00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
That really...
Yeah, like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Yeah, it wasn't great.
And you kind of stuttered a little bit. That was...
Yeah.
Yeah.
There we go.
All right.
We got a voice message here.
Oh, yeah!
All right, ready?
Uh-huh.
Kevin-san, Yama-chan-san, konnichiwa.
My name is Mei.
I enjoy listening to your podcast every day.
Thank you so much for this wonderful content.
By the way, I'd like to ask you guys about school life in the U.S. and France.
I used to find it tough to manage human relationships at school
because in Japan, school caste system exists,
and the students often use the words "inkya" and "yokya."
I felt uncomfortable with this culture.
Now I go to school in Australia.
From my experience, I suppose Australian people don't care about the hierarchy
as much as Japanese people do.
I wonder what school life is like in France and the U.S.
regarding interpersonal relationships.
I'd appreciate if you guys talk about this topic.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Have a good day.
Well, have a good day to you, too.
Oh, you too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Wow.
Great. Great voice message.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thank you.
Like a clean, polite pronunciation and voice.
Yeah. Love that.
Thank you.
So, I don't know about Australia,
but there are hierarchies in United States as well.
Okay.
Sadly.
Sadly, okay.
If you struggle with the human relationships,
it's the same problem.
It's the same energy.
It's the same kind of dynamic as in Japan and the United States.
It's always there, I think.
I don't know.
I've never been to Australia, but I kind of feel like Australia has them, too.
I don't know.
I can't speak of Australia,
but I feel like every community has these hierarchies that's subconsciously there.
There's always going to be a certain amount of people that's going to care about those things,
and there's always going to be like, "Who's more dominant? Who's the alpha?"
That's my take.
Okay.
Yeah.
Any thoughts for you, man?
When I was in France, yeah.
It's not like zero amount of those hierarchy things,
but quite less than Japan, like maybe than the United States.
03:00
Oh, really?
Yeah.
For some powerful, big, and like sportive guys,
maybe in Japan they could be like the top of those,
but in France, they think that they are kind of top guys.
"I'm the boss. I'm the dominant guys.
We are like the top dominant guys in this school or in this classroom."
But at the same time, they were bad at sports and always studying maybe like Sen.
And those guys also think that they are the boss in this classroom.
So it's like it wasn't like Japan, as she's saying, like one huge pyramid thing.
They were like, yeah, kind of rather like equal kind of.
Sometimes they hate each other, but it's not like which one is like higher or not.
They just equally in fire sometimes.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's a culture shock for me.
Oh, really?
Yeah. I thought that all existed.
Yeah.
All cultures.
But it's not completely zero though.
Of course, they sometimes feel some, for example, like, yeah, not zero.
But I see quite like these, you know, some, for example, like otaku people.
OK.
They proud of being otaku and like express themselves in classroom.
Was that high school or was it middle school?
It was high school.
It was high school.
Yeah. Maybe that could one like factor maybe.
In the US.
Yeah.
In the middle school. Yeah. I didn't feel that much of the hierarchy.
But still more than what you explained.
Oh, OK.
High school was more extreme.
I thought.
Oh, well, high school was more like when you're in the football team.
Yeah.
When you're the cheerleader.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's seen that on dramas, right?
Like cliche.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cheerleading.
Like my captain came in and just.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
That's the hierarchy was there.
OK.
The dominance factor was really in play in high school, I thought.
Like there was like the cool table at lunch.
06:01
Oh, like all the cool people can only sit like that.
Yeah.
It was there.
Mm hmm.
It was it was there.
Yeah.
So I really felt it and in the movies seen in the movies.
So, yeah.
So high school is more extreme for me.
So maybe I thought my case was like maybe it was middle school.
Oh, so but it's high.
I was high school.
OK, OK, OK.
I see.
I see.
Yeah.
OK.
So even though like some people like those Jake guys and Jessica girls try to attack
those different, you know, group, they are kind of strong enough to like punch back.
Wow.
So it's like a.
It's not the same.
It's healthy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's really healthy.
Yeah.
They are kind of, you know, like like how to say confident.
Confident.
Yeah, confident enough to like.
That's why you're saying to these things to me, like on this and kind of discussion would
be happening.
That's such a healthy way.
Yeah.
Like how why do you what's what's so different, you think?
Like compared to the US or Japan, like what's their mentality, like the basic mindset that
they have that's lacking?
One thing I can easily like think about is like in more like them more like individual.
I see.
They don't form group that much.
I see.
Like they don't you know, in Japan we go like into the bathroom with five or six groups,
right?
Right.
That never happens.
Oh, OK.
They like are always like kind of individual.
Oh, yeah.
So maybe that's why they don't.
I see.
That much like form group and group is there.
So are there any bullies?
Well, yeah.
Group bullies.
No, zero, of course, I think.
OK, OK.
Of course.
Like.
Yeah, but it's not like.
When you for example, like in Japan, when one boy is like, for example, being buried,
bullied, bullied, bullied.
Yeah.
Like the other whole classroom would be like enemy, right?
Toward him kind of towards the bully or the guy that's being bullied.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Being bullied.
Yeah.
OK.
Right.
But in France, there are so many guys that just in the middle.
Oh, like doesn't belong to anything.
I see.
So they just doesn't belong to the group who does bully things.
So they just easily say, hey, no, no, no, you don't.
You shouldn't do that.
09:00
Or like.
Oh.
For even like, yeah, that's your fault maybe sometimes.
OK.
It's like quite like.
They don't belong to.
More fair to my eyes.
Yeah.
They're like straightforward.
OK.
They say what they feels.
Yeah.
Oh.
So maybe that's the difference, I think.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's like always like, as you said, there were no like fixed table.
Mm hmm.
Lunch.
It's like always.
Yeah.
Having.
Wow.
Stranger in a group sometimes.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's maybe cultural.
Healthy, healthier culture.
Yeah.
No.
Yeah.
But that means it's not everybody is in peace.
Right.
It's like everybody is fighting to each other kind of.
I see.
Right.
So there's no.
What?
Chowa.
Yeah.
It's like so if you belong to certain group, you are peace in in this group, right?
There's no battle in this group.
OK.
But in France, there's not like certain groups.
So you always need to like fight to each other.
I see.
Like explain things to each other.
So you need to have your own stand.
Yeah.
Back that up.
Yeah.
And you need to fight to like every single guy and girl.
Isn't that more mature?
Like, I think that's more mature.
Yeah.
No?
Yeah.
Kind of.
OK.
They trained from like since they were really small.
Oh, OK.
They need to like train in that way.
I think.
How about this?
Yeah.
How about this thing of like the eighth graders are more stronger than the seventh graders?
Isn't there a vibe of that?
Like I remember in middle school, there was like this table where like only the eighth
graders can sit.
Ah.
And like, yeah.
Wasn't there that kind of a vibe of like, it's more "erai" for higher grade?
That exists.
Yeah.
In, well, at least in my high school in France too.
Yeah.
Like if you play like, for example, like basketball in gym and some upgrade us came in, like we
were like, oh.
Yeah.
Oh, we're kind of, yeah, it's still dawn there.
Kind of.
You want to leave guys?
Yeah.
Kind of.
Yeah.
But at the same time, we want to beat them at the same time.
Really?
So sometimes that happened like, let's have a game.
12:01
Oh.
Like for example, like eighth grader versus like seventh grader.
And then of course we basically we lost because they're big and like, you know, more strong.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So there are like battle between those ages, but it's not like, you know, fixed thing.
There is a battle.
So that means quite a bit.
Friction.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I guess it's a little bit different from how it is in Japan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause in Japan there would, wouldn't be any bottle, right?
Right.
It was, it's what whoever has more older wins.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Automatically.
That's all like, we need escape from that phase.
Wow.
Well, that's a very different environment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
That's right.
I'm sure there's the ups and downs to it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But for a fact it's very different.
Yeah.
True.
True.
In Japan or in the US.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Interesting.
So yeah, is it 10 minutes maybe?
Yeah.
Yeah.
But if you're like hair isn't cool enough, even your best friend would, Oh, that's terrible.
Like they are quite straightforward.
I see.
There would be no one who like automatically defending you.
There is no kind.
Yeah.
Like white lie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There are no white lies.
Oh, I don't like your hair.
And whole classroom would say to you.
So it's like, yeah, you need to bottle against them.
That is a very different culture.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Interesting.
That was interesting.
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Thanks for listening guys.
Thank you.
Bye bye.
Bye.
Bye bye.
