00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast!
Wow.
It's, uh...
It's April.
Which means...
No more of the, uh... ad.
It's sad.
Yeah.
Feels... feels kind of empty.
-Yeah. -Yeah?
You know, the hole.
-The hole in you. -My...
-My hide. -The hole inside you.
Yeah.
That needs to be filled up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well...
Do you remember our Tantoshi-san?
-Of course. -Yeah.
She used to send us comments on our videos.
-Yeah. -You know?
"I liked your videos!"
Yeah.
She's so kind.
Yeah.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I miss her.
Yeah, I miss her too.
Yeah.
-Okay. -Okay.
-April. -April.
New season for everybody.
Hope you guys are doing well.
Wow.
A new start.
Yeah.
-New Gakusei. -Yeah.
-New Shikaijin. -Yeah.
-New beginning. -New beginning.
I hope you guys are all doing well.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Sure. -Yep.
So...
Okay.
Um...
We do this like usual.
-Yeah. -Usually.
-Yeah, let's do it. -Without any special...
-Mm-hmm. -things back.
Yeah.
Message to podcast from Thailand.
Oh, wow!
-Wow. -Thailand?
-Ready? -Oh, yeah, I'm ready.
Kemi-san, Yama-chan, Kake-chan-san,
-Konnichiwa. -Konnichiwa.
-Konnichiwa. -Konnichiwa.
-Konnichiwa. -Konnichiwa.
-Konnichiwa. -Konnichiwa.
[laughter]
Konnichiwa.
[laughter]
Konnichiwa.
-You hear? -Yeah.
It was actually his voice.
It was actually...
Literally, it was his voice.
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
[speaking Japanese]
Americano?
Americano.
I can do them five.
-All of them, you know? -I don't...
Wait, which...
-It is... -Thailand?
Thailand.
I can't... I don't think I can do it either.
Americano?
Americano.
Americano?
Sorry.
-Americano? -Americano.
Americano.
Well, I guess, you know, I went to Taiwan.
-Okay. -When I was in elementary.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. -And, you know,
really, like, relaxed and soft.
-Really? -With a peaceful mind.
-Uh-huh. -You know, with smile.
-Okay. -So, Americano.
I guess.
-So... -Really? Was it like that?
03:00
-Lost track. -That person was about to die.
That was...
That was... But, yeah.
-Okay. -Americano.
-Yeah. -Like a really soft, more like a...
-Americano. -Okay.
Uh-huh.
So...
[speaking Japanese]
Yeah.
In terms of accents, I...
I almost never do the American accent when I'm speaking Japanese
and have to say an American... like an English phrase.
I would always go with the Japanese accent.
-Oh. -To phrase, right?
-Like... -Like I'm talking in Japanese.
-Was, phrases. -Yeah.
Like, uh...
Like...
[speaking Japanese]
I wouldn't say, "I couldn't...
[speaking Japanese]
I would never say that.
-Like, I would do that. -Chocolate.
-That's weird. -Yeah.
Yeah, Hershey's and chocolate, right?
That's something that I would just adjust to.
Yeah. Why do you do that?
Because I guess it's more easier that way.
-Oh, for you? -Yeah.
I feel like if you're talking in Japanese,
the mouth, your mouth is more...
Like...
You're in that mode of like the Japanese speaking mode.
-Yeah. -And you can't...
It's kind of...
It takes a little bit of energy to like,
suddenly switch to that...
-True. -American...
Moving...
Not like...
This...
Adjust...
It needs adjustments a little bit.
Just a little bit, but...
Like mouth set?
Right, mouth set.
Yeah, something like that. Right.
So...
It's easier for me to go with a katakana pronunciation.
When speaking Japanese.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
But when you speak in English,
and you have to say some Japanese words like...
Wasabi.
Yeah.
Samurai.
You know.
You pronounce like that.
Yeah, I do in an American accent Japanese.
Right? Wasabi.
Shibuya.
Yeah, true.
-Right? -True.
Well, true here.
When I speak in English,
well, there's some kind of struggle inside me.
Okay.
Which one should I go with?
But still, if I speak English,
then I would go wasabi, shibuya.
And if I speak French, then wasabi, shibuya.
Oh, okay. That's different.
But yeah, I go with that, you know, language flow.
Right, the flow is different.
Yeah.
If I were to put like,
"Oh, I ate this... this..."
"It was a red... It was a red wasabi."
"It was a red wasabi."
And like you need a little pause at the end,
which is kind of distracts you.
-Yeah. -Like the flaw's not really there.
-Yeah. -Right? So...
It's easier. Like...
Yeah.
Yeah, I think you get what I'm saying.
True.
So that's one thing we...
We try to match things up.
Yeah.
There's just another thing that I...
If...
06:05
Like I remember...
Remember Catherine was in our...
Zoom meeting?
Catherine is one of the...
A worker from Amazon.
And she's...
She has on this big smile all the time.
Yeah.
When she's on Zoom calls.
And I don't think...
I've never seen...
Anybody with that big of a smile during Zoom calls.
So like, it...
I'm... I don't know why,
but I found myself adjusting to that smile.
And I was kind of like...
Yeah.
I had my smile on during that Zoom call,
whenever Catherine was there.
Do you get it?
I get it.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I don't know why I did that, but... -That's a good thing, you know.
Yeah, it's a good thing.
It's a great vibe.
I do respect those people.
It's...
I really do.
I feel like it's a skill.
Yeah.
You know, to be able to do that.
Like, initiate that smile.
You know.
That's really important.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I really...
Those kind of people I really do respect.
You know.
Right.
To be able to like, tone up the...
Yeah.
The atmosphere.
Yeah.
It's...
It's a skill.
It's definitely a skill.
It's a skill.
Right.
An initiator.
Yeah.
It's a leader.
Yeah.
You know.
Uplifting things.
Yeah.
Right.
True.
Yeah.
Right.
Respect that.
Yeah.
Who is the most uplifting person you've ever met?
Well, I have one guy when I met in France.
Okay.
Fabien Dumas.
Okay.
It's a bit...
His name is Fabien Dumas.
Fabien Dumas?
Yeah.
And he was so uplifting guy.
Okay.
Tell me about him.
He like, you know, we gather together at the fast room or like, you know, the...
Shokudo.
Yeah.
Or any bar, kind of cafe or whatever.
Yeah.
He enters.
Yeah.
And he always smiles and saying always some kind of jokes about, you know, whatever he sees.
Uh-huh.
And yeah.
Wow.
That's...
That was a skill.
Pure skill.
So is he always smiling?
Not always smiling actually.
But he's joking around.
Yeah.
You know, his atmosphere is really uplifting.
So even though I was not able to speak, you know, fluent French, he, you know, kind of made me happy.
Was he a very caring guy?
Yeah.
That's one thing.
Like, you know how a lot of the jokes can be like nasty or negative, right?
Not the nasty one.
It's really kind.
And he sees everybody and he, you know, take care of everybody so that he tried to make me, you know, fun.
So that I can be the, you know, the main part of the conversation.
Wow.
So, yeah.
What a nice personality.
09:01
Yeah.
What a nice person.
Yeah.
That's so nice.
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah.
Those, you know, uplifting and open kind of atmosphere.
Right.
And I really, really do respect and I want to be a person like them.
But it's kind of hard to me.
It is.
Yeah.
It is.
Like...
Sometimes you just don't want to, right?
Yeah.
Sometimes you're just not in the mood for just giving away the smiles and everything, right?
Yeah.
Right? I understand.
Especially you're doing something you like or you're into, then I can do those, you know,
sometimes make those atmosphere.
But, you know, if you own, you know, the job or if you do something, if you're not that, you know...
Interested in it.
Yeah.
Then I really do understand that me being bad atmosphere and being, you know, bad guy today and I don't like that.
But, you know, you're recognizing that, right?
Yeah, I recognize it.
But...
It just solves most of the problem.
That's what they say, right?
Yeah.
A problem is...
80% of the problem is solved when you recognize that there is a problem.
Okay.
I think that's what the phrase was.
So you've solved most of the problem because you know it.
Yeah. Well, thank you.
You're on the process of getting...
Yeah, true.
Right?
True.
And now I find you've got some kind of element in you.
Oh, thank you.
Those, you know, atmosphere.
That's flattering.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Going open and...
But I myself don't think of it like that always.
Ah, not always?
Yeah, not always.
I feel like I can do a better job at, you know, influencing positivity.
But, yeah.
Yeah.
It's not...
It's selfish though.
It's a selfish act.
Well, yeah.
But that's a happy and peace.
Right, right.
Really important.
Yeah.
All right.
I'll work on it.
We'll work on it.
Yeah.
All right.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
