🐼🌼 Engaging in dialogues with enjoyment.

Abhi: Sarah, you've taught in a bunch of different places. What countries have you taught again? Sara: Quite a few. I've taught in Korea, Ecuador, Taiwan, Mexico, Japan, and the USA. Abhi: Okay, so you're... Sara: And China. Sorry. Abhi: Oh wow. So you're a language teacher; you've taught in all these amazing countries. So let's talk about the languages first. Do you speak Japanese? Sara: I don't. I'm embarrassed. I've lived here six years, but I don't. How about you? Do you speak Japanese? Abhi: I do speak Japanese- Sara: Oh, you do? Abhi: ... yeah, but it's not very good. Sara: Oh. Abhi: People don't hear me say it that much, because it's really bad, but I do speak Japanese. But it's bad. But what about the other languages? You lived in Korea. Did you study Korean? Sara: I did. I did study Korean. And I did learn to read very well. But now, I've forgotten. So I can't speak it anymore. Abhi: I heard that it's relatively easy to learn the alphabet in Korea. Sara: Yes, it is. It was invented by a scientist to be simple and easy to learn how to read. Abhi: Oh wow. Sara: So it is very easy. Abhi: What about China? Did you learn Chinese? Sara: I didn't. I did study a lot. But, in the end, I found it too difficult. Do you speak Chinese? Abhi: I don't speak Chinese, but I lived in Thailand for five years. Sara: Mm-hmm . Abhi: And I do speak Thai, and I did study Thai when I was there. So, yeah. Sara: Oh, wow. Abhi: And it's tonal, so it's kind of similar, in some ways, to Chinese. Sara: And can you read Thai? Abhi: I can read Thai. Sara: Oh, wow. Abhi: Yeah, I do read Thai. So actually, my Thai reading is probably better than my Japanese. Sara: Oh, wow. Abhi: Yeah. But it's hard, because in Thai the words kind of stick together. Sara: Mm-hmm . Abhi: Now, you were in Mexico and in Ecuador. Sara: Yes. Abhi: So do you speak Spanish? Sara: I do speak Spanish. That was one of my goals for moving there, was to become fluent. And I'm very happy now I can say, "I do speak Spanish." Abhi: And your husband was with you. Does he speak Spanish? Sara: Yeah. He does speak Spanish. He studied a lot, and it really improved a lot. So now he can say the same thing. He does speak Spanish. Abhi: And your children? Sara: They do, too. They speak Spanish. Abhi: Oh, nice. And your children are with you now in Japan. Sara: Mm-hmm . Abhi: Do they speak Japanese? Sara: They don't. They're learning very quickly. So I think they will improve, and in a couple of months, I can say that they can. But right now, their Japanese is very low. Abhi: So you were just in Mexico. Do you miss Mexico? Sara: I do miss Mexico. I miss the food the most. I miss the Spanish language. And I miss the music. How about you? Do you miss Thailand? Abhi: I do miss Thailand a little bit, but not too much, because I visit there a lot. So it's not that big of a deal. I go there usually once or twice a year. Sara: Mm-hmm . Abhi: But when I'm in Japan, I do miss it. I miss the food, especially. Now we both are outside of the U.S. We don't live in the U.S. Do you miss living in the U.S.? Sara: I do miss living in the U.S. I often miss that I understand and I know the culture so well. Sometimes in Japan, I feel like an outsider. And so I do miss being in the USA, and being able to blend into the background. To be just another person. Abhi: Yeah. Sara: How about you? Do you miss the USA? Abhi: I don't. Sara: You don't? Abhi: No, I don't miss it at all. So I visit it ... I do miss my family, and I do miss some things, especially like the food and the nature. But I don't miss actually living in America. Maybe because I go back so often. So these days, it just doesn't seem like a big deal. Now, we are both in Japan. Do you plan to teach somewhere else soon? Sara: I don't. I hope to stay in Japan for a couple of years. We are relaxed, we are settled, the children are in school. I hope we can stay here. How about you? Are you going to stay? Or do you have plans to go? Abhi: I do have plans to go, actually. And I want your old job. Sara: Really? Abhi: I want to work for the U.S. government and I want to work in a different country. Sara: You should do it! Abhi: I will.

Toni: So Sarah, you were a teacher for the State Department? Sarah: Yes, that's right. I was with the English language fellows program. Toni: Oh wow. Where did you teach? Sarah: I taught in Mexico. Toni: Oh, that's great. Wow. So when you teach for the State Department, do they let you wear anything you want? Do you have to wear a suit or anything? Sarah: They let you wear anything that is professional. You don't have to wear a suit, but you can't wear jeans. Toni: Okay. Do they let you teach anything you want? Sarah: No, they don't let you teach anything you want. You do have a lot of freedom, but they have some requirements. So you might have to teach university students beginning English or you might have to teach university students engineering English. You have the freedom how you're going to teach those subjects, but they don't let you choose the subjects. Toni: Okay. When when you work for the US government, do they make you do a lot of paperwork? Sarah: They do. They do make you do a lot of paperwork. When I applied for the job, it was the most difficult job application I'd ever done. They make you fill out a lot of forms and they make you ask your references to fill out a lot of forms too. And then when you do move to the country, they make you fill out even more forms for the work visa and the residency visa. Toni: Oh Wow. That sounds pretty harsh. Sarah: It is. It's really difficult. They do try to help you with the forms, but the official rule is that they will only help the official employee. I traveled with my husband and three kids. They let me bring my family, but they didn't help me with the paperwork for my family. Toni: Oh Wow. So does the government help you get acclimated? For example, do they help you learn the language? Do they help you with moving costs? Do they help you a get acquainted with the local culture? Sarah: Some of those are yes and some are no. They don't help you learn the local language that is up to you individually. They do help you become acclimated to your town. They travel with you to your town, they make your host institution find you housing. So that's really nice. They help you with the housing, they make your institution find you housing. And they let you have some time to get used to it before you're required to be working 40 hours a week. Toni: So you've worked for a university, you've worked for the US government. Have you worked for language schools? Sarah: I have. When I worked in Korea, I worked for an independent, privately owned language school and we taught after school lessons. Toni: So which, which did you prefer? Like which ones did you like? Sarah: Well, my favorite has been the university job because they let you choose your own hours. You have to teach the classes, but if you don't have class they let you plan your lessons from home or whatever time of day that you want to do it. I like that. But when I was working for the State Department, they made you work regular 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday hours. They made you work those hours. Sarah: I liked the private language school. It was a good job for me at the time, but they also make you work the hours that they need you, which is 2:00 to 7:00 PM, Tuesday through Saturday. And those are not the best hours to be working, so I didn't like that. But the language school helped me the most. They taught me language, they took me on trips. They really treated me like a part of the family in a way that the university and the State Department didn't. So that was really a good memory, a good job. Toni: So if you can rank the jobs between university working for the US government and a language school, what would you rank one, two, three? Sarah: Just exactly how you said at university would be the top. The State Department would be very close, very close second, and then the language school would be a little farther, farther down. The pay was a lot lower. The hours were not very good. I didn't have freedom. Toni: hey make you work more. Sarah: Make you work more, yeah. Toni. Okay. That's awesome. Thanks. Sarah: Thanks.

Abhi: Rachael, we're talking about how life used to be different for us, when we were kids. Rachael: Yes. Abhi: And, I was thinking the other day, it's interesting because we all have loving grandparents, or parents, but our parents used to do things that they can't do anymore. For example, we used to ride in the back of my grandfather's pickup truck ... Rachael: Yes. Abhi: on the highway, which now is totally illegal, like it's a big no-no. We would get in the back of his truck and he would drive us all over the place in this old pickup truck. And like today, that's against the law, right? Rachael: We used to have a station wagon. There are six kids in our family. We just all piled into the back of the station wagon. No seat belts, no car seats. Abhi: Right. Rachael: Babies were in a little Moses basket on the back seat. Abhi: Yeah. And people used to do things like, also like you said, let kids run around the back of the station wagon or move around. You would strap things to your car and drive down the street. Sometimes you can't do that anymore, or you have to do it ... It's a little, bit more regulated than before I think, right? Rachael: Yeah. Abhi: Yeah. We also used to burn our trash, which is now a big no-no in California. Rachael: Really. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: We never used to do that. Abhi: Really? Rachael: I can't comment on that one. Abhi: Yeah. We had these big barrels. We would burn the trash. If you watch movies, you'll see in America, people burning stuff in barrels to stay warm or whatever. Rachael: Yes. I've seen that in movies. Abhi: Yeah. I remember one year, my grandfather was like, "We can't do it anymore. They sent a letter. They said no more." Rachael: We used to go to the dump every week. My father would load up the trailer, well maybe every month or so. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: That's how we used to do it. We didn't used to burn it. Abhi: Right. Rachael: I think they already had laws about it. Abhi: Really? You were probably ahead of the times. Yeah. Yeah, very green place. Also, for having children, women used to drink a little, bit, or they used to smoke when they were pregnant, right? Rachael: Yes. That was a big thing, especially yeah, smoking to stay slim, while you were pregnant, so you wouldn't get too fat. Abhi: Really? Rachael: That was why a lot of women smoked. Abhi: Really. Rachael: It was a diet thing. Abhi: Oh my gosh. Rachael: Yeah. Abhi: I did not know that. Wow, different times huh. Rachael: Yeah and the baby was born smaller, but that wasn't considered necessarily a problem. Abhi: Wow. Not only that, they used to have commercials about cigarettes. They would have commercials about drinking. I guess they still have commercials about alcohol. Yeah, they used to have commercials about smoking. I think that's illegal in the states now. Rachael: It's illegal in New Zealand too. Yeah. Haven't seen. Abhi: Yeah, it's been a while, right? Rachael: The magazines, newspapers used to be full of them. Abhi: Yeah. And they used to not have to say what all the ingredients were in foods and stuff, right? So these days you have to say exactly what's in the food, I think. Rachael: Well, my mother and grandmother used to cook most things from scratch anyway. They weren't many packets or cans of anything ... Abhi: Right. Rachael: at all. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: No instant food or instant cake. They used to cook everything from fresh ingredients. We knew what was in stuff. Abhi: We did too. On our farm, my grandparents farm, they grew their own vegetables. We used to can them. Rachael: Yes, we used to do that too. Abhi: Yeah. Although it was funny, because ... Rachael: Vegetables and fruit, and potatoes every year. Abhi: Right. It's funny, cause you call it canning, but it's actually, you put it in a jar. Rachael: Jars, yes. Abhi: Right? Rachael: You're doing it at home. You used jars. Abhi: You don't call it jarring, but actually I never remember putting it in a can. Rachael: We called it preserving. Abhi: Preserving. Yeah. I hated that. We would do that all day for ... Usually all weekend and I dreaded that weekend. Rachael: Yeah. Abhi: That was the worst, cause you know ... Rachael: I didn't mind it so much. Abhi: Oh really? Rachael: Yeah. We kids, we didn't have to do too much. We used to like to pick the peels. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: Yeah, or the stones or we'd get lots of nice bits of fruit. Abhi: Oh, that's good. No. My grandparents put us to work. It was two days that I could not have fun, any fun from sun up to sun down. I dreaded it every year, like, "Oh no. It's canning weekend. Oh no." Rachael: I didn't like the potato harvest though. Abhi: Oh really? Rachael: I didn't like having to go and take care of the potatoes. Abhi: So did your family have a potato ranch? Rachael: We didn't have a farm, but we used to plant a potato patch at my uncle's farm. Abhi: Oh right. Rachael: We would go there and we would weed it. We would plant it and we would harvest it every year. Abhi: Oh, that's cool. Yeah, we just grew green beans and carrots, tomatoes, that type of stuff. Rachael: We used to have a vegetable garden at our house, the back yard of our home. We had apples and lemons and peaches and gooseberries and grapes. Abhi: Gooseberries? What's that? Rachael: Gooseberries are little green, very sour, berry. They make great pies. Abhi: Really. Rachael: Yeah. Abhi: Gooseberries. How do you spell it? Rachael: Goose, like goose. Abhi: Oh, gooseberries. Rachael: Yes. Abhi: Sorry. That's my ... Rachael: Pronunciation. Abhi: My poor pronunciation, listening there. Oh gooseberries. Oh cool. What do they taste like, gooseberries? Rachael: Very sour, like a raw lemon maybe. Abhi: Okay. Oh cool. Rachael: Or, rhubarb if you've ever tried that and say that. Abhi: Rhubarb. I was not a fan of Rhubarb. Rhubarb was one of the things I dreaded as a kid, was the rhubarb pie. Rachael: I loved it. Abhi: Really? Rachael: I used to eat it raw out of the garden. Abhi: Oh. Rachael: We would play in the back and we had a trampoline. The vegetable garden was there. We used to pick the raw gooseberries or the raw rhubarb, beans or carrots. Afternoon snack was very healthy in those days. Abhi: Rhubarb is healthy? Rachael: It's a vegetable. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: Not quite so healthy once you add cups and cups of sugar to it. Abhi: Yeah. Rachael: The leaves are toxic. You have to be careful with it. Abhi: I didn't know. I didn't like the Rhubarb. I didn't like beets. Those were the two that I hated. Rachael: Beetroot, beetroot. We used to ... Yeah. Abhi: Yeah. They always make you eat it at ... Yeah. You'd have the canned cranberry whatever and also the beetroots. Those two things were not my favorites. Rachael: I love beetroot on a hamburger. Abhi: Oh yeah? Rachael: Yep. Abhi: Oh, well there you go. That's very healthy. It's purple. One of the few purple foods, right? Purple or reddish. Is it purple or red? Rachael: It's reddish really. It's really reddish. Yeah. Abhi: Kind of, a deep dark blood red, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, the good old days growing up on the farm. The things we used to do we can't do anymore.

Mel: So, Doron, what did you do last Valentine's Day? Doron: Last Valentine's day I got disappointed I think, cause I teach at university, and I'd heard that Japanese students always give their teachers loads and loads of chocolate, and even though it was my fifth year, and every other year I only got like two or three, I was still really excited cause I'm at university now and I got two chocolate bars. Mel: Oh, really? Doron: How, about you? Are you looking forward to it this year? Mel: I'm planning on going to Korea with my co-workers to escape the Valentine's Day. Doron: To escape? Mel: Atmosphere, yes. Doron: You're not a fan then? Mel: I like Valentine's Day, but I don't plan on celebrating it this year. Is Valentine's Day big in England? Doron: I haven't lived in England for awhile now, about ten years. When I was a kid it was big in school, like in junior school, and we used to have a little Valentine's post box in your class where you could write little messages to your classmates and then you put it in the box and it'd get delivered. Mel: Oh, in a box? Doron: Yeah, in a little Valentine's post box. Mel: Oh, cool. Doron: The teacher would deliver them. Mel: Did you only get notes or did you get candy as well? Doron: No, it was just notes. In England we don't really give candy and chocolate and presents to people. We just give letters, unless it's like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or something. But when you are seven, you don't really bother. Mel: Well, the thing I liked about Valentine's Day as a kid was that you'd get Valentine's Day cards from everyone, but I was always curious to see what the boy I liked wrote to me. Doron: Did you know who wrote what to you? Mel: Yeah, they would sign their name on the card. Doron: What? They sign names? Mel: Yeah, it'd be like. Happy Valentine's Day Adam. Doron: Oh, in England I don't think you don't put your name. Even if you know who it's from. You know it's from your girlfriend, or your best friend, or your grandma, or something, I think you just put a big question mark. Mel: Really? Doron: It's half the fun. You have to figure it out. Mel: But my favorite Valentine's Day gift is always from my mom. Doron: She gives you a gift every year. Mel: She'll send me gifts in the mail, and when I was in elementary school, she would hide chocolates and stuff in my desk. It was awesome. Doron: That's brilliant. Mel: Yeah. Doron: I don't remember getting any really really cool Valentine's presents. I remember giving a couple. I was dating a girl who lived in Norway when I was at university in England and so for Valentine's Day is the same ... I think her birthday was February the 11th or something. Mel: Oh, yeah. Doron: So, I just flew over. I e-mailed like her best friend who I knew quite well as well and he picked me up at the airport I and flew over to Norway. Mel: Yeah. Doron: And in Norway, it's a very safe country, so they don't really lock their doors a bit like Japan, and he just drove me down to the house and I walked in at like nine in the morning, and she just came down stairs and she nearly died. She thought I was a ghost. Mel: Yeah. That would be scary but fun. Doron: Scary but fun. That's what she said when she could talk. Mel: Yeah, so it was a double birthday, Valentine's Day gift. Doron: Exactly.

Todd: So Darcy, let's talk about our dream life. Where would you like to live? Darcy: I want to live by the beach. Todd: That would be nice. Darcy: Yes, I want to live somewhere that I can see nature and hear the ocean waves. I want to be able to go outside and just get away from things. Todd: That's nice. Darcy: How about you? Todd: Well, I love the beach and I like to go to the beach a lot, but I'd like to live in the mountains. I want to live in a forest or around a lot of trees. I love trees and I like to go hiking so I want to live where it's very rural, but not far from the city and I can go hiking a lot. I want to have a dog because if I have a dog, I can take the dog walking with me. That would be really nice. Darcy: I want to live somewhere that's kind of suburban, close to a city but quiet but also, I want to have a home that has a yard and I don't need a fence but I would like to be nearby neighbors and where people are friendly, instead of kind of too tight together or too spread apart. Todd: Right. What about transportation? Any type of car? What type of car would you like to have? Darcy: I think I would like to have a chauffeur. Todd: A driver? You'd like to have a driver? Darcy: Because I don't have my license yet. Todd: Oh I see. Darcy: I want to get a license. I want to learn how to drive but if I can't, it would be convenient if I would have a chauffeur to drive me around. Todd: Oh, wow. Darcy: What about you? How do you like getting around? Todd: Well, actually, I'd like to have a car, a nice car, maybe an all terrain Mercedes Benz or BMW. That would be nice, but I want to drive myself. I do not want to have a chauffeur, so I like to be by myself. I like to relax. I don't want to talk to somebody in the car. I want to be alone, so yeah, that's definitely not going to happen, but I'd like to have a car that looks nice in the city, but you can take out in nature. It's a little rugged, so that would be good. I don't want to have a small car. I don't want to have a sports car and I don't want to have a car that's really expensive I guess a Mercedes all-terrain car is expensive, but I mean, I don't want to have a car like a Ferrari or something or a Porsche, that if I make a mistake, then it's going to be really expensive, so. Darcy: Yeah, I don't have a car license, but I have a scooter license, so I want to get a nicer scooter that's like pink and white, and I would like it to have lights underneath the bottom, something shiny, and I want it to have a stereo and I play music while I drive down the streets. Todd: Oh, no. Do you want people to hear your music when you go by? Darcy: I just want to hear my music when I'm driving. Todd: Okay, so how about travel? So, where would you like to go? Darcy: I would like to go to Ireland because my family's from there. I would like to see where my ancestors used to live and I would like to try the cuisine and I would really like to learn Gaelic. It's not really spoken in the world, but I think it's really nice to learn about my history and to pass that on, even though I don't live there. Todd: Oh, nice. That's cool. Darcy: What about you? Where would you like to go? Todd: That's pretty easy. Well, I shouldn't say easy. I have two choices. I love to go to Africa and I'd love to go to South America, just because I haven't been to either place, so I'd like to travel around Africa. I've met many students at my university from Africa and they are so nice, and that would be cool. I'd like to go to everywhere actually, I like to go to Somalia, I'd like to go to Ethiopia, I like to go to Nigeria. I'd like to go to Tanzania. I like to go to Botswana. I've met students from these places, and they're so nice. Also, I'd like to go to South America. It looks cool and I'd like to learn Spanish. I don't know any Spanish, but I want to learn, and Portuguese. They speak Portuguese in Brazil, so that would be fun. Darcy: It sounds like you just want to travel around the world. Todd: I do kind of, but I like teaching. Actually, that leads us to the next question, what is your dream job or what would you like to do as a professional? I'll go first. I want to teach English in South America. I'd like to teach English in maybe Chile or Argentina or maybe Brazil or Colombia. I have friends that taught in those places, and they all say it's really nice. Darcy: Yeah, I just want to be a teacher or something with teaching, or I want to do some type of mentoring. I like traveling too, so I would like to go to maybe Korea or France or Italy, some European country, because I want to go somewhere new and have a new experience, but I'm also interested in the mentoring, so I think it would be really great. I really want to do TED Talks, so I want to get more experience so that way I have something that I can share with other people and travel around the world and talk to different people. Todd: That's nice. That's so cool. What about things you would like to learn or a skill you would like to develop? Darcy: I want to learn how to play the guitar. Todd: That would be lovely. Darcy: Yeah, I really like writing poetry so I think it would be cool if I learned how to play my own music. I want to be able to sing and play guitar and perform and entertain people and I want to kind of form that connection that music does that we can't necessarily do just talking with each other. Todd: Yeah, that's a nice one. Darcy: What about you? Do you have any skills you want to learn? Todd: Yeah, two basics. One, I'd like to learn how to surf. I want to start surfing, I would love that, and also, I'd like to get a motorcycle and learn how to ride a bike around and take like a long motorcycle trip. I've done the scooter. I've done some dirt bike riding and I've done some motorbike riding in countries where I kind of lied and said I had a license and I didn't but I'd like to make it official, go get a motorcycle license, so we should make a pact. I'll get my motorcycle license and you'll get your driver's license. Darcy: Okay. Todd: It's a race. Darcy: Okay, you might win.