Welcome to BigAppleSchool podcast. This is Mike.
In today’s topic we’re gonna talk about how people change through time.
That’s a very interesting topic. Let me start it by asking you whether you accept the theory that people don’t change through time?
You asked a pretty question there Ken. You know, this opinion of mine fluctuates through time actually, right. So we all kind of start off with the idea, I think it’s a global thing we were taught as children that people change. People change. You know, that phrase, people change.
What makes you say that though?
Your inner core. I mean, the looks can change, your preferences change.
Even your values might change, right. But that inner, inner person in you, this inner core, inner personality of yours – I don’t know if that changes, I really don’t know. And I’m not really sure if that change, if that changes or not.
You sound a bit philosophical to me right now, because somehow I seem to understand you in a way, but then again I gotta make a stand, and my stand is I really think people change through time. But would you like to explain further what you mean by this?
I think this is a philosophical question. Well, I don’t know, in all phrase, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, this fantastic documentary, right. And it’s probably one of the most valuable documentaries we’ll get to have in the 20th and 21st centuries to leave behind to next generation of humans.
You know, I don’t know, I mean, as I live longer and longer, I am way inclined to say that people don’t change.
And it’s called the Up series. And it’s started by a British producer Michael Apted in the 60s I believe. In England, right, in Britain. And what it is is that it follows the lives of children from the age of 7 and Michael Apted comes back every 7 years to document them. So 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 and on and on and on. Well guess how old the children are now.
Yeah. They’ve been documented every 7 years and it shows how people, you know, change and don’t change, right. And basically, you know, these children grow up with dreams and aspirations, they grow up with visions of how the world should be and is, and how that sort of changes or stays the same as they grow up.
Well, this series is very important, right, because we can leave behind the next generation. Let’s say five generations from now people can look at this documentary, right, hours of footage of how people started their lives and how they ended their lives. From start to end. There hasn’t really been a documentary series like this.
But my question though is how many of those children actually changed or if they have changed before.
I’m gonna get into that. But before I get into that, but here’s the thing, an interesting thing about that. It started in Britain, but it’s spawn in other countries, even including SSSR. There is a one. And the children this year are supposed to be their 35th, so the children are our age, 35, this year.
This year is the year they released 35 up USSR. It followed them since they were 7 during the collapse of the Soviet Union and on. So it’s been done in the USA, Japan, it’s been done in Russia, in South Africa. The South African is the most treasured one, because a lot of kids died from AIDS before they reached 28.
But it just shows you the state of the societies. It’s a good sociological kind of study of how, you know, people in our generation lived. Well, the reason why Michael Apted in the original UK series started that documentary, the original thematic, the question they were trying to answer is do people change or not through time?
And do people’s circumstances change throughout time? So Britain is a class-based society, and they wanted to explore if you’re born in an upper class, do you remain in the upper class when you’re older. From childhood to old age. And likewise, if you’re born into lower classes, do you stay in the lower class as an adult throughout your life. The result has been actually rather random.
Random. So people who were in the upper become middle class, middle class become upper class. It’s kind of random. It’s not really how people predicted their life, so the thematic, the tag line of the show is show me a child at the age 7, and I will show you the man.
In other words, when you’re 7, the personality has already developed, the inner core has already been developed by that age. And you carry that with you for the rest of your life, right. And that’s an old adage, it’s an old saying, it’s actually not from the documentary.
But it’s an old Christian sort of a missionary in the words, something like this, right. But you can kinda see that the inner self of the children have not really changed, even at age 50-60 or whatever, right. They’re still the same.
Right. The introvert who means well to the world is still an introvert who means well for the world at the age of 50-60.
Well, I see your point, and I kinda agree with that, but because I’m also trying to assess myself – am I still the same person, you know, from 7 years, 10, whatever years ago. And all I can say is that practically I’m still the same from my inner core to so called inner core.
But a lot has changed with my values, principles in life. But I just wanna discuss, you know, a couple of things in relation to change, because as they say life a constant change. I really agree with that, because as you grow older you have a lot of realizations.
I used to be very idealistic when I was younger, I thought the world was perfect, that everything can come true. But I don’t wanna sound very pessimistic right now, but everything is grounded in reality. You have to understand that not every dream that you have may come true.
Of course, I mean, fairy tales, Disney films will always tell you that dreams do come true, that nothing is impossible, but then again, we live in a real world. There are bounds, there are limitations, not just, you know, your talent, but there are certain things that are not within your control.
That will somehow dictate how your life will be, like the society, what kind of economic system you have, even say for example, you mention about the USSR for example. Even if I’m, let’s say, progressive and I want that certain to be introduced, but I cannot do this on my own. So it’s not, you now, totally within my hands.
So there are certain things that will really dictate how your life will change and with that your views as well. In my case right now I would say, so, from being idealistic, I became, what, a bit optimistic, now I would say I’m realistic.
I think that’s a pretty common change. You know, I don’t know how to answer that one to be honest. Like I said, it fluctuates through time, my opinion whether people change or not. And I just don’t really.. The truth is that in our lives we rarely get to see people, the same kind of people for more than 20-30 years, right. People change, come and go.
The only people that are consistent in your life are your family, immediate family. Do they change through time? From my experience, no they don’t. None of them have changed since I was a child, right.
So maybe we get to see changes in people for maybe about 10 years if they your friends. Maybe 20 if you’re lucky, if you grow up around them. But to see that long period of change we are bound by human mortality I’m afraid. Right. So I don’t know, I really don’t think that people change.
I start to really realize as I get older that people are not gonna change. It’s actually better off just to think that way because more likely the person that you’re seeing now, you’re probably not gonna see them in 10 or 20 years anyway to even see the change. So what’s the point? So just assume that their behavior today is gonna be the same the next year or the year after.
Or maybe we can put it this way, like, we all have our individual uniqueness if you can call it that. The core that you have mentioned earlier. So we have this inner core, but as time goes by, I guess we get to retain some of it, but the others tend to change. Because then again, our perceptions in life are moved, or, sorry, shaped by society. Without relationships.
Because, for example, before I used to be, you know, optimistic about relationships like oh, we’re friends today, we’re gonna be friends forever. But look what happened? Some of my relationships, friendships in particular they ended for some reason. So it’s not just about the distance, me not seeing them, but it’s you know, the difference in interests.
Some of the friends that I met when I came back to the Philippines, so we gathered and we had this sort of like dinner together and then while I was talking to each and every one, I just realized we don’t have anything in common anymore.
Like, you’re not the person that I used to know. Like, okay, so we’re just cool because we’re friends, but reality, at least from my point of view, deep inside I thought you’re a different person. And the things that they are talking about now, to be honest, I couldn’t give, you know…
I mean, I agree with you when you said about this inner core, because for example in my case, I’m still very what… Not religious, I don’t wanna use that word, but let’s just say I still believe in god basically. I still believe in the good that each person has. Still a bit optimistic in a way, but certain things have changed.
I know, this is why I’m kind of torn.
No, I get it, I get it. It’s sort of a conundrum for you. But for me, it’s like that whole theory about things are in constant change, right. The kings of that, of that philosophy, are the Buddhists, right. So they believe that everything is in constant change. Right. Strangely enough, Buddhism also teaches non-attachment. Right. So my girlfriends asked me the other day – you haven’t called your mom and dad for weeks, don’t you miss them? And I said no. Right, basically.
I think that’s very Russian. I don’t know if you can call it attachment, it’s just strong connection.
Parental attachment. But for me, I never get attached to people.
Uh-huh. I’ve always been accepted… I’ve always accepted the fact that people will come and go.
You will come and go. You will change. But I’ve always believed that, since I was a little child. So for me a new discovery, new people to me, being friends with new people always has been the priority. An when the friendship ends, that ends too. People move on.
But I’ve always been like that, that hasn’t changed, right. So ironically, I don’t believe in one thing that Buddhists say that people change. I don’t believe that. But at the same time I believe in the non-attachment that the Buddhists preach.
So to me, I think you know, it’s… Once you accept that basically you know, people come and go, this kind of things, new relationships, new friendships will form, new business partnerships will form, once you accept that, your life becomes so much easier.
Because you’re not trying to resist change, do you understand? You’re with it, you’re rolling with it instead of against it.
One degree shifting ahead, life becomes so much easier.
Just out of curiosity, how do you see yourself, do you see yourself more as a realistic type or optimistic/pessimistic? You know these.
Totally realistic, totally realistic. So for me it’s be practical or go home. So I’ve never really been into bs philosophy or any lofty ideas about the world. I just kinda saw it as it is.
I’m just interested – have you ever cried? I just wanna know if you have emotions.
You know what’s funny? What my mom says. She says to me you don’t cry. I’ve never seen you cry. You’ve never like… She basically says me you’re a tearless bastard. She says to me, right. It’s funny because I think when I was a little kid, you know how little kids if they want something.
Let’s say they’re walking with their parents, they see a toy and they’re like mom I want this, I want this, aaaa. I cry, I cry until I get it. Well my parents basically left me if I did that. So they just walked away. What’s the kid gonna do? Stare at a toy or follow the parents? Follow the parents, right.
So I think that kinda taught me as a kid right. Don’t rely on others. Do not rely on others, be independent, you know what I’m saying.
Yeah, I know, but I still want you to answer the question. Do you ever cry?
I can’t remember the last time I did.
I cannot remember the last time I did.
Okay, you just enjoying life.
I’m just enjoying life. That’s a good enough emotion to spend 95% of your time.
I mean I also enjoy life, but again, maybe it’s just my personality, but…
Why cry, you’re only gonna live 60-70 years, you know. 80-90 at max. Why cry about it? That’s my point.
It must be cool to be you.
It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it. It’s really not. Something that you realize as you grow up. But you know what I do have a problem with. I’ll tell you what. I have no problem with people having different philosophies about change, and basically through time, all these things. Suit yourself – it’s free life, it’s your life.
But I do have a little bit of problem with this, right. In the recent years, in the last 10 years or so, we’ve seen an emergence of these weird-ass personality tests become very-very popular as little hobby gossip talk. Especially among the female crowd.
In much of the global culture. So I’ll give you one case, I hate it. It’s called the Myers Briggs personality test. Right. Now this test was originally designed by I believe a psychologist, or maybe a psychiatrist long time ago, in the United States. And he postulated this, he sampled tests comprised of his students at a university. Just a class.
But for some reasons decades later people have taken up this thing, this test and described themselves, changed their relationships according to it, changed their behaviors, lifestyles. It’s like you take an introvert and an extrovert, something inner, outer and then you form like a four letter abbreviation.
ENJK or INPF or whatever, right. And they’ll identify themselves with it. I am INPF. I don’t really match with EN whatevers. Right and therefore, I tend to form my relationships around these types of personalities. Right. I know what they’re doing, I know what they’re doing.
They’re trying to outstand themselves right. And they have taken a vehicle to do that. It’s like a simple vehicle, simple fun vehicle like a Myers-Briggs test. But the problem is people are now identifying themselves with this, right.
So they strictly identify…
It’s a theory… It’s just a hypothesis, not even a theory. It hasn’t been tested on a bigger scale. So when it comes to a scientific point of view, it’s lame ass actually. It has not been tested. But for some reason marketing people have taken that up. Just like the Maslow’s pyramid of needs or whatever.
It’s just a little hypothesis, it’s never been tested on a big scale. But people take it up, they form, you know, marketing around it, and they preach it to other people. And these people lap it up, drink it, and they preach it to others about it, talk about it, you know, revolve their…
As if this thing is like, this thing kills cancer – this thing tells me everything I need to know about myself. And others around me. How I should structure my life.
Wait, so what makes you kind of annoyed with it? What seems to be the problem?
Well you’re taking something that is a hypothesis, and try to apply it to reality. Hypothesis, from a scientific point of view, is not applicable to real life.
It has to be tested on a bigger sample size, with more statistical, what you call, probability.
Yeah. So it’s just something that really annoys me, gets my, really gets me peeved off, to be honest, that the people are applying little, little things that people did long time ago, for not a serious reason, and are trying to, you know, come up with the biggest philosophy questions, you know, that the humans get to have in their lives, which is – do I change?
What kind of person am I? Who am I? Who is the other person? How should I live? Right. These are the questions that require deep, long self thought. Not rely on some hypothetical theories.
But then again, you know, I guess the reason why they still take this for individuals, if we talk about ordinary people, is just they just want to have a starting point on where to begin, how to understand themselves.
But well, personally, in my case, I don’t take it seriously, I still take some kind of a personality test just to draw some conclusions out of myself, and this is kind of a guide actually. But it doesn’t mean that it’s gonna dictate how I should act or behave in society – no. It’s just for me, like, okay, it’s one of those…
like these days we have on Facebook some games that will determine what kind of personality you have. But then again when you have the result, you evaluate it from your perspective – is this really true? No I don’t think so, maybe this one – yeah, sort of, kind of, but you don’t… But personally I don’t take it very seriously, it’s just for me to know, like, okay, there might be some truth in it, but not an entire truth.
But how is it gonna help you in your life? In practical terms?
Well, it gets me an idea on how to relate with other people, knowing that I am sort of an extrovert in a way that okay, so I should be, you know, if I come across with introverts, maybe I should be a little more careful to them, because they might not be so convenient in talking to extroverts like me, something like that. I don’t know, something like that.
So it’s helped you in the past? I’m talking about real world here.
I understand. Not necessarily, but it’s sort of just a general idea of what I’m like, at least from this test, but anyway, I do understand.
Right. I just do what I wanna do, I just do what I wanna do or what I wanna say and I know it’s going to… Well, I just rely on the statistical probability, right, Is that my job in this world is not to make everybody like me, right.
It’s to find people that I know like me, and there are a lot of people in this world. So if people don’t like the way I do things, or like what I say or whatever, I just go find other people, right. The world is being explored, right. It is to find other people who will go to jail with you.
You are very practical in that sense.
Yeah, I mean why bother and adjust yourself. The world is full of people, right. I have a question for that.
What do you think, you know, what are the biggest forces that change people through time?
You know, I’ve already mentioned some of them earlier- their relationship with other people, the economic system that they’re born into, not just the economic system, but the social, I don’t know, system.
Have you ever experienced it here in Russia? How people change through time because of some social-economic system?
I guess. That’s a very difficult question and a bit sensitive in a way to discuss, but what do you think?
Oh throwing my question at question. Look, I have seen a truckload of that here. The problem is I haven’t been living here, so I haven’t seen people really change that much, but I’ll give you a case in example. The documentary I was just talking about – Born in the USSR, right, these kids who are now 35.
Majority of these kids started up as idealistic optimists, right, even some of them were actually pioneers back in the day. By the time they’re about 28, right, their perception of the world has completely shifted, it had shifted. By that stage they’ve had a child too, most of them, and for example, this one guy. He actually lives here in Novosibirsk in a documentary. He’s from Kazakhstan.
Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan. And he started off as the guy who was proud of the Soviet system, right. And he misses that, because here in Novosibirsk 7 years ago he was working as a one of those guys who sells things at markets. So he was called a gastarbeiter, that’s what they’re called. And he hated that, right.
So he saw how his world changed, he was born into the world where everybody was equal and then as he grew up that system collapsed. And the social economics changed and he became a second class citizen essentially. A foreign worker in a place that used to be part of his territory.
It used to be part of the union, right. So for him you can see by the time he was 28, his optimism had completely faded. Yeah, so completely faded, because now he was working at the market in a cold day, -30 degrees selling goods, doing it hard. Living in a small apartment, tryna make it through. Do you know what I mean? He felt that if he was still under the Soviet system he’d be no different to anyone else.
So you see, that’s the point.
Well, but this is just one case. Just one guy at the market, I walk around here and it makes me wonder how many people here had been to similar experiences.
That’s very unfortunate for them.
Yeah. Well, you know, but it’s just that I think you’re right that the social economics do influence people hugely.
But then I talk to people about it and people say politics is one thing, social economics is one thing, people are another thing. That’s the attitude here. And I tell them no it’s not, no it is not. It is completely, you are influenced by that completely in and out, inside and out. Your life will change. Everything will change according to that. For me I had an experience here, I had an experience here – basically I went to a North Korean restaurant here.
There’s actually a North Korean restaurant.
I don’t know if it’s there anymore, but when I first arrived here. And there are all these people, right, these North Koreans, right, and they were basically, they looked poor nutritioned, they were small, they were skinny, they all had…
you know, like they’ve received so much sun from working in the fields right. They obviously want the Pyongyang elite. Yeah, so that country has the same system as Moskva – when Moskva was the place where the elite lived.
And everyone lived in … according to that, right. So these guys weren’t this, they were kind of the village kids that were sent to Russia to work as foreign labors. And I looked at them and I thought Jesus Christ, these guys look so….
Wait wait wait, they are still in that condition? I mean, when you saw them?
They looked like grandparents, the post-war generation, the generation that didn’t get to eat. The generation that lived in ort of bleat times. They just felt like, and they looked stressed, they looked afraid, totally different to all the modern South Korean kids that I grew up around.
Wait wait wait, what made you draw the conclusion that they were North Koreans?
It’s a North Korean restaurant. With North Korean flags and victory day marches on their tv screen. Right. So this is a government-owned restaurant. In North Korea they still…
They’re not a private property, it’s not a private business, it is run by the government. So what I realized is that the only difference between these people and I, is the fact that I was born only 70 km away from them. It’s only 50 km away from the North Korean border, you have to understand. So because of that I was born into a different social economic system, the one that was filled with optimism.
Therefore you have a different mentality.
Completely different life. I came here as a tourist, they came here as foreign workers.
Receiving whatever measly salary that they receive, they have to send it back home. Completely different situation. But only born 50 km away. So that tells me how, it was just one of the effects how the social economic, political situations completely shape the destinies of people.
That makes a huge difference.
It makes a huge difference. And it just shouldn’t and can’t be really denied that this is government, this is us, we’re individuals, it doesn’t affect us. That’s putting the head in the sand mentality. It doesn’t work, yeah. But you know, I mean, for example, your country, Philippines, at the moment is going through some flows of change to attain power and whatnot, right. Tell me a little bit about that.
You know, for the longest time we have been I would say very… I’m trying to be careful here cause you never know if there are Filipinos listening out there. But all I’m gonna say is I’m glad that we have such a leader who’s strong, who’s iron-fisted, because we used to have I would say half-hearted leaders who were not that, you know, strict when it comes to implementing the rules.
But right now we have I would say a president who, you know, he’s the type of leader – no BS. He’s not just talk, he’s all about actions. He may not be very diplomatic in the way he expresses himself.
He says it exactly the way it should be said, which I appreciate, but not a lot of people actually agree to that, because it’s just not very nice, but. Well right now I would say that the country I guess is moving to a different direction in terms of politics, we tend to be a little what. It’s hard to say some words that… cause I don’t want to sound…
Well let’s talk about the strict… Let’s not talk about the upstairs, let’s talk about the downstairs here, right. So let’s talk about how it changes people. How is it changing people? Because this guy has been around for like 3-4 years now, hasn’t he? He’s instituted some really die-hard policies against certain things, right. How is it changing people on the streets?
You know, I think we have become less liberal in a way. I wouldn’t say less tolerant, but I guess we are going in that direction. Because we tend to have a bit of an extreme view now.
With… I hate to talk about this. When it comes to some particular maybe foreigners.
Some neighbors which I will not mention, the nationality. I don’t want to end up in hot water.
But. Okay let’s just.. Okay, I’ll just end there.
Well that’s your freedom mate, if you don’t wanna, don’t wanna..
I just wanna be careful with… We’ve been talking seriously about this topic. Why don’t we talk some something personal.
On that note I just wanna ask you – how would you… Well, still in line with our topic, how people change through time. Before that, I just wanna ask you – how would you describe your childhood?
Childhood? It’s.. It was free, it was do what you want. It was literally do what you want how you want it.
I wouldn’t say I was naughtier than any other kids, you know. That’s, you know, that has a point. But we were given a lot of freedom to do what we wanted and how to express our view.
Did you end up doing, I don’t know, did you get into troubles, like serious ones?
Nah, nothing serious, it wasn’t the kind of… I wasn’t that kind of kid.
Would you say then you had a happy childhood?
Yeah I mean nothing that would end up… Nothing that would make me end up, you know, at juvenile detention centers.
Juvenile detention centers are basically prison for children.
Exactly. It’s just, you know, I just want to…
That’s the… There are kids that are like that. And I’ve seen kids that are like that that end up in juvie, called the juvenile detention centers -they are different kids. They are… They usually come from really chaotic backgrounds.
Usually starts at home – something’s wrong with the dad, something’s wrong with the mom. Maybe one of them is absent, both of them are absent, right. One of them’s abusive. It usually has that background.
So kids who end up in that kind of side of things, they come from a certain background. Tend to, tend to. So now, we’ve all done things when we were little kids, like stole things, broke into cars, steal things. It wasn’t that hard, right. In Australia of course, every kid, you know, pretty much has access to drugs.
As soon as you enter high school, you’re seven-eight-nine, pretty much you have access to that.
Philippines has a very die-hard attitude towards drugs, now especially I’d say. But in Australia there are hard drugs and there are soft drugs. There are kiddy drugs.
Yeah, the kiddy drugs, right.
I wonder what kind of drug that is.
Marijuana, pot. These things are called kitty drugs for a reason.
Kiddy grass, kids smoke it. It’s grass for kids. So you know, these things are around our lives, right. But we all grow out of it, most of us. By the time you hit 17-18-19, you grow out of it, you know what I mean, most of us. Some don’t.
Of course, of course. It’s part of growing up in a country like that. But of course what had happened is that for a couple of decades there was some nah, it wasn’t a couple of decades, maybe 15 years ago there was a infiltration of certain types of hard drug that was imported to the Philippines at that time.
So we don’t want to go back into that topic, but and that became a social problem, a massive social problem. But they cracked down on that. And that has been managed well. So I guess the one of you know, these forces do kind of…
This sort of liberal progressive culture has a tremendous effect in the way we grow up, in the way that we express ourselves later on in life. So yeah, so we sort of kind of grow up with the attitude of just kind of being free to do whatever.
But we also understand, have to understand, have to understand that not all nations are like that, so. I guess that was my childhood – free, nice, easy, and relaxed. What about yours?
I would say on and all my childhood was a happy one because I grew up in a village, I had my farm animals, chickens. I helped raise them, with the help of my grandmother of course. I got to play in the river with my friends, with other, you know, kids.
And well, even though we were not financially capable, but I would say that it was a happy childhood because I was able to do everything that a child is supposed to do at the time. But of course we do change when we moved to Manila, when we moved to the city.
I just realized that the kids in the city are far different from the ones in the village. There are little more I would say like risk-takers and some of them were I would say rather rude and more emboldened to say what’s on their mind. Unlike, you know, in the village. At least in the Philippines.
I would say we’re more scared of the elderly, we really follow them, we listen to them, but in the city kids tend to be wilder, crazier, more rebellious – that’s how I would put it. But, well, in my case, I still have the village boy in me, so I try to keep, you know, that way.
However, of course, when you’re surrounded by such people you eventually become like them in some way. But not totally for me, I’m still… Well at that point in my life I was still religious because I was born into this catholic family.
So I always prayed, every single day, every Sunday we went to the church. But it only lasted… eventually when I went to university I started not believing in any kind of religion. It’s not only about Catholicism which is the predominant religion in the Philippines, but I have…
Well, I would say I became more, what, realistic? And although I still believe in God, but I don’t believe in, you know, in the preaching of priests, or as they call in it Islam… How do you call that? Imam. No, I don’t listen to those spiritual leaders, whatever. And in terns of changes, changes in life, I can say that I have grown a lot as a person because of the experiences that I’ve had over the years.
Okay. So, I mean, obviously, going from a village kid to a city kid I mean, when did this happen? How old were you when this happened?
12-13. That is psychologically pretty big change.
Yeah, I mean so did you try it first very hard to adjust and be part of the city kid crowd?
At first it was a bit of a culture shock for me because oh, the U-starting words, you’re not supposed to say that. But then again, you know, because you are surrounded by such kids and then you eventually kind of, you know, adapt it into your system and you become one of them I guess.
Well in Australia the small town kids are wilder that the city kids. They drink harder, they drive earlier. They shoot guns, they kill livestock, you don’t mess with farm kids. They will kill you if you do that, right. Cause you have to understand- these kids drive, start driving tractors when they’re like 19 years old.
They learn how to drive motorbikes since they’re like 5 or 6 years old. Yeah. So and they can shoot a rabbit, yeah, at night. And I’ve seen one kid do this, right. At night using nothing but a spotlight. Three rabbits with three bullets, a 100 meters away.
Bring it back, skin it, pit it on the fire. I mean, these… You think oh these are country kids, no! You don’t do that! They’re used to killing, they’re used to drinking, they’re used to fighting. They’re used to, you know what I’m saying.
Yeah. But then I heard that Russia has some equivalent of this too. There is this… I said to my students here - oh Novosibirsk, it’s a safe place, it’s lovely, and people are well-behaved, people don’t scream at night because they’re drunk.
They say wait till you go to some village type, you’ve got the guys who don’t have jobs and they drink and they fight. And they all, you know. So actually you get the wilder guys, right, yes, you get the wilder guys in Australia in the farming towns. Because they’ve got nothing else but to drink and be in conflict sometimes. Right. And they’re good at that.
It’s interesting, we have a bit of like reverse situation here.
The city people are actually better behaved generally, and they are more educated, whereas the country people are willing to just kinda say what they want to your face and then they just get it done over with.
Ours is, you know, people in the village, they are more traditional I would say, how do you call that? Small town mentality, so they’re very traditional. They follow the customs. And in the city they’re more liberated or liberal in terms of their views.
You got three types of towns in Australia – you got the farm towns, then you got the beach towns and you got the cities, right. So the beach town is where the kids, they often skate, they play all day and they smoke drugs and whatnot. So they come as the biggest druggies in town.
And they all come to the cities eventually, right. Most of them. And the farm kids are the toughies. They, you know, they are really really strong kids, right. The city ones are slightly the more cosmopolitan, they are the more understanding, they are the more, these sort of kids, who live in the city.
It’s a very very different background, but I guess as a culture, Australia's changing, the people are changing because of the connection to the internet, the social media. The beach kids feel like city kids now. And the farm kids start mor to be like city kids too, because there’s internet.
So you see the technology changes people in that, right. So in that sense I guess people are changing, in that sense. Alright, I think that’s about all the time we have for today. Well that was hell of a topic.
I hope everyone enjoyed it.
Yeah, I mean how people change through time – what a topic! I think this is the topic that our audience should think about too.
Yeah, they should. Well this has been the BigAppleSchool podcast, I hope you enjoyed the show. And this is Mike, signing off.
