Learn Real-Life English: Dating Someone From Another Country ❤️ | Comprehensible Input

0:00 Are you ready to learn some real life English with comprehensible input?

0:06 Well, good, because today we are going to have a real life English conversation

0:11 between two native speakers about something

0:15 that our guest today and I have in common.

0:19 We are both in a relationship with a woman from a completely different culture.

0:26 Let's go.

0:27 Hello everybody.

0:28 Today we're having what I think is going

0:30 to be a very useful and interesting conversation.

0:34 And we are going to have it with a very

0:36 special guest and friend of the channel, Jay.

0:40 Jay, how are you, my friend?

0:42 Thank you, Kyle.

0:43 I'm wonderful.

0:44 I'm doing very well.

0:45 It's a sunny morning.

0:47 Um, I'm feeling bright and yeah, I'm ready to jump in and to begin.

0:54 All right.

0:55 So, the last collaboration that you and I did, Jay,

0:59 it turns out that we share a lot of subscribers

1:02 and a lot of people who love my videos love your videos, too.

1:07 So, hello to everybody who watches both of us.

1:10 I I am positive that we both appreciate you all so much.

1:14 And I think it's really cool, Jay, that a lot of people found both of us.

1:19 I think that says something about our personalities, honestly.

1:23 Absolutely.

1:24 Yeah.

1:24 I was I was really happy to both collaborate with you last time and then

1:30 we both read the comments and just seeing all the positivity like you said,

1:35 you know, people saying, "No way." Like my two favorite subscribers subscribers,

1:40 my two favorite um creators and yeah, it was it was it was a big joy to read.

1:46 So, thank you from us to you.

1:49 You know who you are.

1:51 So, if you guys have not seen Jay's work before,

1:56 his channel is absolutely awesome.

1:58 Big shout out to you, Jay.

1:59 His quality is great.

2:01 Your filming skills are awesome, man.

2:02 Every time I watch your videos, I'm inspired.

2:05 So, thank you for making great content, guys.

2:08 English by Jay.

2:09 Awesome.

2:10 Comprehensible input channel.

2:13 Thank you.

2:14 Now, are you ready to get into this deep conversation, my friend?

2:20 Absolutely.

2:21 Yes.

2:21 I was born for this.

2:24 So, in this conversation,

2:27 we're going to be talking about an experience that Jay and I share,

2:32 which is we're both in a relationship with a woman

2:35 from a different country and a completely different culture,

2:38 but we're kind of seeing the same situation from different

2:43 points of view because I live in my home country,

2:49 the United States, and my wife Ingred came up here from Colombia.

2:56 Now Jay, can you tell us about the situation between you and Chang?

3:01 Yes.

3:01 So my situation is opposite.

3:04 I am British.

3:06 I live I lived in England my whole life and recently I traveled to Vietnam.

3:13 I now live in Vietnam where I met

3:16 my partner Chang and we live together in Vietnam.

3:20 Okay.

3:20 Now, can we start this off with just how did we meet our significant others?

3:26 How did you meet Jane when you went to Vietnam?

3:29 Okay, let me try to condense this into its shortest form.

3:34 Um, my friend Ollie was visiting me in Vietnam.

3:41 He booked his flight ticket for Thursday the 19th of April,

3:48 but he arrived one day later, he found out.

3:53 So I was in Hanoi.

3:56 Uh we were planning to travel the Hajang Loop,

3:59 which is like a motorbike tour around the north of Vietnam.

4:04 So my friend Ollie arrived one day late.

4:07 I was on my own.

4:09 Uh, I went to a coffee shop in Hanoi and I

4:15 was doing some writing and reading and I I met Chang there.

4:20 Uh, she was doing the same thing, reading and yeah, we just we connected.

4:25 We started talking about the things that we both love,

4:28 um, our passions, art, creativity, and then I went off.

4:35 I did my motorbike tour.

4:38 uh came back to Hanoi for a few days and we connected again,

4:41 met up and then yeah, maybe a few months later I had moved back down to Daang,

4:47 back down to the south and Chang decided to to move

4:51 her life here too uh by the beach and yeah, the rest is history.

4:57 It's been a lovely journey ever since.

5:00 Wow.

5:00 So am I think I'm understanding this right?

5:04 Is it fair to say that if your friend

5:07 had showed up when he was supposed to show up, you would have never met her?

5:11 Yeah, absolutely.

5:12 Yeah.

5:12 So, thank you, Ollie.

5:15 But that's just such a cool what we might call a twist of fate.

5:19 A twist of fate, which means like

5:21 something happened that should not have happened

5:23 that completely changed something big in your life.

5:27 Yeah, absolutely, Kyle.

5:28 It's strange.

5:29 We talk about it like that was so unlikely to happen yet it happened.

5:35 And then having met Chang that changed

5:39 the trajectory that changed the direction of my life.

5:44 I would say I may not have you know started a YouTube

5:49 channel and a Tik Tok channel if I hadn't had met Chang.

5:53 So yeah, it's weird these strange synchronicities in life,

5:58 strange things that that add up and and and connect and the people we meet,

6:02 the experiences we have.

6:04 Um yeah, there's something something quite magic in it.

6:08 Wow.

6:08 Wow.

6:09 And it's actually funny because my my story is

6:13 similar that I should have never met my wife.

6:15 if I should have never been able to meet my wife because

6:19 had my wife and I met a different time in my life,

6:23 I wouldn't have spoke Spanish.

6:26 And she grew up in Colombia.

6:28 She came to United States uh on a a program between Colombia and the states

6:35 where they give young people visas to come here and work as an opair,

6:40 which is another word for nanny or someone that takes care of kids.

6:44 So she came here and of everywhere in the whole United States,

6:48 she wound up working with a person 20 minutes from my house.

6:54 And it she did not speak English at the time,

6:57 but it just so happens that we met at the time

7:00 in my life where I had become fluent in Spanish.

7:03 So it's it's these strange twists of fates that have brought us both

7:07 to our to the women that we're spending

7:09 our lives with, which is really cool, I think.

7:12 Wow.

7:13 So did you first approach her in Spanish?

7:17 So this is another funny story.

7:19 Okay.

7:20 So you can imagine that the only people who

7:24 can have an awaren basically you're paying a huge

7:28 amount of money to have another person come

7:31 live with you and take care of your children.

7:33 Norm middle class people can't do this.

7:36 Okay?

7:36 It's only very wealthy people.

7:38 So this very wealthy lady who was also a little

7:43 bit uh cuckoo little bit cuckoo we might say she was

7:50 the first person who my wife wound up working

7:53 for and this person was almost treating my wife like a slave.

7:57 She couldn't leave the house.

8:00 So in her boredom she was you know

8:03 online just trying to find some way to socialize.

8:06 We met online.

8:08 She writes me in English saying, "Hi, how are you?" So,

8:12 I respond with like a a normal long paragraph of what I'm doing.

8:16 She doesn't reply.

8:17 And I'm thinking I'm like, "Hm,

8:20 maybe this girl doesn't really speak English." So,

8:23 I replied and said, "Hey, I speak Spanish." And I replied in Spanish.

8:27 She replied there.

8:29 And we hit it off there.

8:31 And I could do a whole video about the stories

8:34 of how I went and rescued her from this crazy lady's house.

8:38 We snuck her out for our first date and uh it was,

8:44 you know, one of the best days of my life when I met her.

8:47 Wow.

8:47 And yeah, it everything lined up,

8:51 everything in my life leading towards that moment,

8:54 you know, pushing me to learn Spanish, pushing her to come this way.

8:57 And it all met in one little point 20 minutes from my house where, you know,

9:03 somebody from the other side of the world,

9:05 just like you and Chang in that coffee shop, two people's paths

9:10 took them to that one spot in time.

9:13 And now look at the beautiful things that have

9:15 happened and what might happen in the future.

9:18 Yeah.

9:18 Wonderful.

9:20 I was talking with Chang last night in in bed about that.

9:23 Uh it's it's just so bizarre like

9:25 you're talking about two people's different paths.

9:27 Okay.

9:28 Ingred's born here.

9:29 You're born here.

9:30 Complete different side of the world.

9:32 Um the same for Chang and I.

9:35 And you live just completely different childhoods.

9:39 your experiences, your thoughts, your beliefs, these are just,

9:44 you know, vastly different yet at some point, right?

9:49 Your your paths intersect and then and then from there hopefully grow.

9:54 That's the that's the idea.

9:56 At least I think, you know,

9:57 in a healthy partnership is is growth from both partners and together.

10:03 Yeah.

10:03 I think it's a really a really wild thing

10:07 to to have met from completely different sides of the world,

10:10 but something that's deeply uh fulfilling if you find, you know,

10:16 someone who who vibes with you, as the young people say.

10:21 And uh just to let everybody know, Jay is no longer young people.

10:25 You've joined me in the 30 club, my friend.

10:30 Mate,

10:30 happy belated birthday, buddy.

10:31 Thank you, sir.

10:33 Yeah.

10:33 Yeah.

10:34 30 years old.

10:35 I feel um I feel in the prime of my life.

10:39 The prime is like the the best time.

10:42 Yeah.

10:42 I feel like I'm just getting started.

10:44 So, thank you for the birthday wishes.

10:46 And I'll I'll do a bit more exercise.

10:48 Make sure I don't get too much of a belly.

10:52 Absolutely.

10:52 And I feel like I'm getting better every day as well.

10:56 Awesome.

10:55 I think uh the 30s, if you take care of yourself,

10:58 really are the best time of your life.

11:01 Let's get into these deep questions about what it's actually like to be

11:06 with a partner from a different part of the world.

11:09 What is something that you have learned from your partner's culture?

11:14 Is the Vietnamese culture very different from the English culture?

11:19 Good question.

11:20 Something I've learned from my partner's culture, from Vietnamese culture.

11:26 Firstly, yes, it is very different from my culture back home in the UK.

11:34 If there's one thing I've learned since moving here,

11:41 it's that Vietnamese people are really kind

11:46 and welcoming and really just warm towards you.

11:51 They always smile.

11:52 They always help you when you're in need.

11:56 and even when you're not in need.

11:59 So yeah, it's that openness,

12:01 that warmness and willingness to help people even if they're a stranger.

12:07 So I'm a complete stranger, they don't know me, yet they always smile.

12:11 They always meet me with with kindness.

12:14 Um, I think that's a really nice behavior.

12:16 And comparing that to behavior in the UK,

12:21 people tend to be a lot more closed off with their blinkers on.

12:26 Um, they tend to be in their own world.

12:29 So, it's harder to get a smile from a stranger.

12:35 It's it's we are less likely in my culture

12:38 to help people on the streets who need help.

12:44 um in Vietnam way more likely to help people.

12:48 The people are just Yeah.

12:49 They they they show you their love.

12:52 They might not always in their culture it's

12:54 not a thing to to express love with words.

12:57 Oh, I love you so much.

12:58 Now, they don't say that.

13:00 Um they show you with kindness, with acts of kindness.

13:05 Okay, that's very interesting.

13:06 And I've heard that Vietnam is a very

13:08 safe and welcoming place to travel or live.

13:13 Now, has that rubbed off on you?

13:17 And when something rubs off on you,

13:18 it means something in your environment or the people around you rubs off on you,

13:23 meaning you start acting like that as well.

13:27 Nice explanation.

13:29 Yes, it has rubbed off on me.

13:31 Uh I I always grew up in a in a household.

13:34 My grandma um was again, we've talked about my grandma,

13:37 but yeah, she she taught me kindness.

13:40 So that's something I I hold very close in my heart,

13:43 one of the values I deeply cherish.

13:47 So yeah, I would say beyond that, just the act of being friendly with strangers.

13:55 Um yeah, and and helping people if someone is in need.

13:58 I went skiing recently for my birthday and there

14:00 was a little girl that fell on the floor.

14:02 Um and I was helping Chang stand up.

14:04 So after that, I went to help the girl stand up.

14:08 I actually fell on her first, but after that, um,

14:12 I helped her up and she skied off.

14:15 Yeah, that gave me a good feeling.

14:16 It gives me a good feeling to help people.

14:18 Um, you know this, Kyle, and you know, from us making these videos,

14:22 it's a wonderful thing to help you at home watching this.

14:27 Uh, yeah, to help in any way possible for me makes me feel good.

14:33 So, yes, it has rubbed off for me.

14:37 Wonderful.

14:37 So, you're a better person now than you

14:40 were when you first crossed the border into Vietnam.

14:43 That's a a beautiful thing.

14:45 For sure.

14:45 Yeah.

14:46 I had long hair when I first traveled to Vietnam as well.

14:48 I was a bit of a hippie.

14:50 Oh, no.

14:51 I I want to see a picture.

14:52 You have to send a picture of that later.

14:54 I'll send you a picture.

14:54 Yeah.

14:57 Okay.

14:57 You know, I I have a similar

15:00 experience with Colombians and the Colombian culture.

15:04 I it's a similar thing, but I wasn't going to put it that way in helping people.

15:09 I was going to say the closeness of family,

15:13 but I think we're really trying to get the same thing,

15:16 which is that western cultures, you know, uh like ours, you know,

15:21 English and American are not completely the same, but there are similarities.

15:26 Everybody's so busy, you know, everybody's so busy.

15:29 They're doing their own thing, working so much,

15:32 just, you know, it's super fastpaced.

15:35 But in Colombia, and it sounds like in Vietnam,

15:39 you take more time to worry if your your mom's doing okay,

15:43 if your brother and sister are all right.

15:45 You know, you check in on all your friends.

15:47 And it's it's so much so that it was shocking for me because

15:54 even though let's say for example my sister and I we love each other.

15:58 She lives in Chicago which is about an hour driving from me.

16:03 We'll text each other you know every now and then

16:07 which could be once a week or once a month.

16:10 But we're not calling each other and talking on the phone all the time.

16:13 when we see each other,

16:14 we're not giving each other big huge hugs and a kiss on the cheek,

16:17 but the Colombian culture is just so close.

16:20 It seems like they put a a much bigger

16:23 value on the personal connections with their loved ones.

16:27 Do you notice that with Ingred's family?

16:30 Like, do they meet you with big hoses and kick kicks hugs and kisses?

16:36 Yeah.

16:36 And you know what?

16:37 It's it's something that's rubbed off on me as well.

16:40 and you know with even just because you know we live in the US so

16:44 it's not like we're going to Colombia all the time but I go to her church

16:49 with her in Chicago which is mostly Colombians

16:52 or spend time with her and her Colombian friends

16:54 and now it's completely normal just to give

16:56 your friend a big hug when you see them

16:59 but I think for the average American that is not normal I

17:03 don't know about the average Brit I don't want to say cold culture,

17:10 but my wife used to call me Seco, which in Spanish means dry, dry.

17:16 But it it's a way that they use

17:18 to describe somebody who's kind of cold and distant.

17:21 But I always thought I was a warm and welcoming person until

17:25 I started hanging around Colombians who hug you and they're just much closer,

17:31 I think, in the culture, a much smaller distance between people.

17:36 M.

17:37 So, has that has that rubbed off on you, Kyle?

17:43 My wife has this friend named Lily, and she's an older lady at the church.

17:49 She's not old, she's in her 40s.

17:51 Um, and she's become a dear friend of mine, too.

17:53 And every time I see her, I give her the biggest hug,

17:56 and I just love Colombian culture has turned me into a hugger and uh

18:02 definitely opened my heart up and made me a more warm person, I might say.

18:11 Mhm.

18:11 Awesome.

18:12 I want to flip this around and ask you guys at home.

18:17 Is it normal in your culture to to hug and to be very close

18:23 with people to tell them that you love them or you know are you more distant?

18:29 Where are you from first of all?

18:31 And and what is it like in your culture?

18:34 Are you very close with your family or are you more separated?

18:40 because I know different places in the world show love in different ways.

18:43 So, how do you show love to your family?

18:46 We'll be reading those comments, guys.

18:47 Let us know.

18:50 Absolutely.

18:49 So, that's that's very interesting because, you know,

18:53 for my family, saying I love you is super easy,

18:58 but maybe showing it with hugs and affection is considered strange or unusual.

19:04 Whereas I've met a lot of Latinos,

19:07 my a lot of my Mexican friends especially, who have told me,

19:10 "My parents never say they love me." And I

19:13 think it's it comes from a hard upbringing.

19:17 You know, they had a they really struggled growing up.

19:20 So, it's hard for them to express it because

19:23 their culture was shut up and get to work.

19:25 You know, you don't sit around talking about your feelings and your problems.

19:29 You just work.

19:31 But you know that your family is there for you because of that closeness.

19:34 They just don't say it.

19:36 interesting that you mention it's because or it could

19:41 be because of the the difficulties in in growing up

19:44 like you know shut up and get to work kind

19:46 of idea that um yeah I don't know if that's

19:50 the same in Asia but I know in in Vietnamese

19:52 culture as I mentioned before it's they don't necessarily say

19:57 that they love you but they will show you

19:59 with the care and you know just yeah caring for you.

20:03 So, I'm interested why that is happening and and I feel

20:06 like you could have hit a point there like Yeah, who knows?

20:12 Vietnam has had a uh you know had had some rough times in their past as well.

20:16 Absolutely.

20:17 everywhere in the world has.

20:18 But um you know maybe the the countries like the US or England whose

20:25 harder times are a little bit further behind them in the history books,

20:30 maybe it's a little easier for us to express ourselves in that way.

20:35 Yeah.

20:35 What do I know?

20:39 Everything.

20:39 Now I have a question for you, Kyle.

20:42 What is something beautiful about mixing two different cultures?

20:51 Well, you create something new really.

20:53 And it's really cool to see these mixes

20:57 and I've got a bunch of examples of that.

21:00 Part of it is the Spanglish that my wife and I speak,

21:03 which Spanglish is a fun word that is Spanish and English put together.

21:08 So, a lot of times our conversations, you know,

21:12 get really mixed up with the language you're speaking.

21:14 She's speaking English.

21:15 I'm speaking Spanish.

21:17 I'm speaking English.

21:18 She's speaking Spanish.

21:21 Sometimes we'll take an English verb and turn it into a Spanish verb.

21:27 We'll conjugate it like a Spanish verb like I want to take a nap.

21:33 and nobody else would understand what that means,

21:36 but it's something fun, cute, and beautiful that we've we've made together.

21:40 Another thing um with my my wife,

21:46 but also any culture when you mix these cultures,

21:49 and this is something I've seen with all

21:51 the cooking that I do here on the channel,

21:54 I take all these dishes and I sometimes put a little twist on it, you know,

22:01 by what I think of as far as what this dish should have based

22:05 on my experience as a cook or the things

22:08 that I know taste and it's not disrespectful.

22:12 So when you mix cultures, you're not changing them in a disrespectful way.

22:16 You're taking the beautiful things from each of them

22:19 and pushing something new and beautiful completely forward.

22:23 Like a funny example is there's a dish called fijuada.

22:28 All of our Brazilian fans watching now will know what that is.

22:31 And I made that dish for one of my wife's Brazilian friends.

22:35 Her and her boyfriend came over.

22:37 I had the pleasure of cooking a Brazilian dish with them.

22:41 And there's something else called paasia, which is a little cheese bread.

22:45 And I made those two together because

22:47 those are the two Brazilian foods that I like.

22:50 Nobody eats those together in Brazil.

22:53 But it turned out to be absolutely delicious.

22:56 So that's something that would have never happened there,

22:58 but when cultures start to collide, you get interesting mixtures like that.

23:04 M

23:05 and the last thing I'll say about this is I think

23:09 that you know parenthood's not for everybody but if you do

23:14 have a child in a relationship like this like my wife

23:17 is pregnant so we've got a little girl on the way

23:21 this child thank you so much Jay oh we're so excited but yeah bet

23:27 this child is going to grow up perfectly bilingual without ever taking

23:32 an English class without ever taking a Spanish class because her mother's going

23:36 to speak to her from day one in perfect native level Spanish

23:41 and her father's going to be speaking to her as a native English speaker.

23:45 So that girl is going to have wonderful Spanish and English.

23:49 She's going to have family on the other side of the earth, family here,

23:54 and you know, different cultures, different traditions.

23:58 Yeah,

23:58 it's it's she's going to have such a bigger world than I had when I was a kid,

24:03 you know, and that's a really really wonderful thing.

24:07 Yeah, that's really powerful that you can you can provide that for her.

24:11 And I bet you're excited to to give her that that rich experience.

24:16 Um, yeah.

24:17 How how is she going to learn English?

24:19 So, you know, basically to our viewers at home, right?

24:22 How does a baby learn English?

24:23 What what method is she going to be able

24:25 to become fluent in Spanish and English at the same time?

24:27 What is it?

24:30 I like I like what you did there, Jay.

24:32 Comprehensible input.

24:34 My daughter is going to learn both English and Spanish

24:38 the way that you guys are improving your English right now.

24:42 It works, guys.

24:43 And it's the oldest language learning technique in the world.

24:48 Just a quick one.

24:49 If you are enjoying this conversation so far with Kyle and myself,

24:54 we actually have two parts to this.

24:57 The first part will be here on YouTube and the second

25:00 part will be over on my English learning platform

25:04 called Sprouts where you can watch comprehensible input English videos

25:09 all in one place all designed for your English level.

25:14 And after you watch the videos,

25:16 we have just released um JI which is an AI version of myself.

25:22 You can watch the video and then talk with JI about the video.

25:28 So you're reinforcing all those words

25:31 and the knowledge that you learned in the video.

25:34 And the idea behind Sprout is to create

25:37 this English learning environment for you in an inexpensive way.

25:43 So you don't have to travel to England or America,

25:45 but you can watch and consume as much English

25:50 as possible and then practice and use that English

25:53 in context and conversation to help you become fluent

25:58 in English without having to travel to those countries.

26:02 So we're continually making it more valuable for you guys.

26:06 And the second episode of this conversation will be over on Sprou.

26:11 So, I think Kyle has something to say.

26:13 Yeah, guys, on Sprout, there's tons of exclusive content from myself,

26:18 Jay, some of the best English creators in the world.

26:21 You can speak with Ji and who knows, maybe even in the future, Kyle Ai, too.

26:27 So, my friends, if you want to try out Sprout, 2 weeks for free,

26:32 click the link in the description and use my code, pensando.

26:36 I hope to see you there.

26:37 Back to the video.

26:39 Okay.

26:39 So, like I said, my daughter is going

26:42 to have traditions from the United States, from Colombia.

26:47 She's going to have a rich history.

26:50 Now, I'm wondering, Jay, I'm really curious.

26:54 Are there very different traditions in Vietnam?

26:57 Because I have no idea.

27:00 I don't know really any of the holidays in Vietnamese culture.

27:03 I don't know what the main religion is.

27:05 I have no idea.

27:06 Can you share a little bit about that with us?

27:09 Yeah, of course I can share both those things.

27:12 So the Vietnamese the main religion in Vietnam is

27:17 Buddhism and yeah there are temples all over Vietnam.

27:22 It's a very peaceful place, peaceful people.

27:26 And for me I mainly eat vegetarian food.

27:30 So yeah, there's there's loads of vegetarian restaurants, vegan restaurants,

27:38 and yeah, I think that is because of the the Buddhist influence.

27:44 In terms of holidays,

27:46 they have one main holiday per year and it's their New Year's holiday.

27:52 So, new year for people in the west

27:55 begins somewhere between the 31st and the 1st, right?

28:01 Now, there they follow the the I think it's the Chinese calendar.

28:06 Um, so here it's called Tet T.

28:10 I hope I'm saying that correctly.

28:12 And yeah, for New Year's it's a huge celebration in Vietnam.

28:16 Um, they have maybe 9 10 days off.

28:20 They move from the cities to the smaller villages

28:25 to go spend time with their family, their relatives,

28:29 grandma, grandpa, cousins, aunties, uncles,

28:33 and generally just eat a lot of food in that time, play card games.

28:39 Um, yeah, spend all that time together.

28:42 And one thing that it's symbolized by is they have these kumquat trees.

28:49 A kumquat is like a small orange and they also have cherry blossom trees.

28:56 So it's very normal to during tet they they sell them by the side of the road.

29:02 So the like hundreds of trees are lined up

29:05 by the side of the road and everyone's on motorbikes in Vietnam.

29:09 So you drive up, you tell the person that you want to buy a tree,

29:13 maybe you tell them your address,

29:15 and then they will take this huge tree which massive

29:19 pots and load them up on the back of their motorbike

29:23 as everything is transported in Vietnam and then they will

29:27 deliver that by motorbike to your house um usually to rent.

29:32 So you will take it for a short period of time.

29:34 You are renting it and then you will give it back to them after Tet.

29:40 You can also buy them too.

29:43 But yeah, for me as a as a westerner

29:46 to experience a holiday where the entire nation gets so

29:50 excited and to them it's a time of like

29:55 uh renewal as well just like New Year's for us.

29:59 So for me it's great.

30:00 I get to experience New Year's for us and then their New

30:04 Year's and one more thing it's uh culturally so a big

30:11 thing here is lucky money they instead of New Year's resolutions it's

30:15 mainly about prosperity and health for the for the year to come.

30:19 Uh prosperity meaning wealth, money, um how rich you are.

30:24 But they will they have these small red envelopes,

30:27 a small red envelope and inside they would put some cash,

30:31 some money and you would give that to your you would go

30:35 to your friend's house and you would usually give it to the kids.

30:38 Um yeah, the kids would get the look

30:40 of money and they would be very excited about it.

30:42 So for them it's like a kind of Christmas and New Year's all in one.

30:46 They're getting the money and also yeah the New Year's festivities.

30:51 It's fun.

30:53 Sounds fun.

30:54 I think I like that holiday.

30:56 Long vacation from work and a envelope full of cash.

31:00 Sounds pretty good.

31:02 So, a big part of culture is food, obviously.

31:06 And I'm curious, what what food has Ingred introduced you to?

31:11 What food do you eat when you eat with her family uh in Colombia?

31:16 So, I was introduced to a lot of foods, interesting foods in Colombian culture.

31:23 My favorite dish is a dish called bandha pisa,

31:26 which is a big platter and it has rice,

31:30 beans, aras, which is like a little biscuit almost,

31:35 uh, sausage, steak, eggs, avocado,

31:40 not vegetarian friendly, but absolutely delicious.

31:44 And uh I was lucky enough to enjoy that there.

31:48 But the eating culture itself is very different there.

31:52 Like a couple examples.

31:54 Um I I don't even eat breakfast.

31:58 I eat two meals a day.

31:59 I eat at 12:00 noon and then anytime before 8:00 p.m.

32:05 So I eat twice a day.

32:07 But I think people here,

32:09 even if they do eat breakfast, it's something very quick,

32:12 you know, something a lot of people eat on the way to work.

32:16 In Colombia, it's kind of the opposite.

32:19 They have a big breakfast with rice and chicken and vegetables and then

32:24 they could kind of snack and eat smaller things the rest of the day.

32:28 But it was very hard.

32:29 My wife and I kind of had to uh

32:32 compromise with that because if she doesn't eat until 12:00,

32:37 she feels like she's going to to faint.

32:40 But for me, it's completely normal to never eat breakfast.

32:44 Um I actually tried a very interesting food in Colombia.

32:48 I can't say it was a good one,

32:50 but I'm curious to know what you think about it and if you would try it.

32:54 So what it is, they call them or migas kulonas,

32:59 which basically means an ant with a big butt.

33:04 And what they do is they dry these ants out and then you they're crunchy

33:09 and dry and you just kind of eat them like a piece of popcorn or something.

33:14 And everybody was telling me all the time we're in Colombia, "Oh, they're good.

33:17 They're good." So I finally found a place that had them.

33:21 And these things, Jay, are probably like that big.

33:26 Big.

33:27 They're like the size of a beetle.

33:29 Okay.

33:32 Wow.

33:31 And I put maybe five or six in my hand.

33:34 They come in a bag and I just hate it.

33:38 It's disgusting.

33:39 And I'm sorry for any Colombians who are watching who love those ants,

33:43 but it was not very good.

33:45 The taste was not pleasant.

33:48 But I ate it from a beautiful view looking over the city of Bukaram Manga.

33:54 So it was a a very cool experience.

33:57 Would you try that if you were in Colombia, Jay?

33:59 Some konas?

34:01 Well, based on your your review there, I'm going to say no.

34:05 However, based on uh me being open-minded, then yes.

34:11 Okay.

34:12 Now, let's turn this around.

34:13 Have you tried any crazy things that Well, let's not say crazy because

34:19 that's a point of view.

34:20 Something that the average westerner would think is very strange in Vietnam.

34:27 That's a good question.

34:30 Not in Vietnam, actually.

34:31 In Thailand was the closest I got to trying something weird.

34:35 We just said not don't don't label it.

34:37 All right.

34:38 To the average Westerner, it's weird.

34:41 Sorry if there any Thai people watching.

34:42 Um yeah, there was markets full of uh crickets and grasshoppers and meal worms,

34:50 which is like a small worm.

34:52 Uh and yeah, like you just said there, Kyle,

34:55 it was like they were dried crispy almost like

34:59 we have something in the UK called Bombay mix,

35:02 which is like spiced Indian potato chip snacks.

35:06 So, that's the closest uh kind of comparison

35:11 that I can draw uh just in bug form.

35:15 Snacks in bug form.

35:17 They were crunchy.

35:18 Uh I actually got one stuck in my tooth.

35:22 Yeah, they were they were all right.

35:24 All right.

35:25 Not bad.

35:26 Not for me.

35:27 I guess it's an abundant protein source.

35:30 Probably very affordable.

35:32 Mhm.

35:33 So that's probably saved lives in that part of the world at some point.

35:36 So absolutely.

35:37 I mean that's why we shouldn't judge other people's food, you know.

35:41 Yeah.

35:41 No judgment.

35:42 Completely strange the first time you see it, though.

35:45 And I know there's tons of things we do here

35:47 that a lot of you guys would look at and say, "What?

35:50 Why are you doing that?"

35:53 So that's actually something really cool about dating somebody from a different

35:57 part of the world is you stop judging so much.

36:01 you become more what we might call open-minded.

36:06 Yeah.

36:05 So Jay, how has dating somebody from a different country

36:08 and different culture made you more open-minded as a person?

36:12 Very good question.

36:14 I suppose the longer you spend with someone who has

36:20 a different set of beliefs and a different ways of thinking,

36:25 uh, experiences different feelings to you.

36:28 the and the more comfortable you become with that person,

36:33 the more you can communicate these things,

36:35 talk about why you think the way you do, why you act the way that you act,

36:40 um why you believe the things that you believe.

36:43 And yeah, you just you learn to understand them much more deeply,

36:49 the way their mind works.

36:51 And the weird thing is you realize that it's

36:54 completely different from the way your mind works, from the way that you think.

36:59 Every one of us thinks in a different way.

37:02 And those thoughts are are based on how we grew up,

37:06 our childhoods, our experiences in life.

37:09 So by meeting someone from a different culture, by spending time with them,

37:14 by becoming close with them, you like you said, Kyle,

37:18 it just it just opens your mind and it it it

37:23 makes you think from other people's perspectives as well as your own.

37:27 Absolutely.

37:27 Absolutely.

37:28 So I'd like to wrap this video up.

37:31 I have one more question for you once we get talking.

37:34 Jay, I really enjoy speaking with you, man.

37:36 So we just we we could go and go and go.

37:40 So yeah, we blabber, which means just to talk and talk and talk.

37:44 So let's wrap this up with one last really good question.

37:46 Okay.

37:47 What have your experiences been like learning

37:52 your partner's language or your partner learning yours,

37:55 learning how to communicate with somebody who

37:58 grew up in a completely different language?

38:01 Yeah, it's a good question.

38:02 Uh I love the language questions.

38:05 Um, so Chang speaks wonderful English and yeah,

38:10 she basically has a a very very fluent level of English.

38:15 So I'm fortunate because the opposite is not true.

38:20 I do not speak fluent Vietnamese.

38:22 I I speak the most fundamental basic Vietnamese.

38:26 Um, so my experience with learning the language,

38:30 we I would say I'm I'm curious about Vietnamese culture and language.

38:35 She's curious about English culture or Western culture and language.

38:41 And yeah, we we we meet somewhere in the middle.

38:44 So all our communication is in English.

38:49 It would be a nightmare if we were to try

38:51 to communicate in Vietnamese because I just don't have the level.

38:54 Um and talking about language quickly.

38:57 So the way that English works,

38:59 the English language, we call it a stressbased language.

39:03 And that means that we put emphasis or stress on certain words.

39:08 So for example, um okay, I was going to say the word table.

39:14 Table.

39:15 Table.

39:16 There is a stress on the t of that sound.

39:19 The Vietnamese doesn't work in the same way.

39:21 It's called a tonal language.

39:23 So they have different tones.

39:25 One will go up, one will go down, one will be high and the same.

39:30 Um there are five or six different tones

39:32 and those tones determine the meaning of the word.

39:38 So I I think it's it's a struggle for not just myself but a lot

39:43 of other Western people when trying

39:45 to learn Vietnamese and any tonal language like

39:48 Chinese too is that it's just we have this other component this other thing

39:55 in language learning that excuse me that we have never had to deal with before.

40:01 The tones I have to listen to them

40:05 understand them and actually be able to produce them.

40:08 I have to remember the word a word in Vietnamese, a vocabulary word,

40:13 and then on top of that have to remember which tone it has

40:16 on top of that to be able to produce that tone accurately and consistently.

40:20 So, uh, it's it's a big challenge, I would say.

40:25 Conversely, I've, you know,

40:28 I've not been so committed with it with my learning Vietnamese, honestly.

40:33 Uh, I've been hugely focused on building a YouTube channel,

40:36 um, on growing sprouts and, yeah, providing English value for people.

40:40 So, I've been more focused on enhancing my command

40:45 of the English language and and, you know, growing the YouTube and business.

40:50 That being said, if any of you are Vietnamese out there,

40:53 if you're Vietnamese and you're watching right now,

40:55 please make comprehensible input content like Kyle's.

41:00 Please make comprehensible in input content like mine.

41:03 This would be hugely beneficial for I'm not not just me but anyone

41:08 learning Vietnamese because it really is the best way to learn if you're

41:12 there and talking slowly and showing me your phone and talking about

41:19 the things around you and talking about

41:21 things that I can understand the context.

41:24 It's much easier for me to to get that listening practice.

41:27 And yeah, beginners and intermediates need a lot a lot

41:31 of input just like Kyle's uh baby to be.

41:35 Yeah.

41:36 So that's that's my experience with language.

41:38 Long story short, I'm not very good at Vietnamese.

41:42 So, you know, I think that in this type of relationship,

41:47 a huge motivation as far as learning the language

41:50 is to be able to communicate with your partner.

41:53 So that my wife learned English really fast being here,

41:59 working here, being with me, and I spoke Spanish already.

42:04 So I was able to explain to her so many

42:06 things and I improved my Spanish with her a ton.

42:10 But you met the pretty girl, but she already spoke your language.

42:15 So that took away your motivation.

42:17 But I promise you, Jay, if you met her and her English was not so good,

42:23 you'd be speaking fluent Vietnamese right now, my friend.

42:26 You're absolutely right.

42:27 Yeah.

42:31 So, you know what?

42:32 This this whole conversation, it's it sounded like it's really great.

42:38 You know, these all sound like good

42:39 things about dating somebody from a different culture,

42:43 but it can't all be good, can it?

42:45 Surely not.

42:46 You think you could tell us something

42:48 bad about dating somebody from a different culture?

42:52 So, we have the pros.

42:53 We've talked about the pros and yeah, of course,

42:56 there has to be cons, some some bad side.

42:59 So, actually that is in the next video.

43:03 And you can watch that video over on my English platform, Sprou.

43:09 All right, my friends.

43:10 Thank you all for watching.

43:12 I truly hope to see you guys over at Sprout

43:14 where Jay and I will continue this wonderful conversation.

43:18 Thanks a lot.

43:19 Thank you guys.

43:19 Thank you, Kyle.

43:20 And uh bye-bye.

43:21 See you next time.

43:22 Peace.