1.5 HOUR English Conversation Lesson
Vanessa: Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Dan: And I’m Dan.
Vanessa: My husband, who is also going to
be giving another perspective in today’s conversation.
Today we’re bringing you an amazing, long,
English conversation, so prepare your ears,
prepare your mind.
We’re going to be talking about 12 different
topics, and hopefully providing some new expressions
and new ways to think about life.
I don’t know about that, but at least some
English help for you.
Dan: Yeah, it’s going to get personal today,
so get ready.
Vanessa: Yes.
All right, are you ready to get started?
Dan: I’m ready.
Vanessa: Let’s go.
Our first topic is family, and my question
is, who do you think that you’re the most
like?
Dan: Who am I the most like, in appearance?
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: Both appearance and character?
Vanessa: Yeah, both.
Dan: Okay, so appearance I look mostly like
my mom, I think.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: I have more of her skin tone, I have
her eyes.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: And on her side of the family, most of
the people are pretty skinny, and I’m a rather
skinny guy.
My dad’s side is German, and they tend to
be a little bit bigger.
So yeah, I definitely got my mom’s side.
But character wise, I think I’m a little more
like my dad.
Would you agree?
Vanessa: Yeah, I’d say you have shades of
your dad.
Dan: You know me so well, so you can answer
this, too.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, I think you have shades of your dad.
Yeah.
Dan: Shades, yeah.
I think I’m more silly than my dad, that’s
not very hard because my dad is pretty serious.
Vanessa: Ah, he’s got a silly side though.
Dan: He does, yeah.
But for the most part, I think I’m more like
my dad because he has a very calm demeanor,
he’s very patient, and he doesn’t get stressed
about anything.
And actually, my dad gets so unstressed about
everything, I can’t even understand it.
I’m like, “How are you so calm right now?”
And everybody I know thinks that I’m the most
stress free person they know.
Vanessa: But your dad is even more stress
free.
Dan: Yeah, but we’re similar, like growing
up when my parents would be going somewhere,
and needing to get out of the house, me and
my dad would be the last one out of the house
every single time.
Then we would be like, “What?
We’ll make it.
We’ll be okay.
No problem.”
Vanessa: And your mom, and brother, and sister
were saying, “Come on, hurry.”
Dan: And my mom is like, “Ah, let’s go.”
My mom is much more high stress, anxious kind
of personality.
Vanessa: That’s kind of a typical family situation,
I think.
Dan: Yeah, how about you?
Vanessa: I think I have both my parents in
me as well.
I think I look a lot like my mom.
Dan: Yeah, she looks exactly like her mom,
though, like to a T.
Vanessa: Sometimes when I see pictures of
myself, and then I look at a picture of her
at the same age, I think, “Whoa.
We look really similar.”
And she looks a lot like her mom, so I can
kind of imagine what I’ll look like when I’m
getting older.
Dan: Yeah.
I mean, you have darker hair, and darker features.
You got that from your dad.
Vanessa: Yeah, somewhat.
But I think a lot of my features are similar
to my mom.
But I think I also got my facial expressions
from my mom.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: A lot of comment that, “Wow, Vanessa,
you have a lot of expressions.”
Dan: Your mom is very expressive, just like
you.
Vanessa: And I think it’s true that I use
a lot of expressions, but it’s just natural
for me.
I do this in daily life as I’m talking about
things.
And I think that I get that from my mom, sometimes
I see some of her expressions and I realize,
“Oh, I do that too.”
Dan: Yeah, I remember when we lived in South
Korea, every single Korean person was commenting
on Vanessa’s expressions.
They’re like, “Your face, it’s so exciting.
How are you making so many faces?”
Everybody was surprised.
Vanessa: I don’t know.
Dan: I guess in Korea they don’t make as many
faces.
Vanessa: I don’t know, maybe it’s just not.
Maybe it’s just an unusual trait.
I’m grateful for that, especially as a teacher,
I can hopefully help to explain some different
concepts with my face as well.
But I feel like I also have parts of my dad.
My dad is a pretty rational guy.
Dan: You’re rational like your dad.
Vanessa: Yeah, but I think I also have his
sense of humor, sometimes a little strange
sense of humor, but we laugh at the same things,
we enjoy playing games, and being competitive,
so I think that that side of me, maybe some
of the character side of me, is similar to
him.
But I feel like I also have parts of my grandma.
My grandma is a go, go, go, go person.
Dan: Oh, that’s true.
Yeah.
Vanessa: She never stops, and I think my biggest
flaw is that I have difficulty slowing down
and relaxing, I just keep going and I think
that-
Dan: That’s why she’s with me.
Vanessa: … I need help relaxing.
Dan: I help her relax.
Vanessa: Yeah, so I think that my grandma’s
like this too, that she’s always going, and
always doing things, and it’s healthy to slow
down every now and then.
And so, I need to do that, she probably needs
to do that too sometimes.
But I don’t know if I learned that from her,
but maybe that’s just part of my-
Dan: I think it’s your personality.
Vanessa: … DNA, my character.
Dan: Yeah, I can remember even when I first
met Vanessa, she was more go, go, go than
she is now.
Vanessa: Oh, you think so?
Dan: Yeah.
More like so this thing, then the next, and
the enthusiasm was always, she was like bouncing
everywhere.
Vanessa: I always have a lot of enthusiasm,
that’s true.
Dan: Yes, it was off the charts.
Vanessa: Yeah, so I want to know for you,
who are you most like in your family?
Is it maybe your physical traits or for your
character?
All right, let’s go on to our second question.
The next topic is childhood.
I want to know when do you think childhood
ends, and when do you become an adult?
Dan: When does childhood end?
Vanessa: This is a deep question.
Dan: Well, I don’t think it can be a specific
age, I think it’s different for everyone.
I think it’s at any point you can leave this
house of your parents and live on your own,
take care of yourself, and you’re not dependent
on somebody else.
Like if you’re living with your friends and
bumming off them, you’re probably not an adult
yet.
So if I had to pick an age, I’d probably say
16.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: Yeah, I’m saying kind of young.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: In an ideal world, I think a 16 year
old should be ready.
Vanessa: Okay.
Okay.
I get it.
At 16 were you ready?
Dan: No, of course not.
Vanessa: Ideally.
Dan: Ideally, yeah.
I don’t think our society prepares us to be
ready at 16.
It prepares you to be ready at 18.
Vanessa: Or later.
Dan: Right, or later.
But you know, in an ideal world I think you
could be ready at 16, but it’s a kind of complicated
world now, so maybe 18 is an acceptable age.
Vanessa: I feel like, for me, I have less
ideas about childhood ending and adulthood
starting that are physical.
I feel like it has more to do with making
your own decisions.
There might be a lot of reasons why you have
to live at home, or you have to be dependent
on someone else, but if you are making your
own decisions you are not a child, you’re
an adult.
And I’m sure as our children get older and
become teenagers, that’s going to be a little
bit harder for us to make that line for someone
else, but I know for myself-
Dan: Well, this is-
Vanessa: … making more decisions.
Dan: … assuming you are capable as a person
to live on your own, of course.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, I think you can still be an adult just
making your own decisions, but we still need
help from other people as adults, so there’s
a… it’s a gray area.
Dan: Sure.
Yeah.
I would-
Vanessa: Yeah, it’s not so clear.
Dan: … also add, I don’t know, for myself
personally, having children really makes you
an adult.
It doesn’t have to be true for everyone, but
I think it’s easier for some people to just
kind of be really selfish, and do their own
thing, and kind of live like a kid, especially
nowadays because we have so much entertainment,
you could just watch TV every day.
A lot of guys I know play video games a lot,
and I’m not knocking on video games but playing
video games every day is a good way to remain
a child, at heart anyways.
Vanessa: Sure.
Dan: This is my opinion, it’s a little judgemental,
but-
Vanessa: Yeah, I think if you are a good person,
and you have a child, then you feel forced
to be become an adult.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: There’s still bad people who have
kids, who remain children themselves-
Dan: That’s true.
Vanessa: … and then they’re bad parents.
But I think if you’re generally a good person,
when you have kids, it’s kind of a shock.
Dan: Yeah, well-
Vanessa: Like, “Whoa, this child is so dependent
on me.
I need to be responsible.
I have to organize myself somehow.”
You have to change.
Dan: … I think being an adult, part of it
is having a burden of responsibility of some
kind, whether it’s a job, or your house payments,
or whatever it is.
Some people add those burdens of responsibility
anyways without children, but I don’t know,
for me, it’s just different.
Like, “This is the person I’m taking care
of in my life.”
People now-
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: … because we’ve got two.
Vanessa: Well, two coming up soon.
So I have a question for you, when do you
think childhood ends?
When does adulthood start?
It’s going to be different for every culture,
too because this is a pretty cultural specific
question.
Maybe in the U.S.-
Dan: Yeah, maybe you have a-
Vanessa: … it’s different than your country.
Dan: … maybe you have a rite of passage
in your country.
Vanessa: Oh, can you explain what a rite of
passage is?
Because that’s kind of a nuanced thing.
Dan: Yeah, a rite of passage is something
that every boy or every girl does to become
an adult.
Vanessa: Oh, like some ceremony, or activity.
Dan: Yeah, like a ceremony.
Yeah, I mean, we don’t really have this in
the U.S., some people say college is a rite
of passage, but not…
I mean, more and more, almost everybody goes
to college now.
Vanessa: A lot of people do, but-
Dan: Yeah, so it kind of is, but it’s a really
bad one because usually people just go, and
they have parties, and they live really irresponsibly.
Vanessa: It’s not a way to become a responsible
adult.
Dan: Yeah, and then you do more school.
Vanessa: Ah, yes.
Dan: It’s not really becoming a man.
Vanessa: Changing your life completely.
Yeah.
So I’m curious, in your country is there something
that signifies, “Now you are an adult.”, this
kind of rite of passage ceremony, or festivity,
or party that you have.
In the U.S. we don’t really have that, but
I think it’s kind of a cool idea that you’re
celebrating-
Dan: I wish we did.
Vanessa: … this big change, going from childhood
to adulthood, and it is a gray area, at least
in the U.S. it’s a really gray area, so it’s
nice to celebrate that as parents, that your
kids are adults, hopefully.
And that as a child, “Oh, great, now I’m an
adult.
Society sees me as an adult.”
So I think it’s kind of a cool idea, but maybe
it’s something we can do with our future kids.
All right, let’s go onto the next topic.
The next topic is jobs.
I want to know what was your worst job ever.
Dan: Worst job ever?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Well, I have two competing jobs.
Vanessa: Hopefully it’s not your current job,
making English lessons.
Dan: It’s video editing and doing these videos.
Vanessa: Oh, no.
Dan: I can’t stand working with my wife.
Just kidding.
It’s the best.
Yeah.
So yeah, really my worst job, if I had to
pick just one, it would be being a dishwasher.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Dan: Now notice, there’s no differentiation
between the machine, a dishwasher, and the
person who is a dishwasher, it’s the same
word.
Vanessa: So you were like the machine, you
were washing dishes.
Dan: Yeah.
I mean, you did have a machine, so you’d have
something on the side you’d slide the dishes
in and all that, but it’s just, I was also
like, I think I was 16 at the time, an adult
and I had no friends in the restaurant.
They were all older and they were all really
tough.
I don’t know, in America, when you… the
kitchens have a reputation for having really
kind of tough kitchen cooks, and they all…
they swear a lot, and they make foul jokes-
Vanessa: They’ve had a lot of life experiences.
Dan: … and I was just like a little Christian
16 year old kid, washing dishes in the corner,
trying to look like relatively normal.
But I didn’t talk to anybody-
Vanessa: And you were homeschooled.
Yeah, no experiences.
Dan: Yeah, well at that time I was in high
school.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Dan: But it was a small, private school.
Anyway-
Vanessa: You were very different from the
other people.
Dan: … not only was that really awkward,
it was also bad because washing dishes just
kind of stinks.
You just get all the dishes, and some of the
guys used to make fun that I wasn’t going
fast enough.
One guy said, “Dan, you have two speeds, slow
and stop.”
Vanessa: You’re like a turtle?
Dan: Yeah, I’m like a turtle.
Vanessa: Well, sometimes I still say that.
Dan: I wasn’t fast enough, and another time
I reached into the mucky, dirty water and
I cut my finger on a broken glass and I was
bleeding in the water.
Vanessa: Oh.
Things you don’t want to know when you visit
a restaurant.
Dan: And I was paid under the table.
Vanessa: Oh, really?
Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vanessa: Why’d they have to pay you under
the table?
Dan: I don’t know, because it’s an Italian
restaurant-
Vanessa: Because you were too young?
Dan: … in rural Pennsylvania.
Vanessa: They didn’t want to pay taxes on
their employees or something?
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: Plus who wants to pay taxes on a dishwasher?
Vanessa: I wonder if it was because you were
16, like was there an age limit?
Dan: I might have even been 15 at the time.
Vanessa: Okay, maybe you were under the legal
age that they could hire someone-
Dan: Could be.
Vanessa: … so they just paid you under the
table.
Dan: Yeah, so that was pretty bad.
Vanessa: That sounds pretty bad.
Dan: Yeah, it was an awkward job.
Vanessa: Especially as a first job, it just
seems uncomfortable.
Dan: That was my second job.
Yeah.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Well-
Dan: How about you?
Vanessa: … I feel like-
Dan: Could it beat that?
Vanessa: Well, I feel like my worst job wasn’t
bad because of the social situation like yours,
it was bad because it was so boring.
I worked for a summer at this office, I was
like a temporary employee just for the summer,
working kind of like a call center job.
But every day they gave us these scripts and
we had to call companies who maybe this company
bought a printer within the last couple months.
Dan: I’m bored just listening about it.
Vanessa: Yeah, and I called the company and
said company and said, “Oh, I saw that you
recently bought the HP Inkjet printer, and
we have a upcoming training session on this
day.
Would you like to attend the training session
about this printer?”
Dan: She does have a really good call voice,
though.
Vanessa: And I called so many companies again
and again, talking with secretaries, talking
with other people, just saying, “Do you want
to go to this seminar about…” some electronic
device that they had recently bought.
Dan: If you called me, I’d be like, “Yeah,
I do.
Can I buy more?”
Vanessa: Well, people were generally nice
to me, it was just… it wasn’t a subject
that I was interested in, it wasn’t something
I was trained to do, so I didn’t feel like
it was my specialty, it was just a temporary
job to make money.
Dan: And you were sitting in an office all
day, right?
Vanessa: Yeah, it was my first office job.
Dan: Vanessa doesn’t like to sit very long.
Vanessa: No, I have to go, go, go, like we
talked about.
So sitting in that office desk, it was just
not my thing.
But the office, on the other hand, did really
try to make it interesting for the employees,
because they knew most of the people I worked
with were in a similar position as me, where
it wasn’t their life-long dream to work in
that job.
So about once a week, we had these game show
competitions-
Dan: That sounds fun.
Vanessa: … where at lunch, during the lunch
break, everyone would go to the lunchroom,
if you wanted to of course, and they had these
competitions kind of like Wheel of Fortune,
or Jeopardy, and the company just had them
for the employees.
Sometimes we had dress up days where we dressed
up like cowboys, or dressed up like… they
were trying to make it interesting.
Dan: Come on, this is better than being a
dishwasher.
Vanessa: It’s probably better than being a
dishwasher, but I just felt like they were
trying so hard to keep employees-
Dan: To make it interesting.
Vanessa: … to make it interesting-
Dan: All right.
Vanessa: … because they knew this is not
an interesting job.
Dan: Yeah, can I say my second worst job?
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Sure.
Dan: Can you guess what it is?
Vanessa: I know you worked at a lot of coffee
shops, but those weren’t that bad.
Dan: Working at a coffee shop is good.
It’s fun.
Vanessa: Okay, well what was it?
Dan: It’s the sharpshooter.
Vanessa: Oh, can you explain about that job?
Dan: Yeah, so I don’t know if you’ve ever
seen this in your country, but have you ever
been to a place where somebody takes your
picture, and then later they try to sell you
that picture?
I was that guy.
So we took the same pictures, it was going
onto a boat on one of the rivers in Pittsburgh.
Vanessa: So it was kind of like a cruise boat,
but a river cruise.
Dan: Yeah, kind of.
It was very kitschy though, like not high
class at all.
So people, before they got on the boat, we
forced them to stop and go through the line,
and we’d take their picture.
And it was required, but people were like,
“I don’t want to get my picture taken.”
Vanessa: And everyone had their own cameras
and phones.
Dan: And this is…
Yeah.
Mind you, this is in like 2010, where people
already have phones on their cameras and stuff.
I mean, that’s at least getting more popular.
Vanessa: Yeah, they didn’t need your picture.
Dan: No.
So I had to take everybody’s picture, and
then when they got off the boat, I stood at
the side and said, “Hey, come over here, buy
this picture.”
And they were like $20 for one picture.
Vanessa: Crazy.
Dan: A terrible rip-off, even I knew it was
a terrible rip-off, just not a worthwhile
business, at least in 2010 when I was doing
that job.
Vanessa: Yeah, maybe 10 years before that
it would have been cool.
Dan: Yeah, it was a viable business like 30
years ago.
Vanessa: But not now.
Dan: Yeah, but not any more.
That was really bad, and one time somebody
stole one of my pictures and I actually got
fired from that job.
Vanessa: Because they stole a picture.
Dan: Because they stole a picture and I couldn’t…
I didn’t catch them on time, and I was like,
“Good riddance.”
Vanessa: Yeah, “Goodbye to this job.
Goodbye forever.”
Dan: Yeah.
The only reason this was better than the other
job, than dish washing, is because I worked
with some people who were funny and we got
along pretty well.
Vanessa: And you were outside, you were by
the river.
Dan: It was okay.
Vanessa: Except you did have to drive an hour
to get there, that’s crazy.
Dan: I did drive an hour to work.
Vanessa: You should never drive an hour to
get to a part-time job.
Dan: But that was my fault, I wanted to work
in Pittsburgh, and I still lived… did I
live with my parents?
Vanessa: Yeah, I think so.
Dan: I think I did.
I wasn’t an adult yet.
Vanessa: Oh.
Oh.
All right.
Well, I’m curious for you, what is the worst
job that you’ve ever had?
Let us know.
And let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is travel.
I want to know what are three locations that
you would like to visit or revisit in the
U.S.?
Dan: In the U.S.?
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: Why just the U.S.?
Vanessa: Well, the world’s a big place, so
I had to narrow down the question somehow.
Dan: Okay.
All right.
The first place I’d say is the Grand Canyon.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: Because of course you have to see the
Grand Canyon, right?
I’ve never been there.
I used to live in Colorado, but my family
never made a trip to the Grand Canyon, and
it just would be an amazing sight, I’m sure
of it.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah.
Dan: Second would be the Pacific Northwest,
just in general.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: Because I’ve heard it-
Vanessa: Not like Portland, Seattle, and specific?
Just-
Dan: I think I would like to go to Seattle
because it’s a big city and the city sounds
cool.
Not many cities in the U.S. are that interesting
to me because I’ve traveled in other places
in Europe and in Asia.
And those cities are so much more vibrant,
except for New York City, which is an awesome
city.
Vanessa: Yeah, I’m sure a lot of students-
Dan: Sorry, U.S.
Vanessa: … want to visit the U.S. and they
want to see these places.
Dan: But I’m also from America, so it’s like
not as-
Vanessa: It’s always less interesting, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, it’s less interesting to me.
But Seattle seems like a really cool town,
and it’s higher on my list than, say, Los
Angeles, which just kind of seems like a big,
sprawling, stinky place.
Vanessa: It seems like a lot more-
Dan: No offense, L.A.
Vanessa: It seems a lot more intimidating,
at least.
Dan: Okay, that’s a nice way to put it.
Vanessa: Like there’s a lot going on there,
but Seattle feels more comfortable.
Dan: Yeah, it seems pretty hip, too.
Vanessa: The Northwest.
Dan: Yeah, the Northwest also because there’s
big mountains there, and then there’s really
lush and green forests.
Vanessa: Oh.
Okay, cool.
Dan: And I love taking hikes, and if you go
at the right time of the year, because I’ve
heard it’s very rainy in the Pacific Northwest,
I’d like to go and take a nice hike up to
a big mountain-
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: … and maybe hop over to Canada, go
to Vancouver, Vancouver Island.
Vanessa: That’d be cool.
Dan: All of that area sounds really, really
cool to me.
Vanessa: Yeah, I’d be up for that.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: Let’s do it.
Dan: Let’s do it.
Vanessa: Tomorrow.
Dan: Okay.
Vanessa: Maybe not tomorrow-
Dan: Okay.
Vanessa: … but I think that’d be really
cool.
Dan: And third would be Colorado.
Vanessa: So revisit Colorado?
Dan: This is a revisit.
I used to live in Colorado.
I grew up there for five years of my life,
and it was when I was a kid, and I used to
really consider it my home.
But now I haven’t been back in probably 15
years, or so.
Vanessa: Oh, that’s a long time.
Dan: It’s been a really long time since I’ve
been back, and I’d like to go and maybe travel
to where I was when I was a kid.
It’s gotten so much bigger than it was when
I was a kid, so I’m sure there’s so many more
people there.
But also, there’s really great nature, there’s
a lot of really big mountains in Colorado,
there’s the Garden of the Gods, which has
really interesting rock formations.
As you can tell, we’re very nature driven,
we want to go see natural places.
Vanessa: Yeah, yeah.
Well, a lot of my places have to do with nature
too.
Dan: Yes, let’s hear them.
Vanessa: I almost said the Grand Canyon, but-
Dan: You knew I was going to say it.
Vanessa: … I kind of figured you’d say,
and I think it would be really cool to camp
in the Grand Canyon, or go for a long hike
in the Grand Canyon because you can’t just-
Dan: With two children?
Vanessa: Well, maybe when they’re older, or
maybe we’ll just leave them at home.
Dan: They can take it.
Vanessa: Because when you are just… when
you’re looking down at the Grand Canyon, that’s
incredible, but I imagine going down into
the Grand Canyon, that would also be just
another part of that-
Dan: Oh, yeah.
We’d have to-
Vanessa: … it would be so amazing.
Dan: … hike down in the Grand Canyon.
Vanessa: Yeah, that’d be really cool.
Dan: I should have mentioned that for sure.
Vanessa: Maybe with a donkey.
Dan: Because we’re big hikers, we like to
hike everywhere.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, one of my places is kind of the opposite
of yours.
It’s not a big city, but you said the Pacific
Northwest, and I said the Northeast.
I’ve never been to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
this area.
And I feel like one of the best road trips
would be driving all the way up the East Coast
of the U.S., and going around Maine, and coming
down through Vermont.
I think all of that geography is just really
different than everywhere else I’ve visited
in the U.S. I’ve heard the coasts, like the
Northeast coasts are really rocky, and lots
of just kind of rugged coastline, that I think
would be really cool to see.
And the forests, I’ve heard the forests in
Vermont are amazing, just a different type
of feel.
We live in the mountains here in North Carolina,
which is also a great place to visit-
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: … but we already are here.
Dan: We live here.
Vanessa: But I feel like the mountains, and
the forests, and the coast, and other places
are pretty various.
Dan: Yeah, it’s also close to Canada.
Vanessa: Yeah, that’d be cool.
Dan: Got to hop over to Quebec-
Vanessa: Yeah, maybe do that.
Dan: … because that sounds like a really
cool place.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Vanessa speaks French, so-
Vanessa: That’d be cool.
Dan: … she’d like to speak some French to
some Quebecois.
Vanessa: That would be fun.
Well, one of my others was kind of similar
to what you were saying with Colorado and
that area, is going to Yosemite National Park.
I feel like it’s just a classic place to visit
in the U.S. because there’s so many national
parks on the West Coast, it’s kind of hard
to choose.
So I feel like-
Dan: Yeah, well that one’s a must, I think.
Vanessa: Yeah, it’s kind of one of the top
three.
Dan: Although I’ve heard it’s gotten crazy
popular.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Dan: You have to be on lists to get in.
Vanessa: Whoa, really?
Dan: Maybe it’s to just camp, I don’t know.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Dan: Your dad went through a lot of stuff,
didn’t he?
Vanessa: Yeah, when they camped, they had
to…
I think the camping spots were opened, say
like May 3rd, the camping spots were opened
and you had to go online to sign up, and the
website opened… or the camping registration
opened at 6:00 AM, he booked at like 6:05
and there were two spots yet.
Everyone was cramming to camp in that spot.
Dan: Camping season.
Vanessa: So yeah, I guess it’s really popular.
And that was for the whole year, that wasn’t
just for that day.
That was to book a spot to camp for that whole
year.
Anyway, that’s crazy.
So maybe we’ll do that.
Maybe we need to book it five years in advance,
but I think it’d be cool to visit national
parks in the west because most tourism, well
there’s a lot of city tourism in the U.S.,
but I feel like a lot of tourism is natural
tourism.
Dan: Yeah, the meat of our tourism is nature.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, because I feel like the U.S. is such
a young country that we don’t have Rome, we
don’t have these old cities, and this kind
of stuff you can visit in cities, it’s more
nature, which is also old.
Dan: Except New York City.
Vanessa: Yeah, except New York’s got a lot
of cool stuff.
Dan: As you can tell, I’m a big fan of New
York.
It’s just-
Vanessa: It’s a cool place to visit.
Dan: … it’s a wild animal.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: There’s some quote about New York City,
it’s like, “You’d be crazy to live here, you’d
be crazy to leave.”
Which is perfect.
Vanessa: Oh, well I heard another quote that
said, “New York is twice as fun, but it’s
three times as expensive.”
So it’s really fun, but it’s even more expensive.
Dan: That’s also true.
Vanessa: Especially if you live there.
Well, my third and final place is, can you
guess?
Dan: I don’t remember.
Vanessa: Hawaii.
Dan: Oh, I read your list before, but I don’t
remember.
Vanessa: Well, I feel like Hawaii, it’s in
the U.S., but it’s not.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: It’s so far away, but it’s still
part of the U.S. and it would be incredible
to visit Hawaii.
Dan: It’s kind of like cheating, it’s like,
“I’m in the U.S.”
Vanessa: And it’s so far away from the U.S.
Dan: But it’s like, “This isn’t America, come
on.”
Vanessa: Yeah, it would be really cool.
I’m curious, if you’ve ever been to Hawaii
if you’d recommend it.
I know your parents are planning on going
there next May.
Dan: Yeah, and get this, my mom was like,
“And I booked these extra rooms just in case
somebody wanted to join.”
She winked at us.
Vanessa: We will have a two month old baby
when they go.
Maybe we’ll go to Hawaii, I don’t know.
It’s a little soon, I think.
Dan: I’m saying, “Yes-
Vanessa: We’ll let you know.
Dan: … let’s go.”
You’ll find out.
Vanessa: I think it’d be really cool to go
to Hawaii, just to see volcanoes, and hiking,
and moving around, and scuba diving, and it’s
so different.
Dan: That would be the problem.
Trying to do all we want to do.
But if my parents are there, they can watch
the kids.
Vanessa: They can watch our kids, so we’re
going to crash their vacation and make them
watch our kids-
Dan: Yes.
Yes.
Vanessa: … while we go have fun?
Dan: Vacation crashers.
Vanessa: Sounds great, so I’m curious for
you, what are some locations that you’d like
to visit in the U.S.? Or maybe somewhere that
you’ve already been that you’d like to go
back to.
Let us know.
Let’s go on to the next topic.
The next topic is food.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: I want to know, what are some of
your favorite foods, specifically to cook
at home?
Dan: To cook at home?
Well-
Vanessa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Not to eat, not that someone else makes, but
that we cook at home.
Dan: Yes, usually I go for bulk items.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: Not bulk items, bulk meals.
Something that I can get for days, and days,
and days.
Vanessa: Or you could put it in the freezer
and have the next week.
Dan: This is a very, I think, a male way to
think about it.
You’ve got to make a bulk and make it last.
Vanessa: Ah, utilitarian cooking.
Dan: Yes.
Although, you’re kind of similar, I think.
Vanessa: I don’t like making a new meal every
single day.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: If we have a soup that’s in the freezer
that we made the week before, that’s great,
save some time.
Dan: Sure, yeah.
The first thing I like to make, I think we
have the same one-
Vanessa: Oh, yeah?
Dan: … is chili.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, we both like to make chili.
Vanessa: Yeah, some people call this chili
con carne in other countries, but in the U.S.
we just say, “Chili.”
Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Usually I make the chili, so I mean, it’s
so easy to make, you just ground up some beef,
then you chop a bunch of vegetables, add a
ton of spices, throw it in a pot and make
it boil, and it’s done.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, it’s great.
And it gets even better as it kind of melds
those flavors together over a couple days.
Dan: Yeah.
And you throw in some cheese, and sour cream,
and some kind of grain, some rice or something.
And yeah, it’s always very satisfying, it
reminds me of fall and winter.
It’s a very nice, cozy meal.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Hot tip, don’t leave it on your counter for
three days and then try to eat it.
It should always go in the fridge after you
eat it.
Dan: Who did that?
Vanessa: Dan did that in college-
Dan: Oh.
Vanessa: … and got sick.
Dan: I didn’t leave it on the counter, my
roommate left the chili out.
Vanessa: Oh, and you just ate it?
Dan: Yeah, he left the pot out.
It was already like, this is college life
here, it was already probably a week old and
he left it on the counter all day, and he
didn’t tell me-
Vanessa: Not a good idea.
Dan: … and then I went and ate it that night,
and then I got really sick.
Vanessa: But you still like chili, so it didn’t-
Dan: But I still like chili.
Vanessa: … taint your idea of chili.
Dan: It probably did for like a year.
Vanessa: Really?
Dan: Yeah.
Yeah.
Vanessa: I feel like we’re especially thinking-
Dan: TMI?
Vanessa: … thinking about those types of
foods because it’s getting colder here, so
making lots of warm, hearty foods, as opposed
to in July-
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: … we don’t make chili because it’s
so hot.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: You make other kinds of fresh things.
Dan: I have trouble making summer food, because
I like hot food.
Vanessa: Ah, like soups and that kind of stuff.
Dan: Although, when we lived in South Korea,
I think, didn’t they have something where
they eat something super hot in the summer?
Vanessa: I think hot or spicy, is that-
Dan: And it’s like I’m just eating, and you’re
sweating, and the water’s pouring off your
face.
And, “Yeah, this is healthy.”
It’s a very Korean thing.
They’ve got to be diligent.
Vanessa: Wow.
Well, what are some of your other favorite
foods?
You said chili.
We’re on the first one.
Dan: Number two would be tacos.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: I got a Mexican food thing, I think,
although I don’t consider chili a Mexican
food, but you said chili con carne, so-
Vanessa: Maybe.
Yeah.
Dan: … I don’t know.
Maybe it’s Mexican inspired.
Vanessa: Yeah.
What kind of tacos do you like to make, because
there’s so many different types-
Dan: Ground beef, again, just all the spices,
and it’s kind of one of those easy things
to make, and then you can pile all kinds of
toppings, you can put salsa on it.
Yeah, it’s just delicious.
Vanessa: I like when you make fish tacos.
Dan: Yeah, fish tacos are good too.
Vanessa: Sometimes when Dan makes fish tacos,
or sometimes I make them too, we get some
kind of white fish like cod or tilapia, and
bread it, and then bake it so it’s baked,
and then you have some kind of cabbage slaw
mixed up on top with some spices in it, and
you put that on the tortilla with the fish,
with the kind of spicy cabbage, maybe slices
of avocado.
Dan: Yeah, and the mayo.
Vanessa: Yeah, some mayo, maybe some-
Dan: Spicy mayo.
Vanessa: … pico de gallo, some salsa on
top, that’s also great.
We make that a lot in the summer, because
that is kind of a fresh type of thing.
Dan: Yeah, well speaking of fish-
Vanessa: Yes?
Dan: … my third would be salmon.
Vanessa: Oh, how do you like to make salmon?
Dan: Well, I think you can make it in a lot
of different ways, but just throw it in the
oven with some… like lately we’ve been adding
lemon slices and dill, and just keeping it
basic.
Vanessa: Sometimes we put-
Dan: Oh, and butter.
Vanessa: Oh, butter.
Of course, butter.
Dan: That’s important.
Vanessa: Sometimes we do it in the opposite
way with soy sauce, and sesame oil, kind of
more-
Dan: You do it that way.
Vanessa: … Asian style.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: And that’s also great with rice,
or some kind of veggie.
Dan: I do it more European style.
Vanessa: Yeah, well I think you can’t go wrong
with salmon.
Dan: Yeah, but it’s just a very healthy meal
that tastes very filling, and fulfilling.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think your answers have been
much more varied than mine.
Dan: Oh, yeah?
Vanessa: Because I was going to say soup,
soup, and soup.
Dan: Oh.
Vanessa: I think that, especially now because
it’s the begging of the winter, those are
the types of things that we like to eat.
But recently, I’ve been making a lot of butternut
squash soup, and it’s a type of squash, and
you just peel it, and then you chop it up,
and you steam it with some cumin, and paprika,
and coconut milk, and red peppers-
Dan: It’s a nice appetizer.
Vanessa: … and you can also maybe dip some
bread in it’s mixed together, because you
have to blend it.
It’s really great.
It feels kind of cleansing, especially if
you’ve eaten-
Dan: It’s not filling enough to me.
Vanessa: It’s nice to have with something
else sometimes.
Dan: I need some meat in my life.
Vanessa: Typical answer, right?
I think we also made a really great, it’s
called Italian vegetable soup, but I don’t
know if it’s actually Italian, I don’t know
why it’s considered Italian.
Dan: It’s probably Italian American.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Everything American’s say is Italian,
I bet you every Italian out there is like,
“That is not Italian.”
Vanessa: Yeah, that-
Dan: “What is this?”
Vanessa: That is not-
Dan: Is that Italian?
Vanessa: … an Italian accent, but that’s
okay.
Dan: Zut alors.
Vanessa: That is-
Dan: Oh, that’s French.
Vanessa: Yeah, certainly not Italian.
Though when we make the Italian vegetable
soup, it’s basically every vegetable you can
imagine mixed in a pot, even with some tomatoes,
and cabbage, and everything, peppers, and
everything mixed together, and some ground
beef.
So it kind of has a hearty, beefy flavor,
but it also has a lot of vegetables so it
feels healthy and filling with some nice bread
to dip it in.
Dan: It was very good.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Although, I will say that you can probably
tell from this conversation that we are not
chefs.
Vanessa: No.
Dan: We don’t prepare like really good meals
very often.
Vanessa: Or something that’s fancy.
Dan: They’re delicious, but they’re not…
they don’t have, you know, what’s a sous vide,
or something.
Vanessa: Oh, something that’s really exciting.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: Well-
Dan: Although I did make risotto, that was
really good.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
You’ve made risotto a lot.
Dan: I made some really good risotto, and
I felt like it took a lot of work, and that
was fun.
Vanessa: I think it took some particular attention
to detail and I won’t do that.
Dan: You know, you use lemon zest, any time
you use lemon zest, I feel like you’re probably
crossing over to chef territory.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Well, you have crossed over into chef territory
a few times.
I remain clearly on the other side, just happily
eating whatever you make.
But I’m curious for you, what are some of
your favorite foods to eat at home?
What are some of your favorite foods to make
at home?
Maybe it’s something that comes from your
country, or maybe it’s just something that
you like to make, like toast, something simple.
Let us know.
Dan: Toast.
Vanessa: Yes.
All right, let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is housing.
I want you to dream big, if you could have
your dream home, what three features would
it have?
Let’s say this is a dream home, this is idealistic,
this is not realistic.
Dan: This is probably not going to happen
to us.
Vanessa: No, but it’s just a dream.
Everyone can dream, right?
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: What would you ideally love to have?
Dan: A palace.
A castle.
Vanessa: Hopefully you can hire some people
to clean it at that point.
Dan: Okay, not really.
So the features of the home?
Vanessa: Yes, what three features would you
love to have if you could dream and build
your own home?
Dan: Okay.
Well, first, I would want the living room,
and I don’t know is a living common in other
countries?
Vanessa: Yeah, a place where you have a couch,
and maybe a TV.
Dan: This is where you gather together, where
you have the couch, and where you visit with
friends.
I would like this room to be humongous, and
have a really large window.
Vanessa: Are we talking soccer field size
humongous, or are we talking like twice as
big as a normal one?
Dan: I’m talking football stadium big.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: No, not really.
Just large.
Large ceilings, vaulted ceilings as they say
in the industry.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: And a very large window.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: Or large windows.
Vanessa: I said the same thing.
I would like a main room with a big window.
Dan: Yes, but there’s more.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: And it needs a great view, an incredible
view.
Vanessa: Oh, what’s a good view for you?
What would be an ideal view?
Dan: I really love looking out at the ocean,
that would be great.
I’m not a big fan of where I live on the East
Coast of America, the beaches are all kind
of the same to me.
They’re not my favorite.
This would be in the Mediterranean, on a big
cliff.
Vanessa: Oh, so it wouldn’t be-
Dan: Yeah, a cliff side home.
Vanessa: … in the U.S., okay.
Dan: Yeah, it wouldn’t be in the U.S., sorry
U.S.
Well, maybe somewhere in the U.S. I don’t
know.
Vanessa: Could be Pacific Northwest, you’ve
never been there.
You don’t know.
Dan: It may be the Pacific Northwest, maybe
that’s my kind of ocean view.
Vanessa: Yeah, so you’d like an ocean view?
Dan: It’d be really high.
Looking down on my kingdom.
Vanessa: So you’d need to be a king too?
Dan: I have to be a king in this scenario.
Vanessa: This is getting a little excessive.
Dan: So yeah, a really big, open ocean view.
Remember, this is dreaming.
Vanessa: This is dreaming.
All right, keep dreaming.
What else would you like?
Dan: All right, so it’s very open, so close
by would be a very epic, open kitchen.
Vanessa: Oh, so open you mean it’s connected
to the living space?
Dan: Yeah, this is popular, I think, nowadays
in architecture.
Vanessa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dan: Yeah, so open to the living room.
Vanessa: So as you’re cooking-
Dan: At least-
Vanessa: … you can still talk to your guests.
Dan: Yeah, at least part of the kitchen would
be visible.
Vanessa: Yeah, so at the moment, our kitchen
is open to the living room.
Dan: Yes, we have this now.
Vanessa: We don’t have an epic, giant-
Dan: Except for the view.
Vanessa: … living room with a view of the
Mediterranean.
Dan: And the big kitchen.
Vanessa: Yes, but we have an open space, so
it’s kind of like one room.
Our kitchen is connected to our living space,
so when our guests, or our friends, or our
family, or our kids are in the living space,
the living room, we can see them and still
kind of interact.
So this type of layout is pretty popular,
at least in newer houses, or as people remodel
their houses, they’re kind of looking for
this open layout, is what it’s called.
Dan: Yeah, it’s called an open floor plan.
Vanessa: Open floor plan, that’s the word.
Yeah.
So anything else you would like in this amazing
house?
Dan: Yes, there’s one more thing in my palace.
Vanessa: Okay, in your kingdom.
Dan: In my kingdom.
So there would be a game room, because I love
games a lot.
Vanessa: Okay, what kind of games?
Dan: All kinds of games.
So we actually rented a place like this that
was very similar.
Vanessa: Oh, like your grandparents rented
that beach house.
Dan: Actually my grandma rented it.
It was a beach house, so it was like four
layers of house.
Vanessa: That’s crazy.
Dan: It was humongous.
It was called The Ritz-
Vanessa: Of course.
Dan: … which is like a fancy thing.
So the very top floor of this building was
just this giant game room.
They had a pool table, they had a-
Vanessa: A ping-pong.
Dan: Oh, that was… the ping-pong table was
somewhere else.
But in palace, the ping-pong table would be
in the same room.
Vanessa: So ping-pong, foosball, pool.
Dan: Other games too, chess, yeah.
Vanessa: Oh, board game cabinets.
Dan: There would be all kinds of games.
There’d be a TV with video games, it’d just
be fun everywhere.
Vanessa: Okay, so you want a whole big room?
Dan: And then I’d have to lock it up so I
didn’t go in, because I’d spend all my time
in there.
Vanessa: Okay, so you’d have to request the
key from one of the people?
Dan: You.
Vanessa: From me?
Okay.
Dan: “Gate keeper, let me in the game room.”
Vanessa: I’m sorry to say, but in my dream
home-
Dan: There’s no game room?
Vanessa: … there is not a game room, although
it’s a fun idea.
It’s a good idea.
Dan: Save that for the vacation home?
Vanessa: Yeah, that’s good if your grandparents
rent a house for a week and invite all the
family.
Dan: Yes, it was perfect for that.
Vanessa: That’s a good thing to have, but
maybe not in my forever house.
Dan: Okay, what’s your forever dream home
look like?
Vanessa: Well, I did say I’d like a main room
with a big window.
I think that would be really great.
So we have some-
Dan: But what’s your ideal view?
Vanessa: I didn’t really say.
I feel like it doesn’t have to be the beach,
maybe not someone else’s house right there,
but it could be the mountains, that would
be nice.
Dan: Sure.
Vanessa: But I also like-
Dan: Any kind of picturesque view.
Vanessa: … I don’t like to be isolated,
so if you have a beautiful mountain view,
that means you probably live in the middle
of the mountains away from everybody.
Dan: It’s true.
Vanessa: So I don’t mind if the view’s not
perfect, but I’d just like to have a big window
with lots of light, that’d be really great.
The other thing that I said is a little more
practical, and that is a huge studio room
with different walls that I can film on.
Dan: Very practical for the Fearless Fluency
Club.
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: Oh, wait, and for YouTube.
Vanessa: Yes.
So for, of course, the fearless fluency club,
and also for YouTube, having different locations
where I can easily film.
And the room where we often film videos, in
here, it’s okay.
It’s not super small, but I have an image
of-
Dan: It’s pretty small.
Vanessa: … four different walls with different
backgrounds and different things that I can
move lights and easily have different locations
to film, I think that would be really cool.
So I’m starting out small, we have this room,
and then maybe someday in my dream home.
Dan: Yeah, this is way better than our other
house.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah, where we used to live in
the apartment.
Dan: She used to film in a closet.
Vanessa: It wasn’t a closet, but it was really
small.
Dan: Two closets combined.
Vanessa: Yeah, it was like a little triangle
room.
Dan: It was very small.
Vanessa: But-
Dan: Hey, we made it work.
Vanessa: Yeah, it worked.
We made it work.
And the other feature that I would like is,
in a dream home, is a roof deck.
Dan: That’s cool.
Vanessa: Yeah, so some stairs, and then a
little roof-
Dan: This is the adventurer in Vanessa speaking.
Vanessa: … on the top so you can look down
everywhere.
Dan: But that’s in my house, too.
Vanessa: Oh, it’s in your house?
Oh, good.
Maybe we can have a house together.
And also at night you could lay up there and
see the stars.
I think that would be really cool-
Dan: Yeah, that would be neat.
Vanessa: … so you could have a perfect place
to stargaze.
Dan: I don’t know why more houses don’t have
this.
Vanessa: Yeah, we should put a deck on top
of our house.
Dan: Yeah, why not?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Maybe some architect out there has a
reason.
“Well, actually it’s bad for structural integrity.”
Vanessa: I think that people just don’t value
stargazing like we do.
Dan: Maybe.
Vanessa: It’s really cool to see the stars
at night, and especially if you’re… if you
just have a perfect view from a rooftop deck.
Dan: You’re perched in a high place.
Vanessa: Yeah, that’d be really cool.
Well, it was nice to dream.
Thanks for dreaming with me.
Dan: Yeah.
Oh, dream’s over.
Vanessa: Yeah.
I’m curious for you, if you could have your
dream home, what features would you like in
that home?
All right, let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is nature.
Dan: Nature.
Vanessa: I want to know what are two cool
facts about animals or nature?
Dan: You want to know two facts?
Vanessa: Yeah, so we did a little bit of research
before this, because we love watching animal
documentaries.
Dan: Okay, well I have a story behind my first
factoid.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: One time I was talking to my mom, I don’t
remember how this came up, but we were talking
about turtles.
And I don’t know why we were talking about
turtles, but she said, “Did you know that
turtles breathe through their butts?”
My mom said this.
And we, for days, we were like, “Mom, turtles…
where did you hear that?
That is so-
Vanessa: Were you a kid?
Dan: That was like, no, I was older.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: Probably a teenager, I guess.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: But we, me and my siblings, we all just
made fun of her.
We were like, “Mom, you just made that up.
Where on Earth did you hear that?”
But really, it’s actually true.
A turtle can breathe through its butt.
Vanessa: What?
Dan: It’s true.
Vanessa: Wait, why do they do this?
Dan: Okay, so it’s when they’re hibernating.
I looked it up to verify because I remember
hearing that that actually was true.
So in the winter, it gets really cold, obviously,
and they live under water.
So it’s like really cold, it’s almost freezing,
and they can’t use their lungs.
So they basically suck water up their butts,
and the water gives them oxygen, therefore-
Vanessa: Oh, why?
Dan: … they breathe through their butts
in the winter when they’re hibernating.
Vanessa: Wow, and your mom was right.
Dan: So my mom was right, but we just… we
did not believe her when she said that.
Vanessa: I mean, it’s really bizarre, so why
would you believe her?
Dan: Yeah.
Also, it was very random of her.
She was like, “Don’t turtles breathe through
their butts?”
Vanessa: And we were like, “Mom, you just
made that up.
There’s no way.”
Dan: But it’s true.
Vanessa: But it’s true.
Dan: So this is turtles who specifically live
in the water?
Not box turtles, or those types of things.
Vanessa: No.
Yeah, turtles but not ocean turtles either.
Dan: Okay, so just ones that live in fresh
water-
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: … and live in the water?
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Dan: This is a very… yeah, tell your friends.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: Turtles breathe through their butts.
Vanessa: Before you get to your second fact,
I’m going to share one of mine-
Dan: Okay.
Vanessa: … which is amazing about butterflies
and caterpillars.
We recently-
Dan: We’re like a nature documentary now.
Vanessa: Well, I included this because-
Dan: Should we talk like David Attenborough?
Vanessa: I feel really nerdy about animals.
Dan: “The beautiful butterflies.”
Vanessa: Yeah, if you’ve ever seen nature
documentaries by BBC, David Attenborough is
one of the main commentators.
He’s been a staple of nature documentaries
for over a decade, two decades, three decades
maybe, the ’70s.
So we are big fans of him and his work, but
I included this topic because we’re nerdy
about animals and nature, and like that stuff,
and I thought it would be fun to talk about.
Dan: Sure.
Vanessa: Well, a couple months ago, we found
four monarch butterfly caterpillars in our
backyard.
And they didn’t look so good, they looked
like they needed a little bit of help, so
we gave them some milkweed leaves, which is
what monarch butterflies eat, or monarch caterpillars
eat, and we put them in this… we have a
butterfly net, it’s like a little container
where you can grow butterflies.
Dan: Grow and release.
Vanessa: Yes.
And so we put the caterpillars in there, gave
them a lot of leaves, and they turned into
cocoons.
Then two of them died, but two of them became
butterflies, it was really amazing, so that
kind of sparked my interest in learning more
about that.
We kind of all know caterpillars become butterflies,
but did you know that a caterpillar, when
it creates a cocoon, it will liquefy it’s
body.
It’s like a soup inside the cocoon, and it
is digesting, it’s eating itself inside the
cocoon, and its DNA just kind of mixes around
and becomes a butterfly.
Dan: Yeah, so it’s not like wrapping a blanket
around itself.
Vanessa: No.
Dan: Because-
Vanessa: It’s crazy.
Dan: … usually when I thought of a cocoon,
you would think that the caterpillar spins
something around itself, but no, it’s literally
liquefying its body on the inside, and then
turning into, I believe the technical term
is a pupa.
Vanessa: A pupa.
Yeah, so inside when it actually makes that
cocoon, so we saw this happen, where the cocoon
pops out of the caterpillars body, and the
skin and the head pop off, and they fall onto
the ground because-
Dan: It’s kind of like a Halloween story.
Vanessa: It is.
It’s pretty horrific, if you think about it.
Dan: It was almost Halloween.
Vanessa: And inside the cocoon is the liquefied
soup of the butterfly.
Dan: And it’s body liquefied and it turned
into a terrible creature.
Vanessa: How did nature-
Dan: A butterfly.
Vanessa: … think that this would work?
But it does, it’s amazing.
Wow.
So, that’s my first cool fact about nature.
Dan: Cool nature factoid.
Vanessa: Yes.
Caterpillar soup.
Dan: All right.
My second is about the noble albatross.
Vanessa: Albatross are so cool.
Dan: Although if you say something is an albatross,
that kind of means it’s a bad thing, or like
a burden.
It’s like a saying.
Vanessa: Ah, that’s kind of like an old fashioned
expression.
But-
Dan: Yeah.
But anyways, my factoid is-
Vanessa: … it is a bird.
Dan: … an albatross has the longest wingspan
of any bird.
Did you know that?
Almost 12 feet long, or 3.2 meters.
Vanessa: Three meters?
Dan: Something like that.
Vanessa: Three meters is so long, so that
means from the tip of one wing to the tip
of the other wing is three meters, 12 feet.
Dan: Yeah, it’s a really huge bird.
Vanessa: One bird.
Dan: And actually, if you’ve watched any David
Attenborough documentaries-
Vanessa: Or others.
Dan: … we watched one with the albatross,
it needs to take a really long run before
it flies, because its wings are so huge-
Vanessa: Like a huge airplane, it needs a
lot of runway to get off.
Dan: But there’s a lot of other animals.
What was it in the documentary that was trying
to get them?
Vanessa: It was the babies.
Dan: Oh, sharks.
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: Because they would crash in the water
and the sharks would eat them.
Vanessa: When the babies were first learning
how to fly, a lot of them crash in the water,
and I think they do it the same time every
year, so sharks gather there-
Dan: They wait for the babies.
Vanessa: … and as the babies are learning
to fly, if they fail on their first try, that’s
it.
Dan: Yeah, they can’t make it.
Vanessa: Anyway, that was a really sad part
of the documentary.
Dan: But once they actually get in the air,
an albatross can stay in the air for up to
10,000 miles, which is a lot of kilometers.
Vanessa: 6,000, 7,000 kilometers?
Dan: Yeah, I’m not so good with those conversions
that everybody else uses.
Vanessa: Yeah, and I remember you also told
me that they could fly for-
Dan: A day.
Vanessa: … a whole day with just one [inaudible
00:47:30].
Dan: Just one flap of their wings.
Vanessa: If they have the right wind, because
they go off into the ocean.
Dan: Yeah, it requires good wind.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Because they just use the wind to bounce
up and down.
Vanessa: So they only need to flap their wings
one time per day, if there is good wind.
Dan: It’d be a very lonely existence, just
flying over the ocean.
Vanessa: But talking about lonely, they also
mate for life.
Dan: That’s lonely?
Vanessa: Well, no, that’s crazy because they…
most birds are not like that, so they go off
alone into the ocean to hunt, and then once
a year they come back to the same place and
they hope that their husband or wife, their
mate, has survived also.
Dan: And then they promptly cheat on them.
Vanessa: Well, they are not monogamous.
Dan: They have partners that they regularly
come back to, but then they also go and flirt
with other birds.
Vanessa: Other birds as well, but they have
the same main partner for their whole lives,
and they only see them once a year, but they
find each other at that same… on the same
rock, on the same land, every… albatross
are really cool.
Dan: [crosstalk 00:48:34] kisses.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, you should look up some videos about
albatross, they’re really cool.
Well, one of my other cool facts-
Dan: What’s your last factoid?
Vanessa: … my last cool fact is about a
mantis shrimp.
Dan: The mantis shrimp.
Vanessa: We think about shrimp as the thing
that we eat, but the mantis shrimp is really
different.
I’ll show you a picture here.
The mantis shrimp is an insane animal.
It has the best visual senses of any animal,
including humans.
I looked this up to make sure I could explain
it correctly.
Humans have three photoreceptors in our eyes.
How many do you think the mantis shrimp have?
Dan: 10.
Vanessa: 12 to 16.
So this means they can see infrared, they
can see ultraviolet, they can see every possible
thing that’s coming through the light spectrum.
It is crazy.
Dan: Basically thank god it’s not huge and
lives on land, because it would kill us.
Vanessa: Yes, this and it can also punch through,
it has the-
Dan: Look how it’s hand’s like this.
Vanessa: Yes, they’re like this.
It can punch through bulletproof glass that
is 1 centimeter thick.
So it’s almost impossible to keep a mantis
shrimp in an aquarium because-
Dan: Because it will break the glass.
Vanessa: … they’re so strong… it’s just
a shrimp, they’re small, but it can punch
through bullet proof glass, and most aquariums
don’t have bullet proof glass, it’s less than
that.
Dan: Why not?
Vanessa: But it will punch through the glass
and get out, so they can see everything, and
they also can punch through the glass, which
is absolutely insane.
There’s a lot of really cool videos-
Dan: And they look cool too.
Vanessa: Yeah, colors, and their big eyes.
Dan: Yeah, beautiful.
You should share the comic about it too.
There’s a popular comic in America called
The Oatmeal.
Vanessa: It’s a website.
Dan: Yeah, it’s a website.
And they have a whole story about the mantis
shrimp.
Vanessa: Yeah, there’s a good YouTube video
too, about the mantis shrimp.
Dan: About it?
Oh.
Vanessa: I think it’s… who’s that guy who
does kind of funny stuff about animals who’s
like, “That’s how the mantis shrimp do.”
Dan: Oh, zefrank.
Vanessa: Zefrank, yes.
Dan: Look up zefrank for a good laugh.
Vanessa: Just look up mantis shrimp on YouTube,
you’ll find many great things because those
animals are cool.
All right, we had a chance to be nerdy, let’s
go on to the next topic, and I want to know
for you, do you know any cool animal facts?
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: All right, let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is holidays.
And it is the end of November-ish, which is
Thanksgiving time in the U.S., so I want to
know, in your experience, what is Thanksgiving
like in the U.S.?
Dan: In the U.S., well it’s pretty much just
an American holiday, right?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Or Canadian, I suppose.
Vanessa: Canada also has Thanksgiving.
Dan: So for Thanksgiving, the primary thing
that we do is eat food.
Vanessa: Okay, next topic.
Dan: The end.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah, it’s pretty much all about
food.
Dan: It’s really all about the food, especially
turkey.
Vanessa: So tell us about food on Thanksgiving.
Dan: Pretty much everybody gets a turkey.
Vanessa: A big, full turkey.
Dan: Yeah, there must be this huge spike in
turkey sales in November in the U.S.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Dan: But everybody gets a turkey, you cook
the whole turkey, and you get gravy, and you
pour it on there, and there’s something called
stuffing as well, which is this bread pudding
kind of thing, I guess.
Vanessa: Yeah, well, you have it inside the
turkey, usually you cook some seasonings,
and lemons, and breads, and all different
types of things inside the turkey.
Dan: Some may argue that the stuffing is better
than the turkey.
Vanessa: Yeah, sometimes it is.
Dan: I’m one of those people-
Vanessa: Stuff is great.
Dan: … I just eat the stuffing.
Vanessa: It’s really full of turkey juices,
so it’s kind of like a breaded mixture, I’ll
try to share a picture, but stuffing, turkey.
Dan: So the holiday is really just centered
around the meal, and then you invite lots
of family over.
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: And usually one family member will host
a lot of family, I find.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: And sometimes friends as well, but like
your dad has been doing friends for the last
few years.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: But traditionally, it’s only family.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think this is definitely
more a family holiday, that you say goodbye
to your friends, go back home wherever you
came from, if you live far away from your
parents, maybe you’ll go back home and have
Thanksgiving at their home, or maybe they’ll
come visit you.
It’s kind of a time for families to come back
together during Thanksgiving.
Dan: Yeah.
And if you are a very bonded family, then
you always say what you’re thankful for.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: So every year my family would always
say something they’re thankful for around
the table.
And usually when I was a kid I remember being
like-
Vanessa: “I don’t want to do this.”
Dan: “I don’t want…” but now I’m like, “I’m
thankful for everybody and everything in my
family.
It’s so beautiful.”
Get a little more sentimental when you get
older.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Well, back to the food, we’re kind of talking
about the traditions now, but back to the
food, the typical things are a big turkey
bird, a full bird, you don’t have just slices
of turkey, you have the full bird and then
you cut it up.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: And then stuffing, green beans is
common with gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet
potatoes, in the south of the U.S., sweet
potato casserole is really big.
This is insane-
Dan: With brown sugar on it.
Vanessa: … it’s insanely sweet because it’s
sweet potatoes, which are orange and already
pretty sweet naturally, then brown sugar,
and then-
Dan: Marshmallows, right?
Vanessa: … marshmallows, for dinner.
Dan: Oh, I forgot about that.
Vanessa: Crazy, but-
Dan: I always eat like this much of that because
it’s too sweet.
Vanessa: It’s really rich, but that’s kind
of a southern thing, and you also always have
cranberry sauce.
Dan: Right.
Vanessa: This is… a cranberry is a really
tart berry, it’s so tart, it’s really sour,
but when you mix it with a lot of sugar, it’s
great.
Dan: And you need mashed potatoes.
Vanessa: Yeah, so the cranberries, and the
mashed potatoes, and the turkey, it’s a perfect
combination.
That kind of tart flavors with the mashed
potatoes with the turkey, it kind of mixes
together really great.
Dan: Yeah, basically the point is to eat so
much you can barely move at the end of the
day.
Vanessa: Well, they do say that turkey, the
bird, the turkey meat, has some kind of-
Dan: Tryptophan.
Vanessa: Is that what it’s called?
Dan: I think so.
Vanessa: That kind of enzyme in it.
Isn’t it enzyme?
Hormone, or-
Dan: Chemical?
Vanessa: It has something in the meat naturally
that makes you feel sleepy, so at Thanksgiving
that’s really one of the only times when we
eat turkey, so because we eat so much turkey,
it’s kind of stereotypical to say after the
Thanksgiving meal everyone crashes on the
couch and watches football.
So it’s kind of a tradition.
Dan: Yeah, football is probably the most American
aspect of this.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: They don’t really play football in other
countries, do they?
Vanessa: Well, this is American football.
Dan: I mean, not… yeah, not-
Vanessa: American football.
Dan: … real football, like you know, not
kicking the ball.
Vanessa: Soccer.
Dan: Football like, we throw the ball, and
we tackle each other, and stuff.
Vanessa: Yeah, so there are… there’s always
a football, an American football game on Thanksgiving,
so that’s why some of the sayings abut Thanksgiving
is the three Fs, family, food, football.
When I was growing up, my family would eat
Thanksgiving, and then we often would go to
the living room and watch football together,
even though we weren’t big football fans.
It’s kind of just-
Dan: It’s just tradition.
Vanessa: … what you do.
So we would say what we were thankful for,
and then-
Dan: It’s the American religion.
Vanessa: … watch football, and that was
just kind of a family time together.
I don’t know.
Did you guys ever do anything?
Sometimes we threw a football in backyard.
Dan: Yeah, a few years we would throw the
football.
Our family didn’t watch that much football.
Vanessa: Yeah-
Dan: We would sometimes, just like the Superbowl,
that’s all.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Yeah, so I’m curious, for you, in your country,
do you have any fall meal holiday that’s really
centered around food?
Dan: Yeah, we should also say, I think it’s
supposed to also traditionally be you feast
on all the food that you grew.
Vanessa: Yeah, but most people are not farmers
nowadays.
Dan: Yeah, but I think traditionally it does
have that element of, “The harvest is in.
We come and eat all this delicious food.
It was a good year.”
Vanessa: “We’re thankful for the good harvest.”
Dan: “We’re thankful for the good harvest.”
So maybe a lot of countries have something
like that.
Vanessa: Yeah.
All right.
Let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is relaxation.
I want to know, if I were feeling stressed,
what tips would you give me to help me feel
relaxed?
Dan: If you were feeling stressed?
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Well, I don’t know if this would work
for everyone, but I find that playing a sport,
or doing something active that requires some
concentration, really helps me not be stressed,
like if I’m concerned about something I like
to go and maybe play some basketball, where
your only goal is to put the ball in the hoop,
it’s just something very simple and you’re
using your body, which is different from how
a lot of people live today, which is very
stationary and thinking about all kinds of
problems and then looking at your phone and
reading about more problems.
Everything’s a big problem it seems like.
Vanessa: So if you get out and move your body-
Dan: So if you get out and you move your body-
Vanessa: … in the real world, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, and it could just be a hike, a
hike or something.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: But yeah, I like to go and play basketball,
or maybe play some hockey, I like to do that
too, just shoot the puck around, it’s a lot
of fun.
Vanessa: Some kind of organized activity.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: Like shooting hoops, playing hockey-
Dan: And it doesn’t even have to be with people,
just practicing, doing some kind of routine
like that.
Vanessa: I said something similar, which was
just to go for a walk, because that’s not
necessarily organized, but sometimes getting
out of the place where I’m at, getting out
of the house, getting out of wherever I’m
feeling stressed, just changing locations,
and having the open sky-
Dan: Just getting outside.
Vanessa: … breathing some cool air, or maybe
really hot air, depending on what time of
the year it is.
Dan: That’s true, it depends on where you
live.
Outside might be a little too hot, or too
cold.
Vanessa: But it’s just nice to kind of remove
yourself, and move, and take a walk.
Even say, “Okay, I’m going to walk for five
minutes, and I’m going to turn around and
walk five minutes back.”
Sometimes 10 minutes can make a big difference.
At least it can help me feel more relaxed,
or at least more realistic about my stress.
Dan: Definitely.
Vanessa: Like if something’s stressing me,
maybe I shouldn’t really be stressed about
it, so taking a walk helps me to kind of recenter
myself.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: And think, “It’s not a big deal,
it’s fine.
I’ll just work it out.”
Dan: Okay.
And the next thing I would do, is take a shower.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Dan: Well, I take night time showers, so I
don’t know, I just find, for me, when I’m
getting clean, and not really… and like
it’s kind of that same thing, I’m just like
washing my arms, washing my hair, and I find
my mind kind of drifting, and it’s nice and
warm.
I don’t know, for me, maybe most people probably
would say taking a bath, but I don’t really
like to take a bath.
Vanessa: Taking a shower, I’ve heard too that
when you’re taking a shower, sometimes that’s
when your best ideas happen, because you have
no stimulation, there’s nothing around you,
you’re just in the shower, so your mind can
really be blank, or you can really kind of
decompress in a different way.
I feel like that too, taking a shower feels
good.
Dan: Yeah, a nice, warm shower.
And then finally, sleeping.
Vanessa: Yes.
Dan: Going to sleep, getting good enough sleep.
I mean, especially nowadays where everybody
has some kind of electronics device where
you’re staring at a screen, I think that doesn’t
really help your stress levels go down.
Vanessa: Don’t watch this video at 2:00 AM,
if it’s 2:00 AM in the morning-
Dan: Yeah, stop watching.
Vanessa: … turn it off.
Dan: Got to bed.
Vanessa: You can watch this in the morning.
Dan: So yeah, that would be the last thing
I would do, too.
Lower the stress in my life and relax.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think getting good sleep
is a really good tip, that was one of the
ones that I wrote down.
Is just-
Dan: So we share a few.
Vanessa: … yeah, to get better sleep because
sometimes I feel like we want to blame other
parts of our lives when we feel stressed,
but when you look at the basics, “Have I been
eating healthy?
Did I drink enough water today?”
And the main one, “Did I sleep enough?”
Probably not, at least in my case, if I feel
stressed or anxious, a lot of that’s because
my body can’t handle what’s happening in daily
life, because I haven’t been treating myself
well.
Dan: Yep.
Vanessa: So if I sleep better, whether that’s
consistent sleep, or a longer period of sleep,
just doing that will help me to feel less
stressed during the day.
Dan: It is situational though, some people
need more or less sleep than other people.
Vanessa: Yeah, so that’s why I said get better
sleep.
Dan: Better sleep, for you.
Vanessa: Whatever is better for you.
But one thing I mentioned that you didn’t
say, you kind of said, but is to take a tech
break.
And a tech break, we often use this term in
our relationship to say, “Today we are not
going to… we’re just going to put away our
phones, we’re not going to do anything with
any electronics today at all.”
And it seems like it’s a simple, easy thing
to do, but it feels good just to take a little
break, especially if that is stressing you
out, or if you’re kind of avoiding dealing
with problems by looking at your phone.
I think a lot of use social media, or reading
articles-
Dan: The phones and tablets are really bad,
I think, because they’re so easy-
Vanessa: Yeah, to get distracted.
Dan: … to pick up and just keep using.
There’s little games, and YouTube, which you
may be on right now.
Vanessa: Yes.
I find myself-
Dan: So keep watching.
Vanessa: … when I feel stressed, sometimes
I don’t don’t want to think about it, so I’ll
watch a YouTube vide, and then 30 minutes
later, I’ll realize I still feel stressed.
Dan: 10 YouTube videos later.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Or maybe for this one it’s a couple hours
later.
Dan: Hey, I have a bonus tip.
Vanessa: Oh, bonus tip.
All right.
Dan: Yeah, a bonus tip.
Vanessa: What’s your bonus tip?
Dan: I don’t really meditate, but I’ve heard
mediation is very great for de-stressing.
Vanessa: I’m curious if any of you have tried
meditation.
Dan: So I would also recommend meditating,
but for me, I actually tried something that
was kind of similar, I counted my breaths.
So this was actually kind of to help me fall
asleep, but a lot of times I can’t fall asleep
because I’m thinking about the day and feeling
stressed.
Vanessa: You can’t turn your mind off.
Dan: So basically the idea that I heard was
to breathe in for 10 seconds.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: No, no, no, breathe in for five seconds,
then breathe out for 10 seconds.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: So you’re kind of counting one, two,
three, four, five.
And then, one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10.
And just only thinking about your breaths.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: You know, it really kind of puts the
focus somewhere else, and you’re breathing
in deeply, which a lot of us do not breathe
in deeply, so it helps you to breathe in more
deeply and concentrate on your breathing.
Vanessa: Yeah, I heard that one of the side
effects of using a computer a lot, or a phone
a lot, is that when they study people who
are looking at a screen, we blink less-
Dan: What?
Vanessa: … so our eyes are open, they’re
getting kind of red and dry, and our breathing
increases.
So we’re kind of like-
Dan: They’re just like shallow?
Vanessa: Yeah, like… we’re just not focused,
like maybe feel a little bit of stress, or
we’re just not focused slow and-
Dan: On our bodies.
Vanessa: … relaxed.
Yeah.
So those long-term effects, if you’re doing
that for several hours a day, without thinking
about it, it can affect your body, so breathing,
yeah, slowly, can help to kind of help you
feel less stressed.
Dan: There you go.
Vanessa: Wow.
Dan: That’s my most practical tip.
Vanessa: Bonus tip.
So I’m curious for you, what are some tips
you would give to help someone feel less stress
in their life?
To feel more relaxed?
What would you say?
All right.
Let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is sports and exercise, so
I want to know when you were a kid, what kind
of sports or activities did you participate
in?
Dan: Man, I played a lot of sports.
Vanessa: Yeah?
Dan: Yeah, I think it kind of shows the privilege
we grew up in, that we had so many opportunities
to try so many different things.
Vanessa: That was really lucky to be able
to do that kind of stuff.
Dan: So first I started out with baseball,
but it was called t-ball, so you actually
put the ball on a tee, and you put the ball
there, and you just hit it off of it.
Vanessa: So no one’s throwing the ball.
Dan: Yeah, I was really little.
Vanessa: It’s just stationary.
Dan: And I actually remember when the coaches
started pitching to me, I got kind of scared
of the ball and I didn’t want to play anymore.
Vanessa: It’s a big deal.
Dan: Yeah, I was really little, so I stopped
playing that and I started playing soccer.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Dan: And swimming as well.
So you call it, probably football in your
country, but it’s interesting, many, many
children, play soccer in America.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think it’s easy to get into
because you just are running and kicking a
ball.
Dan: Sure.
Vanessa: There’s no equipment or specialized
movements-
Dan: Right.
Vanessa: … at least for kids.
Dan: But for some reason, it’s not a popular
sport to watch.
Vanessa: Or for adults, a lot of adults don’t
play soccer.
Dan: Adults don’t play soccer that much, it’s
just children.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: But I played soccer for probably like
six year.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: And then I never played it again.
Yeah.
Vanessa: Just as a kid.
Dan: Yep.
So I did that, and I did swimming, and gymnastics
for a while.
I had a phase where I used to like to do a
lot of flips-
Vanessa: Oh, cool.
Dan: … so I would jump on the trampoline
and do back flips and front flips.
Vanessa: In a gymnasium that’s like a gymnastics
center.
Dan: Yeah, but also in my backyard.
We had a trampoline.
Vanessa: Ah, cool.
Dan: So I would do that, and then I did figure
skating where we were doing spinning and stuff.
Vanessa: I did figure skating too.
Dan: Yes.
And then my brother convinced me to take up
a more manly sport, hockey.
Vanessa: Oh, it’s a shame, you probably would
have been really good at figure skating.
Dan: Yeah, I was all right, but-
Vanessa: Yeah.
I think that’s the kind of thing that-
Dan: … it wasn’t my true love-
Vanessa: Like hockey?
Dan: … that would be hockey.
Vanessa: Well, I’m glad that you found your
true love, hockey.
Dan: I do love hockey, but I don’t really
have the build for it, I’m a little too small,
but I still had a lot of fun playing hockey.
Vanessa: Yeah, and you still play hockey.
Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vanessa: You play on a team here in our city.
Dan: That’s not all of my sports-
Vanessa: I feel like as a… you had a lot
of organized sports as a kid-
Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vanessa: … and maybe that’s just because
you have a older brother, or just something
that you wanted to do, but I feel like for
me-
Dan: I think my dad thought it was good for
me too.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: Which I think is true, it’s good for
kids to get into organized sports.
Vanessa: Sure.
Sure.
I feel like for me as a kid I didn’t do team
sports as much, like we just played in the
backyard a lot.
Dan: Weren’t you kind of a timid child, too?
Vanessa: I wouldn’t say I was timid, but I
didn’t like physical contact with other kids,
so basketball for me was really physically
aggressive.
Dan: Too rough.
Vanessa: Yeah, a little too rough, I didn’t
really like that.
Dan: You should try hockey.
Vanessa: That’s very rough.
But I loved swimming, so I think that swimming
was probably the main sport of my childhood,
and through high school every summer my sister
and I were on a swim team, and that meant
that every day, twice a day, we would go to
swim practice, and I-
Dan: Vanessa’s a really good swimmer, she
can kick my butt.
Vanessa: Not literally, that is a figurative
expression.
That means I can swim better than Dan, which
is true.
Dan: It’s true.
Vanessa: But it just means that I know the
technique, and if Dan or you-
Dan: I’m out there like struggling.
Vanessa: … if you know the right technique,
you can have a lot of endurance because you’re
not wasting your energy, so I feel like I
learned the right technique, so I can swim
longer because I know the right technique
because I practiced it a lot.
So we would always swim, and then we’d have
swim competitions, which are called swim meets,
and that was a fun part of my childhood growing,
was swimming, kind of this… it’s kind of
a team thing, but not really.
You have a team, but you’re still individual.
Dan: So like combined scores, is that how
it works?
Vanessa: Well, you would be… you’re part
of the community team, like your community,
your neighborhood is the team, but then each
person has an individual score.
Dan: Score.
Vanessa: So it’s kid of a team, kid of individual,
and I liked that.
And it was not physically aggressive.
Dan: That would make me so nervous.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: These individual sports, I feel the pressure
way too much.
If I were swimming and racing, I’d be so scared.
But when I play a sport like basketball, you’re
on a team, and so you’re kind of depending
on each other more, it’s not all up to you.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: Although, if you make a big mistake,
then everybody’s looking at you.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Dan: That’s no fun.
Vanessa: Yeah, I feel like I like having a
team, but at the same time, I like having
kind of your own thing going on, you can kind
of be more individualistic.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: So I’m curious for you, growing up
did you play organized sports like Dan?
I also did some volleyball in high school,
those types of things, kind of organized sports.
But did you play organized sports like that,
or did you just play with your friends in
the neighborhood, like I did growing up with
my friends in the neighborhood?
What kind of activities, or exercise type
things did you do when you were a child?
All right, let’s go to the next topic.
The next topic is electronics, this is another
hypothetical, maybe a dream type question,
but I want to know if you could upgrade any
electronics in your life for no price, it’s
free, what would you like to upgrade in your
life?
Dan: Interesting.
Yeah, I feel like I’m pretty satisfied with
our electronic status.
Vanessa: Oh, okay.
Dan: Electronics status.
Yeah, because you know me.
I already upgrade my electronics quite freely.
Vanessa: Dan likes electronics.
Dan: I do, especially like speakers and music.
I love music, so I buy a lot of headphones,
and a lot speakers, and stuff like this.
And every time I’m about to buy something
like that she looks at me like, “Why are you
buying another thing like this?”
I haven’t bought too much-
Vanessa: Yeah, it’s not too much.
Dan: … but I just tend to browse, and sometimes
I look at these humongous speakers that would
fill an opera room, or something, and I’m
like, “These would be awesome to have.”
Vanessa: And then I need to remind Dan that
we don’t live in a house the size of a football
field, like his dream.
Dan: But in my dream house-
Vanessa: Someday when we have that dream house,
right?
Dan: … it will have those speakers, yes.
Vanessa: What would you like to upgrade if
you could do it for no price?
Dan: Yeah, so right now it would be a laptop.
Vanessa: Oh, yeah, your laptop just broke.
Dan: Yeah, so our son, Theo, decided to step
on my laptop.
And it still actually works pretty well, but
it snapped in half, so somehow it’s still
working, but it’s old anyways.
Vanessa: Yeah, it’s his fault, but you know,
you shouldn’t have left it on the floor.
Dan: Yeah, so I’ll probably update my laptop
soon, which is a very doable thing nowadays.
Vanessa: Okay.
Yeah, you could get a laptop that isn’t broken
in half.
Dan: Yeah, and the second thing is actually
something we’ve never had before, which would
be a security system.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: It sounds like you would only want this
in a neighborhood where you would-
Vanessa: You feel kind of dangerous.
Yeah.
Dan: … you feel like you’re in danger.
But I still feel like it would just kind of
add comfort to me.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: We’ve always lived in apartments where
they had a gate, or a front door, where-
Vanessa: You have other people around you.
Dan: … and you have other people around
you, you’re not like just such a solo target.
Because in America, you’re just living in
a house in neighborhood, and it’s like standalone,
so I’d like to get some cameras, and something
I could check on the house and make sure everything’s
okay.
And just for peace of mind mostly.
Vanessa: Okay.
Yeah, I feel like our neighborhood’s not dangerous
at all.
Dan: It’s very safe, yeah.
Vanessa: But even if you leave to go away
for a week, and you want to be able to see
outside the house, that could be helpful,
yeah.
Dan: Yeah, and in modern times there’s a lot
of really good security systems out there.
Vanessa: Yeah, that could be helpful.
I feel like, for me, my answer to this is-
Dan: This shows how much Vanessa cares about
electronics.
Vanessa: I had to think about this for a long
time, because I don’t really care about electronics
that much-
Dan: I always choose the electronics, I bought
her computer.
I actually built her computer.
Vanessa: Yeah, Dan built the computer that
we use for editing and for doing work, but
I feel like for me something electronic that
I would like to upgrade is kind of practical,
our car that we have, you use a key to open
it, and that’s fine.
Dan: What?
You use a key?
Vanessa: But it would be really great to have
a beeper button, so this is pretty typical-
Dan: This is funny because everybody in America
has this, except for us.
Vanessa: Yeah, I think if your car is newer
than 2000, so if it’s within the last 20 years,
you probably have a beeper that opens the
car door.
Some really new cars have a beeper that turns
on the car, I don’t need that, I just would
like a beeper that can open the door, because
we have a two year old and soon we will have
another child, and opening the car on one
side, going to the other, putting him in the
car, coming back, unlocking it, it seems so-
Dan: Yeah, we never realized how much we’d
appreciate this.
Vanessa: Yeah, I would really appreciate this
small convenience.
Dan: I mean, our car should have this, but
we bought it used, and the person who sold
us the car lost those keys.
Vanessa: Yeah, they only had the regular key.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: So do you think that it’s possible,
because that existed before, could we do this?
Dan: Yes, it’s very easy.
Vanessa: Oh, really?
Dan: Yeah, we have to go to the dealership
and ask them, and they have to calibrate it.
Vanessa: And we have to just buy more keys?
My dream is going to come true.
Dan: We could make this happen.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: But I think at the time when I asked
the dealership about that, we had just bought
the car, and it was pretty expensive, and
we didn’t really have that much money, and
I was like, “We can’t afford to get the keys
too.”
Vanessa: Sure, because we decided to pay for
the car outright.
Dan: Right.
But it’s definitely doable, this very simple
fix in your life.
Vanessa: Wow, dreams come true right here
on YouTube, thank you.
Well, I’m curious for you, if you could upgrade,
or if you could have some electronics completely
for free with no price added, what would you
like to upgrade in your life?
I’m curious.
Let us know.
All right.
Let’s go to the last topic.
Our final topic is money.
I want to know, what are three purchases that
you regret?
Three things that were not worth it.
Dan: That I regret.
Not three things I love?
Vanessa: No, what were three purchases that
after you bought it you said, “Ah, I shouldn’t
have bought this.”
Dan: Oh, okay, so regretful purchases.
Vanessa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dan: Well, the first one I can think of kind
of checks all of the boxes as something you
regret.
Because in the first place, you didn’t want
me to buy this.
Vanessa: Because it was-
Dan: Expensive.
Vanessa: … headphones.
We were talking about music devices.
Dan: We were talking about it.
Yes.
I already had headphones that I listen to
all the time-
Vanessa: That he loves.
Dan: … so I was already getting the judgment
feelings from Vanessa, but I thought maybe
I wanted something with even better sound,
maybe a different kind of sound.
I was looking for the new sound.
Vanessa: But what happened?
Dan: We didn’t have very much money at this
time either, so-
Vanessa: Ah, that was another layer.
Dan: … I bought these over $100 headphones,
and we took them home, and they started hurting
my ears-
Vanessa: Because they were kind of-
Dan: … they were just painful.
Vanessa: … they were like noise canceling
headphones?
Dan: No, it’s like they’re on ear, they just,
they weren’t really build to listen to as
long as I do.
Vanessa: Okay.
Dan: So they hurt my ears, and I was like,
“Oh, no.
They’re hurting my ears, this is really bad.”
Vanessa: “I can’t tell Vanessa.”
Dan: “I can’t.”
Yeah.
But then also, we bought them in South Korea,
and the place that I bought them had a no
return policy, so I couldn’t return them.
Vanessa: And then what happened?
Dan: And then I brought them home, and I sat
them down, and our cat walked up to them and
bit the cord and just broke them.
Vanessa: Yes, within five minutes.
Dan: Within five minutes.
No, like five seconds.
The second I sat the headphones down, the
cat bit them.
Vanessa: And it was the kind of cord that
you can’t just take out and replace it, you
have to do some… you have to send it into
the company and pay a lot to get it fixed.
Dan: Well, I didn’t know how to fix it.
I think my dad actually fixed it later and
he used them.
Vanessa: Oh, that’s good.
Dan: So there you go, it actually worked out
in the end.
Vanessa: Wow.
But yeah, there was a couple layers of regret.
Dan: Yeah, there was a lot of layers of regret,
and then the cat bit the cord anyway.
Vanessa: Ah, and that’s something that we
should have known.
We should have put them up somewhere, you
could have put them somewhere else, but it
just kind of was icing on the cake.
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: Which means, it was one more thing.
Dan: Now I can’t even use them.
Because I was like hoping, “Oh, some day maybe
they’ll be more comfortable.
Maybe they’ll just feel better, I’ll get used
to them.”
Vanessa: But then you can’t even use them
because our cat bit the cord.
Dan: Yep.
Vanessa: Well, that’s a regretful purchase.
Dan: There you go, there’s a whole story behind
that.
Vanessa: Yeah, can I say one of mine first?
Dan: Go ahead.
Yes.
Vanessa: Okay.
One of mine is much smaller, but it is anytime
that I buy tea at Starbucks, always a bad
decision.
Dan: Sorry, Starbucks.
Vanessa: Yeah, but I don’t like coffee, and
if I go to Starbucks that’s the only drink
that I can drink, because they have a lot
of coffee stuff, a lot of sweet stuff, but
one tea bag at Starbucks, you’re just buying
a tea bag with hot water, they’re not making
anything-
Dan: Fancy.
Vanessa: … it’s not a specialized drink.
It’s just hot water and a tea bag, and it’s
like $2.50, or something.
Like $2.50 just for a bag of tea.
And you can buy a whole box of tea for the
same price.
Dan: By the way, this is the difference between
Vanessa and I, is that I would never sweat
a purchase like that.
Vanessa: Well for me it’s the taste.
It’s not necessarily the price, the price
is high for tea, but the taste is never worth
it.
It’s just mediocre tea, it’s not even that
great.
Dan: I’d still never regret it.
Vanessa: Yeah, well-
Dan: I don’t regret cheap purchases, I never
think about it.
Vanessa: I feel like for me it’s just annoying
because I want to have a cool drink if I’m
going to a coffee shop, but then it’s just
a tea bag in water.
It’s not even loose leaf tea.
Anyway, I’m a tea snob, so let’s go to yours.
Dan: That’s true.
All right, the next in my list could be actually
a category in and of itself, but the most
recent occurrence was when we went to a place
on our beach vacation called The Turtle Museum.
Vanessa: Oh.
Dan: And it sounded all fancy, but it was
probably $15 bucks a person to get in.
Vanessa: Yeah, it was like a turtle rehabilitation
center.
Dan: Yeah, but there was just one room with
some pictures on the wall, and then we thought
we were going to see turtles up close and
personal, but they were just in big swimming
pools and you could barely see them.
Vanessa: Were they breathing out of their
butts?
Dan: They probably were at the time.
Vanessa: No, they’re sea turtles.
Dan: You’re right, they weren’t breathing
out of their butts.
And so I was just disappointed with the whole
experience and didn’t think it was worth it.
Although, that was a little different because
I felt like I was donating because they rescue
turtles, but there are a lot of places that
are like this, like a museum, or some kind
of show that maybe you pay a up front cost,
and then the show or the museum is just not
very good, or boring.
Vanessa: Yeah, like have you ever traveled
somewhere and you paid to enter a museum,
or you paid to enter some building and it
just wasn’t worth it.
I feel like that’s happened a lot, and that’s
just the most recent for us, is that, “Okay,
I feel okay because I donated some money to
that turtle rehabilitation center.”
But we didn’t really get to see turtles in
the way that we wanted to.
Dan: I wanted to touch a turtle.
Vanessa: Oh, but they are in a hospital, they’re
being rehabilitated.
Dan: That’s true, it was a turtle hospital.
Vanessa: Yeah.
Do you have any other-
Dan: But it sounded way cooler-
Vanessa: Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it did sound cool.
“Go to the turtle center and see the turtles.”
Dan: Yeah, my last thing is just a small thing.
I bought some t-shirts online, and it’s kind
of iffy to buy clothes online, but I always
felt like I like the picture that was on them,
but then the quality of the shirt wasn’t very
good or-
Vanessa: Especially when it’s online, you
can’t feel it.
Dan: … it didn’t fit that well.
Yeah, not a great idea.
I’ve regretted some of those purchases.
Vanessa: Another thing that I feel like I’ve
bought that wasn’t worth it, this is a general
category, but it’s some toys for our, now
he’s two year old, but throughout his short
life, some toys that I bought for him that
I thought he’d like, because he played with
at a friend’s house, or I just thought it
would be cool, but he didn’t really like it.
For example, there’s this thing that was…
it’s like a bead maze, and I remember liking
this as a kid, which is why I got it-
Dan: I thought he played with that.
Vanessa: Not really, he kind of wanted to
just pull the beads off, but he couldn’t play
with.
But I remember I played with it as a kid,
and I found it at a second hand store.
It was like $10, it wasn’t that much, but
I thought he’d play with it.
I was like, “This is it.
He’s going to play with this for so long,
it’s going to be great.”
And he just never really played with it.
So I feel like-
Dan: This will probably be an ongoing problem.
Vanessa: Yeah.
So now I-
Dan: Now that we have kids.
Vanessa: I’ve tried to kind of back up and
think, “Okay, he likes to play with these
three things.
If other people want to give him presents,
and give him other toys, that’s fine, but
I’m not really going to invest in more toys
because he kind of likes the same things all
the time.”
Dan: Legos, legos, legos.
Vanessa: Legos, legos, legos.
Sometimes Play-Doh, sometimes the sandbox.
Dan: But mostly legos.
Vanessa: But generally the same couple toys
again, and again, and again.
So I’m curious for you, what are some purchases
that you’ve made that weren’t worth it, that
you regretted?
This video is free on YouTube, so this is
not a purchase.
I hope that you have not regretted spending
your time, though, with us.
Dan: Yeah, I know what you wouldn’t regret,
purchasing the Fearless Fluency Club.
Vanessa: Oh.
Well-
Dan: There’s a pitch for you.
Vanessa: This is our monthly English course
where we teach about a different topic every
month, and you learn the vocabulary, phrasal
verbs, pronunciation.
We have a private Facebook group where a lot
of members meet together and talk together
to practice speaking English.
And once a month I have a group Google hangout
and we talk together.
Just a great way to expand your English and
be able to learn more.
So if you enjoyed our conversation today-
Dan: Yeah, and one might say, “Become fluent.”
Vanessa: Yes, I hope so, become more confident.
Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
Dan: You’re welcome.
We’re done?
Vanessa: Wow, this was a lot.
Dan: Can you believe it?
Did you make it all the way though?
Vanessa: If you made it this far, congratulations.
Pat yourself on the back.
We asked a lot of questions today, so I’m
going to put those in the description below,
so that you can go to each topic if you want
to go back and watch a certain topic, or if
you saw some vocabulary appear that you’d
like to review and practice, you can always
go back and review what we talked about.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask,
and make sure that you write a comment and
answer some of these questions yourself, use
English.
Dan: Yes.
Vanessa: Thank you so much for joining me,
Dan.
Dan: You’re welcome.
It was very enjoyable.
Vanessa: Yes, I appreciate your time.
Dan: It was a journey.
Vanessa: Your energy.
Oh, it was a journey.
Yes, we went through a lot of different topics
today.
Thank you so much as well for learning English
with me and with Dan today, I’ll see you next
Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube
channel.
Bye.
Dan: Bye.
Vanessa: The next step is to download my free
ebook, Five Steps to Becoming A Confident
English Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.