The Alchemist | Part 3 | Paulo Coelho | EE Book Club

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We're doing the book club. Book club show continuing our book. Our book right now is The Alchemist. This is part three. We're doing part three now. We have people joining us live right now on Facebook.

Facebook. We're live on Facebook. I'm going to turn up my audio a little bit. One second. Let's turn that up a little bit. Check, check, check, check.

All right. That's good. Who do we have here? Lots of people joining. Ramesh, Mina Sivak is hello again. France, Egypt saying hello. Vietnam saying hello.

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Everybody who is joining live. Today, with the alchemist, we will be talking about the section called the caravan. The caravan.

The caravan, a caravan is like a group, a big group traveling together. But not flying, usually going over land. In this case, walking, and some people have camels. It's a caravan, it's a big group of people walking across the desert, traveling together.

going across the desert, going to the same location together. That is called a caravan. And today, in today's part of the story, Santiago, our hero, the hero of the story, joins a caravan going across the desert, the Egyptian desert.

Well, lots of people saying hello from many different countries, India and Turkey and Indonesia. Great. Hello, Khalifi. Let's just get started. You know how it works.

Let's get started. I'll review the book, then I'll come back to your questions and we'll have a discussion. And in the comments, let me know if my sound level is too high or too low, please. I'll check that in a minute.

Okay, let's start. Now you remember, the last thing that happened. What happened, the last thing? The last thing that happened in the story was that Santiago, he was working in

a crystal shop, right? He was selling crystal glasses and tea. And he did that because he had no money. He had no money and he finally got a job working at a crystal shop.

And he was very successful. He helped the shop owner make a lot of money. So he saved a lot of money and he was just about to decide, what should I do?

He was... thinking he was going to go back to Spain, but then he changed his mind. He decided, no, I'm going to keep going for my big journey. I'm going to find my treasure.

I've got to go to the pyramids. So he goes to a location in the city where there are trade caravans. Trade caravans. Remember, this is before airplanes.

No airplanes at this time in this time when the story is happening. So because there are no airplanes, he has to travel overland to get to the pyramids. So he's got to cross the desert.

And of course, crossing the desert alone is too dangerous, much too dangerous. He probably would die. So, he decides he's going to join a caravan. Right at that time, there would be trade caravans.

The same thing. The merchants, the people who were buying and selling things between countries. They didn't travel alone. Again, it's too dangerous to travel alone.

They would travel in large groups. So, a big group of traders, you know, merchants, people selling things, right? Business people, basically. They would all travel together and then other travelers...

would join, and they would all go in a big group, they would pay money, so they would hire, they'd have bodyguards, right, guards, they would have guards with the caravan, men who could fight and protect them.

And this was a much safer way to travel. So Santiago, he's thinking, well, now I have enough money, I can pay a caravan, right, I can pay a caravan, so I can travel with them across the desert, and it'll be more safe.

Okay, that's where we're starting now. He's going to find out to join the caravan. But first, before we meet Santiago, in this next section, we meet a new character.

A new character, the Englishman. He doesn't have a name, just the Englishman. So the Englishman is quite interesting. The Englishman introduces us to alchemy.

The name of this book is The Alchemist. But until now, we have not heard about alchemy or an alchemist. What is that? What is alchemy? Who is the alchemist?

Until now, we don't know. We have no idea. But now we learn. Because there's an Englishman who also is joining the caravan. He has traveled all the way from England.

So he came all the way from England. So like Santiago, he has a journey. He has something he's trying to find. His personal legend, his mission. The Englishman has a mission too.

And he has also... gone on a long journey away from home, and he is now in the same area. Where are they? They're in Tangiers, I think. A long way from England.

What's the Englishman's goal? What's his mission? Well, his mission is to become an alchemist. Aha! He... Before now, we learn, before now, he has been studying.

He learns from books. He reads and reads and reads and reads. He's an intellectual. He likes to study and read. And he has been reading and reading and reading about alchemy.

About alchemy. And then in this next section, we learn about alchemy. What is alchemy? Alchemy was kind of a part magic and part science. And it's the idea, the alchemists, there were real alchemists back in the Middle Ages.

They, in Europe, they believed they could turn lead into gold. Right? So they were kind of the first chemists in a way. But they also had a deeper meaning to what they were doing, a more spiritual purpose, not just chemistry.

We learned that the Englishman spent a lot of time in libraries around the world. He was always looking for books about alchemy. So he had read lots and lots, maybe hundreds and hundreds of books about alchemy.

And see, the goal of an alchemist, the final goal was to create something called the Philosopher's Stone. The Philosopher's Stone. And we'll learn later what is the Philosopher's Stone. But this is the big mission of alchemists.

Alchemists want to create, they want to make something called the Philosopher's Stone. You may remember Harry Potter, the first Harry Potter book, used this philosopher's stone idea. It's a very old idea.

So the Englishman, he wants to learn how to make the philosopher's stone. With the philosopher's stone, he can make lead into gold, and also he can make life, kind of like live a long, long, long time. He can become a master of life.

But he's learned a lot from books, but he's stuck. He can't learn anymore. He can't find, he can't figure out, he can't figure out how to do it. He needs help.

So he finally hears a story about a famous master alchemist. The Englishman does. He hears a story and this master alchemist, he did it. He created the Philosopher's Stone.

And he finds out, you know, where does this guy live? He lives in the Al-Fayom oasis. And that is in Egypt. So it's an oasis in the desert in Egypt. There's a new word, vocabulary.

What's an oasis? An oasis, it's in the desert. It's an area that has water. Basically what it is, right? Deserts don't have water, mostly. Mostly. So very dry.

But sometimes in the middle of the desert, there will be some water source, water from under the ground usually. And so there'll be green and plants. It's an oasis. And of course, for people living in the desert, this is an important place because the desert is a difficult place to live.

Very dangerous because it's so dry and hot, hard to live. So an oasis can save your life because there's water there, plants, trees, maybe food. So there's an oasis in the desert and that's where the alchemist lives. So the Englishman is traveling.

He wants to go to the desert in Egypt, to the oasis, and find this master alchemist. Because he wants the alchemist to teach him. So this is his plan.

And he's sitting there. He's sitting in the area where the caravan is. The caravan's getting ready to start. And he's sitting there and he sees Santiago.

And Santiago sees him. And they begin to talk. They have a conversation. So Santiago and the Englishman meet. And... First, they kind of don't trust each other because Santiago sees the Englishman is reading a lot of books.

Santiago doesn't read many books. And the Englishman thinks, oh, Santiago is just some simple guy, not very smart, maybe. But then they start to talk and the Englishman mentions, maybe this is an omen, an omen. Maybe we are meeting, maybe we're meeting for a reason.

Because they start to talk. Why are you going to the desert? Why are you going? And they both start talking and they realize that they share a lot in common.

They both understand omens. They both are looking for their personal mission. So this is where now Santiago learns about the alchemist. The Englishman tells Santiago about the alchemist.

The alchemist knows the universal language of life. So see, it's not just a chemist. They're really more of a spiritual, magical person. So they both join the caravan and the caravan leaves.

They start traveling in the desert. Now, the rest of this section for today It's their trip. Their trip takes a while. I can't remember. I don't know exactly how long, maybe a few weeks, to get to the oasis.

So the rest of the section is just this big group of people, the caravan, and they're all traveling through the desert, and then they arrive at the oasis.

So nothing much happens during this time. Nothing on the outside happens. But what mostly happens during this section is that Santiago and the Englishman have several conversations.

They have a lot of conversations about life, about meaning, about purpose, about mission, about alchemy and the alchemist, about Santiago and he's looking for his treasure, about the Englishman looking for the alchemist. So it's really several conversations. That's what the rest of this section is about.

The first conversation they have about coincidence. Coincidence. Coincidence is kind of when something happens and maybe sometimes people call it good luck. What a coincidence.

We have the belief nowadays that when something good happens, maybe it's just random. There's no meaning. Or it's just a coincidence. It's just random.

But the Englishman says there are no coincidences, that that's not true, it's not random, that actually when things happen, when something happens, for example, when Santiago and the Englishman, they meet each other, well, this seems random, right? It's just chance.

But the Englishman says, no, this is not true, that these events, have a meaning they have a purpose that it was not an accident that they met you know that maybe you could think of it as God is kind of guiding them so that they meet each other to help them or the universe is guiding and helping people he describes it as the mysterious chain that connects one thing to another

It's the connection of events. Nothing happens just totally randomly. Everything is connected. That's what he says. Now, in the East, meaning India and the Far East, they would probably call this karma.

It's a similar idea to karma. Okay, so they keep traveling. They're traveling several days. Now, the next thing that happens that's discussed, Paulo Coelho, the writer, talks about is the style, the different mindsets, the different learning methods of the Englishman in Santiago.

As they're traveling in the caravan, they're very different. Santiago... During the day, while they travel, Santiago, he observes, he looks, he watches everything. He watches the camels.

He watches the people in the caravan. He watches the desert and the sky and the clouds. Maybe sometimes he sees animals. So he's watching, he's looking and listening all the time to what's happening.

And this is how he learns. He learns by looking and watching real life. The Englishman does not do that. During their travel, the Englishman sitting on a camel, he reads.

He just reads books during the day. As they travel, the whole time they're traveling, the Englishman reads, reads, reads. He kind of, the Englishman ignores the desert. He doesn't look at the desert.

He mostly ignores the people. He does not see what's happening around him very much. Instead, he's focused on books. He's reading, reading, reading. He's a book learner.

The boy, Santiago... He tries to read, but he gets bored with the book quickly. And he just likes to observe, to look, to watch, to listen carefully, to study people, to study events, to study life.

Next, they have a discussion about this because... the next thing that happens, the Englishman and Santiago, they have an argument, a little bit of an argument.

Basically, the Englishman tells Santiago, you should read more books, because the Englishman is telling him about alchemy, and Santiago is very curious. Santiago says,

wants to learn more about alchemy and the Englishman kind of criticizes him and says, you need to read more books. You will learn so much if you read more books.

But then Santiago criticizes the Englishman. He says, well, you read too many books. You should pay attention. You should listen. You should watch what's happening around you and you will learn a lot from this.

So they... they both realize that this is true. They both actually, they realize the other person is correct. Santiago realizes, yeah, maybe I should try to read more.

And the Englishman realizes, yeah, maybe I should look and pay attention more. And so they do. The alchemist gives... a book about alchemy. And it describes kind of the basic ideas of alchemy.

And at the same time, the Englishman stops reading and he starts watching the people and the caravan and everything that's happening in nature. So this is what, let me explain now, what does he learn about alchemy in the book? Here's what he learns.

He says, they're strange books. There's a book about famous alchemists. I'm going to read this whole section. They were men who dedicated their entire lives, so their whole life, these alchemists studied, the purification of metals in their laboratories.

The purification of metals. So lead, gold, silver, iron. These are metals, right? So these alchemists tried to purify them They believed, the alchemists believed, that if they heated them, if they raised the temperature of these metals high enough for a long time, they would change into something called the soul of the world.

They would become one. One true thing called the soul of the world. And this soul of the world, they could use it to understand everything, to understand all of the universe.

Trying to make this, this soul of the world, this kind of philosopher's stone, is what they called it. If they could do this successfully, they would have that philosopher's stone. It would allow them, somehow give them the magic ability to understand the universe, to understand everything.

So they're trying to make this. So far, that just seems kind of like, well, I don't know, it seems a little strange, right? Kind of magical or weird kind of chemistry, but with some magical stuff in it. So it seems like there's no deep meaning to this.

But the next section, we learn the actual true deep meaning of alchemy and the alchemists. Here it is. It says, The alchemists spent so much time close to the fire, so much time trying to do this, make the Philosopher's Stone, that they gave up vanities.

They gave up the vanities of the world. They gave up the world. They gave up everything. They got rid of everything. They lived super, super, super, super disciplined, simple lives.

they found that the purification of the metals led to a purification of themselves. Aha! So basically this is saying that the alchemists, by working so hard trying to do this, that it became a kind of meditation. It became a kind of meditation.

And actually, it As they tried to do this with the metals, they purified, they made themselves more pure, more good, more holy, more godly. And maybe it kind of happened even accidentally. They weren't trying to do that, but this just happened naturally because they were so disciplined and so focused and working so hard that they got rid of everything else and they...

develop this pure mind like meditation. After he finishes the book, Santiago feels, okay, I've learned everything I need to about alchemy. He gives the book back to the Englishman. He tells the Englishman, okay, I'm finished.

That's enough. I don't need to read more. And the Englishman says, well, I studied the caravan, but honestly, I prefer, I like to read better. So they go back to their old ways.

And then finally, after all of this, they learn that there's some war happening, some fighting happening with some groups in the desert. So everybody gets very scared. They're worried. They're worried.

But luckily, they arrive safely at the oasis. So after they have these conversations, Santiago learns about alchemy. Santiago learns about the alchemist.

And they arrive at the oasis together safely. And that's the end of this section. Let's go back to the beginning of the section and just discuss a few quotes, a few ideas.

And then I'll go to your comments. Alright, the Englishman. The Englishman. Here, we'll go back to this one. Okay, first of all, the Englishman. So the Englishman represents, right, quite obviously, he's the intellectual, he's the book learner, somebody who learns from books, an academic.

Today we have many, many of these, right? And he's kind of, I mean, he's generally positive, but I'd say the way Coelho writes this, he's also kind of criticizing the Englishman. The Englishman seems a little foolish,

compared to Santiago. And it's because, the reason is, because the Englishman is too focused on books. Books are good. I think the message here Coelho is giving us is that book learning is good, but it's not enough.

And it's dangerous because too many people focus on books, books, books, or now we have, of course, media, videos and audios and TV and And too many people focus on books and other media.

Learning, learning, learning just from books, books, books. But really the best learning, most learning happens from life. And that's what we see with Santiago, right? Santiago's learning already.

He has learned from life experience. He learned with the crystal shop. Last week we talked about it. He learned business. By doing it, by watching people, by learning from the shop owner, by talking to people, and by trying and doing.

He learned from life experience and became very good. That's how he learned with his sheep and to be a shepherd also. So Santiago learns from life mostly.

He prefers to learn by doing and by watching and listening. And the Englishman doesn't do that very much. The Englishman is completely focused on books, books, books. Just ideas, ideas, ideas.

But he doesn't watch. He doesn't listen. He's not connected to the real world. And that's the problem with too much book learning. That's a message we got from dumbing us down, right?

When we talked about the school system. Same idea. Too much book learning. makes you kind of stupid. You become kind of book stupid. You're book smart, but life's stupid.

There are a lot of people like that in the world. Okay, next we learn all this stuff about alchemy and alchemists. So, Alchemy, it's really about, this is really a symbol.

In this book, alchemy and the alchemist are symbols of spiritual or religious learning and growth. It's not about chemistry, really. That's not the point. I mean, they use chemistry.

There's the idea of using chemistry to make gold, using chemistry to make this magic stone. But then later we learn that the deeper meaning of alchemy and the alchemist is about yourself. It's about self-learning, self-discipline, self-mastery, and spiritual mastery.

He does not use the word God in this book to describe that. But that's basically what he's talking about. God, the universe, Tao, Dharma, whatever. Okay, continuing.

We get this very important section, which I highlighted, where they talk about the alchemist, how that because they work so hard, they gave up everything in life. They gave up money. They gave up women. They didn't try to get women.

They didn't try to get money. They did not try to become famous. everything, all their other desires, they let go. They focused only, only, only on this work.

And by doing that, they became better, you know, like saints, right? They became holy, H-O-L-Y. They became holy people. It's kind of like the idea of, if you know about sadhus in India, they get rid of,

There's some sadhus who aren't, so they're kind of pretending. But the real ones, they will give away everything, all possessions. They own nothing. And they will just focus all day long on just simply chanting or meditation or something like that.

And they're trying to connect with God or the universe. And so the alchemists did this almost accidentally. by trying to make the metals into gold and to create this philosopher's stone, by trying to do that, they actually became like sadhus in a way. They became like monks, kind of.

And so what they found was that the real philosopher's stone was not gold. It was wisdom. It was wisdom. Their own wisdom and understanding of the universe was

spiritual wisdom that was the real treasure that they found alright I think that's enough of me as usual let's go to our questions and comments because you all usually have the most interesting comments

Lots of people just saying hello. So questions and comments live on Facebook. Go ahead, add them now and we can chat about your ideas. Let me just go back really quickly.

A sage. Yes, that's another way to say it. Good. Alright, there's lots of people saying hello. We've got Russia, Australia, Australia. Yeah, so Nasser, good point.

The discussion between Santiago and the Englishman is a good example of how people are different in terms of thinking or mindset. Yes, that's right. We have different paths. There are different paths.

We will see that In the next section, when we finish The Alchemist, this book, in the final section next time, we'll see that the Englishman, he finally does meet The Alchemist. We'll see. And he'll learn.

The Alchemist will finally help him balance his learning. So he'll go beyond. He'll go past only book learning. So The Englishman's not a bad character.

He just has a weak point. His weak point is too... He's too focused on books. That's his weak point. But he has a lot of strong points, right? He's traveling all the way to Egypt from England.

So he took a big chance. He has learned a lot from the books. He knows a lot about alchemy. So, you know, he's learned a lot. He's done a great job. He has come much farther than Santiago, right?

So many good things about the Englishman. He's a good character. But he just has this weak point and he has to overcome it. But everybody has their weak point.

Santiago already has had several problems and difficulties. I think that's another message of the book. Nobody's perfect and it's not easy for anyone. Everybody has their challenges, but they're different.

Santiago's challenges are different. than the Englishman's challenges. But they both have their difficulties. They both have their weak points that they must overcome.

This is a good point, Tata. Tata says, the moment where the author compares... the Englishman who never stops reading, and Santiago, reminds me of people who read about making business. For example, people who study business at university.

And people who do it using real life experience and real practice. The second type are more successful, I think. You are 100% correct. The second type are much more successful.

That's a very good point. It connects back to rich dad, poor dad, right? That Robert Kiyosaki did not do well in school. Robert Kiyosaki did not go to business school.

In fact, he did not go to college at all. But he became very rich doing real estate because he learned by doing. And that is absolutely the case with entrepreneurs starting your own business, business people.

Some reading does help. I read books when I started Effortless English. I still read business books sometimes. but that's only maybe 20%. 80% is doing, doing, doing, learning by doing.

So it's not a choice. You don't have to choose. It's not this or this. You do both. Both are useful. I love reading books. That's why we're reading this book.

We can learn a lot from other people who write these great books, for sure. The problem is, as we see with the Englishman, the problem is when books replace real life.

Books should add to your real life experience. Books should help you understand your real life experience. Books should give you ideas to do, to take action.

If you just read, read, read, and think, think, think, but never do, that's the problem. That's what Paulo Coelho is saying, I think. So it's the same with business.

If you know nothing about business and you want to start your own business, then yeah, definitely read a bunch of business books, sure. But that's not enough. You've got to take action.

Take action, take action. In fact, it helps if you take action first, then when you read the books, you understand what the book is about. You have some experience to connect to the book. The book will become more useful to you.

Good comment. I like it. Charles says, I hate my work now. What can I learn from Santiago? I don't know. What can you learn from Santiago? Only you can answer that question.

Wow. Jonas... With a very nice comment. You're the best teacher I've seen. I've been watching your show for three weeks. I think my English has changed in just three weeks.

Well, thank you very much. That's great. You know, you must be listening a lot. So fantastic. Congratulations to you. And keep going. Imagine three months.

Imagine three years. How much you will improve. All right, continue on. 20% from books, 80% from life. Yeah, something like that. Life experience is the best teacher, for sure.

Okay, here's from Mohammed. Mohammed says, Hi Jay, I love your work. I am a PhD student and I want to change my life, but I think I want to finish my studies before. It's okay.

And I really think a lot about your ideas, and that makes me more tired about my life. I hope it would make you more excited. But I understand what you're saying.

I had a similar experience when I was in a master's degree program. Then you get my master's degree, and I did the first year. I did fine. I was fine.

But then in the summertime, I had a break, and I traveled. I traveled to India. And this was my first time to travel outside America. And it was an amazing trip.

I traveled for the whole summer. It was incredible. It changed my life. It changed my thinking about the world. It changed my thinking about what I wanted to do with my life.

I realized I want to travel more. I need to learn. I need more life experience. I'm tired of just being in classes all the time. I learned so much in just two months of traveling around the new country, much more powerful than school.

And I realized that. Then I came back to school and I had to finish my next year. It was very difficult to do because now I thought, oh, this school, this is bullshit, right? This is nonsense.

Suddenly the classes seem foolish. Suddenly the So much of what they were teaching seemed wrong and foolish and meaningless. And I had the same questions like you.

Should I finish? I don't know. Should I just quit? I don't know. I decided to finish because I had already spent the money. I already paid. And I realized, well, the degree, the master's degree, would help me get better jobs.

I would make more money later. And I needed to because I was poor. So I decided also, you know, I decided I finished. I did finish. But it was difficult.

My motivation was it was very difficult to be motivated. What I did was, though, I kept thinking and dreaming about travel and planning my next trip. So I decided after I graduate, I'm going to travel again. I'm going to find a job working in another country.

So that kept me motivated and excited. So I recommend that to you. Just think about, you know, start dreaming again. Just dream. Finish your program. That's okay.

But while you're finishing your program, continue to dream about your life. What do you want to do with your life? Okay, Ramesh Sivak. Hi again. Santiago has a very natural instinct of learning with his sharp watching skill.

The Englishman has not. But everybody's different and need to do their best. Practical learning is best, of course, but we can't leave books. That's right.

Very, very good. I think both. Books are fantastic. So we're not criticizing books at all. It's just, I think, in our modern time nowadays, right? It's because of our school system.

I think it's not books that are usually a problem. It's our school systems where students spend all their time focused on books and just don't get life experience, direct experience, direct learning, doing, doing, doing real world things.

It's unbalanced is the problem. Books are not bad. It's just unbalanced. We don't need to get rid of books. We need to add more life experience, right?

We can do both. It's not a choice. You don't need to choose this or this. We have enough time for both. We need both. The problem is schools eliminate life experience.

Sid with a nice comment. Hi, Sid, again. I like how the Englishmen in Santiago learn from their life. So meaning like us, we have different ways to learn.

There are quick learners and slow learners. True. Either way, if you are patient and determined to your goal, you can achieve it sooner or later. Focus and patience are the key for me.

That's a good comment because even though maybe... the writer is criticizing the Englishman a little bit. We see later, he still succeeds. The Englishman, because he's patient and determined, he keeps going, he keeps going, he doesn't quit.

Because of that, the Englishman also will be successful. And Santiago, the same. Why is he successful? Because he doesn't quit. Remember, last week, he thought about quitting, but he didn't.

He didn't go back. He continued to go forward. Well, the Englishman is the same. He's learning more from books, but he's still going forward. And eventually, if you keep going forward, you will learn what you need to learn.

The Englishman needs to learn more about practical life experience. He will. We'll see this next week. He will learn that. Santiago needed maybe to learn from that alchemy book.

He needed to learn from the Englishman about alchemy, because we'll see next week, this becomes very important for him. So the key thing is, right, you said, patience, keep going, don't stop, keep learning, keep learning, and you will learn what you need to.

Right, Fernando says, puts this in a better way, maybe. Wisdom is the true treasure of life. Experience brings us more wisdom than books. But the books are important.

Yeah, the good books. Because you have a life experience. Here's one of the great things, especially about great books, especially. Let's say you have a life experience.

Something terrible happens to you, some hard life event. That's life experience. And everybody, we all have something bad happen to us sometimes, right? But there's so many people and many people just become sad and depressed for a long, long time.

Some people become angry and they stay angry forever, their whole life. Some people become fearful and they are afraid their whole life. Other people learn and become more wise, right?

This is where great books can help us. Maybe you're having a very hard time in your life and, oh, you don't know what to do and what does it mean? What does this mean? And, oh, my life seems so hard now.

That's a good time to read something wonderful and powerful and wise. That's a good time to read the Bhagavad Gita. That's a good time to read the Dhammapada. That's a good time to read

I don't know, Walden by Thoreau, the Bible, the Quran, the Tao Te Ching. Because those books will help you understand your experience in a more wise and powerful and good way.

That's where those books, especially those great books, can help so much. Especially at those times of life There's many times in life where we have challenges.

This is about English. Abra says you were right about the movie technique and deep learning. Well, thank you. Glad it worked for you. Yes, the movie technique, deep learning, lots of repetition, all those techniques I use with my other courses, they do work.

Okay. Ko says, Hi, AJ. I listen to your podcast every night before I go to bed. I download it from your podcast site. I like the way you speak. Well, thank you.

That's very nice. Thank you very much. AJ, your teaching method is very good. How will I follow and develop the skill of good English in real life? This is from Vishnu.

Vishnu, first of all, about 80% of it is just listening, listening, listening, listening, listening. This is how all of our great, successful, effortless English members, this is what they did. They listened and listened and listened several hours every day for months and months and months, some people for years.

And this alone will improve your speaking a huge amount. Huge amount. You can also later get my pronunciation course. This will help you with speaking pronunciation, of course.

Also speaking speed. But really, it's lots and lots and lots and lots of listening. And then just chat with people when you're ready, when you feel confident, when you feel you are improving. You can get online and just join, just chat with anybody in English.

Chat with other Effortless English members. Lots of people do this. Usually on my Skype or my Gab, people will connect and chat with each other on Skype just to practice a little. So it's actually very simple.

Elena, with a nice Churchill quote, Winston Churchill said, success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. That's right. And you can look at Churchill's life and you see he practiced that.

It means that you fail. Most people in life, when they fail, they become sad. It's kind of normal. But a lot of people, they've become sad and lose their motivation.

They lose their excitement. They lose their happiness for what they're doing. They lose their enthusiasm. So then next time is not so strong. If they fail again, then it becomes weaker, and then most people will just quit.

But Churchill says if you can fail, you can make mistakes and fail, but still you're excited. Still you're enjoying it. Still you're enthusiastic, even after you fail.

This is how you will finally achieve great, great, great success. Lots and lots and lots of smaller failures, but you're still enthusiastic. You're still learning.

Of course, the best example of this, children. Children show us exactly how this works because children just play, play, play. They learn by playing and children will fall down and fall down and fall down and fall down. They may cry for a minute, but then they're up and they're excited again and they're playing and happy again.

And then they fall again. For example, learning to ride a bicycle. Child will fall. Oh, they'll cry. Then they get, what do they do? They don't quit. Then they just forget about it.

They get on the bike and they ride again. Still just as excited, just as enthusiastic. So they fail, they fail, they fail, they fail, they fail, they fail, they fail, but they're still enthusiastic, still playful, and then finally they succeed and they become really good at riding the bike or anything.

I think children really can teach us a lot about that mindset. Majay, which should be better, watch movies with subtitles in English or in our language?

English. Watch, if, Watch with English subtitles, if you use subtitles. Okay, let's see. Dalal with a nice comment. The true power comes from inside us, from inside you, because everything in the world needs consistency and patience, right?

That's right. That's an internal... Excuse me. We see it both with the Englishman and with Santiago. They have consistency and patience. They keep going.

They keep going. They keep going. They keep going. That's the secret to both of their successes, right? They're patient. They don't quit. It's really amazing how that one little technique or secret, how powerful that is.

I don't know if we can call it a secret. It's not secret. It's obvious. But just not quitting. If you just keep going and going and going and going and going, you will be amazed.

how much success you will have eventually. Eventually. If you just have enough patience and keep going, you will achieve so much more than most people.

Because most people quit. It's simple. It's very simple, but that is powerful. Iomi says, hi, AJ, you're an excellent teacher. I'm approving a lot. Thanks.

I'm still watching your videos. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, here we go. Emmanuel, hi, Emmanuel, with a long comment. Hi, I've got a question about my friend is always unhappy because he has gotten work where he earns just 900 euro monthly.

Yeah, it's kind of low. And he hates his work. And his other friends are programmers and earn about 2,500 euro monthly. So more than two and a half times.

Then my friend starts focusing on other people. And someone else has gotten an iPhone, for example, or some other expensive item. What do you do to recommend for him to stop thinking about it? Because it's not good for our health thinking about other people who are richer than us.

Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's always somebody richer than you. Unless you're the richest man in the world, which I think right now is Jeff Bezos.

But that changes, right? He'll only be number one for a few years, then someone else will be. So it's always possible to be jealous. It's always, always, always possible to be jealous because there's always going to be someone richer than you.

If you're a millionaire, there are people who have 10 million. If you have 10 million, there are other people who have 50 million. If you have 50 million dollars, there are other people who have 100 million. If you have 100 million dollars, there are billionaires.

If you have a billion dollars, some people have ten billion. You see? So, you can always look and, oh, he has more, he has more, he has more, they have more.

It's never ending. Never ends. So, for your friend like this, I don't know what to say. I think your friend needs something more meaningful in life than...

an iPhone. He needs a mission, a purpose in life. This is why mission and purpose are important. He needs some kind of mission, some kind of purpose in life that's not about getting something.

Not about a certain number of dollars, something deeper than that. Santiago, he has a purpose. His purpose is, we're going to see, his purpose is not really about money.

Even though on the On the top, the surface, seems that Santiago's purpose is to find treasure, treasure like gold, like the alchemists, right? Their purpose, their surface, it seemed the purpose was to make gold. But what happened was they realized, no, they had a deeper purpose.

The deeper purpose was wisdom, spiritual development, God, religion, helping people become a better person, all of these things were the real deeper missions or purpose for the alchemist. The gold, just the excuse really.

And we will see with Santiago, it's already happening actually we can see, it's the same for him. He's getting his treasure already. His treasure is knowledge and experience.

He's already getting his treasure. Right? It's not some gold coins. So I think it's fine in life to be rich. It's okay. It's fine to get nice things if you have the money.

But if you don't have the money, there's no need to be unhappy about that. Those things are not super important. If you have... some kind of deeper purpose.

It could be something simple just like learning. It could be something simple like family, your family, taking care of your family, your children, your wife, your husband, your own parents, your brothers, your sisters, family in general.

It could be even just like if you're an artist doing some kind of art Something creatively could be at the highest level, a religious purpose. It could be several things, many different things like this.

None of them are about money. Even business, even starting your own business. Like for me, you know, it's of course business is partly about money, but.

For me, the purpose of making my own business, money was not the main mission. The mission was freedom to teach and have the freedom to teach how I wanted to, the freedom to live the way I wanted to, to connect with people around the world, to travel, lots of other reasons.

In fact, when I, for many years as a teacher... I did not make very much money, but I was enjoying it myself because I was still following my mission, my purpose at that time was traveling and learning.

So I was still traveling around the world. I didn't care. I wanted some money, but I wasn't worried about iPhones and stuff like that. Of course, there were no iPhones then, but you get the idea.

I think that your friend is probably a little lost. He needs something deeper. You need something more meaningful. Abra again says, I burned all my English textbooks.

Great experience. You really did it. Very good. I like it. Hussain says, let's see. You have the most perfect and clear voice, teacher, that I've ever seen or heard.

I feel myself motivated and confident when I'm listening or watching your videos. God protect you. Thank you very much. That's nice. Thank you. Goran says, books are knowledge, but life is in the acting.

Yeah, you're right. That's right. Books are connected to life, right? Without life, books are just words on a page. In fact, why are some books great?

Because they contain the wisdom of life. The person who wrote that book had great life wisdom and is sharing his or her life wisdom in the book. That's why the book is powerful.

It's because of that great wisdom of the writer or writers. Asma says, traveling makes us more happy. And we discover the world. I love so much. Having a great trip.

Hoping having a great trip. Great. Yes, that's why I like travel. This is a great example of this. You know, before I traveled around different places in the world, of course, I read books about different places.

I read a lot of books about India before I went there. Read guidebooks. I read, read, read, read, read. But, of course, even reading all those books, when I actually arrived in India...

Was it the same? No. Of course, the real India was completely different and so much more powerful than any book. No book can fully give you the experience.

Not even close. Not even close. I find, though, what's more interesting is after I went to India, or even when I was in India traveling, I would read a book about India.

And then the book was more interesting to me because now I had the experience of traveling in India. So when they talked about something, I could imagine it because I had seen it myself. I'd experienced it. And suddenly the book became more alive because I had some life experience connected to the book.

Before I traveled to India, I was just imagining and many times my imagination was weak and my ideas about India were weird or crazy or foolish, even though I was reading.

So the real thing is completely different. Alan Watts talks about this, right? There's a big difference between a map and the real territory, the real land.

You can look at a map of France, but you will never understand France by just looking at a map. And you'll never understand France by looking at a map and reading a book.

You have to go there. And that's true, of course, for every country. Okay, I think we're about finished. Marjan, yeah, that's okay. Marjan has got a good comment about alchemists.

because really this is my idea too of alchemists before I thought that alchemists were just frauds frauds means like cheaters liars greedy people looking for money probably some were you know let's be honest probably some of them just were frauds this book made me realize that I have some wrong perspective me also and not only this book but I've read a few other books about not directly about alchemists but kind of about alchemists, and also kind of changed my mind about the alchemists a little bit, because that's what I learned in school, that the alchemists were kind of the beginning of science, you know, the beginning of chemistry, really, but that they were, you know, fools.

They could not change lead to gold. They were just interested in money. So they're kind of, you know, kind of foolish beginner scientists. But I do realize that there is some... What Paulo Coelho is talking about, there is some history of alchemists that have a more spiritual or religious background or purpose.

And maybe it was an accident. Maybe they did just try to find money. But by trying to do that, they did become almost like monks. And they began to look for something more than just the money.

It's interesting. It's a really interesting... group in history. And I'm not an expert on alchemists and alchemy history, but yeah, I also, this book has changed my mind about them a little bit.

Okay. Let's just see if I got any more. Let's see if I... Oh, Jim says, AJ, what did you learn after your trip to the Camino de Santiago in Spain? The boy in the story makes me remember your trip.

Me too, because Santiago, well, a couple of reasons. The boy's name is Santiago, Camino de Santiago. That's not an accident. Paulo Coelho also walked the Camino de Santiago.

It was a very powerful event. experience in his life. His first book, before The Alchemist, The Alchemist is his second book. His first book is called The Pilgrimage.

It's about the Camino de Santiago. So, Paul Coelho is connected to the Camino de Santiago. In this book, the character's name is Santiago. So I'd have to do another show about it because my experience with the Camino de Santiago was excellent, very, very powerful experience, a great experience.

I highly recommend the experience of walking the Camino de Santiago to anybody. It's really great. Yeah, I'm not going to go into details, actually, because I can talk for hours about that.

Another time, Jim... Okay, I think it's time. I am going to go eat dinner now. I hope you enjoyed this section of The Alchemist. Oh, one point. I'm going to be doing some traveling next month.

I'll be here at home some, but I'll also be traveling. So our schedule might change a little. I think we probably will finish The Alchemist next time. But...

I think I cannot do it next weekend, so we'll need two weeks. I'll update you on social media, on Gab, and on Twitter. If Gab survives, they're trying to block and censor Gab again. But anyway, I'll let you know, and we'll finish the book, The Alchemist, next time.

Until then, enjoy the book. I hope you're doing well. I hope you're having a great podcast. day great evening lots of love to you thanks as always for joining me live and thank you for your wonderful questions and comments all right i'll see you next time as always join my vip program at effortless english club.com speak english powerfully fluently speak effortlessly train in english

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