00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
[clapping]
This... is this microphone catching this sound?
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Okay.
[clears throat]
So this is from Hamada-san.
Hamada-san.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Hamada-san.
Hamada-san?
[laughs]
You're saying as usual, "san."
No, that's just normal to say "Hamada-san."
This is normal.
Yeah.
Like, a lot of people say "san."
Yeah.
Yeah, really, really, really.
Okay.
So this is from Hamada-san.
Okay.
Hamada-san.
[laughs]
Hello.
Hello.
I listen to your podcast every day.
Thank you very much.
I was curious about something the other day, so here's a request.
Okay.
I've seen people in American movies and dramas
bite their nails in a scene.
Do adults in America bite their nails in front of people?
By the way, does Kevin also bite his nails sometimes?
When I was little, my parents told me to quit,
but is it not considered a bad thing to bite your nails in America?
I'm glad to hear about this simple question.
Mmm.
Thank you.
Oh, good point.
You bite your nails, huh?
I sometimes just...
Not...
Not often,
but I really sometimes do it.
Yeah, I sometimes see you doing it.
When I'm thinking or something, I tend to do it.
But in the US, just like in Japan,
I feel like it's parents are teaching kids not to bite their...
Okay.
...nails, I think.
Just, yeah.
Oh, so it's not like socially allowed?
Uh...
It's not...
It's not that harsh.
It's not like that strict, but it's more of like a...
Oh, manners.
Come on, man.
Okay.
Like if there's a kid that can be taught to not bite teeth
or not bite nails or not bite nails or yes,
you'd go for the not bite nails kid.
You would train him to be a non-biter.
Of course, of course.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
In Japan, is it considered not good manners?
Not a good manners, of course.
How bad is it?
Well...
Like burping bad?
Farting bad?
It's not that like guilty bad.
Uh-huh.
But it's just not beautiful.
Not beautiful.
Okay.
So...
Like a "binbo yusuri" bad?
Ah, yeah.
That's the same category.
Like "binbo yusuri", "tsume wo kamu",
or like maybe like "hanahoziru".
Oh, really?
Those in the same...
Well, I think...
03:00
Okay, same category?
Same like dirty things.
Like not beautiful, not mannered.
Okay, I'll stop then.
I think I should stop then.
But...
Yeah.
Is "hanahoziru" very worse?
It's pretty worse.
It's pretty bad, I feel like.
Okay.
Worse than "binbo yusuri".
Okay, okay.
Well, yeah.
I feel like "hanahoziru" is like just as bad as farting.
Uh-huh.
True.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What about biting pencils?
Biting pencils?
I have no...
I don't have any...
Nothing against biting pencils.
Oh, really?
I don't know if American society does, but...
Like...
Me personally, I don't have anything against biting pencils.
Is that bad?
Like in Japan, we don't do that.
You guys don't recommend biting pencils?
Yeah.
No?
It's considered as one of those...
Bad manners?
Bad manners.
Oh, really?
Because you're eating your pencils.
How bad do you eat them?
But it's really light.
I mean...
You just put like teeth marks on it, that's all?
Yeah.
Do you actually chunk it in?
No, you just bite into your teeth marks.
Or even less.
Does it taste good?
I don't know.
I've never tried.
But in France, there are so many people biting pencils.
Really?
When they think about something and talk about...
Interesting.
So I was kind of, "Wow."
They are...
Wow.
They're all biting their pencils.
At the beginning, but it's not dirty in society.
Or even like it's a little sexy.
Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
That's not the culture that I know.
Yeah.
At the beginning, I was like, "Wow, it's...
No."
But at the end, I was doing the same thing with sexy little...
Have you ever seen someone biting glasses like this?
Oh, yeah.
That's a little same sexiness.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
But I guess...
Culture, huh?
Yeah.
Different culture.
Oh, interesting.
We don't do those things in Japan.
I've never seen anyone bite their pencils in my life.
Maybe some of the elementary kids do it in Japan, maybe?
Maybe.
But even adult, they do.
Sometimes?
In France, you're talking about?
In France, yeah.
Well, we never see that in Japan, do we?
Never.
Biting pencils.
Like very, like very kids only.
06:00
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you do any other like bimbo yusuri or...?
I don't do bimbo yusuri.
No?
I do a lot of finger popping.
What is that?
Like these.
Is that bad?
Is it bad?
No, I don't think it's bad.
But is it...?
I don't think it's bad.
I feel like it's an action where it's not like...
It's like a habit, you know?
Yeah.
I have a habit of...
But my parents told me that if you do those finger crapping, what?
A popping?
Yeah.
If you're popping too much, your finger will be fake.
That's a lie, actually.
Oh, really?
That is a fake thing.
So they told me to just stop doing this.
It's just...
It's not going to make a difference.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
An experiment was conducted.
One person took their whole life to experiment.
Yeah.
He only popped one hand and did not pop the other hand at all.
He did it for like several decades.
Wow.
And it did not make a difference.
Wow.
So it was proven that it will not make a difference if you pop it or not.
Okay, okay.
Then somehow my parents want me to stop this, stop it.
Then maybe that's not beautiful as a behavior in Japan.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Wow.
Now I've been thinking my finger is a little...
Thicker?
A little big.
So that's because of those actions.
But it's not.
Actually, no.
It's actually not.
It's just my fingers.
Yeah.
Oh, it's even kind of sadder.
Yeah, it was uncontrollable.
Yeah.
Right.
Okay.
Just two minutes more.
All right.
Yeah.
How about like...
Do you have any of those like kusei or something?
Kusei?
Yeah.
In like a little bad, not beautiful way?
Yeah.
Action-wise.
Like more like...
I don't think you do.
I don't...
I've never spotted you doing any like...
Yeah.
Kusei or anything like that.
I don't...
At least I don't...
I haven't noticed me doing those.
You open your book very often.
Open my book very often?
If you have like 15 minutes of free time, you start reading.
You are?
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
For me, that's like very...
Oh, really?
Wow.
Let's say it.
09:00
Really?
Yeah.
How can you focus in 15 minutes?
It's probably because you read a lot faster than I do.
Maybe.
But that's...
If you have 15 minutes, you go to the internet and see all these...
Social media.
Instagram, Twitter, posts.
I do.
I do.
That's the same thing.
Because for me, if I had 15 minutes, I'd probably be done with like half a page.
So for me, that's like why would you even spend time to...
Like I need at least an hour to focus reading because like it's not going to be a decent amount of reading.
So it's just a matter of reading abilities.
That's all.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah.
But you can focus on those posts, right?
Yeah, I can.
Just a minute could do.
Yeah.
Well, that's the same thing.
Same thing, yeah.
Do you think that's that rude?
To open a book in front of people?
No.
Well, not to us, though.
But I don't know about other people.
Like I'm thinking that for me, that's the same thing to seeing a smartphone and just reading a book.
That's the same thing to me.
Okay.
But you know, looking that from the far distance, you know, watching smartphone is just not...
It's nothing.
Just everyone does that.
Yeah.
It's just nothing.
But opening a book is maybe making a little distance.
I understand where you're coming from.
Because probably because like the phone doesn't not only has social media, but it also has like informational stuff.
Like it has the weather app.
It's got like email app.
It's more like non-entertainment, you know.
If you open a book, that's 100% entertainment zone.
You're in entertainment.
You're in...
There is no like, "Oh, I want to talk to you."
It's like, "Oh, I'd rather read a book."
Yeah, yeah.
That's right.
It's more...
It's kind of a message.
Right, right, right.
I understand.
Like if it's a smartphone, you don't know from a distance if you're looking at just like a simple...
Just if you're looking at the watch or something, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So that I know I can tell where you're coming from.
So sometimes I kind of think about, "Oh, if I look a little unfriendly..."
Yeah, yeah.
I understand.
I get that too.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
Well, thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
