Today we have @是可以呀 on again as she shares her experience of learning many languages. Transcript [00:15] Isaac: Okay. Hello, hello, hello. [00:18] 是可以呀: Hello. [00:19] Isaac: Today, I have got... Oh, what were you called last time? Virginia? [00:26] 是可以呀: Um, Florida. [00:28] Isaac: Oh, you were called Florida last time? [00:30] 是可以呀: I think so. [00:33] Isaac: So, we, we have got her back on the podcast today. [00:38] Isaac: Today, I thought we'll talk about some languages, because she has had a lot of experience learning languages over the years. [00:47] 是可以呀: Are you not going to mention that we are... this is a very special podcast because it's got recorded in, uh, different places? [00:55] Isaac: Okay. So this is a special podcast. We are actually in the car at the moment, on the way back from (Chinese) , in (Chinese) . [01:06] 是可以呀: Yes. [01:06] Isaac: Last time we were in this car together, on this road, was actually when we were talking about, "Oh, we should probably start making a podcast and probably working towards some extra goals like this." [01:22] 是可以呀: Mm-hmm. And so you might- [01:24] 是可以呀: ... uh, so you might hear some noises which will be me... How do you call this light? [01:32] Isaac: Putting the indicator on in the car going... (indicator clicking) [01:36] 是可以呀: Yes. [01:36] Isaac: Or you might hear the navigation device on our phone telling us where to go, or you might hear the rain on the window as we drive. [01:47] 是可以呀: How do you call this thing that's getting rid of the rainwater? [01:52] Isaac: This is called the windscreen wipers. You might hear it go... (windscreen wiper sound) [01:58] 是可以呀: I ho- I hope this car is not that old though. [02:02] Isaac: I don't think we'll get hear it. I think these microphones won't pick it up. [02:06] 是可以呀: Oh, okay. Too bad then. [02:08] Isaac: So, uh, I was thinking about talking about languages today, because you've had quite a lot of experience learning languages over the years. Let's go back to your home. What language would you speak at home? [02:21] 是可以呀: My (Chinese) - that's why I speak Hakka, and Hakka is my mother language. [02:27] Isaac: So Hakka is your mother language. But at school, at what age did you start having to speak Mandarin? [02:37] 是可以呀: I think in middle school. But the teachers here teaching us in Mandarin back in primary school. And then, when we moved up to middle school, we were still using Mandarin, but I remember there was one teacher... Oh, sorry, cut, um, when we moved up to middle school, that's the time that, between the students, we started using more Mandarin than Hakka. But with, with friends, we still used Hakka e- 'cause it's, um, language that we are more familiar with. Funny thing is, one of the s- friends we ha- I have... You've met her, Jumy. [03:16] 是可以呀: So we used to use Hakka to communicate, but not anymore. I think it's also because, uh, she left (Chinese) after middle school, and then she's been spending a lot of time outside of (Chinese) . That's why, right now, when we are communicating, we are speaking Mandarin. And, uh, I remember, during middle school, there was a physics teacher. He used Hakka to teach us, and we were not happy about it. We kept having a lot of critiques on him because he's been using Hakka to teach us. I think it's a shame, because right now there are too many people using Mandarin instead of Hakka. And then when we moved up to high school, that's the time that most of us will be speaking Mandarin, because there are people from other prefectures that come to the city to ha- uh, pursue their study in our high school, um, and some of them have very thick accent, speaking Hakka. Uh, they are not really proud of the accent. That's why they would ch- switch to Mandarin for us to e- communicate easier. [04:29] 是可以呀: Actually, if it's right now, and I'm having a lot of friends coming from different prefectures, I will try to use Hakka to communicate with them, um, instead of laughing at them. Their accent were mocked often back then. [04:48] Isaac: So, most of your schooling was conducted in Mandarin. But between friends, you might speak Hakka. Between classmates, more generally, you might use some Mandarin. [05:04] Isaac: What about at home? Would you consider your home to be a bilingual home, or do you think it was fam- monolingual, just using Hakka? [05:13] 是可以呀: You can't say bilingual even though you're speaking both Mandarin and Hakka. But at home, we mainly use Hakka. We don't speak any Mandarin at home. [05:26] Isaac: Were there any situations where you did? [05:28] 是可以呀: Right now, yes. Not before. Right now is because, uh, uh, we have my brother, niece, and, uh, nephews. When they come over, we do speak Mandarin with them, because that's the language they are more familiar with. And a lot of their pronunciation, they already forgotten. I'm not saying that... Probably not forgotten. A lot of... There are a lot of p- words, pronunciations, um, they will get it wrong. [05:57] Isaac: Or maybe they just haven't learnt. [05:59] 是可以呀: You learn the language through communicating with people at home. So-Maybe it's also because their classmates are like that, and they're more used to Mandarin. Their pronunciations are affected by Mandarin, instead of their Mandarin are affected by their Hakka. [06:19] Isaac: Then going- going on from Hakka, when was the first time you started to learn foreign languages, and what foreign languages did you start to learn? [06:31] 是可以呀: I started learning English when I was grade three, uh, and that's a very common grade started learning English in China b- back then. [06:44] Isaac: And what was your first thought of learning English? [06:48] 是可以呀: I loved it. I was so good at it. [06:50] Isaac: And these attitudes towards this language continued and remained the same? Did they ch- change over the years, maybe one part in school you weren't interested or didn't like it, or did your interest grow and grow, grow more? [07:06] 是可以呀: I think people will get more and more interested in something when they are good at it. So over the years, I got even better, and my parents noticed my talent of learning languages, so my dad decided to sign up a lot of foreign teachers English classes for me, and I just get better and better, and more and more interested in learning the languages. And you hear the comments of me from pe- other people saying that I'm really good at learning languages. So as I said, uh, as long as you are good at it, you will have more interested doing it. [07:53] Isaac: So other people have said you have got this talent for learning languages, plural. What other languages have you been learning and when did you start? [08:04] 是可以呀: I was also doing Japanese studying when I was, uh, preparing for my IELTS exam. That was just out of interest, and I just learned hiragana and katakana, and that's it. Then I stopped until uni starts, I pick Japanese as well. But when I went abroad to Australia to study, that's the time I realized, oh, languages are just languages, unless you are dive into that areas. [08:37] Isaac: Like, go to that country or- [08:40] 是可以呀: You go to that country, you realize everybody's talking to you in that language, and you just pick it up. You just gradually pick it up. And people will stop saying that your English is so good, because they will think that's one of the languages you know. When people are still complimenting your English is good, it means they think that you are just an English learner instead of an English speaker. So when I went to Australia, I hear- I hear less comments of about it. [09:13] Isaac: Do you think that will be the same the other way around for people learning Chinese? Will it get to the point when, say, "My Chinese is good enough," people will stop complimenting you? [09:25] 是可以呀: I guess for you, it's very different. It's because there are not many foreigners speaking really good Chinese, or speaking Chinese here. So no matter how good your Chinese is, or no matter how bad your Chinese is, you will still hear compliments about, "Oh, your Chinese is actually very good." But for a language you know your Chinese or your other languages you're trying to speak is really good is when it hits the point that you can join in most of the conversations without, um, panicking, hesitating what to say. Yeah. What do you think? [10:05] Isaac: Do you think your English has got to that point where you don't panic or hesitate? I think it has personally. [10:10] 是可以呀: It- it has, um, especially with your parents. I used to overthink a lot before I was going to say something, but right now, I just need to make it clear about what I was going to say, um, and just say it. Um, I wouldn't panic or thinking a lot. Yeah, so it will be much easier to talk to your parents, your, um, your sister, your brother. But w- what about you? For you, I think you still overthink, not like overthink- [10:40] Isaac: I do. I think it's better if I stop overthinking and just say, even if I'm wrong, it's better than to wait a long time to respond. [10:48] 是可以呀: It also comes from your personality, because you are that type of person would make sure that things are going smoothly, so you have to prepare a lot beforehand. Even when you're talking in English, I see the consideration of words from you. So it's not just Chinese. It happen to all the languages that, that you're speaking. I'm not sure about you speaking German, because I've never seen you speaking German. [11:18] Isaac: No, I have not for a long time. I don't think... There w- there, there came a point when I was started to learn Chinese, and I thought Chinese was very practical. I could practice with a lot of people, so this made me more and more interested in it. And it very quickly took over my interest for German, because I can see this practical side to it, that I can directly implement into my life, even if I'm not in China. Whereas German, it's very difficult to find German speakers and to practice with them. [11:55] 是可以呀: No, but coming back from the topic that we were saying, what about when you were in German? [12:02] Isaac: Germany? [12:03] 是可以呀: When you were in Germany, were you overthinking a lot before you were gonna say something? [12:11] Isaac: ... I don't think so, because it was easier when I was learning German to say what I wanted when I wanted. [12:21] Isaac: Just because there are more similarities bet- between English and German. [12:27] 是可以呀: Yeah, so when you're speaking Chinese, it is harder for you because it's a totally different language. [12:35] Isaac: But that also has its benefits. One of the main benefit is that it is totally different. It's easier to make the distinctions between the two. [12:44] 是可以呀: For example? [12:45] Isaac: For example, I can make the case with German how there might be some words that's spelt very similar, but they're pronounced different. [12:54] 是可以呀: But you just said that learning a totally different language is beneficial. [12:59] Isaac: Yeah. The similarities are less. You don't have to make note of words. [13:07] 是可以呀: Oh, I see. [13:08] Isaac: ... if you like. [13:08] 是可以呀: I see what you mean. That- [13:09] Isaac: So I'm kind of making the point in the opposite way. [13:12] 是可以呀: The one... It's like when I'm s- trying to learn French and English at the same time. Uh, at that time, I wasn't really learning English because I had to use that language as my daily life language and also the language I use at uni. So back then, there were a lot of words I did not really... Back then, there were a lot of words, I could not r- remember the English words, but I know how to say that in French, because I've learned those words in French and I can't remember the English one. So I think when you are not too familiar, or when your levels are not that high up yet, you mix the two languages that are very similar. [14:00] Isaac: For sure. And when you started to learn French when you came to Australia, is that right? Around a similar time when you started learning Japanese- [14:12] 是可以呀: Yes. [14:12] Isaac: ... more seriously. [14:14] 是可以呀: Yes. But the Japanese was very easy back then, because, um, the Japanese courses they teach in a Western country, it just very easy. So basically, Japanese has five levels, N5 to N1, and when I was at uni, I felt like I was pretty good at it. However, the courses they taught was only up to starting of N4. That's why when I- [14:43] Isaac: So even after third year of Japanese, most people could only pass N4? [14:50] Isaac: Wow. After third year of German, I could pass C1. [14:55] 是可以呀: But in Chinese universities, people who are majoring in Japanese, they have to pass N2, like my cousin, fucking cousin's sister. She passed N2. [15:11] Isaac: What did she study? Just Japanese? [15:14] 是可以呀: A tourist. I can't remember. [15:15] Isaac: Tourism? And is she still in China? [15:18] Isaac: What is the most unique language you have learned? Because you have learned Japanese, French, English. These are some of the main ones. Or- [15:28] 是可以呀: I learned- [15:29] Isaac: ... the most unique dialect? [15:31] 是可以呀: I learned Manchu. [15:32] Isaac: Manchu? [15:33] 是可以呀: Yeah. [15:34] Isaac: I remember when we first started dating, you- you were learning Manchu for a little bit. [15:38] Isaac: What was the reason behind that? I think you had a little challenge. [15:42] 是可以呀: Uh, 30 or 13 challenges every single day. It was fun. I remember how to say my last name is Ma. It's Meeni Gebube Ma Senbe [15:53] Isaac: Oh, that is so long, huh? [15:55] 是可以呀: My last name is Ma. It's also very long as well. [15:59] Isaac: Huh? It's just one syllable, in- [16:01] 是可以呀: Meeni Gebube Ma Senbe. Four. [16:05] Isaac: Oh, that is a sentence. I thought that was the- the word horse [16:11] 是可以呀: Oh, no, no, no. Ma. [16:13] Isaac: Ma. [16:13] 是可以呀: Ma is, uh, is my last name, right? And then is Meeni Gebube Ma Senbe. I think Senbe is something that you put under- behind a sentence, at the end of the sentence. [16:27] Isaac: What about Meeni Gebube? [16:29] 是可以呀: Not Bube. Meeni Gebube. [16:31] Isaac: Meeni Gebube. [16:33] 是可以呀: I don't know what it means, but it might ... might someday be my last name. [16:36] Isaac: And why did you choose b- Manchu? [16:38] 是可以呀: It's a dying language of China. [16:41] Isaac: In the Northeast of China? [16:43] 是可以呀: Yeah, a dying language. [16:46] Isaac: Do many people still speak Manchu? [16:48] 是可以呀: No way. It's, that's why it's a d- [16:50] Isaac: Or is it- [16:51] 是可以呀: ... dying language. [16:51] Isaac: Is- is it dying or is it dead? [16:54] 是可以呀: It's dying. Eh? [16:56] Isaac: Dying. [16:56] 是可以呀: It's probably almost dead. [16:58] Isaac: Are they classed as a different ethnic group, Manchu? [17:03] 是可以呀: Yeah. [17:04] Isaac: But there's still a significant population of Manchu, but they can't speak? [17:09] 是可以呀: They're being Hanized a lot, though. I don't even know if that's a real word, Hanized. In Hainan. [17:18] Isaac: Probably. I think- I think that would be correct way. Have you had any funny or embarrassing mistakes you have made while speaking a new language? [17:30] 是可以呀: Uh, there's one. It's not embarrassing. It's when I went to Australia, I made a mistake that all Chinese people would make, because in China, we don't say, "Wǒ ke bu kěyǐ yào yītiā zhège? Wǒ ke bu kěyǐ yào nàge?" You know how in English you always say, "Can I please have this or that?" [17:56] Isaac: Yeah. May I please? Yeah. [17:58] 是可以呀: Oh, yeah. May I please? [17:59] Isaac: You say it a little bit longer. [18:01] 是可以呀: But in Chinese, you say, "I want this or that." [18:03] Isaac: More direct. [18:04] 是可以呀: Uh-huh. So you- you cut that polite shit part. I mean, yeah, you cut the polite things.... out. [18:15] Isaac: And so you came across rude to many people. [18:18] 是可以呀: Yeah. So went to the canteen. I was ordering food. Then I told the lady, I said, "I want this. I want that." Then the lady was ha- teaching me, saying, "Uh, you're not supposed to order it like that. You say, 'May I please have the chicken wings?' And be specific, not this or that. Learn the words there." So this is my first English lesson there. And I don't think I have very, very embarrassing moments of speaking or learning new languages. But I do have one of my friends one. [18:55] Isaac: What did they do? [18:56] 是可以呀: Do you... You remember Bayan, right? [18:59] Isaac: Yep. [18:59] 是可以呀: He is my French classmate, French class- classmates. In English people do say, "I'm really excited seeing you." [19:10] Isaac: Uh-huh. [19:10] 是可以呀: Uh, and also you can also say, "Je suis très excitéé." Uh, or, "I'm very excited as well." So there was one time he went to my professor's office, and trying to say- say, "Oh, I'm really excited seeing you," and he used the phrase, "Je suis très excitéé." But in French it means, "I'm very turned on by you. I'm very excited." [19:40] 是可以呀: And my professor was laughing so hard. And she even said that, shared that story to us. [19:46] Isaac: In class? In front of him? [19:48] 是可以呀: Y- yeah, I think so. [19:51] 是可以呀: He found it funny, too. [19:52] Isaac: He would. He's not someone who'd be ashamed by that. He would laugh it off. [19:57] 是可以呀: Yeah, he wouldn't... So dad w- that friend is a polyglot. He just has no shame speaking other languages. That's why he could master so many languages. He was on Hanyu Qiao as well, on Hunan Weishi. Yeah, he w- he's the person that you should, you should ha- invite as a guest. [20:18] Isaac: Yeah, next time I see him, I'll make sure to bring a microphone with me. (laughs) [20:22] 是可以呀: (laughs) Yeah, he will have a lot to share. [20:25] Isaac: But he's hard to get in touch with in person. [20:28] 是可以呀: And it's probably would... The podcast would be too long if you're talking with him. [20:33] Isaac: Always cut it down, that's what we normally do. I don't think I've had many really embarrassing things. Normally it's just when I ask someone how to say something, a friend, and they tell me the wrong thing to say. Or maybe they want me to say something to someone. Like, for example, when we're on the train, and your mom and your sister were on the train as well. [20:58] Isaac: And you asked me to s- say something to your sister. [21:01] 是可以呀: What was that? [21:03] Isaac: I can't remember the word, but it was an inappropriate word. [21:07] 是可以呀: (nian gu) meaning um, breast. [21:11] Isaac: Yeah. Or another time, in one of my first Chinese classes, I think I wanted to say, "I want to go to the ba." "Wèiyǒu qù jiǔba." But I didn't know how to say ba. And they replaced jiǔ with jī. [21:28] 是可以呀: Really? They did that? [21:30] Isaac: Yeah, they did that to me. They did me dirty. [21:33] 是可以呀: That's so funny. [21:34] Isaac: So that was a little embarrassing. [21:37] 是可以呀: It would be. Oh, oh yeah. [21:39] Isaac: I wouldn't say I've had many things that have embarrassed me. This is always a hard question to answer. Have you ever had a favorite way to learn a language? [21:48] 是可以呀: To go to that country. [21:50] Isaac: To go to the country. [21:52] 是可以呀: It's really hard to ma- actually learn and speak the language when you're not there. [21:57] Isaac: I think your Japanese got quite well even though you didn't go to Japan. [22:02] 是可以呀: Really? [22:03] Isaac: Yeah, when I first started dating you. [22:05] Isaac: Is that just 'cause you were talking to your friends a lot in Japanese? [22:08] 是可以呀: I've never considered my Japanese as good. [22:11] Isaac: Didn't it get up to N3? [22:15] 是可以呀: I think I'm just N4. And N3 was just luck. Uh, it's not that lucky, 'cause, um, I did go to an entry exam, and I was, um, two score down. [22:29] Isaac: Two marks off from passing the exam. [22:32] 是可以呀: Yeah, and considering I did not study at all. [22:38] Isaac: And now, she's going for N2.

This episode is about some interesting ways we can study languages. It is mainly some way my friend and I enjoy learning Chinese. Some strategies I have enjoyed when learning languages: 🏓 Pickleball Diplomacy: Meeting teachers and staff at the gym to swap English/Chinese practice. 📱HelloTalk Exchange: Long-term connections(Guangzhou/Shaanxi) that moved from app to real-life meetings. 📖70% Rule: Reading Grade 4-5 books where comprehension is high enough to be enjoyable. How about you? How do you like to learn English or other languages? Transcript [00:10] Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. It's me, Isaac. How are you today? I'm going great if you're wondering. Today, I am going to be talking about how we learn languages. Again, this is a topic of focus in one of my classes. Well, not exactly. It's more like how to be a good student. Students are sharing how they can be better, or how they can get better at a certain subject, like English. Maybe they can read more books, write a diary in English, or even do some more English exercises. These were some boring ways suggested by the textbook, but some students suggested some more interesting and fun ideas, like watching English TV shows, reading English comic books, or playing English video games. In addition to this, I did come across and meet a lot of new people recently. At school, there is pickleball. [01:16] I only found out recently that every Tuesday night, people play pickleball in the gymnasium. So, I've been showing up to this the past two weeks. Here, I have met many new teachers from around the school that otherwise I never would have met before, because there- there would be hundreds of staff at this school. This way, it's a fun way I can meet some staff and easy for me to talk to them. Some staff like to practice their English with me, and I also like to practice my Chinese with them. It is a fun, low-pressure environment for us to practice. I'd like to share some of the other ways I've learnt Chinese over the years. One way is by using an app called HelloTalk. This is a language exchange app. I used this ever since I started learning Chinese, back from maybe the three-month mark, 'cause I was wondering, hm, how can I get better? How can I talk to more people? [02:20] And this was one of the ways it suggested online, was to find a language exchange partner, and what- this was one of the language exchange apps. On this app, I met many people. Many people come and go, but there are only two people that I still keep on contact. One of them was actually the very first person I met on there, and she is from Guangzhou. A few years ago, when I first moved to Hong Kong in 2022, it was only about in 2023, April, when the borders reopened and foreigners could go to China. This is when I met her for the first time. So, we met up at a restaurant, and some of her ca- friends came along as well. We had dinner, and we finally got to meet each other after probably three years of being language exchange partners online. Another one was a guy called Zach, similar to my name. He is from Shaanxi Province, and he moved to Adelaide, my city for work, and he noticed that on my profile, it also listed that I'm from Adelaide. [03:32] So he thought, "Oh, why don't we have a language exchange in person?" So, we met up in the central markets in Adelaide. Right around the corner from the markets is Victoria Square, and in Victoria Square, there was a food and wine exhibition. Most of the food back in that exhibition was very expensive, so we didn't buy too many things to eat or drink, only a few bits. I haven't used this app, HelloTalk, for many years, as I believe in Hong Kong, you can't access it, but I think in China you can, and in Australia, of course. But by the looks of it, there's a lot more features that you need to pay for nowadays compared to five years ago when I was using it. There were also some in-person language exchange events that I attended in Hong Kong. Initially, it was with me having the idea that I can go there and practice my Chinese and people can practice their English with me. [04:36] But then as time went on, I met more and more people from China who came to Hong Kong to work or study, and they were learning Cantonese. And that was about the time when I thought, oh, if they can learn Cantonese so fast, why don't I try learn? So, I learned a little bit of Cantonese there as well. But more recently, I'm just focusing on Mandarin, as I want to focus on one thing and get better at it. There was a point where my Mandarin, Cantonese, and Hakka, because sometimes my girlfriend would teach me a little bit of Hakka, they were all getting mixed together, and I couldn't remember clearly which dialect was which, because I didn't practice enough. So, these would be some of my favorite techniques to study and learn a language. They're quite, uh, low pressure and fun ways to learn. One of my friends, he is from Australia, but he is also learning Chinese. I have talked about him a few times on here, but I have not mentioned his name yet. [05:36] Maybe in the future I'll invite him on to talk. But he always shares some interesting methods that he uses to learn Chinese. The first one is to watch TV shows. Some people, when they think of watching Chinese teach- TV shows, they think of Kung Fu Pigs or other classic Chinese TV shows. But the show he will watch are animated movies and cartoons, like Avatar or older Disney movies and TV shows.... but particularly Avatar: The Last Airbender. From what he told me, he would watch this TV show over and over again until he understands every word that is said. So, he will pause and start, pause and start, pause and start until he can understand everything that is said. If he can't understand a sentence, he'll rewind and go back, look up the words, listen to it again. I think he has watched each episode many, many times. He has told me before. For me, this seems very slow and strenuous, but it is definitely a good method to learn a language. [06:53] He's got a lo- he must have a lot of patience to do this. But for him, this method has helped him improve his Chinese a lot, especially his vocabulary. Ever since doing this, his vocabulary has just exploded. He also likes reading. I enjoy reading sometimes. I might just steal some books from the bookshelf at the primary school. Not steal, but borrow. I return them later on. I don't keep them. (laughs) These books are probably aimed at grade four or five learners. So for me, it's at the perfect level. Not too easy, but not too hard. I can probably read about 70% of it. Every now and then, I need to look at the dictionary at a new word. But for my friend, he will choose books that are a lot more difficult. And guess what book he is reading. He is reading Harry Potter, a novel. He says reading this book is extremely difficult, extremely slow at the start. Many words he would have had to look up one by one in order for him to be able to read the page. [08:06] But he says slowly, as he moves through the book, many of these words do get repeated, so he can pick up his pace a little bit. I tested doing this myself, because one day in the office a student left a book on my desk. It was also Harry Potter. It was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I tried to read it. I read a few pages, but there were so many words I didn't understand. It was quite difficult for me to read. Since then, this was probably in October last year, I haven't tried again. I remember when I was learning German, my German level used to be around this proficiency, where I could pick up a novel and read it. Even in my final year of university, I could translate the first chapter of The Hobbit from German into English. But I feel getting my Chinese to the same level is very difficult, perhaps because German and English have got so many similarities in between them. And when you're reading German, it's easy to read the words and to guess the meaning. [09:11] Perhaps a word looks similar to the English word, or you've seen part of it in a different word. But for Chinese, unless you've seen the character before, it is very difficult to read the character. So, being able to pick up a novel and read it in Chinese has a much steeper learning curve to it. So, I think that's all for today. It was about nine minutes for today's episode, all about some different language learning techniques. My favorite ones are doing language exchanges and my friends is to watch TV shows and read Harry Potter. What about you? Do you have any fun and interesting ways that you like to learn English or other languages? All right, that is all for today. Goodbye, everyone. See you next time.

What's up, everyone? Today I'm talking about dates like the 20th of May and how to be a better pupil. Transcript [00:00] Hello, everybody. Welcome back. It is me, Isaac. Today, I have a few ideas to talk about in today's episode. The first one is the date today. Today, as I'm recording it and as I upload it, it will be the 20th of May, or if you write the day in the format of month, day, it would be 5/20. And today here in China, it is a festival similar to Valentine's Day, because the numbers 5, 2, 0 sound like I love you in Mandarin. So in China, it has become similar to Valentine's Day, all because of this homophone. And then because of this, I was thinking, hmm, what other dates are there that have puns or homophones, or have some other kind of cultural reference? And then one immediately came to mind, and it was also in the month of May, and that is May 4th. If you know, it is Star Wars Day. [01:29] And here, the pun is, May the 4th Be With You, which is a twist on the Jedi greeting, "May the force be with you." So fans might go all out. Apparently, there are some marathons or cosplay events, or sometimes i- if babies are born on this day, some people will choose to name their book Leia or Luke, and all because of this popular movie, this has come along. Some other dates that you might hear of that people have a bit of a laugh around is the 20th of April, all because of the nod to the devil's lettuce. Other than that one I liked as a kid growing up was the 1st of April, known as April Fools' Day. This one's all about harmless chaos, fake news headlines, friends hiding your keys. Even some companies might get on the act and have some big, elaborate pranks. Normally, they might post something little on social media, like a fake product release. There's always a bit of fun, and as a kid, I always liked pranking some of my classmates or making some jokes. [02:56] So any pranks and tomfoolery on April Fools' Day is meant to be carried out before noon, before lunchtime. I don't know why, but that's... is always what I've been told as a kid growing up. And then that reminds me of something else as a kid that I used to do on the first day of the month. As a kid in schools, we would always go up to our friends and try be the first one to go pinch and a punch for the first day of the month, which means you just go up to them, you pinch and punch them, and you say the line. Usually, you'll... it will be followed by, "No returns." So pinch and a punch for the first day of the month, no returns, which means they can't pinch and punch you back. I've talked to some of my colleagues who are from the UK, and they also have this. So both in Australia and the UK, kids will do this. Again, this can only be done before noon, cannot do it after lunchtime. In March, you have Pi Day, which is March 14th, which, I've never really paid much attention to. [04:15] I know there's other special events on this day for my family. It's one of my family member's birthday. So I guess I never remember Pi Day, I just remember my family's birthday. The 22nd of February is often known as Twos Day because of all the twos in the date, 22nd, 2-2, February, the second month, 2. But unfortunately, this year on the 22nd of February, it was a Sunday. So there were some of the dates I thought of. Let me know if you have any more special days that are puns, plays on words, or come from some pop culture reference. The other topic that I wanted to talk about comes from one of my grade four English classes. This week, we started a new topic, a new chapter, and this topic was all about being a good pupil, being a good student. The topic starts off with a picture of a student looking a little bit upset, with a thought bubble. [05:31] Inside the thought bubble, there are the words English exam or Chinese exam or just exam, and it says, "30 out of 100." And the kids say, "Oh, uh, the student looks sad because they didn't do well in her, their exam," you know, or, "The student failed their exam, so they are sad." And then they started to suggest some ways that the student can try do better next time.There are a list of maybe eight words and phrases that the students will learn in this topic related to being a good pupil that they can read in their textbook. But it was, also, great to hear some of the students' own responses about how they can study English or learn a subject. And some of these were to watch English TV shows, and other students suggested playing video games in English or reading comic books. And what was the, another interesting one? Watch TV, play video games, read comic books, and just talk to their friends in English. [06:49] And I like how they even, even though they don't have the language environment here, they still try and give it their best go. So this topic is all about being a better student, a better pupil, and there are some words and phrases related to this and some grammar structures mainly using the words I'm going to and I'm going to do an action. Like, I'm going to tidy the bookshelf. I am going to do more revision. Then it goes onto I will. I will..., then we can say what might happen because of this action. So I am going to do more revision. Because of doing more revision, I will get better grades in my exam. So students tried to make sentences and share some study goals for their own. Uh, one of the vocabulary that stood out to me was read more books. And this is a way we can improve in a subject or just improve generally as a human. Normally, most of my reading is because I have to. [08:17] I might be enrolled in a course at university, and this course might have a lot of reading involved and a lot of required reading, and reading required for research, but now I have finished my course, it has been one and a half weeks since I completed my last assignment. Wait, not one and a half weeks. Only one week and one day, two days, one week and two days since I've finished the last assignment, but I haven't started reading again. I've been reminded by some important people in my life that I should continue this habit. We can always learn more things, and there's no reason why shou- we should stop. So this is one of the challenges I am going to be facing is to track continuous habit. I think it's important as well. And some books are very interesting. I will try find some topics. I read another book a few years ago, Atomic Habits. Some of the most important lessons I learned from that book is about trying to reduce the barriers to starting something new. [09:31] So if I wanted to get into reading, it is to have the book in sight and have it with me. Maybe I can leave it on my desk or on my table. That way, it's more accessible for me to read it when I have time. So that is what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to try continue this habit more and more as I go on. Okay. So that is all I had planned for today's episode. A little bit about dates, and about my English class, and reading. Okay, that is all for today. Thank you for listening, everyone. Goodbye.

Howdy doody 🤠 just finished my final assignment. I've got some free time again. Today is about some famous food spots in HK and future study plans. Where are some good food spots in HK? What things do you procrastinate? Transcript [00:19] Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. It's me, Isaac. And guess what? If you remember, last time I was finishing off my assignment, but now I am finished. So I've finally got a f- bit of free time back once again, and it feels so good. Honestly, writing today's episode was a little bit more difficult than usual. One, because I got a bit of a cold and my nose is blocked. So this is about my... Well, this is my seventh time recording this episode (laughs) because I've been frustrated so many times by my nose. [00:59] And two, because these past two, three weeks I've been recording this podcast as a bit of a break from study and to procrastinate from study. But now that I'm finished my study, I've got nothing to have a break from anymore, and I've got nothing to procre- procrastinate anymore. So, I've actually been procrastinating making the podcast itself. Isn't that funny? Typical brain, right? Playing tricks on me. All right, so a bit of a catch-up on what's been happening lately. [01:38] Work kicked off on Sunday. That was my first day back work. What? Work on a Sunday? Uh, that's not normal. It's because a few weeks ago was the Labor Day holiday, so they gave us a few extra days off, which means we got to make up for it on the weekend after. [01:59] so I made up for my day off on Sunday. Some people had their makeup workday on Saturday, but to me, all the same. On Friday night, I headed to Hong Kong. I caught up with some more Australian friends. Some more friends came over, and they knew the people who we caught up with the previous week that just moved to Hong Kong. So the group of us, we went out for dinner. We went to a place called 华嫂冰室, [2:30] or in English it's called Waso Cafe. It is a Hong Kong cha chaan teng. It's quite popular on Xiangongshu , so if you go there you often have to line up around dinnertime and grab a ticket and wait. Huazou Cafe's kind of famous and I think I've heard rumors that Jay Chou goes there sometimes. [02:53] I'm not sure if that's true. I have not seen him there, but I've heard people see him there. And then afterwards, we went to Jia Jia Tian Ping, a Hong Kong-style dessert place in Jordan. Yeah, and then I've been busy powering through that assignment that I'm now finished. So I've handed it in, ticked that box, finally done. Now it's time to shift focus and figure out what's next. So what's the next big thing? I'm still working on it. I'm actually looking into continuing my studies, trying to keep this academic momentum going. [03:32] Because here's the thing. I feel like lately it's been a little bit tricky to find some new work opportunities. I thought after getting some new qualifications and gaining more experience, it might be a little bit easier or a little bit less stressful applying for work this year. So, I thought I'd keep the academic momentum and start applying for further study and doing my master's. [04:03]So I've been looking at some universities in the UK, uh, ones that have got some good education courses like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford. Uh, they've got some high entry requirements, which I'm not too worried about. The real problem is the research proposal. And the research proposal is not a problem. [04:30] The only problem about that is applications close soon. There's only really a month and a half left. I've got to write my research p- proposal, which is about 4,000 words long apparently, and then send it to some of the faculty staff at the university who could be my potential supervisor. And then they need to respond to me in time so then I can submit my application. [05:03] Uh, so I'm kind of running out of time, not much time left to do that. So that's pretty much doing a whole new assignment. So, I'm thinking of looking into CLIL, which is what my last assignment was about. So I'm going to do some more reading about that. It is Content and Language Integrated Learning. [05:27] For anyone who doesn't know, it's learning a school subject through a second language instead of just studying that in your mother tongue. For example, if you're living in China, I know some university subjects are not using Chinese as a method of instruction, but they might use English as the medium of instruction. Maybe like a math class or some science subjects, they might have English as the medium of instruction. [06:01] Even in Australia, there are some schools that offer CLIL programs as well. I remember a few years ago, there used to be a French company, so they had a English-French bilingual school in the area. So I believe there you could have some CLIL classes there, taking some subjects like math and French, for example. So, I want to keep researching this exact area, because it's something I'm generally interested in. I've always loved languages and I'm really interested in other academic subjects like math. [06:40] My plan right now is to do some broader reading about this topic to try and spot gaps in between current research, things that haven't been studied enough or questions that haven't been answered yet, and then build my research proposal around that. So I've got a bit of work to do, especially with a tight deadline, but I'm ready to throw myself into the next step. So that's where I am now. Post-assignment relief, back to work, and diving headfirst into planning for further study. All right. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. I'll catch you in the next episode. Bye-bye.

What's up, everyone! Just a short episode this week. I have my final assignment due for university on Monday. In between work and other social commitments, here is a brief insight into how I feel under pressure. Usually, I will lose my appetite and stop exercising when I am stressed or worried. I try to solely focus on completing what I need to. Maybe next time I can share more about my assignment. How do you deal with stress? How did you spend the Labor Day holiday? Transcript [00:10] Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back, everybody. How you going? First off, since it was Labor Day holiday in mainland, I got a few days off, starting from Thursday evening all the way to Tuesday evening, which is tonight. [00:30] So I am recording it Tuesday afternoon, and I'll be heading back later this evening. As many of you know, I used to live here in Hong Kong for several years, and I still come back regularly. So usually, when I come back, I just stay at our place and take it easy. That was especially true this time around. [00:55] Even though I was here in Hong Kong for a few days, I was pretty busy working on my final university assignment. My last assignment is due on Monday the 11th, so right now, I'm a bit busy. I'm feeling quite stressed about getting this final piece finished on time. I know it will be such a big relief once I finally submit it, and I don't have to think about it and have this weight on my shoulders anymore. [01:26] I'll be able to take a proper break for a few days before I start thinking about something else. (laughs) I know these breaks can't last too long, because there's print- plenty of other things that I've got lined up afterwards. So I'm curious, how do you guys cope with stress? For me, stress always brings on some noticeable, noticeable changes. First off, I'm not as hungry as I usually am, so I lose my appetite. [01:58] When I'm worried and stressed, I just don't feel like eating much at all, 'cause I always got this little thick feeling in my stomach. So even though I did go out for a few meals this weekend, I never felt like overeating or having a huge feast like I not- usually do. Like, remember a few weeks ago when I went to Foshan? I wasn't as stressed, 'cause I knew the due date was quite some time away, [02:30] so I could have some big meals like the congee hot pot. I remember I ate so much, and then barbecue later that evening. I ate quite a bit. But this weekend, very different. [02:41] The deadline is one week away. The more stressed, and the more stressed I am, the less I want to eat. So the other thing is, when I have a big task like this assignment looming over me, I, I lose my motivation to do other things. [03:00] For example, hang out with friends or go to the gym. These things I will probably cut out of my life. Once I finish, I can relax prop- proper- properly. I always struggle with that word lately. So it's probably not the healthiest mindset to have, but that's just how I am. So other than my study, let me share how I spent my downtime in Hong Kong this weekend. [03:29] I had some free time with my girlfriend on Friday, and we headed over to Kennedy Town. We found a nice little cafe called Fine Print. They have got a few cafes around Hong Kong. I think they're all on Hong Kong Island, if I remember correctly, like Kennedy Town, Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan. Is it Hau Tin or Tin Hau? And maybe there's one more. But you get the picture. There are a few of those in Hong Kong. [03:59] There, they have a very nice avocado toast. That is my favorite thing to get from there if I do go to Fine Print. And we got some coffee and cake. We spent most of the afternoon there just studying. She was working on her Japanese, as she's got a Japanese proficiency exam coming up soon. And I was working on my assignment. After that, we caught up with some friends for dinner. [04:29] They had just moved to Hong Kong from Australia a few days ago. They're still settling in and getting used to life here. So when we went out, we had ma la tang together. On Saturday, my girlfriend had work. I stayed at home studying the whole day. On Sunday, we met up with some of her coworkers for lunch and recorded a podcast together. Uh, later, we caught up with another one of her coworker who just had a baby. And we saw their newborn child, who is already five, five months old. Then yesterday was more of the same. [05:07] I spent most of the day studying, met a friend for lunch briefly before hit- hitting the books again. Honestly, uh, it was mainly study-focused weekend, because I know on Wednesday, I got to work again, and Saturday, I got to work because of... [05:30] It was a holiday, and in China, sometimes if you have a few days off during the week, occasionally you might have to make it up on a Saturday before or after the holiday. This time, I got to make it up on the Saturday after the holiday. So I got to finish most of my assignment this weekend, and I think I did get a good chunk of it done. Anyway, that's all for today's episode. Thank you for listening, everybody. (upbeat music) Take it easy. Bye-bye.

今天我跟本期嘉宾们 @是可以呀 和她的加拿大朋友一起聊天。 In today’s episode, I chat with @是可以呀 and her Canadian friend. 我们谈论20多岁和30多岁之间的健康变化。 We chat about health changes between our 20s and 30s. Transcript [00:11] 是可以呀: Hello. [00:12] Isaac: Hello, hello. [00:13] Guest: Hello. [00:14] (laughs) [00:16] Isaac: Okay. Today, I've got some friends with me, and we are going to be talking about a topic. The topic will be going from your 20s into your 30s. [00:25] 是可以呀: I want to talk... I want to say my name first. I- my name is Pennsylvania. [00:29] Guest: I haven't thought of my name (laughs) yet. [00:31] 是可以呀: (laughs) You're Florida. [00:31] Guest: Okay, I'm Florida. [00:33] Isaac: My name is still Isaac. [00:34] (laughs) [00:35] Isaac: It hasn't changed. [00:37] 是可以呀: Okay. Today, um, so what happened, why we wanted to do this topic is because that in the morning when I woke up and I- my back was sore, my arm was sore, and then I realized how I'm getting old because I'm turning 30 this year. That's why we are thinking about doing a health issues or health problems we will be encountering when we are 30. Th- that's why we are inviting one of our friends- [01:01] (laughs) [01:01] 是可以呀: ... that has been 30 for three years already. (laughs) [01:05] Guest: You know, it, it angers me actually, (laughs) hearing you talk about this as if like this is news to me. [01:12] (laughs) [01:12] Guest: But it's actually everyday life. (laughs) [01:14] 是可以呀: Really? Serious? [01:15] Guest: You're such ungrateful individuals. [01:17] 是可以呀: No, but do you have lowest back sore (lower back pain) every single day? [01:20] Guest: Well, not every single day, but, like, every once in a while. I- I do get sore. [01:24] Isaac: Well, was there, was there a moment when you realized you were getting a little bit older? (laughs) [01:29] (laughs) [01:30] Guest: Like- [01:30] Isaac: Or you're not in your 20s anymore? [01:32] Guest: When you guys are in your 29 years old period. Wh- yeah, in my, in my 29th-year old period. Exactly the moment that you're experiencing right now. [01:43] 是可以呀: Exactly. [01:44] Guest: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:45] 是可以呀: That's how I feel as well. So, like, especially for this year, I, um... there are a lot of health issues coming up. So that's why I'm quite worried about my health. And as I said, after my Japanese exam, I have to focus on my health. [02:00] Guest: I think you guys are dramatic. [02:02] (laughs) [02:02] Guest: It's just life. (laughs) [02:04] 是可以呀: (laughs) No, but what if you can't walk after, like, 40 or 50 years old? Would that be- [02:09] Guest: You're, you're, you're gonna have this moment when you're in your 39, (laughs) at the age of 39, and you're gonna think about the same thing about the 40 (laughs) and 50. [02:18] 是可以呀: What if she can't, she can't follow up? (laughs) [02:21] Isaac: No, I'm, I'm pretty sure w- everyone will have that. I wonder if my parents feel the same."Oh, they just turned 50." And I'm like, "Ah, is this what it feels like to be in your 50s?" [02:30] (laughs) [02:31] Guest: So what questions do you have for us, Isaac? Or for me, Florida, and Pennsylvania? (laughs) [02:38] 是可以呀: The food is here. Yeah, we can continue. We can eat while we are served. Yeah, go for it [02:42] Isaac: Has your perspective towards health changed? [02:45] Guest: I feel so experienced right now. [02:46] (laughs) [02:47] Guest: (laughs) My perspective of health [02:49] Isaac: Yeah. [02:49] Guest: Oh, absolutely. [02:49] Isaac: Or your attitudes towards it? [02:51] Guest: I think... I don't necessarily think too hard about it, but as I start aging, I'm slowly making wiser choices, and my body feels it as well. Like, back in, back in my 20s, I would be able to survive on, like, junk food for dinner or, like, lunches and stuff like that. But then I could actually feel it in my energy level. [03:11] 是可以呀: She ordered a burger. [03:13] Guest: W- well- [03:13] Isaac: (laughs) [03:15] (laughs) [03:15] Guest: ... that's, that's after workout. (laughs) [03:16] (laughs) [03:16] Guest: That's different. Not like I'm gonna have burger at night again. Or even if I do, I'll just suffer from the consequence. Don't you think so, Isaac? [03:24] Isaac: Yeah. Workout and burger, they cancel each other out. [03:28] Isaac: It's, it's simple math. [03:30] Guest: Do you not know what YOLO means? You only live once. [03:33]是可以呀: Exactly. That's why you hou- you should have burger tonight. [03:36] Guest: Well, let's move on. (laughs) Why? Are you guys thinking about making better life choices right now? Like, for health-wise? [03:45] Isaac: Maybe- [03:45] 是可以呀: I'm trying to sleep early now. [03:48] Isaac: But that hasn't been going too well. [03:50] 是可以呀: What do you mean? [03:51] Isaac: But usually- [03:52] 是可以呀: Last night was 12pm. [03:53] Isaac: Really? [03:54] 是可以呀: I think so. [03:54] Isaac: When, when did we go to bed at 10pm? [03:56] 是可以呀: Two nights ago. [03:57] Isaac: We did? [03:58] 是可以呀: Yeah. [03:59] Speaker 2: (laughs) [04:00] Isaac: U- usually, it's not the case. Usually, I get a phone call around 11.30pm [04:05] 是可以呀: Don't, don't listen to him. I think he was dreaming. [04:08] Isaac: So for me, I always interested in sport and health, but at the moment when things get busy, I like to focus on just one thing. So doing exercise lately has just been pushed to the side. [04:22] Guest: You know what, though? I feel like, um, as you're approaching 30, you'll start thinking about health. But I feel like there are also other elements in life that changes your perspective again. Like, for example, for me, right? I would want to stay healthy. But then obviously, um, now that I'm going through a lot of stress, there are many moments where I would just be like, "I'm just going to treat myself." Does that make sense? [04:48] Guest: ... I used to sleep early every night. But, um, I noticed that lately, this year and the year before, because I've been under a lot of stress, I've been sleeping later and later. And I'm not consciously thinking of health. But more so I want to catch up on, you know, my own time, my own me time. [05:09] 是可以呀: But what about your health? Like, how do you feel after sleeping later now? [05:15] Guest: Surprisingly, I'm okay. [05:16] 是可以呀: I feel like for me, like a lo- a lot of Asian people that I know (laughs) , I mean, Chinese people, we... if we don't sleep early enough, we'll always get less energetic. [05:31] Guest: No, no, no. I, I feel that, too. But somehow, it doesn't stop me, because I want to seize all the time that I have. I feel like life is too short. And I just want to enjoy life. [05:45] 是可以呀: Is that because your work is getting busier and you don't have much leisure time? [05:50] Guest: Yeah. That's how I feel. But then you guys are at a different stage of your life, where you're slowly trying to make, you know, healthier life choices, right? So what are some goals that you have in mind? [06:02] Isaac: I think just to make little steps first and to try keep consistent. [06:08] Guest: I like that. How about you, Kay? As you're having your pasta. (laughs) [06:12] 是可以呀: I wanna be healthy, seriously. Especially recently, I've, um, I got injured. My knee was injured, so that's why I'm trying to get it cured, then back to sports again, 'cause I really want to do the boxing but with this health condition, I don't think I can. So, um, one thing that I really need to think of is about my weight, because, um, with a lot of, how do you say? Big weight? Uh, big weight pressure pressing. [06:42] 是可以呀: Having the pressure- [06:43] Guest: Like on your thighs. [06:43] 是可以呀: Yeah. Having the pressure from the weight on your knee and the feet, um, will actually damage the knee and the feet. So, you can see now, like, um, didn't I tell you that I have the feet problems? And because of the arch, doesn't have much support, so that's how I feel about losing weight. That's why I, I started thinking about losing weight. Before, I'd never thought it was a really big issue, but now, um, after so many people have, especially doctors suggesting me to lose some weights, so I think I might start doing that. [07:22] Guest: You know what, though? I, I, (clears throat) I do have a suggestion is that, like, when you're making these goals in mind, you just have to remind yourself that there's no... It's not like a cookie-cetter approach where there's one size fits all, because everyone's body respond differently as you age, right? And you adjust your lifestyle based on your own needs. 'Cause you just reminded me that back then when I was in my 20s, when I used to hit the gym, I would do a lot of heavy weights. I used to focus on, like, muscle building and heavy lifting. And as I was approaching 30, I realized I've got these aches, and then I slowly changed up my routine to turn into toning and more cardio. So, these are like these slight shifts that I've made throughout, you know, as I've aged. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I feel like it's not necessarily about like, big changes, but you have to listen to your body and make conscious choices to make sure that you're not hurting yourself, right? What about you? [08:23] Guest: Are you feeling anything in your body? [08:26] Isaac: No, I'm not feeling anything. [08:27] (laughs) [08:28] Isaac: The whole pains. [08:29] Guest: Look at this arrogant prick. (laughs) [08:31] Isaac It's, it's not very arrogant. I'm sure it will catch up one day. [08:34] Guest: It will catch up in, uh, December. (laughs) No, August. Next year. August. September. Before your birthday. Oh, yeah. (laughs) [08:42] Isaac: Next, next September, yes. I will feel- [08:44] Guest: No, this, (laughs) this August. [08:46] Isaac: This August? [08:47] Guest: Yes. [08:47] Isaac: When I'm about to turn 29? [08:49] Guest: Yeah. Wait, what? [08:51] 是可以呀: Your food looks very healthy. [08:53] Guest: So good. So good. [08:55] Isaac: Rich in potatoes. [08:57] Guest: You want my fries, don't you? [08:58] 是可以呀: I don't. I, I'm trying to be- [09:01] Isaac: They do look very tempting. [09:01] 是可以呀: ... hea- healthy. [09:01] Guest: Exactly. [09:02] Isaac: Um, I'm okay. I had some good potatoes yesterday. Last night for dinner we had steak and potatoes- [09:08] 是可以呀: From air fryer. [09:08] Isaac: ... and peas. [09:09] 是可以呀: I feel like steaming things will be healthier. [09:12] Guest: Yeah. I think so, too. Yum. [09:14] Isaac: What about when it comes to food and cooking? Do you often prepare a lot of food to eat, or do you rely a lot on takeaway or food that you buy? [09:23] Guest: One more time? Sorry. [09:24] Isaac: Do you spend a lot of time preparing your food, or cooking? [09:28] Guest: I try my best to focus on, like, cooking as much as I can, but work does keep up and I end up buying sometimes. But whenever I get groceries, I do try to include a lot of healthy options. [09:42] 是可以呀: Like what? [09:43] Guest: Like, I'll make sure that I have my, my fruits and vegetables. Those are like, my priority. And then, um, breakfast as well, lately I've been switching to having oats and almond milk, 'cause my family, um, my family health, um, history is known to have like, high cholesterol. And even when I do blood work, my cholesterol is higher than average. It's not like at a risky spot yet. So, I think if I start changing, you know, a bit of my diet, it could help one way or the other. [10:16] 是可以呀: Sorry, what, what is high cholesterol? [10:19] Isaac: So, like, the, the fat build-up in your blood veins or blood vessels. [10:23] 是可以呀: (begins Chinese) Right? Oh, okay. I learned a new word today. (laughs) [10:31] Isaac: I live on campus at my work. I don't cook at all. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I eat whatever's provided on campus. [10:40] Guest: Is that healthy, though? [10:41] Isaac: I mean, compared to... Looking back on what I ate during school, it's probably a lot more nutritious, 'cause in Australia a lot of school kids might just eat a ham and cheese sandwich or Vegemite and cheese sandwich. But here, they get warm lunch with plenty of meat and vegetables and rice, so they get a lot of nutrition out of it. [11:03] 是可以呀: I think Isaac has a really healthy eating diet, is, is that he drinks a lot of hot things. He doesn't drink much cold stuff. [11:11] Guest: Well, I like his coffee. [11:13] 是可以呀: Yeah. [11:13] Isaac: But do you think this really has a, such a big impact? [11:16] 是可以呀: I do think, yes. [11:17] Guest: I think so, yeah. [11:17] Isaac: Maybe on, on digestion? [11:19] Guest: Yes. [11:19] 是可以呀: Yes, and your whole body system, like the humidity in your body. That's how I feel. [11:24] Guest: It's good for your stomach. [11:25] 是可以呀: Do you wanna eat? [11:26] Isaac: Uh, I think we can... So, I think we can call it a day. [11:29] Guest: Drink some tea. Bye. [11:30] 是可以呀: Bye. [11:30] Isaac: Okay, bye-bye everyone. [11:31] Guest: (laughs) [11:31] 是可以呀: We gotta eat, that's why. (upbeat music) (cassette clicks)

In this episode, I’ll be talking about two things. The first is my weekend adventure. This past weekend I went to Foshan. I’ll be sharing my little adventure there while I went there and what I did. The second thing is I’ll be sharing what I talked about in one of my lesson's. It was about our most treasured memory and mine was spending some time with my mother‘s father or my maternal grandfather. Vocab 1. getaway A short holiday or trip away from home. 中文：短途度假；周末出游 2. interview A formal meeting to apply for a job. 中文：面试 3. steamed hot pot A hot pot meal where food is cooked by steam above soup. 中文：蒸汽火锅 4. tummy ache Pain in your stomach. 中文：肚子痛；胃痛 5. congee Thick rice soup eaten for breakfast or meals. 中文：粥；白粥 6. treasured memory A very special memory you value highly. 中文：珍贵的回忆 7. camping Staying outdoors in a tent for a holiday. 中文：露营 8. golden hour The warm, soft time just before sunset. 中文：黄昏黄金时刻 9. haul A large amount of something you catch or collect. 中文：收获；一网所得（渔获） 10. quality time Time spent fully enjoying someone’s company. 中文：美好陪伴时光；优质相处时间 Transcript [00:00] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays) Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to my podcast. It's me, Isaac. Today, I thought I would talk about a few things instead of just one. So, first, I'd like to share about a weekend getaway. I went to Foshan last weekend, and then I would like to talk about something that I discussed in class, and this was my most treasured memory, as this was one of the topics we had this week. (sniffs) So, uh, last weekend, I went to Foshan, and I went there initially for an interview for a job, and I went to a school and I enjoyed my time there. Lovely school. The staff there were very friendly and very welcoming, and I feel like it would be a good place to develop my professional career. So I'm hoping perhaps I can start working there as well. After the interview, I had some free time, so I went to Tianshan District in downtown Foshan. Later that evening, my girlfriend came over from Hong Kong to meet me. We hung out together in the city. [01:18] Speaker 1: She arrived maybe around nine o'clock at night, and we went out for dinner. We went out for some steamed chicken, so I found a place online that looks quite good. I looked on Xiaohongshu, and I found a place to eat. So we went there, uh, but unfortunately, they had already closed. They no longer accepted any new orders. So then I had to find another place online, but we did find another place for some steamed chicken hot pot. I can't remember the exact Chinese name for it, but I'll try describe it. So there's a pot with some water and soup seasonings at the bottom, and it sits with a metal plate on top with some holes covered with a leaf. They then lay taro or sweet potato on that leaf. Then they place the chicken meat on top, which is mixed with some orange-red ingredients, like a orangey-red root, and some Chinese dates. The whole thing gets steamed. Once the chicken is cooked, you can eat it with y- whatever sauce you make. [02:34] Speaker 1: So I made some sauce with some ginger, garlic, coriander, spring onion, soy sauce. And this is my go-to, but everyone's got their favorite sauce, their favorite dipping sauce. So this is probably one of my favorite types of hot pot, along with the Chaoshan beef hot pot, which I had maybe a month or two ago when I went to Chaoshan. You can go back to that episode where I talked about my weekend getaway to Chaoshan. After dinner, I did have a little bit of a stomachache because I waited so long to eat, because I had an early lunch before my interview, probably around, you know, 11.00 AM, and I didn't have a big lunch because I didn't want to feel u- uncomfortable during the interview. So then I waited for dinner t- and the time I ate, it was probably around 10.30 PM. So it was such a long time in between meals. My stomach was hurting a little bit because I hadn't ate any food. [03:41] Speaker 1: Uh, so we headed back to the hotel afterwards, where I laid down for a bit on my tummy, and I felt much better probably five minutes after lying down. All I needed to do was lie on my tummy for a bit, and then it was fixed. So nothing, nothing too stressful. The next morning, we got up, had some coffee, and went out for congee hot pot. Well, pretty much all we do when we go out is eat hot pot, but this is another iconic Foshan food. We ordered a set meal that came with greens, youtiao, which is Chinese donut, vegetables, and pork, which we mixed into the congee hot pot one at a time. Congee on its own, mm, nothing special. Sometimes I have it when I'm not feeling too well, just a simple congee, maybe with some ganlancai, which is some shredded olives. But this congee hot pot paired with some beef and some other food that you put in one by one totally transforms the flavor and the taste of it. [04:51] Speaker 1: So after congee hot pot, we crossed the road, and luckily, across the road, there is a café where they make their own cakes fresh daily. So with these homemade cakes and desserts, it was a beautiful spot to have a nice cup of coffee and something sweet to eat. Later, we caught up with a friend who my girlfriend studied with a long time ago in Australia. They have known each other for years now, but now she has moved back to Foshan. We met her at a café called... I think it was called K Coffee, but... Or K Café. It is not the coffee by KFC. It was a different coffee shop, independent coffee shop. It's a cozy little place with great coffee. We sat outside. There were many young people there, all having coffee. And it's in a place that is, uh, surrounded by more older buildings, and there were some older residents there who came up and asked, "Uh, why are there so many young people here today? What is this place?"... [06:04] Speaker 1: because probably during the week, there's no one there because all the young people are busy working from Monday to Friday, and then on Saturday there are so many people here having a cup of coffee. So she's probably a little surprised to see how popular it is on weekends. After that, we did a bit of shopping around XinTian Di. Then we headed to another shopping mall to look for some new sneakers because my sneakers are getting quite old, and I've got some holes in the bottom of them because I have been wearing them for a number of years, so I really wanted a new pair of shoes. So we went to Salomon, uh, to look for some shoes because they are quite trendy right now. So we went to the shop. I wanted to buy some new shoes. If you don't know much about me, I'm quite tall. I am six-foot-three, around 190 centimeters tall, so I need some big shoes. I need shoe size probably EU47, but the largest size that they had in the shop was only size 45. [07:14] Speaker 1: So finding some big shoes in China can be really tough. Usually, I end up buying shoes online or waiting till I go back to Australia to buy some shoes. I don't really like buying shoes online, because I want to try the shoe on first to see if it fits well, to see if it's comfortable, and to see if I like wearing it, because you can't really tell all of these things online, and it's not convenient to buy online and then have to send it back. So after that, we grabe- grabbed a quick bite to eat so we wouldn't get too hungry because I had to head back to Guangzhou. So we had a quick bite to eat, and then in Guangzhou, near my current work and where I live, there is a lovely barbecue place which has become our favorite barbecue. So the whole street near the barbecue is lined with snack stalls and food stands. We wanted some lemon tea to go with our barbecue, so I quickly got up and walked around to look for somewhere that had some lemon tea. [08:25] Speaker 1: So I ordered a cup of lemon tea to go with our barbecue, and from one stand I noticed the vendor put a cardboard holder around my drink cup, and on it, it started with the characters Yue, for like Yue Yu, and the letter M. You might see this character and letter on a number plate in Guangdong Province from the city, um, Meizhou, so you might see it on cars around Meizhou, Yue M. So I asked her straightaway in Chinese, "Are you from Meizhou?" And she was really surprised that I knew that. I explained that my girlfriend is from Meizhou, so I knew that this Yue M is from the same city. So she was quite surprised I knew it, and we ended up chatting. It turns out she's from a similar area, not the same area, but she is from Xingning in Meizhou, which is kind of close to where my girlfriend's from. My girlfriend's not from Xingning but a different, mm, different... what would it be? Different prefecture? Uh, so it was a nice little random connection with a local. [09:50] Speaker 1: We finished our barbecue and headed back home to go to bed. So that was pretty much the end of the weekend. So now switching gears, in this week, in one of my classes, we continued to use the 36 questions, and we talked about our most treasured memories. I got the students thinking and sharing about their own special moments. Some talked about their memories with their family, others with their friends, and I also shared my most treasured memory with them. For me, it's a memory with my maternal grandfather, so the grandfather on my mom's side, because I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him growing up, not nearly as much as I did with my grandfather on my dad's side. So every summer, we would go camping at a small beach town called Port Hughes, and would normally stay there for two weeks, and would go to the beach, would go fishing, swimming, build sandcastles. That is pretty much what we did every day for those two weeks every year. [11:07] Speaker 1: So we did this every year when I was growing up as a kid. When I got into high school, my mum's father started joining us for these trips to Port Hughes, so I got to spend more time with him. And one year, we decided to go crabbing together. So we had these rakes that you use to sift through the sand in some shallow water, and sometimes you can find crabs that hide under the sand. If you're lucky, they will use their claws to grab the rake, and you can catch them. So one evening, my grandpa, my dad, and I, we headed down to the beach to go crab raking during golden hour, which is just before sunset. Some local fishermen saw us and said, "There's no point trying tonight.... we wouldn't catch any crabs, because last night was a full moon, and tonight, the water is a little bit too wavy. It's too choppy. But we've never tried crabbing before, and we wanted to give it a go to see if they were right or not. My, my dad wasn't very optimistic, and he said, "Uh-uh, maybe we shouldn't try. [12:35] Speaker 1: They probably know best." But my grandpa, he's a stubborn man. He wanted to prove them wrong, so we walked out until the water was about waist-deep and started raking for crabs. We didn't catch anything at first, but as the sun set and it got darker, we turned on our torches and crabs are drawn to the light, and that made them so much easier to find. We started catching more and more crabs. My dad carried a big plastic tub in the water behind us, and we put every crab we caught straight into it. We slowly walked all the way down the beach, which is probably around three or four kilometers long. By the time we reached the far end of the beach, our plastic tub was full of crabs. Not completely full, but almost full. We had caught quite a lot of crabs, and by this time, the sun had fully set. It was really dark, so we had to head back to the carpark where our car was parked. We passed the same fishermen again, because they were packing up as well. [13:49] Speaker 1: We showed them our huge haul of crabs and joked with them, "Look what we caught." (laughs) "You have no idea what you're talking about." We had a good laugh because we caught so many crabs and they had caught nothing. After that, we went back to our campsite, boiled the crabs in some hot water, and ate them with some lemon and dipping sauces. We spent the whole evening enjoying our crab feast, and we even had leftover crabs to eat for the next few days. So this memory is so special to me, because I rarely got to spend real quality time with my grandfather on my mom's side. I'd only ever see him at Christmas or at birthdays growing up. I never really did any activities like this with him together, so that crabbing trip by the beach is easily one of my most favorite and treasured memories with him. Okay, that is all for my podcast today. Thanks for listening to my weekend getaway to Foreshan and my most treasured memory. All right, tune in next time. Bye-bye.

This episode I will discuss the 36 questions to fall in love. But it is more than just intimacy in relationships, it can be about building connections and practising language. Vocab 1. intimacy a feeling of being close and emotionally connected to someone 亲密；亲密关系 2. conversation an informal talk between people 对话；交谈 3. vulnerable feeling unprotected and willing to share personal feelings 脆弱的；易受伤害的 4. grateful feeling or showing thanks because of something someone has done 感激的；感谢的 5. ambitious having a strong desire to achieve success 有雄心的；野心勃勃的 6. perspective a particular way of thinking about something 视角；观点 7. sustain to keep something going or continuing 维持；持续 8. thermos a container that keeps drinks hot or cold 保温瓶；暖水瓶 Transcript [00:00] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays) 'Allo, 'allo, 'allo. Welcome back everybody. Today, we are looking at the 36 questions to fall in love. Oh, you might have heard of these questions. These questions are quite well-known, and they were designed in a psychological study for the purpose of deepening intimacy, so you can perhaps fall in love with someone, get to know your partner a little bit more. But over the years, I have used them for more than that. So, today, I'd like to share with you some of the ways I've been using these questions. So, I first came across these questions back in 2020, probably December or November then, and I was going out with my current girlfriend. It was around the time when we just started dating for maybe two or three months. We wanted to get to know each other better of course. There were times in every relationship where you want to really know your partner. So, we sat down and started asking each other some of these questions. [01:08] Speaker 1: We revisited these questions over and over throughout the years. It's not just a one-time thing. And over the years, we might remember or recall what the other person said, and we can see how we have changed and grown as human beings. So, I haven't used them in just this one setting. Some people might think these questions are just for romance or relationships, but you can even use these questions with a group of friends, and that's exactly what we did. Say we're having a small gathering of friends at our home, we might use these questions to get to know each other a little bit more. So, lately, I've been using these questions in some speaking classes, and these questions work quite well. The first set of questions are more surface level, but the further down the list of questions you go, the deeper and perhaps more personal these questions get. [02:07] Speaker 1: So, like, the first question is, "If you could go out for dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be?" You can choose someone living, you can see- choose someone from history, you can choose someone famous, or even just a family member or a friend. So, you can get quite a wide range of responses and even listening to people's reasoning why they choose it is quite interesting. One question we tried recently was, "Name three things you have in common with your partner." So, students paired up with their classmates, and the results were quite good. One pair discovered they have the same taste in music. Another shared they have a love for fashion. And one group, they found out that, go back two or three generations, they're actually from the same hometown. So, it turns out these questions can uncover some connections you don't know and that you didn't know existed. It's a bit of classroom bonding. Students get to know each other a little bit better while practicing their English. [03:10] Speaker 1: So, we have tried some other questions in class, some deeper ones, too, like, "Tell me your life story as, in as much detail as possible." So, some students say, "Ah, my life story. That's too big." I encourage them to break it down into some key moments, like childhood memories, dreams for the future, so it becomes a great exercise in structuring a longer speech while sharing something real. And there's, hmm, "If you could change something about your upbringing, what would it be?" With some of these questions, people can get a little bit more vulnerable, but I always try to emphasize it's up to you about how personal you want to be. You can share something meaningful and personal, or you can get creative and make up a story. Both are okay. The goal here is to practice some speaking, not to bare yourselves, unless you want to, and that's, that's okay. [04:09] Speaker 1: Another favorite was, "What do you feel most grateful for?" Students shared everything from gratitude for their families to appreciation for small joys, like a morning cup of coffee or a walk in the park. Uh, maybe for one of the more popular questions we tried was, the one I said before at the start, "If you could have dinner with anyone in the world, who would it be?" The students were split. Some people chose family members. Some people chose famous people. One of the more motivated students, he's very much into entrepreneurship, so he picked someone in the tech industry. He wanted to ask them about their journey, how they got started, and what advice they'd give to someone if they were just beginning. It was ambitious and curious, exactly the kind of energy that these questions bring out. Some students chose their family members or friends. And honestly, that's the answers that stuck with me the most. Just like me, uh, I shared about having dinner with one of my grandfathers. [05:16] Speaker 1: Actually, normally I, uh, flip between choosing one of my grandfathers. One in particular, I used to go with, to work with them when I was a kid during school holidays. He was a construction worker, and he would wake up early. Before the sun was even up, I'd walk into the kitchen and there he'd be, already packing our lunch, making sandwiches. He would wrap them in paper, not cling wrap, something I always loved about him, these little details. He packed some fruit and a small knife to cut it with, and a thermos with two cups, one for his tea or coffee and one for my Milo. Uh, during smoko or lunchtime, we would sit on the job site, eat those sandwiches, and have a little chat. Even though the food isn't fancy...... I enjoy those memories with my grandfather quite a lot. So, when I told the students that, they were a little surprised about how personal it can be, but I just wanted to, I just wanted them to see that you could choose anyone in the world. [06:21] Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a celebrity or a historical figure. It can be a person who's already made the world feel special. So, like I said, I don't just use, uh, these questions with my girlfriend, but sometimes we will use it in a friendship group. And often, my, my girlfriend's friends will use these lists of questions to keep the discussion flowing. They would normally speak in Chinese, and for me, that, that is a little bit difficult, asking, answering these questions in Chinese. You see, there's a lots of things I would like to say, but, um, I'm not too sure h- how to say them. So, at first I struggled with answering these personal questions in a second language, so I can really relate to some of my students with their struggles when they use these questions. So, I found a online tutor, and I asked if we could practice the 36 questions together. Actually, here's the funny part. I contacted a lot of tutors, and most of them hesitated and said no. [07:19] Speaker 1: Maybe they thought I was trying to make moves on them or something. But one tutor said yes, and we got to work. We'd take a question at a time. Maybe I would share something personal, but we would try answer the question as many times as possible. That way, we can practice more and I can change up the way I can answer it. So, sometimes I would say something personal, sometimes I'd make something up. That way, I wasn't just memorizing answers. I was learning to think on my feet to express myself naturally, even when the topic was deep. Um, so you know what? I'd like to think it's paid off, but I haven't had the chance to answer these questions since doing these tutoring sessions. So, hopefully, the next time these questions come up in our friendship group, I can answer in Chinese a little bit more confidently. So, why am I telling you all of this? Uh, because the 36 questions to fall in love aren't just for couples. [08:21] Speaker 1: They're for anyone who wants to connect deeper with partner, friends, or classmates can do it together. So, they're a reminder that, at the end of the day, we all want to be seen and understood. For language learners, this is a powerful tool. It forces use, it forces you to use vocabulary you might not practice in everyday small talk. Words for emotions, memories, dreams. And for teachers, it makes speaking practice more meaningful. Students aren't just repeating phrases. They're showing parts of themselves, which makes them more invested in the process. For anyone looking to strengthen their relationship, these questions are a gift. You can learn more about your partner or about your friends. I've learned something new about them every time we've pulled out these set of questions. So, maybe you can try some of these questions with your partner or friend again. They're always interesting to see how people have changed over the years. All right, thanks for joining me today. [09:21] Speaker 1: Hope this episode was interesting, and let me know if you use these 36 questions or not. All right, until next time, keep asking, keep listening, keep connecting. All right, see you. Bye-bye.

Any episode we will look at geography are you interested in geography? I will be answering some simple questions. The first one do I like geography? Have? I’ll ever learned geography. Do I want to be a geography teacher? Will I learn more about the geography of other countries? Finally, do I think geography is useful? What are your opinions? Comment down below. Also, if you want to play Civilisation 6 together, hit me up! Vocabulary 1. geography the study of places, land, people, and the world around us 地理；地理学 2. civilization an advanced human society with its own culture, history, and way of life 文明 3. climate the usual weather conditions in a particular place over a long time 气候 4. natural disaster a very bad natural event such as a flood, storm, or earthquake 自然灾害 5. perspective a way of thinking about or understanding something 视角；观点 6. resource something from nature that people can use, like water, oil, or land 资源 7. ancient from a very long time ago in history 古代的；古老的 8. empire a large group of countries or lands ruled by one government or leader 帝国 Transcript [00:00](instrumental music plays) Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today, we're diving into the topic, geography. I know geography might sound a little bit like just maps and capitals, but for me, it's so much more. So let's start with the basics, do I like geography? Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting. I enjoy learning about different places and how people live around the world. [00:30] It makes me see things from a broader perspective. It's not my absolute favorite subject, and I never actually took this subject at school, but I do like it. Personally, I have always loved looking at maps. I had a big map on my bedroom wall growing up as a child. I remember always walking up to the map when I have some free time, looking at where different countries are, the cities, how big they are, what is the capital of this place, what does their flag look like. So this is what sparked my interest in the first place. So I like looking at maps, reading books about different places and cultures. [01:09] That way, I can learn about people all around the world, and it connects so much to how stories of civilizations grew and changed. Take ancient civilizations, for example, like the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt, their geography totally shaped their success. [01:30] The Romans used some rivers for trade. The Egypt relied on the Nile. Even in the British Isles, geography made Roman expansion there harder than on the continent. So the next question, have I ever learnt about geography in school? I didn't have it as a specific subject in school, but it snuck into everything else. History class taught me about different countries. Science covered some weather patterns and natural disasters, and then we had this class, SOS. I think it stood for Social Studies. That's a blend of geography with culture, and it was actually more fun than I expected. [02:14] Piecing those bits together later, those science lessons on the weather, now I see how monsoons shaped farming in different countries, or how volcanoes created fertile soil for ancient civilizations. It all clicks when you tie it into real places. The next question is, hmm, would I ever consider being a geography teacher? Well, I am a teacher, but not a geography teacher. Geography and history are the intersection of my interests. I've always been into history, especially when it comes to historical games like Civilization VI, the Sid Meier's games. [02:58] In his games, you pick a civilization or a leader, and there are different maps, and each civilization has got unique buildings or different wonders or abilities. And because of this, it does have a little bit of a historical element, it made me more interested, and I, then I'll go into reading more about it online. So this game always interests me. [03:24] Speaker 1: When I have a bit of time, I might play it, but I haven't played it for a long time actually. Normally once a year, I'll play it for a few days, and then I'll stop playing. So will I learn more about geography of, of other countries? Absolutely. Learning from place to place helps with traveling and knowing more about the world. Whether I'm reading a book about a certain country's mountainous terrain, [03:54]or playing Civ VI and realizing certain countries have influenced or have been influenced about their terrain, it will make me read more about it later on, so these sort of things interest me. Or particularly when I go traveling, when I go to a new place, I want to learn a little bit more about it and learn a little bit more about the history there. And lastly, do I think geography is useful? Yeah, definitely. It helps understand the world we live in, like we- where resources come from, or why certain areas have certain climates. [04:33] Speaker 1: It's useful for travel and even global issues like climate change, so it's very practical. Growing up, the only thing on my bedroom wall was a giant world map. I looked at flags, countries, cities, and how they are connected. That early interest stuck with me, and now I see how it all ties together. Geography isn't just about knowing where places are. It's about understanding why they matter. Okay, thanks everyone for joining me today. This is a short little episode. I hope this makes you see geography a little differently, maybe even go check out a map or fire up a game. Let me know if you like to play Civ VI as well. Maybe we can play together one day. All right, everybody, until next time, keep exploring. Bye-bye.

This long weekend, I went to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. The porcelain capital of China. I spent a few days here catching up with friends, eating spicy food, and buying some new plates, cups, and bowls. What did you do on the long weekend? Vocab * Jingdezhen景德镇China’s famous “Porcelain Capital” in Jiangxi Province * Qingming Festival清明节Chinese national holiday when many people travel * Porcelain shops瓷器店Stores selling bowls, plates, cups and ceramic products * Spicy barbecue辣烧烤Jiangxi-style barbecue that was much spicier than expected * Electric car电动汽车Rented car with battery issues on the way to a village * Tranquil village宁静村庄Quiet riverside village with green scenery near Jingdezhen * Electric scooter电动滑板车Two-wheeler used to get around the city with battery worries Transcript [00:00] Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This time I'm talking to you about my Qingming holiday. I went on a short little trip to Jingdezhen, the so-called porcelain capital of China. Let me tell you, this trip was full of surprises and a little bit of chaos, spicy food scares, and battery panics. So ... And there was this one little perfect bakery that made my whole weekend. So let me tell you from the start of my little journey. [00:31] So on Friday morning, I left my house at 6 o'clock in the morning. Because my house is a long way away from the train station, I had to get to the train station around 7-ish, and I caught the train around 7:30. And I rode the train for about two to three hours, and arrived in Ji'an Xi, Ji'an West, around 11.00 AM, and then waited for my next train around 2:00 PM. The weirdest part was the first train was packed, I guess because it's the long weekend. [01:12] The second train was almost empty, at least for the first few stops, until I got to Nanchang. Suddenly, everyone got on, and I thought, "Oh my God, this weekend in Jingdezhen is going to be crazy." I got to Jingdezhen around 4:00 PM, and everyone else, literally everyone on the train, all got off at the same time. That evening, we just chilled in the hotel for a bit. We watched The Office, and then our friends arrived in Jingdezhen, so we went to their hotel and ordered some barbecue takeaway and some drinks, some bubble tea. Well, not ... I didn't get bubble tea. [01:58] I just got some tea. What flavor was it? Maybe some lemon, lemon tea. We thought we would get medium spicy. That's what we always do in Guangdong. We always get zhong la, me- medium spice level. And boy, oh, boy, big mistake. Medium spicy in Guangdong versus medium spicy in Jiangxi, totally different. It was ri- for me, it was ridiculously spicy. [02:32] My stomach started hurting, and I could barely eat any more of it after a while. Luckily, my friends had some sort of spice medicine that I put in some hot water and drink it, and it helps my stomach to feel better. So then the next day, Saturday, it was a bit of a porcelain overload. And we saw a peaceful village Saturday morning. My girlfriend and I, we went to two cafes for coffee. [03:02] The first one, we just got a cup of coffee, and the second one was a bakery/cafe called 9:09 KuKu. We went there based on recommendations from the first one because we asked the person working there, "Oh, do you know of any other cafes in the area or any nice places to eat?" And then they recommended this place. They said the pastries at this cafe were absolutely amazing. So we went there. Over the few days, we went there maybe three times. They had some guava pastry, which was quite nice, a hot dog pastry. [03:45] When I saw this, I'm like, "Mm, hot dog pastry is probably not going to be very good." But my girlfriend wanted it, so we ordered it. And it was way better than I expected. It was quite nice. And the one I wanted was the cinnamon scroll, which was my favorite. I will normally order a cinnamon scroll if I go to a bakery. And then we met our friends. We rented an electric car to go to a nearby village, but when we picked up the car, the battery was only half full or so, only about 100 kilometers left, which was super frustrating because we knew today there was going to be a lot of driving, and we're going to drive more than 100 kilometers today. [04:31] So we had lunch, and then prepared to drive to the village. And when we got to the village, we were super close to running out of power. So we had to find a spot to charge. As it was a long weekend, finding a parking spot was pretty hard, let alone finding one with a charging station. I mean, we never found one. Oh, no, we did find one. [04:57] We did find one. (laughs) What am I saying? The village itself was really nice. It was by a river. There were green, lush trees everywhere, boats, super tranquil and peaceful. It was a nice break from the city crowds. Then in the evening, we went back to Jingdezhen to meet another friend for dinner. We walked around the night markets with all the porcelain shops, plates, bowls, cups everywhere. [05:28] It was okay, but nothing mind-blowing. And Sunday, Sunday we decided to rent some scooters, electric scooters. That way, we can get around the city easily, because I don't think I told you this before, but traffic in Jingdezhen last weekend was terrible. There were so many places, especially around the tourist hotspots, where the traffic would be very congested, and it would just jam up. So we rented some electric scooters to try get around the city a little bit easier. So, the first stop, again, was KuKu Coffee and get some pastries, obviously. [06:10] Then we rode around and went to a street full of little porcelain shops. We popped in and out of so many of them, and by the time we go to three or four, many of them start to look the same. Well, actually, some were the same. After lunch, we rode at least 10 kilometers to a place called Tao Tao, where we bought a bunch of bowls, plates, and cups. And we shipped them back to my place in Guangzhou, and even shipped them to some relatives. [06:45] Then it was about time for dinner. We realized the scooter's battery should be getting low, but we checked the battery on the screen, and it says it hasn't changed. It's still 100%, so it must be broken, because it's not moving at all. So, we called the rental guy. He said it can go about 20 kilometers on a full battery, and we have already ridden way more than that. We have done way more than 20 so far, so we were a little bit panicked that we might get stuck. [07:21] Online, we read if we drive the scooter around 19, 20 kilometers per hour, it saves a little bit more battery because it is more efficient, so we were driving super slow as we're a little bit stressed it might run out. We tried to go to the first restaurant for dinner, but they sold out of everything. They had no meat, no veggies. They had nothing left. So, we had to find somewhere else, so we went down the road and ended up having some stir-fries, like pork liver, pork kidney and even some chicken feet. [08:00] Normally, I'm not a big fan on chicken feet, but this time the stir-fries were way too spicy for me, so I had more of the chicken feet. After dinner, we walked around some more ceramic shops, bought some gifts for some friends and family, and then there was a big stress of riding the scooters again, because we know battery is getting super low. But somehow, we made it back to the scooter rental place, which is right next to where we'll stay, and we got back safely. [08:40] No breakdown, no flat batteries. And then the last day was Monday. We had one last visit to KuKu Bakery to get some coffee and pastries, and then after that, we got some spicy beef bone noodle soup, and this was, well, this was not too bad. Then I took the train back from Jingdezhen to Guangzhou. This time, luckily I got a direct train, so it was a little bit quicker, only five-and-a-half hours. Way easier than the way there. So, all in all, my trip to Jingdezhen was not too bad. [09:23] Although there were a lot of crowds, we got to see a lot of porcelain, try some new foods that I probably wouldn't normally eat because they might have been too spicy, but I still enjoyed it. Honestly, the best part wasn't the porcelain. I still think the best part for me was the bakery, or the cafe with the bakery, because I think sometimes it's difficult to find some delicious baked goods in China. And for me, I absolutely enjoyed it. [09:53] So, thanks for listening to my story about staying in Jingdezhen over the long weekend. All right, thanks for listening. Bye-bye.

Today’s episode is all about that universal struggle: staying up late when you’re supposed to be an early bird. I’m someone who’s always loved going to bed early. I usually aim to be in bed by 10.30 PM, ready to hit the sack and recharge. But lately? Life’s been busy with work, assignments, and last-minute tasks that make me burn the midnight oil. Sometimes I have work or study to do, other times I stay up late scrolling on my phone or binge-watching TV shows until I lose track of time. Vocabulary stay up late – 熬夜 hit the sack – 上床睡觉 can't function well – 状态很差，没法正常做事 burn the midnight oil – 开夜车，熬夜赶工 scroll on my phone – 刷手机 binge-watch TV shows – 狂刷电视剧 lose track of time – 忘了时间，不知不觉就很晚 feel drained – 感到筋疲力尽 get through the day – 勉强撑过一天 go to bed early – 早睡 Transcript [00:00] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays) Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back. It's me, Isaac. (yawns) Today, I want to talk about something we can all relate to: staying up late. I've been asked a simple question about my own habits, so I thought I would share a real routine and how it's changed over time. [00:27] So, first of all, I have a question for you. Do you often stay up late? Well, for me, honestly, not really. I am someone who naturally likes to go to bed early. My usual goal is to hit the sack, or go to bed, around 10.30 at night. I've always been that way, even when I was younger. But lately, life has gotten a bit busier with work, assignments, and getting ready for the day or week ahead, [01:00] so sometimes I have no choice but to burn the midnight oil or work later at night. So, I push my bedtime a little later, but I do have a limit. I have found that if I go past midnight, I just can't function that well at all. My brain feels slow. I can't focus. [01:24] Speaker 1: I become less and less productive the later I stay up. And, maybe the later I stay up, the more likely it is that I'm going to fall asleep at my laptop. So, midnight is usually my hard stop of when I, uh, say, "Oh, that's enough. I will go to bed." So, uh, when do I stay up late? Well, what I'm actually doing, it depends. These days, it's usually work or study. [01:58] Like, finishing assignments, preparing for the next day at work, or catching up on tasks I didn't do earlier. But it wasn't always like this. Before things were busy, I would still stay up late sometimes, but this was out of procrastination. I'd sit on my phone, scrolling through social media for way too long, like spending time on Instagram or Xiaohongshu, [02:26] or I would be binge-watching TV shows. I remember last month I was... Well, last month, I just started watching Breaking Bad, and then after that, I got into Better Call Saul, which has got some of the same characters. And before I knew it, I lose track of time completely. [02:49] Speaker 1: One episode turns into two, two episodes turn into three, and then suddenly, it's way past my bedtime or the time I wanted to go to bed. And that's a kind of a bad thing, staying up late, for sure. So, to make things even more intense, I am someone who likes to wake up early. I find I can work better in the morning. It is a good time for me to be productive, especially if I got a lot of things to do. [03:20] So, especially lately, I've been getting up around 6:00 in the morning. I use that time to get a headstart on work or do a little bit of study before I go to the office or head to class, and I try to be there around 8:00, 8:30. So, going to bed late and waking up early really takes a toll. That brings me to the next question. What does it feel like the next morning if you stay up late? So, for me, if I stay up late and then have to wake up early, I will feel drained. My energy levels aren't very high. Uh, some people get a little bit grumpy when they're tired. [04:06] Speaker 1: Me, not usually, but maybe a little bit. But generally, I have no energy. My body feels heavy. My eyes are tired. And even simple tasks take a little bit more effort. So, I will drink some coffee, eat some food to try to wake up, but it never fully fixes it. [04:31] I just have to slowly get through the day, taking it one task at a time. And the only way it gets better, if I get some proper sleep. And the last question I would like to ask is, uh, did you stay up late as a kid? For me, no, not really. The only time I would stay up late as a kid is if there was some kind of family function. [04:57] That may be Christmas or during Easter when we catch up with the whole family, all the relatives and the cousins are around. Then I'd probably be very likely to stay up late. But in general, back in primary school, I was a kid who likes to go to bed early. By midnight, I would already feel sleepy, so I wouldn't want to stay up late playing or talking. [05:22] Speaker 1: I was a bit of an early bird, too, then, so I'd wake up early and maybe watch cartoons or play outside, and these are some things I would do before school. And this habit carried on to my teenage years and at university, too. I still preferred to go to bed early, because I realized I studied better in the morning, and I was way more productive when I woke up early and I could focus better, instead of staying up late when my brain was already tired from the big, long day. [05:57] So, I remember doing some assignments in either high school or university. All my classmates would stay up late the night before, and maybe they would go to bed at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning once they had finished. But me, I would get up really early and maybe wake up around 5:00, 4:00 to finish my assignment, because I knew then I can work faster and I can be very productive. So, looking back, not much has changed. I still prefer to hit the sack early. [06:35] Speaker 1: I avoid staying up late, and this is so I can be more productive in the morning. But sometimes life gets busy and we have no choice but to burn the midnight oil just to keep up. So, sometimes we all will feel drained. Maybe we procrastinate too much and have to stay up late. [06:57] Maybe we were scrolling on our phone or binge-watching just one more episode, and then we lose track of time. So, that was a little bit about this episode. We're talking about time and whether or not we go to bed early or late. What about you? I love to hear of your response. Thanks for listening. I'll catch you in the next episode. Bye-bye.

In this episode, we explore the internet term “China-Maxxing.” What does it mean when Westerners start wearing slippers indoors, drinking hot water, and walking with their hands behind their backs? We’ll look at two different meanings of this word—one that’s controversial and one that’s more about cultural fun. Vocabulary 1. maximize - to make something as large or as good as possible 最大化 2. immersion - being completely involved in something, like a culture or language 沉浸 3. manosphere - a group of online spaces where men discuss topics like masculinity and dating 男性圈 4. controversial - causing strong disagreement or argument有争议的 5. stereotype - a fixed idea about a group of people that is often not true刻板印象 6. performative - done mainly to show off or get attention, not because it’s sincere 表演性质的 7. fluency - the ability to do something smoothly and easily, especially using a language流利 8. integration - the process of becoming part of a group or society融入 9. geopolitics - the influence of geography and politics on international relations地缘政治 10. appropriation - taking something from another culture without proper understanding or respect挪用 Transcript [00:00] Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome back. It's me, Isaac. Today, we are talking about a word that's been popping up a lot online lately, Chinamaxxing. Have you seen it on social media? Maybe you've watched some videos of Westerners walking around with their hands behind their back like an old Chinese grandpa, or proudly showing off that they now drink hot water instead of iced water. [00:34] Well, that's one kind of Chinamaxxing, but as I found out, there's actually another kind. There are two types, both surprisingly different. So, today, we will explore what this term really means, why some people do it, and what it tells us about culture, identity, and geopolitics. So, I will share a little bit of a funny story later. [01:00] But, first, what is it? What is Chinamaxxing? Let's break down the word. You might know the suffix -maxxing from internet slang. It comes from online communities, especially gaming and self-improvement forums, and it's to make or maximize something. [01:23] For example, if you are looksmaxxing, you are trying to make yourself as attractive as possible. So, Chinamaxxing means you're trying to maximize your life, by adopting Chinese culture in a very deep way. So, here's the interesting part. When I started researching, I found out people might use this word in two completely different contexts. So, type one, which is the one I was unaware of, that this word had the connotation of was in the manosphere or status version. [02:05] So, it comes from a group of online forums often called the Manosphere. This version is often about moving to China, and by extension, other countries in Asia, to gain higher social status, is the idea that a Western man, especially one who feels unsuccessful at home, can go to China and suddenly be seen as more attractive, wealthier, or more desirable, especially in dating. It is based on some pretty old stereotypes and is often tied to negative views about both Western and Chinese societies. [02:46] This version is more controversial and is the one that many Chinese platforms are sensitive about. The second type is the one I was first aware of, the cultural immersion version. So, the second type is more common on platforms like Xiaohongshu or TikTok. This is the version you've probably seen. Westerners proudly showing off how Chinese they've become. They might drink hot water, wear slippers indoors, walk with their hands behind their backs, eating some Chinese foods, or using chopsticks at every possible situation, or even starting using some Chinese proverbs. For them, Chinamaxxing is about cultural fluency. It is often playful, a little self-deprecating, and it's the way to show that they're really integrated into Chinese life. So, when I started planning for this episode, I was mostly e- interested in the second type, the fun, cultural side. So, in the lead-up, I thought I'll have a bit of a conversation with Baobao. [04:02] So, I called her on the app, the AI assistant, and started talking about this topic, and I wanted to get her perspective and maybe broaden my view of this topic. But after my first question, the AI assistant refused to continue the conversation. And I thought, "Oh, this is strange," because I have only seen this word used in a kind of more lighthearted context. Maybe sharing some simple Chinese habits, like drinking hot water or wearing slippers inside, or perhaps learning Chinese language. But I think what the AI assistant was thinking about was about those negative connotations. So, it touched on sensitive topics like gender relations and how foreigners, or some foreigners, view China, so maybe it was programmed to avoid discussing it altogether. And I was really only interested in the cultural immersion side at that point. So, I guess it's a good reminder. [05:18] Words do have multiple meanings, and sometimes it's harmless looking at a certain term, but sometimes it does carry a heavier weight behind it. But, what I want to focus on is the cultural immersion side of it. What does it look like? So, if we look into it, the cultural immersion version, because this is where the real stories are. If you've lived in China for a while, or maybe you're interested in Chinese culture, you might start to pick up some habits without even noticing. But Chinamaxes take it to the next step further. They turn these habits into a kind of personal identity.Maybe they wear slippers indoors because in China, it's normal to take off your outdoor shoes and put on house slippers. China maxers will not only do this, but they will point it out and let everybody know about it. (laughs) Next one is drinking hot water. So drinking hot water or warm water is a classic sign of, I guess, doing as the Romans do, or when in Rome, do as the Romans do. [06:32] For many Westerners, it's a small but meaningful shift. And for China maxers, again, they will post about it and make sure everybody knows that they're doing it. It's like, hmm, a little bit like if you're vegan. Vegans will often brag about it and let everybody know that they are vegan. And there are a few more habits they might pick up like walking with their hands behind their back, like a little bit like a grandpa, or maybe they will start to learn some language. And this is what I like. I think it has brought around some language and cultural exchange. Lastly, they might eat some more Chinese food or eat with chopsticks or use delivery apps or maybe complain or compliment food in a Chinese way. So how did this topic pop up in the first place? So if you remember a few years back, during the pandemic, social media platforms were quite popular, and then there was some controversy around TikTok in the USA. [07:50] And at that, for a small period of time, it got banned. So these TikTokers, now known as TikTok refugees, had to find a different social media platform that they could use. And some of them were frustrated with Western social media companies, maybe like Instagram or Facebook, maybe because the benefits or the incentives weren't very good for content creators. So they were happy to experiment with new platforms, platforms like Xiaohongshu, or RedNote in English. And that exploded in popularity among some foreigners. Suddenly there was a space where people could share their daily, daily lives, get real feedback from Chinese users, and this is when videos with titles like 'How Chinese Have I Become?' started getting millions of views. And it became a trend, almost like a game. You could see who could adapt the most. Also, I guess this trend came around because some foreigners, they wanted to distance themselves from the so-called ugly foreigner stereotype. [09:10] You know the type of person who might move to a new country but refuses to learn the language or maybe they complain about the local food, or even so, they expect everyone around them to speak English. By going all into, all in on these Chinese habits, these expats are signaling, "I'm not that kind of foreigner. I, I try to integrate into society, maybe perhaps learn some of the language." So there's a gamification aspect of it. By maxing out something, you're improving yourself. So I guess it's a, a form of self-improvement. And finally is the reason for belonging. When you live in a country that's not your own, you naturally want to fit in. Adopting local habits make you feel less like an outsider. For many, China-maxxing started as genuine attempt to connect, and then social media turned it into a shared community hobby. So these are some reasons why people do it and how it came about. Are there any downsides? Well, of course. Nothing is perfect. [10:30] Sometimes this kind of cultural immersion can become performative, more about showing off online than about genuine connection. And even the friendly version can still rely heavily on stereotypes. Not, uh, positive ones. Uh, maybe negative ones as well. Also, for Chinese people watching, uh, reactions vary. Some find it amusing and endearing. Others might find it a little strange, especially if the foreigner seems to be trying too hard. Some Chinese netizens have started to push back, asking, "Why do foreigners think they need to become Chinese to respect China?" So while cultural China-maxxing is generally lighthearted, it still sits within a bigger conversation about cultural identity and respect, and the line between appreciation and appropriation. What can we learn? As English learners, you might find yourself in a cross, cross-cultural situation as well. Maybe you go to a different country. You might think, "Should I try to act more local? [11:45] How much should I adapt?" So the story of China-maxxing shows there's no single right answer. Some people dive in completely, while others keep a mix of their own culture and the new. Both are okay. What's more important is to stay curious and respectful, and being aware, uh, of other cultures around you. So, uh, here are some final thoughts. Um, next time you see a video of a Westerner walking with their hands behind their back or drinking hot water and proudly wearing slippers indoors, you know, this kind of cultural immersion, China-maxxing, it's, it's playful. It's about belonging. Uh, it's one small way people are navigating our increasingly interconnected world. So thanks for listening, everyone. I'm curious if you've ever had culture shock or tried to max out a new culture. I'd love to hear your story. Maybe you've gone to a different country and tried to fit in. What did, what did you do? Maybe send me a message, leave a comment, and we can share it in a future episode. [13:03] Until next time, keep exploring. Maybe drink some hot water. All right. See you later. Bye-bye.

This past weekend, I went to tell Chaozhou 潮州 with some friends. We played a fun photography game as we explored the city. Each person had to take photos of a certain colour. I had to take photos of yellow things around the city. We enjoyed some delicious food like beef hotpot, raw seafood and beef noodles 粿条. Transcript [00:06] Hello, everybody. Welcome back to my podcast. This past weekend was quite busy. I did a bit of traveling starting on Friday. I went back to Hong Kong and stayed there for one night to catch up with my girlfriend and get some work done. That was pretty much all I did on Friday, other than doing a bit of work. [00:28] On Saturday, my girlfriend and I planned to go to Chaozhou to meet some friends. Our friends were coming down from Meizhou. We took the train from Shenzhen North to Chaoshan Station. Our friends drove maybe an hour and a half to Chaozhou to meet us there. They picked us up from the station. We spent one night in Chaozhou. While we, we were there, we had the idea of playing a photography game. [01:03] The goal was for each person to take photos of only one specific color. There were four of us, so we had four colors, red, blue, yellow, and green. We put them in a hat. Then we played rock, paper, scissors to decide who picked first. [01:26] My girlfriend won, so first it was her, then a friend, then her husband, and then last, it was me. My girlfriend picked red. Our friend picked green. Her husband picked blue. That left only yellow for me. I quite like yellow, so I thought it was going to be fun. I know yellow things are not so common. So, for the next 24 hours, each of us used a camera. I had a disposable camera with 39 shots. [02:02] One friend also had a disposable camera, but my girlfriend and our friend's husband had a proper film camera, so those two had a bit of an advantage. After lunch, we walked around the city. Let me kind of tell you about some of the yellow things I took photos of. One of the first things I saw was a small yellow electric scooter. Many cities around China have shared bikes and scooters. And the Meituan scooters are bright yellow, so I took a photo of a stranger riding one, and also of my girlfriend on one of those yellow scooters. Later, I saw some trash. [02:49] I know, trash sounds boring, not very exciting, but it had a yellow smiley face on it, so I thought it was, hmm, a little interesting. I was also wearing yellow shoes that day, so I took a photo of the trash next to my feet. I won't tell you about all 39 photos, because that would be a bit boring. So, let me share about a few of my favorite ones. We walked around the old town of Chaozhou. [03:20] There were lots of tourists. At one point, we saw a big group of older Chinese men, probably retired, because they looked quite old. But they were in a tour group, and all of the people in this tour group were wearing bright yellow hats. They were standing right in the middle of the street, and then this street, it is a very photogenic location, because behind them are big red Chinese characters for Chaozhou. So, it is the perfect place for a photo. So, I waited for them to come, get ready to take the photo in front of the Chaozhou letters. I waited patiently and I took it. [04:14] I am really happy with how that turned out. It is, uh, funny and iconic. Another favorite was, near the river, there is an old wall around the town. The bricks are a brownish yellow color. On top of the wall, there was a man walking all alone wearing a yellow T-shirt. I stood below. I looked up, waited for him to walk in the middle of my frame. I took the shot. Also, I think this is one of my best photos. One lonely man standing on top of a yellow wall wearing some yellow clothes. [04:56] So, besides taking photos, we also had a lot of great food in Chaozhou. We had some raw seafood, which in Chinese is called Sheng Yan. We had oysters, prawns, and some small shellfish, maybe clams. We also had seafood salad. Well, it wasn't seafood salad. It was, like, some seaweed and maybe some, uh, what else? Chili, soy sauce. But it was fresh and I think it'd be perfect for summer. We also had some deep-fried chicken wings. They were quite tasty. For dinner, we had Chaoshan beef hot pot. [05:38] I thought going to Chaoshan, the hot pot there should be quite cheap, but I was wrong. It was actually more expensive than a hot pot you would get in Shenzhen. So, the next morning, we had to have breakfast. I had some Chang Fen. The other three had Guotie with meatballs and beef. But I chose Chang Fen with beef and two eggs. It was a little different from the Chang Fen I usually eat. [06:10] Normally, it just has some soy sauce, but this one had some soy sauce and something creamy, maybe, like, peanut butter or some sesame sauce, but it was quite delicious. Overall, we had a very fun weekend, traveling, hanging out with friends, eating some yummy food. And lastly, the photography challenge, which was a good mental reset from the busy weeks at work. Okay, thank you for listening, everyone. I will talk you, blergh, I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye-bye.

In this chitchat episode, we will be taking about out MBTI while having a cuppa coffee in a shopping mall in Guangzhou. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test that groups people into 16 personality types. We discuss our own types. Keyi is an ENFP, where as according to the testing system, Isaac, an ISTJ, is the complete opposite. We share examples from our daily life and relationship, using everyday English. What is your MBTI and your partner’s MBTI? Do you clash with certain personality types? Or are there any personality types you easily get along with? Vocabulary define * to say exactly what something or someone is like * 中文：定义，界定 category * a group or type of something * 中文：类别，种类 accurate * correct and true * 中文：准确的 extreme * at the highest or lowest level * 中文：极端的 polarised * clearly on one side or the other * 中文：极端化的，偏向一边的 initiative * the ability to start doing something * 中文：主动性 spontaneous * done without planning * 中文：自发的，随性的 stubborn * not willing to change * 中文：固执的 etiquette * polite rules for social behaviour * 中文：礼仪，礼节 emotional * connected with feelings * 中文：情绪的，情感的 breakdown * a sudden feeling of being very upset * 中文：情绪崩溃 complement * to go well together * 中文：互补，相配 mundane * boring, ordinary * 中文：平淡的，乏味的

In this casual walking episode, I take you with me as I go out to find lunch near my school in Guangzhou. I talk about the weather, trying Chinese food like beef noodles and roujiamo, and what I do in my free time. This episode uses easy, daily English to help you practice listening and learn common words for food, school, and daily life. Vocabulary 1. campus * the land and buildings of a school or university * 中文：校园 2. risk * the chance of something bad happening * 中文：风险 3. option * a choice you can make * 中文：选择 4. edit * to change or prepare a video, sound, or writing * 中文：编辑 5. dip * to put something into liquid * 中文：蘸 6. crunch * a hard, crispy sound or feeling * 中文：酥脆 7. juicy * Simple meaning: full of liquid and tasty * 中文：多汁的 8. convenience store * a small shop open for long hours * 中文：便利店