00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
Hello.
Hello, hello.
So,
we're gonna read some messages.
Okay.
As usual.
Hold on.
So,
where's the...
Okay.
So,
hold on, let me...
Let me organize the messages by the sheet.
Sure.
Okay, I'm gonna pick this one.
So, this is from ココアズキさん.
Okay.
こんにちは。
こんにちは。
いつもポッドキャスト、YouTubeなど楽しませていただいています。
Thank you.
今日は初めてメッセージを書いています。
私は一匹プラス一人、
一人プラス一匹、
Kevinさんの好きな芝犬と共に暮らす40代の女性です。
大学を卒業してからはずっと学校で勤務してきて、
数年前の移動で急に役所勤めに変わりました。
学校は新婚旅行でもない限り長期休暇は取れず、
私は今日まで海外旅行を経験しないまま40代後半に突入してしまいました。
これまでは海外に行きたいとも思わず生きてきたのですが、
昨年数ヶ月海外の方とお仕事で一緒に過ごし、
英語で話せるようになったらどんなに楽しいだろうと考えるようになりました。
Kevinさんやまちゃんのポッドキャストを聞き始めたのも、
せめて相手の話が少しでも聞き取れたらと思ったからです。
今は単純に面白くて聞いています。
年が明けて休みが取りやすいのはこの仕事の間だし、
今年は海外旅行にチャレンジしてみようと思い立ち、
同じく独身の友達を誘ってみました。
私は休暇のタイミングを合わせることが難しく、
そうか、行くなら一人で行くしかないのかと気づきました。
英語もほとんど話せず、
この年で初めて海外に行くってやっぱり無謀すぎるでしょうか。
ちなみに行きたいところは北欧です。
もし行くならこんな準備や心構えをしておくといいよとか、
アドバイスいただけたら嬉しいです。
長くなってしまいましてごめんなさい。
Kevinさんやまちゃんかけちゃんのワイワイしたおしゃべりを
これからも楽しみにしています。
読んでくださってありがとうございました。
北欧の魅力と文化
You know, the Nordic...
北欧 is Nordic, right?
Nordic is one of the places I want to go to.
I've never been there. Have you?
No.
I want to go there.
What attracts you?
It just...
You know, it just...
Okay, the city.
City?
Beautiful city.
And I don't know what the vibes are.
You know, on the internet, social media,
the vibes of the Americas and the Europe,
it's there.
The characteristics.
Like, I imagine how people are.
It's imaginable.
But like, I don't know about Nordics, though.
I don't know how the people's vibes are.
Yeah.
It's part of Europe, by the way.
Oh, kind of Europe-y?
Yeah, because it's a part of Europe.
Sure, right, right, right.
So, yeah, that's...
Yeah, right.
I guess that's one.
That's two.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
I have a friend who went to Denmark.
Okay.
Which is one of the countries of those Nordic Europeans.
And then, you know, those countries are called
幸福度の裏側
the highest...
Happiness?
Happiness rate.
Yeah, right, that too.
Yeah.
Right, absolutely.
And I heard stories from her.
And...
But she said, like, the reason why
they're rating themselves that they are, like, the highest happiness
is basically because they don't care about anybody.
Okay.
So if you listen to, like,
幸福度高い国,
that sounds like being friends with everybody,
being happy together, like...
Okay.
You know, open-hearted, happy vibe.
Sure.
But it's actually not.
Okay.
The country is really, really cold.
As a weather, it snows a lot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right.
And then, as it's really north,
they don't have sunlight that long.
Or it's, like, snowy and, like, cloudy many times.
And it's really cold.
Okay.
And so they are...
Although they are, like, the happiness rates are one of the toppest,
but at the same time, like, the suicide rate is also the highest.
北欧の人間関係と幸福度
Interesting.
That's interesting, right?
That is interesting.
Yeah.
And then they...
People doesn't care about people.
Uh-huh.
So, for example, like, in the United States...
Yeah.
Well, America, United States is very individual, individualism country.
Uh-huh.
The responsible is on new things.
But people cares you, right?
Yeah.
They talk to you.
Do a little chit-chat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They welcomes you.
They...
I don't know.
They...
Yeah.
They interact a lot.
They love interacting.
Yeah.
Well, at least in Denmark, they don't talk to you.
They love some of friends.
Like, they make their circles really small.
Wow.
And it's...
I guess the tighten up is really strong.
Yeah.
So that it's very hard for you to get inside the circle.
Uh-huh.
To make newer friends.
Yeah.
Yeah.
To make new friends.
Okay.
So she said, like, to her, it's not the happiest country at all.
Okay.
That's what she said.
And highest suicide rate, that's shocking, too.
Yeah.
And so that's changed my point of view to those countries.
Oh.
Yeah.
See, I can understand that not having great weather, not having much sunlight prevents
you from, you know, getting that substance of like oxytocin or something.
I think serotonin or something.
Serotonin.
Yeah.
And then that brings you, you know, darker.
Yeah.
Just like UK.
Just like UK, right?
And then, you know, depression rate rises.
That I get.
Yeah.
And I understand that I also get how people don't interact as much.
I mean, I feel like America is the extreme, you know.
Places like Japan, Korea, I don't know about India, but like, you know, so many other countries
that don't spark conversations on grocery stores.
Yeah.
Don't talk to strangers at the bus station, right?
I think that's perfectly normal.
Yeah.
Not depressing.
Yeah.
I don't know how the people answer, I'm happy.
True.
So, that's the key point.
So, the reason why is like they don't compare to anybody.
Like, well, even in Japan, we don't interact that much compared to US and everything.
But like, we say like somebody is something or like, I don't know, if you talk about like
school, hensachi and everything or like, I don't know, like, he's good looking or like.
Sure.
Those topics, right?
Yeah.
We compare all the time.
But they don't do any of those.
So, it's not...
It's a different country.
They don't...
I see.
They don't talk about like outside of your world.
That is interesting.
So, that means they're focusing on themselves.
So, that's why they're like, they're looking inner happiness of yourself.
So, that makes you saying that you are happy enough, which sounds good thing.
Right.
You don't have to compare and be like jealous or like...
Yeah.
I mean, not comparing is one of the key to happiness, right?
北欧の幸福度と閉鎖的なコミュニティ
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're taught.
Right.
Yeah.
But I don't know how it works.
What the mechanism is that, I don't know.
But at the same time, maybe they're lacking the connection maybe.
If it goes like extreme like that, they don't feel togetherness.
Like, I don't know.
That is interesting.
Yeah.
That is interesting.
That's interesting, yeah.
So, yeah, you know, that kind of answers the question that I had.
I'm like, if that's the happiest country in the world, why don't everybody move there?
It just, it makes sense because the community is not open to foreigners and newcomers, I guess,
because they're just, they're satisfied with what they have from a very closed community.
And a newcomer just would feel lonely, I guess.
Yeah, I think so.
Wow.
And it's, well, it's heavy snow.
It's really difficult to, well, now we have like airplanes and everything,
but it's really difficult to reach to the country, first of all.
So they are kind of, you know.
Physically closed.
Yeah.
America is like, everybody comes to America at one age.
They discover the land and just let's go, everybody.
So that's why they're like very open to new people, right?
Yeah.
I think it's historically like they're kind of very closed.
They don't need anybody new.
Okay.
I see.
Yeah.
That's what she said.
I don't know.
I've never been to Denmark, so I don't want to judge like that, but it's interesting.
That is very interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
So I want to go there.
I want to visit there too.
Experience what it's actually like.
Yeah.
You're right.
Yeah.
Interesting.
All right.
Thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
