00:00
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
What's up guys? How's it going?
How was the trip?
Yeah, so China, Korea trip. I went there lastweek.
How many days? For China and for Korea?
Three China, two Korea.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
You went to Beijing, Shanghai?
Shanghai.
You went to Shanghai?
So, Shanghai.
Shanghai is really good.
Shanghai is really good.
Really good.
Light, light, yes.
Oh, yeah. Three nights in Shanghai.
Three nights in Shanghai.
Oh, nice.
So, two cities.
Okay.
One, Shanghai Disney.
There's Disney in Shanghai, actually.
Right. So, that's how I spent my three days.
And for the two days in the city,
yeah, I went through all the classic ones.
Yeah, for Shanghai.
Yeah.
Well, I came to realize that I don't have,
I don't know, like, where's the...
The classics are, right?
Right? I didn't know either.
But there's, like, the Riverview,
the, um, I forgot how to say it.
The, the, the band.
I think they call it the...
Band.
The band.
The band, the band.
Is it Chinese or English?
In English, in English.
In English, okay, okay.
Where it's, you have the river,
you have a main river,
and on the riverside,
you, the view is, like, very, like,
tokai, lots of buildings.
You know, like, tall buildings,
lots of shiny buildings,
and that's, like, very Shanghai.
Okay.
It's beautiful.
And it was beautiful.
It was great.
And there's also, like, the, the temple.
Yuen?
Yuen?
So, it's like a temple.
Okay, okay.
Like a beautiful temple
that lights up at night.
It's like a, like a, like a temple city, almost.
Not just one temple.
Wow.
Yeah, it's like a temple city.
And it was, it's, oh, it's beautiful, too.
I think that was the most beautiful one.
Oh, really?
Yeah, it was very beautiful.
Wow.
I loved it.
I went there twice.
Temple city?
Yeah.
That sounds great.
Yeah.
So, that's the two classics.
The food was great, too.
It was great, yeah.
You tried, like, what, authentic Chinese foods?
Yeah, like, dumplings.
Yeah?
Yes.
Dumplings.
That was great.
It was really good.
Was that, like, different from the ones
you can find in Japan?
Like, the chūka gaes and everything?
Yeah, I mean, basically, it's very similar.
Okay.
You know, very similar.
I tried the, uh, the prawn.
Prawn, the shōrumpo.
Shōrumpo, yeah.
Yeah, that.
And also, like, the ageyaki shōrumpo, as well.
Yeah, those were really good.
Very good.
Wow.
I think the, the best thing I felt like aboutChina
was, um, was Alipay.
It's dominated by Alipay and WeChat.
03:00
And every store, like, we didn't find...
So, we used zero cash.
It was all Alipay.
Okay.
Only Alipay.
Only Alipay.
Yeah.
Every restaurant, every cafe, every taxi you go,
you...
Every store has a QR code,
and you scan with the Alipay app,
and then within the Alipay app,
you have the menu list,
and then you click,
and then immediately you pay on Alipay,
and they bring you food,
and then you just leave.
Every store.
So, zero communication, zero language barrier.
Oh, I see.
Yeah, so in Alipay, it's all translatable.
So it was so, so seamless and frictionless and soeasy.
Wow.
So easy.
Must be very easy.
Yeah, it was.
Wow.
Yeah.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Alipay.
Alipay.
It's good.
Other than that, I would say the air was a littlebit not as clean as Japan.
I would say like the...
Was it?
You know, the PM...
Was that like no-one goes to like that?
Yeah, like I needed Ryukakusan.
Oh, really?
Yeah, like the first day, like we couldn't stopcoughing.
Wow.
For some reason.
Oh, really?
Right.
But after that, it was...
The first day, it was kind of like...
It was irritating.
So it was that.
And another great thing that I realized aboutChina was that
nobody cares what you do in China.
Oh, I see.
Really.
Like the first thing that I realized after comingback to Japan is that
Japan, they care about the neighbors.
Let's say you're standing in line in a cafe.
You sit down in a cafe, right?
The customers next to you, they check you out forlike three seconds.
Oh, he's sitting down.
Okay.
Yeah.
Like you're recognized by your surroundings.
Yeah.
But in China, no one fucking looks at you.
You stand in line, you go to a cafe, you dropsomething.
Nobody fucking gives a fuck.
Wow.
They don't look at you at all.
Wow.
That was like, you know, it was subtle, but it wasvery, you know, comfortable in a way.
Like you don't have to care about what peoplethink.
It naturally makes you not give a fuck becausenobody gives a fuck about you.
And it's so noticeable that they don't.
And that itself was kind of comfortable.
I see.
Yeah.
Wow.
It's a very new society to me.
Yeah.
Right.
I had a little bit of a negative stereotype.
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Upon, you know, coming from the experiences I hadwithin Japan from the Chinese tourists of like,
they could be a little bit, you know, have adifferent, you know, culture.
You know, they sometimes cut in line.
They sometimes, you know, might do something thatthe Japanese might think is rude.
Even though, you know, they're not trying to berude, you know.
Did I feel that vibe when I was in Shanghai?
No.
Nothing at all?
No.
I wouldn't say zero, but it was not.
No, no, it wasn't bothersome at all.
I would say like the majority, the majority, themajority, the majority of the people were like,
they're just keeping it to themselves.
OK.
Yeah, they're, you know, they're mannerful, Iwould say.
Yeah, they didn't do anything that sort ofbothered us.
So, yeah.
OK.
It was a new...
Well, this might be rude to say new, but...
But I understand where you're coming from.
Yeah.
But yeah, right, right, right.
Well, that's the great thing when you go to thecountry and just see the real
society, like the real days that they're livingin.
Yeah, right.
So that's a great thing.
Right.
So that's good.
That's good.
It was great that I got to realize that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wow.
Is Shanghai like a huge city?
Like this or like even bigger than like this or...
Um, I mean, I would say it's...
I'm not sure, but it feels to me like it's alittle bit smaller than the 23-ku.
OK, OK.
Yeah.
So two days was, I would say, enough for me to goaround Shanghai.
I'm sure there are more great places, but...
Yeah, yeah.
I see.
It's a Shanghai city, right?
Yeah, I believe so.
Yeah, right.
Wow.
That's a very good experience.
Oh, it was good.
It was really good.
Yeah, yeah.
So you didn't even need to talk Chinese?
No.
You didn't even speak a word?
There are a lot of like xiexie and stuff likethat.
Oh, yeah.
A lot of like really quick and simple phrases.
But that's it.
That's it.
That's interesting.
It's really good.
I see.
Wow.
Yeah, I should know.
I should know more about China.
It's the country just...
Right next to us.
Right next to you.
Right next to us, you know.
Right.
It's a big country.
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Right, right.
We have so many things that originally from China,like...
That's true.
You know, many cultures and everything.
Yeah, that's true.
Right.
Yeah.
Wow.
I don't even know where the Shanghai is.
Honestly.
Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
Right.
I recommend it.
It's so...
Wow.
It wasn't that different, really.
Like it was an easy place for the Japanese, Iwould say, to go.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
How long did it take you to arrive to China?
It's like three hours or something.
Yeah, three or four.
Something like that.
Oh, Shanghai is here.
Yeah.
I see.
It's very...
The east...
East side.
East.
South.
South side.
Wow.
Yeah, true.
I thought it's...
China is some of the country that has like verydifferent vibe,
very different culture and felt very far.
From my experience and just very biased feelingsand like...
I thought it's very far, but...
But, you know, they say that Shanghai is like themost like international,
most like digitally advanced city.
So like maybe if you go to, I don't know,different cities like...
Beijing.
Yeah, Beijing.
I have a feeling that it's a little bit different.
So I'll have to look at that city differently.
But at least for Shanghai, it was...
I didn't feel that much of a, you know...
I would want to go again.
Yeah.
What was the most different thing from Japan, likefrom Tokyo?
People or anything?
Yeah.
Well, so the few things that we felt...
Whoa, you guys do this?
When we were there was that...
One, so places to sit...
In the cities, there are a lot of places to sit,
like just random benches, right?
And then like you have...
So me and my wife were sitting down at like athree-seater or something, right?
And then so me, wife, and then I put my backpackright here.
And then a family ran into the...
Families came running and they were...
A family running?
Yeah, family was running.
They were looking for a chair and they were like,
Oh, that spot is open.
They ran and they sat sort of like right in frontof my backpack.
You know how the backpack occupies half of theseat?
Oh.
They sat on the other half.
Okay.
Right.
And I was like...
With the same chair?
Yeah, same bench.
Wow.
And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
12:01
I was like, you guys chill.
We were like, you guys chill.
And at first I was like,
Are these guys trying to like take over the seator something?
So like me and my wife was like,
Let's just give the seat up to them and just finda different chair.
Because they're too close and it's getting kind ofuncomfortable.
So we got up and we're like,
Hey, guys, go ahead, take the chair.
And they were like, no, no, no.
Oh, no, it's okay.
It's okay.
Please sit down.
They were like,
Well, no, no, no, please don't.
You don't have to do that.
Like, please.
It was so...
And there were many...
And it wasn't just once.
They were like, I think we had like two or threetimes that happened.
And it was like, yeah, that was new.
It's true.
That was new.
That's very new type of distances between people.
Right.
Like it's difficult to say you're too close or toofar.
It's like, yeah, I know.
Right.
Wow, that's new.
Yeah.
And in Disney,
So we...
So if you go to social media,
a lot of people are saying that in ShanghaiDisney,
they cut lines.
Okay.
If the kids come or like the adults come,
they cut lines.
So you have to protect them.
You have to protect your line and make sure thatthey don't cut you.
You have to fight.
You have to battle.
Okay.
Is what I was told on social media.
Okay, okay.
But I was not caught in line.
Not once was I caught in line.
Okay.
Yeah, in Shanghai Disney.
However, the moment before you get in the line.
Okay.
So maybe it's a little bit hard to understand.
But like, let's say that you're waiting in anarea.
You're not in line, but you're not...
There's like a waiting area.
Okay, you have waiting area.
It's not a line, but it's like a waiting area.
So people don't make lines.
It's just people are just randomly there.
Yeah.
And let's say there's one door.
If it's like that, people get like,
not aggressive, but like, if you make room, they'll get in.
Okay.
Like if the door's closer in that space.
That I really felt.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, right.
I see, I see, I see.
But if there's like a clear, strict, obvious line.
They, no one could...
I didn't see anybody caught in line.
Okay, okay.
But if it was like a little bit vague, obvious,like not as obvious.
It's like, really like, we'll take it.
Okay.
That was different.
That was different.
That's interesting.
Yeah, yeah.
But they're not like trying to like fight or liketry to be rash or like things like that.
Right.
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So one interaction I saw was that, so the Chinesevisitor, right?
The Chinese guy was in front of us.
And right before, you know, we got in line.
There was another Chinese that ran right in frontof the Chinese that was in front of us.
So like, so we just saw like a guy just ran andjust, you know.
Sort of like sliding himself into the front of theChinese that was in front of us.
Okay, okay, okay.
And then I was watching to see what the reactionswould be.
Yeah.
From like the Chinese versus the Chinese, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the Chinese in front of me, they really didn'tgive a fuck at all.
They didn't make any reactions when that happened.
Okay.
And like, even more, further down the line.
I think there was like a kid that like was runningand like something happened.
And like them two sort of like talked and likelaughed and they were really like friendlyneighbors.
So like, it was obvious that there were zero beefsin between them.
And I was like, yeah, a little bit different fromJapan, I thought.
Yeah, there's a new distance between people.
Yeah.
Is it?
That was a little bit hard to understand.
Like if they're really want it, like they want toget in earlier.
But like, right?
Because so if they don't have a line, they wouldbe aggressive.
Are you okay with that?
Right.
Right before they get in line, someone cuts youand then they're okay with that.
It's like, I don't get it, right?
That was, yeah, it was interesting.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
I really want to visit China now.
Yeah, right.
I feel the air.
Yeah, right, right, right.
That's very interesting.
Was that 5 minutes, maybe 10 minutes, maybe?
But we'll talk on the next one then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
Thanks for watching, guys.
Thank you.
Goodbye.