Hello, hello, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Big Apple School podcast where the goal of this show is to help you improve your English listening skills and to boost your knowledge of English vocabulary. So my name is Benjamin. Today I have three wonderful participants. Our first participant is...
And last but not least, we have...
So, guys, how's it going? What's new?
Like maybe nothing on a big scale, but I had cinnamon toast for breakfast today.
Yeah, yeah. I tried a new recipe like toasts in the oven with butter or cinnamon and sugar.
Oh, it's like a French toast, but, like, kind of made in an oven.
Well, I googled cinnamon toast...
French toast is... I don't know...
It is. It is for 10 minutes. Cinnamon sugar. Butter. Butter on the bread and. Yeah. Good. Because I like sweet things, you know, in the morning and every time, okay.
Kind of gives you this, you know, some sort of energy boost in the morning.
Yeah, and the will to live.
Sugar's important. People say gives sugar a bad rap, but actually, sugar is quite important. You need it.
Well, have you watched the documentary about sugar? You love documentaries, so you must have.
I've seen many documentaries. Maybe not that one.
Okay. Because usually people who are like, you know, sugar is so bad, they watch the documentary about sugar. I think it's called "Sugar". So and they're like, I am never eating sugar again, so I'm not going to watch it.
Well, I know it's a different subject. Well, today we're going to talk about cleaning and we're not going to talk about so much about sugar.
Because we have already. We have a podcast about sugar and salt, salt, sugar and fat. So.
Ok. After I had my cinnamon toast, I cleaned my kitchen a bit. Okay.
Funny you should mention that.
Yeah, I'm just trying to, you know, build this bridge.
Oh, I had a funny story happened to me, so.
Between. In between lessons. I received a phone call from a gentleman claiming to be a federal police officer in Russia, and he said that you have a nephew here in Russia who is, I think his name is Pavel Something Walker. And he was trying to gain access to my bank account. And I said, I've got a lesson. Can I just call you back in couple hours? And I did not call him back.
Of course, 'cause it's a scam.
Yeah, I didn't call him back and he called back again after 2 hours saying, Hey, yeah, you need to go to the police station and write out all your parents' names, your relatives' names and you have to sign a document. It is really strange. He said something about повестка, not like the military повестка, but something in the police station. And I thought, well, this is kind of strange. He actually wants me to go to the police station and...
Yeah, it was really sketchy. Yeah. So I did not go to the police station.
I said, I'll call my lawyer. And he didn't say much.
That's a good one. That's a good one. And he, like, nephew here in Russia.
It's like, how did that happen? You know.
Yeah. My first reaction was, I don't have any nephews. Maybe I shouldn't have even said that. But I said, yeah, I don't have any nephews here. Come on. If you're the police, you should know that.
Yeah. No, no. Oh, there are a lot of scammers these days, so don't fall prey to them, you know?
I just usually don't pick up my phone if the number is unknown.
Yeah, I just in general don't talk on phone.
If it is something important, they will text me.
Yeah. That's what text, you know, were invented for.
Well sometimes it's entertaining to speak to scam callers. Sometimes.
Yeah. You, you have interesting tastes to funny things.
Well I just like to see where they go. Yeah, like if you have a spare moment and you're not too busy and... All right, well. Olya, anything special?
So the same as Maria I learned the new recipe. I tried it today and...
Yeah, it was delicious, but, yeah, I still have lots to learn.
Yeah, but it's hard sometimes, especially when you don't really have time in the mornings.
Yeah, yes, I have a proper cooking session. Well, something else is new, so we're moving to a new sound recording platform. So we're not with SoundCloud anymore, we're now with Mave. And also something else which is interesting is we are actually in the top ten English school podcasts in Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Belarus. So thank you listeners for being a part of that. We very much appreciate that.
And also we have some comments to address. So we source these comments from a range of platforms, including Castbox, VK, Apple Podcasts and of course the Big Apple School Telegram Chat. And we have a comment here it looks like from Apple Podcasts, from Olga031197. And Olga said, Thank you guys for everything you do. I listen to your podcast every day and it's a great pleasure for me.
Olga, it's very nice of you. We very much appreciate the nice comments. Thank you very much. Keeps us going. And then we have another comment from a guy called alexmarali. Alex, I'm interested in your surname or your last name. What does it come from? I'm interested. So Alex said thank you guys for awesome activities. You really do wonderful work. I listen to your podcast almost every day to practice listening skills and it's so cool sometimes to see you. Well...
Alex, nonetheless, thank you so much for your comment. We very much appreciate.
Such comments kind of give you this oxytocin boost.
Well, oxytocin is the hormone that is related to like hugs, appreciation, you know, like all this human relations. So I guess it's more of oxytocin. Dopamine also has a part in it.
It comes from chocolate, I guess. Dopamine comes from chocolate more.
Yeah, of course, guys, I need to mention we have a private chat on Telegram and we have the aftershow which where you can watch more of our podcast and you can get access to word documents or PDF files of the words that appear in this podcast to further help you boost your vocabulary range and your English skills.
We also want to thank our new subscribers to our telegram chats. So that's Mariia and we have Alex Petrosov. So thank you very much. And you provide some nice suggestions to our podcasts in general. So thank you, guys, for being a part of our show. All right, guys. Well. Let's get to it. So we were going to talk about cleaning. So you said you did some cleaning this morning.
And I like clean too, you know.
And when we think about cleaning we mean, like, in a general sense. Yeah, cleaning, washing, washing the dishes, washing clothes, whatever. Yeah?
Yeah. Yeah, it's a bit of everything.
Yeah. Because, well, I'm not a big fan of every type of cleaning, but I like some things.
Well, are you guys clean freaks?
No. I mean, I can bear some level of, you know, like dirt and dust, and everything, so. Yeah. No, not a clean freak.
What about tidy freaks? What's... And by the way, what's the difference between clean and tidy?
Huh. Well, then maybe I'm more of a clean freak than a tidy freak, because, like, I like things to be clean. I like, okay, my bathroom and my toilet, and my dishes to be clean, and my bed sheets. But it can be kind of messy in my room if you enter it. I mean kind of artistic mess. And things can be in wrong places, but for me, it's the right place.
You mentioned an artistic mess. Do you know, Francis Bacon, not the philosopher, but a painter. Maybe you have seen his paintings. Really interesting. British Irish guy. And his studio was a complete mess. It was amazing to look at. And they have a mock up of his art studio in Dublin, so they preserved all the paints and everything where they were. His studio was in London, but they moved it to Ireland and it's fascinating. He absolutely wild man.
I would be surprised if any artist's studio would be not a mess, would be clean and tidy.
It's kind of impossible, yeah.
A lot of artists have particularly meticulous styles. Yeah. For instance, there was this guy who was the illustrator for the New York, you know, The New Yorker. Yeah, yeah. Famous magazines. You know, the famous illustrations that his name was Saul Steinberg. And he was extremely meticulous. And he even did illustrations of his desk and how meticulously tidy it was.
And coming back to the question though. So, Masha, you're more of a clean, clean than a tidy freak.
Yeah, because if something is not in their places, if it is not tidy, maybe a bit asymmetrical or a lot asymmetrical, it's fine. But if it is not clean, for example, I don't like to and I wouldn't drink out of a dirty glass, let's say.
I'm like the opposite. I'm more of a tidy freak because I don't care about dust much. Yeah, but everything has to be in its own place, so. And when, for example, you open my cabinet, like kitchen cabinet, and you see the dishes and everything, they have to go in one specific order, one after the other. So first, let's see the blue dishes, then this, then the bowls. And when my fiancee washes the dishes, so they sometimes put, you know, in different order and I open the cabinet like, No it does not go like that.
I quite agree. I kind of like that, I like order, but I don't really care too much about the cleanliness.
I don't care about the cleanliness, the cleanliness, but you know, the order things have to be placed like that. So books we have these books here, those books there. So, yeah.
It makes sense. It makes sense. I guess we all just have our things and our spots that need to be either clean or tidy or both.
Because... Well, I know that some people are a bit... I have friends who are a bit paranoid about like everything cleanliness and cleanliness and tidiness. And I have other friends who are total opposite. For example, they don't care if you wash your hands after you come home or whatever, they just don't care. So I have both types of friends.
So have you heard of the term germaphobe?
Good word for our listeners. And I think it's all together, even though it's not. I don't know if you would find this word in the dictionary, but. Germophobe. Yeah, but you wouldn't. Are you a germaphobe? Would you say?
I don't think I am. I don't think I am. I'm allergic to some things. That's why I don't like dust, because it can cause some allergy and... Well, that is why. Not because I'm afraid of get of getting infected or something.
I'm not paranoid about it.
Olya, are you a germaphobe?
Well, I guess I used to be, but then I was like, it's not okay to be like that. Like, you know, when you I don't know, it's something. And then you go to the bathroom and you need to wash your hands. It was like kind of, you know that. Okay. So, yeah, I used to be like that, but not anymore.
Yeah, fair enough. So, I mean, would you be like, let's say, if you are on the street and you get a shawarma or something like that, would you just eat on the streets or would you need to go wash your hands?
Never. I always use, I always wash my hands if I don't have an access to the bathroom. So I won't touch it. Okay. So maybe I still have some problems here.
I mean, thanks to the pandemic, a lot of people now have sanitizers with them. So I would just, like, sanitize my hands and then I... Off I go.
I don't I don't like them.
I don't like them either. They, I can't breathe when I...
Yeah. When someone opens one in the same room, I just can't breathe like, it's so strong.
They smell like alcohol sometimes.
Yes. And it just gets right in the back of your nose and...
And I cannot imagine how you do that. And then you eat something.
That's wet and sticky and it's like...
What kind of sanitizers are you, guys, using? They are all different.
I don't use any sanitizers. Like only soap. That's it. Soap or nothing.
When you're are home. Yeah, sure. But when you are, let's say, even before the pandemic, when I was on a trip, I always took some tissues with me, like...
And, yeah. Antibacterial something. Yeah. It was a thing for me before it. Before it got, you know, mainstream, yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I like to have showers, but I don't really care about having, like, those wet napkins with me and stuff. But, yeah, I like to have a couple of showers a day, but more just to relax. Like, just. I like the hot water and stuff.
Yeah. So routines. Do you have a routine for cleaning or do you just clean as and when it's is dirty in your apartment?
I have, you know, this kind of. So I separate and divide all the cleaning task into separate, separate category. So there are some things that I do kind of every day, let's say, like do the dishes or wipe the, you know, like countertop or something after cooking.
There are some things I do once a week, let's say, you know, like I do not know, or biweekly, maybe like once, two weeks, like wash the floors. Although I hate doing that, so I don't really do that. My fiancee does. Dust the sheets.
Word for our audience. So what is a швабра in English?
A mop. Exactly. So do you use like a classic mop or do you use like the flat-headed mops?
I don't use any mop at all, for example.
That's what, that's what my mom always did. And that's what I do.
Yeah, I used to, you know, to use cloth as well, but then I bought a mop and, Gosh, my life changed. Like, it's really fast and it's really convenient and I don't know, I love it.
It's kind of like a broom as well.
But it's more convenient, I guess.
You can't access every corner of the room and you can't access like under the bed or something.
But it's flat, so that's okay. I don't know.
Well, you have a cat, Maria, don't you?
I do. Absolutely. And he has long fur.
Which is a problem, yeah.
Do you have, like a vacuum or..?
No, I don't. I have my hands and a cloth.
I guess the vacuum cleaner might freak out the cat a little bit.
Well, I used just regular vacuum cleaner. Not a robotic vacuum cleaner, nothing fancy, nothing modern. But it didn't help a lot. And it took a lot of place in my not a very big flat, so I just get rid of it. I got rid of it and well, I came back to this old fashioned old school way.
Well, I cannot imagine to have no vacuum.
I brush my cat, I wash the floor. That's it.
So I have like two steps cleaning routine. Like, I have to vacuum the floor first and only then I mop it just because the fur again, it's everywhere. And I cannot do that with a dry mop. It just freaks me out because it...
You have a cat too, don't you?
Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, the fur sticks to the mop and it's like everywhere. So, I don't know, I just have to vacuum so no dust or fur left and then, yeah.
I just don't mind having a bit of fur somewhere because, you know, if you have a cat, you need to get used to having the spice.
Benjamin, you have a bunny.
I do. I do have a bunny. And it's, we don't keep it in a cage. We keep him. He's allowed to roam...
How free is he? Because I know some people let their cats, for example, go to the kitchen table. I don't. What about your rabbit?
Well the bunny can't get up onto the kitchen table, but funnily enough, I stupidly left a plum on my bedside table a few nights ago, and he climbed onto the bed at night, and he jumped onto the bedside table, and ate the plum.
Yeah, the pip. Yeah, the pip is... He was crunching it at night.
And that woke us up. And I can't...
Wow. So how do you deal with the fur? And everything 'cause they shed.
Fur gets everywhere. Yes, it does. And he's white, so...
Yes. I have these special rollers which you put. Originally...
Yeah, exactly. Well, originally they were the sticky ones with the tape and you have to unravel the tape.
Oh, you have the one that is like not the disposable one, but.
Now we have the normal one. So not normal, excuse me, the one which you put on the water and then you just brush your clothes.
I would say yes, because it's cheaper first of all.
Ok, probably I will need a recommendation from you.
Yeah, me too 'cause I use this sticky one.
Yeah, the sticky one. Yeah, we were using so my wife and I were using for a long time. But yeah, it gets expensive, but not so expensive, but a little bit...
It adds up and I'll try to find...
Not environmentally friendly also.
Yeah, yeah. So I'll try to find the name of this. It's kind of like a rubbery texture.
And you just put it under water and roll your clothes and...
I never heard of that one.
You might have seen them, you might have seen...
But I don't know what it is, right.
I think my wife found it on AliExpress.
I've seen those like, you know, for many, many years in my, in my relatives' homes and everything else and I was like, What's that? It looks weird. And they like, Oh, it's for the fur.
But where can you buy one?
Yeah, probably AliExpress. Yeah. Or maybe Галамарт.
Yeah. Places like that. So places that sell like all sorts of stuff.
By the way, is Галамарт only in Novosibirsk? Was that across Russia?
Well, listeners, let us know if you are in Russia and you have Галамарт in your local town.
Галамарт is great. They have a lot of cheap cleaning products there. So you can get sponges for like...
Pack of sponges for 20 rubles and... All sorts of cloths.
So, yeah. Speaking of routines..
Oh, yes. So I have like things that I do every day. Like put away the clothes, the jewelry, you know, stuff like that. Wipe the basin because I'm annoyed when it gets dirty. Things that I do, like every week or every two weeks, like biweekly, like the floors and everything and more like seasonal things. Like when you have to take your coats to the dry cleaner or you have to like, you know, deal with your summer clothes, winter clothes, maybe windows. I hate doing that.
Oh, you like doing the windows?
I don't know. I just like when everything's clean at home.
Oh, I hate it. I hate doing it.
Well, Novosibirsk is especially dusty, and the windows get pretty grimy after, even after a week.
And there are lots of stains left after the rains, so. I don't know.
So you kinda. You know, I feel very discouraged by that. Like, Oh, come on, I washed it, you know, like a week ago. What the hell?
Yeah. It gets so dusty here.
Especially if you leave your windows open like I do.
I live on the third floor.
And when I have my windows open after, I don't know, let's say, several hours.
I feel that my table is dusty and I have to, like, you know.
Yeah, wipe it down. Yeah.
Yeah. By the way. Oh, that was a phrasal verb to wipe something down. So phrasal verbs don't always have logic to them. But in this case, I would say they do have some logic to them to wipe down. Or you can also use the word to wipe off. But that's like if something is on a surface, maybe not dust, you can also brush off something as well.
And what about wiping out?
Wiping out. Wipe out we actually use that in the context of, um, let's say, if you have a crash. So usually it's when you go skiing, for instance, if you're skiing really fast and then you crashed and wipe out.
Yeah. Phrasal verbs are a bit crazy in English. They really are.
Just put any preposition you like to any verb you like, and you will... You will make up something.
Yeah. I love sending my students the joke when they sometimes like, Oh, I don't understand what preposition to use, you know, in this picture, like somebody finds a genie and a genie is like, So you can, I grant you three wishes, but no returning people back from the dead. No making somebody fall in love with you and no wishing for infinite wishes. I want to always know what preposition to use in a language. So there are four rules.
Wait, what about Olya, Benjamin, Maria, what about your routines? Do you have any cleaning routines?
So my schedule, every now and then it changes. So some days I might have an evening lessons, other days I don't. So I just clean when my flat is dirty.
Do you kind of like separate or kind of divide like you do only this sort of tasks and your wife does only this sort of tasks?
Maybe we should, but we don't. We, we just attack it.
I used to do it. But then, you know, I eventually find out that cleaning it makes me calm, it makes me relax. And I was like, Okay, I'll do that. But you do the dishes.
Oh, yeah, I do the dishes. I mean not, to be quite honest, sometimes after a long day and if we make a big dinner, I just do it the next day.
That's okay. Everyone does it.
Yeah. But I try to get the dishes done as soon as possible. Yeah. What about you, Maria?
Me? Well, I'm sometime ago, like maybe ten years ago or something I read about the system made to by an American housewife I guess it's called Flying Lady or Fly Lady, something like this. And, well, what she said was like, divide your place, your house into several spots, into zones, as she said, and clean one zone at a time. Well it worked for me because I can't stand the whole be cleaning thing at once.
It's just so discouraging and...
Yeah. It's, it's like too boring and. Well that's, that's what I do.
For example, if I see that, well I do some things as Katya said, some things I do like every week, some things I do everyday, some things like cleaning windows I procrastinate to do.
What is your favorite cleaning task?
Is ironing a cleaning task?
Because I do it very, very, very rarely.
I think mine is like reorganizing or decluttering.
So that I like. You know, when I have, let's say, a pile of something...
And you need to put it like into correct places. I even like the sound, you know, let's say, after a working day, I need to put away my stationery, you know, my notebooks, everything. And I just love, you know, all these putting this stationery over there. This goes there... This is the only task I enjoy. Everything else is like fine.
Yeah, I love cleaning the toilet. That's my...I'm joking. That's probably the worst of all the tasks.
Well, we have to do that.
You have to. Yeah, you do. Yeah.
Some people like the smell. Some animals like the smell. My cat likes the smell of Domestos, for example.
Yeah. And, well, which is... Which is a bad thing, because once I decided to wash my floor with this Domestos...
Wait, is the Domestos detergent? Or is it bleach?
Oh, okay. I think it's...
I think it's more detergent than bleach.
Because there there there are different kinds of them, though. Bleach is kind of like more hazardous. So I think that it's kind of safer than bleach. So I would add it to the category of detergents.
But still, you don't want you get to drink it. And he tried...
Well, he didn't. He tried, he sniffed and he tried to lick the cloth, which I said, like, You are a naughty pervert. What are you doing? Get away.
Cats like strange smells. And sometimes...
They are strange creatures, you know.
This morning my cat was leaking the blanket. So should I call him pervert as well?
You can call him whatever you want.
This is personal relationship, you know, like between you and your cat.
Yeah, cats, I love cats, but they can be twisted sometimes.
But. Okay, you've asked us about things that we like doing. What is your most number one hated cleaning chore?
I would probably say getting round the back of the oven and clean.
Sometimes. Well, let's say.
'Cause I have fur on the floor. There's fur on the floor everywhere, and then you have grime. So you know what I mean by grime and accumulates. And I just don't like the look of it. So I sometimes have to get my finger and scrape it away.
You could do it. Sometimes you have the curved edges and sometimes I just can't be bothered. I just quickly scrape it away and then wash my hands.
And you do not use any gloves?
Sometimes, no, sometimes I just the gloves rip and...
So obviously if I'm using strong chemicals, yeah, I would try to use gloves or a plastic bag if my gloves are ripped.
Because there are like, you know, several types of gloves and some are suitable for people with allergies, for example, and some are not.
Oh, of course. Yeah, latex allergies. Exactly.
Yeah. So I use the vinyl ones.
Oh, so. All right, so you're allergic to...
Kind of, yeah, because if I touch some, I don't know, detergent or anything like that, you know, I can have my allergy on the hands. So, yeah, the doctor said you should use vinyl gloves only. And that helps.
And what happens, do you develop a rash when you?
Just can get really red and...
So cleaning the back of the oven.
The most hated? Your least favourite one... cleaning the floor.
High five. I can relate to that. I hate washing the floors.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Not just the back of the oven and the... The floors and the bits around counters and cupboards. So the edges between corners. Yeah, that's the worst because you have to dig it, dig out the grime.
To get out of there. Just I can't really imagine.
Oh, it's like if you. Okay...
Well, you know, when you're cooking, you know, like a couple of crumbles fall, then you're like, Oh, you know, I'm not going to just like, you know, move everything.
So and then it kind of accumulates.
Well, especially around the bathrooms, around the toilets, at the edge of the toilets and the floor. The rabbit likes to play around everywhere. And you get this fur and all this crime, it just accumulates and you have to wipe it away. Oh, another phrasal verb wipe away. So we had wipe down, wipe off, wipe away.
And, Olya, what about you, most hated?
I guess I love everything.
Probably we should hire you.
As I said, it just makes me calm. It just, it just, you know, relaxes. It's relaxing. So I cannot say that I hate something. I just. I didn't know I enjoy doing that. So, yeah. Yeah.
Most people think of cleaning as being a chore, like a bad thing, but actually...
It can be enjoying. Sure, it depends on how you...
It's neither good or bad. It's just something that you need to do. It's just tedious.
Well, do you feel accomplished after that?
Have you guys seen this Instagram slash tik tok profile of a Finnish lady? Her name is Auri. The nickname is Auri Katarina. And she is well, I'm not, I'm going to say a cleaning guru and she...
Let's save it for aftershow. Oh, it could be an interesting thing for subscribers of our aftershow. So well, again, her name is Auri...
I'm going to say in aftershow. Auri Katarina.
That sounds like a good thing to talk about. So guys do stick by for aftershow, we will continue this conversation. Okay. Well, another thing we can talk about computer screens. So do you clean your computer?
Well screen maybe it's not the most problematic thing. I guess the keyboard is.
Absolute nightmare keyboards.
I hate. Well, that's what I hate.
I don't really know like what to clean it. I once bought the special, like, white towels for it, didn't really help much. So my laptop is like a health hazard at the moment.
Sometimes I get a toothpick and I try to clean my keyboard.
That there's so much like inside, inside.
So, yeah. Wait, what can you clean the screen with, though? Like, like with special wipes or something?
Yeah. Or microfiber cloth, for instance, what you use to clean a camera lens with so it doesn't damage the screen itself.
I use it for everything, like for dusting, whatever.
Oh, that's actually good tool. Yeah.
Yeah. Glasses as well because you clearly we both wear glasses, Katya, you know. But how do you wipe down your glasses?
I have a special cloth that I buy, you know, in this, in the shops and everything where I bought the glasses, I just bought the cloth and that's it.
Do you religiously use the cloth?
I mean, look, so for example, I'm right now wearing clothes of such materials that would not work on glass, it would only make things worse. So, yeah, you have to know what you're wearing and, let's see, if it's cotton might help, if it's something like, you know, microfiber or, you know, something like that, soft and nice, it might work, but all the synthetic materials will not work in glasses.So...
Yeah, sometimes. If I have a nice soft tissue, I might just think.
Yeah, it's kind of easier. Yeah, yeah, that's true.
But then sometimes it can make it even greasier.
Yeah. And I'm so annoyed. Especially, you know, when you kind of have the cloth and you start wiping your glasses and then there's like, you know, you're like, Okay, it's good. You put them on and you're like, Oh, there's still something. And you take them off, do the same thing, do the thing again, put them on them like, There's still something over here somewhere that you...
Maybe it's your eyelashes.
No, I can, you know, come on.
Sometimes if you push your glasses too close to your face, it pushes against your skin and then like skin.
Make it greasy a bit. Yeah. Or if your fingers get there. Okay, so technology so you I mean, Olya, how often do you clean your computer? Do you really... So your phones, your phone.
So if we talk about computers, I don't really clean it cause when I use it, I don't eat. So I don't have anything to clean it off. Just dust it that's it. But talking about phone. Yeah. Every evening I go home. I, you know, kind of, I don't know. How do I see that if I use the dry clothes, like, yeah, yeah. What do I do?
You just say wipe it down.
So I wipe it again. Bacterias. I'm afraid of them. I hate them. So, yeah, because when I imagine...
You don't use sanitizer, just wiping. Does it help?.
Yeah, I know, but it's kind of like, you know, it makes me calm in a way. It's just...
Yeah. I know it doesn't help much, I know, but still.
Yeah. Oh, another thing. So I've completely forgot. In England, not everyone takes off their shoes when they come inside.
Not everyone or mostly no one?
Not everyone. I mean, especially on the ground floor.
Yeah, but is it a thing? Can people still do it?
Can they take the shoes off?
Usually people ask, Oh, are you the shoes off house or shall I take off my shoes? Exactly, yeah.
I mean, I totally understand that. In Russia, it's impossible not to take your shoes off. I've been, I've been to London every time like, you know, I was wearing my white snow white sneakers. Not a speck of dust on them. Same in the US. I was always wondering like, How come you don't take your shoes off and then you spend like two weeks, not a speck of dust on your shoes, nothing. So I'm like, Okay, there's only one thing I would not appreciate and I would not approve of people not taking their shoes off when they go on, you know, when they go to bed. It's like in this case, like, Oh, no, come on
People sleep with their shoes on?
No, no, no. You know, they just kind of go to bed like read or something, use your phones.
So in this case, something like a kinda like it's a no no for me. But in general, I understand people who don't take their shoes off. I mean, unless it's rainy or snowy, or something.
Yeah. It also depends maybe on this sense of comfort because maybe you just want to relax. You want to change into something more comfortable, like your pajamas or just some home clothes and shoes. Um, maybe you want your feet to relax. That's. That's why.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, you're not really relaxed unless you have your shoes off.
If you're if you wear your валенки in the winter, you wouldn't want to wear them.
On my favorite boots. I still haven't got them, but the унты. So you're, you're from Yakutia. So. They're really big. Are they heavy?
And do they... I guess they must attract a lot of dust and grime and dirt.
They can. Yeah. But you know, no more than.
Yeah, yeah. Well they could be, they could, they could not be sometimes, you know, they hairy on the outside, sometimes they're not.
Yeah. And does every Russian house have a set of slippers?
I don't. I hate slippers, for example. I think it's, well, for me, my personal rules of hygiene not to wear slippers.
So you more like, see it as a thing of the past.
It's just something that accumulates.
Yeah, because I've got my own personal slippers, which I wear around, but I don't really let other people wear them, cause I don't really have any guests coming over anyway.
Come with your own slippers, yeah.
Yeah, bring your own slippers before you come to the house. Yeah, well, different countries, of course, have different hygiene expectations. Some countries are extremely clean. So, for instance, Japan, they are very, very, very, very, very clean people. So I had to emphasize that.
I watched a great documentary the other day about people living in Japan. And, and, yeah, people there have so many cleaning materials for everything. It's fascinating. And every time they use the bath, they meticulously clean the bath every single time afterwards.
I wish some people in student dorms did that.
Yes, student dorms. Absolute mess. I was so messy in my student days. You don't really think about it. You're a student.
Yeah, but yeah, the Japanese really do know how to be clean. And so they... I was watching. Yeah. In this documentary has said that people don't, in Japan, don't normally have showers in the morning. They shower before bed because they like to get into the bed 100% clean. Is it normal to shower before bed or in the morning?
I think it all depends on a person.
Yeah. And maybe it depends on the season also because, well, sometimes you may want to shower twice, three times.
If it's hot or something.
Yeah, sure. Well, which cultures do you think are particularly clean? So, Japan. Where else?
I've no clue, to be honest. I think it all depends on a person rather than the country.
Yeah, well, to be honest, like having lived in both England and Brazil, Brazil people are very, very, very clean as well. Hyper-clean. Yeah. They... Whereas in England, people are much more relaxed about. Yeah. Hygiene and...
Yeah. You make it sound like, you know, they're very relaxed about hygiene. You haven't taken a shower in a week. Oh, that's Ok.
Not so much these days. These days things have changed. But before it was normal not to have a shower for a week.
Prices of hot water or..?
I'm not actually sure why. But...
Maybe because people don't really get sweaty, because it's normally, you know, like, rather cool outside.
Althouh then you go on, you're on a tube, and it's just so freaking hot over there. You have to take off your clothes, you know, like the coat and everything. And he'll like, Oh, my goodness, I'm all sweaty. I want to die.
So I don't know. Interesting.
Well, I guess if you were an old coal-mine back in the seventies or the sixties, then, yeah, you got to have a shower, otherwise. Yeah.
Well, shower. It's not only because of sweat, it's because of other things, too.
Well, it's relaxing. Yes.
Well, I like really, really, really hot showers, but anyway. Yeah.
Well, to finish off. So I've got a question here. If you found a personal item and you didn't know who it belonged to, what would you do with it?
When cleaning your house.
I leave it to the aftershow.
Oh, sorry. When I was cleaning my flat I found something?
Yeah. If you find something or if you're cleaning something.
Well if I know that it belongs to a friend of mine who had been visiting me, like, I'll give a call and give it back. Or, I mean, if I if it is in the middle of the street, I don't touch it.
I mean, when I'm cleaning. So I live in rented places. So if I find something that's not mine, I just, you know, stick it further to the wardrobe with something and just forget about it because maybe it's just something valuable. Sometimes I can ask the landlord like, Hey, I found this thing. Is it yours? Can I throw it out? Like, Can I throw it away or something? So yeah, it depends. I normally have stuff that's not mine in rented apartments, you know, one way or another.
Oh, yeah, of course. Because in Russia, a lot of apartments do come fully furnished with all the items in it.
So, yeah, sometimes you just fight. I was actually when I started renting this apartment, I was just like, you know, cleaning everything. And in the wardrobe, I found a stack of LEGOs, you know, just like one onto another. I'm like, Huh, that's weird.
So, but I don't have kids. They, they, you know, the previous tenants are gone, so I'm just going to throw it away. And I took it out, you know, and it turned out that this stack of LEGO, so it's kind of supporting the shelves. So the moment I got out, it was like crashed. I'm like, okay, okay, back you go, you know. So, yeah.
So you didn't want to add it to your LEGO collection?
I don't have a LEGO collection. Have you seen how much it is right now? Like it's very expensive, so. Although, you know, in general, the all those LEGOs and everything, the setting, they look so nice. But they gather, they collect so much dust. And when I think about, like, all the little creases and everything, like, it's impossible to clear all the dust out. So. No.
Yeah. When you're a kid and you eat food and play with LEGO, of course you're going to get pizza between the LEGO.
Well, it depends on the house rules.
Well, my mom, I mean, yeah, she liked to clean house, but she didn't like 100% follow every single LEGO piece. So and sometimes I would eat.
What I like about these days is, you know, there are like steam cleaners and everything. So it looks like, you know, this sort of like a vac, it looks like a vacuum cleaner, but it produces steam. So you just go like.
Well, done. Things are gone..
Legal advisor for your laptop, though.
Or for your mobile phone.
Is it safe? Because the steam is hot.
Obviously because the moisture from the laptop is going to not too happy.
But it's kind of a cool tool, you know, when you want to clean the grease off the tiles, you know, in the kitchen.
Sure. Maybe that's what I need for the oven.
And actually, it's a it is a cool tool. So all the grease, the grime, you know, all of that limescale goes off, you know, really, really easily. It's not a cheap thing.
Probably you can rent it, hire it for some period of time.
It completely freak out my rabbit.
Or your cats would be quite scared by it I'd imagine.
Yeah, he's scared of pretty much everything, so. Yeah.
Well, I have a robo cleaner. Do you have a robo cleaner?
Oh, the robo. No.I wish, I wish.
Yeah, so the vacuum, which is so funny because we leave it on charge sometimes at night the rabbit jumps on it and turns it on and sometimes even sits on the robo cleaner when it's moving.
I've seen videos of cats doing this, but never about rabbits. Take a video.
And he's surprisingly not scared of the robo cleaner. He's scared of a lot of things, but not that.
I genuinely believe that you should spread, you know, the knowledge about your rabbit and show us pictures in our staff chat, you know?
We deserve it. This is dopamine. So come on.
Maybe I can bring him to school one day. I don't know if you'll be too shocked or not.
I actually had a student once I was having a lesson and that was at Wellesley and one of my students knowing how much I love animals. She brought her rabbit to the class and I was just, you know, sitting, hugging him. It's like, Yeah, yeah, continue learning. You know, it's like... So adorable.
The good thing about rabbits is, besides the fur, the very clean, the poo is really amazing. It's just the little balls which...
Nesquik. Exactly. They're not wet and they're easy to pick up and clean. They don't smell of anything. And yeah, rabbits do not smell at all, mainly as an evolutionary.
Have you ever been to a house with four rabbits?
You might have changed your mind.
They don't smell. So then predators can't find them.
Oh, you sound like a rabbit ambassador.
Yeah. All right, guys. Well, please stick by for the aftershow. So we're going to continue this conversation. And of course, if you subscribe to our telegram chat or private chat, you'll gain access to the word lists for this podcast.
So stick by for that and also check out our website which is www.BigAppleSchool.com where you can find more interesting podcasts like this one and videos, and articles. And of course you can find out more information about the courses we offer here. So, guys, let's leave it there. Thanks.
