COVID English Conversations Advanced English Listening Lesson
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you experiencing a lockdown or quarantine
in your country? Let’s talk about it.
Vanessa:
It’s true that we are living in very unusual
times right now. It doesn’t matter where you’re
from, what your native language is, what your
background is, you are most likely experiencing
the same lockdown and quarantine type situation
that everyone else in the world is experiencing
right now. For me, I live in the US in the
state of North Carolina, and we’re experiencing
this in some ways, but also in a different
way than people from other areas in the US
and other areas of the world. So today I want
to bring you a special present. This is a
long video, but I hope you will enjoy it because
I have some special guests for you today.
It was my pleasure to be able to interview
four online YouTube English teachers who you
probably know and ask them about what the
lockdown has been like in their country and
just in their daily lives.
Vanessa:
So our first guest today is Emma from mmmEnglish.
The second guest is Gabby from Go Natural
English. My third guest is Jack from To Fluency,
and my fourth guest is Lucy from the channel
English with Lucy. At the end of this video,
my husband, Dan, and I will talk a little
bit about our personal experience with the
lockdown and quarantine here in the US at
least in our state of North Carolina. So I
hope that you’ll be able to enjoy this video.
Make sure that you click CC to be able to
watch the full subtitles so that you can understand
and catch every word that we say.
Vanessa:
During this video, I’m going to be posting
some important expressions at the bottom of
the screen, but if you want to catch every
single word, you can always click CC and look
at the subtitles so that you can catch everything.
It’s great to improve your listening skills,
vocabulary, grammar, everything, and just
spend a little bit of time feeling like we
are in this together. We can do it. All right,
let’s go on and meet our first guest who is
Emma from mmmEnglish.
Vanessa:
All right, today I am lucky to have the wonderful
guest, Emma from mmmEnglish. Thank you so
much for joining me Emma.
Emma:
No worries. I’m excited to have a chat on
the other side of the world. We’re doing a
lot of these lightly.
Vanessa:
Yeah, so right now it’s 10:00 AM for you and
10:00 PM for me. So we are literally on opposite
sides of the earth, but experiencing some
similar things. I thought that we could have
a chat about the world circumstances right
now with Coronavirus and how that’s affecting
all of us. Doesn’t matter what country we’re
in. So my first question for you is, I’m curious
what kind of regulations or changes have happened
where you live? First of all, where do you
live, but also what kind of changes have happened
for you?
Emma:
First things first. Well, I’m in Australia.
I live in Perth, which is on the west coast
of Australia, similar time zone to Singapore,
and we have been really, really fortunate
in Australia for a couple of reasons. The
first reason is we’re really isolated. We
are that far down the bottom end of the earth.
No one comes through here on the way to somewhere
else. It’s just Australia is the final destination.
And I think that for us in a situation like
we’re in now, that is a huge advantage because
we just don’t have as many people coming through.
And I feel like we were so lucky about that.
Vanessa:
Especially I Perth.
Emma:
Yeah, sometimes that’s really frustrating.
It’s like, “Oh God, we’re so far away from
everything,” but right now it’s quite handy.
But we also had the huge advantage to be able
to see what was happening before it got to
us. So before it got really serious. I think
that Australians generally, we’re pretty easy
going people. We don’t take each other or
a government or anything too seriously, which
is a good thing and can be a bad thing. But
I really think that Australians wouldn’t have
responded so well and so quickly to this problem
if we couldn’t see what was happening in Italy,
in China, in South Korea, in Spain beforehand,
and I think that was a huge plus for us as
well.
Emma:
So at the moment anyway, to answer your question,
we are allowed to go out in groups of twos
or if you all live in the same house, a family,
you can all go out together, and a lot of
the restaurants or all of the restaurants,
gyms, cinemas and things are closed.
Vanessa:
Can you order a takeout from restaurants?
Emma:
You can. You can do that. So it’s interesting
to think how some businesses or some industries
are able to really quickly adapt to a situation
like this. So, yeah, we can order takeouts.
I’ve been spending a lot of time cooking or
doing things at home, which I normally don’t
do that much. So I’ve been taking advantage
of cooking in the kitchen and home meals and
that kind of thing.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I guess that leads into my second question
of has your daily life changed much since
all of these regulations and changes have
happened in the government level?
Emma:
Yeah, it’s interesting because I work at home
in my home office. I film in my house. I film
all of my YouTube videos and things in my
house. So really not a lot has changed with
me in terms of work, but my social life has
been affected obviously. All of our social
lives have been affected. So for me, that’s
been the biggest change is not being able
to go out and see friends and do the things
that I would normally do, but yeah, not a
huge amount of change for me as of yet.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I guess especially because you already
are used to working from home and the people
you work with, you work with remotely I imagine.
So that’s convenient.
Emma:
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. My whole team, actually,
no one who I work with is based here in Perth
where I am. We’re across time zones, across
countries and are already quite familiar with
working this way. So it hasn’t changed how
we do things really, but it has changed the
way that we support our communities I guess.
In particular, language communities that I’ve
run or that I’m a part of, we’ve done a lot
to change the way that we deliver things,
deliver lessons, deliver content to support
all of our students who are now at home with
lots more time, but able to connect more than
previously, and I think that’s a really exciting
opportunity for language learners.
Vanessa:
Yeah, all of a sudden, there’s more free time
and the internet is really a great way to
be able to fill that and you can fill it positively
with education.
Emma:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
I’m curious where you live, do you have any
outdoor space where you can go like a yard
or any kind of private areas like that?
Emma:
So I live in an apartment and I’ve got a couple
of big balconies which I can be outside on,
which is nice. I also live right near the
beach. Just over the way. And for us we’re
quite lucky in that it’s… We’re coming out
of summer and so it’s still quite long and
the sun is shining, the weather is still really
good, so there’s a lot of outdoor activities
that we can still do, obviously within just
in groups of two or not gathering in large
places and things like that, but we’re still
able to make the most of the parks and things
like that.
Vanessa:
It’s interesting that those types of places
are still open where you are because I live
in the mountains where there’s a lot of nature
trails and it seems like the perfect place
to go during a time like this, but it seems
like at the same time, that’s all that anyone
can do right now. So there were so many people
doing that, but they closed like national
parks and a lot of the hiking areas are closed
off because people didn’t really treat it
respectfully I imagine. But if the beach or
places where you’re at, people are still trying
to maintain some distance, then it can still
be used.
Emma:
Yeah. Well, that’s the thing. There was a
news story a couple of weeks ago about Bondi
Beach in Sydney, which is a really famous
beach, being absolutely covered in people.
And so the government came out and had to
say, “Come on guys, we’ve told you that you’re
not going to do this. We’re going to have
to close the beach.” And so over here, there’s
fewer people in the city where I live, but
the government has also been saying, “You
really have to follow the rules. Otherwise,
we are going to have to close down the beaches.”
Vanessa:
Yeah, as long as people are doing that, then
it’s usable. And at the end of summer, the
perfect thing to do to refresh your mind a
little bit.
Emma:
Yeah, I feel like if I didn’t have that space,
I would be feeling a lot more frustrated right
now. So fortunately and fingers crossed, it
stays that way.
Vanessa:
Yeah, especially living in an apartment, it’s
essential to be able to get outside and have
some open space.
Emma:
Yeah, sure it is.
Vanessa:
So I’m curious, looking to the future, what
do you think life is going to be like after
the pandemic has passed? Assuming that it
will pass in some way, hopefully at some point.
What do you think life’s going to be like
in your hypothetical opinion?
Emma:
Oh, I didn’t know. I’ve been thinking about
this quite a lot lately. I think that one
of the most exciting changes is what’s happening
in our workforce and the way that people are
having to very quickly learn how to work from
home, work remotely when their team is not
around them. And for lots of businesses, that’s
really, really challenging. Lots of industries,
that’s quite hard to do. But for many, I think
it was almost like a stubbornness by lots
of very traditional companies too who didn’t
believe that they could trust their staff
or that it was possible for everyone to be
as productive and as effective at home. So
I think it’s really exciting that we’ve been
forced into this situation where everyone’s
been put to the test a little to see is this
possible? Can it work? What are all of the
tools that we need to make it work?
Emma:
And the reason why I think that’s really exciting
is because it creates a much more level playing
field for a whole bunch of people in our society.
Women, people who are raising families, for
people with disabilities or other challenges
that they have in their labs that mean they
need a little bit more flexibility in the
way that they do things. And so I feel like
this has been a really interesting opportunity
for them to experience that and to prove to
their managers, bosses, companies, that it
might be a possible way forward for them.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Emma:
Yeah, I don’t know what you think about that,
but I definitely feel like that’s one of the
biggest positives that is coming out of this
situation.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about people
who might be at some kind of disadvantage
how this could help them in their career,
but even thinking about people who live in
some far away remote area, if a company is
more used to hiring online and allowing people
to work remotely, why not hire someone who
lives far away as well who maybe doesn’t have
access to a really great company, but if they’re
allowed to work remotely, maybe all of a sudden
people in other areas have access to a great
job or all of those types of things. That
would be really good thing to see.
Emma:
Yeah, we can see this whole boom in the technology
and the tools that we need to support us through
this as well and I think, yeah, exactly. Like
you said, people in regional areas or rural
areas who previously had to move to big cities
to these big job opportunities, maybe that
will change. I think that’s really exciting.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Emma:
A lot of things have been shaken up by this.
I don’t think we have had the chance to really
anticipate it. So we’ve had to respond really
quickly. Socially, things have changed a lot,
environmentally, things are changing a lot,
politically, all of these things, economically
obviously, and I think really it’s a once
in a lifetime opportunity for us to try something
different. You’re forced into something different.
Vanessa:
Everyone around the world is doing it.
Emma:
Everyone’s doing it. But the really most interesting
part I think is being able to think about
what we take back to normal after this is
finished, after the pandemic’s over, after
they find a vaccine and the fear and the stress
and the worry reduces a little. But there’s
so many different things that I’m constantly
thinking I caught like this aspect of this
new life that we have. So how can I take that
back into what I was doing, what is normal?
So a lot of that is to do with like the social
side of things and I guess just slowing things
down a little.
Emma:
Before all of this happened, I was working
hours and hours and hours and hours a day,
rushing round, then trying to go out and meet
friends and do this and go there and buy this
and all of these things, and I was constantly
running around and rushing and trying to make
all of these things fit into the limited number
of hours I had in my day. And what I’ve really,
really appreciated is just the opportunity
to slow that down and to do some more things
that are just for me or just focusing on me
a little bit. More sleep or a little bit more
exercise. Like I said, I’m doing a bit more
cooking, which before I was like, “I’m too
busy for that.” I’m enjoying that as well.
So I’m thinking carefully about what parts
of this experience now I have wanted to try
and take back into new normal once all of
this is over.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I think it will seem, like you mentioned,
if you’re a go, go, go kind of person, to
just jump back into that might seem hectic.
It was hectic before but you see it as hectic
now, which will be an interesting shift. We’ll
see exactly what happens, but it’s very interesting.
Emma:
Perfect. It’s very nice. But it’s a very idealistic
way of looking at our current situation.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I like that positive attitude though
because there’s so many negative things or
all of the fear and stress, so just thinking
about the positives we can take away, it’s
really… Yeah, it’s good for the morale.
Emma:
I’m always trying to think more positively
of that. In this situation it’s all you
can do.
Vanessa:
Yes. Well, thank you so much Emma for this
chat and thank you for sharing it with all
of my students as well. I hope they get a
chance to, I’m sure all of them have already
seen mmmEnglish, but if you haven’t, make
sure you check it out. I’ll post links and
all of that as well.
Well, thank you so much. I hope we get to
chat again sometime in the future.
Emma:
Wow, absolutely. Have a really good sleep.
Vanessa:
Have a good day.
Emma:
You too.
Vanessa:
Bye. Well, today I am lucky to be here with
Gabby from Go Natural English, another amazing
English teaching channel. You’ve been around
YouTube for quite awhile.
Gabby:
It’s almost 10 years. Hi everyone.
Vanessa:
Amazing. Well, I’m so glad that you’re here.
Thank you so much for taking your valuable
time today.
Gabby:
Thank you. I’m really excited to be here with
you, Vanessa. Thank you.
Vanessa:
Yes, so even though we’re living far apart,
we are experiencing similar life circumstances
right now. So I’m curious for you, what kind
of regulations or changes have happened in
the last month where you live? First of all,
what area or what country are you living in
so people can get an idea and what kind of
changes have happened over the last month
for you?
Gabby:
It’s been very interesting because last month,
I was in Kansas City for a few weeks and then
went back to Los Angeles right as the virus
was unfolding and new regulations and orders
were coming into play. And so we decided,
my boyfriend and I, we decided to come back
to the Kansas City area from LA. So when LA
had this roll outs of new orders, we thought,
“Okay, maybe we should go back to Missouri
where things are a little bit more calm and
peaceful and less people.” And so we’re actually
in the Kansas City area right now, and it’s
interesting because across the United States,
we’ve had these say at home orders, right?
And it happened first in Los Angeles and then
here in Kansas City. It was about a week behind
here. So we had a little more time to prepare,
but we have been staying at home just like
most people in the US.
Vanessa:
Yeah, and probably you have a little more
space there too.
Gabby:
Yes.
Vanessa:
Maybe you feel a little more comfortable.
Gabby:
A bit.
Vanessa:
Or space there to maybe feel…
Gabby:
Yes!
Vanessa:
… a little more comfortable.
Gabby:
A bigger yard to play in, yes.
Vanessa:
That is essential. So you have some private
or personal outdoor space that you can go
to like a yard?
Gabby:
Exactly. Yeah. So personal stories, I have
a house in the Kansas City area and I have
some family in the Kansas City area, so I
go back and forth a lot. So it just seems
like an easy place to kind of hunker down
during stay at home and just have more space
to walk around in the yard or be outside,
so
Vanessa:
I’m curious because you teach online, I imagine
most of your work related things are at home
or at least not out and in an office. So how
has your daily life changed since all of this?
I know you’ve moved back and forth a little
bit, but as far as just your daily habits,
has an awful lot changed for you?
Gabby:
Honestly, because for so many years I’ve been
working from home. I mean I know it’s a big
change for many people to be working from
home, working remotely. But I’ve been doing
this for so long, I just kind of feel like
it’s another day at my home office. You know,
speaking of work, not like, you know, free
time or social life, but work life is pretty
much the same. It’s, I feel very lucky in
that regard.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I do too. Just to be already comfortable
with working from home and that you can continue
doing that.
Gabby:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
It’s really a good position to be in and hopefully
helpful for English learners. We can keep
giving them English lessons.
Gabby:
Absolutely. Yeah, and I think more and more
people are looking to the internet and YouTube
and online courses to learn from nowadays
and it’s becoming more and more normal and
I love that because that’s what we do.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Yeah. It seems like this is the perfect
time to spend more time enriching yourself
if you have a little bit extra time.
Gabby:
Definitely, now is the time. If you have to
stay at home and have a little extra free
time because you’re not going out, then learn
something new.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Have you found yourself at all picking
up other activities or, I know a lot of people,
at least around here have gotten pets or they
like started a garden cause you’re at home
a lot.
Gabby:
It’s really funny because my dad gave me a
stack of books and magazines about country
living, which is, it’s very Missouri this
is kind of a rural area, if people don’t know,
Kansas city is a big city, but anyway, some
people like my dad are into raising chickens
and having a garden and so I’ve become a little
obsessed with the idea having a garden and
chickens. I don’t have any yet, but hopefully
soon.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I think at least around here the stores
have, I don’t know if there’s specific, there’s
not really specific chicken stores, but places
where you get chickens have just sold out
because so many people are wanting to kind
of spend more quiet time, go back to the traditional
ideas.
Gabby:
It’s very interesting.
Vanessa:
Yeah. I guess people like your dad are ahead
of the curve.
Gabby:
Well, he was ahead of the curve before even
it started. Yeah.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I’m curious, what do you think is going
to happen in the future after, at least the
major part of their pandemic has passed? What
do you think life’s going to be like? Similar
difference.
Gabby:
I think it will be a little different than
before. I think that we may not go out as
much as before. Maybe it will take a while
to get back to where we were or maybe people
will be a little bit more hesitant to go out
or do things in large groups or too close
together to other people. You know? I think
long answers short, just people will be a
little bit more cautious because I don’t think
the virus will go away completely, we’ll have
to just be aware of washing our hands more
often and you know, just taking care of ourselves
if we do get sick, not pushing ourselves too
hard, I hope that it will become more normal
to maybe work from home if you’re not feeling
well or take time off if you’re not feeling
well and you know for people to really be
healthy.
Vanessa:
Yeah, yeah, the idea of continue. It’s hard
to just shake the idea that, “Oh, I shouldn’t
stand too close to my neighbor”. All those
things that, it feels weird now, but it also
feels weird to hug a neighbor because we’ve
got so used to that distancing so people were
not jumped back in.
Gabby:
Yeah. People are not really hugging or shaking
hands these days, and I think you’re right.
It will be. It will be a little strange to
start doing that again. I think there’s going
to be some very awkward monks months ahead
where we’re like, do we shake hands? Or? Cause
“hi”.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Yeah. It even feels weird like that
now because at least where I live, there’s
not an awful lot of cases, or at least it’s
not people I’m personally know, so when you
see your neighbors, it just feels weird like,
Oh, I want to help you in your garden or give
you some food, or all those types of things,
but kind of keep our distance.
Gabby:
Yeah, right. It’s really interesting, I think
we’re all just kind of figuring it out together
at the same time and it’s good to talk about
it, I’m really glad that you know we’re having
this talk and that you’ll talk with other
English teachers and many other people in
the comments too. I’m sure will have this
discussion continuing, but it’s interesting
to figure out what is life going to be like
in the following months and years.
Vanessa:
Yeah. I’m curious especially too for children,
how they’re going to be in the future, will
this be a traumatic event where they’ll be
afraid to touch other people or get close.
Gabby:
Or children who we’re in school and they’re
learning from home and they, I mean there’s
so many children who are not going back to
school until maybe next year, it’s crazy.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Yeah. Even for my two year old the other
day he said, mommy, I touched our neighbor’s
ball. It’s okay. It’s okay. He doesn’t know
why. We don’t want him to do that. It doesn’t
quite understand, but that might linger after
all of this has passed.
Gabby:
Right? Like these kids will grow up thinking
they can’t touch anything.
Vanessa:
It’ll be quite interesting. I’m sure it will
affect us and kids and everyone else for quite
awhile.
Gabby:
Yeah, but I think just taking it day by day
and just trying to help each other out and
being kind and yeah, that’s all we can do
really.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I agree. Just sharing kindness is a
great idea. Well thank you so much Gabby for
sharing your thoughts and just kind of what’s
going on in your life because…
Gabby:
Of course…
Vanessa:
No matter where we live. We’re all doing this.
Gabby:
Of course. Yeah. I loved meeting on, online
like this, this is so cool. It’s a great substitute
for face to face meetings and you know, we’re
not even in the same city so of course we
would probably do this anyway online. But
it’s great.
Vanessa:
A good excuse.
Gabby:
Yes.
Vanessa:
Yes. Well thank you so much. I hope everyone
gets a chance to check out. Go natural English,
YouTube channel.
Gabby:
Thank you!
Vanessa:
Keep learning, enriching yourself with all
the time that we have now to not go out and
be social. You can learn online.
Gabby:
Yes, thanks so much Vanessa.
Vanessa:
My pleasure. All right, I’m here with Jack
from the wonderful YouTube channel ToFluency
who is another English teacher on the YouTubes,
so thanks for joining me Jack.
Jack:
Sure thing, Vanessa, glad to be here.
Vanessa:
So we are surprisingly living in the same
city, which is unlike any of the other people
who are in this video. But even though we’re
in the same city, we are living different
lives but experiencing the same thing, this
quarantine business. So I’m curious for you,
even though they’re similar to me, what kind
of regulations or changes have happened for
you over the last month or so since the quarantine
or just the pandemic has been going on?
Jack:
Yeah, it’s hard to think about the timeframe
of it all because I remember there was before
the lockdown happened and the city basically
said, we are implementing these guidelines
at Kate and I had done some of that as well.
So we, we were a little bit aware of, we thought
it was going to happen. My son wasn’t feeling
very well, so we took him out of school as
a precaution and then suddenly it, it started
and those, those guidelines were something
that I was expecting, and it’s been interesting
for me as well to compare them to other cities
around the world and other countries. I’m
from the UK, I live in America. So just like
comparing what everyone is doing in that regard.
Vanessa:
Yeah, and even within the U S it seems like
different cities and States are dealing with
it in different ways.
Jack:
That’s right. And it’s interesting also to
see how cities are dealing with that and then
how that compares to the state and then the
country and the different advice and guidelines
are being passed down. But yeah, I feel in
terms of the guidelines have been set, they’ve
been pretty general in terms of what other
people are facing right now. And it started
with no large gatherings and then it started
to be a little bit more strict with schools
closing. Certain businesses are allowed to
be open and some of that has changed slightly,
but a lot of it is just it’s down to essential
versus non essential.
Vanessa:
Yeah, so you can, there’s not a specific amount
of time you can be outside or even saying,
for example, Emma in Australia said that they
can only have gatherings of two people. I
feel like the U S hasn’t really implemented
something that specific. It’s just don’t gather
in large groups of more than 10 or something
a little more vague than other places.
Jack:
Yeah, so a good, a good example is in the
UK you can go outside to exercise once per
day. So you have your very specific hour,
let’s say when you can go exercise and the
cracking down on people even just like stop
in and have taking a break. Where as here
there’s no general guideline to that. So we’re
spending a lot of time outside in our neighborhood,
especially in the yard.
Vanessa:
Especially with kids, you have to get out
of the house or else you just go stir crazy.
Jack:
Oh yeah. It’s bad for everyone. Yeah. And
luckily right now the weather’s just incredible.
Vanessa:
I can’t imagine if this had happened in the
middle of the winter, we would be going crazy.
Jack:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
So I’m curious about your daily life. You
kind of hinted, you live in a neighborhood,
you have kids. How has your daily life changed
in the last month or so?
Jack:
Well, we’re, we feel very fortunate that we’ve
all been healthy throughout this, this period.
And also that I do what I do, which is, similar
to what you do. And my wife also has a job
that allows her to work from home. But with
that, with the two children I’m working, my
wife’s working, they have to have schoolwork
done and there’s no, there’s no way that we
can get childcare at this time. It’s been,
it’s been a challenge but it, it’s actually
been really nice at the same time because,
Vanessa:
How so?
Jack:
Well part of it is, I can be flexible with
when I work, my wife’s school teaching, she
has certain hours that she has to do stuff.
Our children, it’s both good and bad that
the word we have to in regards to them being
able to entertain each other, they have company
cause they can’t play with other children.
But then when it’s, when there are times of
the day when everyone’s a little about on
edge, it’s just, it’s madness. Just before
dinner time for example, when let’s say I’m
trying to finish a video, my wife gets a call
from her lead teacher to say, you know, we
need this done now. And then the children
are hungry on one of them is tired, one of
them hasn’t napped. It’s everything like comes
together at one point.
Jack:
But we’re, we’re managing pretty well and
we’re actually in a routine that we haven’t
been in for a long time because we don’t have
to do the school drop off, we don’t have to
do certain things that the commitments that
we have classes, soccer practice or that kind
of stuff.
Vanessa:
Yeah everything has come to a halt.
Jack:
So we, we’ve just gotten to a really good
routine at the moment that’s more or less
working for everyone. And yeah, everyone’s
been quite flexible at the same time.
Vanessa:
It’s really great that you guys can flexibly
work and first of all have jobs that are still
continuing but be able to work from home as
well. So what do you think, I guess we should
say when this is over and not if this is ever
over, but when this is over, what do you think
the future looks like? What’s your prediction?
Jack:
It’s, I mean it’s very difficult isn’t it?
Because we’re in very uncertain times and
there are different things to consider with
this. And you know, you, this is from a very
American perspective as well. When I, when
I think about what’s going to happen and think
about the UK, but yeah, it’s, I feel that
these lock-downs are going to probably continue
in terms of it’s already been extended as
a lot longer than most people thought.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Jack:
And then it just seems like everyone is saying
there’s going to be that second wave, well,
she’s likely going to come in in the fall.
So we’re preparing in many ways for this to
be extended over the long term. And from that
we, I say we, Kate and I’ve talked about this
a lot, my wife and I, and we were actually
watching The Big Shore together last night.
Have you seen that movie?
Vanessa:
No, I haven’t.
Jack:
Well it’s, it’s based on the 2008 crash.
Vanessa:
Oh, okay.
Jack:
But there’s certain parts of it where you,
you watch it and you think this is just like
what’s going on at the moment in terms of
the economy, but also that was during the
SARS outbreak. So there was a scene when one
of the characters was wearing a mask and they
ridiculed him because he was wearing a mask
in America. But now that has come around where
we’re all being told to wear masks outside.
But just to go back to that, I see there’s
so many different ways that it can play out
and you can just take any kind of industry
and think, okay, how’s that going to be affected
and what’s the knock on effects of that?
Vanessa:
Right.
Jack:
So you can think about the travel industry
and it’s very difficult to picture this time
next year. The travel industry being back
to normal.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Even in a year, who knows what’s going
to happen? What do you think about the education
side of it? Because you have two kids in the
education system there. My kids are too young
for that now. So for you, what do you think
is going to happen with education? Not so
much even will they go back to school in the
fall, but do you think that remote education
will be integrated at all into whatever the
new system is, even if it’s completely safe
to go back to school? Just because that’s
what’s been going on. They’ve been remotely
educating for awhile. What do you think about
that?
Jack:
Yeah, I think it’s interesting because you
can, some people are seeing the advantages
to it, where, I mean the biggest advantage
is you don’t have to travel and just the fact
that you can work remotely, but at the same
time, I see a lot of frustration with it and
it seems like it’s been just, just put onto
people in such a big way that they haven’t
had time to ease into this and get used to
the resources available. But what surprised
me is that how, how good it has been with
the limited time that I’ve had. So the kind
of resources we’re getting from both the schools
that my children go to just been, they’ve
been excellent and they have enjoyed it. I’ve
been surprised at how well it’s worked. Yeah.
Vanessa:
So they’re engaged even though it’s just a
screen. Is it the teacher that they see or
did they see all of the students? What’s that
like?
Jack:
Usually they do it on a grid and they can
see every student. And the benefit of this
from a teacher point of view is that you can
mute everybody. So then, so instead of when
you ask a question, you can just say, okay,
so my daughter just had a Spanish lesson and
she’s, she’s three and a half, they teach
in preschool. So today’s lesson was Spanish
and I was listening and it was just incredible
because they get everyone to repeat stuff
and Emma was repeating it and then they’ll
unmute Emma and say, all right Emma, how’d
you say it’s snowing? And she just said it
and they’re completely engaged and my sister’s
been given our children lessons as well, doing
craft projects. So they’ve been for two hours
at a time in front of the screen interacting
with my sister and she’s going through all
these different projects that they’re doing,
asking questions or having discussions and
it’s, it’s, it’s been incredible. Some of
that that’s been going on.
Vanessa:
That’s really sweet too, that your sister
would do that. I. mean, probably a good way
to connect, but that’s so kind.
Jack:
Oh, everyone’s winning because the children
love it. We love it. And she just loves that
she loves to be, you know, with them. So,
yeah we…
Vanessa:
It’s not a bad idea for like remote relationships.
Even for like my two and a half year old.
Let’s do a puzzle together and just pretend
like they’re there, but it’s just a screen.
Jack:
Yeah. And if you’re going to .
Vanessa:
It’s a screen.
Jack:
Yeah. And if you’re going to do that, I recommend
having a computer setup and then sitting down
at a desk because we found any type of Zoom
time with my sister on a phone just turns
into a battle where they’re both trying to
get it and they’re holding it, they want to
be over here, they want to be over there and
it keeps them centered.
Vanessa:
Sure. It’s already fixed on the desk. This
is where you’re going to stay. That’s really
interesting. I’m kind of surprised. Maybe
just sounds like you were a little surprised
too that they’re actually engaged with the
class or with your sister doing projects because
you’d kind of think that maybe it’s not for
everyone, but that most kids would just think,
“Oh no one’s here. I can do whatever I want.”
Jack:
Yeah, I think the craving that kind of interaction
too, the type of work where they have to work
through things on their own. You can tell
they’re not as engaged into that and you have
to be with them and try and lead them down.
But when it’s a class they’re definitely engaged.
Vanessa:
Yeah. I guess that’s a kind of thing that
I’ve heard as kind of a complaint about this
remote learning is it’s not really homeschooling
because that would mean you’re coming up with
the curriculum as the parent, but you’re kind
of just the intermediary. You’re being given
the information, which could be a little tough,
but sounds like kind of working for you guys
so far.
Jack:
Well, yeah to the best of its ability. I mean,
everyone needs this space.
Vanessa:
Is that possible?
Jack:
Not really, no. It’s very difficult to get
that time, but then it’s just shown that people
are having to get creative and to do things
in different ways. So for me, I want to have
certain time to exercise. If I start exercising,
like, “Oh, I’m just going to sneak off and
do something,” then within two minutes they’re
jumping on my back if I’m doing pushups. But
then you just have to think how can you get
them involved so everyone’s doing things together.
Vanessa:
Sure. A level of creativity and patience has
to double.
Jack:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
Well, very interesting to hear how things
are going even just across the city from me.
So thank you so much, Jack, for sharing about
your daily life, your predictions for the
future. I’m curious to hear what other people
from around the world, especially with kids,
have experience with remote learning and all
of that. Every country does it a little differently,
but kids are still kids.
Jack:
Yeah, I think a lot depends as well on the
parent’s job. So Kate and I are a little bit
more flexible and we can spend more time with
them. But I know people who are having to
do that while having to log 10 hours a day
at home.
Vanessa:
Oh my goodness.
Jack:
And I see them at the end of the day and-
Vanessa:
That is impossible.
Jack:
It’s impossible, that’s the thing. And that’s
why I feel very fortunate that we can be flexible
and spend that time with them.
Vanessa:
Yeah, for sure and for those people it would
be the perfect time for them to be able to
have a babysitter come over. But we can’t
do that.
Jack:
Exactly yeah.
Vanessa:
Kind of this strange cycle. But we are all
pushing through. So thank you so much for
sharing Jack. I appreciate it.
Jack:
My pleasure.
Vanessa:
Anyone who hasn’t found Jack’s YouTube channel
yet, make sure you check it out and continue
learning to use this free time to have remote
education. All of us are doing it well.
Jack:
Yeah, well thank you.
Vanessa:
Well thanks so much and I’ll talk to you later.
Jack:
Yeah. Bye-bye.
Vanessa:
Bye. All right, I am here with the wonderful
Lucy from English with Lucy. The wonderful-
Lucy:
Hello.
Vanessa:
Thanks so much for joining me.
Lucy:
Thank you for having me. It’s such an honor
to be here.
Vanessa:
Oh it’s my honor to talk with you. So even
though you are living far away on the other
side of the ocean, we are experiencing some
similar circumstances as is probably everyone
watching this. So I’m curious in this strange
quarantine times, what kind of regulations
or changes have happened where you live? First
of all, where do you live and then what kind
of changes have happened in your area?
Lucy:
So I live in Bedfordshire, which is a county
near London in England. And there have been
quite a few changes. But I will say from the
beginning that I live on a farm in England.
So some of the changes haven’t quite reached
me. So life is quite unaffected compared to
how other people’s lives are affected.
Vanessa:
So you’re not in the middle of a city in a
small apartment?
Lucy:
No, and when we do have to drive to a city
or a town, it’s unbelievable how different
everything is. It feels like the apocalypse.
Vanessa:
No one’s anywhere.
Lucy:
Yeah, and I think one big thing is that people
don’t make eye contact as if that’s going
to spread the disease.
Vanessa:
The virus will shoot out of your eyes. I’m
going to get you.
Lucy:
Yeah. So we are you being told in America
to stay six feet apart?
Vanessa:
Yes.
Lucy:
But we use the metric system, so we’re being
told two meters apart, which I think is similar.
Vanessa:
About the same, yeah.
Lucy:
Yeah. I’ve forgotten, whereabouts are you?
Vanessa:
I live on the east coast in North Carolina,
so it’s not even a big city, but still it’s
pretty deserted like any city I guess in the
UK too. But strange thing to have to stay
away from people, especially people that you
previously knew. All of a sudden they have
something and you have to avoid them.
Lucy:
Yeah, and everybody has different standards
of how seriously they’re taking the recommendations.
So it’s kind of awkward at first like, “Are
we doing the two meters? Are we’re doing more?”
But I guess my biggest problem at the moment
is I’m really missing my mom.
Vanessa:
Oh sure. So generally even families aren’t
really getting together if you don’t know
live together?
Lucy:
No. You have to stick with your household.
So, for anyone that’s not in your household,
you’re not allowed to visit them. If you do
bump into each other, you’ve got to be two
meters apart. If I wanted to go on a walk
outside of the farm then I would be able to
go with my fiance Will, but that would be
it.
Vanessa:
Oh, interesting. So that’s actually a regulation
that you can’t meet with people because here
it’s not a regulation that you can’t, but
it’s generally suggested.
Lucy:
It’s funny isn’t it?
Vanessa:
So we are together sometimes but-
Lucy:
Yeah, I think it’s hard for them to tell us
absolutely don’t do this. I think there’s
a lot of ethical boundaries maybe, but we’re
advised no meetings of more than two people,
but we’re also advised to not mix with other
households. So it’s a bit hard to understand,
but there’ve been lots of really good things
our government has done because we’ve obviously
got a lot of people that now can’t go to work.
You’re only allowed to go to work if it’s
essential or if you can still maintain the,
what’s it called? Self-isolation.
Vanessa:
Oh sure. If you can still self-isolate while
you’re working.
Lucy:
Yeah. Whilst you’re working. So for example,
gardeners can still work and window cleaners
can still work as long as they don’t have
contact, but they are doing something which
is called furloughing, which is a word that
I’ve just learnt. I’ve never had written before.
But it’s basically, if you have to stop working
the government will pay up to 80% of your
monthly salary up to £2,850 a month I think.
Which is a lot. That’s a high salary.
Vanessa:
You can survive and probably not change much
of your lifestyle.
Lucy:
Yeah. So for anyone who is employed by someone,
if their employer is choosing to put them
on this scheme, employee has to pay them now,
but then they can claim back the money later
from the government. So I’m surprised that
the government have been so generous with
that figure, but I think it’s really good.
Vanessa:
Yeah. People in the US don’t listen to that.
Lucy:
No, no sorry.
Vanessa:
They’ll get jealous.
Lucy:
But it’s not good for everyone because we
have a lot of self-employed people and there
are quite specific regulations on who can
claim.
Vanessa:
Talking about being self-employed, I imagine
that’s the category you fall under.
Lucy:
Yeah, I’m a company and I employ myself. But
I’m not taking any money from the government
because my business isn’t really affected
by this.
Vanessa:
Sure. So has your daily life been affected
much? You said you live far enough away from
the city, but I guess you still go to the
grocery store and places like that when you
need to?
Lucy:
So my whole world hasn’t changed too much.
Honestly, I lived quite a solitary life anyway
because we live on a farm. My fiance’s a farmer,
I work from home and anyone who I do work
with, I work with remotely. So over emails
and Skype and things like that. And I also
never ever go to the supermarket because I
have a shopping delivery because the closest
supermarket is still 30 minutes away. So that’s
a long round trip. I’d have to take out a
whole afternoon to do a week shop. So normally
at 7:30 on a Monday morning I have a shopping
delivery. But this has been quite difficult
since the lockdown’s come in.
Vanessa:
Sure, everyone wants that now.
Lucy:
Everyone wants it and the prime minister,
before he became ill he was doing a daily
broadcast in the afternoon and one day he
said, “And I really recommend that everyone
uses online delivery services.” Explosions
everywhere.
Vanessa:
Wow.
Lucy:
I was in a queue. I tried to go on to edit
an order that I’ve made and I was number 63,000
in a queue to get onto the website.
Vanessa:
What? 63,000?
Lucy:
Yes, it was overloaded and then the orders
that we had made didn’t arrive, so it was
chaos. So now they’re doing priority customers,
so people who are vulnerable, definitely people
who are older, people who have underlying
health conditions and people that maybe are
a single parent, but with children they are
meant to be given the priority. Sometimes
it’s not reaching them. So I am going to the
supermarket now.
Vanessa:
So this is the new life you’re actually going
back into.
Lucy:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
When you go to the store or other places that
are more public like that, are people wearing
masks and gloves or what’s that like? Because
I know that’s a little different everywhere.
Lucy:
Yeah. It’s funny because masks aren’t a part
of our culture, I know in some countries,
especially in Asia, wearing a mask is quite
normal, but it’s not a part of our culture.
And so no one really has them. And if we do
have them then they’re not necessarily the
right ones. So Will, my fiance, gave me a
mask to wear and I was like, “Will, this is
a dust mask for doing woodwork. I don’t think
that’s going to do much.” But he made me wear
it anyway and I did go to the supermarket
and there was a huge queue outside of people
two meters apart and it looked really low,
but actually because it was so spaced out,
it went down quite quickly and they’re doing
it so that there’s a limited amount of people
allowed in the shop at each time. And yeah,
it did take a long time because also you don’t
want to crowd someone. If I want to look at
the tomatoes, but someone is already looking
at the tomatoes. I have to wait my turn. It’s
an interesting experience and I try not to
go too often.
Vanessa:
Yeah, it does seem like it’s meant to help,
at the same time, a little inconvenient. Here
they’ve put arrows on the ground in grocery
stores so that you have to follow certain
patterns. It’s a recent thing.
Lucy:
What the fuck?
Vanessa:
Yeah, I haven’t been to the store in maybe
two months. I don’t know. It’s been forever.
My husband’s been going, either I was really,
really pregnant or just had a newborn. So
it made sense for him to go anyway. But I’ve
heard that if you, for example, want a bag
to put the apples in, you have to follow the
arrows all the way to the other side to get
the bag and then follow the arrows. So it’s
maybe not so intuitive right now, but the
idea is nice.
Lucy:
Oh my God. Yeah. It’s been interesting to
see how it’s just slowly changed and the restrictions
are getting stronger and stronger because
at first I don’t think we all really believed
that it was going to be such a big deal. I
remember saying myself back in March like,
“It’d be fine. I think it’d be fine.” But
now, yes were not fine.
Vanessa:
It’s serious.
Lucy:
Yes. But we definitely have to stay far away
from the cashier. The person that’s, what
do you call the cashier in America?
Vanessa:
The cashier.
Lucy:
Okay. Store clerk, isn’t it that?
Vanessa:
It kind of feels a little old fashioned. And
maybe in the official title it says, “I’m
a store clerk,” but yeah, cashiers. Do they
have any kind of barrier? I know some places
have put up a glass barrier at the bank or
something.
Lucy:
Yeah, we do have that actually. Yeah we do.
One thing that’s become really popular that
I think is really good is well because people
are struggling to find the food they want
in the supermarkets and also to get the delivery
slots. We are or people in general in the
UK are using local providers more. So obviously
I’m a farmer’s wife to be, so I’m very passionate
using farm shops, but all the local farm shops
are noticing booming trade and they’re doing,
you can phone them up to say what you want
and they’ll pack a box and pass it over the
fence to you. The local butchers are doing
deliveries and all of these kind of service
providers that were overlooked before, like
milkman. I don’t know if you have milk delivery
services in the US.
Vanessa:
No, but that sounds really quaint and amazing.
Lucy:
In little glass bottles.
Vanessa:
Is that a real service?
Lucy:
Oh yeah, the milk man. It’s a running joke
in my village that my mom had an affair with
the milkman because I’m blonde and so is the
milkman and my dad isn’t. But that’s not true.
Vanessa:
Usually we just say the mailman like, “Oh
you look like the m-”
Lucy:
Yeah, exactly. No, and we’ve always used a
milkman. He’s very nice and well loved in
the village.
Vanessa:
I imagine he is well loved. It kind of reminds
me of something that might have happened at
the turn of the century.
Lucy:
They use electric milk floats now, so the
little vans that they drive are electric.
So you don’t hear them. They’re just vroom.
They’re very modest.
Vanessa:
The mysterious milk coming, arriving at your
door.
Lucy:
Yeah. It’s a really good low carbon footprint
because you have driven to you in an electric
van from a local dairy.
Vanessa:
Oh, that’s cool.
Lucy:
Brilliant. Yeah and they bring goods and services
and so milkman were in decline and now-
Vanessa:
The business to be in.
Lucy:
Yeah, curiously it’s cool.
Vanessa:
Yeah, I’m curious to hear if other people
from other countries too, if local businesses,
especially food businesses have gained in
popularity because that is true. People want
to avoid going to stores and it’s maybe more
convenient to get something. You have a CSA
type programs?
Lucy:
What’s that?
Vanessa:
You get like a weekly box of vegetables usually
from a farm and you sign up for a membership
and they-
Lucy:
Yes. Lots of those around.
Vanessa:
Community supported agriculture I think is
what it stands for.
Lucy:
Oh okay.
Vanessa:
But you can say sign up for something like
that.
Lucy:
I mean there are lots of farms that do vegetable
boxes. They’re normally run by farm shops.
There’s a really successful one that’s near
us. They have a barn that they sell the food
for them and then they also do deliveries
on a certain day. Yeah, and they’ve been,
I mean it’s a luxury now if you get stuff
with them because they’re so popular. No,
it’s really cool. I’m really glad that people
are going back and are happy to pay a little
bit more for something that is more local
and kind of meat that’s being responsibly
produced as well. I like that.
Vanessa:
Sure, and not transported halfway across the
globe.
Lucy:
Yeah, that is good because the moment we’re
noticing in our supermarkets that we get a
lot of meat from New Zealand, which couldn’t
be further. Yeah. So it is nice that people
are using British products more.
Vanessa:
That’s a pleasant positive turn of events.
And that kind of leads to my final question
because I’m curious what you think is going
to happen after all this passes, but even
with food, do you think people will continue
to go to those local shops after all of this
main part of the pandemic has passed? What’s
your prediction?
Lucy:
I think so. I think so because it’s about
forming a habit isn’t it? And once you get
used to something, it becomes kind of just
part of your day or your week. I really hope
that food delivery services, whether they’re
from supermarkets or from local providers
become more popular because instead of lots
of families all driving to the supermarket
and coming home, it’s just one van doing a
calculated route, which I think is quite good.
Clears up the roads, because that’s one thing
we’ve noticed. The roads had been so clear.
I walk my dog normally with a lead, but I
don’t even have to do now because there are
no cars around.
Vanessa:
So even now in a rural area there’s noticeably
less traffic?
Lucy:
Oh yeah. Way less, but there are a lot more,
I wonder if you know what this is, MAMILS.
Vanessa:
Is this a different way to say mammals?
Lucy:
No. It’s M-A-M-I-L-S. It’s something that
is a recent phenomenon. It’s the middle-aged
men in Lycra.
Vanessa:
This is an actual acronym?
Lucy:
Yeah. You’ll hear it mentioned on the radio.
People are getting really annoyed about the
amount of MAMILS because men, it seems to
be predominantly males but there are lots
of females as well, have taken to cycling.
But it’s unbelievable. There are so many of
them.
Vanessa:
All of a sudden everyone just pulled their
bike out of the garage or out of somewhere
to-
Lucy:
Oil it up, squeezed into their Lycra and yeah,
they’re going everywhere. And so we’ve been
told by the government-
Lucy:
And yeah, that going everywhere and I think
it’s, so we’ve been told by the government
that we’re allowed one hour of exercise per
day. It’s either one exercise session or one
hour long session, I can’t remember. And people
are taking that really seriously. Like they
feel like they deserve that hour. They’re
entitled to the hour -
Vanessa:
And if you’re wearing Lycra, maybe that should
be like 30 minutes.
Lucy:
Then my mother, my dad once bought a pair
of Lycra shorts for running in, which you
should never run in lycra shorts, and she
cut out the crotch area so when he put them
on he couldn’t wear them.
Vanessa:
She did that just so that he couldn’t wear
them?
Lucy:
Yes. Not for any other reason.
Lucy:
He wouldn’t wear them. So he put them on and
she’d ruined them. And it actually was a big
issue in our house for awhile. He was really
upset, but she hated them so much and he wasn’t
listening.
Vanessa:
Oh man. What are you going to do, how are
you going to dissuade him from doing this?
Only one way.
Lucy:
I know! Everyone else thought that day yet.
Yeah. I wonder if people are going to maintain
the social distancing regulation? Like not
shaking hands, not kissing. I’m quite happy
with that. The less I have to touch people,
the better.
Vanessa:
Yeah. It seems like there’s been so many,
at least for me because I have a newborn.
My neighbors are dying to hold him and like
be close and -
Lucy:
Yes.
Vanessa:
So I, it will be a little bit weird though
when this passes to feel like it’s okay because
maybe it’s not and we felt like it wasn’t
okay for so long.
Lucy:
Yes. Because I hear that one thing, especially
with newborn babies, is people want to kiss
them.
Vanessa:
Impossible not to kiss the little cheeks.
Lucy:
Ah the cheeks. I love the cheeks. And then
also when they look like they have elastic
bands around their wrists, you know when they
get chubby.
Vanessa:
He has the little baby rolls. But yeah, it’s
going to be weird to feel like we don’t have
some kind of complex after this. Like, Oh,
is this okay? And not be kind of traumatized.
Lucy:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s going to be weird. I wonder
how long this will go on for. We’re meant
to be getting married in September.
Vanessa:
Oh. I hope by then.
Lucy:
Fingers crossed. We can postpone it. There’s
no issue. But I’ve been growing my hair, especially
for the wedding and I’m really getting tired
of it.
Vanessa:
You can only take a couple more months.
Lucy:
It’s started tickling the bottom of my back
now and if it goes any further.
Vanessa:
Yeah, if you postpone until next year, you’re
going to have world’s longest hair flowing
behind you. You don’t even need a veil.
Lucy:
Especially as all the, Oh, this is something
funny actually, that’s happened during lockdown.
Men can’t get their hair cut. Now women, it
doesn’t matter that much, apart from maybe
the roots I think some women are struggling
with, but all the men have started shaving
their heads.
Vanessa:
Oh, shaving their heads, really?
Lucy:
It’s only been a couple of weeks. How fast
does their hair grow? But they’ve all been
putting it on their social media and some
girlfriends seem to be better at it than others.
Some kind of lawn mower stripes.
Vanessa:
This has not caught on in the US yet, but
we’re usually a couple of weeks behind. So
maybe in a couple weeks that will happen.
Vanessa:
Oh yeah, I saw a funny picture that was like
a little comic and it showed men lining up
to go to a barber shop after this is finished
and everyone had crazy hair and the barber
was just in shock. How am I going to deal
with this? Because that’s all you can do.
Lucy:
Will is starting to feel it a little bit,
I think it was like back in 2007, 2008 when
men had like sweeping side fringes and stuff
and they click it like this. He’s starting
to look a little bit early two thousands for
my liking and his liking, but we’ll get through
this difficult time.
Vanessa:
Because it’s either that or shave your head.
So we’ve got two options.
Lucy:
No. He can’t shave it just in case the wedding
does go ahead. No, we’re not doing that.
Vanessa:
Wow. Well thank you so much for sharing your
life and thoughts and predictions. We’ll see
what happens. Hopefully your wedding can still
happen and Will won’t resort to having to
shave his head.
Lucy:
Pray for me.
Vanessa:
Or you.
Lucy:
Yeah, I know it’s lovely to talk. Thank you
for having me on.
Vanessa:
Oh, my pleasure. I hope you continue to have
an okay quarantine there on a lovely farm.
At least you’ve got some nice space outside
to roam freely.
Lucy:
Yeah, it’s good. We are in a fortunate position.
I really do feel for people who don’t have
any outside space and people with animals
who don’t have outside space because that
must be so frustrating having to tell your
dog like I’m so sorry, but we can’t. Because
you can’t explain to a dog, can you?
Vanessa:
Yeah, I didn’t even think about that with
with dogs.
Vanessa:
I was just thinking about the crazed three
year old children running around in an apartment
going insane.
Lucy:
Yeah, how do you explain to like a two year
old, no we can’t go to the park. My dogs become
really entitled. I mean cause I’ve been going
out quite a lot on a run in the morning and
like another walk in the evening just because
even though my life hasn’t changed, I feel
like I should make the most of it and that
now at like seven o’clock if I haven’t taken
him on his additional walk, he like gets all
up in my face.
Vanessa:
I deserve this now.
Lucy:
Yeah, poor old me. Mom!
Vanessa:
So maybe dogs that have space are the real
winners here. They get all the attention,
all the time.
Lucy:
Yes, definitely.
Vanessa:
Well, thank you Lucy.
Lucy:
You’re welcome!
Vanessa:
I really appreciate your time. For those of
you who may be one person out there in the
world who has not yet run across your channel,
go check out Lucy’s channel. Yeah, I appreciate
it. Thanks so much for your time. I hope we
can chat again soon in the future.
Lucy:
Yeah, it’d be lovely to catch up. Maybe post-quarantine
and see how things change again. Yes.
Vanessa:
Yes. See what has happened on the hair front.
Lucy:
Yeah, I’ll be back.
Vanessa:
Well, thanks so much. I’ll talk to you later.
Lucy:
All right, bye.
Vanessa:
Bye.
Vanessa:
My final guest is my husband. Dan.
Dan:
Hello.
Vanessa:
Thanks so much for joining me.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
We have a couple minutes of silence in our
house, so I thought that we would -
Dan:
I know, it’s a miracle.
Vanessa:
I know.
Dan:
Except Theo did just start crying a little
bit, but hopefully he’ll keep it down.
Vanessa:
Hopefully we can a little conversation for
a couple minutes talking about the world situation
that we find ourselves in with the virus and
a lockdown, kind of quarantine situation.
So would you like to explain a little bit
about any kind of regulations or changes that
have happened in our city or in the US lately?
Dan:
Yeah. I think in our state, it’s been a little
bit more lax than some places.
Vanessa:
North Carolina?
Dan:
North Carolina. So they’re still allowing
essential businesses to be open, which it’s
a little bit loosey-goosey on what that means
exactly.
Vanessa:
Loosey-goosey?
Dan:
Loosey-goosey. Yeah. It’s a little unclear,
although, I mean there’s still restaurants
open, but you have to drive up and pick up
the food and do takeout. You can’t go into
the restaurant.
Vanessa:
It is official that restaurants have to close
businesses. I think the rule in North Carolina
was, or at least in our County, is that if
you are in contact with someone for 10 minutes
or more, so if you are a haircutter, if you
are a massage therapist, like a tattoo artists,
these kinds of jobs, then you can’t do your
job.
Dan:
And this is statewide.
Vanessa:
Yes. So every state’s different.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
Every city or county kind of has some different
rules. But something I noticed that’s different
in the US, at least where we live compared
to some of the other interviews that you just
watched with other countries, is that we don’t
have a specific rule that says you can only
be with two people. So only two people can
be together.
Dan:
Oh.
Vanessa:
So Emma mentioned that in Australia -
Dan:
That seems really intense.
Vanessa:
There’s a specific rule that says you can
only be in groups of two people or a family.
And then Lucy mentioned that in the UK too,
but we do not have that rule.
Dan:
Yeah, I think that’s too far, personally.
Vanessa:
It’s a little, that is quite strict.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
But in the UK they also had a rule that said
you can only exercise outside. So outside
your personal property for one hour, go for
a bike ride, go for a run for one hour per
day. And in the US we do not have this.
Dan:
Yeah. Although they are closing down a lot
of public spaces, which is a little annoying
to me because they closed down our local park.
And to me, I feel like if you’re outside,
that’s a lot better than being closed inside
with somebody. It’s better for people’s mental
health and wellbeing to be outside and be
able to use these spaces like the walking
trail around our lake, you know, if somebody
is not exactly six feet, that’s not the end
of the world, in my opinion, when they’re
walking outside.
Vanessa:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I think that it is interesting
because we live in the mountains and I mentioned
with some of the other interviews that they’ve
closed the national park, which means you
can’t go on a hike. Usually you see nobody
when you go hiking.
Dan:
A lot of times, yeah.
Vanessa:
But you can’t go into the national park. I
understand closing playgrounds and any kind
of equipment that you touch.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
But it’s quite difficult for people who have
no outdoor space to find somewhere to be able
to go for a walk or go for a run. If you have
a dog, it’d probably be really challenging.
Dan:
Yeah, we’re really fortunate that we have
a nice open backyard and that we can spend
a lot of time outside and even though it’s
the same space over and over again, you know,
we still have a lot of fun just walking around
our neighborhood or being in our backyard.
Vanessa:
Yeah. So I’m curious, how has your and mine
subsequently, daily life changed then? All
these regulations, how much did they change
your life in the last month or so?
Dan:
Yeah, so technically it hasn’t changed that
much because we already worked from home and
do a lot of stuff at home, but it still feels
like a lot.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Dan:
Like maybe just even just the mental weight
of knowing that if I go to the grocery store,
I have to … for a long time, like before
in America it’s a little different than some
other countries, they thought it’s not a big
deal to wear a mask. But right from the beginning
I thought, yeah, it’s a good idea to wear
a mask.
Vanessa:
Yeah, you’ve been wearing a mask for a long
time.
Dan:
But you’ll get looked at really funny in America
if you do that, but not anymore. It’s starting
to become more accepted.
Vanessa:
In the last like two weeks or so.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
Everyone’s started.
Dan:
But it’s just kind of like a mental weight
to be walking around like “Ooh, who’s touched
that?”, “Who’s done that?” And it’s just kind
of like gotten to you psychologically. And
then of course there’s other things like places
that we normally go, like the library, that’s
closed. A lot of the public parks that we
go to that’s closed.
Vanessa:
I think that also about one month ago when
you watch this, we had a new baby. So a lot
in our personal lives has changed. But some
things such as our family wants to come visit
our baby.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
My family hasn’t been able to visit our baby
yet and it would be really nice if our babysitter
could come to watch our two year old.
Dan:
Yes.
Vanessa:
But she can’t come to watch our two-year-old.
Dan:
Well, she could, but it’s not advisable.
Vanessa:
Legally she can, but most people are choosing
not to do those types of interactions unless
they’re absolutely necessary. And it would
just be nice. It’s not necessary.
Dan:
Yeah, so that’s not against the law yet.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Dan:
I hope it’s not personally.
Vanessa:
But that’s something that we choose not to
do. But those are things that have changed
in our daily lives. But honestly, we were
planning on staying at home, not doing that
much, not really working that much during
March and April because we knew we were having
a baby at the end of March and it would be
a crazy time and we’d want to kind of adjust
to our new family life. So for us it’s just
kind of an extra level. I feel like what you
said, the mental weight is the biggest change.
Dan:
I think it’s gotten weird with neighbors,
too because we have really friendly neighbors
and a couple of them are children and you
want to just play with them and even if you’re
thinking about it a lot more. If they’re playing
with the ball, they’ve touched all over the
ball and you can’t play ball with them, for
example.
Vanessa:
Or our neighbors want to hold our new baby,
but they can’t hold the baby.
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
So in that situation, those are the people
we see the most often. They can’t really interact
with us in the way they did before. So that’s
really, yeah, that’s a bummer. But we’re all
in this situation at the same time.
Vanessa:
So what about in the future when the main
parts -
Dan:
Prediction time?
Vanessa:
Yeah, when the main part of the lockdown or
quarantine, all of this has passed.
Dan:
I’m going to be guaranteed wrong about this.
Vanessa:
Okay. What’s your prediction? What’s your
wrong prediction?
Dan:
My wrong prediction is, well, what’s your
question exactly?
Vanessa:
Oh, what do you think is going to happen?
Dan:
What’s going to happen, period? Yeah,
Vanessa:
I don’t want to say like, do you think it’s
going to be good or bad? Just what do you
think will happen?
Dan:
I think the virus is here to stay.
Vanessa:
Okay.
Dan:
It’s going to probably com back again in the
winter, you know, it might mutate. So we’re
just going to have to deal with this. I have
a hard time believing they’ll be able to get
rid of it anytime soon. So it will be more
akin to like the flu, like influenza, or even
the common cold, but just more serious. So
I don’t know. I kind of hope, I’m hoping that
people start living a little more regularly,
but I don’t think that’s possible. Even if
the government said that they’re going to
stop lock downs, I think it’s in people’s
heads now.
Vanessa:
I think it will be tough to get out, but I
have a feeling, at least -
Dan:
In some people’s heads.
Vanessa:
…In the US, because there’s not as many
laws as there are in other countries. I think
that in the US, probably after if the government
said, okay, concerts can go, you can go to,
can go on, you can go to restaurants again,
you can do anything.
Dan:
I don’t think they’ll do big groups for a
long time.
Vanessa:
Well, when that happens, I think that people
will be very hesitant for maybe like a month,
this is my prediction, and then we’ll realize,
oh, we’re so tired of just keeping to ourselves
and they’ll go out again.
Dan:
Or they might do it for a month and then they’ll
start doing it again and then the numbers
will creep up again and then it will start
being reported again and then people will
start cutting back. I don’t know, I think
there’ll be kind of like an ebb and flow of
people going out and doing stuff and then
staying back inside again.
Vanessa:
I’m curious.
Dan:
But I don’t know how much, like especially
in the US where like so far it seems like
the central government hasn’t put down the
lockdown. It’s been state by state, and it
just hasn’t been quite as intense as some
places it sounds like.
Vanessa:
Yeah. For me, personally, I’m going to be
really curious what happens with the education
system and what happens with businesses that
aren’t used to having all of their employees
work from home when they can go back to work,
if that’s going to change how they do things.
Like maybe they’ll let people work from home
more often or …
Dan:
Maybe some office businesses, office-type
businesses, will let them work from home more
often anyways.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
Dan:
School is a big question though. I have no
idea. Yeah, that’s, cause that’s a really
hot spot for germ spread obviously.
Vanessa:
Yeah, and I think that if both of the parents
work, it is extremely difficult right now
for them to manage their work and also help
their kids do homeschooling. It’s not traditional
homeschooling but do schooling at home. But
maybe there’ll be some flexibility. Who knows?
They might not be so strict with how many
days you miss at school if they can do stuff
at home. I don’t know. It’ll be interesting
to see.
Dan:
Well I think a lot of places, I think I heard
in Canada, they already canceled public school
for the rest of the year.
Vanessa:
Like rest of the school year?
Dan:
No, like this year.
Vanessa:
Like 2020?
Dan:
Yeah.
Vanessa:
Whoa, okay.
Dan:
Pretty sure, we’ll have to look that up.
Vanessa:
Fact check it.
Dan:
But I don’t know about America. Have you heard
anything about that yet? We don’t have kids
in school yet, so.
Vanessa:
Yeah. I haven’t heard necessarily about, yeah,
being canceled until the end of the year,
but I not necessarily, I wouldn’t be surprised
because it seems like that’s part of the mental
weight is that there’s always an unknown of
what’s going to happen.
Dan:
It also seems like in general the government
has been more like the things that they do
control, they’ve been shutting that down more.
Vanessa:
Oh, like they control the school system -
Dan:
And the parks, and stuff like that.
Vanessa:
Parks and stuff, yeah. It seems like every
country is dealing with it differently and
in the US the main way is letting States kind
of do their own thing because yeah, New York
is different than North Carolina or California
or Missouri or wherever you might be. So just
interesting to see.
Dan:
I like the little experiments too.
Vanessa:
Every state doing something differently?
Dan:
Yeah, I mean we have that in Europe, too.
Like apparently Sweden is doing less than
normal.
Vanessa:
Oh yeah? It’s an interesting to see how things
are going.
Dan:
And right now I think they have a higher case
rate, but like it’s, I don’t know. I probably
shouldn’t talk about it because I haven’t
looked into all the details.
Vanessa:
Well, that’s kind of part of -
Dan:
That’s the whole problem with this thing.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Everyone is their own little expert.
Right? Well thank you for joining me and talking
about this strange daily situation that we
find ourselves in.
Dan:
You’re welcome. I don’t know how much I added
but you know, well perspective. Everybody
gets to see my quarantine beard.
Vanessa:
Yeah. Chit chatting about daily life and yeah,
trying to figure out how to do our new, new
norm. So I hope you appreciated this video.
I hope it was interesting to you. Thank you
all for spending some of your precious time
learning English with us. And I want to know
in the comments, how has daily life changed
for you in the past month or maybe two months
if your country has been, was ahead of everyone
and started quarantining earlier.
Vanessa:
What’s your daily life look like? Is it different
than before? Pretty normal? Let us know because
we are all experiencing something pretty similar,
which is very unusual for the world.
Vanessa:
Thanks so much.
Dan:
You’re welcome.
Vanessa:
And see you again 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.