Episode 045 – Lauren Delmont, Part 1

Lauren Delmont
Stories of the Magic, Episode 45

 

 

Interview Guest: Lauren Delmont

 

 

 

 

First, Happy New Year! I hope you have a blessed and prosperous 2014!

 

In this episode, we begin a 3-part interview with Lauren Delmont. If you’re a fan of Disneyland and have a DVD player, you may have heard of Lauren and her dad, John. If not, you really should. The DVD they made, The Secret Tour of Disneyland, is a must-have and must-watch. If you’ve never been to the park, it’s a great overview. If you consider yourself a Disneyland expert, you’ll still learn something new.

 

But there’s much more to Lauren and her connection to (and interest in) Disney than that DVD. She worked at Disneyland during the 50th anniversary, teaching English in China with Disney, and several visits over the last year to Hong Kong Disneyland, and we talk about it all.

 

This was my first international interview—Lauren is currently in China—and I learned something new. Apparently trying to use Skype at mid-morning on a weekday in China means the internet connection isn’t the best sometimes. The audio quality held up pretty well, but there are some places where it dropped out. We tried to take care of as much of that as we could, and I edited around more, but there are still a few places where it distorts a little or drops out, and a few stray sounds towards the end of part 1. Hopefully I’ve minimized it enough that it won’t be distracting, but I wanted to make sure you know what’s going on if you do notice it.
In this episode, Lauren talks about…

  • Her first job, working at Disneyland in Foods;
  • How she got involved with Disney English in China;
  • What Disney English is;
  • Its similarity—and differences—to traditional English as a Second Language programs;
  • How kids get into the program;
  • How her college major, which wasn’t teaching, prepared her to teach in this program;
  • What she loved most about what she did while she was working at Disneyland;
  • What she loves most about what she does now;
  • What it’s like teaching English in a country where she’s not a speaker of their native language;
  • More about what makes the Disney program unique;
  • Where Disney got the teachers from for this program;
  • A little about her 2 Disney Traditions classes, and the differences between them;
  • Some times, in both Disney jobs, where she remembers thinking, “I’m doing something really special”;
  • Why they stopped giving her the job of closing the line of the little ice cream shop across Main Street from Gibson Girl;
  • How she deals with rough days—for herself and for the kids.

 

Find Lauren Online:

 

Podcasts Spotlighted in this Episode: 

 

I want to hear from you, so please email me, leave a comment below, or call the Listener Feedback line at (734) 23-STORY.   If you call in, don’t worry about having to sound perfect. If you ask me to, I’ll edit out any mistakes so you sound as good as you possibly can. You’re even welcome to start your entire story over again and I’ll use the “take” you want!

 

If you want to submit a story anonymously, for whatever reason you may have, email it to me and tell you me you wanted it shared that way. I’ll read it on the podcast, but keep your name private.

Thanks for listening!

 

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Music and voiceovers provided by Rick Moyer.

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