Hello, hello, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the BigAppleSchool podcast where the goal of this show is to help you improve your English listening skills. My name is Ben. I'm from London, and today we have three participants. Our first participant is...
And last but not least, we have...
Welcome back, guys. So what's new this week? What's going on? It's really cold here in Novosibirsk.
Oh, yeah. Finally it's winter.
It's going to be lower next week I guess.
20 or 30 even. Something like that, yeah.
When you first came here...
Ugur, you came here last year.
Last year, last December.
Last winter. What was the coldest you've experienced last year?
Last year was it was around January and the minimum was -42.
So you said you saw 42, I guess, right?
No, I didn't go outside. The coldest I was outside, I think it was -34.
I think last winter was pretty warm, actually.
So there were some cold days anyway.
The winter before last was pretty brutal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like up to minus, I don't know, 40, 42 or something like that.
You must remember that I think.
Yeah, because I got a picture under the digital sign which said -34.
So welcome winter. Even though in Russia is not officially winter.
I mean, we still have like a couple of weeks, something.
Like around December, December or something.
Does it start on the 1st of December?
I mean, it's supposed to. Yeah, but it always starts earlier. in Novosibirsk at least.
Yeah. What else is new? I helped an old lady yesterday.
I was really proud of myself.
I was checking the mail in my apartment and all of a sudden, I heard, Молодой человек! Young man. And I thought, Oh, that's nice. She thinks I'm a young man.
We are still okay, yeah, yeah.
I said, Yeah, how can I help you? And I always appreciate any opportunity I can try to practice Russian. So I was like, Oh, great, time to help. And she could not open her postbox. She was a new resident to the building I live in. And it turned out that she was trying to open the wrong postbox.
And her own postbox. She still couldn't open it. So she got me to rip open the door of a postbox. She said, Come on, мужчна. Oh, come on, man. You just strength.
Well, I should, it was hers actually. Maybe she just wanted...
But she, yeah, she asked me specifically. She... All right, so..
Maybe she said something nice then she's like, Yeah, I want this letter.
You are so obsessed with the mailbox I guess.
Exactly, yeah. What happened more? I don't even know the word in English. It's the metal lock mechanism. It's not a very complicated lock. It's just like a lock which kind of holds on.
Pin, one pin or something.
Maybe it's not like a pin even. It's just simple key and it's kind of like a handle in size.
Like a little metal piece.
Exactly. A metal piece. And it was..
Yeah. And it was just not coming up. And basically I had to rip it and bend this metal piece. And it wasn't. It wasn't like that difficult. It wasn't like some.
It's pretty thing, I think.
Yeah, well, maybe I might participate in the world's strongest metal competition.
Maybe. But, yeah, it was pretty easy. It was just like little tin. So I was really proud. Help that old lady.
And you understood everything she was saying?
Yes, I was really proud actually.
Yeah, yeah, I understand.
It's always like really motivating.
And she asked me for a pen so she can write her mailbox number on the mailbox.
Yeah. Have you ever helped to бабушка before?
Yeah, I guess I also did it.
I opened the doors and she was just carrying all the bags, shopping bags, and she smiled. I smiled back.
Without any kind of conversation. I helped that lady.
It's kind of like a competition. Right. I also helped бабушка.
So, listeners, let us know if you have any бабушка helping stories. We want to find the real superheroes out there.
Exactly. Maybe it's not just in Novosibirsk. We have superheroes like me.
Join the competition. All right, guys. Well, I just want to welcome some of our new followers. We have Alexandra who subscribed to us for six months to our aftershow. So welcome, Alexandra. We also have Виктория, who I believe I met in the Speaking Club and she is now part of our special private chat on Telegram.
And also I want to address a little comments that we have Elena Shcherbinina. So thank you very much for your comment. She said, I love your podcast. Three months ago I could understand a little, but now I feel how much better my listening has become. You are the best.
Thank you very much. Well, Elena, let us know how you listen to the podcast. Do you listen to it when you're running or do you listen to it, do you give it your full concentration? Let us know. I'm interested how you improve. So thank you so much for listening to us. We really much appreciate that.
And also, guys, if you don't know, you can listen to a podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Yandex, on VK and of course, you can see the video version on YouTube. And of course after this show we have an aftershow. So if you subscribe to our private chat, then you can get access to this aftershow. And of course you can get access to a vocabulary list of all the words in this podcast.
So you can definitely improve your English and you can see the video footage of us backstage. And of course, in this private chat on Telegram, you can communicate directly with us and with other teachers at the BigAppleSchool. So this is a great opportunity for you to practice your written English or your spoken English.
If you want to leave voice messages and do not be afraid to start a conversation. We have a guy in the chat, Ruslan. He's very active and he's definitely getting a lot of good practice there. So hello again, Ruslan. We love your comments.
He's brought a lot of funny memes and recently he did an ASMR.
For us. So in the previous podcast we talked about sounds and ASMR is funny. Well, I find them creepy.
But, Ruslan, you did a good ASMR one. So thank you for trying to bring us peace to our life. So, yeah, keep on talking. And also I want to say a special thank you to Анастасия, who guessed the topic of honesty and lying for one of our previous podcasts and also do suggests make suggestions for future podcast topics that you might have. If you want to hear a special vocab topic, let us know. We want to help you out. All right, guys. Well, are you skilled people? Are you skilled?
That's the modern skill obviously.
Yes. Well, today we're going to be talking about skills. So. Yeah. So opening postboxes is...
It's a skill, yeah, of course.
It's a skill. What comes to mind of the opening post boxes when you hear the word skills? What words could you associate? Competency.
And I guess you can divide skills into two groups. You have soft skills and hard skills. What are soft skills? Let's start of those.
So like non-technical skills?
Yeah. Non-technical skills or people skills. And how do you get good at soft skills?
Yeah, problem solving. Crisis management.
Yeah. That's why a lot of people actually go to, you know, to schools and universities. You know, I've heard lots of students telling me like, Oh, like teachers don't teach us anything at school. But, you know, all the time I keep telling them, but you go there to actually improve your soft skills so that you know how to communicate with people. You know how to solve problems again. Yeah, how to negotiate with some teachers, for example, as well.
Exactly, to cheat also, you know.
Yeah, it's actually a skill. Yeah.
Cheating is a skill, yes.
Sure, you have to know, you have to know how to do that, sure.
I believe it's really difficult in Russia. Don't you have video cameras when you set your exams?
A lot of cameras as I know. Yeah.
So where are they located? Is it directly above?
Like, I guess in the corners or, like...
It's somewhere like, you know. Above, like near the ceilings.
Well, what would a skilled cheater do?
Yeah, I actually have a student, and she told me she has, you know, like, specific, I don't know, methods how to cheat successfully. So, for example, she has, you know, this scribbled note or whatever it's called. And every time a teacher...
I think you can say that. Something like that. Something notes.
And every time a teacher looks at her, she asks a question. So, for example, she's like, you're copying from this note and suddenly teachers like she's like, Hey, can I ask you something? And immediately, you know, the teacher thinks, okay, she's a good student, she asks questions so it means she would never cheat.
So, yeah. And it's her, like, you know, the way to cheat. So...
I think I might know the student.
That's kind of the technique. Why didn't she just..?
She left, imagine, that's really sad.
Yeah, she has to prepare for exams.
Maybe she doesn't need to study English anymore. She could just cheat.
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, she already has like C1.
Yeah. She's got a high level.
Yeah, she's like has good intuition.
Yes. And she doesn't need to cheat.
Yeah. And she's listening to us.
Probably not, probably not.
No, no. Instead of focusing on the technique and why didn't she just study that thing. So it would be much more easy.
No, it's actually harder, I think, for some people to, you know, to do that.
I don't know. I always failed when I tried to cheat. That's why so I'm not a good.
I don't know how to do it. I tried it once.
I remember in the UK. Well, when I was doing Maths exams, one of the most common way of cheating was using the calculator cover to hide information.
Yeah. Another way was having a bottle of water and on the label write all of the formula on the back of the label.
Yeah. I almost never cheated, I think. Yeah, yeah. I remember it was at the university and I had like really high boots, you know. And some again cheat notes there. Yeah, but I was so, you know, I was panicking really. I was like, my hands are shaking.
Like I was thinking out these notes, and I was like, Oh, God, she's looking at me. Even when the teacher left, you know, for a couple of minutes, I was like, She's going to come back. It's like, Oh my God. I was so nervous so I decided, I better just, you know, learn by heart. It's much easier, you know.
Would you call cheating a soft skill or hard skill? I would say it's a hard skill.
It's kind of professionally.
Again I think it's also soft skill because you have to understand the reaction of other people.
So it's all psychology of some kind, you know? I guess.
All right, what other skills can people have?
Oh, we had a podcast about creativity before.
Yeah, yeah. My favorite I think.
Check it out in our podcast list.
Do you count manipulation as soft skills?
And hard skill, too, I guess.
Well, because an FBI interrogator would need to know how to manipulate.
Because you might have to go to school to learn how...
Yeah, you can actually, like, you know, study that.
So are you manipulative people?
We're teachers. We have to be able to manipulate.
In a good way, yeah, of course.
Well, if we're talking about good ways for teaching purposes. Yeah, it can be.
I mean, we have this power, but we use it for good, you know? Like, Jedis.
Like in Star Wars Universe? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. All right. So, creativity, manipulation, about driving.
I can't drive, I don't know.
Yeah. So you can drive. You can't drive.
Yeah. Well, I know you were in Vietnam and you had to ride a lot of mopeds.
Oh, yeah, I drove them too.
I mean, I can ride it a little bit, you know, but not a car. Can you? Can drive?
Nope. I've been thinking of having driving license for, I guess, two years, but I still like...
Yeah. Yeah, I tried. I tried, actually. I went to, you know, the courses. I actually drove a car like for a long time. I almost passed the exams, but then I had to go to China and I didn't have time to. And then I just gave it up.
So it's like you didn't finish it.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I finished the course. I finished all the, you know, driving hours. So I did all of it, but I didn't have time to pass it. I mean, I tried to pass it like 3 times, I think, but it's not enough.
Like I know people who try to do it like for 5 times, 10 times, 15 times.
What's the most difficult part of it? Is it the parallel parking?
No, no, no. I did all you know, there are like 2 parts in the one is. Yeah, you know, technical skills. So you have to, yeah, park the car or I don't know do some I don't know. I'm not sure how to call them.
Yeah, maneuvers. Yeah, something like that. But then you have to go to a city and then actually drive. And there. Yeah, I got really stressed and I made, like, really stupid mistakes. Like, for example, it's there is, for example, an intersection. Yeah. And there is a car going and I'm also going and the person's like, I mean, the instructor or...
Examiner. He's like, What the hell are you doing? Why? And I like, I can't.
I feel uncomfortable when I drive automatic car. I'm not used to it, so only manual I should drive manual.
Yeah, I was passing the manual one.
Cause, yeah, take learning manual is like a skill, you know...
Clutch and everything and gearbox, and everything. Yeah.
And so how hard is it to get a driving license in Turkey? Does it take a lot of skill?
You have one course like three months for a theoretical. The engine, the traffic and first aid and...
Yeah, the basic first aid.
And everything and like how to intervene accidents or the person that was injured or...
That's pretty good that they have that.
And then you have two parts of driving exam. One is in a specific field.
And one is in the traffic. Actual traffic.
The same here in Russia. Yes.
Oh, in England, it's just you do the theory test and you just drive on the roads.
You have to do your practice on the roads like the maneuvers. Same of America theory test and practical test.
I guess in America is much easier to pass.
I've got a little story, actually, because I had to do my license in England and a license in America, which is kind of crazy because they don't if because I lived in America for a bit and you needed to get a local license. British test is much harder, actually, and I was really proud. I passed the first time, really proud, went to America, all cocky, thinking, I'm going to pass this test and I passed the theory test. No problem, you just read the rules. It's not too difficult.
And then I was in the test, the practical test driving on the road, and I saw this sign which said speed bumps 15 miles per hour. And I was driving in a residential area. And normally in residential areas in America, the limit is 25 miles per hour, which is about 40 kilometers an hour. So I thought, okay, I saw this sign 50 miles per hour. Let's just keep it down to 15, which is really slow. But I see the sign.
Let's make the examiner impressed. Show him that I'm a careful бабушка driver. And I went 50 miles per hour. And then we were pulling in. Phrasal verb to pull in which means to stop at the side of the road. So I pulled in after the tests and the exams said, You almost passed, but I have to fail you because you were driving 50 miles per hour.
And I said, I'm sorry, but I saw these signs and I wanted to show to you that I'm a careful driver and that I'm not going to be a reckless driver. He said, No, you have to go 15 over the humps and then 25 and then 15 and then... I thought this would be crazy.
Speed up, down, down then speed up again. Right.
Absolutely crazy, absolutely crazy. I don't inderstand maybe take like a little minor points off.
It's not like a fail, it's not like I wasn't looking at the mirror.
Exactly, it's not like major.
Or hit a cat or something.
So... Yeah, well, I'm sorry for that. So, yeah, that would fail you.
Obviously. Or a person, yeah?
If you have something like that. So..
So, yeah. Sorry, you didn't pass, you crossed a person. Yes.
All right. So what obviously was driving...
Musical instrument, maybe?
Playing musical instruments.
Do you play any instruments?
Drums. I know about that. Really? You also play drums?
Oh, okay. So you're going to play that one. I'm going to sing. You're going to play drums.
And where is the guitarist?
No, I'll just get some elastic bands and...
Well, we'll be like, you know, some kind of ethnic or whatever.
But you also have, you know, this thing like...
I don't know how to call it in Russian, in any language actually.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I have that.
Oh, I wanted to buy one. Yeah, but I didn't.
You can buy like in Altai, for example.
So we bought it there. Yeah.
But you know, I don't remember any of the rudiments or any stick control. It was like 15 years ago. I need to practice it.
But it's skill that you never actually lose skills. That's it.
You can get them back. It's like riding motorcycle.
It's like, you know, when people learn how to ride a bike.
They can, they can like you know ride it for years but then they just have to ride it for some time and the skill gets back. So what do you think, like, is a hard or soft skill?
Yeah, maybe I would say medium rare. Medium rare skill.
Because it involves communication with...
Not necessarily, I think.
Well, usually I remember when I was a kid, my dad was like, Yeah, Ben, ride, ride your bike.
I think I was six years old. And this involves some kind of communication.
Some emotional support, in a way.
Oh, soft, soft skill. Yeah.
Yeah. But still, I think it's more about hard skills.
You're not going, you're not going to raise a мужик.
So. Yeah, so bicycle. How old were you when you learned how to ride a bike?
So it was in my childhood. I don't know. I was maybe 8 years old or nine.
I was 5. Like I used to cycle at tricycle.
I upgraded to bicycle, yeah. Yeah, it was tricycle.
So, no, no training wheels anymore, yeah.
Yeah. You take the keys and just sit on that. Yeah.
Yeah. I remember I learned in when I was a kid in the park. Yeah.
With lots of bruises and scratches all of your legs.
It was so exciting, though. I still actually remember it. Not amazingly, but I still remember, like, the act of keeping it balanced.
Can you skateboard? Can you surf? Can you ski?
Me too. But it seems like no one could do that.
I tried snowboarding, but after I had an accident. And all the pins inside my leg. Yeah. Yeah. I had 32 metal fins, and then I couldn't. So...
So was it because of snowboarding?
No, it was because of the speeding. The motorbike. Twice. Once with the car, the total three times the same, like...
So they stay in your leg for life, yeah?
I'm the favorite person in the airport, you know.
So, yeah, are they like big pins or..?
Like the pins and the metal... I have one rod starting from my hip to my kneecap and then there are lots of small, medium and big pins.
Sometimes. Sometimes. But if I have to sit, like suddenly I feel it on my hip.
Well, speaking of skills, that's something. A very skilled doctor or surgeon.
Yeah. They did a good job. Yeah.
So when the skilled surgeon laid you down, were you completely unconscious when he put the pins inside you?
Oh. So you were unconscious, yeah, under anesthesia. Yeah.
But I know the pain. So I know how it feels and, yeah. The bones, broken bone is the worst pain that I have ever had.
Touch wood, I've never broken a bone, touch wood, I don't wanna.
Don't do that. I don't recommend it. Yeah.
Well, speaking of doctors, that's specialty, of course...
Surgeons, doctors. That's a serious skill to...
Would you have experience of chiropractic?
Yes, on my back. Like, like a therapy after the surgeries. So, like, 6 months, I had to just sit as straight as possible in order to just balance my posture in a way. And I visited lots of times the chiropractors. So they're great, you know, they know where they push, where they need to push or pull. And you feel completely relaxed after that.
But you're doing better now, right?
Yeah, I'm all right. I'm completely all right. It was like a 15 years ago, 13 years ago or something. Yeah.
Yeah, but I'm okay right now.
So how long does it take to become a surgeon?
Because you have to practice also and...
In Turkey 6 years in a school, in medicine school, medical school, sorry, and 2 years after that you have to have your specialty like a surgeon. After 8 years you have to choose your practice area. Like general surgeon, esthetic surgeon, brain surgeon or cardiovascular or whatever.
Or course cause you were to the plastic...
A plastic surgeon clinic.
Hospital. Yeah. It was the hospital.
So how do how does one become a plastic surgeon, what skills they need?
All right. All of the plastic surgeons that I worked with, they're so narcissistic.
Really? Yeah, God conflicts probably.
Yeah, so they were like, All right, I am the artist, not doctor.
First I see, like, an artistic expression on the human body, and then I decide, then mix my skills that I learned in medical school. So I'm an artist.
So maybe they do need some kind of soft skills.
Yeah. Well, you can't fight with that ego. So you say, All right, whatever you say, man, you're rights, in a way. So they are like they feel like God status. So it is fun. But, yeah. I don't know.
You mean it's fun like working there or..?
It could be funny or fun?
Both. I've seen a lot, man. Believe me, I've seen a lot. So lots of different stories, lots of different, like funny things.
But did the place you work with work at, did they help people who had like burns on their face?
So it wasn't just like...
Not like a cosmetic thing. It was also like a reconstructive surgery as well, like the burn victims or like traffic accidents. And they lost the half of their faces or whatever.
Or the skin grafting or whatever.
And you've seen them all?
All of them. Yeah, I was in, yeah. My office was just next to the OT, so operating theater.
So what exactly were you doing there? It was something, but.
I was the field operations manager and I was dealing with all the travel. I... Very often patients coming from abroad, like in other cities like in Europe.
All because a lot of people come to Turkey as a high quality.
And it's compared with the European countries, it's cheaper and the quality is higher than Europe. So that's why that was one of the biggest.
So you would you get a lot of people from England?
Yeah, a majority was from the UK.
They were from England and the rest is like other European countries like continental Europe.
No. You think Russian people need plastic surgery?
I don't think so. I haven't got any Russian patient from here or surrounding Slavic countries.
I think there's a lot of plastic surgery clinics here. I think in Russia.
Yeah. And it's not so expensive.
I love skills of Russian surgeons here as well.
I haven't had any patients like throughout 5 years. I don't know. But I had couple of Russian guys who came for hair transplantation.
Oh, hair transplant. Okay.
It's very common in Turkey.
That's an interesting skill to have to take millions of little hair.
Masses of hair follicles on the back of your hair like the...
So they transforming like...
Yeah, this is a donor area on the back of your head and they pick one by one all of the hair follicles.
Does it like get thinner here? I mean, if you take them from the back of your head...
This is the strongest hair follicles on your head.
Okay. So you don't get bald here?
No, no, no. So it's kind of replaceable.
Yeah. So then you move the donor area at your balding area and all you need to wait like 3 months or something and they regrow.
It's kind of magic. Yeah. Yeah.
Plastic surgery really is a mix of creative and hard skills.
Yeah, it's also creep, and it's really creepy.
And a lot of documentation. If you like guys, I can share you one day before and after photos. And you. Yeah, you're going to be amazed.
Yeah, I can make that legal. Just blurring their faces. And that'll be all right.
Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, yeah.
Don't worry. Here in Russia, so I have no obligation. Was back in Turkey.
So was it like successful or..?
All of them were successful?
Most of them. But like Ben said, the reconstructives are not that easy process because you have a burned body and you need to reshape it out of scratch. So that was kind of tricky.
So what other skills can we talk about? Plastic surgery is a pretty interesting skill.
Yeah. Being a teacher. Is that a skill?
Being a teacher. Yeah, that's a nice thing.
Well, let's talk about another type of skill. Emotional intelligence. Are you emotionally intelligent people?
We are teachers, of course we are.
What is emotional intelligence?
It's empathy. Understanding other people's needs, like how they feel. So what you can do about that, if you can improve it, if you can make them feel better, you know, to learn something new, just to make them feel better.
And the other any professions where you don't need emotional intelligence, let's say, if you like, oh, I can't be bothered with this emotional intelligence stuff. Um, let me find a job. What job would you?
Where you don't have to work with people I guess. That's. Yeah. So in every job that, you know, involves speaking to people or...
Yeah. Just communication. Yeah.
What do you think about being an artist?
Yeah, have emotional intelligence or not.
But like, if you are in the stage, you still like communicate with people, so why not?
But if you have an agent.
No, I'm talking about, like, life concerts. You know, you...
Roommates and audience you mean, right?
You're responsible for audience if you're on scene. Because like, you know, you can make the crowd go wild or you can stop if you like, see that someone you know is having like...
Like stage presence, right?
So, yeah. So you have like kind of big responsibility there. So have you heard of the... What is it? I don't remember the festival that happened in the USA where people like 10 people died.
I don't remember the name of the artist, but it happened while...
Yeah, I heard it I guess.
Was it a stampede? Like where lots of people...
I think I heard something about it.
So, yeah. Again and lots of people blame him for not being responsible about. So maybe we can say that...
They blame him? Seriously.
I think I saw this actually in the news. It was recently.
I don't remember the name of the concert.
But, yeah it was a huge deal back then. So, yeah. Again like I guess this person you know, may not have seen or didn't feel like it's time to stop and this happened.
Maybe he was just smoking drugs.
Maybe he was enjoying it, you know? Like, okay, people are dying. Whooh, yeah, because of my art.
Yeah, but it was tragedy. For sure.
Yeah, well, it's definitely good PR for him.
Yeah. Yeah, like PR, it's also kind...
Can you say that, can you say that?
Then it's supposed to...okay, sorry.
That escalated quickly however, yeah, but that's okay. Life call it.
Yeah. Well so what... So you said. So how did you define emotional intelligence again?
Yeah. So that's why is empathy important.
Yeah. But here you are speaking about performers. I was speaking about, you know, artists who stayed home. They just paint something, they just write, maybe, yeah. And do they actually need that?
Well, again, if you don't communicate, I think it's okay.
Would you say Hitler was emotional intelligence?
I think he was really, he was really...
If you have, you know, emotional intelligence, you know how to lead people. And he definitely...
I mean, you're good. He admits he understands what to do.
But he knew how to do stuff for sure.
Obviously. To lead some people.
Yes. So emotional intelligence can be. Well, can psychopaths be emotionally intelligent?
That's why actually people say that they...
They understand with their brain.
So for example, okay, they understand if I do this, the person will react. Yeah. But it doesn't mean they feel it. So they just kind of coldly, you know, reasonably understand how to do it.
They don't have that kind of judgment. Right. What happens if I do this. So, yeah, let me try and see.
I mean, they like, you know, this amygdala. Yeah, I read a lot of book about, a lot of books about psychopaths.
Who's your favourite? I like them too.
No, no, it was not about people, you know, specifically, but about, like, the phenomenon of, like, why people become. Yeah, exactly. Because it's from their birth, actually. So it's not how they became like that, but it may be trauma also. But usually it's about amygdala, which hasn't developed or didn't develop, so. Yeah.
The question stands still. Who's your favorite?
Do you have your favorite?
Yeah, I can say Jeffrey Dahmer.
Oh, they have a Netflix series about.
Netflix series, too. And I also watched the documentary on YouTube like.
And have you seen the movie?
Yeah, they have the movie. Like about his history of life, I guess, or something like that.
Yeah, I don't remember the name of it. You should check it.
I watched the series on Netflix.
But it's not both series. I don't know. It was... I don't remember the year when it came out. But yeah.
Ted Bundy was also kind of maybe.
First American serial killer.
So he was very skilled at killing people.
You can also say that. Yeah, Ed Kemper, anyway, all right, another story, right?
Yeah, I'm still thinking about who my favorite one is. I don't know.
Well, let us know in the comments, guys.
Who's you favourite psychopath?
Serial killer or psychopath.
We're really curious. Yeah.
All right. Well, what skills might be important in the future? Coding. Everyone codes.
Yeah. Maybe there's going to be too many coders. There will be too many coders in the future.
What are we going to do with all these coders?
Actually, one of the students of mine said that probably some of the coders will be obsolete. Because, yeah, you know, the machines, they like, program themselves, so. And we will not need so many, you know, so maybe it's not so, you know, necessary in the future. Yes.
Well, it will be necessary in maybe in 50 years. Everyone's going to have no job and...
Exactly. So maybe all we will have is just soft skills. Yeah.
Yeah, well, we're just going to sit on soft beanbags.
And speak about how we feel.
Let robots do all the skills.
Like, today I feel a little bit better. Yeah. So thanks to this machine or that machine.
Any other skills you can think of? Well. What skills would you like to be good at? I would love to be good at fixing cars.
Yeah, I would love to be a mechanic.
Maybe it would be, but I just don't have a garage with tools.
I understand what you mean. Yeah. To me, it's always seemed, you know, really complicated, you know, always electricity stuff. Always. I don't know. For example, my dad, my father, my dad, my father, my brother. All of these people, you know, my dad, my daddy, my father. Yeah, all of these...
Pops as well. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. My brother and my dad, they're really good at, you know, engineering, at, you know, electricity, all these things, the wires and so on. And I've always been fascinated about this because it seems like stupid difficult and they kind of taught me a little bit.
I really even go into, you know, this kind of course about how to make I'm not sure how to call them. And so, you know, when you connect a lot of wires and...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you kind of make, for example, a lamp light, you know, something like that. And it really fascinates me and I think I would like to understand how it works. I mean, I do kind of, but it's so complicated, I think.
Yeah, electricity is also dangerous.
To mess with. Yeah. I'd love to learn how to fix cars. What else?
I would love to learn how to paint like good pictures.
Yeah, yeah, it was one of my dreams, actually. Then I learned.
That's kind of fascinating, but I'm so terrible. My biggest creation is like the stick man. That's it.
It's a skill. You can always learn it. I used to be terrible. Like I don't know.
That's kind of hard skill, you just have to know how to do that.
Exactly. It's a pure skill, like the more time you spend doing it the easy it gets. I used to be really terrible. I wasn't able, you know, to do anything.
And how long did it take?
I don't know. It depends on, like, where you want to go. So what station you want to reach.
But I really I was really motivated. It was also 2020. I was stuck in Scotland. I had nothing to do and I was like, Okay, I went to the Poundland.
So and I bought brushes for £1 and paints for £1, and paper for £1, and I started painting because I really wanted to do it. Yeah. And, yeah.
I believe we talked about this in a previous podcast.
Yeah, yeah, I did, I did. We spoke about it. Yeah. And again, you just you practice it and you must do it seriously.
Yeah. It's really if you want to do this it's easy. Yeah.
So you should watch a movie and paint.
So those are your homework.
And, yeah, we are going to form a band.
A lot of things to do. Yeah, that's amazing.
Well, another question. Do you think schools and universities prepare young people for future employment? Do schools these days give people the skills they need? And we had a podcast about this before, actually, where we talked about education.
And everyone hated my opinion, which was that I think you shouldn't learn humanities, even though I did humanities at school and I love them. They're great subjects. But I think kids should know how to fix cars, you know, and how to...
Something more practical.
Yeah, practical skills. Yeah, I think people should be... This is my opinion. Everyone can disagree with that and say it's a crap opinion. But I think that humanities are hobbies.
Compared with the occupational school, you mean?
Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. But what do you guys do, do you think? No. We need to be learning because I did arts at school.
Literature, I did literature.
Exactly. And I've really enjoyed it. Really fun. But what am I going to do after...
You don't have a title? Exactly.
Come on, it doesn't have to be practical. So again, for example, we have a lot of subjects at school. And if you just for example, again, go to mathematics, then physics, then chemistry. Your brain is going to explode. I don't know. Again, always, you know, art or literature, it kind of gives you tend to relax probably.
Okay. Yeah, I see that. Maybe that is a fair assessment.
Also, you know, not everybody has a will to go and do something else up to school. I mean, for example, a student goes to school, he learns, I don't know, again, chemistry, physics, mathematics. So and then that's it. He goes home and he doesn't do anything else. I mean, sometimes people have to be forced to do something to, I don't know, even some pleasant things, I guess. Okay.
So you think, like the humanities kind of stimulate the more practical skills by making people more relaxed?
Yeah, maybe if there is not so much pressure, you know, like you must read this book. Yeah, and you must...
War and Piece, this is a big book, relax.
Come on, it's not so big. And it's kind of intersting.
I've never read it. Was it worth reading would you say?
Okay. Actually about me, I write it because I was named after Natalie, so.
My mom told me, okay, you are named after, you know, Natalie in this book. And I was like, I must read it. And actually, you know, there are some similarities between me and this character probably. You know, it's like self persuasion.
Does it take a lot of skill to read?
Well, maybe in the aftershow we can talk about languages and the skills required to learn languages. So definitely stick by for that and subscribe to our channel and you can become part of our aftershow chat community, as I mentioned at the start of this podcast.
So you can find the details on the BigAppleSchool Telegram chat and you can listen to the aftershow and get vocabulary lists. Also check out our website which is www.bigappleschool.com where you can find more videos and podcasts and articles related to English. And of course you can find more information about the courses we offer here at the BigAppleSchool. So that's it for today. We'll see you on the aftershow.
