban exactly? It's just always referred to as the China ESL ban or the foreign teacher ban, the online teaching ban. But what does it actually say? What does it actually what's what's it actually called? And who does it actually affect, right? So that's what we're going to talk about first. So let's see. The policy is officially called opinions on further reducing the burden of homework and extracurricular training for students. This is the translated name of this policy that was introduced by the Chinese government in late July of this year. And it affects students from grades one through nine, advanced tutoring on core subjects, such as Chinese, English and math, late at night on weekends and during school breaks. And it also prohibits hiring foreign foreigners based outside the country. So those are the most important things about this policy, right? So as you can see, it does not only include English, it also includes other subjects. So this does not only affect foreign ESL teachers, but it also affects a lot of local Chinese teachers who work in after school institutes or schools, programs, things like that. So they are also facing a lot of problems. I've read articles where now all of these teachers who used to work at these private institutes after school institutes are now looking for jobs in public schools. And there is this one position for, can't remember, it was math or what subject it was, it was not English, but it was like math or science or something. And they have applicants, they all hold PhD degrees. And they cannot find a job. So it's a very bad situation, not only for English teachers, but for a lot of other teachers in China as well, local teachers as well, because of this. So this is what it looks like. This is what it's called officially. And let's see how this will affect ESL online teaching, because that's what we have heard the most of first. So first, what you need to know about China's ESL market, what I already mentioned in the beginning, it's huge. So there are 400 million people learning English in China today, booming. And also the ESL industry in China is worth $120 billion. It's a huge industry. And it also gets a lot of foreign investment coming from companies or investors from all over the world. And this also has an effect and is connected to this ban. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. But yeah, so it's a ban on private ESL tutoring, but also other subjects as I mentioned. But basically companies that profit from teaching school curriculum subjects, including English, and private tutoring companies will be unable to hire foreign teachers from overseas. So that's how it is affecting at the moment. Now let's have a look at why is China limiting private tutoring? What is their argument for doing that? There's two, maybe a third one, but these are the two main reasons why China, the Chinese government, has implemented these, this ban and this new policy. So one is safeguarding for children's mental health. If you have any experience with China teaching Chinese students or, this is actually not only China, but also it happens in Korea a lot as well and in Japan. But Chinese culture and education are incredibly competitive. When I was there, I mean I taught young children and many of them were going to school and private schools from a very young age and then they would go to all of these after school programs. They would do English camps and English class. They would have a tutor. They would also learn how to play the violin and the piano and all of those things. So it's very competitive because everyone wants to make sure that their child has the best opportunities of getting into the best university and then the best job at the best company and so on. So this is why it's so competitive for these young students and the government says with a severe reduction in ESL lessons or in after school lessons, children have more opportunities to relax and behave like children. So they want to let their children be children and reduce their stress on their young children in China. And on the other side it's also an incentive to help families. It's a huge financial burden to pay for all of these extracurricular lessons and the private tutors. It costs a lot of money and also this tuition, the tuition along with the high cost of living in big cities where everybody wants to live. Everybody wants to live in the big city. People are moving away from the countryside to live in the big cities because there you have access to good education. But the cost of living is so much higher. So it's a huge financial burden. And so a lot of families are reluctant to have more children. And there's actually a lot of people now in China that don't want any children because they're so expensive. And this is not only obviously China, it's a huge global phenomenon. But this is why they're also introducing this. And so they think that in restricting private tuition, they will also fight a declining birth rate. And China is struggling with this a lot at the moment, a declining birth rate. So this is what the government has said as an argument why they introduced this ban. And it's good that they care about the kids mental health and that they're trying to limit this. But obviously it's not so great for all the teachers who work in this industry. So that's what's happening at the moment. Yeah. And Juliana says, yes, actually, children do not have any free time. Yes. Yeah, it's very sad, especially when I was there, like I said, when I taught at this private, I taught at a private English language institute in China. And yeah, all of those kids, they would come to this institute and then they would already have like their ballet bag where they would go after this English class and then they would go to piano class and then it would go home and they would have all this homework they would do until after midnight. And they're only six years old. So it's, it's very crazy and very competitive and definitely so this is a good thing, right? Then we also have Liturk here who says, Hi Linda, this is an interesting topic. Thank you for sharing this to us. So many ESL tutors are affected. Yes. Absolutely. And if anyone here watching is affected, do let me know. And maybe you can also share how this affected you and how you've been dealing with it. That would be very interesting as well. Good. So then let's move on. Let's see what is up next. Yeah. So this is what we're going to talk about now. How will this affect online ESL tutors or how has this already affected online tutors? And there's three ways how fives ways actually three. And then we're going to talk about two more, how this already affected tutors or how this will affect tutors. So as I mentioned, oh, no, I didn't mention that yet. So there's also a curfew on online classes. So the Chinese government already has a nine PM curfew now on online classes. So nine PM China time. And depending on where you teach online, a lot of North American teachers, they teach these children in the evenings, often until late at night. And this is one of the most busy times for teaching. And this will be completely cut. So no more classes after nine PM, they are all falling away. So this is a huge problem for a lot of teachers. Then also with this comes the salary and the effect on even more of the schedule. So not only after nine PM, but also how it affected the schedule and salary of ESL teachers. So many teachers have already lost students because of this. And it is also expected that online classes will be unavailable during weekends, holidays and school breaks. So and especially on weekends. And sometimes China has like two week long holidays, which used to be very, very busy times and great times for ESL tutors. This is all going to fall away now. Then also the age group of students. So we talked about that this ban involves children students from first to ninth grade. All of these restrictions. But online teaching for preschool children has been banned completely. So no more teaching students younger than first grade at all. So that's also something, a big thing to keep in mind. And then we also have the type of contract. So a lot of teachers are obviously employed as employees with official employee contracts. But now many ESL, Chinese ESL companies, they have to switch their teachers working for them as independent contractors. And with that obviously comes a lot less job security, a lot less of the bonuses that you would normally get. So it's not a good situation. And then also for the companies, if a company is offering private tutoring, it will now have to register as a nonprofit organization. And so this will obviously reduce the costs of the classes, but also have an effect on the business models of many of these ESL companies. And this means that even if foreign teachers are able to teach the salaries will be affected a lot. So those are the five biggest things how this will affect or has affected online ESL tutors already. So a lot of changes here, a lot of stuff happening. It's yeah, and just from one day to another, it's just crazy to think. Now let's talk a little bit about the affected Chinese companies. And as you can see, lots of ambiguity. So still even months after, there's still lots of ambiguity. And some companies are looking for loopholes. And so I read that it may be possible that some companies are also exempt from the new Chinese regulations, especially if they aren't teaching curriculum based subjects. So what I read a lot that if they are only teaching, for example, speaking, then this would not be fall under the new policy. But a lot of these have textbooks and full like English lessons with grammar and all those things. So this would be affected. And here are three companies that have already been affected hard. Go Go Kit is one of them, and they have completely halted and suspended teaching Chinese students from August 5th. So they're not doing anything anymore. Also Zebra English here. They have completely halted their recruitment and they will not continue developing their business due to the recent policies. They will also not do anything anymore. And then we also have Palfish, which is a big one. And they have had to cut teacher pay. And they also reduced their staff. So very bad for a lot of these companies. But there are three positive examples of companies that are inspiring hope in this situation. And that is data ABC, that is VIP kid, and also magic ears. So what they're doing is therefore in teachers will be able to deliver lessons to Chinese students who have already paid for the lessons. So that seems to be okay. Okay, if they already paid for the lessons, then they are able to teach until they expire. And that's why many parents, they actually already pay for lesson packages months in advance. And in some cases, even a year, I read in one article that one parent, one mom, she after she heard about the ban and everything she actually paid for 500 lessons up front. So that her daughter would be able to take those lessons, even after this ban. And that was like $12,000 worth of lessons. And that's one year's worth of her salary from her town. So it's incredible. Well, how also the parents are worried and suffer and really try to do everything to ensure that their kids can continue their lessons. It's really crazy. So this way, the students will still have the opportunity to finish their paid lessons. And teachers will also be able to deliver these lessons for the time being. So this is kind of this ambiguity, this gray zone that we're in at the moment. And who knows how long this will go, because I imagine 500 lessons, that's going to be maybe another year or two until they run out. I'm not sure if that that will be granted, that will be okay. I've also read that a lot of parents are now, oh, because one school actually shut down, it was a private institute in some, I can't remember which city, but they completely stopped due to the span. And a lot of parents are actually now suing these companies, these schools, these institutes, because they already prepaid for their lessons, but the schools already shut down. So that's a big problem now, a lot of lawsuits going on between parents who already paid for lessons, but the schools shut down. So it's a bit of a mess in many different areas. Then yeah, we also have VIP kid here, who's a big, big online platform, and they are actually exploring a lot of different business avenues, which they say could minimize the impact caused by the new Chinese regulations, and they are expanding their international market outside of China and are recruiting new teachers. Because remember, this only affects teaching Chinese students, right? So if a platform has Chinese students, but they also have Korean students, Japanese students, French students, whoever, they are not affected, right? It's only Chinese children, right? Children, that's also important for later. But so there is hope, it's not all lost for sure, right? But as you can see, it's a very complicated situation, and even some of the schools, they don't really know what's going on. So they're trying to find ways to continue to develop in different avenues. It's a very interesting time at the moment, for sure. Has anyone worked for Dada, ABC, VIP kid, or Magic Ears? I would be curious. Or also, these three, so Gogo Kid, Palfish, Zebra English, has anyone watching worked for any of those before, or is working for them, and how is the situation? I'm very curious. I am also teaching online, but I teach on a non Chinese platform. So I haven't really felt anything. And I teach mostly adults, so it doesn't really affect that anyway. But yeah, it affects a lot of people, for sure. I read an article about this one girl, she's a digital nomad, and she worked for, I can't remember which platform it was, but a Chinese platform. And she was in Peru at the time, you know, and working, she works, that's her job, working online for this platform, while traveling the world. And from one day to another, while she was in Peru at the time, she just got a message that, yeah, this is this is all over now, you can't teach anymore, we're shutting down basically. So she lost all of that from one day to another, this lifestyle that she created. And this is actually something I talked about a few weeks ago in one other live session about how you can become a digital nomad, teaching English online. So she did that she was living a dream, but from one day to another, it just all fell apart. So as you can see, my tip is don't only work for one platform, you want to have a plethora, we're different, a group of platforms that you work for, right? Not just one, so that could end up very badly. I'm also going to share some tips what teachers can do now to kind of get away from this to not get affected. But yeah, let's continue here. Oh, yeah, that's coming up right now. Okay, so advice for online teachers. So what can online teachers do now? What can you do if you are affected? Or if you're worried that this will affect you in the future, what can you do now? So, and I shared this before. So some of you might already have this, but I wanted to share this again. I have this list of 20 non-Chinese online teaching companies that you can work for that are not affected in this mess at all. And I'm going to share the link with you. Okay, I know that some of you have already have this, but maybe some of you might not have it yet, or maybe forgot about it. So you just click here, it's a Google Doc, you click on that. And then you'll be, you can see the document. And I'm just going to share my screen so I can show you better. But yeah, okay. Okay, yeah, so this is what it looks like. And I see a lot of you have clicked on it now. I see you there. So what I want you to do is click over here on file and click on make a copy. And then you make a copy for yourself and you can edit that your own copy. Okay, so do that file, make a copy. If that doesn't work for you, let me know. But as you can see, these are all companies that are not Chinese. So they're not affected by this ban at all. And you see like information like the hourly rate here. If there, you know, some of the requirements, if the lessons are provided, or do you need to plan the lessons yourself? What about the students age? Are there any minimum hours you need to teach? Do they require a TEFL certificate or not? Do they accept non native speakers? Do you need to have previous experience? Are there any additional requirements? And here is the application link so you can just click on that and it will lead you straight through to that website. So there's a lot of options. Yeah. And here when it says where they're here where there's a star behind it, it's a online marketplace. So it's not a platform, but it's a marketplace where you just set up your profile and the lessons you offer. And you can set your own rates. Yeah. And this is as of August 2021, right after the ban came into place. So these are 20 platforms you can choose from that are non Chinese and are not affected by this ban. Okay. So again, you can go over here to file and make a copy here. And then you can save it in your own drive and you can edit it can make notes, etc. Okay. All right. Okay, then I'm going to go back to my PowerPoint. So this is one thing that you can do. You can work for a different company. Just switch the company. You're not married to a Chinese ESL company. You can just switch. So and like I said, I recommend not only working for one. If this is your sole income, don't only work for one company, maybe two or three or four or however many you can manage. Right. Another thing you can do is you can just switch over to teaching adults. As I mentioned, this ban only affects teaching children from first to ninth grade. Right. So there's a lot of platforms that target or only have adult students and they are not affected. And those are, for example, I tutor group, italki, Cambly and cafe talk cafe talk is where I teach on it's mostly adults. And it's a Japanese platform, but they also have a lot of Korean students and Chinese students. So kind of East Asia, but mainly Japanese, but it's a lot of fun on there. And yeah, this does not affect is not affected by the new regulations. And also what what a plus here is that adult students are very driven. They are very motivated compared to children. And they most of the time also have a basic knowledge of English. So it might actually be a little bit easier to teach adults compared to children. Just one idea. I wanted to mention here. What else do we have? Yes, you can move on to independent teaching. So you can set up your own website or your own teaching profile. You can set your own prices. You don't have to give up any fees to the platform. Most of these platforms, they take a cut from your pay. So that won't affect you. You can also teach your own lessons. You can teach whatever you want, whatever kind of class you want, you can completely design your own stuff, which is really great. And you have an act, you have access to an international market, not only Chinese students, you can teach English to anyone. However, if you teach independently, it needs some advertising efforts. So you need to kind of market yourself, maybe on social media. And I actually gave some tips in the previous life about that, how you can do that. So go check that out in our playlist. And there also are some set up costs involved, like setting up your website that usually costs a little bit of money or setting up your teaching space with props and things like that. But if you already taught for a platform, then maybe you already have some of these props and some of the setup. So you can just use that as well. Then I think we have, yes, this is also what I wanted to mention. So all of this before was about teaching online. So I get the question, I asked myself too, so what about teachers working in China? We only talked about this ban from the point of view of ESL teachers, like working outside of China, but teaching Chinese students through these platforms. But what about working in China? Is this still an option or not? How does this ban affect teachers coming to China? Because it used to be the ESL wonderland. There would be so many vacant positions, more than teachers to fill. So how does this ban affect this situation? Couldn't find too much information on that, but also enough to kind of give you the gist of it. So there's a lot of new things that foreign teachers working in China have to go through. And I also believe that now it's going to be more public schools where foreign teachers are going to be working at or international schools. Not so much your typical private institute anymore, where you work maybe where I worked. It was like you worked Wednesday to Sunday and you had Monday to stay off now with this new ban where you can't teach these things on the weekend. This might also change a lot. So I think we're going to see a lot more public school positions or just a whole restructuring of these private institutions. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about this now. So these private institutes are now required to offer training workshops to their foreign teachers about domestic Chinese laws and ethics. So this is, for example, and also the teaching activities during class and the course content must be in line with China's educational principles and should not undermine the country's sovereignty, security, honor, reputation, and public interest. That's what it says officially. So if you want to work in China now as a teacher, you need to go through this workshop provided by your school that basically teaches you how you should teach in line with China's, yeah, China's policies and things like that. So it's going to be very different. And also all of these international schools, institutes, they now have to, there's a lot more stricter control on their course books and teaching materials. So there will not be allowed anymore to use any foreign textbooks. They need to use textbooks that are in line with what the Chinese government says. So this is also a big change on that front. Then there will also be a lot more consequences for legal and disciplinary violations for teachers. So the repunishment or removal of expat teachers from their jobs if they committed crimes or were found to have used drugs, mistreated students or undertaken religious education among other violations. So there's going to be a lot more stricter regulations on, yeah, all their foreign teachers in China, a lot more strict. And also here a lot more surveillance. So the new guidelines, they also require the establishment of a national information platform where education institutions would be able to or they need to register and report and search for information about foreign teachers. So I think we're going to see that a lot more of every foreign teacher is going to be in this database and, yeah, information is going to be collected about them in this database basically. There is more. It's not the end of it yet. There will also be, they were talking about establishing a credit system where law abiding employees will be rewarded with convenient entry and exit procedures, for example, while penalizing those who break the law. So, yeah, if you're a good expat, you get points.  Very interesting, right? There's also more requirements that all foreign teachers, they must have no criminal record, infectious diseases or history of mental illness, sexual harassment and drug use, which this is common in a lot of other countries already, especially South Korea. You need to do drug tests here. You need to provide a clean background check. So this is very similar. Nothing really new. And I think this is also good. Then this was like this before already, all foreign teachers, they need to have at least a bachelor's degree, a minimum of two years of teaching experience and relevant language teaching qualifications. So a TEFL certificate or a TESOL certificate. And then this is that what I already talked about that education institutions, they need to provide at least 20 training sessions for foreign staff on Chinese laws and teaching ethics before they take up employment. But there are no details yet about these training sessions if they're provided by the government or also how long they are. It just says 20 training sessions, but nobody really knows about this yet more in detail. But this is what it looks like for foreigners working in China. So there's going to be a lot more, a lot more requirements, a lot more surveillance, a lot more heavy punishments, heavier punishments, if you break the law or work illegally. And this is a big difference from when I was there, when I was working in China in 2012, 2014, it was a lot more loose. There weren't that many laws regarding this. And a lot of people were working illegally. A lot of people were just working on tourist visas. A lot of people did not have a TEFL certificate, they were faking TEFLs, or so that those people who actually worked illegally at a school, they would sometimes there would be checks, but usually the schools then would bribe those officials who checked the school or I think sometimes even the officials would let them know in advance they were coming so that they could send the foreign teachers home and things like that. So the Chinese government is really trying to kind of put a stop to all of that, because this industry is becoming so big now, or has become so big now that they just don't want it, they just want it to work properly and not have any illegal things going on. So that's one side. So yeah, and yes, this is the end. This is what I wanted to share with you today. And also I wanted to ask a question. So regarding, let me just go back to just this. Regarding all of this, now you've listened to this, to these things that are happening. Do you think teaching in China is still a good option after this ban or teaching for Chinese ESL companies, and also teaching in China in person? Do you think now after listening to all of this, do you think teaching in China is still a good option? I really, I'm really curious about your opinions and what you think. If you were interested in teaching in China before, but now after hearing all of this, do you think it's still a good option to go and teach in China? Hey, Brett. Ciao. Brett says, there is a lot to think about. Yes, there is a lot to think about. I feel the same way. There's a lot to think about. Gwen says, thank you so much. This was incredibly informative. Oh, I'm glad. So do you think teaching in China is still a good option or not? Morgan says, I think not really. Juliana says, I always do not think that this is a good option. Yeah. Brett says, still interested though. Yes. I mean, China, I think is still going to be a big ESL market after everything, but you definitely need to compromise if you really want to go there. Are you open to dealing with these new things? And if you're open, if you're okay with compromising and dealing with all of those new things, you're probably going to be okay. You're going to have a great time, but if you're not on board with these additional things now, then probably China is not for you anymore. Right. Gwen says, I missed part of your life due to my Wi-Fi. Did you happen to cover how this impacts language schools? Yeah. Yes. So probably these language schools, what I was saying is that those language schools that were for-profit organizations, they now need to register as non-profit under this new ban. And that means the salaries for teachers will be significantly lower than what they are now. And probably the working hours will be very different and they need to provide all of these additional trainings now for foreign teachers. So maybe that will also deter a lot of institutions from hiring foreigners. But again, having a foreign teacher in your school is very important for a lot of these English institutions because that's what Chinese parents want. They want their children to be taught by native speakers or English foreigners basically. So it's very hard to say because it's still so fresh even though it's been a couple of months now, but I think we can really not predict this, how it's going to turn out. And I might do another follow-up life session about this topic in a couple of months from now, if there are any new developments. Because also about this ban and these many new regulations, what I was reading that in August, I think they were announcing all of this with the training, the credit system, and all those new things. And they were asking for the opinion of the public what they were thinking before they actually put this into reality. So I don't know where they are in the process. If this has already been implemented, but that's what they want. And I'm pretty sure that if that's what they want, they will probably implement these things. Exactly. Manuel says, yes, if you want to follow the rules, exactly. So I think, you know, there's, I've read so many articles of teachers who lived in China. There was this one girl, I think she'd been in China for 10 years. She taught at the school. But now after this ban, she, and also because of COVID, she just left, went back home, but she was devastated because she loved living there. But now it's just not, she doesn't want to stay. She's going back home because of this new policy. It's really sad. Yep. Juliana says, I'd love to teach in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Yeah. So those are also places, let me just go over to the Q&A now. Those are all places, you know, that are still very stable. Even though I'm very curious to see because South Korea, I know because I live here is also very similar in terms of the competitiveness for children here. So I'm, a lot of people were speculating that maybe Korea will follow suit with similar things that China is doing, but I personally don't see it yet. I don't think that that's going to happen in my opinion, but nobody expected that that was going to happen in China either.  And I think we just need to observe, keep watching the situation, and then go from there. Carlos says, I'm not interested in teaching in China, but for those interested, I think it is still a good opportunity. Why not? Yeah, I agree. Especially, you know, this is always what I say. People are sometimes too worried about going abroad to teach. But I mean, if you don't like it, you can always leave and come back home, right? So you can try it out. And if it's for you, it's great. And if it's not, you can just go back home or you can go somewhere else. Like you don't need to stay in this place, right? So, and one year, if you sign a contract for one year, that goes by really fast one year. So Gwen says, I predict once Chinese families settle in with a new way of getting English classes, the industry will be back to booming in no time. I would keep an eye on it for a couple of months more at least. Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm thinking. But I've also read a lot of articles about now, because this ban, there is a huge ESL black market. Because the thing is this, with all of these Chinese platforms, they connect the teacher with the student. But the, for example, the student and the student's family, they only know those teachers by the first name. So for example, teacher Linda, in my case, teacher Linda, they don't know any other information, they can't contact this teacher directly. And now, because most of these teachers maybe don't work for this platform anymore, they really want to get in touch with the teacher and just do the keep continuing with their English classes, like via Zoom or Skype, but they cannot get in touch with that student, with the teacher. Maybe because they don't, they only know the first name, but also because you need to think about this, there's no Facebook, there's no Twitter, there's no YouTube in China. And what else? There's no Google in China. All of this is blocked because of the Great Firewall. And so they're really isolated, and there's no way even for getting in touch with those teachers in America. That's a big problem. So those parents are so eager, because one teacher, she was saying this happened from one day to another, and she had no opportunity to say goodbye to her students. And she had a great relationship with her students. And she was really sad because she couldn't even say goodbye to her students. And for those kids, a lot of those kids, they really enjoy learning English with their teachers in North America or wherever. And they want to continue doing that. But because of all of these things, they can't even get in touch with each other. So a lot of these articles were saying they interviewed these teachers and they were saying, oh, if for any, you know, if you can read this teacher so and so is out there waiting for you. So please get in touch, but they can't even do that. It's it's kind of crazy. That's why China is so interesting. And that's why I also was so interested in China, because it's very it's a very different country and system and everything, because they have all their own things, right? They don't use Facebook, Instagram, all those things, they have their own Facebook, and it's just Chinese people. And then also WeChat is like the WhatsApp for China. So they were doing like WeChat classes. Oh, and also, if even if they had these black market ESL English lessons, there's even no way for the parents to pay the teacher because PayPal, Venmo, all of those things don't exist in China. You can't have a Venmo account in China. So it's it doesn't even you couldn't even pay your teacher, because everything goes through Chinese systems. So it's very, very difficult. And also at the same time for foreigners to register like for WeChat, it's also very difficult, especially if you're not in China, I don't think you can even register, I'm not sure, but also WeChat pay. So it's just really like the great firewall is also making a stop to all of this and blocking that. So it's a big problem. Here we have Imi who says Hi, so for non native speakers, isn't is it possible anymore? What about Japan in this case? Yeah, I mean, I think for non native speakers, it is still possible. But I just think for China, we should probably wait and see what happens in the next few months to be sure. Japan, yes, is great for non native speakers, especially the Jet program, which also accepts non native speakers into their programs. So that's really great. So I recommend maybe looking into Japan. Yeah. Yeah, in Quenz is that is so sad, that is really sad. Okay, and then I just want to mention this 30% off one more time, in case somebody missed that. But we have a 30% off discount during our live session, you can scan the QR code to get the discount. Or I just shared this discounted link once again here.  And that's also an interesting thing about teaching in China. So when I was there in 2012, 2014, a Tefl certificate was not a requirement to teach English in China. It wasn't, it was introduced a couple of years later. So now it is a requirement. If you don't have a Teflor or TESOL, you can't teach English in China. So those are things that are changing all the time. And that's why I always say, it's just good to have the certificate in your portfolio for things to change. Also for Korea, in Korea, a Teflor is not a requirement. But what if, you know, one day they decide, okay, now let's make it a requirement because it gets too competitive. So it's, you know, better to have it. Okay, Glenn says I have a meeting now, but I'm so glad to have had the time to catch catch you today, Linda. Great live. You always leave us with so much to think about. Oh, thank you. That's so sweet. Have a great meeting. It was good seeing you again. It's been a while. Bye. Awesome. Yeah, so this was it today. It was very interesting. And like I said, it's very just ambiguous. Lots of things to think about. Lots of things to think about. And we just like I said, we just need to observe, keep watching the situation. I'm going to keep following it, obviously, keep talking to recruiters there, teachers there to see how this develops. But this is what it looks like at the moment. So yeah. If there are any other questions, do let me know. We have a little bit more time for Q&A. Yes, Amy says that just terrible news for me. Japan is still not fully opened to foreign applications. Yeah. It's a, you know, difficult time right now, for sure, difficult time. Morgan says, thanks for this opportunity to know more about China. Cheers. Yeah, thank you for joining and for sticking through this live session today. Thank you so much. We do go live twice a week. Me usually this time on Friday, and then my colleague Lisa, who is a non-native English speaker from Russia, she goes live usually on Tuesdays. And she also taught English in China actually. But now she's back in Russia and she teaches mostly online. So if you are a non-native English speaker interested in either teaching abroad or teaching online specifically, you should also check her out. She shares a lot of amazing content and it's actually her that got me into teaching online. After one of her lives, when she talked about the different platforms to work for, I found a great platform that really suited my needs and preferences. And I signed up and I've been teaching for them now for six months.  I do it just a couple of hours a week.  So I highly recommend checking that out. All right. I think if there are no more questions, I'm going to say goodbye soon. I hope you enjoy today's live session. I hope you learned something. And we're just going to, like I said, we're just going to observe and further investigate and see what's going on. Thank you, Brett. Brett says it's great to keep up to date. Thank you, Linda. Sure. Thank you so much for being here every week. It's great. Juliana, thank you so much. It's informative and great video. I'm glad. I'm glad you find it informative. Cool. Okay. Well, now it's the one hour mark. We've been live for one hour. This is usually around the time where we say goodbye. So thank you guys so much for watching. I'll be here again next week. Same time, same place. Please do like and subscribe if you haven't yet. Do check out that 30% off discount. It's in the comments. If you're listening to this as a podcast, it is in the podcast description as well. Have a lovely weekend. Thank you so much for watching today. And I hope to see you again next week.  And then I'm going to say bye-bye. Thank you guys. Bye-bye.


If you have chosen to or are considering embarking on an exciting journey of hackathon, this program is for you. Winning a hackathon isn't just about building a cool project, it's about solving real problems in innovative ways. Today, we will meet a past winner of Smart India Hackathon, Ammai, to get some insights on the problem statement number 1373 of SIH 2023, which is one stop solution for monitoring daily plant energy consumption, hygiene and packaging waste collection from consumers. So, Ammai, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, sir, for giving me this opportunity and I'm really grateful to advise or to show the pathway for the youngsters who are competing this 2023 hackathon. Right, thank you so much, Ammai, for that. And to begin with, let's know something about you. Please tell us something about you, what you are doing, I mean what you've been doing and then thereafter, your past experience of the hackathon, which you went on to been. Yes, sir. So, sir, basically myself, Ammai Amol, I am belonging from the Sangli district, Maharashtra. But I'm studying in Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, which is Asia's finest college for the chemical engineering. And from past five years, I'm working as a researcher there. So we are developing various prototypes, various new innovative products for the scaling in the market. So for the hackathon, in my first year, 2019, we were the first to participate in the hackathon. We cannot won this hackathon, we are just finalized finalists for this hackathon. But when we are coming back after the COVID-19 2022, the hackathon will announce and we get the problem statements and it is completely new to our research and resources. So we are just competing in this competition with these problem statements. And we won the 2020-22 hackathon competition. So right now, I am doing my own startup, which is called Riga Industries, which is completely related to the Smart Indi hackathon problem statements. So I am right now working because of the, my startup is starting because of the only SIH 2020-22 because this is the exactly key point where I get the kickstart of my startup. That's it. So that's very nice to know, Amai, that you were able to capitalize on the start that you got from Smart Indi hackathon. You were able to build upon that success and today you are on an entrepreneurial journey. That's wonderful and I hope all others are able to do that, what you have been able to. Great. So Amai, to talk about the problem statements of this year, the one that you've chosen, please tell us something about that. Why have you chosen that particular problem statement to discuss? I mean, is it close to your comfort zone or like you think you have expertise over that technically or otherwise? So tell us, why have you chosen this particular statement to discuss with us today? Yeah. Yes. Yes. I already told you, I am the founder of Riga Industries and I want to introduce what Riga Industries do right now. So we all know that in India there is the biggest problem about the liquid food preservation in the milk sector. So we all know that the daily requirement of the India is near about 65 lakh litre milk for the daily consumption. But India can produce only 15 lakh litre milk for the per day basis. Then what is the difference, which is 50 lakh litre milk is a completely non-organized and non-organic milk, which is produced from the some chemicals or this is a preserved milk is all where we are sailing in the whole country. So actually we are solving this problem. So what we are doing exactly, some milk pasteurization. We all know that milk is pasteurized using the thermal technologies, milk getting from the farmers and they were heated it till the 120 degrees centigrade, 140 degrees centigrade and suddenly it chilled out to the minus 4 degree, minus 10 degrees centigrade and it will be pasteurized, it will be completely killing the pythogens. But we are seeing only the killing the pythogens. We are not seeing they are also killing the all protein content, which are the nutrient content which is very useful for our body as well as in the calcium content is also killed on in this whole procedure. So this is a thermal technology procedure, it is not only preserve the milk, they are also killing the, which are the important factors in the milk, they are also killing these factors. So we are working on for these systems. So what we are doing, we develop one new phenomena named the cavitation. If you are asking for the any mechanical engineer, what cavitation is good or bad, it is definitely said it is good because it is damaging the machines. But if you are asking for the any chemical engineer, cavitation is a good concept, then it is damage sure that cavitation is one of the good concept. Because using this cavitation phenomena, we killing these pythogens and we can control this cavitation. So we can also save the nutritional factors as well as protein factor, fat factor, we are saving from this phenomena. So using this non-thermal approach, we are preserving the milk for the longer time. You boys all know that the milk is after the pasteurization milk can be preserved for the only for the three to four days. But using our phenomena, the milk can be preserved for the 21 days, which she deserves more sufficient time to travel the milk from the India anyway. So we are exactly working on these systems. And why I am choosing, I am right back to your question, why I am choosing this problem statement. If you are going through this problem statement, this is exactly this is a one stop solution of the monitoring, dairy plant, energy consumption, hygiene and packaging waste collection from the consumers. So this is the first part, which is in this one stop solution for the monitoring the dairy plant energy consumption. So this is exactly a factor. We all know that for the in the dairy, right now in the dairy sector, there is a per liter, there is three rupees are charging for the pasteurization and thermal technologies because it is a heavily energy consumption. And some of the biggest, I don't want to reveal their names, but some of the case there is are also using some chemical preservatives to preserve the milk in this milk. So it is a completely unhygiened system is right now rolling in the India. So this is the problem statement come up with the government of the animal husbandry, you can see. So we have to reduce this consumption of the energy using non-thermal ways, which we are already developed in the market. So for the using our approach, there is only 21 days of the shelf life. But if we can do for any packaging material for that system, right now the milk is only polythene, normal polythene packs are milk is distributed in all over India. But if we are come up with the new materials, which can be the preserve the milk, enhance the milk shelf life, then it will be very grateful for the milk sector. We also know that the right now the tetrapacks are coming in the market for the shelf life enhancement in the liquid foods. So we can also try this shell tetrapacks for the milk only. That's why I'm choosing this problem statement because this is exactly need for today's India generation. Certainly you established that you are the right person to be dealing with this form statement at first with your expertise and your domain knowledge basically. So now let's talk about it like how will you start to begin with, you know, you need to have a team, the team formation, the responsibility allocation and they're on, you know, other things like research and preparation and all that. So how do you start this? Let's begin with the team first. What kind of a team will you put up for this and how will you allocate responsibilities? Yes, exactly. So sir, exactly we are performing this exactly sector in the hardware sector. So we have to present there a one prototype model. So this prototype is very attractive and means you have to show them the exactly attractive prototype as well as we have to, this prototype is also controlled by softwares, not controlled by manual. So this is easier for the softwares means we can put only one push one button and those whole product is started. So this is not only saying this is behind that there is all software work. So we have to take one software knowledgeable person, otherwise software engineer from your colleges, you can get this one from the team because it is very useful for the today's presentations and today's generation because no one want to start the manually because in the manually there is a extra charges for the labor costing and all this. So we have to reduce this cost using the softwares using the technology, which is reduce the human efforts from the whole prototype. Second thing for you are going for the hardware thing. So we are pick up the some mechanical to mechanical engineers for that because our whole setup is in the SS still and there is a gravitational setup and there is a motor pump, all these things we have to join, we have to calculate these things. So we need to mechanical engineer for the setup building for concept and third, there is not only the task for the setup, we have to preserve the milk also. So we are also take that one food technologist from the college. So we can get some help from his technical approach for the how can we preserve, we have to check the nutritional analysis, we have to check the shelf life analysis from him. So we have to some distances and all these things. And third thing we are in our group, there is one girl named Akanksha, he is really good in the market survey means how the other solutions are not better than us, how the our solution is very good for this food for this problem statement. So this all team I consume and there is a one leader for the who already known for this exactly what we are solving and what we want to do for the source socially or for the our peoples. So exactly there is one leader who can build this team. So actually according to that I build my team and I went to the SH. Okay, so this is about team formation that you would you know kind of roughly suggest. Now what about the planning part, how would you start the entire you know preparation for this? Yeah, so on the our time, so we are right now on that time we are working on the sugarcane juice preservation using same concept, because we all know that sugarcane is degraded within 15 to 20 minutes. So on that certain time the SH, Smart and Decathlon stated the statements for the milk preservation using the non-thermal approach. So we are just think about that if we can preserve the sugarcane juice using the same phenomena, so that it's possible to we can preserve the milk with the same phenomena. So we just took the trial from the initial basis and we are just analyzing like how the we how we check the shelf life for the sugarcane juice, the same thing we are analyzed for the milk. But I already mentioned when we are taking the food technologies, we are we on that time we really don't know there is a one pasteurization test, which is alkyl phosphate test we have to check is it is the real milk is pasteurized or not for that we have to do these things. So the food technologies help in this sector. So initially we are doing on this all this experiment on the lab scale, we are going to near about one to near about one to two weeks we are really hard experiments and all these things because we are in the Mumbai and we don't get any raw milk from anywhere. So we have to take the raw milk from the panvel and we are coming from there and then we are start the treating and after that we are testing analyzing and finalizing the reports is all things are going in this two to three weeks. And afterwards two to three weeks we get the damn confidence on this system, we can preserve this milk using this system. So once we get the proven results from the lab scale, we are then we have get the very confidence for the prototype building. Because no one will be allowed you to build the prototype without confirmed lab reports because it is a wastage of money and then once our NABL certified results are came from the lab lab tested reports, then we are confirmed that we can build this prototype for us the system. So on the first time we are build the prototype for the 450 liter per hour setup as a prototype which is built in within one month before the SIH. We build this prototype with the help of the all team members and we really work hard for this prototype because on the engineering level you can't build one setup like an industrial setup in the mini sector. It is one of the toughest job for all the engineers because there is one mistake will be the born all wrong results. Then our setup will be built before the SIH finals near about before one to two weeks our setup is built out. Then on this setup we have to test trials in our college because we don't want to fail in the front of the judges in SIH. So we just tested the trials there are the lots of wrong things were happening in our setups. So we just corrected these all things in within a two weeks and just finalize our prototype and we just build this prototype for the SIH. And this is the final prototype which is builder from us was very attractive. Means it was really means anyone can learn from this prototype how we can preserve the milk using the non-thermal approach. Okay so what you're practically saying is that those evaluation parts those you know when judges and evaluators come and see when suggest you those are very crucial those are very very critical and they can you know kind of change the entire course of the thing. So and he also said it's very positive for the contestant also because sometimes you come up with something better something even more you know purposeful. So how should one tackle this particular phase when these changes are about to happen or are bound to happen? How to take this positively? So sir on the time we were means first day was very bad for our setup also means first day was bad for the purity because team evaluators are they are expecting from us is very different things rather than we are what we are prepared. So we have to work hard from the after the evaluation in the night we are very doing the various type of the whatever remaining literature we are also knowing about the scalability we are also taking for the how you will get the revenue from this setup. So they are preparing in these six days they are preparing in your entire zone which is entrepreneurship. How you can scalable this setup in the market and how you can sell these things in the market otherwise how you can go for the entrepreneurship things from this product exactly these things are they are doing they are not evaluating only you they are they are also teaching you how to go for the industry what is the difference between the lab scale and industrial scale. So they are all teaching from these things so we are just consuming this their things and just working on these things in the night and just showing them from the tomorrow morning yes we are ready with this product yes we can do this things solved using our prototype. So just this type of the things are getting us the motivation and from the second day whenever we are going for the answering answering the judges and the answers was getting the very confident to the judges also on that time we are getting also confidence yes we can do this prototype for the industrial sector. So this is the way how we can gain the confidence and build up for the second day don't think about the past days what happened yesterday just think about the what we can do for the next day this is the very important thing in the whole SHJ and stay positive for these six to seven days because each and every other teams each and every other judges all mentors are only you for the demotivating otherwise they are just thinking how you can break this model how you can break you and you can scaleable this prototype for the largest scale that's it right I mean thank you so much those are some very strong and very positive recommendations coming from you and I hope people will notice all of that and you know try and make use of whatever insights you have to give us thank you so much for joining us today and we wish you all the best in your venture and good luck thank you thank you so much thank you so much remember a hackathon is not just a competition it's a fantastic learning opportunity embrace the challenges learn from setbacks and save other journey best of luck and may your code compile flawlessly


Tonight sermon is in keeping with our essential series and the title is discipleship. So when you hear that word, it's not as common as other words within the faith. Discipleships not reference much in the professing church today, the most commonly used term to describe the people of God in conversion and conversation today is the term Christian. And among the multitudes who use the term Christian, there are a myriad of definitions for that word. The name Christian is familiar, but usually biblically undefined. On the other hand, the term disciple is a very uncommon term used today to describe the people of God. You never meet a person while evangelizing who says they are a disciple of Christ. We hear rarely designate ourselves to others outside the church as disciples. The term disciple is rarely used.  This evening, I plan to biblically answer these four questions regarding discipleship. What is a disciple? How are disciples made? What are some examples of disciples? And what does this mean for your discipleship to Christ? If you had to put those in statements, it would be the definition, the commandment to make, examples, and application. So definition, what is a disciple? And what do we mean when we even say that with reference to what? Whether you've looked at that or not, throughout history, the word disciple has had different meanings. It started out, it wasn't a word used to entail following somebody. It meant same thing as we would say, it's like a student. But later, through the Greeks and on into Jewish culture, it became a synonymous with not only learning but following. So I'll give a definition and we'll look at some texts to see what the Bible says about disciples. And the discipleship of Christ is unique, which I hope you'll see. So definition, a disciple is another term for a Christian. Specifically, a disciple is a chosen, believing, learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. So a disciple is another term for a Christian. If you would, turn to Acts 11, 22. Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed to Tarsus to seek Saul and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So before we were ever called Christians, we were called disciples. And here this is after Christ has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father. So a disciple is not necessarily someone who's physically following Christ. It's true of believers in the New Testament, Acts. Also it's not relegated to Jews because there are people from all over here. In fact, in Acts 10, they were surprised that the Gentiles had become believers as with the Jews and they rejoiced that God had granted them repentance as well as the Jews. So disciples make no distinction between race. The people of God are also to think about other terms for the people of God. We just saw that the people of God can be called a Christian or a disciple. The people of God are also called the elect or those who are in Christ or they are called the called, et cetera. When you, so there are many different names for the people of God and like a diamond, when you look at a diamond, you can look at it from different perspectives. So with the people of God, we can look at them from different perspectives and gain understanding of what they are in Christ. And tonight we're looking at disciple. So what specifically does the term disciple denote about believers? So turn with me to Matthew 16, verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you, my disciples say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. Although many men thought highly of Christ in one way or another, their identification of Jesus was wrong. A disciple must rightly identify and attach himself to Jesus as the Christ of God, the son of the living God. Notice though, this can only come from God's choosing, a person to know him as he is. He says, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. That includes Simon Bar Jonah himself. Turn to John six, 65. And he said, therefore I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Then Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12? And one of you is a devil. He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him being one of the 12. Earlier, after feeding the thousands, the many of the crowd followed Jesus to the other side of the lake and they came because they wanted to be filled again and Jesus knew their motives. When they asked him, how did he got over there? He responded to them about what they were really seeking and entails this discussion about him being the bread of life. And then later, when they refused to accept what he's saying, he says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and that's a hard saying. So those who were formerly following him followed him no more. And that's when this part that I just read happened. But notice that many ceased walking with Jesus after that day. They were not true disciples. So when we're talking tonight about what is a disciple of Christ, we're talking about those who are true disciples. There are many who attach themselves to Jesus Christ and will even intellectually agree and consent to that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, and yet they do not walk with him. So we're not trying to define false disciples. We're trying to define what is a true disciple. Also, they were not true disciples. Likewise, Judas was not a true disciple because Jesus calls him an unbeliever in verse 64 and a devil in verse 70. However, again, see how a disciple properly identifies Jesus as being the Christ, the son of the living God. To repeat the definition, a disciple was another term for a Christian. Specifically, a disciple is a chosen, believing, learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. And I say that that way revealed for us in scripture. For them, New Testament age, the Bible, the New Testament wasn't written, but what Jesus had revealed, the father had revealed through Jesus at that time, they came to know he was the Christ, the son of the living God, because they had special revelation. And they identified and believed in him based on who they knew he was. So that's where you see that in those texts. The Greek word that's used in these texts for the word disciple is mathetes. Mathetes has carried many nuanced connotations throughout its use in Greek and Jewish literature. Even when Jesus was on earth, the word disciple was being used in different contexts. For example, in John 9.29, the Pharisees described themselves as Moses' disciples. In Mark 2.18, scripture speaks of the disciples of John the Baptist. In all its uses in the New Testament, it carries the dual connotation of learning and following. The word mathetes means more than a learner. It is an adherent who accepts the instruction given to him and makes it his rule of conduct, says one dictionary. Now, the Greek definition of a learning follower captures the basic idea of the term disciple used in many ways. However, when it comes to Jesus Christ, the God, the Son, the term disciple takes a unique weight and meaning precisely because of who Jesus Christ is. Turn with me to Mark 8. We're still looking at specifically what is a disciple? Because discipleship is the practice of being a disciple. So Mark 8.34 and 35, I'm just gonna read those two verses. When he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. I wanna focus on 34. And you don't really see the word disciple except when it says in the context or the setting that there are the people and his disciples there. But the whoever applies to all so that you are clear that this is talking about discipleship of Christ. Turn with me real quick just to glance at Luke 14. We're gonna come back to Mark 9. Luke 14, verse 27 and verse 25, you see this is great multitudes, but what does he say to them? And who look at 27, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So when he's talking about bearing his cross and following him over here in Mark and in the other places in the Gospels, he's speaking of discipleship. It's not discipleship is not some second stage Christianity, second blessing or higher life movement. It's not you become a Christian and later become a disciple. Either you become a Christian slash disciple or you do not. If you are not a disciple, you are not a Christian. So in back in Mark 8, when he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them. So what he's about to say to them, we know from seeing it, him use the word disciple and Luke, that what he's speaking to them is about discipleship. We know it's about salvation because he says whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Look in verse 36, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? So to become a disciple was talking about a saved believer. You can't say you're saved and not be a disciple. And he says whoever, so whoever has an interest or a desire to come after Christ, let him deny himself. And that let him is a third person imperative. You could translate it, he must deny himself. That's more authoritatively sounding in our language instead of a let that sounds permissive. It's he must deny himself. Not deny his belongings, not deny his wife or his family, deny himself. The word deny in the B-dags is, which is giving the Greek definition of that word to the best of their ability to act in a wholly selfless manner, in other dictionaries, Zod Heights, to disown and renounce self and to subjugate all works, interests and enjoyments. In our English usage of the word, which overlaps with those Greek definitions, deny means to refuse to acknowledge as one's own, to disown or repudiate. I heard one pastor say a repudiation of self. Whoever desires to come after Christ, he says, you must repudiate yourself. And repudiate is to refuse to have anything to do with, disown, cast off publicly. So I thought that I heard Pastor Albert Martin give this illustration. If you go to Matthew 26, all is helpful because the same Greek word and its practice is in Peter when he denies the Lord. So what does it look like when he denies the Lord? So that we can see how that parallels with our denial of ourself, Matthew 26, 69. Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him saying, you also were with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied it before them all. Saying, I do not know what you were saying. And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again, he denied with an oath, with an oath. I do not know the man. A little later, those who stood by came up and said to Peter, surely you are also one of them for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man. He denied him three times. So what was it that Peter did when he practiced this word, deny? He actually physically didn't do in this example, anything. What he did was verbal. And when it came to acting upon the desires of his heart and the thoughts of his mind, he spoke to people who were around and he repudiated Jesus Christ. He disowned him publicly and says, I have no attachment and association with that man. I am not part of him. You need to detach me from him. And then he oaths, swore with an oath and then cursed. So he did it with such vehemence that he tried with all his effort to separate and detach himself from Christ. And that's an example of denying yourself. Well, when Jesus says back in Mark eight, let him, he must deny himself, what is he speaking of? What should we disown of ourselves? And already it's like flying in the face of a lot of false teaching on self-esteem that God's design of salvation is that you feel good about yourself. And it's not that a Christian isn't grateful or joyful but this flies in the face of that kind of thinking. Well, if there's something in us that we don't want to let go of, that we must let go of if we're going to be a follower of Christ, we see it as a commodity. And preeminently, it is the vile sin of idolatry of self.  And if any of you will become saved, become a disciple of Jesus Christ, become a Christian, you must deny that, we must deny that. He says also that you must take up his cross that his I believe is referencing the person, not the Lord's cross, though they're connected, distinct. Take up his cross is to lift up and carry.  And what does it mean to take up one's cross? Well, I think if you just, we better understand what it means when he says that cryptic figure of speech cross will better understand what it means to take it up. And I define it this way and I want to give some exposition as to why it's a willing commitment when he says he must take up his cross. It's a willing commitment to bear any trial, suffering, rejection, or persecution which results from attaching yourself to and following Christ in faith. The cross for Jesus and the people meant suffering, rejection, and death. So when Jesus was speaking to the multitudes and his disciples, what would they have thought? Not us, what would they have thought? Have not the cross not having yet happened but what would they have thought? To them that was a set aside gruesome, torturous way that the Romans executed people and only certain types of people that were considered the most degenerate. People were, they died slowly and the most shameful way possible and when they would go to where they were going to be executed outside the camp or the city, they would have to carry their own cross to the place that they would be crucified. And they would do it before the people. It was a public shame. When you were undergoing that kind of execution, you were as far away from the people as you could be. You were like considered the off scouring of the world and cut off from the land of the living. And when he says, take up your cross, they would unmistakably know that he's speaking of something where it's utter shame, suffering, death, rejection. For Jesus, it meant more than that, which I don't think the disciples came to better understand until after his resurrection but he knew all along he was going to be crucified. He says in John three that even so the son of man must be lifted up. He told them previous to this, he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and be killed and three days ride to rise again. He knew. So I don't think that what Jesus, the author of what was being spoken excluded himself and his cross. I think that was the point and probably would not be fully understood till after. And for Jesus, what did it mean to take up his cross? It meant to deny himself. There's no greater glory that one can have but the son of God and the bosom of the father to leave heaven and humble himself in the likeness of man and become obedient even to the point of death, even a cross. So, and he was shamefully treated, despised and rejected by the world. He was counted the off scouring of the world. Why is he called Jesus of Nazareth? It's because can anything good come from Nazareth? Men look their own God in the eyes flesh to flesh and saw nothing of beauty in him. And when he says if anyone will come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross. I understand that to mean what Jesus would have thought when he's taking up his cross. It means as a follower of Christ, you will be rejected. You will suffer. You will be counted as worthless. And if you aren't willing, if you don't have a willing commitment to bear any trial, suffering, rejection or persecution which results from attaching yourself to and following Christ in faith, you cannot be his disciple. Look at Hebrews 13 and we'll move. Hebrews 13, 12. Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. Picking up your cross is doing the opposite of what Peter did. Peter did not pick up his cross. But had he picked up his cross, he would have suffered the reproach with Christ and been willing to endure whatever it meant for that time and that place. He forego, forwent his commitment. He says later you must follow me or the next phrase back in Mark eight. This is a willing submission to not only the practices of Christ but his teachings. Not only his teachings but his precepts, his practices. It is not enough for you to say I follow Christ in what he teaches and teach others the same and then yet you live like the devil. That is not a disciple. So a disciple is another term for a Christian specifically a disciple is a chosen believing learning follower of Jesus Christ as he is revealed in scripture. If you wanna see how disciples are made which is our in part responsibility is to make disciples. You go to Matthew 28 and we're not gonna look at that but there's three main things as the body of Christ that we are to do when we make disciples. We are to go and evangelize them. If we don't speak words, the words of God and the gospel to people who are lost and in their sin we are not being faithful to make disciples. We can't just do actions. Should we do actions? Should we serve? Yes. Did Jesus serve? Yes. But we must speak for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. After they believe we are to baptize them. So the responsibility to evangelize the world is the means by which God translates true disciples into the kingdom of his beloved son. Once a disciple is incorporated into the invisible body of Christ the church is commanded to incorporate them into the visible body through baptism and local church membership. And after they are then incorporated into the visible body of a local church we are to teach each other to obey. That's how disciples are made. What are some examples? In Matthew four there was Peter and Andrew and when Jesus said come follow me previous to that he was saying repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's you should not see when he calls them to follow me as that being the first time they'd ever seen or heard him. They already were aware of him from John the Baptist but when he did come and say follow me they delayed not. Immediately they left their nets and physically followed him and attached themselves to Jesus Christ. In Acts 14 21 through 23 there was disciples that were strengthened and they were told that through many trials they must enter the kingdom of God which is what we talked about with taking up your cross. And also in Acts 16 and then second Timothy one we see Timothy was a young disciple that was commended to Paul and he went with Paul and later at the end of Paul's life what is Paul telling him as a disciple of Christ? He's telling him to be faithful and sound and doctrine and in practice. Being a disciple involves you learning and following Jesus Christ as a learner and a follower. So what does this mean for your discipleship? We must not entertain alternate masters and idols. Remember the call as you sit there a believer now remember the call that Christ made because there are many people brothers and sisters that he will tell them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness. He's not talking about a works based salvation. He's talking about discipleship for those who have a new heart the seed of God will practice righteousness. It's part of the new covenant promise and we're responsible ways that you can discipleship is not just one to one in our church where you disciple one person in one thing. Is that a way to disciple someone? Yes. Discipleship within the body and organically involves all of what we are doing in the means of grace. The pastor preaching to us on Sundays and us coming to worship God singing and making melody in our hearts to one another to God hearing the sermon and implementing what we are learning that's a form of discipleship because the discipleship is the discipleship of Christ. It's not the discipleship of one man here. We're not disciples of one man we're disciples of the man. So imitation one to one imitation one to one teaching is good that is a form of the way in which Christ disciples his people and in a way that they can learn to follow Christ. Small group the Bible commands us to exhort one another today while it is still called today and to love one another and in that means we practice speaking the word of God together learning of each other's interests and needs and serving one another as God has given us time, gifts and grace. Sunday school Sunday school was a means by which we learned the word of God same with small group evangelism when we go out and evangelize and we practice that we are fulfilling the commandment to go and preach the gospel to every creature and we are being disciples of Christ. As we take others with us we're able to teach them the way to evangelize. Also serving needs and administering gifts. Everybody has gifts even in our age there's everyone has gifts and ought to serve in accordance with the grace that's been given to them looking for needs and whether they be sickly or spiritually. Let's pray and we'll close. Father in heaven, we praise you for this teaching and preaching on discipleship we see that the call to follow Christ involves a denial of ourself and taking up the cross and following him and we are insufficient but willing by your grace and we pray that you would help and cause us to be faithful disciples of Christ and to be faithful to make disciples as your people here. Amen.


Moving on to the south-south in River State, same Fubara has taken over from Nyesongweke at the inaugural ceremony, the immediate past governor, Weke handed over the flag of the state and they hand over notes to the new governor. Together, we embody our collective aspiration for a greater and prosperous river state. A state that will provide opportunity for all. A strong, compassionate, progressive state that protects and enable everyone to live in security, comfort, and prosperity. River State is a Christian state and God will remain our foundation. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Welcome to the 2017 NCHA World Finals. I'm with the winner of the 25,000 novice Open World Champion, Casey Crouch. He rode Lewis the Cat. Congratulations to you, Casey. Thank you. It's been a wonderful year, Lewis. He's a very unique horse. Go ahead. I'm sorry. We've already spoken to Tyler. He won the non-pro. This is a horse that's done, obviously, a lot of miles and a lot of shows. Tell us about this horse. How on earth has he managed to do this?   I mean, he's been to the herd 300 times this year since January. And just real easy going, laid-back.   And he's, he just tries and, I mean, he doesn't take a lot to get ready, you know, so he don't, you don't wear his wheels out there. And he loves his job.  Been great. So what's it been like to train on and what is, what are the characteristics that you like about him to show on?  You know, I mean, if you want to step him up to a cow quick, he's good with that. If you want to lay back and be easy and cut a cow smooth and clean, he's good with that too.  I mean, he really is. He's quite, quite as a mouse.  I mean, had something about them that you just had to be careful with, you know, and, and I haven't found it. It's, it's not there. I mean, you can put him anywhere on the trailer. I mean, I don't put a mare by him, but, but I don't know that it would bother him either, you know.    You know, just kind of a joke because he just don't have me. I mean, he's just like, I don't know. Just happy, go lucky, you know. Okay, now you came into the world finals $30,000 ahead of the next competitor. How did that feel to have a little wiggle room there? Oh, it was, it was cool. You know, the last time I won the world in the five novice with Dusty, Dusty Nelson, and he and I were showing back and forth and we came in $800 apart. And it, I mean, it was he got a check. I got a check. I mean, it just went back and forth. So, you know, this time to come in that far ahead and not have to worry about it. No pressure just go show. You know, I didn't have a great finals here. First day, my last cal, first two cals were okay.  But second day in the go around, I was, I was real happy. I marked the 19 and, and, and I was tickled. I had a good run. He finished strong. Just cool. Okay, now this is your second world championship, but you're, you're a constant feature really at the world finals. Your name is always there. What does this one, this championship mean to you? Um, you know, it's, it's surreal to some degree.  So for me, it's kind of, it's kind of neat that I won the five and then I won the 25. So, you know, maybe, maybe the future holds open. You know, who knows? Well, and you also have a lot of clients that do very well at the world finals too. So that speaks volume for you as a trainer and a teacher. Yes, thank you. That's, that's the biggest deal. You know, as long as my, my customers and clients are getting along and winning, that's what counts. You know, as long as they have fun and enjoy their self, you know, that's, that's the main thing. I try to make, make sure that they have a good time.


Recent research on hyperscanning has revealed substantial interbrain synchrony, IBS, but little is known about the link between IBS and mental workload. To study this link, we conducted an experiment consisting of button pressing tasks of three different difficulty levels for the cooperation and competition modes with 56 participants aged 23.7 and hashtag X00B1, 3.8 years, mean and hashtag X00B1, standard deviation. We attempted to observe IBS using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, FNIRS, and galvanic skin response, GSR, to assess the activities of the human autonomic nervous system. We found that the IBS levels increased in a frequency band of 0.075 and hashtag X2013, 0.15 Hz, which was unrelated to the task repetition frequency in the cooperation mode according to the task difficulty level. Significant relative interbrain synchrony, ribs, increases were observed in 3 and 10 channels out of 15 for the hard tasks compared to. This article was authored by Jin Wu Park, Jae Young Shin, and Ji Chai Jung. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Embark on a timeless journey, unravel the mysteries of a grandiose era, a treasure trove of royal and sacred complexes, temples, shrines, pillared halls, mandapas, rock-cut memorials and more. A spectacular setting of rugged landscape, an exemplary workmanship, representing the best of Travidian architecture. Every structure carved out as a unique artistic creation, a heritage landmark that reflects pure magnificence integrated within its natural environment, an unexplored haven for nature and adventure enthusiasts, an imposing heritage reflected in its street bazaars and annual festivals of music and culture. Be mesmerized by the glorious capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Welcome delegates to Hampi. G20 India. One Earth. One Family. One Future.