英语每日一听 | 每天少于5分钟

Todd: OK. Daisuke, we're going to talk about the guesthouse. We live at the same guesthouse.Daisuke: Yes.Todd: There are lots of people here.Daisuke: Yep.Todd: What do you think about the guesthouse?Daisuke: It's quite nice to meet different people from different countries.Todd: Uh-huh.. What do you do at night at the guesthouse?Daisuke: At night?Todd: Yeah.Daisuke: Normally, I work quite early so I start working quite early so.. I'm sleeping at night.Todd: Oh, you don't party with the people or have drinks or anything?Daisuke: Only on Saturday. But Saturday, after I work. After work, I go to Ginza to have a drink with my workmates.Todd: Oh, OK.Daisuke: Then, I come back quite late so maybe I stay here maybe for two hours or something.Todd: Oh, really? Oh, OK. Do you know everybody at the guesthouse? Do you know everybody here?Daisuke: I don't think I know everybody but I know some people who come down to the first floor and yeah..Todd: Yeah, you just hang out?Daisuke: Hang out. Yeah..Todd: OK. How long do you plan to live here at the guesthouse?Daisuke: My plan is I'm gonna live here within one month so it will be four months.Todd: Four months. Oh, you're going to move.Daisuke: Yeah.Todd: Really? Why?Daisuke: I'm searching for a job in the restaurant. As long as I get the job I'd like to move and live close to the restaurant. Cause the restaurant life is quite long hours so I have to live, you know, live close to the restaurant. Get some sleep.Todd: Yeah. What kind of restaurant job? Cook or waiter or..?Daisuke: A chef.Todd: A chef?Daisuke: A cook, of course, cook.Todd: Oh, OK.Daisuke: I don't get any skills, I don't have any skills so I have to start from the bottom but I want to do the Japanese cuisine.

Todd: Clare, you're from England.Clare: That's right.Todd: How would you compare England and Japan?Clare: Well, I think.. let's take price-wise, they're actually quite similar. Well, not maybe not England as a whole but say Japan and London is very similar. I found in supermarkets, in housing and things like that.In other respects, the people are certainly different. I mean, British people are renowned to be very polite as Japanese people are too. Japanese people are very helpful as well, probably more so than British people I would say. Mm, what else?Todd: What about the weather?Clare: The weather? Well, it's been raining a lot in Japan recently so we could say that it's quite similar, although actually when I was e-mailing my parents they've been going on about how there hasn't been much rain the past couple of months and how they think there is going to be a drought. That typical British stereotype of the weather is not true at the minute and it's probably wetter in Japan. But yeah, I think that climate-wise it's quite similar in terms of temperature. It's definitely much more humid here than at home.Todd: OK. Thanks a lot.

Todd: OK. Michael, you are into spearfishing.Michael: Yes, I enjoy going spearfishingTodd: OK. Can you talk about that a bit?Michael: Yeah, sure. Spearfishing basically is a sport that you dive under the water with the aid of flippers, a wet suit, and weights but you don't use oxygen at all. It's all-- you hyperventilate before you go down to get your oxygen levels up then you dive down.Yeah, then you have to you sometimes hide under rocks or actually stalk the fish and when you see a species that is edible and of legal size you can catch the fishTodd: Oh, Wow. Now spearfishing, does that mean you throw the spear?Michael: No, you use spear guns which uses surgical rubber to propel the spear you just pull it down to cock it. It's kind of like a crossbow without the crosspiece at the front.Todd: So do you ever see sharks down there?Michael: Yeah, you occasionally see sharks. It depends on where you are. You see a lot of.. there are some sharks called wobbegongs which are harmless sharks and they are actually quite friendly, they won't attack you but if you've caught some fish and you keep them on your purse and the blood goes into the water it can attract bigger sharks. And a few times when we've been spearfishing, we've actually had the sharks come down and take the fish while we're there and it's a little bit scary but the sharks themselves are.. they just sit there and watch you in the water. They're kind of like dogs, they're scary because they follow you and they look at you, and you turn around and they'll be sitting there looking at you. So most of the time we like to.. when we catch the fish, to keep the blood out of the water. We put them on a float that floats a fair way away from actually where you are fishing as a safety precaution but if you know..of course, you see too many sharks you just get out of the water...but now, it's nice and exciting.

Todd: All right. Tennessee, you were talking about how you like movies.Tenn: Yes, I'm a big movie buff.Todd: OK. What kind of movies do you like?Tenn: I kind of like most genres of movies. It's just-- what I look for is a good story and good characters is the main thing. So even if I like the genre, if like whether it be science fiction or historical drama, if the story isn't good then I don't like it at all.Todd: OK. Off the top of your head, what's a movie that you really liked?Tenn: Well, the Lord Of the Rings they've been doing I really have enjoyed.Todd: Uh-huh.Tenn: They did a good job.Todd: Did you read the books?Tenn: Oh, yes! It was one of the first adult books I've read when I was in elementary school.Todd: OK. Well, what is the last movie you saw?Tenn: The last movie I saw, Pirates of the Caribbean.Todd: OK. Was it any good?Tenn: Ah, it wasn't bad.Todd: It wasn't bad.Tenn: Yeah.Todd: Alright, thanks a lot.Tenn: I like pirates.Todd: You like pirates. What? You like pirates?Tenn: Oh, yeah! You know, when you're a kid, pirates is the thing to be.Todd: Yeah!Tenn: Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!Todd: OK. All right. Thanks, Tennessee.Tenn: OK.

Todd: OK., Jeff, you're a writer.Jeff: A little bit.Todd: OK.Jeff: Hobby.Todd: OK. Talk about writing.Jeff: I write. I think you writers write about what they know. So, and I don't know much so....so it's difficult. Difficult to be a writer.Now, writers write about what they know so I'm writing. I have a manuscript now about travelling, the people, the people I've come in contact with and what I thought about then. In the situation we've been in when we've met, sort of thing. But it's difficult, it's not easy-- It's not an easy thing to do. At first, I did sort of thinking, anyone could do it almost if you put the time into it but now I think it's very difficult. You have to be creative and it's a lot harder than I think it seems. To pick up a finished product, a book. A physical book or to take a book from the library, I think it's-- you underestimate the work and the time that has gone into it. It's a long, lot of effort behind it. So..it's fun, I like it but it's very difficult. But it's good.

Todd: So Tim, you want to talk about road trips?Tim: Yeah, I wanna talk about road trips.Me and my friends when we were in high school we took a lot of road trips to lots of different places.Todd: OK.Tim: We would go down to California sometimes Mexico. One time when I was living in Wyoming, in one weekend we drove from Wyoming through Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico and back in the same weekend.Todd: Wow! Well, actually for people who are not familiar with the United States how far is that?Tim: It's a long way. I don't know. It took.. I don't know, it took probably about 15 hours one way.Todd: Wow!Tim: So, thirty hours altogether. But it was fun. We drove down to Mexico had a good night a good meal, a little bit of drinksand drove back the next day.Todd: So you went to Tijuana?Tim: No, we went to Ciudad Juarez.Todd: OK. Nice.Tim: That was really fun and a lot of other trips we took when I lived in Oregon when we'd go down to California and we'd surf.Todd: Oh, really?Tim: Yeah!Todd: Oh, you're a surfer?Tim: A little bit, a little bit of surfer.Todd: OK. What kind of car do you drive? What do you use for this road trip?Tim: Well, typical American a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Big vehicle, lots of gas but a lot of fun.Todd: Oh man, you're from Oregon you're supposed to be a tree-hugger!Tim: I know. I know. But they're good. One rule we had on our road trips was any lake or big body of water we had to stop and swim in. It was a good thing to do.Todd: Well, you live in Japan now. Do you ever do road trips in Japan?Tim: I took a road trip from Niigata up around Hokkaido and back, so it was a long road trip actually.Todd: OK. Wow! What's the difference between a road trip in Japan and a road trip in America?Tim: Well, a road trip in Japan..it's a little bit more difficult to get around, it's a little bit more expensive. In America, road tripping is sort of.. something a lot of people do.Todd: Yeah.Tim: And in Japan, when we do that it is a little bit strange, a little bit different, not very normal.Todd: Yeah, that's true. OK. Great, thanks a lot Tim.Tim: All right.

Todd: OK. Kerys, we're going to talk about high school. What was high school like for you?Kerys: It was a very interesting experience. I was in a high school in a, quite a run-down area.Todd: Oh, OK.Kerys: So it was the norm for girls to get pregnant at 14, leave school and then come back at 16 and do their exams.Todd: Wow!Kerys: So it was quite unique.Todd: At 14?Kerys: At 14! Yeah.Todd: Oh, my gosh.Kerys: So it was quite a strange environment to be in for somebody who didn't get pregnant and...Todd: Wow! Was it a rough neighborhood?Kerys: Yeah.Todd: OK.Kerys: Yeah. Yeah.Todd: But did you have a good time?Kerys: Yeah, I enjoyed myself. It was great, you now as...I kept myself out of trouble.Todd: Wow.Kerys: Which was hard. Cause everyone was getting into trouble but yeah, it was fun.Todd: Oh, OK. What do you remember most about high school?Kerys: I remember that the school dinners were disgusting.Todd: OK. And did you get good grades in high school?Kerys: Yeah.Todd: OK, what was your favorite subject?Kerys: It's drama.Todd: OK. Do you still act?Kerys: No.Todd: OK. Do you still go to theatre?Kerys: Yeah.Todd: OK.Kerys: To watch.Todd: Just to watch. Great! Thanks a lot, Kerys.Kerys:  No worries!

Todd: Hey Victor, I hear you're going home tomorrow.Victor: Yes, I am.Todd: Ah, that's too bad. So how long have you been here?Victor: I've been here for two weeks.Todd: I'm sorry, I was never sure. Why did you come to Japan?Victor: Came to Japan to study martial arts. Budo Ju Jitsu is the art that we study.Todd: Oh! OK, cool. So are like a black belt?Victor: Yes, yes!Todd: Oh, really? Wow, how long have you been doing your martial arts?Victor: I've been studying this art for about 18 years I guess.Todd: Really?Victor: A long time.Todd: That's a long time. You're a young-looking guy. You like 18 years.Victor: Well, I'm an old guy.Todd: Well, so when you go back to the States you also trainVictor: Yes, yes! We have a group that we train in martial arts there as sort of a hobby. In a way, it's a sort of a way of life also. But I have a real job. I'm a civil engineer.Todd: So, actually what does a civil engineer do?Victor: In America, a civil engineer designs things. In my case, I work on buildings, buildings that have structural problems and I work on repair plans.Todd: OK. Sounds like a tough job.Victor: It's OK. It's interesting. All buildings need repairs and it's fun.Todd: Great. Thanks a lot, Victor. Have a safe trip tomorrow.Victor: Well, thank you very much.

Todd: Nicola, you were talking to us the other day that you went diving in Australia?Nicola: That's right I did.Todd: Wow, so what was it like?Nicola: Well, actually it was quite scary, to be honest. When I first started I did an introductory course which was just maybe like two days.And so they just sent you out with all of the equipment, put you in the sea and guided you, but then when I did the real course we started in the swimming pool which was fine and it was all great fun.Although, there were two men on my course who completely freaked out and had to leave.Todd: Oh..Nicola: Yeah, so that was fine but then they took us out to sea which was a bit different. Yeah, they made us set up our own equipment, I mean they still checked us and everything so we didn't die but we had to put on our own equipment. We had a diving buddy who I was with and I was with my friend Graham, who I was traveling with anyway and we went down into the sea. We went down maybe fifteen meters. And they always say like 'Don't Panic' just keep breathing normally and everything. But I did kind of panic a bit.Todd: Oh, no!Nicola: So then I rose to the surface really quickly which you know, you're not supposed todo in diving. So I went up really quickly. Luckily we weren't deep enough to do any damage but my diving buddy Graham was having a great time down there looking at shipwrecks and didn't even notice that I was missing.Todd: What a terrible guy.Nicola: Yeah, I know. so, then...Todd: Wow! Did they fail him? I hope he failed the course?Nicola: No, he passed. He paid enough money. He passed. But it meant that I couldn't go diving for the rest of the day cause I had gone down quite deep so that was a shame, but...Todd: That's terrible. But you didn't hurt yourself, you didn't come up too fast?Nicola: No, I was fine in the end but it was a shame because that was the end of my diving day. But we had a few more days to do it.Todd: So now you are comfortable diving. You don't freak out anymore?Nicola: I don't freak out anymore but I couldn't go diving now on my own because it has been so long. Yeah.

Todd: Hey Leath!Do you want to go ahead and talk about the story you we're going to say?Leath: OK. Yeah, this was about-- I'd say a year and a half ago and it was in Harare the capital, where my mom lives.I was on holidayback home seeing my mom and anyway it's a Sunday morning and I was in the shower.Got up pretty late, it must have been about half ten and all of a sudden my mom burst into the shower and she says," Leath, Leath, there's a snake, there's a snake in the kitchen."And so I thought, "Ah, what kind of snake would this be?" because we live in the capital, residential area almost high-rise. Well, not high rise but residential area.And so I put a towel around my waist and walked bad-temperedly through to the kitchen. Attached to the kitchen we've got this little courtyard where we set out to have morning coffee and breakfast. It's tiled and leads onto a small garden. And so I walked out onto the courtyard and there was a seven-foot Egyptian cobra. Wow! I was really, really blown away because I know a bit about snakes and I know that a bite from an Egyptian cobra in a country where the antidote isn't readily available is almost certainly fatal. And there we were, my mom and I, with a seven-foot Egyptian cobra slithering between the courtyard and our kitchen. And, eventually, we trapped it in the courtyard and I went to fetch guys who work for national parks. National parks are the guys who kind of look after animal problems within the city and brought them around And we were hoping that they were going to catch it because Zimbabwe isn't so rich at the moment and stuff like that. They don't have the facilities to keep caught animals so unless it's endangered they just shoot it, so the guy shot our seven-foot cobra.Todd: Oh, they shot it huh?Leath: Yeah, and we had to bury it outback.Todd: Really? Well, still I'm glad you just didn't want to be bitten or anything.Leath: No, no. No way.Todd: What a story. Thanks!

Charlotte: The first time I moved to Poland I wanted to live with a foreign family so that I could learn the Polish language. I went to live with the couple in their seventies whose children had moved away from home.They started treating me like a second daughter. At first, it was really fun because they'd encourage me to speak and they'd act everything out for me, including my landlord's experiences during the Second World War in Poland.Where he'd stand up and perform but after a while, it got a bit wearing because when I was out of the house he would go into my bedroom and start picking up my dirty underwear from the floor, all he used to leave on the bookshelf for me.He would also go into the bathroom, take my underwear off the line and hang it outside so it would smell fresher. Sometimes he would cook for me which is great up to a point because I got to taste some real Polish home-cooked food. But when he decided that I really was his long-lost daughter and started chopping my egg for me and then trying to feed it to me I began to feel that maybe it was starting to get time to move out. He would also invite me into the living room so that I could watch the Polish TV and improve my language and then spend half the television show prodding me and getting me to speak to him in very fast Polish. He was very kind to my friend Kathy when she came over to stay but unfortunately, he wanted me to translate his thoughts on the Polish economy from very fast Polish into English and the same time she was asking me to translate her ideas on English Cricket to Polish. Nonetheless, it was an experience I would not have missed.

Todd: Hello, Ann! How are you doing?Ann: I'm fine.Todd: Ann, could you introduce yourself and tell people where you are from?Ann: Yeah. My name's Ann Hutchingson and I'm from Montreal, Canada. Right now I'm an English teacher in Tokyo, Japan.Todd: OK. What's Montreal like?Ann: Montreal is a really nice city. It's just very cold in the wintertime. It is.. it has four seasons and the nicest season is the summertime because it's really warm and people play a lot of sports. There are some parks in Montreal and you can go swimming and hiking and biking and rollerblading. It's a very interesting city.Todd: Wow! Were you born in Montreal?Ann: I was born in Montreal and I can speak two languages. English is my first language but I also studied French in high school.Todd: So, were you in a submersion program, or all your subjects in French.Ann: No, I went to an English high school but a lot of people in Montreal are in immersion programs.Todd: OK. Since you learned French, what do you think is the best way to learn a language?Ann: I think that you have to like learning another language and if you have a positive attitude then you can find learning another language fun rather than stressful so I think that I had a few French friends and we would practice. They would be very patient and I liked the fact that I could communicate using another language because then you have another identity.Todd: You have your French identity?Ann: I do.Todd: OK. So what's your name in French?Ann: "Mono e Ann"Todd: Wow! I need to get myself a French name?Ann: Todd.Todd: OK. Thanks a lot Ann.Ann: You're welcome. Nice speaking with you.

JJ: Annili, have you always been an English teacher?Annili: No. Actually, I started out as a French teacher. That was my first job.JJ: Wow! So tell me about your first job.Annili: My first job. I was working in Central West Queensland in Australia so it was a remote place.JJ: Sure.Annili: For example, the nearest supermarket was about 100 kilometers away from me.JJ: That's amazing.Annili: So of course, the students lived-- some of the students lived a long way away from the schools. They had their lessons by teleconference, actually, school of the air.JJ: Wow. So when you had a teleconference for example, how many students would be on the air at the same time?Annili: I guess around eight, in two different locations. I would be in the third locationJJ: Wow, that's amazing!Annili: Yeah.JJ: Yeah! And how often would you be teaching like this?Annili: Well, the students were aged between 9 and 12 years old. They had two French lessons a week by teleconference.JJ: Wow, and how long was each lesson?Annili: 45 minutesJJ: Great. That's really interesting.

Todd: OK. Kevin, we're back here in the forest. We're gonna talk about sports.Kevin: OK. Great. I love sports.Todd: What sports do you like?Kevin: Well, my favorite sport is baseball. Obviously, I grew up and my father was a baseball player so I was always aroundbaseball.Todd: Wow.Kevin: My whole life.Todd: You mean your father was a player in the Major Leagues?Kevin: Yeah, exactly. Not only was he a player in the Major Leagues, he was fortunate enough to play in the World Series twice with the New York Mets.Todd: Wow! That's amazing.Kevin: Yeah, The Amazing Met's. 1969.Todd: Wow, that's great. Did you play baseball yourself?Kevin: Yeah, I played baseball pretty much my whole life up through college and university.Todd: OK. Why did you stop?Kevin: Well, it wasn't exactly by choice. I wasn't drafted high enough in professional baseball to.. in order for me to sign, so I ended up retiring from baseball and pursuing other things.Todd: OK. Great. Do you like any others sports?Kevin: Yeah. I actually, I enjoy all competition. You know I enjoy the other typical American sports of basketball and American football and so on, but I also try to learn about and enjoy the national sport of the countries that I'm in. For example now I'm in Japan and I've actually gotten quite into Sumo wrestling.Todd: Oh, really?Kevin: Yeah.Todd: Nice. Have you ever seen a sumo match live?Kevin: Yes, I have. I've been to two sumo bashos as they call them, or matches in Tokyo.Todd: Nice. Yeah, I wanna go. I wanna go myself.Kevin: Yeah, let's go sometime.Todd: OK. Let's do it.

Todd: Hello?David: Hello, Seattle!Todd: Hello, Seattle. OK. Well, how about could you introduce yourself to the listener?David: Oh, hi! I'm David. I'm from Tennessee. The home of Jack Daniel's whiskey and Elvis Presley.Todd: Do you like Elvis?David: He's OK.Todd: Yeah? Cool!David: Never met the guy, but..Todd: Your name is DavidDavid: Yes, that is correct.Todd: But what does everyone call you here?David: TennesseeTodd: OK. Why does everyone call you Tennessee?David: Two reasons. One, I'm from Tennessee, the most obvious reason and the third is because usually there is two to three. One time there was four Davids here.Todd: Oh, I see.David: And to keep us from getting confused they just started calling me Tennessee.Todd: Oh, nice. Great. Well it was nice to meet you, David.David: Nice to meet you too, Todd.

Todd: OK. Matt, we're back. We're gonna talk about music. What is your favorite kind of music?Matt: My favorite kind of music is alternative music. Generally, I like all types of music apart from country music.Todd: I'm the same way. I hate country except for Johny Cash.Matt: Yeah. The older country is good but the newer, I don't like the newer stuff.Todd: Yeah. How expensive are CDs in your country?Matt: Well, a brand new CD is probably between about 15 and 20 dollars. Yeah, but you can find used CDs from anything to a dollar to.. you know, 20 dollars I guess, depending on the CD. So you can find cheap CDs.Todd: Wow, that's pretty cheap. Do you play a musical instrument?Matt: No, I don't. Although, when I was a kid I played the piano and a little bit of the guitar but I've long since forgotten all of that.Todd: Usually, you pick up the guitar and you don'tstop playing it.Matt: There was no talent.Todd: Do you go to concerts?Matt: I go. I really enjoy going to concerts but I like to go to small venues. Small shows. I don't like those big stadium shows where you need binoculars just to see the stage.Todd: Yeah, I agree. And the last question, most importantly, do you sing in the shower?Matt: Of course I do. Yeah, every chance I get.Todd: Wow, what kind of songs do you sing?Matt: Oh, wow! I guess anything that's in my head, the last thing I heard I guess.Todd: Can you sing something right now?Matt: I don't think so. This isn't a shower.

Charlotte: Hey Jessica, you've got a brother called Kirk?Jessica: Yes, that's right. He is two and a half years older than I am and we get along very well now.Charlotte: You get along very well now. How did you get along in the past?Jessica: Not very well at all actually. He was always very mean and heartless, should we say.Charlotte: What was the first thing you remember him doing to you?Jessica: Perhaps the first thing was the time I fell asleep on the bus when I was on kindergarten. He actually left me there sleeping and I didn't wake up until my lunch box fell on the ground. When the bus driver was parking in the bus garage. So anyway, yeah, I learned at that point not to really depend on him so much.Charlotte: What did your mom say when you got home?Jessica: My mom asked my brother,"Hey! Aren't you forgetting something?", referring to me and he responded, "Hey! How did you know I forgot my homework?"

Todd: OK. Hello?Steven: Hello, there!Todd: How are you doing today?Steven: Pretty good.Todd: Could you please introduce yourself.Steven: Yeah. My name is Steven and I come from the north of England.Todd: Oh, really? Where in the north of England?Steven: A little village called Gawsworth.Todd: Is it a big place?Steven: No, it's about 10 thousand people I think.Todd: Oh, really? Do you go back there often?Steven: Not so often. The last time I went back was Christmas.Todd: Oh, really? OK. Did you have a good time?Steven: Yeah, it was very nice. I saw old friends and family and did the usual Christmas things.Todd: What actually are the usual Christmas things?Steven: Oh, I guess a lot of eating and a lot of drinking and a lot of laughing. Just general fun and games I guess.Todd: Great. How many of your family members still live in this town?Steven: Well, they don't actually....my mom and dad live in the town. My brother and sister actually live pretty close to this town, so my family is all in that general area.Todd: Oh, OK. Great. Thanks a lot Steven.

Todd: OK. Victor, tomorrow you're flying home?Victor: Yes, that's correct.Todd: OK. So, are you afraid of flying?Victor: No, flying's fine.Todd: Really? Back home for your job, do you fly?Victor: No, I drive to work and to different assignments.Todd: OK. You never have to fly to go to conventions or other cities or stuff like that?Victor: Once or twice each year I do fly to go to conventions connected with my work.Todd: OK. Tomorrow you have a really long flight.Victor: That's correct.Todd: It's probably what about 15 hours?Victor: From Narita to Washington DC is 12 hours in the air.Todd: Wow. So how do you pass the time on the plane?Victor: On the plane, I like to sleep as much as possible.Todd: OK. Do you take medication or just have a beer or..?Victor: No. I don't take any medication. I just.. I tend to stay up late the day before so that I'm so tired I will want to sleep on the plane.Todd: Well, good strategy and I hope you have a good flight.Victor: Thank you very much.

Todd: Devon, I hear that you took the train across Russia.Devon: Yes. I started in Moscow travelled through Russia, Mongolia and ended up in China.Todd: Wow! That's a long way.Devon: Yes, it was. It took three weeks. I did it as part of a tour with 10 other people.Todd: Man, that's a cool trip. That must of cost a lot of money.Devon: It did cost a lot of money but not a lot of people can say they have done that. I looked in, I researched the trip several months before I actually took it. A friend and I did it together and there was one other American and the rest of the people were from Switzerland.Todd: OK. Cool! What was the landscape like?Devon: A lot of it was flat and for miles around you could see absolutely nothing and as you got into Siberia there was scattered trees. When we got into Mongolia you could see some Camels every once in awhile but besides that there was a whole lot of nothing.Todd: Wow! Just wild camels.Devon: Wild Camels around the drinking hole. Yes, saw that more than once.Todd: So how did you eat on this train?Devon: We stopped several times along the way and upon every platform you could buy food that local people were selling. A lot of it consisted of dried fish and other types of Russian delicacies and a lot of noodles that you heat it up with hot water. Every train had hot water on it on every carriage so you were always able to make noodles if you were desperate.Todd: So was this a luxurious train or was it a pretty basic...?Devon: It was pretty much the most basic you could get. There were no animals on board but sometimes they were coal-heated so it was very basic.Todd: Wow! Would you do it again?Devon: Great question. Would I do it again? Yes, I would do it again but I would wait several years to do it. One because it does cost a lot of money and two because there are many other things to do, to see.Todd: OK. Thanks a lot Devon.Devon: You're very welcome.

JJ: Look at them all lean in as I tell this story. It starts out sickeningly sweet. I was in a musical, Cinderella. I was Cinderella and the guy who played the prince and I started to date.We got pretty serious. He was trying to get rid of an ex who kept bothering him and so he decided to come to Japan to teach English. All during the summer we had plans you know, I would come and visit and that kind of stuff.We were really excited about it and he was a model at the agency. At the same agency where I was an actor and... so we had the same agent. He went to Japan and was teaching and we were writingback and forth, "looking forward to seeing you" all that kind of stuff.I was having lunch with my agent one day and telling her that I had started taking Japanese and I had been planning out my trip. I was very excited about this whole thing and she says, "JJ, I don't know how to tell you this."I'm thinking,"Oh, my God! What?"And she says, "Yeah, Richard's ex-girlfriend flew out to Japan and they got married."Jessica: Oh, my God!JJ: Married!Jessica: Oh, no!JJ: Yeah! Yeah!Jessica: How did you feel?JJ: Like I needed a ladder to get on a piece of paper. Really, I mean it was a devastating. You know that first broken-love kind of thing, but..Jessica: Did you hear from him afterwards?JJ: Yeah, we were always just friends apparently. Yeah, so not only adding the "insult to the indus..". What I meant to say "insult to injury" was him just saying that we were always just friends.

Todd: OK. Jamie, we're going to talk about movies.Jamie: OK. Great!Todd: What is your favorite movie?Jamie: My favorite movie is kind of a heavy movie. It's a called Sophie's Choice with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a movie, it's set in World War II. Meryl Streep plays a Polish woman who has come to America and she's met a man, Kevin Kline. Who has a series of problems of his own, mostly psychological which she is not 100 percent aware of and she does a bunch of scenes where she thinks of the past and the very difficult decision she had while during the war living in Poland. She had to decide between two children which one would be murdered by the Nazis and which one wouldn't. It's an ethical delimma that she faced at that time. She made and immediate decision on and it affected her the rest of her life.Todd: OK.Jamie: It's a fantastic movie. Not the story in itself, of course the story was brilliant but the acting, the fact that she speaks Polish, she speaks German, she speaks English with a Polish accent which is amazing. A writer who is actually a narrator to the movie as well, his character is great. Kevin Kline's basically a psycho character. He is a little bit deranged in itself is pretty neat. All in all, the characters, the plot line, the movie it's fanatasic.Todd: OK. Great. Sophie's Choice.Jamie: Sophie's Choice. I think it actually won an academy award in 1985 or '84.Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot.Jamie: My pleasure

Todd: OK, Conrad.Conrad: Yeah.Todd: You're quite the jock!Conrad: Thanks Todd.Todd: Yeah. So, we're gonna talk about sports.Conrad: All right.Todd: What sports do you like?Conrad: Well, I like a lot of sports but basketball is my favorite. Definitely.Todd: Oh, really?Conrad: Yeah!Todd: OK. How long have you been playing basketball?Conrad: Let's see.. Probably about thirty years. I'm thirty seven now and I think I was in elementary school when I started to play at first.Todd: Wow, at what age were you your best?Conrad: Let's see.. Probably around 20 maybe. Sometime when I was in college. Yeah.Todd: What position did you play when you played basketball?Conrad: Guard. A little bit of forward, depending on what kind of team I was playing on.Todd: Yeah, were you mainly an offensive or defensive player?Conrad: Defensive. Yeah.Todd: OK. Do you still watch a lot of basketball on TV?Conrad: Well, now living in Japan I don't get many chances to watch the NBA but I do follow it on the internet.Todd: OK. Do you still play basketball?Conrad: Yeah. I play about once a week with my-- at the university I work at with the club team there.Todd: OK. Great. Alright. Thanks a lot Conrad.Conrad: Sure. No problemTodd.

Todd: So JJ, I hear you've got a good living arrangement?JJ: I love it. Of course, you know like any person, I was a little bit leery about living with roommates but at the same time I thought living in a foreign country I didn't want to isolate myself completely especially since I don't speak the language.I first met Jessica at the airport and when we were close to tears from laughing so hard on the train ride from the airport to Matsudo Station and realized this is going to be a good living arrangement.We got here and the Brits had taken one half of the apartment and so we Americans moved into the other half and have gotten along brilliantly. Even the little squabbles that tend to come up seem to be solved fairly quickly, maturely and I love it. This is the best living arrangement I've ever had. At the same time, I think it's kind of something that can be expected when you come to teach abroad. It takes a certain kind of person to decide to leave everything familiar behind and meet new people, have new experiences. You're not taping any of this are you.Todd: No, I am actually. Thanks a lot, JJ.

Todd: OK. Hello?Kevin: Hi! How you doing?Todd: I'm doing pretty good.Kevin: Good.Todd: What's your name?Kevin: My name is Kevin.Todd: Kevin. Where are you from?Kevin: I'm from Pheonix, Arizona.Todd: OK. Nice.Kevin: In the United States.Todd: Wow, were you born in Phoenix?Kevin: Actually, no. I was actually born in New York because my parents happened to be living in New York at that time. My father was a Major League baseball player and the year I was born, 1971, he was playing with the Mets in New York City. My birthday is in May, May 25th to be precise, and so my mother happened to be with my father in New York because it was baseball season. So I was actually born in New York but I grew up in Phoenix. Phoenix is what I consider to be my hometown.Todd: Wow! That's amazing. Do you remember anything about New York?Kevin: Yes. Actually, I do have a few memories because we spent probably three years there from the time I was born. Obviously, until I was about two and a half or three years, we spent the summers or the baseball season in New York. We rented a condominium on the second floor and I remember it was right across the street from La Guardia Airport. Of course, when I was a little kid, one and two years old, I used to love sitting by the kitchen windows. I even remember it was a bay window, the kind where you can roll the window open. I used to roll the window open and just watch the airplanes take off and land all day.Todd: Wow! That's cool.Kevin: Another memory I have is the people, the couple that lived below us was an elderly couple and they acted pretty much like our grandparents. I actually called them Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma Stevenson used to give me a bath in her kitchen sink because I was so small.Todd: Wow!Kevin: That she would actually give me a bath in her kitchen sink and I remember that as well.Todd: Wow, those are good memories.

Todd: OK. We're back with Jeanna. You want to talk about your summer vacation.Jeanna: Sure. I went to Las Vegas, Nevada; Reno, Nevada; Tahoe, California; and San Diego, California, and I went to Disneyland.Todd: Wow! Sounds like a really good time.Jeanna: Yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun.Todd: What was the best place?Jeanna: Probably Las Vegas. It was the most interesting.Todd: OK. why was it the most interesting?Jeanna: It was just really busy and there was always stuff going on. You know, never resting.Todd: OK. For example what stuff is going on? Like, what did you do?Jeanna: Well, we went shopping a lot. In a lot of different casinos that had malls in them, went and visited the Hoover Dam.Todd: Oh, wow! It's pretty big.Jeanna: Yeah, really big.Todd: That's a lot of water. Did you go swimming?Jeanna: No.Todd: Can you swim in the Hoover Dam?Jeanna: You can swim in the reservoir.Todd: I mean in the reservoir. Yeah. OK. How did you get to Las Vegas?Jeanna: By plane from Oakland to Las Vegas.Todd: OK. How long did it take?Jeanna: About an hour and forty-five minutes.Todd: OK. Do you think you'll go back to Las Vegas someday in the future?Jeanna: Hopefully.Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot, Jeanna.Jeanna: You're welcome.

Todd: OK, Charlotte. You've been a teacher for quite a while.Charlotte: Yeah, I started about three years ago. My first job was in Jessif, in the east of Poland. I was promised that I wasn't going to have to teach any beginners or any little children because it was my first job. I was promptly given the beginner infants.My first day of teaching I was given a book which said, 'Ah! Go into the classroom and say "Hello" to the children and they'll all say "Hello" back to you and wave. I walked into a class of five four-year-olds, followed by all their mothers and grandmothers and I said, "Hello" and they all burst into tears burst into tears.I spent half the lesson trying to get them to say, "Hello" to each other and stop them from crying while all the grandmothers stood around and stared at me. I finally finished off my singing the whatever Happy Princess Song, all on my own, with crying infants to accompany me. It was one of the worst days of my life. I could identify with all the children though because I wanted to sit on the floor and cry with them by the end of it. I think that that was when I realized that teaching kids was never going to be my vocation. I had some other classes as well but quickly soon after that and moved onto adults who cry slightly less. Yeah, that was my first teaching experience. Not the best. 

Todd: Keri, I heard you have a new house.Keri: Yes, I do.Todd: Oh, so what's your new house like?Keri: It's small, it's old. It's mostly wooden in the inside. It has two bedrooms and a balcony off of those rooms. Downstairs, there's like a living room area and a tatami mat room, kitchen, bathroom.Todd: Wow, so do you live in the tatami mat room?Keri: No, there's two tatami mat rooms. There's one upstairs and there's one downstairs and I don't live in either. One we use as kind of a spare room and the other one is my roommate's bedroom.Todd: Oh, OK. So you have a roommate?Keri: Yes.Todd: What's it like having a roommate?Keri: It's good. I like living alone too but sometimes it's nice to come home and have someone there. My roommate gets home before I do and she likes to cook so often she's cooked dinner for me.Todd: Wow, that's nice.Keri: I know.Todd: Well, you do all the cleaning?Keri: Now that you mention it, I do a lot of the cleaning but not all of it.Todd: Oh, OK. Well, what kind of things does she make you?Keri: Last night she made curry. I think it was an Indian curry, tomato-base.Todd: Spicy?Keri: Yes.Todd: Cool. Thanks a lot, Keri.Keri: You're welcome.

Todd: OK. Leath, you're from Zimbabwe. Could you talk about that?Leath: Yeah, OK. Well, I'm from Harare which is the capital of Zim. I was born there.My folks are British. My dad is from Manchester and my mom is from Scotland. They went out a long time ago. Yeah, growing up in Zimbabwe was "lacker" as we say there. That means really cool in Africans.It was like you grow up in a big open free place with animals and sunshine and it's just a really healthy place to be. Well, at least it was. Today it's not doing too well because the economy has crashed but growing up there was really slick.Todd: Wow! What animals could you see?Leath: Just about an hour's drive out of any city, you are able to come across just about anything. I've seen leopards often at night about an hour out of the capital where I live. You see monkeys along the road, right up to the city outskirts. In certain areas, you'll have to stop for elephants. There's quite a few buck warning signs because they are actually quite dangerous at night. They jump across the road and your cars hit them at windscreen height. It is a bit of a problem. So, there's buck everywhere. Away from residential areas, there's you know your big five, rhino, the lion being the most... well interesting and I guess for foreigners. They are never really never around human settlement cause they are very very dangerous. They do take people from time to time.Todd: Wow! That's fascinating. Thanks a lot, Leath.Leath: You're welcome buddy. OK.

Todd: Hello, Gabrielle!Gabrielle: Hello!Todd: How are you doing today?Gabrielle: Good thanks.Todd: Now, Gabrielle, I hear that you are going back home to New Zealand.Gabrielle: That's right. I'm going home for summer.Todd: OK. What are your plans?Gabrielle: Probably a week relaxing, going camping, and then I'm going back to work.Todd: Oh, OK. Where do you work?Gabrielle: I teach as an English teacher in Christchurch in New Zealand.Todd: Oh, OK. And that's where you're from, naturally.Gabrielle: That's right.Todd: Were you born there?Gabrielle: I was, yeah.Todd: Well, you are going to have this short little break or vacation, are you going go to the beach or the mountains?Gabrielle: Probably, to the beach and camping for about a week with friends. Yeah.Todd: Actually, how warm is it in the summer?Gabrielle: Probably, a maximum of about 30 degrees. A nice dry heat. Very comfortable.Todd: So when you go to the beach is the water warm enough to swim in?Gabrielle: No, no! We swim but it is not warm. Yeah! It's pretty chilly actually.Todd: OK. Any other plans when you go home?Gabrielle: Yeah, I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and family and animals.Todd: Animals?Gabrielle: Well, I miss my pets.Todd: OK. Well, what pets do you have?Gabrielle: I have a cat, a dog, a sheep called Sydney, and two goldfish.Todd: Wow!Gabrielle: Yeah! And I really miss them.Todd: I'm sure they're really excited to see you. Alright, thanks a lot.Gabrielle: Cheers!

Jessica: Let's see. My mom is three years older than my dad. They are like night and day. My mom is 5 foot 4 on a good day, 5 foot 2 I think in real life. She is verysweet, very nice, 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 boisterous.He makes friends no matter where he goes. For example, sometimes he goes to Florida and makes all sorts of new friends. He'll just go by himself. He's a kind of a magnet to people. 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 was the last time you talked to you parents?Jessica: I talked to them probably about two weeks ago. Yeah, everything is going well with them.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. 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.

Todd: Hello, Matt!Matt: Hello, Todd!Todd: Matt, I'm going to ask you some questions about pets.Matt: OK.Todd: First question, do you have a pet?Matt: Yes, my pet at my mom's house we have three pets; two dogs and a cat. My family actually raises dogs for helping blind people.Todd: Oh, really?Matt: 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 to a different training school.Todd: Oh, wow. That's great!Matt: Yeah!Todd: Well, how many dogs do they usually 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 see them. They'll have like sort of conventions of reunions of the pets. Yeah, you get to see them every once in a while.Todd: Oh, wow! That's cool. 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 Siegfried 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, 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, particularly 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. It can be a hassle.Todd: Yeah, OK. Thanks a lot Matt. By the way, where are you from?Matt: I'm from the U.S.A., from Minnesota.

Todd: OK. Steven, you're looking at a picture. Please describe what you see.Steven: 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, Sloane Square, Victoria, Charing Cross. These are all areas in London. Obviously, the bus is in London.Todd: OK. Have you ever been on a double-decker bus?Steven: Yeah, 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? 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: Yeah, who can you see on the bus? Can you pick out anybody on the bus who looks interesting?Steven: This girl here at the back that's leaning on the door, she looks really bored actually. Maybe she is going to work or something and she doesn't want to go.Todd: Yeah. Is that how you feel on the bus?Steven: 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, you're British, do you missing them?Steven: Yes, sometimes.Todd: OK. Great. Thanks a lot.Steven: No problem.

Todd: 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: Well, I can teach you how I make them, which is the same way my father and grandmother make them so it is a little special.Todd: OK. Yeah! Yeah!Keri: First you take some eggs and crack themin a bowl. Whisk them up, so they're quite high and fluffy. 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. Then you take your whipped upeggs or whisked up eggs and pour them into the pan. As it's cooking, if you take a spatula and push the bottom layer of the egg 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. 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. 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. 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. Thanks!Keri: OK. Sure.

Todd: So, Anthony we're talking about bitcoin. Now you've invested in bitcoin before?Anthony: Yeah, yeah, a bit.Todd: Do you still invest a lot now?Anthony: I haven't recently.Todd: Okay, so why did you stop?Anthony: I stopped because I was getting a little anxious about seeing my portfolio swing up and down by 5, 6, 7 thousand dollars in a day. I kind of decided that I would take out the money that I invested in it and just let my profits ride, basically.Todd: Right, so basically originally then, you were using bitcoin for speculative purposes. Not to actually buy things. You weren't using it as a means to actually make transactions.Anthony: That is correct. I've only bought one thing with bitcoin, and that was, it's called a hardware wallet, which is basically, it looks like a USB stick, but it's a way to secure your funds.Todd: Do you think that in the future we will have people using bitcoins more, like it's going to become a viable alternative to actually, for commerce to pay for things?Anthony: Yeah, that's a good question. I don't think bitcoin will be what we all use, but it's definitely, in my opinion, the archetype for what is coming.Todd: It's the pioneer.Anthony: Yes, the pioneering technology. There's going to be something that is similar to bitcoin that we use as a digital payment system.Todd: Yeah, so a lot of people are freaked out about bitcoin. What are some reasons people are skeptical against it?Anthony: That's a good question. One question that I've been asked before is, who controls it? Everyone always wants to know who's in charge. Right. Who's the CEO? Right? Because we're so conditioned to this kind of system, but that is the thing. It's kind of scary for some people, but there is no control over it. It's a program at the end of the day. And there's no governing body. There's no government organization that really has a say. I mean governments, specific governments, will try to regulate the markets to a certain extent. But at the end of the day, the power is in the hands of the people that use it, really. And as long as people use it there will be some kind of value to it. Just as long as we use paper money, there's value to it. As long as it's exchanged, right?Todd: Right. And some people have made some good points. For example, nobody foresaw the use of ecommerce or smart phones, or social media. But these things adopted and ramped up quickly. So, do you think this could happen with these crypto technologies?Anthony: I think-Todd: Is that the right way to say it? Crypto technologies.Anthony: Cryptocurrencies.Todd: Cryptocurrencies.Anthony: Or block chain technologies.Todd: Block chain technology, okay.Anthony: I think it's very rapid right now. It's kind of becoming a household word. Whereas, when I first got into it, if I talked to someone about bitcoin, they would look at me like I was crazy. They would look at me like I had a hole in my face or something. But now people know. Even older people who aren't really so in touch with technology, know what it is or have at least heard about it.Anthony: I think the biggest hurdle to mass adoptions is as it stands now, it takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of know-how in order to safely, because the reason why I say safely, is because if you're dealing with bitcoin, you're in charge of securing your funds. So, if someone hacks into your funds, or something, then it's your fault. You don't have anyone to blame. Where as if you have your money in a bank-Todd: You can't call customer service.Anthony: Exactly. You can't call customer service, so there's a big hurdel as far as the knowledge you need to safely and effectively maneuver in that space. So I think until some second party or third party comes about and makes it more user-friendly, I don't really think it's going to be ready to really take over until that happens. Either more people need to be educated and know how to use it and how to purchase it and how to store it, etc. Or there needs to be some huge company that going to say, "Look, we'll manage it for you. You just need this app, or something." I don't know, something like that.Todd: Yeah, it's going to be interesting in the crossover. They always say be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. If bitcoin or some crypto-Anthony: CurrencyTodd: Currency becomes the primary source of transactions, I think a lot of the ills and the dodgy stuff we have with banks, will seep into it. It'll be interesting if they could keep it out. If you know what I mean. But one thing that's interesting about the currencies is that, I think a lot of old people will go for it. I think a lot of old people usually are hesitant about technology and change, but the thing, they have a lot of money that they're sitting on, usually, older people. They also don't trust the government. They've been around a long time and so I think these cryptocurrencies are going to be very attractive to a lot of tech un-savvy people. What do you think ab

Todd: Okay. So, Anthony, I thought we would talk about bitcoin.Anthony: Okay.Todd: So, you are kind of the expert about bitcoin.Anthony: I wouldn't say I'm an expert, I just, maybe a hobbyist, bitcoin hobbyist.Todd: How long have you been involved with bitcoin?Anthony: I first heard about bitcoin in probably 2012, and I really, I'm really kicking myself that I didn't buy some then because it was about $20, but when I-Todd: So $20 per bitcoin-Anthony: Yeah, per bitcoin was about $20.Todd: Okay. So how much is it worth now?Anthony: Right now, it's about $8,500, somewhere around there.Todd: You've got to be kidding me.Anthony: No. I wish I was, but-Todd: Wow.Anthony: I got into it as a hobbyist around 2014, a little before I moved abroad, and I got into what is known mining. To briefly explain what that is, is miners, people who call themselves miners, they buy special computers which are called ASICs, and that stands for application-specific integrated circuit. The application-specific part means that the chips that you're using in that computer can only be used for one purpose, and that purpose is to solve cryptographic problems thus creating bitcoin. So that's what I was doing, I was running a mining computer.Todd: So you say mining, like mining, you're getting little bits of bitcoin-Anthony: Yeah, exactly.Todd: And it's tiny, tiny fragments.Anthony: Exactly.Todd: You have this chip in your computer. Your computer finds this cryptographic problem, so your computer, you get the reward by getting a small bit of bitcoin.Anthony: Exactly. It's called solo mining. You can do solo mining where you're only working with your, with whatever computers you have, but what's a lot more popular is pool mining where you join a pool and you work together with a group of miners to solve one problem. Once the block is discovered, as they say, each block contains 50 bitcoins. So depending on the computing power that you were giving the pool, you get paid out in equal measure. For people, that's a lot more profitable than solo mining because you could solo mine for years and never find a block.Todd: Yeah. For somebody who has no concept of this, the first thing they're going to ask you is, well, who creates these blocks of ... Who makes this?Anthony: That's a good question.Todd: It's like a "Where are we from?" It's like a chicken and an egg thing, so-Anthony: Exactly, and that's a very interesting point to bring up because allegedly the creator of bitcoin is someone called Satoshi Nakamoto. And he is the alleged creator, as I said, but the reason I say alleged is that no one has ever met this person. He's kind of a mystery, so no one knows his real identity. Some people have had made theories that it could be a group of people. It could be a specific person that, and that's just an alias, but no one really knows who this guy is and where he came from. Yeah, it's this really interesting concept.Todd: So, then how did this take hold? How did this get a foot in society? You know what I mean, like get a foot in the door, I should say.Anthony: Yeah.Todd: So somebody creates this system. This person is a mystery, but then the internet grabbed onto it and said, "Hey, this is a really cool thing. I want to buy this." It's just it's quite interesting that this market came out of nowhere and now it's challenging traditional currency systems.Anthony: Exactly. This was before the internet was even really what it is now, but I think in like 2007, I think, 2007, 2008, there was a group of people called the Cypherpunks, and they were kind of like anarchistic programmers that were anti-establishment. They ran this email mailing list, and they were just collaborating together talking about creating some kind of digital cash. Satoshi Nakamoto was a member of that mailing list, and that's where it kind of gained the underground movement and ... Really, I think there's what is called the white paper and that's the document that details everything about bitcoin, and it's really big. I'm not sure exactly how large, but it's like a book, and a lot of the reason it took off is people would read it and they would believe the technology, and they would try to sell it to other people because they believed in it really.Todd: Wow. That's an interesting history, and so basically this community read this white paper and then it took off-Anthony: From there.Todd: And gained momentum and then that here we are today.Anthony: Yeah, but I think a big part of it, as you mentioned, is really just convincing people because really fiat currency, I mean, if you break it down, it's just paper, right?Todd: Yeah.Anthony: It's just paper that the government makes.Todd: It's an illusion.Anthony: Yeah, and the only reason that it has any value is because we trust in it. So, if I give you a $100 bill or whatever, you're going to trust that you can spend that to buy something. It's the same thing with bitcoin.

Todd: So, I'm here with Jerri, and she's Thai, and we are in Bangkok. And we are going to talk about fashion. So, Jerri, Bangkok is a very, very fashion-conscious city.Jerri: Yes, absolutely.Todd: Shopping is huge here. So, let's talk about prices. So, first we'll talk about jeans. You are wearing jeans today. So, how much are an expensive pair of jeans in Bangkok?Jerri: Well, that's funny that you ask because the price range for clothes here is quite wide, so you can go from 200 baht - Thai baht - for a pair of jeans up to 4000 Thai baht for a pair of jeans in a, like a, like, one of the top brands.Todd: Wow. So, just so people know, 200 baht would be - in U.S. dollar that's about six dollars. And 4000 baht would be about 130 dollars.Jerri: Yes. Yeah.Todd: Wow.Jerri: So, it's quite a, quite a difference there. But I would say that generally it will be in the range of 500 to 2000 Thai baht.Todd: Okay. 500 to 2000. That's still pretty a wide gap.Jerri: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.Todd: Okay, cool. So those are jeans. What about, for women, a blouse?Jerri: A blouse? I would say...for, like, a nice quality one, like, 500 Thai baht.Todd: Okay. That's not bad.Jerri: Yeah. That's alright.Todd: Fifteen dollars, about. Okay. What's the most you would pay for a blouse?Jerri: No more than 1000 Thai baht.Todd: Okay.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: That's your, that's - what about the cheapest?Jerri: The cheapest? Like, 300 Thai baht. Like, if you started going lower than 300 Thai baht, then you have to accept that the, you know, the quality - you might get to wear it not more than three times.Todd: Okay.Jerri: So, that's the price you pay.Todd: Nice, alright. So, what about shoes?Jerri: Shoes? It's - it also depends on where you go. So, Chatuchak market is known for affordable clothes, so the shoes there would be from 200 Thai baht to 500 Thai baht. But if you visit the more well-known stores and the department stores, then they can be from 500 Thai baht to 1000 Thai baht.Todd: Okay, that's interesting. So, you mentioned Jatujak market - can you kind of talk about Jatujak market?Jerri: Yes, so, this is one of the main activities for tourists to do when they visit Bangkok. It's a weekend market, so it's only open on Saturdays and Sundays. It's quite crowded, but it's definitely something you should do. There's a lot of souvenir stores, a lot of local shops, and, yeah, a place to shop for clothes. And it's not just for tourists, you also see a lot of Thais go there because all the stores there are reasonable - reasonably priced and they're quite trendy. Yeah, they have, like, different styles...stores that you won't find anywhere else.Todd: Right. Oh, yeah, I've been there a couple of times. It's massive. It's really, really big.Jerri: Yeah, it's massive. It takes about half a day to do the entire thing.Todd: It's easy to get lost right?Jerri: Yes.Todd: If you go inside, you kind of don't know where you are.Jerri: Exactly, exactly. Which I guess is also the fun part of it. It's like an adventure in itself, right?Todd: Right, exactly. Okay, so, what about things like, like belts or, you know, like accessories?Jerri: I would recommend going to Platinum Mall. This mall is located near Siam BTS station. It's known for its accessories that are, like, reasonably priced. So, at that - at Platinum Mall accessories can be from two - 100 Thai baht to not more than 1000 Thai baht, but usually in the range of 100 to 500 Thai baht.Todd: Okay. Oh, wow.Jerri: Yeah. But there's a whole floor, like, two floors that's dedicated to accessories. So, you can find necklaces, sunglasses, rings, earrings, about ten shops for each category, yes.Todd: Oh, that's fantastic. So, Bangkok's quite interesting because it has so many different ways. You can buy things on the street...Jerri: Yes.Todd: You can buy things at the markets. You can buy things at the nice, air-conditioned malls.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: Yeah. What about online? Do you Thais shop online very much?Jerri: Yeah. Online - online shops are becoming more and more popular now because it's quite convenient. You just get it delivered to you. Yeah, there's a lot of - a lot of more fashion brands that are online. On Instagram, for example. Yeah, so it's becoming a thing.Todd: Oh, cool. Alright, thanks, Jerri.Jerri: You're welcome.

Todd: Another famous thing about Bangkok is the motorcycle taxis, which really freak a lot of the tourists out.Jerri: I'm sure, I'm sure.Todd: Like, they're afraid to get on one. Can you explain the motorcycle taxis, which are incredibly common?Jerri: Absolutely, so, it can get quite - it's quite scary but it's probably the fastest and most cost-effective way to get around Bangkok, especially during the rush hour. Motorbike - you know, there's like a lot of motorbike taxis in Bangkok and they're at different stations, so you can get them at the - at - right below the skytrain station, mostly. And, yeah, they know the streets very well. They know the - the - the fastest routes to get to your destination. And once you get familiar with it, it's actually not too bad as long as you ask for a helmet. I always think that that's - that is - 'cause it does get quite scary on the main roads with, like, a lot of...Todd: Yeah, women, a lot of times, sit in a very dangerous position...Jerri: Yeah, yeah.Todd: ...because of their skirt. They'll sit sideways...Jerri: Yeah.Todd: ...they don't sit with both legs on - with one leg on each side of the motorcycle, which I always find incredibly dangerous.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: Do you ever sit that way?Jerri: I have to admit, yeah, most of the time I sit that way. And it's quite, like - you don't realize it yourself but when people see it they're quite fascinated by it...Todd: Yeah.Jerri: ...like, how we can balance ourself...Todd: Yeah.Jerri: ...and then the motorbike is like swerving its way around.Todd: Right, exactly.Jerri: Yeah. Yeah.Todd: Another thing about the - maybe just explaining about the motorcycle taxis - is, so, Bangkok has really long streets. It's not a grid system.Jerri: No.Todd: It's kind of like the roots of a tree. Like, the roads will just go forever...Jerri: Right. Yes.Todd: ...in one direction. So, basically, people take the main lines, like the subway or overhead train, to their stop and then they take the motorcycle taxi to their home, correct?Todd: Yes, yes, correct. That's the most common way, yeah, to do it.Todd: Yeah. And in the mornings and in the evenings it's amazing 'cause it's, like, this fleet of motorcycle.Jerri: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Todd: Like, the whole street is just humming with motorcycles.Jerri: And then you realize how popular they are when you're standing at the station and there's no motorbikes left 'cause, you know, they're all being, yeah, being used.Todd: Yeah. So, like, in your - where you live, do you see the same motorcycle taxis every day?Jerri: Yes, yes.Todd: Do you know them by name?Jerri: Yes. So, like, even the one in front of where I work - they're, like, familiar face. They know where I live, and...Todd: Yeah.Jerri: ...they take me home every day. Yeah.Todd: Oh my God, that's so awesome. So, what about new things like Uber and Grab?Jerri: So, it's causing quite a bit of tension in Bangkok. As expected, you know the motorcycle taxis and the normal taxis are not so happy about the - this. But, yeah, I think with the election coming up, a lot of parties are trying to regulate it a little better because, currently, the main problem is that the Ubers and the Grab drivers are not legal to have passengers. They don't have the license. So, that's the main issue where - why the motorbike taxis are - and the - the normal taxi drivers are quite fed up about.Todd: Wow. Well, one thing's for sure: it's very easy to get around this city.Jerri: Yes, definitely.

Todd: Okay, so, I'm here with Jerri, and we are in Bangkok, Thailand, and she's Thai. And I thought we would talk about the interesting transportation systems of Bangkok.Jerri: Yes, very interesting.Todd: Yeah, Bangkok has so many ways to get around. So, the most common, of course, is the BTS.Jerri: Right.Todd: This is the over rail train, right?Jerri: Yes.Todd: And then there's the MRT? Okay, can you talk about them?Jerri: Yeah, so, these two are the new forms of transportation in Thailand. Well, not so new. I think about ten years now we've been having them. But they're probably the most common way to travel into the city. The sky train station is now expanding quite fast, so it's going to, like, other parts that are outside of Bangkok for the outer cities - for people from the outer city to travel into the main business district areas. Yeah, and the price range from 30, 35 baht to, like, 100 baht depending on how many stops you have to take. But it's becoming more and more popular, and so the rush hour, it's quite - it gets quite hectic. I think it can be regulated a little bit better. But I think, yeah, they're working on that.Todd: Yeah, I work in Tokyo and Bangkok both, and when I - when I first came here, the trains were empty. The BTS...Jerri: Right.Todd: ...and now they're like Tokyo.Jerri: Yes.Todd: They're on the same level of packed-ness. It's crazy.Jerri: Right. Yes, yes.Todd: Okay, so then how about the world-famous Thai taxis and tuk-tuks?Jerri: Okay, yes, for sure. So, I'll start with the tuk-tuks. The tuk-tuks are probably the most interesting way to get around town. You see them a lot in Bangkok because they attract tourists. So, you can get them - yeah, they usually - the thing to be careful with is that there's not really a fixed price, so you can get a little bit...Todd: Scammed.Jerri: Scammed, yeah.Todd: Yeah.Jerri: But, yeah. So, I would recommend just asking the locals, like, how- how much would it cost, like, from to get here to there, so you know, like, a little bit about the price range. But if you're - if you're here in Thailand for the first time, it's definitely the way to travel around. You get the wind in your face and, yeah, it's really nice. And then the taxi meters are also - there's more and more every day. And, yeah, it's - it's - it's, like, any other country, I guess. It's air-conditioned, and then the meter starts from 35 Thai baht.Todd: It's true. It is like any other country, but I would say they're very unique in their colors. So...Jerri: Oh, right. Yes, yes, yes.Todd: ...they have the very beautiful technicolor that you only see in Thailand. Yeah.Jerri: So, it goes from pink, green, bright-yellow, and they're all very bright, so...Todd: And orange, correct?Jerri: Yes, yes, yes.Todd: And they look so beautiful, actually. Yeah. Actually, going back to the tuk-tuks, one thing that's - I think - is interesting is that, obviously, they're used for tourists, but also local Thais I see use them kind of to transport a lot of bags and stuff. So, like, if they need to move a bunch of stuff...Jerri: Yes.Todd: ...like bags, or they need, like, I don't know, supplies for a restaurant or something like that...Jerri: Right.Todd: ...you'll see tuk-tuks moving things around.Jerri: Yeah, absolutely. And there's like different - different tuk-tuk sizes. So, some of them are - are more for like transportation, as you mentioned, and then we have more of, like, the bigger - similar to tuk-tuks, they're called songthaews, which you see in, like, the small little streets in certain neighborhoods that people need - just need to get to the main road.Todd: Can - now, can you describe what a songthaew looks like?Jerri: Yes, absolutely. It's like a truck but with a big open area in the back for people to hold onto the rails, so, yeah. I'm not sure if you can imagine the picture but - in a tuk-tuk - you get to sit - it fits about three people max...Todd: Yeah.Jerri: ..but songthaew - the back, the open-air area fits about 20 people.

Todd: So I’m here with Jerri and she is from Thailand, and we’re talking about islands. So these islands in Thailand get a lot of tourists.Jerri: Yes, right.Todd: Thailand probably gets more tourists to its islands than any other country in the world. Is there like any concerns about the environment or development on the islands?Jerri: Yes, of course. Wherever there are people, there’s always an effect on the environment. And you see this a lot, especially on the most visited islands such as Phuket and Samoi with the development of condominiums, schools, malls, leads to deforestation, of course, and more pollution. You also see the effect more on the more vulnerable islands like the smaller islands such as, I think, Koh Phi Phi or Koh Lanta. All of the islands used to be full of trees and it used to be like national parks. And now with the people taking speed boats and everything, you really see the oils on the sea. The coral reefs are not as colorful as they should be. All the plastic that comes with, you know, getting food boxes, plastic straws. Yeah. And you really see the ecosystems in the sea are affected.Todd: Yeah, that’s what I tell – that’s a problem that we have to solve everywhere in the world, it seems like, especially the plastic. Do you know about Easter Island in Chile? You know, with the big stone statues?Jerri: No, not so much.Todd: Yeah, that reminds me of Easter Island which is, you know, famous in Chile for its really large stone monuments like the stone faces. And they couldn’t figure out how the people disappeared or why they disappeared, and now they think it’s because they cut down all the trees.Jerri: Oh, wow.Todd: And after they cut down all the trees, that basically destroyed the environment, and the people couldn’t survive anymore so they had to leave the island. So islands really are vulnerable, especially with their trees, right?Jerri: Right. Yeah, absolutely.Todd: That’s one of the reasons I really like Koh Chang, because you can only develop on one side of the road, you know.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: So there’s a road around the island and if it’s on the beach side you can develop, but anything inland on the other side of the road, there’s pretty much no development.Jerri: Yes. But there are also on the positive side you see, you know, when – there are things like bad things happening to environment, you see innovation, people actually coming up with ideas. So a lot of hotel chains, for example, are becoming more sustainable. They’re incorporating metal straws, paper straws. So you do see some changes but there’s a long way to go.Todd: Yeah, you know, I think that’s a great point. Like eventually, business can find the solution.Jerri: Yeah, yeah. That’s always…Todd: It’s in their best interest, right? Oh, that’s really nice. So what about the economy? I guess the biggest jobs are the resorts?Jerri: Yes. So the Thai economy relies on tourists. Yeah, like the hotels, the restaurants, that’s where we get our money flowing, I would say.Todd: Right. So that’s your of the capital influx from other countries.Jerri: Yes.Todd: Right, okay. So, you live in Bangkok. Out of curiosity, how often do you get to a resort or to the beach?Jerri: More than I should, to be honest. Like I love the islands so every opportunity I get, I’ll fly down south, and then visit the different ones. But yeah, as I mentioned, my favorite one would be Koh Pangan. Yeah.Todd: Can you fly directly from Bangkok to Koh Pangan?Jerri: Yes. Well, not directly, but you can fly to the mainland which is Surat Thani. And it’s actually nice just to spend a day there because Surat Thani, there’s like a culture there and then you get to try the authentic Southern food before you actually go to the islands and it becomes a little bit more like Western, with the taste and everything. So that’s my recommendation. And then the next day, you can just go to the pier and take a ferry to the different islands you want to go to.Todd: Oh, wow. So I definitely, definitely want to take your advice.Jerri: Thank you.Todd: Well, that’s really nice.

Todd: So I’m here in Bangkok with Jerri and she is Thai. And, Jerri, I thought we would talk about Thai islands.Jerri: Of course.Todd: So there are some major islands. Can you first talk about the major resort islands in Thailand?Jerri: Yes. So as most of you know, Thailand is probably visited because of its islands. So the most well-known ones would be Phuket and Koh Samui, which are both down South in Surat Thani. And yeah, I think those are like the main destinations. They have changed quite a lot since the last 10 years. It’s quite developed, so it’s an island where, you know, if you really want like a very nice resort and have like a convenient place, like malls are everywhere. There’s also like international schools so a lot of people now move to live at Phuket or Koh Samui. It’s like a little Bangkok but by the beach.Todd: Oh, really? Wow. And Phuket really developed quickly after the terrible tsunami, right? So it’s really rebounded and now it’s quite vibrant. Correct?Jerri: Yes, yes, yes. Correct, yeah.Todd: Okay. So both Samui and Phuket are the more traditional maybe tourist package islands.Jerri: Yes.Todd: Are there some smaller islands or less known islands that you would recommend?Jerri: Yes. We have a lot of islands in Thailand. Just near Koh Samui, you have Koh Phangan, which is also known for its full moon party. That is the high season, but Koh Phangan is actually really nice apart from the full moon. If you visit the other less well-known beaches, Hat Rin, which is where the full moon party happens. There’s a lot of hidden beaches that is very quiet, very relaxed, and it’s not as developed as Koh Samui so you still feel that island lifestyle. There’s a lot of small businesses, local shops.Todd: Oh, that sounds nice. You know, I actually have not been to Koh Phangan but I’ve been to Koh Tao. And that’s the diving island, correct?Jerri: Yes, yes, yes.Todd: Yeah. Can you talk about that?Jerri: Yes, of course. So Koh Tao is known for its crystal clear water and corals for diving, so a lot of people go there to get their diving certificate. That’s actually the best place to do it. And you can spend like three days there, do the course, and then the island itself is also quite remote. So there’s a few stores, not as much as in Koh Phangan. But yeah, it’s nice and quiet, and…Todd: Oh, that’s beautiful. There’s some other ones too, right? So there’s Koh Chang. Can you talk about that?Jerri: Yes. Koh Chang is closer to Bangkok so you can drive there. It takes about five hours. It’s in Trat Province. Koh Chang is a big, big island. And yeah, some people like it, some people don’t, because it’s less vibrant, I would say, compared to like Koh Samui or Phuket. But there’s a lot of big resorts there and the beach is also really beautiful.Todd: Yeah, I have to confess. It’s my favorite island by far.Jerri: Yeah, yeah.Todd: So I first went there 25 years ago and it was really quiet then. I mean, incredibly quiet. And the movie came out, The Beach.Jerri: Right.Todd: I remember when I saw that movie, I’m like, “Oh, that’s Koh Chang.” There was nothing to do on the island, and so that’s… It’s beautiful. It’s a natural park, correct?Jerri: Yes, yes. Correct, yeah.Todd: There’s another little one near Bangkok called Koh Samet, correct?Jerri: Right. Yes, yes. That’s a very popular one, especially for Thais to go during the weekend. It’s like a two-hour drive from Bangkok, in Chonburi Province. All you do is you drive there and then you take a quick boat, about 30 minutes. It’s also a national park so there’s entrance fee, but it’s really nice. The beaches are smaller but there’s like different beaches and a recommended activity would be just to rent a bike and then drive around the island. Takes about like a half a day but all the beaches have their own unique character, which is nice to see.Todd: Oh, that’s so awesome. Actually, when I was there years ago, I don’t think they had the road around the island.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: But I remember they had… It was just amazing, beautiful beaches.Jerri: Yeah.Todd: So there’s two more that are quite famous or one that’s very famous, and that’s Koh Phi Phi. That’s way down in the South. And there’s also Koh Lanta which is not too far away, I think, as well. So can you talk about those?Jerri: Yes. These two I haven’t visited. I don’t remember visiting them but I know a lot of people go there for its clear water. And Koh Phi Phi, I believe, has the well-known sand in the middle of the ocean that you can walk across one island to the other, and it’s known for taking a boat and the water is very clear. And Koh Lanta… Yeah, Koh Lanta, I think it’s also known for the same reason as Koh Phi Phi, for its crystal clear water and there’s beautiful resorts there, too.Todd: Great. Okay, so I’m going to put you on the spot. If you had to choose one island to visit, recommend one place, where would you go?Jerri: Koh Phangan.Todd: Koh Phangan!Jerri: Without

Todd: Did your kids work when they were in school? How did you feel about your kids when they were in high school?Angela: My kids had to work for their pocket money, so they would have chores to do and they would get pocket money. They would help with the washing up, sweeping, cleaning, whatever. They worked hard to earn their pocket money. They thought it was really hard.Todd: So did you ever withhold their wages?Angela: Yeah.Todd: You did? Really?!Angela: Yeah.Todd: You’d be like, “No, you didn’t do your chores. You don’t get the money”?Angela: Yeah, you're not having it. Yeah.Todd: Really?! How often would you have to do that?Angela: More so in the beginning. Once they get the idea, you know, if you don’t work for your money, you don’t get your money. And that’s a life lesson, isn’t it? If you don’t do your work, you don’t get money.Todd: That is great! Because I think a lot of people just assume, even me, like I’ve never had children, but the parents just spoil the kids. They don’t want to have the hassle, they don’t want to have the fight, they just give them the money.Angela: But you look at the difference between the Western kids and the kids out here. You can go on a bus trip with the kids out here. You can go on a six-hour bus trip. You don’t hear a peep out of the kids. They stop there. The mom’s asleep, maybe the kid’s asleep as well. If you put Western kids on a bus for six hours, you’d have to have a PlayStation or a tablet or something. They’d be crying. You’d have to feed them things. It’s a totally different way of acting.Todd: Yeah.Angela: I miss that. When I came to Asia, I noticed that the kids were happier with less, much less than we have. And it wasn’t until I spent the year in Asia and then I went to Australia, landed in Sydney, noticed one thing, that the people were much bigger, but also the kids were just so spoiled. The parents were just giving in to them.Todd: So you think that maybe we need to rectify that situation, that we should stop spoiling kids.Angela: Yeah, I do.Todd: Take away the PlayStation.Angela: Yeah.Todd: Just stick them outside, yeah.Angela: You can get stalls today with - a place where you can put the kids’ tablet.Todd: Yeah, it’s crazy.Angela: Why won’t the kid just look at the world?Todd: Yeah. It’s so funny you mentioned that because before we were talking about potential business ideas, and I have an idea called “Camp Boredom.”Angela: Boredom is good.Todd: Yeah. What happens at Camp Boredom is you send your kid to Camp Boredom and it’s just a camp in the woods or on a farm. The kids come and they go, “What do we do?” and I go, “I don’t know. Nothing. Go outside. Just find something to do.”Angela: No Wi-Fi.Todd: Yeah, because I grew up no Wi-Fi, no nothing. I grew up on a farm and I’m really blessed. I had no idea how blessed I was at the time. But I grew up, I spent all time on my grandfather’s farm, and we had nothing to do. I mean, nothing. But we had this farm, like, so we had everything to do. So the rule was, you had to be up for breakfast at 7:00 and then once you finished breakfast, you had to be out of the house, like you could not be in the house. It was almost forbidden to be in the house unless it’s like raining outside. And you would be outside from sun-up to sundown.Angela: Yeah, climbing fences, climbing trees, haystacks.Todd: Right, having the best time of your life. And your imagination is going and you just… Oh! The little things that you would do. Oh, we’re going to build a tree fort. Oh, we’re going to do this. Oh, we’re going to do that.Angela: We’re going to stop the river from flowing.Todd: Right, right. So that’s my idea. I think Camp Boredom. So maybe we have to…Angela: I think boredom is good for kids.Todd: Yeah. How so?Angela: Because, as you say, you know, if they’re always entertained and always fed, then they don’t get to learn how to entertain themselves.Todd: Yeah.Angela: If you sit them in a car with nothing for six hours…Todd: Right.Angela: Then look out the window.Todd: There was a great thing recently with Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian. He has a bit where he talks about how his mother would take him to the bank when he was a kid, and like a bank or department store was the ultimate space of boredom. Like there’s nothing you can do. You’re so bored, you just want to like flop down on the floor type of thing. But you’re right, like I don’t know if kids have that anymore.Angela: No, they don’t.Todd: Where they hit that wall where there’s nothing for them to do, you know.Angela: No.Todd: So do you think that maybe we should limit the devices, the smartphones, all that, that kids use?Angela: I do think we should but I think it’s too late now. I think we’re past the point where you can get Wi-Fi and it’s that… You know, if we took off the kids now, what would they do? They’d be bored.Todd: Well, you can just never give it to them, right?Angela: Yeah, in the first place.Todd: Maybe that’s impo

Todd: So I’m here with Angela and she is a writer and a traveler, a teacher, a businesswoman, and you’re also a mother.Angela: Yes. Twins.Todd: You have twins! That’s amazing! Wow. And so you also are now what’s called an empty nester. Can you explain what that means?Angela: It’s the feeling that you get when you realize that you’ve worked hard for your kids all those years and now they’re ready to leave. Because they’re twins, the nest is going to be emptied completely at once.Todd: Yeah.Angela: And I would be in a house by myself. I did think though that my son would have stayed home forever, so I would never have gotten to a position of having an empty nest. And my daughter, she left a little bit earlier. But it was just the thought of, you know, you’re in a house that your family’s grown up in, what do you do now? Do you take in lodgers? Do you rent the house out? And that’s when I made my decision to travel. It was a gap that I spotted because my kids were 18 at the time. It was likely that my daughter would have grandchildren at some point or I would have grandchildren, and she’d have children, and then it would not be possible to go away again. So I saw the gap.I rented the house out. And my son who was the last to leave the house, he said, “Mum, are you renting my room, as well?” I said, “Of course, I’m renting your room. You don’t get a house with a teenager resident in it,” and he was absolutely flummoxed but he found somewhere to live. He’s working. She’s found somewhere to live, she’s working. And I think that one of the things you can give your kids actually is independence. I think it’s the biggest thing that you can give them.Todd: Yeah, back in the day, you know, it used to be that you would get kicked out of the nest. That was another phrase, you know.Angela: Yes.Todd: They’d say like, “Okay, when you’re 18, your parents would give you that push like a mother bird. Go fly. Go do your thing.” And I think it’s still a good thing, actually.Angela: I think it’s a very good thing.Todd: You know, that you go out, you… I was not really kicked out but I did leave right away and it was a good experience.Angela: It’s the best experience. You know, those years when you’ve got freedom, you got your friends. You’re growing up. You’re learning about the world. You should be out there by yourself.Todd: Now, you’ve done something against the grain. You went and traveled by yourself.Angela: Umm-hmm.Todd: And your gap year. Now in Asia where we are, this isn’t really an empty nester culture. Like I don’t know if they… Especially Thailand, they don’t really push kids out of the house. People stay and live a little bit more. Have you noticed a difference like in the family dynamics now that you’re in Bangkok?Angela: I think in Bangkok, in Thailand, and certainly at the other Southeast Asian countries I traveled, I’ve been amazed at how families operate and live together. I think I’m very saddened by my own circumstances in the UK, and lots of people in the UK where families are divided and they don’t live together. They don’t support each other. When I was living in Isaan, it was very obvious that families, because there are no social services, people have to work or they’ve got no money. So the parents would have to go to Bangkok or Phuket, or one of the tourist areas, and the children would be left with their grandparents in the village. So it was obvious, there were lots of children who were growing up with grandparents, aunties. But I looked at this and thought, “Well, these kids are living out in the village where it’s safe, they’re happy. You know, they grow up as a gang and they’re loved.”Todd: Yeah, that’s really nice. And since you mentioned that, one of the saddest things I ever saw unexpectedly was when I was in the Philippines. I was flying out, I was in the Philippines. I had a great time and when I was going, at the airport, they had this long line, and I didn’t know what was going on. It was all these children and their mothers. I mean, we’re talking dozens and it just… It seemed strange. And then it hit me, “Oh, because the Philippines have so many people that work overseas.” These were all mothers that were saying goodbye to their children.Angela: Yes.Todd: Because they had to go work overseas. And it’s like I even get choked up now like thinking about it. It was just really powerful that like the people that have that situation, that those mothers, you know they don’t want to leave their kid.Angela: Yeah.Todd: That’s got to be really hard but they have to.Angela: But they have to.Todd: They have to go to wherever they’re going to go in the world. Yeah, that was something. I’ll never forget that.Angela: Yeah. I find families over here are just so willing to share. They share their food. They share their beds. They share their houses. In a way, that is just so different to what I’ve experienced in the UK.Todd: Yeah. That is true. That

Todd: So, Natalie, you were saying that you are a foodie.Natalie: I'm a huge foodie.Todd: And you are now in Bangkok, and Bangkok is famous for its street stall food, but that's changing.Natalie: It is, so this is probably 70% of the reason why I moved to Bangkok because of the street food. So, yeah, the street food scene is changing. It seems like they're trying to take the model that's similar to the hawker centers in Singapore, so the hawker centers is basically where all of the street food carts that used to be on the corner of a street - what we call in Thai a soi - they've been moved into one big center, so almost like a deli center. I think it's in an effort to keep things clean, and to just have a hub where you get all of your food. It's easier for tourists. So that's happening a lot. There are pockets of areas in Bangkok where you can still get amazing street food on the street. Particularly in the business districts, like Silom. I think they will struggle to get their street food vendors off the streets because it is so convenient for people. When they leave work, it's right near the elevated sky train that we talked about earlier. People can just grab some noodles ... it's under a dollar ... get their dinner. Or perhaps they get their food to take away and then they go home. And these places are always really busy. There's usually a line to get in one of these street food places. They have little seats, little plastic chairs outside, and little metal tables, so you can eat there, but it is on the street, so there are areas now where you can get amazing street food, but it's not on the street anymore. It's in one of these small hawker-like centers.Todd: Yeah, that's too bad because I ate street food going way back to 25 years ago, when I first moved here, and it's just the best. I never got sick eating street food for all my years. It's always clean and safe, and one of the things I really like about the street stall vendors that people don't talk about is that they're always really nice, and I have a theory about this. The people that own the street stalls, often, that's their own small little business, so they're the one that's in control of it, and I think mentally, they're just happier people. Rather than if you go in some restaurant, the service can be quite poor because that person is kind of in servitude. They're not really in control of their little economic endeavor. So I love the street stall people because they're just so positive.Natalie: Yeah, it does feel more entrepreneurial. And these guys ... something that I love about the street food as well, just while we're on the topic, is you walk down the street in Bangkok and there are all kinds of noises and there's color everywhere ... all the cars, the taxis, are super colorful; they're really famous for that ... but then you'll smell something. You will smell something being grilled, or you'll smell som tum ... this is where they have the pestle and mortar and they're mixing up papaya and salad and garlic, and ... the smell of fried garlic ... if you wanna sell something, just blast the smell of fried garlic out. You will get people in. And that's one of the things that I love about the street food here. And as you say, it is really cheap. And the thing is is these people have most likely been preparing this food since the night before. There is a huge misconception about street food being dirty, and obviously, of course, there are gonna be places that have dirty street food and might make you sick, but the chances are, these people have been preparing these ingredients at home and then they've brought them into their street food cart and they're selling them all day, so they really care about what they're selling. And people go back time and time again. I can say that because I do, and I wouldn't go back if these people didn't make amazing food.Todd: Yeah, and if people were sick, right, then they would lose their business.Natalie: Yeah.Todd: You know, it's almost illogical, because when people think that, "Oh, the street food is dirty," you can see the kitchen. You literally are sitting next to the cook in the kitchen. You can see everything they're doing right in front of you. Whereas in a restaurant, you have no idea what goes on in the kitchen.Natalie: Yeah. So I can give you some advice for street food. Don't be scared of street food. Try it. But there are a couple of things that you can do to make it a little bit safer. If you're getting something that's grilled ... so we have something here called mu ping, which is pork, and it has a kind of sauce on the top of it, it's like coconut and spices, it's delicious ... and you'll get it for 10 baht. But sometimes it'll be sat out, and it might've been out for a while, so maybe you're worried about dirt on it or bacteria growing on it or flies getting on it or something like that. The grill is usually on the cart, so ask the street food vendor ... or just pick it up you

Todd: I'm here with Natalie and she is working in Bangkok. And how long have you been here?Natalie: I've been here about 10 months.Todd: It's interesting to hear your thoughts on Bangkok because I was an English teacher here over 20 years ago from 1994 to 1998. It was my first teaching job and Bangkok was very different then than it is now. Now I would say it's a pretty amazing cosmopolitan city. Could you agree?Natalie: Yeah, that's part of the reason why we chose it. My partner and I traveled for about a year and a half and we said, "Okay, now let's live somewhere." So we decided to move to Bangkok because it has this great balance of you're still in Southeast Asia, so it still feels like it's developing, it's on its way to something, perhaps what we see Japan or China as now, but it's not quite there yet. And also you can get all the modern conveniences that you could possibly need here in the city. It's really well connected, so it feels like a regular metropolitan city, but at the same time it still feels like you're living in Southeast Asia, which is really cool.Todd: It has done an amazing job of one becoming this just bustling, beautiful cosmopolitan paradise. I mean, the skyline was not here 25 years ago. So all the buildings that they've built or it's just amazing. So now it almost rivals Hong Kong or New York and years ago they didn't have that. So in terms of the city planning, it's just phenomenal what they've done. But also, like you said, they've kept the kind of original cultural vibe to the city-Natalie: Absolutely.Todd: Which is pretty amazing.Natalie: You have different neighborhoods that you can live in. So there is the, I guess a main arteryof Bangkok is the Skytrain. So we call it the BTS. And this a, I guess what they were considered to be high speed and transportation rail system that goes right through the heart of Bangkok. So a lot of the neighborhoods that I would talk about kind of populated around the Skytrain. So you will have pockets of Bangkok that will feel very Thai. So they will be further out on the BTS Skytrain. But you can still get to the heart of Bangkok where all the malls are, or perhaps where all the business areas are within, I don't know, 20 minutes. And obviously, with it being in Southeast Asia, it's still really cheap.Natalie: You can go way out into the areas that are super Thai. You get amazing street food, you'll see very few tourists and then you can, within 20 minutes you can be in, say the Japanese area, which is more expensive and it has a lot of Western restaurants and obviously Japanese restaurants. 20 minutes later you can be in the tourist center where you'll see all the malls and perhaps the more city side of Bangkok. So it's very accessible.Todd: Yeah, it's interesting. How have you been to Dubai?Natalie: I haven't, no.Todd: What's interesting is Dubai and Bangkok have almost the exact same developmental model. So what they did is they built a nice train line, an elevated train and then along the train they built a bunch of shopping malls and condos and they've built a world-class airport and made it a hub for travel to other areas. And even though Dubai and Bangkok they're so different culturally, it's quite interesting to see that economically they're kind of thriving onthe same model. They get lots of international travel, they have a lot of things for tourists to do when they go there. They get a lot of people now that want to retire or maybe live there.Natalie: Yeah. The people that I speak to you about that they're saying the same thing. Bangkok is almost the center of Southeast Asia. You can get pretty much anywhere in the world on a long-haul flight. So you can fly to the UK directly from Bangkok, which is insane. You don't have to stop anywhere. If you want to go to Vietnam from somewhere in the West, you have to stop in Bangkok for the most part. There are very few direct flights. And you can get to the likes of Japan and China within just five or six hours.

Todd: Well I have to admit, because even English teachers will tell you, and they're lying if they don't admit this, even on tests like the TOEFL, it's very hard for a teacher to get 100%. Not because of knowledge, but because of concentration.Rufei: Yes.Todd: Right?Rufei: Exactly. We have a lot of questions and some of them, they are kind of tricky.Todd: Right.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: So they mislead you a little bit.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: Oh no, that's great. So you took all these courses, what was the course you were best at and the course you were worst at?Rufei: English was my worst at.Todd: Oh no, your English is wonderful! Really?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: Oh I disagree.Rufei: It was.Todd: Oh, OK. How do you learn English in China?Rufei: Actually, my speaking skills I gathered from my traveling, I did solo traveling last year.Todd: Wow, you've learned a lot, quickly.Rufei: Thank you.Todd: That's great! That's really inspirational I think for a lot of the students that listen to this site. One year?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: Fantastic.Rufei: But the thing I have to mention about is, you have to know a lot of words. Before you start to speak English, you have to know what you know. Like you have to remember a lot of words, and then you can use it when you have to use it.Todd: Okay, right. So English was tough, not easy.Rufei: Not easy, for everything you have to learn. Learning isn't easy and funny stuff for everyone. Starting is hard and it's kind of betray the human ...Todd: Spirit?Rufei: Yes.Todd: Wow, that's crazy. So how many students would be in an English class? I hear that China has huge English classes. Like there might be 100 students in one class.Rufei: It can be, but it depends. In my high school we have the same class at the same classroom always, and in my university we have 30 students in my English.Todd: Oh okay, that's kind of normal. That's still a lot, for an English teacher that's a lot. Were your teachers usually Chinese, or an international teacher?Rufei: Chinese teacher.Todd: Chinese teacher, okay. And so there was a big stress on grammar and vocabulary, things like that?Rufei: Yes.Todd: How about listening?Rufei: We only do the audio listening test. So it's always the same pronunciation.Todd: Yeah, so you don't have a lot of variety of accents?Rufei: Yes.Todd: Yeah. Okay, well you have to introduce to China.Rufei: Yeah, cool.Todd: What was your best subject?Rufei: My best subject was mathematics.Todd: Oh great. Yeah, that's impressive. I have a degree in economics and there's a lot of math. I went to a good school but I was not strong at math and I was terrible at physics. And physics and economics are kind of related, but not really, I did not do very well in physics. So how are you at physics?Rufei: Actually I love all the math stuff, but also included physics, because you also have to use a lot of mathematics on your physics. For the physics you have to know the formula very well, then you can use it. If you don't know the formula very well, when the question is there you cannot ...Todd: Apply?Rufei: ... apply that.Todd: Yeah. Oh yeah, I agree, it's tough. I am very impressed with you because whenever I meet somebody who is good at math or physics, I have great admiration. My degree was math heavy, but math was not my strong point.Rufei: So what was your strong point?Todd: That's a good question. I was never a good student at anything. How I got to a good university is actually surprising, but I was always middle of the road. Middle of the pack, as we said. Always B- student, in everything.Rufei: I see.Todd: Yeah, I was not exceptional like you.Rufei: You don't have to be very good at starting, but you can handle your life very easily. That's also an important thing for a human.Todd: That is true, I do agree with that. But I think if I was a student in China, I would be that Mister 2000.

Todd: Rufei, you said that your education system is very strict and you study like 15 hours a day.Rufei: Yes.Todd: Okay so, if you were in charge would you keep the system the same way?Rufei: It depends on the person. I think there should be a place that's as strict as my high school. You can choose to send your children to go there or if the students themselves, they want to go to that school, they can go. I think that's really, really motivative to student's to study hard because everybody do the same and they are trying their best to be the best.Todd: Wow. Yeah we have a phrase in English like, "A rising tide lifts all boats", and I think it's kind of the same. So if it's really rigorous for most people, it's gonna pull everybody up.Rufei: Yes.Todd: Okay. There's nothing you would change? Like if you were in charge would you give maybe a little more vacation time? Would you start the day later? Would you make classes smaller?Rufei: If I can choose I will definitely don't choose my school because that was horrible for me because I need a lot of sleep than normal people, but I cannot have that much time to sleep. So I always sleep on the class, and when somebody found out that I am sleeping on the class they will decrease the score of my class.Todd: Oh, that's serious.Rufei: Yes, very serious. Yeah, your teacher would punish you to write a paper like, "I am sorry I decreased the score of our class, I shouldn't sleep on the class", and I have to write it for like an hour to write that stuff.Todd: That is very harsh.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: I think though a lot of people, when they hear stories like that they actually are a little bit envious, especially parents or teachers. Because in the rest of the world it's not that, students don't try that hard.Rufei: Yeah.Todd: So that's kind of special, actually.Rufei: Yeah, I think that's the special point of China.Todd: Wow. So, what time did you have to get up every day to get to school at 6:45?Rufei: I have to get up at 6:00.Todd: Oh, well that was not too bad. That's pretty fast, you wake up at 6:00, you get to school by 6:45.Rufei: Yeah, I can wear my clothes pretty fast and directly get on my father's car and eat on my father's car and put my socks on, on my father's car.Todd: Wow! Talk about streamlined, very mobile. That's great. What about the tests? It's really controversial in the US about standardized tests. Rather than just learning, the students often have to prepare for tests. In your country is there also a big movement just to have a lot of testing?Rufei: We have a test each month, and we only do paper tests. The questions can be really difficult, yeah always very, very difficult. In my case, I'm in the middle ...Todd: Middle of the pack, as we say.Rufei: Yeah, the middle of the pack. For mathematics, we have totally 150 scores and probably I can get 60 to 70.Todd: Wow, that's a big range. Do some students get 100%?Rufei: No.Todd: No?Rufei: If you get more than 120, you are really brilliant. So the question's always really, really difficult.Todd: Can the teacher get 150?Rufei: I'm not sure.

Todd: Rufei, you are from China. In America, Chinese students have a reputation of being very hard-working. Is that true?Rufei: Yes, exactly. In my high school, in one class we have around 70 students in one class and everybody wants to be the top student, so everybody works so hard. I say my high school was kind of like a prison. You have to go to school every day from 6:35 AM to 9:40 PM.Todd: Really? That long?Rufei: Yes.Todd: That's over 12 hours; that's like 13, 14 hours a day!Rufei: Yes, exactly.Todd: How did you feel as a student studying that much?Rufei: Sleepy.Todd: I bet.Rufei: Every day I'm so sleepy.Todd: I can imagine. Do you think it was productive studying that much?Rufei: I think their purpose just like as to stay as much time as we can in the school and we cannot get distracted by other stuff, so we always stay at school and we always focus on our studying ... We cannot know anything about the outside of the wall from school.Todd: That's amazing. For such a long day, can you talk about the daily schedule? What was your schedule like everyday?Rufei: From 6:50, we start to have class. From 6:50 until maybe 11:45; we have 45 minutes class and then 10 minutes break. We also have 30 minutes we have to do exercise on the playground and, in the afternoon, is the same routine. Then, we went to dinner around 6:00 to 7:00. From 7:00 to 9:40 we have to do our homework.Todd: So, you study at school? It's not homework, it's schoolwork; you don't actually go home, right?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: That's crazy. How many classes would you have every day?Rufei: Eight classes.Todd: What were the subjects?Rufei: We separate the subject. If you learn more Mathematics, we learn mathematics, English, and Chinese, and physics, chemistry, and biology.Todd: That's very rigorous. Did you enjoy all the subjects?Rufei: Yeah. I love physics and biology and chemistry.Todd: Now you are training to be a doctor?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: That's fantastic. Did you know you wanted to be a doctor when you were in high school?Rufei: I kind of know because my father is a doctor and he was kind of forcing me to study medicine.Todd: Nice. We have a phrase in English; we say, "Follow in your father's footsteps." You definitely are following in your father's footsteps. That's great. Is your mother a doctor?Rufei: My mother is a businesswoman now.Todd: Okay, great. You had all these courses. In America, there's a big controversy about tests, that the kids take too many tests; it's too test driven. What about in China? Do you have a lot of tests?Rufei: Yeah, I have test every month. They will make a list of every single person; how much score you got in this test-Todd: Whoa. They rank everybody to see-Rufei: Yes.Todd: That's very competitive.Rufei: Yeah. I think that's kind of bad for our emotion.Todd: Yeah, so it creates a lot of stress.Rufei: Yeah. We have 2000 students in one grade.Todd: That is crazy. So, you can be number 2000, you can be the lowest student?Rufei: Yes.Todd: And they put that out there?Rufei: Yes.Todd: Really? They could never do that in America.Rufei: Yeah, I think so.Todd: Oh my gosh. Do you think that's a good idea?Rufei: Depends on the person.Todd: Right; yeah. Wow. You have a lot of pressure. Did you feel pressure from your parents, from your peers, from your teachers?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: Who gave you the most pressure?Rufei: Myself.Todd: That's good.Rufei: I don't want to be lazy. I don't want to be worse, so I have to always work hard to chasing other people ... Everybody wants to be the best, so everybody worked really, really hard. Even we have breaking time, they don't break at all.Todd: Seriously?Rufei: Yes.Todd: What do they do during the break?Rufei: They do questions.Todd: Wow. They quiz each other? The students quiz each other or they just do homework?Rufei: They do their homework and they find out what problem they've had and they solve the problem with teachers or other students. They just starting all day; they can't do that.Todd: That's amazing. Kids do this 14, 15 hours a day?Rufei: Yeah.Todd: Wow. That's really good for China!Rufei: We don't have that much summer vacation and winter vacation. In winter vacation, we have two weeks because of the Chinese New Year; it's about two weeks off. We have two weeks in winter vacation and one week summer vacation only.Todd: Is that enough?Rufei: Of course not. Even we have vacation, the teacher would give us a lot of homework to do.Todd: That is very impressive.Rufei: This is very not good experience.Todd: We'll talk about that in the next interview; I think that's a very interesting point.

Viyasan: So Gyri, can you tell me a little bit more about the lifestyle of school in Norway? For example, I've heard you guys don't have homework, don't have standardized tests. Tell me a little bit more about how school is in Norway.Gyri: Yeah. So, we don't have a lot of homework, that's true. When I was little, or in grade school we had homework, but not too much. I think they changed it recently so that they almost have no homework anymore.Viyasan: Okay.Gyri: Also, in junior high I remember that we did have homework, but it was like, it didn't really matter if you did it or not. So it was, how I remember grade school and junior high is that it's pretty relaxed.Viyasan: So that's very interesting, because I'm sure all around the world students who go to school have lots of homework, they have lots of classes to take, they're probably in classes for lots of hours in a day. That's pretty cool. Do you think it's working? What are your thoughts on it?Gyri: Well, I think Norway really wants to focus on that ... if we have a lot of free time then we learn better, like we'll stay motivated instead of like having to go to school and then also having to work with school when you get home. Like you should ... Norwegians, I think, mostly agree that you do school at school, and then you do other things after so you don't have to think about school all the time.Viyasan: So there's a large emphasis on what you do outside of the classroom.Gyri: Yeah.Viyasan: Got it, okay.Gyri: Yeah, 'cause I think one of the problems that we have in Norway is like motivation, maybe because we're a more relaxed, or we're, yeah, we're more relaxed when it comes to education, other problems show up. So we have a lot of, I th- yeah, we have a problem with pupils that can't focus.Viyasan: Got it.Gyri: And we're also, we don't have enough teachers as well. So that's a problem now in Norway, that not enough people are getting their, or becoming teachers, and there are so many students that have other needs than the rest of the students and we don't have enough teachers to follow up on all of them. So that's Norway's focus now, I think.Viyasan: Got it.Gyri: To get more teachers, and have like, I think the goal is to have one teacher for every five kids.Viyasan: Wow.Gyri: Yeah.Viyasan: That's intense. Wow.Gyri: Yeah. So everyone gets the, gets a lot of-Viyasan: To compare and contrast with Canada at least, and Toronto, in high school there is about one student, or sorry, one teacher per 28 students.Gyri: Oh, wow.Viyasan: Students.Gyri: Yeah.Viyasan: So it's very tough for the teacher to learn all the names, especially in the first few months, and they have to keep on doing that year, after year, after year, and every year usually it increases. So 28 turns into 30, 30 turns into 33, and so, wow, that's quite intense to see the differences. But how do you think the students are liking that approach of one teacher and five students? Do they like how that style of class is?Gyri: I think so, because especially for some students that don't take, that don't learn as fast, they have a teacher that can help them to, yeah, and that helps their specific needs, because if you only have one teacher in like a big classroom, then the really, the kids that learn fast, they'll take everything on their own, and then you'll have like this, these bunch of kids that are lost. So I think people are pretty happy with this.Viyasan: Got it.Gyri: But it's not like ... This is the goal. I think right now maybe we maybe have a teacher for every 10 pupils or something.Viyasan: And so, for example, there's different ways for teachers to grade a student or a certain class. Of course, there's the pass or fail, very binary, you either pass the class or you fail the class, there's percentages, so you can do very well or very poor in the class, there's the bell curve, of course, and I think the last one would be, yeah, portfolio based, so that's based off of different tasks and the teacher leaves a comment of how you did and ways to improve. Which ways do you think would be best for students to learn and how do they do it in Norway?Gyri: Well, in Norway I think they do a combination of all of them, but we definitely do a lot of the latter, the portfolio based, so you don't necessarily get a grade, but you get feedback, detailed feedback on how you did and what you need to improve. And I think that's my, I prefer that method, because it's not as, like it focuses on the learning, not on the grade-Viyasan: Got it.Gyri: And I think that's important, but grades are useful as well. Especially if you're a competitive student, I think grades are very useful. But yeah, so I think the best way to do it is to have a combination of the different types of grading system. What about you?Viyasan: Yeah, I agree. In Canada, well at least in Toronto what they do is they do a mix of both the bell curve and the percentage, an

Gyri: So what is your opinion on standardized tests?Viyasan: Standardized tests. Yeah, I've done quite a few standardized tests in Canada. In elementary school, we have the EQAO, so that's English, math, and I think literacy skills as well. But they have standardized tests that all elementary students do in grades three, in grade six, and grade nine. It depends. I think they're a good way to measure nationwide the skill of your students; for example, they do it every single year and when they do do that, you're able to see and track, okay, maybe in 2007 students had a 67% accuracy on their math test but maybe in 2009 it improved to 73%. So you can see that the quality of education is rising, and your students are able to grasp a lot more knowledge that they're taught in the classrooms. So I think if you're able to track it year by year, it's very good to see the quality of education and how students are understanding information that are taught in classrooms.Gyri: Yeah, so the statistics are useful.Viyasan: Yeah.Gyri: But how does it affect you as an individual?Viyasan: So I think that for career prospects and just generally for life and what you wanna do, and what your interests liein, most people don't find those tests very useful. Although some of the information you do need for general life after school. Some people might not perform well on tests. I've had a couple of friends who just weren't interested in taking tests, didn't try very hard for their tests, and just didn't care very much about it, and would rather spend their time and energy on other things they like outside of the classroom. For example, maybe music, maybe in martial arts. They'd spend a lot more time in those areas rather than practicing those skills needed to perform well on those tests. So I guess it really depends on yourself and how you feel about taking tests. So there's some good things about it and of course there's some downsides to standardized tests. But what's your take Gyri? Does Norway have standardized tests?Gyri: No, I don't think so. I'm not familiar with the term really. I remember in grade school we had these nationwide tests that everyone got but I don't think we ever got the results, they only used it to, for the statistics, to see how well the Norwegian population was learning. But in high school and junior high we never had those. I don't think, and not in college either. So yeah, I'm just not familiar with it.Viyasan: So would you like to take a standardized test and see where you gauge?Gyri: Well, they sound scary. They do, tests are scary always, I think but ... Yeah, I'm glad we don't have them in Norway.Viyasan: So that's interesting because we're both university students. I had to take a lot of tests to get into college and university. How is it like in Norway, how do you get into college if you don't take any standardized tests?Gyri: You just apply and some of the degrees that you're applying for you need higher grades from high school.Viyasan: Okay.Gyri: So we do have, we do get grades in high school. So these ... You have to have high grades to get into medicine, and law school, and all that. But a lot of the universities, or the degrees at the universities, they just take in the first people that apply.Viyasan: Okay.Gyri: Yeah. But it depends on the degree.Viyasan: That's very similar, in Canada we have the same thing where in high school you submit your grades to certain top classes that you would like to pursue. For example, if you wanna go to business school you would submit your business courses, your math courses. But if you wanted to go to art school you would probably have to submit different art classes and show a portfolio.Gyri: Oh, okay.Viyasan: And so it's very interesting to see the different dynamic between what you have to submit and how it's graded. That's very cool.Gyri: Yeah. We have all our grades in high school, all the different grades get ... Ugh, what's it called? I'm sorry. The ...Viyasan: The average?Gyri: Yeah, the average!Viyasan: Got it.Gyri: The average of our grades from high school is what we use. So I think that what you were saying that you only used the business related subjects if you wanna go to business school, that sounds actually a lot smarter than what we do in Norway. 'Cause you don't need to be good at math or a language to get into art school, for example, but they use all the grades from high school to determine if you can get in.Viyasan: Got it, got it.Gyri: At most schools, at least.Viyasan: Yeah, that sounds pretty interesting.