Be There for Someone

Question 1: Can you tell the differences between the four items below?

1. teacher

2. trainer

3. coach

4. mentor

Question 2: Can you match the items above with the pictures below?

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"Huh?"

Yeah, it's confusing when we put them all together but the truth is, they are inseparable.

From the general point of view, "a teacher" means a school teacher; "a trainer" is from the gym; "a coach" is either a bag or for a sport; "a mentor" makes you think of an old person. While these are wrong, they're just not entirely right. In the world today, we tend to identify distinctions and oversimplify. This also contributes to our increasingly shorter focus span but we will be addressing mainly on being the help for others.

Everyone grew up being taught, trained, coached, and mentored mostly unknowingly. The path of learning is very peculiar. When we were young, we had the most easily-accessed, costless, direct, and concentrated learning. Every now and then there will be a highlight among the group but as we may well know, most of us are passive learners. We may even reject assistance.

Everyone then grew up being knowledgeable, skilled, essential, and philosophical, mostly unknowingly. We wish it were that simple. Realistically, we came to three groups, the lack, the full, and the help.

Those who failed to acquire what they need in the past are always chasing behind until they double-timed and caught up or found the right direction. Those who got on the right track tend to stay on it and make sure they don't derail. When they see the ones chasing trains, it became the defining moment of their lives. "To help or not to help", that is the question. On the one hand, you deserve to be on the train because you worked hard for it and vice versa, those down there don't. It sounds reasonable except that it isn't right. Call it however you may, karma, the balance, whatnot. The world CANNOT be one that separates people. We need to be there for one another.

For as long as Andy's been on the path of teaching, he's always been looking for partners but never did. It's true that he chose to teach in a more difficult way than conventional teaching jobs. Passion before profession(not the workout video), which is literally another term of saying "you may not get paid (yet)". Thus, people either don't have the heart, the skill, or the financial support to go along and join the mission. It's no one's fault if people want to make money; it's the recruiter's. He can't just expect people to starve and help others eat. Therefore, here we are, as Iron Man does to Holland Spider-Man, the Training Wheel Protocol initiates.

There have been four trainees since Free The Language started in 2018. The participants are given students to teach and money in return. Andy's a teacher because of his DNA so there's no issue there but the three trainees and the ones in the future do not necessarily have to be teachers by default, nor trying to be one in the future. What we hope the trainees to become is to have the heart to pull someone up simply because they can. We set the direction for these trainees, not rules, nor obligations because we all are responsible for our own actions after all. As teachers, we do what we can, what we must, and then keep the faith that one day the students would exceed and lead on.

What's in it for Andy? Love, I guess! Too cheesy? I guess! Here's the external "benefit", if it's easier to understand. Teaching/helping someone else, by all means, simply makes you a better person in every way. You're someone that only knows basic A-Z but by teaching that to someone who doesn't know it, you reflect. The learner may still be confused because you're not really a teacher but I bet it helps. If not, no worries, someone else will. This example may be extreme so let's look at another. You and your college friends are working on a school paper. Instead of doing the work respectively, you proofread each other's drafts and there's 100% guarantee that a discussion could be made for the improvement of both writing.

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A trainer focuses on teaching through instructions and repetition.

A coach sets roles and creates teamwork.

A mentor genuinely cares for your well-being and provide guidance.

A teacher is all of them. A teacher should and must be all of them.

#education