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# English Conversations

-1
Todd: OK, Julia, we're talking about types of people and we have some more that we can discuss. So the next one is worry wart. Are you a worry wart?
Julia: I guess when it comes to some things maybe yeah. Like sometimes I get insomnia and I know it's because my brain is worrying about stuff.
Todd: Right. You just can't let it go?
Julia: Yeah, which is kind of why I took up yoga and meditation because just calming down those, you know, those thoughts that are just going crazy round in your head. So I would be a worry wart if it wasn't for my yoga practice. I think the yoga helps me keep my mind calm.
Todd: Oh, cool.
Julia: But I have that natural tendency I think.
Todd: OK, so what about things around the house? Are you a clean freak?
Julia: No. No, I am messy, like ridiculously messy. I don't see mess. I don't see it. It's like a blind spot.
Todd: So you're a slob?
Julia: Yes, kind of, yes and this is the one thing that drives my husband crazy because he's very tidy, he's very clean, very neat.
Todd: So you guys are yin and yang?
Julia: Yeah. He likes things to go in the proper place and he likes things to be tidied up, put away and for him it's very, it's a sort of therapeutic thing. It's, I guess, the mirror of his mental state. If there's a mess going on he feels uneasy so he needs to tidy up in order to kind of be focused and calm. I'm kind of the opposite. If everything's too tidy and neat, I get a bit freaked out. I like, I'm comfortable in mess, very comfortable in mess.
Todd: Comfortable in chaos?
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: Well, that leads us to the next one and maybe this relates to your husband. Is he a control freak?
Julia: Yes. Absolutely. He is, yes.
Todd: So can you explain what a control freak is?
Julia: A control freak is someone who likes to be in control, has to be in control all the time of all things.
Todd: And if there's not, if there's disorder or something left?
Julia: It causes him stress. It causes him stress so just simple things like maybe like a house guest. While he's a very friendly and generous and warm person, having an extra person in the house makes him uneasy because it's a factor that it's out of his control.
Todd: So how about other things like are you a, like a video game junkie or TV junkie?
Julia: There are certain games that I have to take off my phone because they will eat away my time.
Todd: Right, like Angry Birds and stuff like that?
Julia: Stuff like that. The ones that, just really simplistic ones, things like Tetris and putting squares in boxes and Bejeweled where you change, moving things around. Those kind of games I can get very readily addicted to so I have to, I have to be careful. I had like a brief intense fling with TechM, like those fighting games. I was really into fights, fighting games and playing.
Todd: Wow, that's hard core.
Julia: Yeah, but it was shortlived, and I felt like it was an unhealthy obsession.
Todd: Yeah, you can, yeah.
Julia: But yeah it was great. I enjoyed it when I did it. It was fun.


2-
Peter: So, Jana, you told me that you'd been a student in three different countries and now you're teaching in Japan which is yet another different country. It sounds really interesting.
Jana: Yeah, that's right. Well, I did my undergraduate degree in Prague, in the Czech Republic and as a part of that I did an exchange program in Madrid for one semester and after that I moved to Sydney in Australia and I did my master's there and now I teach in Japan. So, yeah, you're right.
Peter: Wow, that sounds really interesting. I'm curious about the student life in these different countries. Do you think there are big differences in these countries in terms of student life?
Jana: Well, I haven't been a student in Japan, but I can sort of compare from my experience. Yeah, I think it is quite different. In Prague, it was a very serious study environment sort of thing and a lot of my classmates were a bit older as well, so they were like really interested in the subject they were studying, and it's more like autonomous learning. So everybody spends a lot of time in the library researching and reading and that sort of thing and the teachers were really good in their subjects, but they were great experts, but maybe they were not really good teachers.
Peter: Right.
Jana: So at that time I didn't really enjoy that environment. I felt it's too advanced for me. I would have preferred some, a bit more guidance maybe. But, yeah, Sydney was different too because there's so many international students, so it was a whole different experience, not just about study but meeting people from different countries. And I guess Japan and Spain might be a little bit similar in a way.
Peter: Really? How come?
Jana: I felt in Spain it was more teacher-fronted style of teaching so students taking notes and perhaps not participating so much and I guess it depends on the student, but maybe some of them were not that interested in the subject.
Peter: I see.
Jana: And it's a similar kind of feeling I get in Japan.
Peter: OK. How about studying in Sydney? Was that, in that way was it really different? Were people more active and participating students?
Jana: I guess it depends on the student. Some students were more active than others, but I suppose they were there by choice. You know, they wanted to experience studying in another country and expand their horizons, so I think they were a bit more active.
Peter: You said about that people in Prague were really serious students. How about the students in Spain and in Sydney, Australia?
Jana: Right. Well in Spain I actually found it difficult to meet, to become friends with local students although you would think that, you might think that Spanish people are really friendly and open but actually it was quite difficult to get into the local life so I, most of my friends were other international students too to be honest. But I think they all had, you know, part-time jobs and their own activities outside of school that they were interested in.

3-freak and animal
Todd: So, Julia, let's talk about types of people.
Julia: OK.
Todd: Right, first one, are you a fitness freak?
Julia: A fitness freak? I'm fairly fit, but I'm not a freak. No, I'm not a fitness freak, no.
Todd: So you exercise but it's not like you do it all the time?
Julia: No, and I do some unhealthy stuff as well. I like to drink and I'm a former smoker and yes, no I'm not a fitness freak.
Todd: Right. I think a fitness freak is like somebody who does it, who exercises compulsively.
Julia: I indulge in bad stuff too, so no I'm not a fitness freak.
Todd: OK, so that leads us to the next question. Are you a party animal?
Julia: Not any more. I'm too old now.
Todd: When you were younger, you were a party animal?
Julia: I think, yeah, that was probably the type that I most fitted into.
Todd: Nice. I was never a party animal.
Julia: No?
Todd: No, I've always been pretty tame. I've always been pretty tame.
Julia: Yes, I was pretty wild when I was younger.
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: So you used to drink, smoke, stay up late?
Julia: Yeah. All that and more, yeah.
Todd: Come home in the wee hours of the morning?
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Todd: Oh, nice, that's cool. OK, next one would be do you know anybody in your family who's a couch potato?
Julia: Couch potato?
Todd: Because I know that you're not a couch potato.
Julia: I'm not a couch potato, no. My brother sometimes demonstrates couch potato traits.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: He likes to play video games and stuff like that, and he'll spend a lot of time watching movies, and so he does spend a lot of time sedentary compared to me. He makes me look like a fitness freak, I guess, because he doesn't do so much exercise.
Todd: Right. And so for people listening a couch potato is somebody who watches a lot of TV and sits on the couch.
Julia: Spends a lot of time on the couch, yeah.
Todd: Well, how about the similar personality trait of the bookworm? Are you a bookworm?
Julia: A bookworm? No, but I think my husband's probably a bookworm.
Todd: Yeah?
Julia: He spends a lot of time reading books. He reads very fast, so he gets through a lot of books.
Todd: He's a speed reader?
Julia: Yeah, he's a very fast reader and he has to read. He has to have a book with him all the time. He cannot, a waiting room or on a train or any situation where you've just got to sit around, he cannot do it if he doesn't have a book.
Todd: Yeah. You know I live alone and that's a terrible trait that I have. I cannot sit and eat and just eat without something to occupy my attention. I have to read or I have to be like watching something on the computer, and if I go to a waiting room or anything like that or I'm on a plane I'm the same. I have to have something to read. It drives me nuts.
Julia: You see I can't read on transport because I get sick. It makes me sick, it makes me nauseous.
Todd: Like motion sickness?
Julia: Yeah. So I don't have a habit of reading on a train. A bus or a car, oh my God no, I can't read. No way, but my husband reads everywhere all the time.
Todd: That's cool.

4-studnt life abrod

Peter: So, Jana, we were talking about academic life in different countries but how about daily life for students? Did students also have part-time jobs and where did they eat? Did they eat at home or in dorms or did they go out?
Jana: Right. So my life in Prague was quite different because I was living with my parents, but obviously I would go to university for the lectures or seminars and yeah, I think most of my classmates had part-time jobs or even full-time jobs and they would study sort of in their free time and in the Czech Republic usually students go to university in their city so they stay at home with their parents, but if they choose to go to a different city then they would stay at dormitory, so some of my classmates who were staying, who were living in dormitory, I felt like they had more social life than I do because that's where all their social events happen.
Peter: Right.
Jana: I have actually never lived in a dormitory so I don't know what it's like.
Peter: So how about student life in Spain?
Jana: Yeah, I suppose again it depends on the students. Maybe local students and international students might have different lifestyles but I was living with a host family and they cooked for me once a week. That was really nice. Every Sunday we had a really nice meal, but apart from that I would eat at the cafeteria or cook at home and I didn't have a part-time job but I think a lot of my classmates did. It wasn't so easy for international students to find work so...
Peter: Yeah, yeah. And then you moved to Sydney? How did that change things for you?
Jana: Well, Sydney was a lot of fun. There are so many international students, so many different cultures and it's a big part of education actually. International education in Australia is a huge business as well.
Peter: Really?
Jana: So there are so many international students. In fact, in my class I think there were maybe two Australians.
Peter: Wow.
Jana: And the rest were from all over the world.
Peter: Hm. I also had a friend who studied as an international student at, in Sydney, and he told me it's quite expensive for international students to live there. Is that true?
Jana: That's right. One, you have to pay the tuition fees, but also, depending on where you come from, you need to apply for a student visa and often one of the requirements is you need to show that you have enough funding for the whole course.
Peter: Right.
Jana: And the actual living costs might not be that high. It depends where you live. A lot of students share houses.
Peter: Right.
Jana: Or work part-time as well.
Peter: So part time work is allowed then?
Jana: Yes. You can work up to twenty hours per week.
Peter: OK.
Jana: While on a student visa.
Peter: Right. So you can have some income at least to support yourself?
Jana: That's right.
Peter: Where did you live in Sydney and did you have a share mate or somewhere like that?
Jana: Yeah, I lived in a share house with other students. It's a really common thing to do in Sydney because the rent is so expensive.
Peter: Oh, really?
Jana: So not only students but even working adults often share apartments. Yeah, I actually moved maybe five times while I was there.
Peter: It sounds pretty hard actually.
Jana: It was fun to try living in different areas and with different people.
Peter: Great.

5- More Moms

Todd: Now there's a couple that are kind of, that are not as nice. They can be positive or negative like for example a helicopter parent.
Julia: A helicopter parent? What's that?
Todd: So a helicopter parent is basically a parent that just hovers over their child all the time. They're always worried about their child. They follow them everywhere. They want to know what they're doing at all times and they just worry a lot. They're so worried...
Julia: That sounds very stressful.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: As a parent.
Todd: They're always worried their child's going to get hurt or something, you know, or they just are just over-protective, I guess yeah. So are you a helicopter parent?
Julia: No, I don't think so, no. No, I'm very happy for my daughter to have independence.
Todd: That's good. That's good. So you don't like, if she goes outside for a few minutes or if she's, you know, you hear some clanging in the next room, you don't go rushing over.
Julia: No. I wait for the tears before I go over.
Todd: Smart, smart. There's, recently because of a very popular book we have, it's called the Tiger Mom.
Julia: A Tiger Mum?
Todd: Yeah, Tiger Mom.
Julia: Sounds cool. Is it a positive term or is it a negative?
Todd: It is kind of. Actually it comes, the tiger I think comes from the Asian reference. It's like for an Asian mother and it's basically really strict, really driven, like really push your kids, make them study hard, demand good grades, demand that they do extra curricular activities, really push them to have high paying careers or successful careers, do well academically and stuff like that.
Julia: From very young, does this...?
Todd: Yeah, from very young. The woman who wrote the book, I think it's actually called Tiger Mom and she was a Yale professor and I think she was of Chinese ancestry and she raised these very successful daughters and so she wrote a book and basically saying you need to be strict and push your kids and demand excellence. I think that's what she wrote.
Julia: Is the tiger, is it reference to like the Chinese horoscope, maybe like the characteristics of the tiger for that year?
Todd: No. Actually I just think it has to do with being a tiger comes from Asia, I think that's it.
Julia: OK, well a tiger does have a pretty kind of aggressive or driven sort of image.
Todd: Right.
Julia: When a tiger gets something in its sights, you know, like where it comes from.
Todd: Totally.
Julia: No, I'm not so much a tiger mum, no.
Todd: So you're a soccer mom?
Julia: More of a soccer mum I think, yeah.
Todd: That's good. Yeah, that's what I would want, a soccer mom.
Julia: A soccer mum, yeah.


6- Soccer Mom

Todd: So, Julia, now you are a parent.
Julia: That's right.
Todd: And have you heard of all these terms that we have in the US for different types of parents? I wonder if you have them in the UK?
Julia: You mean like soccer mum, stuff like that?
Todd: Exactly.
Julia: That's the only one I've heard of actually.
Todd: OK. So what do you think a soccer mom is? What have you heard?
Julia: My image is a mother who dedicates her time to running her kids to and from soccer practice. Is that right?
Todd: Right.
Julia: And also drives a big vehicle? My image is of a big SUV or a big four wheel drive.
Todd: Right. I think it's also, it's like a parent that has many scheduled events for their child.
Julia: Oh, OK.
Todd: So maybe they have swimming class or soccer practice, ballet and stuff like that.
Julia: Oh, maybe I'm a little bit of a soccer mum.
Todd: Yeah, I think now, yeah. I think it's actually a good term. It's like, I think a soccer mom usually is considered a caring parent.
Julia: OK.
Todd: And they try to have their child doing productive things.
Julia: It must be pretty, quite an affluent perhaps middle class kind of parent.
Todd: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now we have the equivalent, it's called a Nascar dad.
Julia: Is Nascar some kind of car racing?
Todd: Yeah, basically it's just the, these cars they run around and ride around in a circle. It's kind of like horse racing for cars, you just go round and round. But, yeah, so I guess it's the same thing. It's just a dad who's really, you know, really into his kids, spends a lot of time with his kids.
Julia: Would this be a stay at home dad, like a...?
Todd: No, no. It's just kind of like a good old boy father, like a dad who's kind of blue collar, not rich, you know, maybe lower middle class maybe but just kind of like your typical sitcom, TV sitcom dad I guess.
Julia: But that's nice. Takes his kids everywhere, that's nice.
Todd: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: Involved in the...
Todd: Yeah, like a Nascar dad would probably take his sons hunting and maybe take his daughter shopping and stuff like that.

7-Shipwercks

Jana: So, Peter, I've been asking you about hunting for treasure. Can I ask you a few more questions?
Peter: Sure.
Jana: So why are there so many sunken ships in South Africa?
Peter: Well I guess around the southern tip of Africa because of the really bad weather. It really changes really quickly in those parts and with the ancient ships I guess they weren't really prepared for that kind of weather, it's unexpected, so I think that's probably one reason. And I think one of the other reasons is probably piracy, people that were after them, the loot I guess if you want to put it that way, yeah.
Jana: Right, and if it's so dangerous, how do people find these sunken ships nowadays?
Peter: I think, obviously with technological advances it's easier to track where the, possibly where these sunken ships might be. I think they can use satellite navigation and things like that but obviously also finding out more about history and, you know, going through historical records and finding out the old shipping routes and possibly where ships got lost and finding it that way, I think, is now, is more easier than it used to be.
Jana: So it sounds like an interesting combination of technology, science, history...
Peter: I would guess so.
Jana: Adventure.
Peter: Adventure, yeah.
Jana: So your friend does this as a hobby. Do you know if it's very expensive? Is it a big investment to...?
Peter: As far as I remember what he told me and I think it's really expensive and they formed a little company to start off with but because it involves so much searching and basically doing historical research, also doing a lot of preparation and technological preparation and finding, first tracking, sorry first finding places where possible finds may be and then actually preparing equipment and some of it's really deep sea diving so it involves, I think, a lot of initial capital investment to get it going. Obviously there might be a lot of return when they actually find something but I think in many cases they don't find as much as they expected so there's a potential for losing a lot of money so you'd have to have quite a bit of capital investment behind you if you start out.
Jana: Right. So you need a lot of courage and a lot of money?
Peter: Yes. But I think he's an adventurer so he, I think he goes where adventure leads him so it would be a nice job to do I think.

7- Treasure Hunt

Jana: So, Peter, you mentioned treasure diving. How did you find out about this?
Peter: Oh, well, I had this friend and he actually used to work for the government but he was diving just for pleasure at that time but then he met, I think while on a diving excursion, he met another guy who was into treasure diving and he, they formed a company and they've actually become, I guess, professional treasure divers and it's, I think I mentioned about the sunken treasure around the tip of Africa because of the ancient sea route but I think my friends have now moved off to other parts of the world that are also known for sunken treasure spots. I think one of the areas are close to Florida in the United States because there used to be an ancient shipping route between Europe and the United States and, yeah, they go diving for treasure around that area.
Jana: There must be a lot of mysteries under the sea?
Peter: I think so too and I think it involves a lot of dispute possibly because it's, it can become a political issue I guess in some ways if the treasure is found and who does it belong to and the countries that originally sent the money or the gold or the treasure or the whatever and the country that it's found in now and also by the guys that find it. Is it finders keepers or is it a matter of dividing up the discovery and of course I think there's a lot of historical value involved with the find as well. So, yeah, I think it's an interesting, fascinating kind of adventure story.
Jana: It would be quite an adventurous hobby to have.
Peter: I think so too. Yeah, I kind of envy his lifestyle. He seems to go from one grand yacht in one very nice area of part of the world and goes to the next treasure area and yeah that's what he does for a living.


8-1220 Metrosexual
Daniel talks with Vella about the concept of some men being metrosexual.

Daniel: Well we're talking about men and being macho and stuff like that but recently there's the whole thing about being metrosexual, right? What do you think about that?
Vella: I have no problem with, you know, metrosexual because I think, you know, everyone has the right to look good and to take care of themselves even for men.
Daniel: Uh, uh.
Vella: For example, David Beckham, he's one example of metrosexual guys and I think he looks amazing with the underwear he dresses. Yeah, I have no problem.
Daniel: Yeah, yeah but like one thing it's about how you dress and, because metrosexual people they don't, I mean they do care of a lot of other things not only clothes, right? They take care of their hair, I don't know, their faces. I don't know, so many things they do that not a lot of people do especially men. You know, they take care of their nails, their hands and for some people that might be a bit weird. What do you think as a woman? Do you like it, you don't? It's too much? What is it?
Vella: I'm OK with that, just not too much though.
Daniel: OK.
Vella: Like for example, I mean guys in rock bands they usually wear makeup, like eyeliner, and I'm actually really into that.
Daniel: OK.
Vella: And I don't know if you know this guy called Adam Lambert, he was the winner of American Idol last season.
Daniel: Oh, yeah.
Vella: And he wears a lot of, you know, eyeliner and yeah I think it's pretty cool.
Daniel: But I don't know, as a girl for example, because OK usually makeup and stuff like that are more related to girls, right? So what if your boyfriend is a metrosexual and he knows or he has more makeup than you have, how does that make you feel?
Vella: Well I wouldn't, you know, choose a metrosexual guy to be my boyfriend but, you know, I think it's OK for guys to wear makeup just not too much.
Daniel: Uh, uh.
Vella: I mean only eyeliner I think is fine but if he starts wearing blusher or lipstick, you know, there's something wrong with them.
Daniel: OK. So how about all the other things they do that they take care a lot of their bodies? How about that?
Vella: I think it's totally fine, you know, taking care of yourself. I think it shows that you really care about, you know, how you look.
Daniel: I had a discussion with a female friend before and she totally agreed that boys should take care of themselves like a bit more because I mean, yeah, the whole macho thing I think it's appealling but at the same time I don't think, I don't think it's fair that like boys expect girls to take care of themselves and to be pretty, to look pretty, I don't know makeup, the hair, the nails, but boys sometimes, I mean I don't think girls want to go out with a monkey, you know. It's like, you have to take care of themselves, of yourself, it's not fair that girls have to put all the effort and boys, you know, just don't do anything. So I agree with the thing that, I mean it's all right, we have to take care of ourselves and we have to try to look better but I'm not used to the whole makeup and stuff so personally I don't do it and I don't think I will be comfortable doing it. So I don't know.
Vella: Absolutely, I agree. What about in Chilean culture? How do they take metrosexual? Is there a big issue or people just don't care?
Daniel: It's a big issue. We're not really used to have people, I mean boys wearing makeup and stuff like that. So when you see somebody doing it, it's kind of like a shock. It's not really clear if he's a metrosexual or he's gay like because in Chile that's a big issue still. So, but more and more people are accepting that. I mean, OK, if you wear makeup all right. If you, I don't know, do your nails, OK, but it's not really common. It's more for like people who are, I don't know, singers, actors or stuff like that. Not really common people do it still at least. How about in Indonesia? How is the, how do people take that?
Vella: I mean like metrosexual you can define it in, you know, so many ways. If guys wear makeup or guys dressing up, you know, really fancy, well I hardly, you know, see any man in Indonesia wearing makeup but a lot of them, you know, dress really fancy and I think we don't have a problem with that and a lot of, you know, my friends, young teenagers, they really dig that. They're really into, you know, guys who dress up really fancy so it's not an issue.
Daniel: It's not an issue. OK. Like it's getting more popular, right?
Vella: It is and a lot of my friends are really metrosexual.
Daniel: OK, that's good. Thanks.


9- 1219 Men Cry
Daniel and Vella talks about the cultural norm for men not to cry and if they should cry more often.

Vella: So Daniel, we're talking about emotions and let's talk about emotions in men. Do you think it's OK for men to cry?
Daniel: Well, I do think it's all right. There's nothing wrong about it. If you want to cry, if you're sad, if you are angry, if you are disappointed, I think it's normal. The normal reaction would be to cry but unfortunately there is a huge stigma attached to men crying. For some people it is a big issue. For me, personally, it isn't.
Vella: I agree a hundred per cent with you. For me personally, I think it's totally OK for guys to cry.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: But I think it's in my culture, Indonesian, it's really uncommon to, you know, for guys to show this emotional expression when they cry. For example when, even when you're little, if you cry in the classroom and when you are a guy and if you cry, people are just going to make fun of you and they're going to start laughing and calling you names.
Daniel: I know totally. It's the same in Chile actually. Well, I was raised in a really, really strong kind of macho culture. I mean crying was a sign of weakness so boys were not, I mean I can say, were not allowed to cry, right, because of, because of the whole macho thing and you have to be a man, you have to be brave so you're not supposed to cry. But now I think it's, kids shouldn't be, well they shouldn't be encouraged to cry but they should be told that it's all right. I mean it's a natural reaction and you have to show your feelings so I think if you want to cry, if you're sad and if you want to cry, you should just do it but there's nothing to be embarrassed about.
Vella: I think that's just how it is inside or they expect men to be macho and masculine and I think showing tears kind of takes away a lot of masculine, like masculinity out of men.
Daniel: I think it's more masculine just to assume that you are sad and you are showing it. You're not afraid to show your emotions. I think that's more valuable, that's more, I mean I'm a boy and because I cry that doesn't make me less of a man. I mean, I'm a man and therefore, I don't know because I'm a man, I can show my expressions and I'm not afraid of it. I don't know, that's what I think.

10 - 1022 Island Invasion
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Cheryl talks about how some foreign animal and plant species have caused serious problems to her island.

Nick: In Australia, there’s a lot of snakes as well. Is there snakes in Guam?
Cheryl: Yeah, there’s plenty of snakes in Guam, one of which is very famous. It’s the brown tree snake. Now the brown tree snake was brought over to Guam a long time ago in cargo ships when it hid in the cargo and the cargo was unloaded onto the docks of Guam. So when these brown tree snakes were accidentally released onto Guam’s soil, they subsequentlydestroyed most of Guam’s bird population. Can you believe that?
Nick: That’s amazing. Yeah. Introductions like that can cause disasters for wildlife.
Cheryl: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And because these brown tree snakes destroyed most of the bird life on Guam we’ve lost a lot of beautiful tropical birds that used to live on Guam. Another thing that I can think of that was introduced to Guam, but isn’t a wild animal, is a wild plant and we call it a Japanese Bonsai Leaf, actually. And I believe Bonsai means suicide or something in Japanese but what these leaves do is they grow and grow and they look like vines so they cover loads and loads of trees and good wildlife that are out there. I mean, plant life and they keep these plant life from growing because they essentially ambush them and keep sunlight from ever reaching them.
Nick: That’s really interesting.
Cheryl: Yeah, so if you can imagine a building covered completelyin really thick vine, that’s how these Japanese Bonsai leaves work. They completely shroud and cover all of the good plant life that we have on Guam. So we’ve lost a lot of good plant life, beautiful different types of leaves, and bushes, flowers. So in addition to losing all of our bird life, we’ve also lost a lot of our plant life to this introduction of a foreign plant species in Guam.


11 - 1021 Island Dangers
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Cheryl talks with Nick about a few dangerous things people should be aware of on her island.

Nick: Is there any natural disasters which happen?
Cheryl: Yeah, there’s plenty of natural disasters. Guam is actually right on the coast of a reef formation called the Mariana’s trench and underneath, in this trench is the lowest part of the world, the deepest part of the world.
Nick: Wow!
Cheryl: Yeah, so we joke about it. We joke that Guam’s highest mountain, Mt. Lan Lan is actually the highest mountain in the world if you count off from its base which is in the Marianas trench, the lowest part of the world.
Nick: Wow, that’s amazing! So there must be good diving if you talk about barrier reefs.
Cheryl: Yeah, there’s plenty of good diving. It’s got really great diving like you would find in Hawaii or in the Great Barrier Reef. And many, many tourists from all over Asia come to Guam to scuba dive because of their great spots. It’s the closest US soil they can get to.
Nick: Ah, I see. But in Australia in the Great Barrier Reefs, there’s lots of dangerous animals. Is that the case in Guam as well?
Cheryl: Well, actually that’s funny you should ask, there has been a recent article about a guy in Guam, a very young guy who was scuba diving, and he got stung by a lion fish, but that is the extent of the dangerous animals of Guam. You’d have to go out into the deep sea to find more dangerous animals. But I think the most dangerous ones we have are quite small -- things like the lion fish which I just mentioned, he just got stung, but it wasn’t anything terrible. We do have reef sharks, but they are not great white sharks so they are quite small and smaller poisonous things like trigger fish, those you just have to be careful about whenever you are scuba diving, but other than that there’s not much dangers in the sea.
Nick: Great.



12 - 1236 Hotel for Her
Erina talks with Mike about what she likes and dislikes in a hotel on vacation.


Mike: So we're talking about ideal hotels. What do you think is an ideal hotel for you?
Erina: That's a tough question but when I choose a hotel I would look at where the hotel's located.
Mike: Right.
Erina: And also the food. So as long as the hotel is surrounded by nature, you know, preferably on the water.
Mike: OK.
Erina: And maybe some mountains in the back and if the food, the breakfast and dinner and all the food that they have is amazing, I'm good, I'm set.
Mike: Now what about facilities? I mean, you know, hotels have various facilities whether it's gyms or movie rooms or computer rooms that allow you to do, you know, internet and various things. You know some hotels have pools. Would those be things that you would want in your ideal hotel?
Erina: Oh, yeah. Gym, I'm not so interested in because I can, you know, play sports outside when I'm surrounded by nature. Why would I be, you know, inside working out?
Mike: Right.
Erina: But in terms of swimming pool, I'm actually interested because when I was looking at pictures, I don't know which country it was, but there's an outdoor pool, infinity pool, that looked like it was connected to the ocean.
Mike: Oh, wow.
Erina: And it was just so beautiful and, you know, before I thought why would I swim in the swimming pool when I have an ocean in front of me but, you know, if there is a swimming pool like that at the hotel, I would definitely stay there for a long time.
Mike: Right. Now what about spa facilities? You know, massages and different spa treatments. Is that something that would interest you in your ideal hotel?
Erina: Oh, yes, yes, for sure. I'm so into massages and yeah, I would definitely want massage room and spas in the hotel. That would be perfect.
Mike: OK. And, you know, there are some really expensive hotels that offer the service of a personal butler. Do you think that would be necessary for you in your ideal hotel or would that be one amenity that you could do without?
Erina: I think it depends but I don't really, when I'm staying at the hotel I would usually, you know, want to be alone and want to enjoy my time with my family or my, you know, my husband or myself that I actually don't want anyone following me everywhere I go. So, you know, to a lot of people it might be that's a good idea, you know, it's a nice treat to have but I am personally not up for that.
Mike: OK, well it sounds like a pretty nice hotel you've just described.



13 - 1235 Hotel for Him
Mike talks with Erina about what features he likes in a hotel when he travels.

Erina: So Mike, you know the other day my friends and I were talking about ideal hotels. What is your ideal hotel?
Mike: Well, there are many hotels that would appeal to me but I'd say my ideal hotel would number one have to have a gorgeous view from the room. And if we're talking about idealistic, I would choose a hotel that is suspended over the water, just off the beach. And my ideal hotel would be not a hotel where the rooms are all connected but rather rooms being separate villas or bungalows and those villas to be situated just above the water so when you wake up in the morning, you're literally above the water already. You're already on the beach and to get from your room to the beach you have to walk out and you wade in the water until you get to the beach, so a place like that, definitely my ideal hotel would be, you know, something like that.
My ideal hotel would have to be situated in nature and I would really love it to have a location that would provide me with opportunities to do a lot of cool activities. You know, perhaps adventure stuff in nature dealing with animals that type of thing, being able to see the local color of the area. So that would probably be my ideal hotel.
One other point I would like to make is that the hotel would have to have unbelievable food and I think a hotel with good food and not just good food but a lot of options for food. So when you wake up in the morning and you go for breakfast buffet, you have a choice of virtually any different type of food that there is. A lot of good hotels are limited to what kind of food they offer even if the food is high quality so that would be another aspect for me that would be quite important for my ideal hotel.
Erina: Yeah, it sounds like a nice hotel what you just described.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely.


14 - 1234 Ecuadorian Food
Felipe talks about food he likes in Ecuador and the dishes he likes.

Katia: Hello Felipe, how are you?
Felipe: Fine thank you and you?
Katia: Good, good. Listen, I heard that you know a lot about Ecuadorean food. Can you tell me a little bit about it? What is your favorite or what is it that you don't like? Can you just enlighten me a little bit?
Felipe: Well, in Ecuador, well pretty much all the food in Ecuador is delicious. For example, we have fritada which is some fried meat, pork meat, and also potatoes and corn because I love corn and there's also some typical dish called ceviche. Ceviche is a coastal traditional food and it's made out of shrimps and lemon and tomato. I think it's quite unique and nowhere else in the world you can find something like that. It's quite delicious. And there's also a really spicy food so maybe that's the kind of food that I don't like too much because it's too spicy and it makes you sweat.
Katia: It sounds actually very exotic. What about staple food in Ecuador? What is it, the staple food? For example in Mexico we have tortilla. What about Ecuador, what is the most common food?
Felipe: Well, yeah, in Ecuador we also have tortillas but they have different names. For example we have arepas which are made of corn also so the staple food in Ecuador is similar to Mexico and Colombia also because it's made, it's composed of corn and potatoes and mainly people in Ecuador they love potatoes and corn and especially corn because there are many different kinds of corn so they can make many different kinds of soups and also a kind of a bread made of corn and cookies and so on.
Katia: Hmm, it really sounds delicious. Now I'm very curious to try it but thank you for enlightening me about Ecuadorean food.
Felipe: Oh, you're welcome. Have a nice trip.
Katia: Thank you.



15 - 1233 Columbian Food
Felipe talks about various foods from his native country of Columbia.

Katia: Hello Felipe, how are you?
Felipe: Hello, Katherine, I'm fine, you?
Katia: Good. Actually I'm starving and I wanted to ask you about food. What is your favorite Colombian food?
Felipe: Well, in Colombia we have many, many different kinds of food but something that I would recommend you to eat is the bandeja. Bandeja paisa is a traditional Colombian food and it's made out of meat, fried meat, potatoes. You would also have salad, rice, corn and some sausages. That's really, really delicious. That's something I recommend you to try.
Katia: Bandeja. I have heard of it. What about something else? Maybe do you have soups in Colombia.
Felipe: Yeah, you're right. We have many different kinds of soups in Colombia because in Colombia there are many different kinds of potatoes and corn. So, for example, if you travel to the center, the central part of Colombia, if you travel to the capital Bogotá·, you will find a soup called ajijaco. Ajijaco is composed of potatoes, corn, some cream and also some meat. You know, it's quite delicious.
Katia: It sounds delicious. Now you said that there are many different types of potatoes. What do you mean different types of potatoes?
Felipe: Yeah, what I mean is that there are different size of potatoes. You have big potatoes, you have small potatoes and they taste different also. You have sweet ones, you have sour ones and you have many different kind of taste.
Katia: It really sounds delicious. What about drinks? What would you recommend as a Colombian drink?
Felipe: Well, if you go to Colombia you should try Colombian juices because we have different kinds of fruits in the Amazon region, in the highlands and in the coastal region. So, for example, there is a fruit called guanabana. Now guanabana is a delicious fruit and I don't think there's something like that fruit somewhere else in the world so you have to try. Its taste is different, it's delicious. It's a traditional Colombian fruit.
Katia: Hmm, guanabana Definitely I'm going to try. Thank you Felipe.
Felipe: OK, you're welcome.


16 - 1230 New Gym
Rebecca talks with Todd about a new gym and all it has to offer new members.

Rebecca: Hey, Todd, I'm going and looking for a gym. Actually, I hear you've joined a gym. Which one?
Todd: Yeah, actually, there's a real nice gym down town. It just opened about a month ago. Maybe two months ago. It's really nice.
Rebecca: OK, what's the name of it?
Todd: The name is Fitness Club.
Rebecca: Good name.
Todd: Yeah, so, and it's pretty much has everything. I mean it has, you know, free weights, of course and it has all the latest machines.
Rebecca: Ah, good.
Todd: Actually some of the machines are kind of tricky, I really don't know how they work yet. I'll have to ask the staff.
Rebecca: So it's more than a treadmill? It's a whole big machine that you don't know how what to do?
Todd: Exactly. I'm actually afraid to get on the thing. I don't want to break it, you know.
Rebecca: Is there people that can help you?
Todd: Yeah, actually, that's part of the problem is that you can't use any of the equipment unless you get trained for it. They're really specific, so you have to have guidance. It's kind of annoying actually because, you know, everything... they have a system and they know based on, you know, your membership what machines you can use and what you can't.
Rebecca: OK. But what happens if, like I've been to a gym before do I still need to get the training before I start?
Todd: Yeah. That's how I was. I told them that I, you know, had been lifting weights for awhile and they didn't care, so you have to get certified to use all the equipment. It's kind of inconvenient.
Rebecca: OK, so, do they have classes though?
Todd: They do. Actually, they pretty much have everything. They have yoga, kick boxing, spin classes, dancing, so the schedule looks pretty diverse.
Rebecca: Oh, that's good. I do prefer classes than the weights.
Todd: Only one thing that's bad about the classes though is that cause it's new, and it's a new gym and there's lots of people and it looks like it's pretty crowded in there, I think you have to reserve what classes you're going to join.
Rebecca: Oh, really.
Todd: Yeah, isn't that terrible.
Rebecca: Oh, geez, I usually just like to walk in.
Todd: Right, right, right.
Rebecca: Yeah, when you feel like going to the gym, you go.
Todd: Right, right. One thing that is nice though is they have an actual gym floor, like a basketball gym, so you can play basketball. They have volleyball tournaments, so I mean, if you like more traditional sport, like tennis, they also have tennis courts. You can do that as well.
Rebecca: Oh, that's good. I do like tennis. I love tennis actually.
Todd: Well, actually, if you're interested I'd be glad to take you down to the gym and show you. I think you get a free trial workout.
Rebecca: OH, that's good. That's good. So how much would it cost per month?
Todd: Well, cause it's new it's kind of expensive. It costs about fifty dollars a month.
Rebecca: Oh, wow!
Todd: Yeah, but if you buy a membership, a two-year membership, you can get a two year membership, I think for eight hundred dollars, so it saves you some money so it's kind of reasonable.
Rebecca: And I suppose if you pay for two, you know you have to go then.
Todd: Right. Right. It's eight hundred dollars for two years, five hundred dollars for one year, or fifty dollars a month.
Rebecca: OK, yeah.
Todd: Oh, one thing that's really cool too is that they have a social center. They have like an area where you can get like fruit drinks and coffee and stuff like that and just hang out. It's quite nice.
Rebecca: That's good. So after the workout, go and have coffee.
Todd: Right. Right.
Rebecca: Lovely. OK. So, yeah, I would love to come and have a look at it.
Todd: OK, well next week, anytime, just give me a call. I'll take you there.
Rebecca: Alright. Great. Thanks.



17 - 1229 Nadam
Chugi from Mongolia talks about a special holiday in her country called Nadam.

Chugi: Hi, Mike, how are you doing?
Mike: Hey, Chugi, I'm good.
Chugi: I'm so done we're with classes.
Mike: Yeah, me too.
Chugi: What are you doing for the summer vacation?
Mike: Right now, I have no plans.
Chugi: Well, I am planning to go home to Mongolia. You should come with me.
Mike: Really? Mongolia?
Chugi: Yeah, summer time. It's very nice. We have a very nice holiday called Nadam and during the Nadam we have three days festival.
Mike: Really. I've always wanted to go to Mongolia. That sounds like a good time to go.
Chugi: Yes, it is. Nadam is in July. And then it's for three days, from July 11th to July 13th and it's happening all over the country. You can experience anywhere in Mongolia. And during the Nadam festival we have wrestling, archery and horse races.
Mike: Really. Wresting, Archery, and horse-racing.
Chugi: Yes, and you can get to see all of them in one place.
Mike: Really, can I ride horses?
Chugi: Yes, you can right next to the place where they horse-race, people are offering horses for other people to ride, and they just charge a little bit of money.
Mike: Really.
Chugi: Yes.
Mike: And wrestling? That sounds interesting.
Chugi: Yes, wrestling is held just a few kilometers away from the horse racing in the biggest stadium and it's for like two days. I mean, if I were you, I would go to the second day and see them. It's very nice.
Mike: And the archery? What kind of archery is it?
Chugi: It's more like the traditional kind of archery. You just hit the target, and just as many targets as you hit, that's the better, and even in archery they have female and male together. It's not separated, so that's a very unique thing.
Mike: Oh, sounds interesting. And how long is the horse race?
Chugi: The horse race? It's actually very different than other places. The horse race there is six different kinds of horse races, depending on the differerent ages of the horses
Mike: Oh, really?.
Chugi: And the distances are different because of the ages as well. For example, the youngest horse would run for thirty kilometers, but the oldest horses would run for forty kilometers.
Mike: Oh, really.
Chugi: Yes.
Mike: Very interesting.
Chugi: Yes, I think you should come with me and experience the big festival in Mongolia.
Mike: Well, this sounds like a good plan.
Chugi: Yes, it is.



18 - 1228 Chilean Movie
Daniel talks about a popular movie from Chile and why he liked watching it.

Vella: So, Daniel, we're talking about movies.
Daniel: Uh, uh.
Vella: Do you have any favorite Chilean movie?
Daniel: Well, yeah. Actually Chilean movies are quite, we're making a lot of movies recently but this one movie I really liked. It's quite old, probably ten years ago, it's called El Chacotero Sentimental. It's really difficult to explain that in English but it was based on a radio show. There was every week from Monday to Friday from two to four pm, there was a radio show so people would call to the host of this radio show and they would explain their problems related to love, family, friends, whatever, and it became really popular. Everyone was listening to this, this show and some of those stories were absolutely brilliant and you could hear like any kind of stories, like really sad stories or really funny stories. And for the movie they took three of them, well three, they made three stories and they took elements from real stories that they were told during the show.
So the first one, for example, it's about a guy who move from the countryside to, into Santiago, and he was having an affair with a neighbor and he was caught by her husband and her husband was the police. He was a policeman so all the, it was really funny to watch it, but at the same time like everyone knew that kind of stuff happened so it was funny but at the same time kind of, you know, like come on that's a really, really big problem.
The second story was a bit sad. It was about a family who had problems. They had a lot of problems during their childhood so and all the traumas and all the problems it creates and you take when you have problems in childhood.
And the third one, it's a really, really funny story. It's about a young couple. They were really poor but how they lived, the love, and how they live their cut(?02:11) lives.
So all the stories, like the stories all together, talk about how Chilean people, they live, their love, how they act as couples, so it became really, really famous in Chile.
Vella: That sounds really interesting. I would love to watch it.
Daniel: Actually there's a version with English subtitles so any time.
Vella: I have one question though.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: Have you ever called the house and maybe tell them that you're sorry?
Daniel: No, but, no I never did but I think one of my friends, because everyone listened to the shows, so you can see and you can hear that. LIke I know that story or I know something similar so it might be one of my friends I don't know.



19 - 1227 Indonesian Movie
Vella talks with Daniel about a movie she really enjoyed from her home country of Indonesia.


Daniel: Hey, Vella, how are you?
Vella: I'm good. How are you?
Daniel: I'm well thanks. Just wanted to ask you what's your favorite movie?
Vella: OK, I have one all time Indonesian favorite movie.
Daniel: Uh, uh.
Vella: And it's called Lima Juanita, Lima Kintai, Lima Macharita.
Daniel: What's, what's the name of it in English?
Vella: In English the translation would be Five Women, Five Love and Five Stories.
Daniel: Uh, uh. What is it about?
Vella: OK, it's basically about five women with different love stories and one of them, her parents died when she was really young.
Daniel: OK.
Vella: She couldn't get a better job so she ended up being a prostitute.
Daniel: That's really sad.
Vella: Yeah, it is and the second one, she, her husband had an affair with her best friend and the third one, she couldn't get a boyfriend all her life. You know, she was really struggling to find the right guy.
Daniel: Uh, uh.
Vella: And I think she was really busy trying, you know, to find the guy that fulfills all her steroes, that she ends up, you know, not finding anyone.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: And the fourth one, she got married only for eleven months and one day before the anniversary her husband died in a car accident.
Daniel: Oh.
Vella: Yeah, it was a really sad movie but, you know, you learned a lot from it.
Daniel: Yeah, it sounds really, really sad and really depressing.
Vella: It is. I cried actually watching it. You know, as a girl I learned a lot from it and, you know, it opened my eyes to, you know, society and how women are, you know, treated and how they experience, you know, love stories.
Daniel: OK. So how did the movie help Indonesian people to the movie? How is, did they like it, did they thought it was like only sad or did everyone thought like, I don't know, we can learn from this?
Vella: Well, I've read this website. They have, you know, many comments on the movie and I think most of the watchers were, you know, female audiences and a lot of them really related well to the movie and they really took it as, you know, a positive.
Daniel: OK. And so it's, all the stories are quite related to Indonesian kind of reality?
Vella: Yeah, pretty much.
Daniel: But, so how's the relation between like Indonesian movie industry and Hollywood movie industry? Which one is bigger?
Vella: Well, I think people in Indonesia are more attracted to Hollywood movie just because they have, you know, better story lines and I think a lot of us are really into, you know, Hollywood actresses and actors.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: So, you know, they are more interested in watching Hollywood movies.
Daniel: OK.
Vella: Than Indonesian.
Daniel: OK. But the Indonesian industry is still...
Vella: Is still really big, yeah.
Daniel: Really big, OK. OK, thanks.




20 - 1226 Success and Failure
Julia and Todd discuss when it is good to succeed and why sometimes failure is a good thing.

Todd: We're talking about education and about, you know, people applying themselves and giving grades and giving praise and stuff like that. Have you ever thought that maybe we, because we're both teachers, both of us are teachers, that maybe we put too much effort on judging everybody and that maybe it's OK for kids to realise failure is not really a bad thing or maybe quitting is not a bad thing?
Julia: Absolutely. Yeah, I think, I think all the emphasis should be put on the effort that people make and yeah the failing or succeeding is kind of secondary to that.
Todd: Because it does seem that we push kids at all levels to get good grades, go to college, get that good job and that, that usually works out but in a lot of cases people find success because they fail, because they don't do well and that leads them to something else in life. So I guess, I'm not saying don't try, just quit at everything, but that we have to just accept that actually maybe quitting is not such a bad thing.
Julia: No, I don't think it is. No, I think you're working, that's all part of the learning process, working out what. I was lucky. I was given very good advice at school and I wasn't pushed to get good grades, I wasn't pushed to pursue a career. The advice I was given was do what you enjoy doing cos they're the things you'll be good at.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: And that was great advice. I don't have a career but I'm happy.
Todd: There was a great quote the other day by someone in the paper about starting your own business and the person said, you know, follow your passion and keep at it and the money will follow and I think that's pretty much the case for a lot of people that, you know, that they find success.
Julia: There's that other famous quote about doing what makes you come alive. Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive because the world needs people who've come alive, meaning like pursue your passion and that will lead to success, whatever success means. It's the way we define success as well is also part of the problem.
Todd: True, true.
Julia: You know, high income, is that success? And in my book that's not what success is. Success is happiness.
Todd: So what is happiness?
Julia: Happiness is just contentment, absolute peace with the way you are right now and what you're doing right now. Not striving or yearning for things that are beyond your grasp.
Todd: Beyond your reach?
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: Yeah, that's good.



21 - 1219 Men Cry
Daniel and Vella talks about the cultural norm for men not to cry and if they should cry more often.


Vella: So Daniel, we're talking about emotions and let's talk about emotions in men. Do you think it's OK for men to cry?
Daniel: Well, I do think it's all right. There's nothing wrong about it. If you want to cry, if you're sad, if you are angry, if you are disappointed, I think it's normal. The normal reaction would be to cry but unfortunately there is a huge stigma attached to men crying. For some people it is a big issue. For me, personally, it isn't.
Vella: I agree a hundred per cent with you. For me personally, I think it's totally OK for guys to cry.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: But I think it's in my culture, Indonesian, it's really uncommon to, you know, for guys to show this emotional expression when they cry. For example when, even when you're little, if you cry in the classroom and when you are a guy and if you cry, people are just going to make fun of you and they're going to start laughing and calling you names.
Daniel: I know totally. It's the same in Chile actually. Well, I was raised in a really, really strong kind of macho culture. I mean crying was a sign of weakness so boys were not, I mean I can say, were not allowed to cry, right, because of, because of the whole macho thing and you have to be a man, you have to be brave so you're not supposed to cry. But now I think it's, kids shouldn't be, well they shouldn't be encouraged to cry but they should be told that it's all right. I mean it's a natural reaction and you have to show your feelings so I think if you want to cry, if you're sad and if you want to cry, you should just do it but there's nothing to be embarrassed about.
Vella: I think that's just how it is inside or they expect men to be macho and masculine and I think showing tears kind of takes away a lot of masculine, like masculinity out of men.
Daniel: I think it's more masculine just to assume that you are sad and you are showing it. You're not afraid to show your emotions. I think that's more valuable, that's more, I mean I'm a boy and because I cry that doesn't make me less of a man. I mean, I'm a man and therefore, I don't know because I'm a man, I can show my expressions and I'm not afraid of it. I don't know, that's what I think.


22 - 1217 Learn Types Part 1
Julia talks about various types of learners and shares what type of learner she it.

Todd: So, Julia, we're both teachers.
Julia: That's right.
Todd: And are you familier with the different learner types?
Julia: A little bit, yes, I encounter different kinds of learners in my classrooms.
Todd: OK, so for example, what kind of learner are you?
Julia: I think possibly more than one, maybe overlap on a couple, but primarily a visual learner so I'd have to take it in through my eyes usually like with a picture. I certainly have to see a word if I'm learning a language. I have to see it written down.
Todd: So you need a phonetic script? You need something?
Julia: I need something visual.
Todd: Yeah for it to stick in your head?
Julia: For it to stay in my mind, it has to have a visual. I can't just hear it for example. I can't just hear a word and remember it. I have to have some sort of visual to connect it to.
Todd: OK, so you're a visual learner, anything else?
Julia: I think it's called a visual learner. I don't know the technical term for it but an emotional learner if a...
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah. If a piece of information or the thing that I'm learning is attached to an emotional experience, I store it very definitively. I can remember it. I can recall it. If it's just a neutral, say a sentence, I can't remember it. It has to have a back story. It has to have an emotional connection somehow.
Todd: Right. It has to have some connection?
Julia: Yes, yeah. Usually a personal story especially humor. If there's a joke involved, if it made me laugh at the time of learning it. I'm a laughter learner, I don't know if that's a real one but definitely an emotional response makes it much more easy for me to learn something.




22 - 1218 Learn Types Part 2
Julia and Todd continue talking about learner types and Todd guesses the type of learn he is.


Julia: And how about you? What kind of learner are you?
Todd: Well I guess I'm maybe kinesthetic, that's movement, right, or doing things with your hands.
Julia: Yeah, I think so or even your whole body?
Todd: I don't know. Is kinesthetic using your hands or is it your whole body? Or does it matter?
Julia: I'm not sure it matters. Perhaps there's two different types. I know there's something called TPR when we teach English, total physical response.
Todd: Right. So that would be kinesthetic?
Julia: That's maybe kinesthetic, that's where you give an instruction and the student performs the task and they use the whole body in that case but it can just be your hands or a body part. I think it's both.
Todd: Yes, I think so, yeah. Yes, I mean, so basically if I do it like if I somehow have to make it or if I'm moving, I definitely think I learn better. You know, I learned how to do everything for web design and stuff like that by I think just moving the mouse, click here, click there, type here, type there, whereas like reading it from a book I just, you know, I couldn't learn it that way. So maybe, maybe, I'm kind of that way. The same with cooking, you know, like I have to do it. If I don't do it I'm not going to remember it. I just can't read a recipe and cook. So I think maybe the other thing I would be, would be, I guess would be an aural learner or auditory learner. So basically through hearing.
Julia: My husband's the same, yeah.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: He can hear a sentence, hear a new word, and remember it just from his ears.
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: That's good.
Julia: That's very good, yeah.
Todd: Like I love podcasts and I love hearing things, that's probably why I have this website. I don't like reading too much. I do read and I actually don't even like watching TV very much. I don't like watching movies very much.
Julia: Really?
Todd: No. I would actually much rather listen to a radio program, a good podcast, than watch a movie.
Julia: You see when I listen to a podcast...
Todd: While I'm walking.
Julia: There you go, definitely kinesthetic. If I listen to a podcast, I get a little bit frustrated that I can't see the people speaking.
Todd: Really?
Julia: It frustrates me a little bit that I can't see the faces when they're talking, when I don't know what they look like.
Todd: Oh, I never even thought of that. Yeah, I just don't even care.
Julia: I need to, I need visual input in order for it to, I don't know, go into that part of my brain where it stays, where it stores maybe.
Todd: So we're definitely two different types of learners?
Julia: Absolutely, yes.




23 - 1216 A Few More Bad Habits
Erina talks with Mike about some of her bad habits and why she does them.


Mike: So Erina, I wanted to ask you what kind of bad habits do you have?
Erina: Well it's pretty tough to know what your bad habits are, you know, because it's ususally something that other people see.
Mike: Right.
Erina: And I hear a lot and I go to Starbucks a lot and I have to admit that I do go to Starbucks a lot every time I find time.
Mike: Right. Some people would say that's not a bad habit but what do you think about that makes it a bad habit?
Erina: I do waste money, a lot of money on Starbucks and I am not a coffee person. I just like to be in an environment where I can just sit down and drink coffee, I guess.
Mike: Understandable, you know, especially in Starbucks and other coffee shops it is, they do a good job of creating a nice atmosphere and it makes people want to stay but then having said that, overspending is definitely a bad habit.
Erina: Yeah, it is for sure a money drainer to go to Starbucks all the time but people know where to find me so I guess that's a good thing.
Mike: Yeah, there are always benefits to bad things. Now besides overspending at Starbucks, can you think of any other bad habits that you might have?
Erina: Well, I get this from my husband a lot but I touch my hair all the time apparently but I really don't notice myself doing it so, you know, my husband fidgets a lot and he doesn't notice it and I think it's one of those things that other people will, you know, point at you, you know, point it out what your bad habits are and for me it's apparently touching my hair.
Mike: Right, I guess that bad habit is kind of in the same category as fidgeting, right?
Erina: I think so.
Mike: Although that might be a calming action for you, for other people it looks like you're nervous or you're not sure what to say so that might be a bad habit that you could work on.
Erina: Yeah, I can work on it by tying my hair up I guess. Very simple.
Mike: Well it's a simple fix.
Erina: Hm, hm.




24 - 1215 A Few Bad Habits
Mike talks with Erina about some of his bad habits and why he does them and if he can change.


Erina: So Mike, do you have any bad habits?
Mike: Of course not. I'm perfect, I've no habits that are bad. Yes, I do have some bad habits. One of my bad habits is fidgeting and I think I'm a very high energy person so, especially when I'm on the phone, mixed with my slightly obsessive compulsive tendencies, I tend to arrange all the things on a desk so if there are pens and books and different things on the desk, I would be turning them and arranging them in order and pretty much always using my hands and keeping them busy and although this might not be such a bad habit, perhaps for people who are with me or next to me they might be a little bit uncomfortable because it seems like, you know, I'm a bit nervous or, you know, have something on my mind so...
Erina: Not in confidence for your speech, yeah.
Mike: Right, in fact that's not the case but what happens is I start playing with things.
Erina: I've seen you do that before.
Mike: Oh have you?
Erina: Yeah.
Mike: Well then I guess that really shows it is one of my bad habits. You know, I think that I do that to focus because, you know, while I'm speaking to somebody or while I'm on the phone, I arrange things on the desk and that is kind of metaphorically me arranging my thoughts in my head which is probably where this habit has come from.
Erina: I see. Yeah, do you have any other bad habits other than fidgeting?
Mike: Well maybe a bad habit is driving quickly and I'm not sure if that's considered a bad habit but I guess when I get behind the wheel of a car I sometimes get impatient and that impatience drives me to put more weight on the gas pedal and in turn I go faster and of course speeding is not a good thing especially when you get pulled over by the police. So that's a bad habit that I might have to work on.
Erina: Yeah, definitely. You don't want to lose your licence.
Mike: No.




26 - 1214 Wedding Review
Nathan talks about how his wedding went and things that make the event fun and stressful.

Julia: So we're talking about your wedding, Nathan. Was it a stressful experience for you?
Nathan: Yes, I think you could say that it was pretty stressful in several ways. The first one was a kind of stupid thing was that a long time ago I'd broken a tooth and a couple of days before I got married, the tooth got stuck in a chocolate bar and broke again. So I'd been to an emergency...
Julia: You looked pretty then?
Nathan: Yeah, I'd been to an emergency dentist session to have a new cap stuck on but I was really worried that (a) I couldn't speak properly because my mouth was still a bit getting used to the shape of the tooth and I was worried that the tooth was going to fall off but also I'm not very good in front of large groups of people and I had to, I had to do some speeches and I hadn't really...
Julia: You made a speech?
Nathan: Yeah, I didn't really memorize the speeches properly and so I really struggled with the speeches but I think the other thing was that I couldn't relax because everybody was taking photos and every time I wanted to have a drink of beer or have a mouthful of food, someone was like just one more photo, just one more photo and so I kept on saying to people like I'm really tired, you know, I'd really like to eat my food and everybody kept on coming up and taking photos and I actually got a bit frustrated and a bit...
Julia: You were grumpy on your wedding day?
Nathan: Well, I get grumpy everywhere. We had three parties so the first party was...
Julia: Three parties?
Nathan: Yeah, we had the wedding ceremony and then we had the meal and then we had like a second party where we did some games and then we had a third party at a karaoke booth which was fantastic.
Julia: Right and were you still in your wedding gear for all those parties?
Nathan: Yeah. Actually I said to you some time before that my wife had two wedding dresses but by the time we went to karaoke she was on her third wedding dress.
Julia: Oh, wow.
Nathan: So she had a pretty good time getting changed.
Julia: It was a huge event then?
Nathan: It was.
Julia: How long did it take to plan this wedding?
Nathan: I think it took only two months. My wife's pretty organized so she's like this is going to happen, this is going to happen, boom, boom, boom.
Julia: So she made most of the important stressful decisions?
Nathan: Oh yeah. The planning was easy for me. I just said yes to everything.
Julia: And did you go on a honeymoon?
Nathan: That's a major bone of contention. That's, I've never been forgiven for this because we, I guess we really didn't have a huge amount of money and afterwards my wife wanted to take...
Julia: You spent a lot on the wedding.
Nathan: Yeah, she wanted to have a really romantic honeymoon in the Maldives and I'd actually put the idea of the Maldives into her head when I was drinking one time and afterwards, we didn't do anything after the wedding because we'd been really busy during the wedding getting friends and family to fly in.
Julia: You needed a break?
Nathan: Yeah, but then about a month later we went to Thailand and then we went to Singapore and we did lots of small trips in Malaysia and different things but they weren't really romantic and so my wife is still waiting for her romantic honeymoon.
Julia: You went travelling, well that's nice.
Nathan: Yeah, well.


27 - 1213 Wedding Prep
Nathan talks about all the preparation needed for his wedding and his part in it all.


Julia: Hi, my name's Julia and I am talking to Nathan about his wedding experience. Nathan, tell me how was your wedding day.
Nathan: My wedding day was, I guess, mixed. I think the build up to my wedding was quite funny. I didn't feel in control of my wedding so we went to several different, I don't know what to call them, wedding shops or wedding planning companies and they asked us how much money we could spend first and the first thing that comes out is how much money do you think you're going to spend on your wedding and I felt that was kind of like a real personal, a kind of an embarrassing question as well because...
Julia: You're British.
Nathan: We didn't really have much money. Well, yeah, cos I'm British maybe.
Julia: Can I ask you how much did you spend on your wedding?
Nathan: Oooh, it was I guess about, in pounds it would have come out at a guess about fifteen thousand pounds.
Julia: I've heard that's the average, I think, for a wedding. I don't know but...
Nathan: So I wasn't doing my wedding in England, I was doing it overseas and there was a few things I had to get to used to. And one of those things was the wedding company that we chose offered us some, some different priests to do the ceremony for us but they're not real priests.
Julia: Like a priests menu?
Nathan: Yeah, it's like a priests menu and you've got these like different guys who are playing the role of the priest for the wedding so I happened to know all of the guys in this menu and they said to me, they said to me ah so this guy's really, really popular. Barry priest is like the most popular priest, we really recommend him and I was looking at the picture thinking I know Barry priest and last night I went drinking with Barry priest and he, he didn't look like a very good priest last night.
Julia: You got married by your drinking buddy.
Nathan: But we didn't in the end. We avoided that but, yeah, all these different choices on a menu, I felt like a McDonald's menu rather than like, it was like do you want a large priest or a small priest or like do you want extra large candles or like small candles in your wedding ceremony lunch and different things so it was kind of, yeah, it was kind of McDonaldized kind of wedding where you had to choose this option or this option and it didn't feel very personal to me at the beginning.
Julia: Was it romantic, do you think it was romantic in the end?
Nathan: Is a wedding supposed to be romantic or is it supposed to be a party?
Julia: I'm a woman and I think it's supposed to be romantic.
Nathan: Yeah, maybe I let my wife down a bit.
Julia: Ceremonial, maybe ceremonial, was it ceremonial?
Nathan: Very, very.
Julia: What did you wear? Did you wear some special clothes?
Nathan: Like a morning suit, you know like in England you have a grey morning suit, top and tails, but we, mine was black and I felt like I was...
Julia: That sounds cool.
Nathan: And I felt like I was like kind of Reeves in the Matrix going in with this like black suit and long black tails and...
Julia: Did you wear shades?
Nathan: If I could have got away with it, I would have.
Julia: What was your wife wearing? Was she in black as well?
Nathan: She did two different dresses.
Julia: Oh, nice.
Nathan: And so she had this white wedding dress for the fake church ceremony and then afterwards during the lunch she got changed into a dress and it was made from, it was made from an old Japanese kimono.
Julia: Like silk?
Nathan: So it was all made of silk and it was bright pink with peacocks and flowers and things.
Julia: Sounds gorgeous.
Nathan: And she'd taken it to a shop and they'd converted it for her.
Julia: Sounds beautiful. Does she still have that then? Did she keep that?
Nathan: Yep.
Julia: Does she still wear it?
Nathan: Does she still wear it? If she had an occasion, there's never going to be an occasion where you can wear that dress but it's a pretty amazing dress to look at.
Julia: So I guess it's about the memory though, it's certainly, it's certainly a memorable occasion.
Nathan: Yeah, well, we've got videos, we've got albums, we've got all sorts of stuff.
Julia: Was it stressful? Was it a stressful experience?




28 - 1212 Water Adventures
Peter talks about all the different water adventures one can do in South Africa.


Jana: So you mentioned hiking. I think South Africa must have a lot of outdoor activities, right?
Peter: Hmm.
Jane: Some extreme sports?
Peter: Right, right. Yeah, it's, actually for a dry country it's interesting that it has so many water sports, people that really love water sports too especially on the eastern side of the country because it's tropical warm climate year round. The sea temperature is quite warm and at the same time it has a lot of really big waves so I think two of the world's biggest surfing events are held in South Africa yearly. The one is near Jeffreys Bay and the other one is near Durban and that's where all the world's surf champions come to surf and test their skills. But if you're not into surfing you can go wind surfing which actually on the eastern coast is really famous because of the strong winds over there and the relatively, not calm seas, but actually there's a lot of open plains to do wind surfing on so it's really famous for that. And then like skiing and water skiing of course really famous too. People really enjoy the water sports.
Jana: Great. I also heard about diving.
Peter: Ah, yeah.
Jana: Diving in South Africa.
Peter: Yeah, that's, one, two interesting things. One is shark cage diving that people are really, have in recent years become interested in.
Jana: That sounds scary.
Peter: I think it is. One of the, actually the breeding colonies of the great white shark is in South Africa, I think the other one is in Australia, and people come there to go down in big steel cages to go and see some of these huge sharks and they dive with them and I think it's pretty dangerous but it's interesting for some people. The other, the other interesting thing is that I wanted to mention about water sports, I have now forgotten.
Jana: Diving?
Todd: You said there were two things about diving.
Peter: Yeah, diving or water sports that was interesting.
Jana: Diving, I think. Normal diving.
Peter: Normal diving, deep sea diving. The other one was because of the ancient sea route past the...
Todd: You'll have to start again.
Peter: The other thing that's really interesting diving in South Africa, also dangerous, is diving for treasure because of the ancient shipping route from Europe right past the Cape Point, the southern most shipping route in the world. There's a lot of ships that sank because of the terrible weather in centuries past, over the last, I guess, five hundred years ships have sunk around the tip of Africa and people, divers come there to dive and find out if they can get some, if they can get rich basically diving for treasure and you get a lot of historical excavation as well. It's pretty dangerous too because there are two converging sea...
Jana: Currents.
Peter: Currents that meet and the one is warm and the one is cold so you have a really interesting combination of natural weather patterns at the same place so I guess a lot of ships sank because of all the storms in that area.
Jana: Wow, so treasure diving or wreck diving sounds more fun than shark diving.
Peter: I think so too but it depends on your interest I guess.




29 - 1211 Hiking in Africa
Peter talks about hiking in South Africa and dealing with natural dangers.


Jana: Peter, you're from South Africa, right?
Peter: That's right, yeah.
Jana: I heard there's a lot of beautiful mountains that are famous for hikes. Is that true?
Peter: That's true, yeah. Actually, I've been hiking since I was in elementary school really because there's so much, there are so many hikes to go on. The area that I grew up is actually quite close to the Drakensberg which is a famous mountain range in South Africa and it runs almost the whole length of the country and there are so many hikes, camping spots, places that you could go to and the hikes that you can go on for like a day, or two days, a week, ten days, a month if you want to. Really so much so I used to go most, I guess most holidays, or twice or three times a year even go hiking.
Jana: That sounds great. Is it safe? Are there any dangerous animals like snakes?
Peter: I guess, hmm I guess I'd have to say yes to that but in all my years of hiking, I have, I have seen many snakes but I've never been bitten or even felt in danger. Like once or twice maybe but South Africa is like also famous for its many poisonous snakes and there are quite a few things that you'd rather avoid but I guess, especially in the Drakensberg, the altitude for the mountains it's quite high so not many dangerous animals live at high altitude if I can put it that way. So it's really, it's really kind of, yeah, it's not dangerous I would say. Like obviously you have to take care and, you know, go during times of the year that is less, that you are less likely to get caught in a snowstorm or get snowed in or freeze to death or something but I think if you take adequate preparation there shouldn't be any problem and it's really gorgeously beautiful.
Jana: It sounds really nice. Is it easy to get to? Do you need a car to get around?
Peter: Yes. Mostly you should, you should, you need a car and in some places you'd even need a...
Jana: Helicopter?
Peter: No. I guess you could go with a helicopter but like if you have something like a Land Rover or a Land Cruiser or a four by four vehicle of some kind then you could get even into more beautiful places and more far away distant places that I would recommend even more. There are really so many places you can go to.
Jana: It sounds really great. I'll ask you again. Hopefully one day I will get a chance to visit South Africa.
Peter: Yes, you should, you should go I say. Do you like hiking?
Jana: I do but I hardly ever go, you know, as you get so busy with your daily life and I like the idea of hiking but I hardly ever go, do any sort of outdoor activity but yeah I guess it's a good thing to do during holidays.
Peter: Hmm.
Jana: Yeah, when I was a kid we often went to the mountains with my parents so we would go for walks, short hikes, that kind of thing.
Peter: OK.
Jana: But yeah then one just gets a bit busy with the daily life so I kind of forgot.
Peter: Yeah, life really has a way to get away with one, it really goes fast.



30 - 1225 Good Job!
Julia and Todd look at praising students and it criticism is a good thing.


Todd: Talking about kids and school, what do you think about failure? Like it seems like we're moving to where we're not allowed to tell kids that they're not doing well, that everybody has to be a winner. You know, everybody gets a good grade. What do you think about that especially as a teacher and a parent?
Julia: As a teacher, I think, I read something recently that the chastising a student, telling them they did bad, has no motivational value whatsoever but praise does. So definitely I think it's important to always praise. If you have a really bad student and you can't find anything to praise them on then I don't know what the answer is really. But I'm sure you can always find something to praise someone on.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: So I think it's important to focus on the positives all the time.
Todd: See actually I kind of disagree.
Julia: Do you?
Todd: Yeah. I think that, you know, that your score is or your progress is absolute. Like either you pass or you fail, either you get high marks or low marks but that's the motivation. Like if you get, if you don't do well, then you want to try harder. You know, like if you're a fat kid and you don't want to be fat then you, you know, you're motivated to lose weight or if you aren't a star in the baseball team you need to practice harder so you move up. But if you tell kids that they're doing great when actually they're not exceptional then maybe that actually does harm.
Julia: OK, well maybe I misexplained that. I don't mean give a false, I don't mean say they're doing well when they're not doing well but what I mean is focus more on the successes than the failures.
Todd: Oh, I see. Like confidence building?
Julia: Yeah, I guess that's what I mean more. But I guess we're talking about motivation rather than an end result like, of course, yeah, you're going to fail some things. I don't know. I never failed that many things at school and later on in life when I did encounter failure, I took it pretty bad so perhaps it would have been healthier for me to have failed a few things. I don't know.
Todd: Well that's the question, isn't it? Like when you fail or you do bad I think that maybe that's the eye opening moment you need to see. Like you need to see the truth rather than just tell somebody that they're doing well when actually maybe they're not or that they're exceptional and talented when maybe they're not.
Julia: When they're not, that's true. Yeah, there was another thing that I read as well about telling, praising children for their intellgence, you should never, you should never tell a child they're smart because they get a false image of what intelligence is. You should always praise effort.
Todd: Ah, right.
Julia: As opposed to some sort of innate, what we believe to be an innate quality that you can never have if you don't have it. So telling a child yeah you're really smart, when the child faces a problem that requires them to apply themselves and maybe fail they're afraid.
Todd: Mmm.
Julia: Because then they may think no I'm not intelligent after all. So it should always be about praising effort and actually the result is not so important.

31 - 1210 Mad and Embarrassed
Vella talks with Daniel about two times she expressed strong emotions about an event in her life.


Daniel: Hey, Vella, how are you?
Vella: I'm good. How are you?
Daniel: I'm fine thanks. Is there, like do you remember any time where you've been really sad or angry or embarrassed?
Vella: Yeah. Actually it happened before I came here. I had a huge fight with my father, dad, and yeah we had a disagreement about something and I, well I had a disagreement with my aunt which is my dad's sister and my dad just kind of took her side instead of my side and I was really disappointed in him and I lost my temper and I started hitting the window and it kind of broke and my dad was...
Daniel: Wait a minute. You broke the window because you were angry?
Vella: I did.
Daniel: OK.
Vella: I really lost my, you know, control and my dad he started crying and, you know, seeing him cry was really, you know, painful.
Daniel: Wow. I didn't know you were that kind of person that could break a window.
Vella: You know when I lose my temper, I tend to do, you know, things that are out of control but yeah.
Daniel: But what was the whole argument about? Do you think it would have that result like where you break a window because of an argument with your dad?
Vella: Well, I think it was just because I was really disappointed that he took, you know, my aunt's side instead of my side.
Daniel: Hm, hm.
Vella: And he was saying stuff like, you know, it's all my fault and, you know, he was really disappointed in me so I was really sad that he said that and, yeah, I lost my temper and started hitting.
Daniel: OK, how about being embarrassed? Do you remember any time where you were really embarrassed?
Vella: Yeah, I think in high school. So there's this guy I have a huge crush on and I was walking down the stairs and, you know, he saw me and, you know, I was acting like awkwardly and there was a big plant in front of me and I didn't see it because I was, you know, too busy looking at him and I kind of tripped over and it was really embarrassing and everyone was laughing and that guy, you know, saw me.
Daniel: That's the worse thing.
Vella: Falling like in front of your crush, I think that will be really embarrassing.
Daniel: OK, what did you do afterwards?
Vella: Well I just acted cool, you know, and said I'm fine and just left.
Daniel: Wow, that must be really difficult?
Vella: Because I was trying to, you know, look pretty as I walked down the stairs and I didn't see the plant in front of me.
Daniel: So after that did you ever get that guy to like you?
Vella: Well actually he, you know, he came up to me and he was asking if I was OK and we ended up exchanging numbers.
Daniel: So that was a success?
Vella: Yeah, it was a success.
Daniel: OK, that's pretty good.​



31 - 1209 Mixed Emotions
Daniel talks about being both sad and embarrassed and learning to control his emotions.


Vella: Hey Daniel. So I was wondering can you remember any time when you were really mad, sad or embarrassed?
Daniel: Well, I think I have a couple of those, a couple of each of those actually. But I don't know recently, I've, well I had an episode that I was really sad and it was that I was applying to, I was applying for a scholarship and I was putting all the effort and I spent a lot of time and a lot of energy in it and finally it was rejected so that, that was really, really bad for me and for that year and I was really sad and I was really angry because that was my big project for that year so the fact that I couldn't get it, it made me really sad.
And also you asked me about being embarrassed. I think most of the times when I was embarrassed when I was a little kid, I always was trying to do cool stuff, I don't know, hang out with friends but something, like all the time, something went wrong. For example, I don't know, I remember I was trying to play football or something and suddenly I just fell and I don't know once actually I broke my hand and that was pretty embarrassing in front of all my mates in school.
Vella: OK, so you say you were really mad and angry because you didn't get the scholarship, I was wondering how do you usually express your anger?
Daniel: Well, it's, I don't think it's better to find that out. I was very bad at it. I was, I used to express it like, I don't know, shouting or hitting stuff but now that I'm a bit older I learned how to control that and I learned that not always things depends on you. Sometimes you get the results from like, I don't know, from other factors so you have to take it and you have to learn to live with that and, but that takes time. So, yeah, at the beginning I was really mad and I was really sad but then I understood that probably it wasn't the time so when you understand and when you go through that kind of stuff you learn and then you learn not to get that emotional at the beginning and to think over it.
Vella: I agree after you learn from those experiences and you just become better.
Daniel: Well, I don't know if better but I definitely learned something.
Vella: You'll know, you know, how to handle things when you face them again.
Daniel: I hope I don't have to handle that kind of stuff again but in case I do I think I'm prepared to do it now.




32 - 1208 MMA
Mike explains to Erina about Mixed Martial Arts and how it is different from boxing.


Erina: Hi, Mike. I was wondering the difference between MMA and boxing? What are the differences?
Mike: Well, there's a lot of differences actually. MMA stands for mixed martial arts so I guess by the name you can tell that there are a lot of different variations of MMA. It's usually a combination of stand up fighting and ground fighting. So in contrast with boxing, boxing is only stand up, you never fight on the ground and with MMA there are many different styles and different tournaments, different kinds of rules. There's fighting standing up and there's fighting going to the ground which would also include submission and so right off the bat that's quite a big difference there.
Erina: Oh, I see. Do you like MMA better or kick boxing better because I know you used to box, right?
Mike: Yeah, I mean kick boxing is definitely, you know, heading towards MMA whereas boxing is quite a strict discipline and the rules are a lot more basic whereas MMA has different variations and stuff. It's very difficult to choose which one I like better. I really enjoy watching both and I don't compare them as if one is better than the other but they're just very different sports.
Erina: Oh, I see, I see. So you know in Japan pride and kaewan are, you know, very famous here.
Mike: Right.
Erina: What about in Canada? Is MMA big?
Mike: Well, recently in Canada as well but, you know, in America, in North America now MMA is really big. It's much bigger than boxing is now and UFC, Ultimate Fighter Championship, is the league which is by far the biggest MMA league in the world and it's been growing in popularity ever since it started and I think the reason that MMA is becoming so much bigger than boxing is because it's so much more versatile. You have people from so many different disciplines in martial arts and recently it's not enough to be just disciplined in boxing or taekwando or judo or jujitsu, you have to be disciplined in various disciplines because the guys that are the best in the UFC league they can do it all. So they can do stand up fighting, punches, kicks, they can do ground fighting so some people would say it's more interesting to watch and you get a lot more people from different places and different styles so I think the doors to MMA are open a lot wider than they are to boxing.
Erina: Wow. I would love to go watch MMA tournaments one day.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. They're a lot of fun so please check them out.
Erina: Yeah, I will.


33 - 1204 Dancing in Chile
Daniel talks with Olga about "Cueca" a traditional style of dancing in Chile.

Daniel: And while we drink this, we dance cueca.
Olga: What is cueca?
Daniel: Cueca is our national dance.
Olga: How do you, how can you explain it?
Daniel: It's about, OK, it's the Chilean cowboy dancing in order to flirt with the girl.
Olga: Do you wear any kind of special dress?
Daniel: Yes. The girl is wearing a long dress.
Olga: Yes.
Daniel: And the guy is wearing sombrero.
Olga: Yeah.
Daniel: It's not like, it's not as big as Mexican sombrero but it's smaller and a small poncho.
Olga: Oh yeah, I think I've seen it before. Yeah, like the small poncho is like almost like every time it's brown and with like kind of like colorful lines?
Daniel: Yes.
Olga: Oh yeah, I've seen it before, yeah.
Daniel: And we also wear boots and spurs which makes it really, really difficult to dance.
Olga: Have you danced it before?
Daniel: I have but I don't think I succeeded.
Olga: Oh, I see. And what do you mean it's kind of romantic dance?
Daniel: It is a romantic dance.
Olga: How?
Daniel: Because you have to flirt with the girl.
Olga: Oh, I see.
Daniel: That's the point of the dance.
Olga: And is it, does it mean anything? Does it have any meaning?
Daniel: It's related to how, because we use a handkerchief so it's how, it symbolizes a rope so you can, you have to catch the girl with your rope.
Olga: Oh, I see, that's pretty cute.
Daniel: Yeah, it is.


34 -
1203 Food for Independence
Daniel talks about the food and drink people consume on Independence Day in Chile.
Olga: How is Chilean Indepdence Day?
Daniel: Well, Chilean Independence Day, it's in September.
Olga: Yeah.
Daniel: September the eighteenth but we have another holiday on the nineteenth so we take those two days plus probably Saturday and Sunday of the same week.
Olga: What do you do?
Daniel: We have parties for pretty much the whole week and we do some special, kind of special shops and then you can eat empanadas. You know what empanada is?
Olga: I think so. Isn't it made, you know, with flour, you know, wheat flour and it's filled with something like corn or something?
Daniel: Yeah, exactly. Well, you have the pastry and then you can fill it with meat, onion, eggs or you can actually put olives in it and then you put it in the oven. It's really, really nice.
Olga: And do they sell sweet ones too?
Daniel: Yes, yes. Actually now we have even you can put vegetables in it.
Olga: Vegetables?
Daniel: Yeah.
Olga: Sweet?
Daniel: I mean sweets or vegetables.
Olga: Or vegetables.
Daniel: Or meat, chicken.
Olga: OK.
Daniel: Yes. And it always has to go with a drink that is called chicha.
Olga: What is chicha?
Daniel: Chicha is kind of wine.
Olga: Yeah.
Daniel: It's made out of grapes or apple and it takes awhile to get, to become, you know, alcohol so if you drink it at the beginning it's just juice.
Olga: Juice.
Daniel: Yes.
Olga: I see.


35 - 1202 Reasons for Riots
Todd talks about why some people have rioted in both America and Thailand.
Julia: So Todd we're talking about riots. Can you tell me about riots in America? You ever experienced any rioting?
Todd: There has been a little bit, like there's been riots from, you know, fans going crazy, you know.
Julia: Oh yeah.
Todd: After their team won the championship that's usually a problem. Cities sometimes have to be on high alert if their team wins a championship which is absolute idiocy. It's like "hey we won the championship, let's go turn over cars and, you know, burn things." It recently also happened in Canada.
Julia: Yes, I remember, yeah.
Todd: It's happened in Detroit, it's happened in Dallas. I think the most famous riot we had was the LA riots but that was a long time ago, that was over twenty years ago. Now it's about social unrest.
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: And social injustice for like inner city people but I was in Thailand right when they had their riots.
Julia: The political riots.
Todd: Yeah, so I actually left the day before they came down and occupied downtown and things got serious.
Julia: Wow, and you wouldn't have been able to leave probably if that happened? Did they close the airports?
Todd: Oh no, I think the airport was still open yeah, yeah, but I did see them every day so I mean before that they would often ride, you know, the red shirts, would ride down and for people listening you had the red shirts who were against the government and they came and they occupied Bangkok and that was quite interesting. But to be honest, I never felt threatened but then again I'd left the day before anything happened so before things turned ugly.
Julia: And were tourists targeted during those riots?
Todd: No, not at all. Actually it was weird being a foreigner at the time when all this was going on because you felt like you were at somebody's house when they had a family fight. You know, have you ever been at somebody's house and maybe the daughter gets in a fight with the mother and they get so heated in the argument they forget that you're even there? That's what it was like in Thailand at the time.
Julia: So you didn't feel under threat in any way?
Todd: Oh no. And actually the red shirt people were trying to be careful not to hurt anybody. The government, the yellow shirt people, were trying to be helpful and not, make sure that no tourists were hurt. It was really an internal fight.
Julia: A domestic issue?
Todd: It was a domestic issue and it was quite interesting how both sides took so much care to make sure that no outsiders were harmed even though eventually it turned really violent for each other. So a family squabble you might say.
Julia: Hmm.


36 - 1201 Protests
Julia and Todd talk about the riots in London and if the likely hood it will happen again.

Todd: OK, so Julia, I felt we would talk about social unrest.
Julia: OK.
Todd: So recently in the news there has been a lot of protest, there's been some riots and I believe in your country you actually had riots recently.
Julia: We did, yeah, in the summer last year, yeah.
Todd: That was in London?
Julia: That was in London and in a few of the other cities around the UK as well. It spread to other cities but mainly centered in London, yeah.
Todd: So what was your perspective of the riots?
Julia: Well we, actually, we were just visiting home and so we just arrived in London right as that all kicked off. So actually I was quite shocked and of course a lot of my friends here were a little bit worried because they knew we were flying into London and London is suddenly all over the news and not in a good way. A lot of violence and quite shocking imagines. You don't think, when you think of London you don't think of people wearing balaclavas and smashing windows and behaving in this violent way.
Todd: So it was pretty shocking?
Julia: It was quite shocking but after being there I think within a week it had calmed down and I think the response from the police was very good and from the public was very good and from the media generally it was also very good so it wasn't such a big deal in the end. It was, it wasn't a political movement, it wasn't people protesting anything specific, it was just a kind of unbridled violence so it didn't gain any support.
Todd: Right, so it was just basically kind of releasing maybe youthful angst or kind of built up aggression?
Julia: Tensions of some, yeah, some kind but because it was all focused around consumer goods and a desire to rob stores of products like shoes and TVs and nobody really took it very seriously. You know, I want a pair of Nikes so I'm going to smash this window doesn't really gain much momentum as a movement.
Todd: So there was a lot of opportunism?
Julia: Absolutely. I think that's pretty much all it was, yeah.
Todd: Right. So now you have the Olympics coming up, do you think it will happen again?
Julia: We do. No, I don't think it will, no, no. I don't think so, no. I think around the Olympics there's an incredible amount of optimism and maybe even national pride.
Todd: No, you know what we can't say, this is going to air after the Olympics, so I'll just say do you think it will happen again in the future? Just don't refer to the Olympics.
Julia: OK.
Todd: So do you think it's going to happen again in the future?
Julia: No, I don't think so, no, because of the way the public responded and the way it was handled, I don't think it's the kind of thing that would gain momentum again. I don't, I think it was a one off.
Todd: Yeah, a one and done deal?
Julia: I think so, yeah.
Todd: Well that's good.
Julia: I hope so.
37 - 1200 Born to Run
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Julia talks with Todd about people who run extremely long distances.

Todd: Well actually speaking of extreme sports, we're talking about extreme sports, have you heard about ultra marathon?
Julia: I'm reading a book right now that's about a tribe of ultra runners in Mexico and I thing it's gonna come on to the subject of ultra marathons.
Todd: Yeah, I mean what has the book talked about?
Julia: The book talks about this very old tribe who can run for days.
Todd: Days?
Julia: Like days, yeah, and some of the members of this tribe are already in their eighties and nineties and they scale mountains and they have a very frugal diet. They run barefoot.
Todd: Barefoot?
Julia: They run barefoot.
Todd: In the desert, on rocks?
Julia: In the desert yeah, yeah.
Todd: Wow.
Julia: And they are bought, like they run from, well from they don't, as soon as they learn to walk they're running and they run their whole lives and they run like a hundred miles is just like a walk in the park to them. They just...
Todd: That's insane.
Julia: At speed, at speed, at very high speeds.
Todd: I mean do they have some secret, some traditional secret?
Julia: Well, yeah, they do, they're a very mystical tribe and they're not that well known. This, the book is written by a journalist who investigates and he records his story of how he gets to meet, just even finding them and meeting them is a huge ordeal in itself.
Todd: Because I mean physiologically it sounds like that's impossible. Like the human body can only run so far because it needs water, it needs food, it needs rest.
Julia: Well, I don't know. I think part of the philosophy of the book is that we're limited by our belief in that and that in fact this tribe don't have that belief, therefore they don't have those limits. They kinda surpassed those limits simply by they just do it. Nobody told them they couldn't so they...
Todd: They just do it.
Julia: Nobody told them they needed a pair of, you know, hundred dollar shoes in order to run. They just run, it's like it's a natural human thing and it's like an atavistic thing.
Todd: Wow.
Julia: You know humans, we can run down gazelle, we can run faster than hor..., I mean we can run further than horses and these creatures, creatures that we think have a running ability.
Todd: Are you sure about that?
Julia: Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah.
Todd: I've never, I've never heard that before that...
Julia: That's why, you know people who, it's quite dangerous to run with a dog for example. People who run and take the dogs because dogs can't run as far as humans.
Todd: Really?
Julia: Yeah. And dogs can't sweat. Humans can run and run and run for days, that's how they, that's how they killed prey when we were in the cave.
Todd: Before we gave up?
Julia: No, you can outrun an antelope because an antelope can only have short sharp bursts of speed.
Todd: Ah.
Julia: But a pack of humans can run down any animal on the planet.
Todd: That's good to know. If I ever need to kill an antelope...
Julia: Well yeah obviously you can't just, you know, stick your shoes on and set off and...
Todd: Wow, good stuff though. So, but would you like to try it some day, try one of these ultra marathons?
Julia: I think it's good to have a goal but I like training for these kind of things and ultra marathon, I just mentally, I don't know I have that ability to run for that far and that long. I'd like to have, yeah, I'd like to try and develop that stamina.
Todd: Yeah. I think we, maybe in my younger days but...
Julia: No, I don't think you do.
Todd: Or in another life but...
Julia: I think.
Todd: I'm gonna pass.
Julia: I think that running actually requires a lot of maturity so the older you get the better you are at running because you give up on stuff when you are young and your brain's quite, you know, you can't concentrate. You learn concentration and discipline and they come with age and maturity so I think we get better runners as we get older. That's what I'm banking on anyway.
Todd: Yeah, me too. I got that on my side.


38 - 1199 Other Means
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Julia and Todd continue their conversation about staying in shape via new methods of fitness.

Todd: Have you heard about planking?
Julia: Planking?
Todd: Yeah, planking.
Julia: No, I haven't heard of planking.
Todd: Planking is like where people, they, they are really stiff like a board.
Julia: Uh-uh.
Todd: And they, I don't know how it works, so...
Julia: This is exercise?
Todd: Yeah, there's a whole movement where they, you know, you just keep your body...
Julia: Moving like (00:17)?
Todd: Really stiff and you move, you know, yeah like your body is like a board.
Julia: When people walk on you?
Todd: No, I don't know. I'm sure there's like if you were to do like go to YouTube, I'm sure like there's loads of...
Julia: Planking?
Todd: Planking. But it's also similar to, have you seen, what's the French martial art where they run around and they like jump and they do flips and stuff like that?
Julia: Oh, a bit like cap vueras and things?
Man: I think it's called a...
Todd: That's going to drive me nuts. It's like a French word parcour - never mind. That's kind of like the French exercise or craze parcour, have you seen parcour?
Julia: Parkour? No.
Todd: Yeah. Parkour's pretty cool. Parkour's like these guys they run and they like run against walls and they'll do flips or they'll jump over stairs and...
Julia: Ah, does it, does it have another name like urban something? It's used in the opening scene of some movies.
Todd: Yes.
Julia: Like in the James Bond movie?
Todd: Yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Where they're running over the building and over the roofs. Yeah, I know it by another name, yeah it's really cool.
Todd: But that's what...
Julia: That would be really cool, wouldn't it running around the rooftops and...
Todd: Right. So those, those are, the guys that do parcour remind me of the guys on the infomercials in the States where they'll have some machine and they'll like if you buy the, you know, the muscle flex you'll get muscles just like this guy but only the guy in the commercial that already has those muscles can look like that and I think like the guys for parcour like you already have to be this amazing athlete I think to do it.
Julia: To do it I guess and I guess you must have to have some kind of mental agility or faculty that makes you push yourself in very dangerous situations.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: Like having the desire to leap from one rooftop to another or run up a wall or...
Todd: I know, I can't imagine the adrenaline.
Julia: Having that idea no.
Todd: Like it's if you make a mistake you're pretty much doomed.
Julia: Yeah, you don't have so many margins for error or learning in one of those sports.
Todd: Exactly. So, would you be interested in trying any of them? Cross fit, planking, parcour?
Julia: I, one thing I have seen recently was an extreme trampolining which is kind of...
Todd: Oh, wow.
Julia: Combining a wall, like you had a wall with a ledge, a high up ledge, very narrow ledge high up this wall and then underneath it a trampoline and so I saw the guys jumping from the ledge down and then they did that thing where they kind of ran up the walls, flip back over and went back down on the trampoline and some of them had two walls adjacent to the trampoline and would jump from one wall down on to the trampoline and then twist and come up on to the other ledge on the other wall and that was pretty cool.
Todd: Wow.
Julia: And I guess maybe that's how you would start out with a trampoline or a net or something and then you could, I could imagine doing some trampolining or leaping around like that but I'd quite like a safety rope.
Todd: Yeah, I think so.
Julia: So if I didn't quite make it, someone could just pull me up. I have done some rock climbing. I'm pretty, I used to do a lot of rock climbing and I enjoyed the adrenaline of that.
Todd: Oh, what, you would actually go up real cliffs?
Julia: Yeah, yeah.
Todd: Not like just the thing in the gym?
Julia: I started out in the gym, got some basic skills, footwork skills and, you know, got the feel of what it's like to balance on a small ledge and pinch a small outcrop of rock and hang and repel back down once you get to the top as well you have to get back down again so learning the equipment, the harness, the ropes and that kind of stuff. But, yeah, I've done it outside as well.
Todd: You weren't scared of falling?
Julia: Very, very scared, very, very scared but that's something that you have, if you wanna conquer an extreme sport you have to be willing to face your fears and get a kick out of facing your fear.


39 - 1198 Alternative Exercise
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Julia and Todd talk about new ways people are getting in shape beyond the basic gym membership.

Todd: Hey Julia.
Julia: Hey Todd, how are you doing?
Todd: Good, good. Now Julia, you are really fit and also you are a yoga instructor and a runner so you are the perfect person to talk about extreme exercise.
Julia: Extreme. I wouldn't say I'm an extremist, but go on.
Todd: OK. So first of all I thought I would ask about this yoga that you do in like really hot rooms or something like that.
Julia: Yeah, the bikram yoga it's called.
Todd: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, actually I've never tried it myself. I know it's kind of a growing craze, maybe Madonna made it really popular. As far as I know you do it in a sauna but it can't possibly be a sauna.
Todd: Not a real sauna, right?
Julia: I don't know what the temperature is but I think the philosophy behind it is to try to recreate the same climate as you'd find in India where yoga originates.
Todd: Right, so you want it to be really hot.
Julia: And humid, yeah.
Todd: Wow.
Julia: And also people who like to get the kind of the stretch value but also like to sweat at the same time. If you want a sweat yoga then it's a crank up the temperature is going to help you.
Todd: Wow, that's intense.
Julia: It is.
Todd: What about, have you heard about cross fit?
Julia: Cross fit? No.
Todd: Yeah. Cross fit's the big rage in America.
Julia: Cross fit, no I haven't heard of that.
Todd: Cross fit is like people do all of these really old-school exercises, like push ups or pull ups. They do like jumping jacks, they do really weird things like dead lifts, stuff like that but they do it one after the other in really short time intervals and like the work out only takes twelve minutes.
Julia: Wow.
Todd: But if you do it right, I think some people actually get so fatigued they throw up so like you really push your body to the limit.
Julia: That is extreme, yes.
Todd: It is extreme, although I'm probably saying it wrong.
Julia: Good for weight loss.
Todd: Yeah, so it's actually a big craze where people do more natural body movements and you never do the same thing twice. You're not supposed to get into a routine. You always do things different.
Julia: You do it like spontaneously or you set yourself a program?
Todd: There's a whole website, you go to the cross fit website and they explain it all but it looks pretty cool. It's like not your typical gym type workout.
Julia: Cross fit sounds like something you do on a BMX or something.
Todd: Right, right, exactly.


40 - 1197 Extreme Weather
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Valeria talks about different types of weather you can face in Argentina.

Daniel: So how about the weather in Argentina?
Valeria: Well the weather in Argentina depends on the part of Argentina that we are talking about.
Daniel: Uh-uh.
Valeria: For instance, the north is very dry and extreme.
Daniel: OK.
Valeria: Like in summer, the temperature can go till forty, forty five and very dry.
Daniel: Wow.
Valeria: Right and you can have like minus zeros, minus zero temperatures in winter as well but very, very dry. In the east it's tropical, mainly summer most of the year, a lot of rain, everything is green.
Daniel: Wow.
Valeria: The center where Buenos Aires, the capital, is located is moderated but Patagonia which is the south of Argentina is very cold, dry and there is snow.
Daniel: OK.
Valeria: Which means that in the same moment we can be, if you are in the north it will be very dry and hot or it could be snowing or it could be raining in a rainforest.
Daniel: Wow. Do you get, when you said extreme weather, do you get this thunderstorm, thunder lighting?
Valeria: It's not common, maybe it's like once in a while a thunderstorm.
Daniel: OK.
Valeria: But not more than this. We don't have El Nino and monsoon, this kind of things or rainy season. We don't have this kind of weather.
Daniel: What happens when you get thunderstorms? What happens with the people? Do you like them? Do you get scared?
Valeria: I think that if you are a kid, you get a little scared because you are not used to but if you are an adult you are cool.
Daniel: OK. How about you?
Valeria: I had a very bad experience that was like I experienced a twister when I was a kid.
Daniel: Wow.
Valeria: That was kind of unusual, very unusual in my country and so I get a little scared.
Daniel: OK. I hope it doesn't really happen any more.


41 - 1196 Rainy Routine
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Diego and Valeria discuss how rain can wreck routines in different cultures.

Valeria: For example in Argentina if it is raining, it's like you change your schedule a little, right?
Diego: Yeah.
Valeria: Because of the rain, because it's not like every day raining. But here you have to do everything under the rain.
Diego: Yeah, but at the same time it, everything is made and it's built to kind of you know work with the rain.
Valeria: Yeah, for instance, the clothes, right?
Diego: Yeah, the clothes and all the facilities, you know everything is made for that.
Valeria: It's preparing for having a lot of water.
Diego: Yeah, exactly. If you have, I don't know, two or three days in a row that it's raining in Chile, we will have serious problems.
Valeria: The same happens in Argentina.
Diego: Floods and that would be an issue so for me the weather thing is I like rain, just a little bit.
Valeria: Yeah, from time to time it's really nice.
Diego: Yeah, exactly.
Valeria: And enjoyable.
Diego: Yeah.
Valeria: But every day? Yes, it's true. The thing is that the weather is changing, right?
Diego: Yeah.
Valeria: And the infrastructure of my country wasn't prepared for this weather.
Diego: That's true.
Valeria: So if it rains a couple of days in a row, sometimes the city collapses.
Diego: That's true. A lot of cities in Latin America have the same problem. They're poorly constructed and for that specific thing and we have a lot of problems especially with poor people. So when you talk about the weather I think it's not only your personal thing, sometimes you have to consider a couple of other factors as well.
Valeria: And the public transport?
Diego: Yeah, I think that's another issue because for us public transportation is just a complete mess.
Valeria: There are a lot of public transport in Argentina but the thing is that all the infrastructure is not prepared for a lot of rain so when it happens sometimes the subway should stop for a couple of hours and that is very annoying.
Diego: Because it changes the whole schedule, right?
Valeria: Yes, definitely.



42 - 1195 Rain Pain
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Daniel and Valeria discuss having to deal with rain and what they dislike about it.

Daniel: Hey how are you?
Valeria: Fine and you?
Daniel: Fine thanks. I have a topic for you.
Valeria: OK.
Daniel: I think it's a really, what do you think of the weather? Do you like this kind of like really changing weather, thunderstorms.
Valeria: Actually not that much.
Daniel: No?
Valeria: No. I don't like the things like this every day raining.
Daniel: Yeah, it's kind of annoying.
Valeria: The combination of rain plus humidity plus hot, I don't like it.
Daniel: Yeah, for me it's really difficult to get used to it because for me rain means winter and cold weather and having, you know if it's raining I'm going to get my umbrella and my coat, my scarf and everything.
Valeria: And it will be cold of course.
Daniel: Yeah, of course. But sometimes it just rains and it's really hot. You're wearing flip-flops so I don't know it is, at least now it's not a matter if I like it or not, it's I'm not used to it and I don't really know what to wear when it's raining.
Valeria: That's right. It's like summer clothes and rain doesn't go at all.
Daniel: Yeah, it doesn't go together.
Valeria: No, no, no and another thing that bores me a little is, I mean in Argentina if it rains one day, it's one day and maybe it will rain again in one week but every day raining is kind of too much.
Daniel: Yeah.
Valeria: I need to wash my clothes.
Daniel: Exactly. I have the same problem. I have exactly the same problem.




43 - 1194 His Bad Habits
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Maria talks with Alex about some of his bad habits that he thinks he should change.
Maria: Any habits you'd like to change?
Alex: I would like to change my habits of buying bad food and drinks.
Maria: Oh, yes.
Alex: It's so easy.
Maria: So dangerous.
Alex: And especially when you're at university and they only sell the bad stuff because it's just so much easier to do than to cook a good meal. I'm a pretty good cook.
Maria: I noticed.
Alex: Thank you. My mother taught me to cook well but I don't, I don't know, sometimes I just cannot be bothered so I wish I had the habit of just always being much better with my food. That would help with the weight as well. What else? Habits, habits? I have some bad habits that I would like to change. I have the bad habit of having to sleep with a duna, a duvet cover on. I have to have something like heavy otherwise I can't sleep.
Maria: Why do you see that as a bad habit?
Alex: Because in summer, I have to crank the air conditioning up to really, really high so as a result you know I end up wasting electricity so easy. I wish I had the habit of turning my computer off as well. I leave it on all the time.
Maria: So you're an electricity waster?
Alex: Yeah, sorry, sorry world. Where is it the islands are flooding in the South Pacific?
Maria: Everywhere.
Alex: It's all my fault. So yeah, turning lights off, remembering my key would be good. I always forget my key. I actually thought I lost my key the other day and nearly had a coniption fit so yeah.
Maria: Drinking habits, any good, any bad?
Alex: Drinking? Alcohol?
Maria: That was the point.
Alex: I get too excited too quickly and just want to go dancing but the good thing about the dancing is that then you don't drink alcohol because at a certain point you have to drink water.
Maria: That's true.
Alex: Do you know what I mean? So like I don't go too far off the deep end.
Maria: You can't really drink anything when you're dancing then you spill it all over the floor.
Alex: Yeah, so that helps I guess.
Maria: That does help.



1 - 1 The Omelet
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Kerri shares her recipe for making a delicious omelet.

Todd: Oh, hey, Keri! You cook, right! You're a pretty good cook.
Keri: I'm OK.
Todd: OK. I want to make an omelet, so actually this is really silly, I've never made one before. How do you make an omelet?
Keri: OK, Well, I can teach you how I make them, which is the same way my father and grandmother make them, which is a little special.

Todd: OK. Yeah! Yeah!
Keri: First you take some eggs and crack them into a bowl, and whisk them up, quite, so they're quite high and fluffy, and in a hot pan, and you need a pan that's that's kind of small, that the sides go up at an angle. You put some oil and heat it up, so it's quite hot, and then you take your whipped up eggs, or whisked up eggs, and pour them into the pan, and as it's cooking, if you take a spatula, and push the bottom layer of the egg, to the side, to the sides, and then to the middle, so the uncooked egg gets to the bottom of the pan.
Todd: Oh, OK. Wow!
Keri: OK. And keep doing that until most of the egg is cooked so you should have a nice thick omelet and then flip it over, you'll only have to cook that side lightly. Put your fillings on the top and fold it over and let it sit just long enough to melt the cheese.
Todd: Wow. That sounds really good.
Keri: Mm, it is.
Todd: Wow. What fillings do you recommend?
Keri: Well, if you want to do a real simple one, you can just use some pre-made salsa and cheese, and that's easy, or you can do something like cut up some ham and cheese, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, anything that you like. If you want to make a spinach omelet then you have to add the cooked spinach to the egg mixture. So it's actually cooked in it. It's inside bacon and sour cream is nice and Jack cheese.
Todd: Oh, OK. I'll have to give that a try.
Keri: OK. Sure.



2 - 2 The Big Red Bus
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Steven looks at a picture of a big red bus and talks about it.

Todd: OK. Steven, you're looking at a picture. Please describe what you see!
Steven: Uh, I can see a red double-decker bus. It's the kind of bus you'll see very often in London. In fact I know this bus is from London because I can see the names: Chelsea, Sloan Square, Victoria, Herring Cross. These are all areas in London. Um, so obviously the bus is in London.
Todd: OK. Have you ever been on a double-decker bus?
Steven: Yeah, yeah, yeah. many times. Many times. When I was younger, you used to get double-decker all over England but now you only tend to see them in the big cities.
Todd: Oh, really. Mm! How much is the fare?
Steven: Well, it depends on the journey. It's..I guess it's not too expensive, but the minimum price you would pay is, for a short journey, is about a pound.
Todd: Mm, yeah, who can you see on the bus? Can you pick out anyone on the bus who looks interesting?
Steven: Hmm, yeah, well this girl here at the back, that's leaning on the door, um, she looks really bored, actually. Maybe she is going to work or something and she doesn't want to go!
Todd: Is that how you feel on the bus?
Steven: Uh, well, no, not really, because I haven't worked in England for a long time, so I haven't taken a bus for a long time.
Todd: So, so you're British, do you missing them?
Steven: Um, yes, sometimes. Sometimes.
Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot.
Steven: No problem.



3 - 3 Dogs
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Matts explains why his family has a special relationship with dogs.

Todd: Hello, Matt!
Matt: Hello, Todd!
Todd: Matt, I'm going to ask you some questions about pet. (OK!) First question, do you have a pet?
Matt: Yes, in fact, my mom's house we have three, three pets; two dogs and a cat. My family actually raises dogs for helping blind people.
Todd: Oh, really!
Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Todd: Wow, like how do they train the dogs?
Matt: How do they train the dogs? Well, I mean, it's a long process, right...we get them when they're puppies.....and so we train them basic...you know, sit, come... really basic things...then, after they're about two year old, they go a different training school.
Todd: Oh, wow , that's great!
Matt: Yeah, yeah!
Todd: Well, how many dogs do they train at a time?
Matt: Oh, just one! We have our own dog, and then we have a dog that we have that we are training.
Todd: Oh, OK.
Matt: Yeah, just one dog at a time.
Todd: Do you ever see the dogs you trained, like out on the street, or anything?
Matt: Sometimes we'll see them, they'll have like sort of conventions of reunions of the pets so, yeah, you get to see them once in awhile.
Todd: Oh, wow, that's cool. Um, why do people keep pets?
Matt: I guess the most important thing is companionship, right! So there is always somebody there for you that will like you no matter what.
Todd: Yeah, that's true. OK, besides cats, dogs, and fish, what are some other pets people keep?
Matt: Well, I guess if you are Sigreid and Roy you can keep a tiger or lion. I guess all types of things don't they.
Todd: Yeah.
Matt: I mean, my friend has a snake....I don't know if you mention that: snake and ferrets and insects, spiders...
Todd: OK.
Matt: All kinds of things.
Todd: All right, yeah, like there is so many. What are some costs associated with keeping a pet?
Matt: Food is probably the biggest cost, but also if you keep the dog, particiulary a dog in your house, when they are puppies, and we have a lot of puppies they'll chew up everything they can so we're constantly replacing shoes and, you know, cleaning up pee from the carpet and things like that..so.. it can be a hassle.
Todd: Yeah, OK. Thanks a lot, and by the way, where are you from?
Matt: I'm from the U.S.A., from Minnesota.



4 - 4 Meet the Parents
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Jessica talks about her mom and dad and how they are different.

Jessica: Let's see. My mom is three years older than my dad, and they are like night and day. My mom is 5 foot 4, on a good day, 5 foot 2, I think in real life, and she is very
sweet and very nice, and very caring, and very cute, everybody tells her how young she looks, and how she resembles my sister, perhaps. My father is very much completely opposite that. He is a very big man, very loud, very funny, very boistrous. He makes friends no matter where he goes. For example, sometimes he goes to Florida and makes all sorts of good friends. He'll just go off. He's kind of a magnent to people, and so my parents are completely opposite, and they complement each other very well. My dad has a very good sense of humor. My mom is very gentle. Very nice.
Todd: When is the last time you talked to you parents?
Jessica: I talked to them probably about two weeks ago. Yeah, everything is going well.
Todd: Are you going to see them soon?
Jessica: I am going to go home after the holidays and we're going to have a Christmas kind of in January or February. Yeah, depending on when my brother can come in.
Todd: OK. And who are you more like, your mother or your father?
Jessica: I think I have traits of both, actually. I look more like my mother, except that I am about a foot taller. Yeah, I resemble my mom more. I think I have both of the characteristics of my mom and dad.
Todd: OK. Great. Thanks.



5 - 5 Australia
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Michael talks a little about his country, Australia and about its cities.

Todd: Hello Michael.
Michael: Hello Todd.
Todd: We're going to talk about Australia. Or your going to talk about Australia. So first of all how many people live in Australia?
Michael: Australia? Oh, there's about twenty million people in Australia right now. A little bit under, but close to twenty.
Todd: OK. What are the biggest cities?
Michael: The biggest city? The biggest city is Sydney, then it's followed by Melbourne and then Brisbane and then I think it's Perth. But most of the big cities are on the East Coast of Australia. And Perth is on the west coast, but sort of of out there by itself.
Todd: OK. Um, if you had to live in one place where would you live?
Michael: I like Brisbane. I had my teenage years in Brisbane, growing up in Brisbane, um or maybe Sidney because it is a big city,but Brisbane has got the gold coast and the sunshine.
Todd: Oh, nice. Actually, what is the capital city of Australia?
Michael: Ah, Canberra is the capital city. But is not the biggest city. Sydney is the biggest city. Canberra was made sort of by the politicians so Sydney wouldn't get too crowded. It's a separate territory.
Todd: Have you been to all the major cities in Australia?
Michael: I have been to Melbourne when I was young, but yeah, I have. But yeah. Only a short time in Perth.
Todd: OK. What is the best thing about Australia?
Michael: The best thing about Australia? Ah, probably the friendly people. The relaxed attitude, and we like visitors from other cultures.
Todd: Oh, cool. Ah, how are Australians different than other people? How are they unique?
Michael: How are Australians unique? Um, I would say that we're more fun-loving maybe or accepting of other people. And we don't mind making new friends actually and conversing with other people.
Todd: Yeah, oh yeah that's good. That's nice. OK. Thanks a lot Micheal.
Michael: No worries.



6 - 6 Japanese Culture
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Reiko talks a little about Ikebana and the Japanese tea ceremony.

Reiko: Ikebana, it's an art of flowers and it's quite different from Western style flower arrangement because in Ikebana's theory you can decorate one flower, only with one flower.
Anili: Oh, really!
Reiko: And it's, the flower arrangement in Japan is not only decorating flowers but it's an art with flowers and space.
Anili: I see.
Reiko: The air between the flowers and also the room, and everything, it shows the space or even the universe, and that.
Anili: What's another Japanese art?
Reiko: Japanese art? Mm, Ikebana! Tea Ceremony!
Anili: Tea Ceremony!
Reiko: Tea Ceremony!
Anili: Tea Ceremony! Tell me about Tea Ceremony.
Reiko: Tea Ceremony! It's, there's a certain way you have to make tea, not only make tea, there's a certain way to for example wipe a bowl.
Anili: I see.
Reiko: Yes, with one piece of cloth, and you need to learn how to fold the cloth so that you you use each part of the cloth only once to wipe the bowl
Anili: OK.
Reiko: Yeah, so it's a complicated traditional procedure in a sense but.
Anili: How do you learn that? Is that something that your mother would teach you?
How do people learn that?
Reiko: There's some professionals for both flower arrangement and tea ceremony. So you need to go to a school, yes, and learn from your teacher and their heirarchy and the organization and you need to pass each test to go, climb up the ladder in the heirarchy.
Anili: I see. Fantastic.