Transcript of Season 4, Episode 1 - Transcript

Charlie:
Hello again, you delightful listener. Welcome to the British English podcast with me, your host, Charlie Baxter. In this episode, I went to see a fellow podcast pal called Pete, who focuses on teaching Australian English, and we had never met in person. But since I was over in Melbourne I decided to get on a ferry down to his neck of the woods and meet him in the flesh, which was really nice to do. And it was also interesting to see his podcasting set up and we couldn't help but press record and capture a conversation for you. So, yes, here it is. I challenged him to an intercultural quiz to see how competent he and, well, we are in cultural diversity and without giving you too much of a spoiler about how we did, sincere apologies if we end up looking incredibly ignorant about your culture, if it comes up in this quiz. But hopefully you can look past that. Focus on the language we use and enjoy a conversation between a native Australian English speaker and a native British English speaker. All right, let's get to it. All right.

Charlie:
Hello, Pete. How are you doing?

Pete:
I'm good, mate. Welcome to my house.

Charlie:
It's really fun to be here in person, surrounded by a jungle of monsteras.

Pete:
That's it. You nailed it. You know the genus? Yeah. So we got lots of plants. Not monsters, but monsteras... My phone keeps auto-correcting it to monsters. So I keep telling people I've got some monsteras at home, and everyone's like, Monsters? What do you mean? And I'm like, 'I'm not talking about my kids. I'm talking about plants. Jungle plants, monsteras.

Charlie:
Yeah. I was expecting to come home and meet your kids, but I've met your monsteras instead.

Pete:
The monsters are at Day-care.

Charlie:
The monsters are at Day-care. The monsteras are at home.

Pete:
Yeah. They don't have a Day-care.

Charlie:
No.

Pete:
Not for them.

Charlie:
That would be hard.

Pete:
It'd be expensive.

Charlie:
I can imagine it would be expensive and they might come back broken.

Pete:
Yeah, or really cold.

Charlie:
So we're here to do a cultural knowledge quiz to see how good we are at understanding world cultures. I'm going to go straight into the first one.

Pete:
Unleash.

Charlie:
Which of the following is considered poor etiquette in Japan, offering a gift with two hands, placing your chopsticks upright in your food, and the last one is taking off your shoes before entering someone's home. So poor etiquette.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Okay.

Pete:
I have a feeling here that I think I have seen that Japanese people take their shoes off pretty much as a rule before going into people's houses, and that's becoming more and more popular here in Australia. So I can't imagine a Japanese person leaving their shoes on would be seen as polite or good etiquette. I think I've also seen, I think Japanese people handing people gifts with two hands. I don't know if that's a... Maybe I'm imagining that, but I feel like the leaving chopsticks upright in your food would be something that would be seen as very rude or impolite, because here in Australia and probably in Britain, if you left your fork just in the steak on a plate, that would probably be seen as pretty, pretty gross.

Charlie:
Yeah. I mean, we have a rule where you have to put the fork and knife, knife and fork. Which way do we say it?

Pete:
I say knife and fork.

Charlie:
The knife and fork. Yeah, that sounded weird. Fork a knife. The knife and fork.

Pete:
The Fork and Knife!

Charlie:
Yeah. Oh! Put them together like 5 o'clock.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Once you're done.

Pete:
Oh, okay. I cross the plate...

Charlie:
Across the plate.

Pete:
...to signal that, yeah, you finished. Yeah. You put them together on the plate. [Yeah]. I don't know if we ever had the 5 o'clock angle, but we definitely had there. You put them together on the plate.

Charlie:
Yeah. I think the 5:00 angle was added to my understanding of good manners afterwards, and it was because they sometimes clip the waiter when the waiter's clearing things.

Pete:
Oh, really?

Charlie:
Kind of like, you know, on a table.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
If you're if you're at 6:00, they might poke out.

Pete:
I hadn't thought about that.

Charlie:
But yeah.

Pete:
Are you just bullshitting me or is that a...

Charlie:
No, no, no, no. I think that's the reason. I think that's the reason.

Pete:
Okay.

Charlie:
Anyway, so Aussies have this. [Yeah]. Do you abide by it?

Pete:
Yeah. Generally if there is a knife and fork, I mean probably more so at say somewhere like my grandparents' house where it's a lot more conservative and that kind of... They would look at you and be like, 'Oh - He finished his food and he just left the fork on the table'. So I would be much more inclined to be like, you know, no elbows on the table, eating with my mouth closed and not talking. And then once I'm finished, definitely making sure that the knife and fork are there. I don't think I would worry about the angle.

Charlie:
Right, right. Okay.

Pete:
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a very rough character. My, my grandparents would be like 'The whole time it was meant to be at a five degree angle off to the left. And he's just been leaving it straight up and down the middle!'

Charlie:
I don't think many people know about that 5:00 thing. I think I may have even made it up, to be honest, but I asked this because my sister is married to an Aussie, and...

Pete:
They're the worst.

Charlie:
And he doesn't really appreciate that you should be having manners to the point where you're thinking about other people before yourself. When it comes to table manners.

Pete:
Yeah. Yeah. Or just in general.

Charlie:
He's quite a shy person [Yeah] or reserved.

Pete:
And not conscientious.

Charlie:
Yeah. He's very happy to just let you serve yourself if he's [Ah okay]. He's, he's quite like good at making everything and presenting it, but then he won't really tell you where it is and you've got to go and find it. Whereas he's just taken a plate and he's sat down on the table. Not on the table, [yeah, gotcha]. Sat down by the table and he's just, you know.

Pete:
So it's much more of a help yourselves.

Charlie:
Yeah, yes. Yeah. It's like a buffet at all times.

Pete:
That could just be a cultural thing though too, where we often have that in Australia, where someone will do all of that hard work of cooking and then present it. But after that it's kind of a you know, you just have at it. There's not someone's not going to come around and be like, Would you like some taters? [Mmm] It's going to be a you can have whatever you want now, but I can see how that would be also seen as rude if you were expecting to be dished out your your meal, right? And and being like, I don't know what I'm getting, what I'm meant to be taking. Am I allowed to? You'd have to have that conversation overtly, I think.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's interesting. So it's it's not rude. It's just.... Is it you guys.... I mean, I'm stereotyping, but is it do you reckon the way in which you're not wanting to draw attention to the fact that you've made it?

Pete:
No, I think you're probably digging in too deep. I think it's probably just a cultural thing of frequently we have social occasions where it's a bring a dish, right? That whole bring a plate thing. Don't actually just bring a plate. Bring a plate with food on it. I brought my own plate!

Charlie:
Good tip.

Pete:
And then everyone kind of just has at it. Yeah, but usually I think it's sort of agreed upon. You won't just let people guess as to whether or not that's the case for the party or the the meal. The expectations, I think, it will usually be laid out pretty obviously for if like, you know, someone will get up and say, okay, I've cooked everything, help yourselves, guys. And, you know, plates are there, knives and forks are there. Get into it.

Charlie:
Yes. Nice.

Pete:
Otherwise, the person will be like, no, we're doing it this way. We're going to have this first and then we'll have that. And they'll be very I'm standing here with the, you know, the knife and I'll be chopping up the meat and dishing out everything one by... Get in a line, everyone, get in a line. Kids at the back, elderly people at the front. Let's go.

Charlie:
Yeah, I can see that. So... But either way, chopstick or a fork in the steak is rude for both countries.

Pete:
I feel that's at least what I'm guessing. Was that the right answer? Yeah.

Charlie:
Spot on. I actually misread it. I was that classic student that didn't read the question. And, um. Yeah, I read Taking Off Your Shoes before entering someone's home. I, I read the, the flip reverse.

Pete:
Of leaving them on.

Charlie:
I was like, Oh, I know Japanese people have guest slippers and then guest toilet slippers.

Pete:
Wow.

Charlie:
So I thought it was that one, but yeah, I was...

Pete:
I think when you were reading it out, that was what I was expecting you to say of not taking your shoes off before going inside. [Yeah], but then, yeah, I listened carefully, and was like, Oh, it's a trick question.

Charlie:
Trick question. All right. Next one is, which colour should you avoid wearing in your wife's country? In Brazil?

Pete:
Oh, man, damn it.

Charlie:
I've got three options here, but I'm not going to give them to you yet.

Pete:
In your wife's.... In the entire country?

Charlie:
Yeah, it says in Brazil.

Pete:
Far out. I have zero idea. I feel like I need to text my wife. Can I phone a friend?

Charlie:
I will give you the options and then you can phone a friend.

Pete:
And so it can be one of the what maybe we actually do it. Let's, let's say can we actually do this? It'd be funny on on the podcast, I'll give my wife a call and see if she actually answers. She's in the other room. But it's going to be too much of a hassle to walk out. Let's see. Let's see. I'll put it on a loudspeaker. This is fun. I don't think I've ever done this on a podcast. Here we go. She gonna answer?

Pete's wife:
Yeah.

Pete:
So you're on a podcast at the moment. I've got a question from Charlie. The question is, if I'm in Brazil, what [yeah] what colour am I not allowed to wear in my wife's country of Brazil?

Charlie:
Should avoid.

Pete:
Or should avoid wearing?

Pete's wife:
Oh, like clothing related?

Pete:
I assume so.

Pete's wife:
Is not allowed to wear.

Pete:
Yeah. So my wife's Brazilian for the context everyone. Yeah. Are there certain colours that you're not allowed to wear if I go to...

Charlie:
Again, avoid. Not, not allowed.

Pete:
Avoid.

Pete's wife:
Oh well I was going to say it's not that you're not allowed to wear certain colours, but like because our culture is very sexist, probably if you're wearing pink would be a bit like, oh, there you go. Like, yeah, it's really like, men avoid like buying pink t shirts.

Pete:
It's very macho.

Pete's wife:
It's really just this sort of silly gender thing.

Pete:
Okay, so...

Charlie:
Interesting.

Pete:
Are women said to avoid blue?

Charlie:
So this is....

Pete's wife:
Not at all, no. It makes no sense the opposite.

Pete:
This is like....Male... It's sexism towards men then.

Charlie:
So the question isn't based on gender like identity and the colours are red, purple or yellow. Are there any obvious colours there that scream out to you?

Pete's wife:
Not really.

Pete:
This question's B.S.. I reckon it's going to be purple. Or is it all three of them are?

Charlie:
It is purple.

Pete:
There you go. Told you.

Charlie:
Together with black, purple is associated with mourning and is considered unlucky to wear unless you are attending a funeral. Is this bullshit?

Pete's wife:
I've never heard of... Not really? Not really. I mean, if you are wearing, like, every piece of clothing you're wearing is purple or it's black, or it doesn't matter which colour. But if you're completely like in black or in blue, it's like weird, but doesn't mean that oh! It's related to some mourning like, you know, who lost someone. It's just not. Doesn't make much sense.

Charlie:
Do you wear purple to a funeral or can you?

Pete's wife:
Not really. People usually just wear black.

Pete:
Yeah, that's the same here. Very weird. Anyway, thank you, Kel.

Pete's wife:
No problem.

Charlie:
Thank you.

Pete:
See ya. That was fun.

Charlie:
Okay. Carrying on. In India, what do vegetarian Hindus typically not eat? Wow. This is a big list.

Pete:
Meat?

Charlie:
Yeah, that's... That's on every option. There's three foods that are on every option, [Okay] so they are meat, fish and seafood. Yeah. And then option one includes eggs and any dairy products. Option two includes just eggs. And option three is just meat, fish and seafood.

Pete:
I feel like it's option three. I feel I thought that, again, I'm not 100% sure, but I have a feeling that Hinduism really considers cows sacred, doesn't it? Like, you know. And so I think you don't eat the cow, but you would consume the milk. [Ah!] I don't know. Is that... I always... That was what was in my mind of like they consider cows sacred so that they don't consume them as food, but they would use the milk from them, you know, to drink or to cook with or whatever. So my assumption here would be three of just those three different meats, which seems to be covered under vegetarianism. Right? So...

Charlie:
The drink that you always have in in a curry house is a lassi. Have you ever had one of them?

Pete:
No.

Charlie:
It's like a smoothie, so it's a lot of milk.

Pete:
So I'd imagine the milk is fine then.

Charlie:
Unless it's goat milk and they're all being like milked to death. I would guess that a lassi includes milk. You've gotta... Yeah. Yoghurt, cream, water and spices.

Pete:
I can't imagine being on a diet that wouldn't allow... I guess that's veganism, right? Where you can't have any meat nor dairy products. That would be very brutal.

Charlie:
What food would you miss the most if you had to go strict vegan?

Pete:
Oh, God. Chicken.

Charlie:
Haha, not even veggie, just...

Pete:
Oh, well, you'd have veggies if you're a vegan, but, no...

Charlie:
Like the difference between veggie and vegan.

Pete:
Yeah, but I think it would just...

Charlie:
You can't even last without veggie [Yeah] without meat.

Pete:
I don't think I could handle. [Yeah]. If I couldn't have any meat, what would it be besides that? I think probably milk, dairy products [Yeah] that'd be brutal.

Charlie:
I think eggs. I would miss eggs big time.

Pete:
I just. I think too, you can't have anything with sugar in it, right? Because sugar uses, I think they use the calcium from bones of animals to purify sugar and make it white, from memory, so apparently, I think, I'd have to look this up, but I have a feeling that just white sugar isn't vegan, so they use something else to sweeten things. And so I think if you were to have to avoid so many different products because they were... They included, you know, sugar that was used in the product that would just drive me nuts. [Wow] Yeah. Having to worry about that all the time.

Charlie:
Yeah, that wouldn't be good.

Pete:
But yeah, I think there are a lot of other things that, you know, would be... The fact that you would have to be so on top of your nutrition and know what sort of vitamins and minerals you're low in and everything. It seems like every single vegan that I've ever met has always had some kind of an issue with being anaemic or missing out on some kind of B12 or whatever it is, you know, some vitamin and having to always have their bloods taken because they're not consuming a whole bunch of foods that we would otherwise naturally consume in order to get those vitamins and minerals. [Yeah]. So I think that would be a bit of a headache.

Charlie:
I'd also miss butter.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
I've recently got into Lurpak.

Pete:
Lurpak?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Pete:
What's Lurpak?

Charlie:
It's the posh butter.

Pete:
Is it?

Charlie:
It like it costs three times the amount. Maybe five times the amount.

Pete:
Really? But it's worth it?

Charlie:
It was fantastic. But now I've got used to it, I don't appreciate it. So I need to go back.

Pete:
You're out of the honeymoon stage. Yeah, yeah, that's it. You're gonna have to be brutal to yourself. Maybe you only have it for, like, one month out of every four.

Charlie:
One month out of every four. Yeah, that sounds. That sounds healthy.

Pete:
See, I switched over to the, um. Is it the plant sterols butter? So it's the stuff that you, you would consume if you're trying to get your cholesterol down, which I was because my cholesterol was high. So I just converted everything that I could to lower cholesterol and my diet worked. But I switched over to the plant sterols one which is... I can't even remember the brand, but you can find them everywhere. And to be honest, I haven't really even noticed a difference between that and butter. But I heard...

Charlie:
Bacon.

Pete:
Oh, my God. Bacon.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah, bacon.

Pete:
Bacon. I would miss. Sorry, sorry, Pigs.

Charlie:
Yeah, that would be tough. Apparently...

Pete:
Pun intended!

Charlie:
As in the bacon stuff?

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah, it is.

Pete:
Although, no, no, not always.

Charlie:
You need to go to England or the UK to have some proper bacon though.

Pete:
Is that or is that right? What about America? Americans would be screaming, hearing this and being like, What are you talking about?

Charlie:
No, they're wrong.

Pete:
I always wondered that.

Charlie:
Every single one of you that's listening, Pete, this is wrong.

Pete:
Every time I see one of those American movies where they're in a diner and they get those two little strips of like bacon that looks like ribbon, like corrugated iron, kind of.

Charlie:
It looks like that.

Pete:
It doesn't look real. I've never seen bacon like that here in Australia cooked the way... I think they just cooked the crap out of it. And it's the fatty short cut bacon, I think, not the shortcut stuff, the really thin fatty strips that are kind of rectangles. They're not the the fat, chunky end of the bacon like you'd normally see. I think that's the short cut stuff where the fat's been trimmed off and it's that eye of the bacon. [Yeah]. So, I don't know. America seems to do it a completely different way [they do] than what I've seen here. And what. So it's better in Britain. Is it thicker?

Charlie:
It's thicker.

Pete:
Juicier. It's better. Innit? It's just better, innit?

Charlie:
That's quite good!

Pete:
With a bottle of water!

Charlie:
Very nice! Yeah. Okay, so...

Pete:
Shots fired.

Charlie:
There we go. Meat, fish, seafood and eggs is apparently the answer.

Pete:
Seafood and eggs. Okay, so eggs. No eggs. Is that because it's like the embryo of an animal? So they... It is weird that that vegetarians still smash eggs. When you consider that that's the embryo of an animal.

Charlie:
It is a bit weird if you think about it too much. But I don't like to think about it too much.

Pete:
I don't think they think about it too much do they. It's, it's not fertilised so it shouldn't be fertilised. [Oh that's true]. It's fine. [Yeah]. It's just half of an organism.

Charlie:
Yeah. And it's got that little black, like little red bit. And then, you know, you're eating a baby.

Pete:
I always get, like, a little bit of extra satisfaction when I smash the egg open, and I see that as it lands on the pan. And I'm just like, Got him.

Charlie:
Guys, we're joking.

Pete:
Yeah, that was actually a joke.

Charlie:
Hindus allowed eggs. I just feel like I need to cross-reference this. Since the last question was potentially bogus. Some Hindus will eat eggs. Some will not. There we go. [Yeah] Just to confirm.

Pete:
So you get to decide.

Charlie:
Okay, in which country is the number four considered unlucky?

Pete:
China.

Charlie:
Didn't even need the options.

Pete:
Do you know why?

Charlie:
I'd love to see what you would be like on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Pete:
Well, if they ask that question, pretty good. Do you know why it's unlucky?

Charlie:
Let me think. Number four. So number one means toilet as in urination. Number two, poo. Number three,

Pete:
I don't know if that carries over though, in, um, in other languages, does it? I'd love to know. I can't imagine in Portuguese - I speak to my wife in Portuguese - saying like, 'Eu vou fazer um número um'. I'm going to do a number one. She would probably be like, What the f are you talking...? Who is number one? And why are you going to do them?

Charlie:
I'm obviously being ignorant deliberately, but it is weird that that doesn't make it across the languages.

Pete:
I wonder how we determined it though. Like who decided oh one is a pee and two is a poo? Like who sat down and gave those numbers?

Charlie:
Maybe. Maybe. Because it's a bit more... not taboo, but we just don't like to say I'm... I'm going to take a shit.

Pete:
We should have turned it into sounds. It should have just been I'm going to do a tssss and not a ppppth.

Charlie:
No!

Pete:
Because that would have been so much better!

Charlie:
That's even more graphic than the word shit. Imagine if you're on a first date with a girl.

Pete:
Excuse me, mate. I'm just going to ppppth. I'll be back in a bit after I have tssss.

Charlie:
Have you got a ppppth in here?

Pete:
Yeah. I feel like it's one of those things. It's totally arbitrary, though. As soon as you say I need to do a number two, the person instantly thinks, Oh, they just don't want to say they want to do a shit. So it's not like they're left there confused. Otherwise, if you want it to be like ambiguous, you would just say, 'Excuse me, I need to find the little, little boy's room. I'm going to powder my nose'.

Charlie:
Yeah, I'm going to do a two. It's just the blank for...

Pete:
You're just saying I'm going to do a shit in a politer way.

Charlie:
Yeah, I do quite like how Americans say, Where's the bathroom? Yeah, that's very ambiguous.

Pete:
Well, restroom.

Charlie:
Or restroom? Yeah.

Pete:
What, are you going to sleep in there?

Charlie:
I definitely take a rest, though.

Pete:
That's it. I normally do a number two, then I rest and then I leave.

Charlie:
Or I do another one.

Pete:
There's a bed right next to the toilet in American dunnies. Poop while you sleep.

Charlie:
Well. There you go. China. That was right.

Pete:
Do you know why though?

Charlie:
No, I don't know why.

Pete:
So I think I think the the word is 'tsa' and it means death. It's the same sound for the number four. So 'Yī' èr...' What was that again? Yī' èr sān sì. So one, two, three, four. And sì means death. And so they often don't have floors that are number four. They don't have... They don't use the number four for a lot of things [Right] because it's bad luck.

Charlie:
Ah, [so yeah], so often we would be like one, two, three, go. And they're like one, two, three, die.

Pete:
Five. Yeah. One, two, three, five.

Charlie:
Oh would they?

Pete:
No, no, I'm sure they would count it out. But I think from when you get in a lift they might not have certain numbers like the number four on... There'll be one, two, three, five. Again, Chinese people listening to this, you tell us, [Yeah] but I've heard that as a rumour that they will go and they are somewhat superstitious with those sorts of things. So they'll avoid numbers with four in it that certain things. [Yeah] Especially I think too if you have like 44 or 444, that's seen as even worse.

Charlie:
Do they skip 40 the whole you know, if it's on a like a post code or something?

Pete:
You'd have to ask. You have to ask them. But yeah.

Charlie:
Should we phone another friend?

Pete:
I don't think I've got any Chinese friends on, um, hot dial here that I could just call up randomly and be like, Hey, by the way...?

Charlie:
Bit of a different time zone as well. In which country does nodding the head up and down mean no rather than yes? I know this one.

Pete:
Nepal.

Charlie:
Interesting. We've got Bulgaria, Russia and Thailand.

Pete:
Oh, I didn't realise you were going to tell me beforehand the actual places. Okay. Well...

Charlie:
This is the whole... It's called a multiple choice quiz!

Pete:
Okay. So I thought it was an open ended. All right. Well, I said Nepal. That wasn't even one of the choices. Okay, so what was it? Bulgaria, Russia.

Charlie:
Thailand.

Pete:
Oh, it would be Thailand then. I reckon.

Charlie:
Why?

Pete:
Bulgaria and Russia seem to be very close. Right? In terms of culturally, I would think, much more than Thailand there. So I would assume that if one of those countries was going to have it, both of them would. So I think Thailand. But I might... I don't know. By your reaction, I have a feeling that I got it incorrect.

Charlie:
Yeah. I haven't really got a poker face, have I?

Pete:
Okay, I guess, I'm guessing second chances. Bulgaria?

Charlie:
Hmm. Interesting. So my... One of my first ever 1 to 1 students was Bulgarian. And this was a bit of a culture shock when she told me this. I was fascinated. I was telling everyone for about a week, I hope I've got it right. Let's see. Yeah.

Pete:
Bulgaria. Really? [Yeah!] You're nodding, though. So is that no or is that yes? [Yeah] That would be so confusing to get used to that. Yeah, I would be so confused and it's so funny. It's so arbitrary, right? Moving your head one way or the other to signify yes or no or to show anything is just an arbitrary movement that we've for some reason across cultures, many cultures decided that this means yes and no. One thing that always got me was how many people from India will move their head from like side to side to kind of show agreement when you're talking to them. So I have like guys that work for me and sometimes they'll do that and I'll be like, Was that a yes? Was that a no? Are you annoyed? I don't understand that in in the context of what we're doing here, because I don't make that movement. Yeah, you know, in my culture the same way.

Charlie:
Do you need a chiropractor?

Pete:
Yeah. It's just an interesting thing. You just sort of like and they'll be like, No, I'm just agreeing with you or, you know, like. Yeah, yeah, no worries. And you're sort of like, Oh, all these things are just arbitrary, right? You just have to kind of learn how they do it. But they have this very unique shake of the head that they will do.

Charlie:
Yeah. And even as you're talking, I'm really wanting to just constantly, occasionally nod up and down. It feels so natural.

Pete:
To sort of agree with someone.

Charlie:
To agree with somebody. And it's kind of like this up and down motion throughout the whole body and to go like the opposite across seems, I mean, obviously I've had 32 years of knowing that that is negative. Yeah, the opposite is positive, but strange for me.

Pete:
I'm trying to think of some other good examples across Brazilian and Australian culture that I have with my wife, because there are definitely certain things. One of the biggest things that I've noticed with her: when she hugs people and I don't mean me in general, but I think people you're close to, she will sniff your neck like they... And Brazilians do this. I think it's a thing where when they get close and they hug someone, usually obviously you've got your head next to the other person's head, they inhale.

Charlie:
And to a point where you're like, What are you doing?

Pete:
When I first was with her, I was like, What the fuck was that? Like, I mean, and I think we were romantically involved, so it wasn't that strange, but it has become one of those things now that I notice I subconsciously do. I'll give my mum a hug and I notice myself doing it.

Charlie:
Wow.

Pete:
And it's like, I don't know how. I've obviously just picked that up subconsciously. And then maybe there's Brazilians listening that are like, No, your wife's just weird. She's the only she's the only Brazilian that actually does that. No one else does that. So I don't know, maybe she is. But that was definitely something that she told me. She was like, that's a cultural thing where we show affection that way or you kind of just embrace someone and also, you know, as opposed to say like in Italy or France where you kiss people on the cheek, their version would be to hug someone and you kind of inhale at the same time. So I don't know.

Charlie:
I wonder if COVID has changed that as well.

Pete:
I always thought it was going to. I was expecting that. But I have a feeling that it's not going to make much of... Like we still shake hands, now we hug. I imagine that France and Italy and Spain, wherever those countries are in Europe where they kiss on each side of the face, that hasn't stopped. It may have slowed down for a little bit, but I don't think it would completely reverse.

Charlie:
Yeah, interesting. Can you example that, you know, like the loudness of the inhale?

Pete:
It's subtle, but you can hear it as the person being hugged.

Charlie:
Because I feel like hugging and breathing in is natural. [Yeah]. It's like, yeah. Oh, nice to see you. I embrace you, kind of.

Pete:
Yeah, I don't know, maybe, maybe I'm confusing it. Or maybe it is something you would do with a romantic partner and not necessarily everyone, because it's definitely something I do with my wife and my children all the time now, where I will give them a cuddle and just inhale. Yeah. And it's just, I don't know, it sounds creepy to, like, actually verbalise it, to be honest. It's something that's. It sounds like... I'm not abusing my family, guys, but it is one of these weird things where...

Charlie:
Locked up for sniffing his family.

Pete:
Scent is such an important thing, right? You know, which is why we wear perfumes and and shower and all that sort of stuff. So I think it's just a way of getting closer to that in their culture. But I never, at least, I don't know. Maybe all cultures do it to some extent. I never noticed me or anyone in Australia doing that prior to getting with my wife Kel and it becoming much more of a 'Hey, I noticed you doing this thing. Like what... What's with the [sniff] up against my neck? Is that like some kind of erotic thing that you just do or, you know, like, what's the deal?' And then now I do it. So, yeah, I don't know, maybe we're just weird.

Charlie:
No, I mean, obviously, I don't know if every Brazilian does that, but I can imagine that being a cultural difference because I don't think I've come across that particularly yet.

Pete:
No, I don't know. There are definitely ones, though. I remember. I can't... I hate my memory, so I might be again fibbing. But I have heard that there are certain Asian cultures that won't kiss on the mouth and they see that as very disgusting.

Charlie:
What, even between romantic partners?

Pete:
Yeah, between romantic partners. Yeah. So I'm not sure which one it would be. And I don't want to sort of just take a pot shot because I might be getting it completely wrong. But I believe that there are certain cultures where you will not kiss on the mouth. It's seen as like worse than kissing someone on the anywhere else. You can use your imagination.

Charlie:
Is that where the nose kissing comes from?

Pete:
Possibly. I don't know. You've got Google in front of you. What does it say?

Charlie:
You know, that didn't come up.

Pete:
I guess we used to see French kissing as gross, right? Which is why we call it French kissing.

Charlie:
Is that why we call it French kissing?

Pete:
I would imagine. I would imagine there's something in it.

Charlie:
I thought it was to do with romance. Like the French are always more romantic and passionate.

Pete:
That was, again, I don't know what sort of a rating you want to put on this episode, but that was always a trope you would see in British history historic films, right? When there was that conflict between the French, you know, they make love with their mouths, you know, these filthy French people. I don't know why he would be saying that in a French accent. Yeah, I'm just confused. But I remember seeing that in a few of those films where they'd be like, Oh, he kisses with tongue. You know, 'They don't? They don't do that?' So it's obviously just these... We have these massive differences, you know, historically about what's okay and what's not. But again, it's just arbitrary. So let's say cultures that don't kiss and then with the mouth.

Charlie:
Apparently kissing wasn't practised among Somalis.

Pete:
Yeah, I've got that coming up too. So kissing isn't universally accepted. And even today there are some cultures that have no place for it. Indeed, some 650 million people, or about 10% of the world don't partake in it at all. Until contact with the West, for example, kissing wasn't practised among Somalis, the Lepcha people of Sikkim or Bolivia's indigenous Sirionó people. So there you go. Interesting.

Charlie:
It's a strange behaviour.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Like it's the one area that takes in so much food.

Pete:
Yeah. You wonder who were the... Who were the first people to do it and just be like, damn, we found something good. Like, you imagine that being the first people in your tribe like 10,000 years ago to just start making out and everyone looking at you like, you disgusting, disgusting human beings, you know, what are you doing? Those are your food holes. You do not take food from each others' food holes like that.

Charlie:
Yeah. Oh, maybe that's something to do with it. Like they were sharing. Oh, like that cartoon, you know, the spaghetti.

Pete:
What?

Charlie:
They were. They were sharing food.

Pete:
Oh, Lady and the Tramp.

Charlie:
Yeah. And then maybe they realised that this is nice sharing food together.

Pete:
They had spaghetti about 10,000 years ago. There were some cavemen who had spaghetti, and they, they both had the same strand and then sucked it in and ended up kissing and were like, damn.

Charlie:
Exactly.

Pete:
This is good exercise.

Charlie:
Yeah. The next one, I think you'll figure it out very quickly. [Okay]. But there's an interesting thing in there. Which country has the most time zones?

Charlie:
We have come to the end of Part one, so feel free to take a break from your listening practice. But if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show.

Charlie:
Which country has the most time zones? I can give you the options, but I think you'll guess it.

Pete:
Russia?

Charlie:
I've got Russia, China and France.

Pete:
Yeah, I think it would be Russia, China and France in that in that order.

Charlie:
Oh, interesting.

Pete:
In terms of how many they have.

Charlie:
Yeah. So France, I think they're all within one time zone geographically, but China.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Are three, but they actually choose to only use one.

Pete:
Really. Okay. Well, again, it's arbitrary, right? There's just some poor people on either side of the country that either have the sun rise incredibly early or go down incredibly early.

Charlie:
Yeah. I felt very sorry. I felt very sorry for them learning that because it must be a very early time to get up.

Pete:
No, I guess you would just adjust. You just be like, well, we all get up at three and we go to bed at three. [Yes]. Except for the people who have a business job and [No!] have to work during the proper hours.

Charlie:
If you've got like a farming job that is based on animals rising at a certain time. [Yeah], because...

Pete:
That's the joke here with Queenslanders. [Yeah]. In Australia, here the Queensland Government never brought daylight... They may have had it but they got rid of it, but they don't have daylight savings, whereas New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania down the east coast here, so along the same longitude, longitude? latitude as Queensland, we all have it. So in summer, in October we wind the clocks forward so that we have more daylight in the evenings. And in April when winter is coming in, we wind them back so that we have slightly more in the evenings. Again I think? Maybe it's... No, no it brings it back. Yeah. Anyway, I always get confused. But Queenslanders don't. The joke is because they would confuse the cows. I don't know. I don't know what the joke, I don't know why, but apparently it was a farming related thing.

Charlie:
But the cows are the ones that would naturally go with the sun.

Pete:
I feel like it would just be the farmers would just have to deal with getting up earlier or going to bed earlier or whatever. And they would just switch the. Okay. Today we're calling the cows in at four instead of five, and tomorrow it's going to be five instead of four, like it. You think you would just adjust the clocks and it would make no real difference because it's just a number on your watch, [Yeah] but I don't know. There is something to do with it. The only thing I could imagine that... I could imagine it's more irritating if you are in Queensland and you finish work and it's 4:00 in New South Wales, right? If you're working as a company with them and they're like, well, we're not done for another hour, where are you going? And you're having to be like, Oh God damn it, these guys always show up early and are always going home late and then for half the year they're right on time, like normal, and then all of a sudden they're out of sync.

Charlie:
Yeah, it's... So my sister lives on the border. [Yeah]. And so she goes to work in a different time zone than what her home is in.

Pete:
Is this like Tweed Heads?

Charlie:
Yeah, exactly. And often when we meet our aunty who's in Queensland, we're an hour early or she's an hour late.

Pete:
You get confused.

Charlie:
Yeah. Often happens.

Pete:
That must be really annoying. That was what was happening during the COVID lockdowns and stuff because I think Tweed Heads... I've forgotten the name of the other part of it on the Queensland side.

Charlie:
Coolangatta?

Pete:
Coolangatta. It's like two towns, but they're effectively a single city [Yeah] but over across the border they have one name and one has the other and they have different rules because of the border. And so there were a whole bunch of people that had restrictions when they closed the borders due to COVID because Queensland closed it down. So there were all these people living in the north of that town that couldn't go to the south to work and they, they were, you know, skipping across, jumping across the border and everything and potentially got fined. And yeah, they were just like, can you guys work out some rules that take this into account please?

Charlie:
Yeah. It was also weird because when we went to visit, it was a little bit further down the line of COVID, but we actually couldn't drive across the border, but we could walk.

Pete:
Oh, wow. Okay.

Charlie:
Because we could walk round the beach.

Pete:
Yeah, very clever. That's it. Very clever.

Charlie:
Very clever.

Pete:
That's. I always thought that with like the Great Wall of China. You see it where it goes into the ocean and you're like, didn't people just get boats and go straight around the the edge there because it only goes out for like 50 metres, doesn't it?

Charlie:
I don't know. Does it? 50 metres. That's quite far. If I wasn't a strong swimmer, I mean I'm not that strong but...

Pete:
Well I guess it depends how deep the water gets.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. And how many monster I mean monsters there are.

Pete:
Yeah. Monsteras. It's a jungle.

Charlie:
Uh. Okay. So, yeah. Interesting that China's only one time zone.

Pete:
Yeah, that's crazy. Russia. How many is Russia? Did it say?

Charlie:
What the hell? It says France? [No], France has the most time zones with 12 due to its overseas departments and territories across the globe.

Pete:
Ah! That doesn't count!

Charlie:
Russia has 11 time zones and China only has one time zone.

Pete:
So they're counting things like New Caledonia and Martinique and all these other islands all over the world. And they're saying that that counts as France.

Charlie:
Wow.

Pete:
That's so cheeky.

Charlie:
That is the worst.

Pete:
That's so cheeky.

Charlie:
That is the worst secret question or trick question I've ever heard.

Pete:
Because, I totally, when you say country too, it's loaded, right? I'm thinking a single entity. I'm not thinking of all of the different potential states and islands and other things that it controls around the world.

Charlie:
Well, I am glad that it's, I mean, it's technically trying to do something that... I thought it was just the website was rubbish and it is.

Pete:
That was very clever though. Yeah. I would have thought I would have thought obviously Russia, but Russia's got 11. That's nuts.

Charlie:
Yeah, that is nuts. It's almost half the world.

Pete:
Yeah. In terms of length, right.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Pete:
I know. I remember having a look I think I have a friend, I've got friends in Moscow and others in Vladivostok. Is it Vladivostok that's like almost, almost like next to Korea. And I'm just like, Holy crap, you guys speak the same language, but you are so much closer... In Vladivostok, you are so much closer to so many other countries than you are to say the capital of your your country, right? Like it's just so far away.

Charlie:
Okay, we're on question seven. Which of the following is not one of the five pillars of the Islamic religion? Oh! The Hajj, Hajj? Hajj? H A J.

Pete:
You'd have to ask someone who is an Arabic speaker.

Charlie:
The Ramadan. And the puja.

Pete:
Yeah, I'm going. The only thing I can say here is that Ramadan is definitely part of Islam. The Hajj and the puja. I don't know what they are. I'm an ignorant man, so I'm going to say the puja.

Charlie:
The Hajj, oh, it's apparently double J.

Pete:
Okay.

Charlie:
The greater Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Pete:
Oh, okay. When you said that it's not a part of Islam, is that like it's not a rule or it's not one of the five pillars? Okay, so it's not, like, pertinent. You don't need to do it.

Charlie:
I guess so, yeah. And then puja the act of worship.

Pete:
Okay. Okay. So there were a lot of.

Charlie:
Ah! But this is... This is Hinduism and Buddhism. So there's. There's the answer.

Pete:
Okay. [Yeah], that was confusing. [Yeah]. There are going to be a lot of Muslim people listening being like these ignorant Westerners. Goddammit guys, like read a book.

Charlie:
A puja is a Hindu ritual commonly practised in India.

Pete:
Okay.

Charlie:
Okay. Well, we've learnt something.

Pete:
Yeah. Did you know that I think a whole bunch of people got pissed about Mecca recently because I think they're now having, what do you call it, where you pull a name out of a hat for the people who can actually go, like a draw, [a draw], a lottery sort of thing. Yeah. You can't just go and then, you know, visit Mecca. Now I think you have to actually enter into a lottery because they had so many people doing it. And I think there was a lot of backlash. At least recently, I think I saw that come up in the news.

Charlie:
That seems I'm surprised that it's now because they've been doing that for years. Well, forever, probably.

Pete:
Maybe it's related to COVID. I don't know. Yeah, it could be. Maybe it's a temporary thing, but yeah, I remember. I think there's millions of people that do it every year, aren't they?

Charlie:
Okay. What is the Chinese term used to describe the concept of having a network of reciprocal relationships? Jeez, we wouldn't know this.

Pete:
Do we get the literal translation or just the Chinese phrase, just...?

Charlie:
Kegi, Mianzi or Guanxi?

Pete:
Okay, so we don't actually get the translation. Oh, man. Uh, I'll go with number two.

Charlie:
Well, if we got the direct translation, that would be pretty easy.

Pete:
It would probably say network.

Charlie:
So number two, mianzi.

Pete:
Yeah, I got it!

Charlie:
No, no, no.

Pete:
That's just what I said. Okay. You're joking.

Charlie:
Jumping the gun there. Gwan hee. How do you say the X-I sound?

Pete:
Sh

Charlie:
Shi. Guan xi. Guan xi.

Pete:
And you're probably butchering it with the tone.

Charlie:
Yeah, Yeah. Sorry. Oh yeah. I got taught about that on an immersion course of of ours back in the day, and our Chinese student was trying to teach me the six tones?

Pete:
It depends on the dialect.

Charlie:
Okay. Maybe it was five, five tones of of one syllable.

Pete:
Yeah. Well yeah. Vowel. Yeah. So they'll have the... In Mandarin Chinese at least as far as I remember it was like down like you would have. Sure, up. Sure. And then around in fact that might be around but. Sure and then sure. So they'd be like four different kinds. Down, up, a U-shape and then flat.

Charlie:
Right. Okay.

Pete:
And they would all change the meaning of the word. I think there's a joke that they have about like the word mah.

Charlie:
That's it. That's the one.

Pete:
Which Ma is like a question word, like you would put it at the end of a question, if you were to say, What are you doing? Or not 'what are you doing' but 'are you here' or something, you would put ma at the end to show that it was a question. You would say you are here and then question. [Right] I think. And then there's like mother, marijuana and horse.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Pete:
All ma. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah.

Pete:
That was what I remember from my high school Chinese. And so yeah, you get very confused, especially if they're all nouns and you talking. I saw my ma the other day and people are like, wow, you were smoking weed on your horse with your mother? Question? Like which one?

Charlie:
Guanxi is a Chinese term that is very difficult to translate, but loosely means a network of influential relationships and connections which help to facilitate business during business deals in China or business dealings in China. I guess the closest thing I can think of is no, I was thinking of nepotism, but that's just favouring....

Pete:
That's more when you favour your relatives, right?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Pete:
Or people you like.

Charlie:
What do you think of the idea of nepotism?

Pete:
I don't agree with it. I guess it sort of goes above and beyond merit-ism. What you deserve based on hard work.

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode to take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. All right. So moving on to part three now. Enjoy. What do you think of the idea of nepotism?

Pete:
I don't agree with it. I guess it sort of goes above and beyond merit-ism. What you deserve based on hard work. Yeah, it tends to not be a good thing, although I don't know. How do you feel about it with the royal family, for example? That is by definition nepotism, right?

Charlie:
It is, definitely, yeah. I don't agree with that kind of extreme, but I was just listening to something about how if you have an issue in your industry, you're most likely going to try and solve it by reaching out to the people that you know. And that is kind of leading towards nepotism. You're not literally asking seven, 8 billion people all the same question and then waiting for everyone to give you the response. So you're naturally doing that every kind of.

Pete:
Well, I guess it's in-group, out-group favouring, right? You're always pretty much human beings are programmed to favour their in-group, the people closest to them. And there's multiple in-groups. Right. You know, it's going to be your immediate family, distant family and then the friends that you know and then other people in your town, city, culture before the, you know, person from the other side of the world that doesn't speak your language, looks different, and has a different religion. But the problem I think is in Western society in particular, if you favour friends and family and everything in workplaces where it's, you know, seen as subjective sort of treatment of people, right? You're deciding this person gets a raise because they're my son, or this person gets the job because they're my friend. That's very dodgy. [Yes]. And that's, you know, tends to be looked down upon usually by the average person, especially in Australia.

Charlie:
Especially in the modern, the younger generations. [Yeah] I heard of a guy who has his own podcast and he asked his daughter to do an internship at his podcasting.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Uh, like network. And she was like, absolutely not. Like, that would be the worst thing for me.

Pete:
Yeah, that would be. It's so hard though, if it's your business, right. And like, as a small business owner, you almost want nepotism in terms of like I want to pass it on to my children, but if I was working for someone else's business and I did that, where I was like, I want my child to come up through the ranks and take my position. That would be seen as a different thing, right? Like if I got a job at Google and did twisted my... everyone's arm so that my son got a job there and then eventually got my job, that would be seen as incredibly unfair against anyone else in the company that wanted my job. Whereas if it's my small business, say like Aussie English or you with the British English podcast, if you have a child one day, you can imagine in 20 years, if you want to hand it over to anyone, why would it not be your child [Yeah] in that case,

Charlie:
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Pete:
It is interesting that certain types of nepotism in certain situations are probably seen as okay or not okay.

Charlie:
I'm trying to remember a phrase. You might know this because you're more academic than me. Diversion to the mean. Does that mean anything? [Yeah]. What does that mean?

Pete:
Away from the average, I guess.

Charlie:
Yeah. So they were saying within that podcast conversation, they were saying that when you have natural, well, we have an inclination to include family members into your business. [Yeah]. If you're the leader of something, you're naturally the survivor that created a good thing. And then to pass it on to somebody else. Oh! Regression to the mean. Regression to the mean?

Pete:
That means it's going into the mean. Yeah.

Charlie:
So the natural thing would be whoever is next is more likely to not be as good as you.

Pete:
Yeah. Or I guess it would be that they were going to do things pretty much like you were going to do them, but potentially not as well. I don't know. I can see that also in... In a family business, you probably want it set up in a structure that is going to maintain the way that it was being done. And the person who creates it almost always does the best job and puts in the most love and hard work, right? Even if you were to hand your podcast over to your child, I can't imagine they're going to treat it the way that you have with like, this is my baby that I've grown from nothing.

Charlie:
Exactly.

Pete:
You know, there's that cliche of the grandfather made the business. The the the son carries it and the grandson spins it and destroys it. Right. Like Trump, you know, his children just, like, don't care at all about his fortune. So yeah, but I imagine that if you were to do that at a at a workplace, they probably like a, you know, a big company like Google or something. If you're working, they want diversity. So you want people to have different ways of doing things and bringing a different set of views into certain positions when people move in or move out, as opposed to just always carrying on the same way that we've always done things.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Pete:
So it can be a gift and a curse, obviously.

Charlie:
Yeah. I think for the most part it is obviously a curse, but it was interesting to hear the sort of nuances of what it actually means and how it comes up more regularly.

Pete:
It always happens. It always seems to happen in politics. At least that's where we hear about it. Like in Australia here there'll be a lot of these politicians where their kids end up with certain cushy jobs for other politicians, and you're like, There's no way that their child just landed this $200,000 a year job with one of their friends who is also a big politician or whatever, just by chance, or ended up on the board of this company just randomly at the age of 23. You're just like, that's just not going to happen by chance. [No] This person almost certainly made a call and was like, Give my kid the job because, you know, nepotism.

Charlie:
Yeah. Because, you know, nepotism.

Pete:
That's it. That's exactly what they would say. Oi, hook us up. I'll hook your kid up. I can't do it. I can't do it in my office but I can do it in your office because it looks a little less sus.

Charlie:
Which of the following would you not offer as a gift to a Chinese business partner? A clock, wine or a pen?

Pete:
A clock.

Charlie:
Any reason?

Pete:
I think it feels like you're trying to subtly tell them to be on time.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah.

Pete:
You know, like Oi! You're always late. [Yes] Have a clock.

Charlie:
Have a clock.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
It's quite a strange...

Pete:
Clearly you don't have one.

Charlie:
It's quite a strange gift.

Pete:
Yeah, I'd feel like, what?

Charlie:
Of those three, what would you most likely give somebody?

Pete:
I think a wine, something consumable that you could enjoy, right? I mean, unless assuming they drank alcohol, if they told me they didn't, then probably a pen out of those three.

Charlie:
Especially if they liked calligraphy.

Pete:
That's it, if I knew that ahead of time. If they enjoyed the subtle art of watchmaking or something, I'd probably give them the clock.

Charlie:
If they've signed up to Alcoholics Anonymous...

Pete:
Yeah it would be the wine. That's it. Or maybe it would. And you'd just be like, I guess you're not having that. So yeah, I'll, I'll finish that for you.

Charlie:
I'll come round for some dinner tomorrow. So you think the clock.

Pete:
Yeah. What do you think?

Charlie:
You're correct. Sorry, I clicked it too soon. [Yeah]. I was flirting with the idea of a pen, but I would have gone with a clock.

Pete:
Pen's pretty innocuous, isn't it? Like it's... I can't imagine a pen as a gift ever carrying any kind of offence.

Charlie:
No, I think it would maybe even be quite respectful.

Pete:
Unless you gave it to someone who couldn't write. If they were illiterate, that might be a bit offensive. What's this?

Charlie:
Yeah. Do you reckon in... How many years do you reckon it will be until people will occasionally be like coming out of school, unable to write?

Pete:
As in handwrite? [Handwrite, yeah] Well we... It's probably like that for us. My grandparents would say it's like that for us. They'd look at my handwriting and be like, that is fucking disgraceful, Pete.

Charlie:
I can see some. I mean, they are terrible.

Pete:
Chicken scratch. Yeah, my chicken scratch.

Charlie:
I can see some Post-its on his computer right now, but I can read that somewhat. So I would say that you can write still. Well done, Pete.

Pete:
Thank you. Yeah, no, I mean. Well, it depends on what you mean, right? What is it called again? Where you... Cursive is what I guess I'm referring to. My grandparents have beautiful handwriting because when they went through school in the... It would have been the 1930s and 40s, cursive was how you wrote, right, you were taught to join all the letters together to write very beautifully and quickly and clearly. And so yeah, anytime I get birthday cards, they're always very beautifully written out by them by hand, whereas my writing looks just atrocious in comparison. But I think it's only going to get... I don't know, I think it's going to get worse because we are relying way more on digital like things. Right? It would be interesting to see how what percentage of writing I do by hand versus typing into a computer. I would imagine it would be like 95%.

Charlie:
Yeah, I'm up there with 99.

Pete:
More, more, maybe even 99. Yeah. Because of the amount of chatting that you do and writing is pretty much just like as you see in front of you, post-it notes with reminders. [Yeah] I mean, maybe a shopping list? I'm trying to think of what else I would actually write. Birthday cards.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's the only thing.

Pete:
Yeah. It's not much. I mean, I do... I have a diary that I...

Charlie:
...don't write in.

Pete:
Put in, put notes in for like, remember this or do this or something like not, you know, dear diary. Yeah, it is the 14th of the J.... And then maybe like during lessons, I take notes, but that's about it. I don't sit there and write books by hand. I don't. My parents had to write their theses at university by hand and have... Hire a typist to type it out. [Wow] I know, in the seventies. Imagine that.

Charlie:
My goodness me.

Pete:
Imagine the pressure on the typist too. Don't make any mistakes. [I know!] But they wrote it by hand. I was like Imagine having to do that. The last time I wrote anything by hand would have been like an essay in in an exam at uni or something where they sit you down and there is no... You don't have access to a computer. You have to write down 500 words about X, Y, Z, and it would have been something like that, but...

Charlie:
I think that would be an interesting point in time when that is the go-to device for essays in a in a controlled environment. [Yeah]. Because people can type a lot quicker, right? [Yeah]. So block off the Internet just, you know, like a an iPad or whatever they need. I reckon that will happen in the next ten years.

Pete:
Probably already has. I haven't been to a uni for about five years at least, so [yeah] it wouldn't surprise me if all the exams are going to be done online soon.

Charlie:
There we go. So in China, the word for clock sounds the same as 'the end' and so is associated with time running out and death. And on that note [Yeah] we'll end it there! Thank you very much, Pete.

Pete:
My pleasure, mate. Thanks for hanging out!

Charlie:
Oh, it's a pleasure to be here amongst you, your family and your plant friends.

Pete:
My monsteras. [Yeah]. And you will soon... Oh, you might not get to meet my monsters. They'll be coming home at 4.30.

Charlie:
Oh, no.

Pete:
You're going to miss them. Too bad.

Charlie:
Okay. Well, next time.

Pete:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Okay. Thanks a lot, guys.

Pete:
No worries. See you guys!

Charlie:
There we go. The end of part three, meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English podcast.