Hello-hello-hello and welcome to the BigAppleSchool podcast – the weekly English show where we speak about everything under the sun. The major goal of this show is to help you improve your English and of course learn something new. My name’s Katya, I’m your host. And today with me…
Ken from the Philippines.
Benjamin form London, England.
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Please, do, yeah. Alright, and what about you two? How have you been? What’s up?
Yeah pretty good, busy week. Happy to be here.
Feeling happy because the weather is getting better, it’s warmer now, so yeah, I feel good.
It is really dusty though.
I have noticed that I cannot really long… For a long time without wearing a mask, you know, because then I just start coughing and I’m like oh.
You know, the funny thing is I wear my mask not only because I wanted to be protected from other people who might have the virus, but it’s more for protection against the dust.
Yeah, yeah, that’s the situation now. Yeah. Now here. Yeah, we need some rain, we need some rain. So anything new? Anything exciting? I know that Ben had some kind of a meeting with the gopniks.
Oh gopniks. Yeah I was just woken up very early this morning, there was a lovely group of individuals playing around the playground outside my apartment building.
Maybe they just wanted to play around before the kids got there.
They were very active, they were very jolly. It was. Yeah.
Oh it was not like a drunken crowd, nothing like that.
I think they might have been influenced by something.
You know, it’s like… What is it called? Euphemism I think it’s called. You know when you don’t say something directly.
So you seem to be a master of it. You know. Alright and we are here today to talk about shopping and fashion and style and oh! I love this topic, really. And I recently had it with several of my students. We had the discussion for a couple of weeks, like not one lesson, but like 4-5 lessons.
Cause I love the topic, there’s so much to discuss, as you will see in just a second. So and I wanna ask you – so how would you describe your style maybe?
Mine is more casual. If I don’t go to work, I prefer to wear just jeans and then maybe a long sleeve shirt because I don’t wanna show my very skinny arms. And if I, you know, if I can wear a jacket, I prefer to wear a jacket. And when it comes to shoes, of course, just trainers. Yeah. As simple as possible and as comfy as possible.
You said that when you don’t have work, so is it different, you know, how you dress when you go to work and when you don’t go to work?
Definitely. Because I feel like as teachers I feel like I have to look a certain way. And by that I mean it has to be semi-formal or a bit formal, depending on what kind of institution I go to because before when I used to work, you know, in high school, so basically I would wear suit and tie.
So that was the standard dress code. But here it’s a little bit semi-formal because I just wear trousers, long-sleeved shirt, so yeah. That era of being a teacher. But outside of work of course, just casual clothes.
I have a quick question. So when you said that you were wearing suit and a tie, was there any kind of a rule maybe what color this suit has to be?
Well there was no prescribed color, so long as it’s, you know, the whole thing is worn. So basically suit and tie, and black shoes of course. That’s it. But no specific color for the suit itself.
No t-shirt. Nothing like that.
So when you were teaching in the Philippines, were you given a set of rules as to what you could wear and what you couldn’t wear or…
I think that also depends on, you know, what kind of institution you teach at. Cause let’s say here at BigAppleSchool it’s very casual, it’s very informal mostly. But if you go to, you know, to a secondary school, to some kind of a gymnasium for example, you will see that people there dress a little bit differently.
Because they have to. But I remember, a quick story. Well probably you won’t think about that looking at me now, but I love bright colors. You know, things like yellow, red, you know, all that. That’s why I love my yellow coat.
So anyway, when I was teaching at school, we were expected to wear, you know, formal clothes. And I was. But the thing is that I was wearing suits and they were like, you know, pink jacket or yellow jacket or purple skirt or something like that.
And once, you know, the headmaster approached me and said, Katerina, well, you know, you know we have some kind of a dress code, which is, you know, formal. I’m like I’m wearing a suit, what can be more formal than that?
And she’s like well you know, it’s so bright. I’m like I am not going to become, you know, one of those people who only wear, wears, gray. And then they’re absolutely unnoticeable. Like, no. I want to be bright, I work with kids, they like it.
Yeah. But you know what’s funny though. Later, I think it was 3 years later I was working at a language school and I had a new student and the first lesson we were having a conversation. She was around 20. And she looked at me and she asked me, you know, where did you work before.
And I said oh, in this place. And she’s like wait, I studied there. And she looked at me and said wait a second! You’re the one with the red jacket or the yellow jacket! I’m like oh yeah, that’s me. She’s like I remember you! You were so cool!
Well it’s nice to be able to be identified by something.
It’s cool to have your own style and to have people notice you for a certain aspect of your style.
That makes you more memorable.
So I guess that’s how I would describe my style. Like I always try to have something bright. If I’m wearing all black, then I would wear some kind of accessories maybe. And in general I would say that… I think the style would be described as casual / smart casual sometimes, depending on the occasion.
And sometimes it’s the ‘oh I don’t care what I’m wearing style’. You know, that also happens. Not at work usually. But also now I work offline, so… That also happens. Ben, what about you?
I would say if I had to give myself a label, let’s say, I like minimalist, maybe utilitarian style where what I wear has a use, has a purpose and it’s not too… I mean I’m trying to think how to describe because obviously I like to look good, but I don’t… I like to keep things minimal.
So you go with the classic set then of plain clothes, something that you can wear to any occasion.
Yeah. So black, usually darker clothes. Sometimes a white t-shirt. I like, yeah, I like plain clothes which can be worn in a range of different functions.
I think things like, you know, dark jeans, black t-shirts, white t-shirts, plain white t-shirts. These are timeless. Like no matter where you go, no matter what year it is, it’s always gonna be, you know, needed maybe. Okay. And do you wear any accessories?
I used to when I was younger, when I was a teenager. I would have a necklace and some trinkets like, you know, some fancy bracelets. And I remember I would wear a ring too. And I even had, I don’t know, do piercings count for accessories or?
Oh you used to have piercings?
Just the, you know, the typical one. I have two on one ear.
My left ear. And what else? I used to collect different kinds of hats, sorry, caps. Because I wanted to stand out. You know, I was young then and I wanted to experiment. I guess that’s the only time in my life when I was really into sort of fashion if you could call that. But nowadays no accessories, except for my watch, which, funny that I haven’t worn it today.
With your piercings. Did you have your piercings on the earlobe or did you have on the cartilage, at the top of the ear?
Both. Cause I once had one in the cartilage and it was so painful. Did you have this experience?
Yeah, of course. But you know, if you wanted to stand out then at that time, I really wanted to, then you could bear the pain.
You never had one of those, what are they called again? The really big holes in your ear?
Gauges, yeah, have you ever had one?
Oh I have never had one. Actually, in the last… In the previous episode we talked about, you know, about piercings and body modifications. We talked about them. No, I never had, I’ve never had. I do have piercings as I have mentioned, again, in the previous episode.
And I have, well, now I have 5. I mean, if we count the earlobes. Then I have two dermals in my neck over here. It used to be three, but alas, I had to take one off. And I have one behind my ear, it’s also a dermal. So it’s usually not seen unless I wear a ponytail. So yeah. And I used to have, you know, this tragus pierced.
Yeah it’s a part of your ear.
But then I realized that it’s not comfortable to wear earphones. And I needed them. So I’m like okay, just do it.
Oh yeah I guess that must’ve been quite a struggle to put in earphones.
Yes. Yes. So I think if you have to wear headphones, well, then you’re not supposed to have any problems. But I only… Yeah I only have earphones, I’ve never had headphones I think. Wait what made you get a piercing?
I was, what, 19 years old? So it was…
But I mean it wasn’t an earlobe, so you knew it was gonna be painful.
I didn’t know it was gonna be that painful.
It was real painful. It hurt!
Oh yeah. Yeah. That part…
I went to the piercing shop and then just sat there and said yeah let’s do it. How bad can it be? I was kicking like a mule.
Oh my goodness. Alright. So you know, I have a story connected with accessories, cause I wear a lot of them. Like I have a lot of earrings, rings.
I forgot to put my rings on my left hand. But okay. And two years ago when I was coming home from the US. So in Moscow, at Sheremetyevo airport the customs officer or however you call these people, they, you know, they asked me to come over and they’re like is that your suitcase?
And I had two suitcases at the time. So I said yes. They were like we see that there’s some sort of metal over there. Is that rings? I said yes. They’re like open up and show us every single ring. So they made me show them every single ring, tell them what it’s made of, where I got it and how much I paid for it.
I think they thought that I was smuggling maybe the jewelry to Russia to sell it. Because, you know, I didn’t fill any kind of declaration, you know, I didn’t file anything.
It must’ve been a lot then. I mean, for them to… I mean, you know, to check it.
Yeah. So they asked me and I said well, you know, I bought this in a second hand store, this is a gift from my parents. This I bought in a shop in Boston for like $5. And just so you understand, I had more than 30 pairs of… Well, more than 30 rings with me.
Wow. No wonder they stopped you.
And then they said wait, what’s in the second suitcase? I’m like earrings to match those rings.
They just looked me, you know, rolled their eyes and said just go.
Have you ever watched this show, it’s called Nothing to Declare? It’s a really good show, it’s about the borders… Well, the customs officers in the UK. And they rummage through people’s bags, checking for all kinds of elicit substance and illegal undeclared items. And they always come across British tourists bringing in a lot of tobacco….
Oh! Is it because it’s cheaper in other countries?
You know, it’s like… We don’t’ have a show about it, but a lot of people smuggle tobacco from Kazakhstan.
Like, really, and they find all the, you know, ridiculous ways to hide it in their cars or everywhere. Wait, I think… Maybe it was just a random video or a podcast, I don’t remember now. But I remember listening to a story about British customs officers, who asked a woman, you know, who was coming form the US to Britain whether she has anything to declare.
And she said no. So and apparently they found, you know, some kind of jewelry that was sewn into her bag, like the bottom of her bag. Then they asked her, well, you haven’t declared anything that you bought anything in the US.
Yet you have the fur coat on you and you have this, and these are the items that are clearly sold in, you know, in like Macy’s or some other shops in the US. So and apparently they later told her that if she does not confess it would be like a federal crime or something like that. So she would be charged with smuggling or something like that.
They are very sharp at the border. Last time I came to the UK I was flying from the US to the UK to get my Russian visa to come here to Russia. And they stopped me and they fully searched all my bags because I was travelling from California, which has, you know… Well they said did you bring any marijuana with you? And I said no, absolutely no, I’m not gonna get caught doing that.
They’re like did you bring any marijuana? You’re like I prefer local, why would I bring it.
Well obviously because California is a destination for that, so they rummaged through my bags and asked me. They were very polite. But yeah, they asked my a lot of questions about this.
Wow. Okay, we’ve just… Well, not about style, but what about shopping? Do you like shopping?
Well my straightforward answer – no.
I told you earlier that I will be the representative of people who don’t like shopping. Well, you know, I go shopping, I think once every two years. And I also try to do it quickly. I mean…
I mean do your clothes last two years?
Even more than that. I try to buy quality clothes that will last for years because I really hate the idea of shopping. Really.
So you know some people buy high quality clothes, or, you know, expensive things in order to have, you know, just to have the quality, to have them last. And you are doing that in order not to go shopping again.
It’s like investment in your…
I don’t have the patience because I remember back n the day when my grandmother used to take us, you know, to go shopping and it would take us hours and hours because, you know, we would jump from one shop to another and sometimes we, you know… Sometimes we wouldn’t do in a mall but in some bazaar or some kind of a street market.
And there you could negotiate, she would haggle and then if she doesn’t get the price, she would move on to another shop. So it was kind like exhausting. And because of that from my childhood I told myself if I’m gonna go shopping, I’m gonna do that as quickly as possible. And if, you know, if it’s possible, just in one shop, because I would hate to go from one shop to another.
You know, your story just brought up memories from my childhood. Cause we used to have some kind of a bazaar like, you know, a market. And when you had to try something on, they would you know, have some kind of a curtain, you know, hold it.
And then they would have some kind of a cardboard you know, piece, on the ground. And would you have to quickly change and try things on. Which was very funny and adventurous when it was -40C.
Yeah I was gonna ask was this an outdoor bazaar?
Shopping has no, you know, seasons like that.
I’ve never heard about this, because, well, you know that I’m from the Philippines, we don’t have winters, so basically I would say it’s warm or hot for the most part of the year. So I’ve never thought like, okay, shopping in winter, especially not in a mall. Wow.
So when we had the first… I wouldn’t call it a mall, but the same, you know, the same market, just indoors, god we were so happy! Cause you can imagine trying something on when it’s -40C. Not fun! Not fun! And I always felt so sorry for people who work there.
Cause you can imagine they had so many layers on. And I mean how could they possibly stand there all day long in such a weather? Horrible!
Yeah I’ve seen videos on the Youtube of the market in Yakutsk where they sell the salted fish and other trinkets.
That too. Well that still, actually, that still exists. If the outdoor clothes market do not, that still does. Because it’s very convenient – you don’t have to buy a freezer or anything, you sell fish outdoors. It’s gonna freeze you know, anyway, so you save the electricity.
Alright. Ben, what about you?
I love thrift shopping, I love going to second hand shops and look at clothes there. Yeah, I love doing that. When I lived in Vegas, there were so many great thrift shops over there. Or thrift stores as they call them. And I spent a lot of time rummaging through.
It’s like a treasure hunt you know.
I don’t wanna spoil the fun here, but…
No-no-no. Okay, I just want to provide a different perspective. I’ve only tried it once, like secondhand shopping. But I remember when I was in the shop, I was thinking I wonder who a previous owner was. Is he dead now?
But it’s part of the fun. You guess.
And really, it’s crazy because I was thinking I wonder if that guy had a disease that’s you know contagious. I know, I know, I sound crazy right now, but…
But I mean when you buy something in a second hand store you don’t put it on and start wearing it right away. Usually you still, you know, wash it. Like any kind of new clothing.
Yeah, of course, but I don’t know. It’s just… Anyway, it’s just how my mind works. I just feel lie oh my god, maybe, you know, the person who owned it before died of some kind of a serious disease or whatever. Yeah, I told you, I don’t wanna spoil the fun. But anyway.
I mean, I understand, I understand the worries. Yeah. Ben, can you think of any gem that you found while thrifting? Was there anything that, you know, that you still remember or you really loved?
I found some good caps, some good baseball caps at thrift shops. What else have I found? I found a few good pairs of trousers, because trousers, I mean. You’re not really gonna catch a disease from trousers if you wash them. But you could, who knows.
Depends on what kind of disease.
Maybe if you buy a scarf, maybe you can catch a disease there, cause you put that right around your face. You don’t normally wash scarves.
Wait you what now? You don’t?
Do you wash your scarves? Unless…
I wouldn’t wash a scarf unless I spilled ketchup on it or something.
Okay. What else do you not wash Ben?
Well of course I wash everything, it’s just scarves are usually woolen and you don’t really wash them.
Well there are different regimes, you know, in a washing machine. Or you can take them once a year to dry cleaner. Like with a coat. You don’t usually wash, you know, a winter coat, but you take it to a dry cleaner’s. So yeah.
You know, my experience with thrift, you know, with thrift shops has been really cool because Boston has a lot of them and they are real gems. You know, in the US there’s Goodwill, which is also I think across the US.
Yeah Goodwill, it’s all over the states, all over.
And I’m gonna expand, you know, my story not, well, I’m not gonna limit it to clothes shopping, but to all sorts of shopping. Cause when I moved to an apartment and I had nothing to eat from or to cook in, I went to a thrift store and I bought pots, pans, bowls.
And usually the price was like $1, $2. You know, for a baking sheet! For something like that! And then there’s this game which is called 5 Second rule. You know, it’s like when you have a card and you have to name three things within 5 seconds. And this game is usually around $30. And I love this game cause you can adapt it, you know, and play it during the lesson.
As a warm up. You can play it with a company during a party. So and once I had like spare 40 minute before my shuttle, so I went to Goodwill. And I saw this game for just $3! I bought some amazing books over there for like $1 or $2.
Including a hard cover Nabokov’s book for our department library. And it was not like, you know, all scratch or anything, it looked… I thought it was like brand new.
That’s why I love shopping at Goodwill’s, because it’s not just clothes, you have so many different items too.
Like decorations for your apartment, yeah. You just have to check that everything works if it’s something like lights, something like that.
Yeah I bought a few golf clubs from the Goodwill shops. And in America they have a lot of driving ranges. Do you know what a driving range is? It’s a place where you hit golf balls.
Where you drive the golf balls, because big golf clubs are called a driver. So if you wanna hit the ball really far, you drive the ball. So I buy some drivers and go to the driving range and smack some golf balls.
You can pick up some clubs for about 3 bucks, 2 bucks sometimes.
Yeah but usually how much would they cost?
Oh insanely expensive. But these clubs of course are very old, outdated club.
But still. You can buy a driver, i.e. a really big golf club for $300-400 sometimes. But there at Goodwill you pick them up for $3.
That’s why I love thrifting. And again, you know, trying to find something cool and very often I found clothes still with the price tag on.
So it was like oh, oh that’s good, that’s, you know, lucky me, yay!
Well a lot of people in America, they often do a thing, flipping goods. Flipping goods means buying goods at lower price and selling it for a higher price.
This is a big trend on ebay where people go to shops and buy clothes real cheap and they flip the clothes. And this is a big phenomenon on Youtube where people discuss what clothes they found and then they, yeah, discuss how much they managed to sell them for. It’s a big trend.
These people must have a lot of time on their hands.
Well some people make a living out of it.
Out of flipping, yeah. A lot of people can survive solely on flipping. It’s a whole job in and on itself.
Wow. I wonder if you pay taxes from it.
Well yeah cause you have to. Everything that’s done via ebay, then of course you have a trail of everything. But I guess if you go to a flea market and buy something cheap and sell it for a little bit higher. But I guess it wouldn’t be profitable at a flea market.
Yeah cause you would have to go there, you know, it’s transport and everything.
Yeah so people have to pay tax on it cause obviously on ebay there’s a paper trail of everything.
By the way, you mentioned shopping and it just occurred to me okay, because I kinda limited my mind to clothes shopping.
I was gonna ask about that next. Yeah, do you like other types of shopping? Shopping for books? Shopping for food?
Yeah, when it comes to, you know, gadgets, that’s more of my thing. Cause I’m more interested in gadgets, laptops, tablets. You know, smartphones. So I would really take the time and it doesn’t mean that I always buy something.
I could go window shopping just to see and look around what’s the latest gadget. And I’m always interested as to what are the new features. But of course whenever I do that, there’s also a budget for that. Because I’m not that kind of spender who will just okay, I like this one, I’m gonna get it. I’m still reasonable.
I remember you told the story about, you know, how you were in such a shop and then a shopping assistant came to you and tried to ask you questions. You were like I don’t speak Russian. Stop bothering me!
And I would just nod and pretend like, you know sometimes when they are… Like, they really wanna say a lot and you know, out of politeness, I just nod and da, da. Whatever you’re saying – da. That’s my only answer.
They’re like do you wanna buy that very expensive phone for 90 thousand? And you’re like Da.
It’s like, you know, in a movie Yes Man.
Alright, Ben, what kind of shopping?
I love antique shopping. Obviously I don’t buy all the antiques, but I love going to antique shops and…
You have to be extra careful there, you know, in order not to knock anything off.
I mean, coming back to thrift shops, I love exploring old things with a character, with a soul. And I also love going to pawn shops. You know pawn shops? Ломбард in Russian. So pawn shops, they’re great to go to.
I… Well, back in the day I would go there only to pawn some of my things but not to actually buy or I don’t know, something’s that the owners can no longer get back.
I wish I had gone to one when I was in London. I think they showed a pawn shop when… In Paddington movie. So I was like aw, and that’s right where I was, but I didn’t go there. I’ve never been in one.
Yeah, there are many in London, yeah. There are many.
Wait-wait, I’m just interested. You go there and what do you get yourself?
Well you just look at gadgets, you look at… Yeah there’s all sorts of gadgets you can buy, I don’t know, DJ decks. Or you can buy speakers or you can look at, I don’t know, musical instruments. There’s all sorts of things. Maybe golden rings. I mean I don’t buy any of the things, I just like to look at it.
Speaking of which, yeah, golden rings. So, accessories. When it comes to jewelry, but specifically in my case, I’m more into watches. And I just wanna share one story with you. It happened in Kazakhstan, it was.. What was the brand again? Oh my god, how can I…
Yeah. I’m trying to remember. Oh my god, it’s the brand of my watch, how could I… Okay, whatever. It’s a little high-end. So I was there one time, just to look around, and then something caught my attention. It’s a very fancy-looking watch. It has rose gold and some Swarovski crystals. Something like that. So it was fancy.
Yeah. And so I took a look at it and I decided, and then I checked the price and I said umm, okay, maybe not today. But then the sales assistant told me, oh, it’s the last of its kind.
And then I thought oh my god, I think… Should I buy it now? But then you know, I am not an impulsive buyer, I take my time. I’m very reasonable when it comes to shopping. So I didn’t buy it on that day. However, that night I couldn’t sleep and I kept thinking about it.
I searched it on the Internet and then I thought I can’t help it. I gotta buy it. Because I was thinking of saving up some money. But then that thing that he said that it’s the last of its kind and I thought what if tomorrow somebody will buy this one or, you know, two days later?
So I was forced to go back there the following day and guess what? I purchased it. Of course I don’t have any regrets doing that, but I wish I had been given more time to save up the money.
I spent my savings. But then again, two weeks later when I came back, guess what I found there?
Well-well, I don’t know. My spirits are telling me it was this watch.
Exactly. I’m sorry. Exactly the same model. And I just thought this crafty little toot of a sales assistant. He got me, he got me. And then I thought next time I’m never gonna believe, you know, sales assistants again, ever.
Yeah, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. You know, everything they say. Like oh it’s the last. An exclusive offer! Only for you!
Did you ever bargain for clothes in Kazakhstan or in Yakutsk? Did you ever bargain? Are you talented bargainers?
Well I personally am not. You know, it’s easier for me to just say yeah okay. My mom, however, oh she’s a master haggler. I would say. She would just, you know, like, oh, you don’t want to lower the price. Well I guess I won’t buy anything from you, bye! So she’s just a master, really.
You know, if you go to Asia, especially South-East Asia, or even East Asia, you know, in China they do this a lot. Haggling. And it’s also I would say maybe a part of our culture, so I’ve seen my, you know, my relatives, they really haggle a lot.
And they try to bring down the price to the lowest that it can possibly be. But in my case I don’t know, for some reason I just feel guilty because you know, this person is trying to sell something because he wants to earn money.
So I don’t try top push it too much. So I still try to haggle, but I don’t try to push it, you know, to the lowest price possible.
Yeah, I think it’s also widespread in Middle East. And I have a story of a friend of mine actually. Thanks for bringing this topic up by the way. So she went to, where was it? I think she went to Tajikistan. And in there she wanted to buy some fruit or nuts. And before going, she, you know, had…
Not taken the classes, but she had learned, you know, some of the numbers, some of the basic phrases. So and she went there and, clearly not a local of course, and she asked how much is that? And the man said, well, let’s say, it’s 170.
She said okay, she was thinking what else to get. Meanwhile, another man, who was a local, asked for the same thing, I don’t remember what it was, so… For the same thing and the seller told him, you know, replied in Tajik, saying oh it’s just, you know, 30.
She just looked at him and said wait a second, you just told him it was 30! And you told me it was 170! Excuse you! He was like you speak Tajik? You can get it for free! Like, it’s a gift, thank you for learning. It was so sweet.
I think that if I’m going to go to a country where haggling is so widespread I’m definitely going to learn, you know, the numbers or something like that.
True, because okay, there’s also a thing… I think it’s not just in the Philippines, but I guess it’s true for a lot of countries where they see that you’re a foreigner they would tend to give you a much higher price than the locals. So it helps if you could shop around with a local, if you’re gonna visit another country. Otherwise they’re gonna sell you with the higher price.
Oh yeah, yeah. Sometimes several times higher, yeah. And speaking of, you know, trying to save money and everything, what do you think about Black Friday?
It’s a wonderful experience. Have you ever seen the videos on Youtube where people get into proper fights over…?
Yes. It’s a wonderful experience says Ben. Unless you’re in there.
Well it can be fun as long as you…
Have you ever been, you know, in the shop on a black Friday?
To be honest, no. I’ve just sat back and watched the videos on Youtube.
Neither have I. I’m afraid of that, you know. I think oh my god, how many people are gonna be there? And then, you know, you see all those videos and you think no.
Well that kinda remind me of the London riots. I don’t know if anyone’s heard of the London riots. 2011 there were widespread riots all over London and people would just smash into shops and take whatever they liked. And it was, it’s kind of like Black Friday. And that’s Black Friday.
I think what you wanted to say was looting but okay.
It sounds more like looting.
It is essentially like looting, yeah.
Wow. Ken, what about you? What do you think of Black Friday? Do you think it’s a cool thing?
It’s interesting from someone who doesn’t really go there on the day itself. And I’ve never been to a shop on a black Friday sale, so I’ve just seen videos which are really funny and interesting. I find them really entertaining, especially when customers fight each other. Oh, yeah, fight for it! You Cn do it! But personally, no, I’ve never been to a shop on this particular day.
What do you think makes people, you know, wake up at.. Or even not go to bed and just stand in line throughout the night? Set up tents?
Wow. I think that’s insane. I don’t know what drives people to do this. Are they gonna? I don’t know. It’s just my theory, maybe they want to get those items and then try to sell them or resell them later on. I don’t know. Because I don’t get it.
I only have heard of stories of people who wanted to get something expensive like a big tv, but they couldn’t afford it, so they were waiting, you know, for the day of the Black Friday in order to get it. But yeah, I just cannot imagine.
And you know, I also wonder if people from let’s say Massachusetts, which is also very often called Taxachusetts because of the taxes… If they go to other states for Black Friday too, cause you know, normally people who want to buy some kind of a device, they don’t buy it in Massachusetts, they go to New Hampshire which is like half…
Or New Jersey, New Jersey has no tax on clothing apparently. So if you’re resident of New York, usually people go across the border to New Jersey to buy clothes.
Yeah which is like 40 minutes on a train or something. Well Mass people they go to New Hampshire cause it’s like 30-40 minute drive. And if I’m not mistaken they also don’t have taxes on clothes. And in Massachusetts, as far as I remember, the tax on gadgets is 25%, so in New Hampshire…
I think it’s around like 10 or something like that. Yeah so a lot of people go there to get devices or fireworks. Because you can’t legally buy fireworks in Massachusetts, it’s forbidden to set them off. So people go to New Hampshire.
And then, you know, really, the moment you cross the border between the states, you see a firework shop. Alright. So and what about online shopping? So are you as against online shopping as you are against offline shopping?
Yeah, the thing here is I am not a very patient person and I know that it will take a while to actually get whatever you have decided to purchase. I think the only things that I have been able to purchase online are tickets, I mean plane tickets. But I don’t think that it’s… Is that shopping? I don’t think so.
So it’s just, you know, purchasing tickets online. But if we talk about you know, like clothes or like devices, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I mean the other thing is other than you know, the waiting time it is also the quality. I don’t know, for some reason I just doubt it. I feel like what you see on the website isn’t exactly the same as the, you know, actual item. And I don’t want people to, you know, cheat on me in that sense.
Have you seen all those expectations versus reality?
Yeah, I know, I know. This encouraged me even more not to do online shopping. But I must say though, because I do have friends who do this one and they said it’s much cheaper and it’s not as bad. So maybe one day I’ll consider doing that.
I just had my first experience on ozon.ru.
It was pretty good, I picked up… It was supposed to be a brown hoodie, but it was actually лштв of a dark green hoodie.
That happens a lot with Ozon.
Yeah but it was still, I was good quality, it was very comfortable. I was very happy with my experience.
Did you pick it up at one of those boxes at the stations?
Not the boxes. It was just a ordinary, I’m thinking of how to describe it. Just a drop off shop, a pick-up point. So it wasn’t the boxes that you see for instance at площадь Ленина.
Oh nearly every underground station тщц.
They’re really cool, I still haven’t done that, but I would love to.
I have used that several times, cause I have one just, you know, one minute away from my home. A question – why do you think this company is called like that?
Can you say the name of the company again?
Does that remind you of something? Maybe some other big conglomerate which is, you know…
That was the idea. So they couldn’t of course name the company the same way as Amazon. So they were like, well we’re just gonna cut three letters off, nobody’s gonna notice anything. And then we’re gonna do exactly the same thing they did.
And just like Amazon. So Amazon initially they started with selling books, like e-books and books. And that’s what Ozon did too. And only later they expanded. So they basically they tried to copy the strategy of Amazon.
There are a lot of businesses like that in Russia. I saw this funny episode on Youtube of this Youtube channel I’m subscribed to called NFKOZ. And there he spotted a place in Chelyabinsk a McBurger and the logo looked very similar to McDonalds.
And there is in Crimea you have Crimean Fried Chicken.
And the logo looks like KFC.
Which happens to sound like KFC. Well, not K, but C. CFC. But you may use the Cyrillic K and then it would look exactly…
Oh god. Yeah. But Ozon got quite successful as you can see.
It is. Yeah. And I also bought a Russian-English illustrated dictionary, so a dictionary with pictures. There’s a lot of good stuff on it.
But wait a second, you said you’ve just had your first experience with online shopping. Are you saying that while you lived in Vegas you never used Amazon?
Oh no no no, of course I’ve used Amazon in the states. I mean first Ozon.ru.
Okay. Cause I’m like wait, that does not sound right.
I meant my first Russian online shopping experience.
Cause I have not met a single person who lived in the US and never ordered anything from Amazon. It’s impossible.
Oh I ordered so much stuff from Amazon.
Me too. Me too. And you know, the thing is that it’s also so tempting sometimes because you know, if you have Amazon prime, it’s the next day delivery or 2-day delivery. So and you’re like I can get, you know, a rug or some things for the house. I don’t think they sell clothes though. But they sell all the other stuff.
Amazon sells everything. A lot of people don’t like Amazon because it apparently destroys smaller business.
But it gives individuals an opportunity to sell their own products anyway. It destroys brick and mortar businesses if you understand what that means.
But also people who are so against it, I mean, I lived in a very small town. So all the shops that were there were boutiques, like I could not afford a single thing over there apart from a paper clip maybe. But that’s it. Like, too expensive, everything. So what would I do? Save money to buy a single towel? Like, come on.
Of course I would turn to Amazon and buy everything. And also when I just stated working at Wellesley, all the international students and employees were given a $100 gift card, you know, as a welcome to buy all the essentials. And I was like okay, so I need a vacuum cleaner, a rug, you know, things for the room. It was amazing. Three days later I got it.
Vacuum cleaner’s you could’ve just bought at Goodwill.
You know, at that time I didn’t even know that that existed. Yeah I think I didn’t know where Goodwill was or what it was. I mean I didn’t pay for it, so. Still good, still good, yeah. And more thing about Amazon. Do you remember the logo?
The Amazon logo? It’s just Amazon.
Yeah but the thing is that between the A and the Z everything else forms an arrow, so they wanna show that they sell everything from A to Z.
Like whatever you name, they sell it.
So Ben was right, they sell everything.
They do, they do. I just don’t remember them selling clothes and I realized that it’s just because I never actually checked it. And do you know anything about Aliexpress which is another…
Oh yeah, the Chinese conglomerate.
And I remember when it first appeared, well, people in Russia were, you know, still skeptical about like, oh, how come and how do we choose. Then there was a craze for it. Really, people became obsessed with it. So and now it expanded so much that they now have like offices in Russia and everything.
And they have like fast delivery. And because of Aliexpress there were or there appeared some direct flights, direct way to transport the goods and everything. So and I even remember, my family, we used to order a lot of things from there. We still do, things like phone cases that are usually like $2 there.
But Aliexpress is mostly wholesale isn’t it? It’s not really individual items. It’s usually wholesales, isn’t it?
I mean, you can buy a single paper clip if you want.
And how much time… I mean, till you get your purchase?
That depends. I would say averagely it’s around 3 weeks, 4 weeks maybe. It used to be 2-3 months. And now if you are waiting for more than 2 months and you still haven’t got anything, you can start a claim an get your money back. But now it’s become way faster. And then in January I ordered some phone pockets, you know, these things for the cards. And I got them after like 10 days. I was shocked.
So, if you are ready to wait, this is a good place, you know, to order some things. But then you have to always pay attention to all the feedback and description, especially if you buy clothes for example.
I was about to ask that actually. Like, what’s the quality like?
Yeah, you have to read the feedback and now there are so many profiles on Instagram where they post, you know, outlooks and everything based solely on clothes they got from AliExpress. And they give you, you know, the links and some promo codes and everything.
So you can see, well… Okay, we can say the names and everything. So very often people want to buy clothes at shops like Zara. But the thing is that sometimes they are way too expensive. So you can find the exact copies of things from shops on AliExpress, with the same quality or sometimes, as I have noticed, even better.
Zara’s quality went down the hill recently. Really. So yeah. And it’s sometimes, it’s twice as cheap, three times cheaper, so.
There’s another platform, I’m not sure if you’ve had experience with it. But etsy.com. Which is handmade goods.
To be honest I haven’t actually… I don’t think I’ve ought anything off etsy.com, but they sell a lot of handmade good, usually maybe knitted goods for instance knitted scarves et cetera. I haven’t bought anything off this website myself but...
I have a friend who recently sold her first thing on etsy. It was this thing that you put above a baby bed, so that the baby can kinda play with the toys. How is it called? Like, mobile, I think it’s called mobile.
Oh yeah, I think they’re called mobile.
And the things is that the toys were knitted and then there was some crocheted thing. And she says okay, she had to pay a tax off it, etsy fee, ad fee, and then also pay for, you know, the delivery, for the postal services to send it from Massachusetts to Oregon. So and in the end she got, like, she earned like $1.
She’s like… So does she increase the price and make it way too expensive? But what’s the point then? People are not gonna buy it. So yeah. I honestly admire people who can make a living on etsy.
Yeah me too. At one point I had a hobby of working with leather and I started making wallets and all sorts of leather belts and stuff. And yeah, because I wanted to make… It all started with a desire to make a bicycle saddle out of leather.
And look where it led you.
And I thought let’s try sell something on etsy. It didn’t work out in the end. Yeah, I very much admire people who can make it living off the etsy.
So I think they have to calculate a lot of things given the fees and the tax and everything.
Actually I have a little bit… Three facts about online shopping cause I was wondering did everything change in 2020 cause people could no longer go to offline shops or go to malls. So and apparently in 2020 there were 2.05 billion online shoppers whereas in 2019 this number was, you know, more than several millions lower.
So and then 75% of people in 2020 at least shopped online at least once a month. So whereas you an imagine before 2020 I’m pretty sure there was another situation. And Amazon accounts for 47% for all US e-commerce sales in 2020.
And as far as I remember they were planning on hitting 50% goal of all the online sales in the US in 2021.
That makes Jeff Bezos super happy.
Yeah well he recently had to give like what? Nearly half of all of his income, everything he owes to his wife who’s now an ex-wife. Yeah but he’s still one of the richest men on Earth.
I think… Is he the richest man?
Well, not after the divorce.
Yeah I guess it’s halfsies.
This is funny because it’s now beginning to sound like gossip or a rumor or whatever.
Well let’s spice our podcast up! You know, a little bit. We need to, you know, raise the amount of listeners, maybe that’ll work. Okay. And in general what do you think about trends? And do you know what’s in vogue, what’s trendy right now?
You know this is funny because I come from the country where people basically are like, sheeple, they just follow the trend, you know, whatever is out there.
Oh my goodness and then you see those fashion victims when they wear something they should not be wearing probably.
Yeah, I know. But I’m saying that I, you know, it’s so ironic for me to say this because I come from that kind of culture who is obsessed with whatever is trendy, but I always go against fashion, well, I don’t even have… I don’t know if I have this particular style that you can actually consider as, oh it’s fashionable.
I don’t know, because I am… I don’t follow fashion at all. Although I can appreciate watching vloggers sometimes. For example, when they wear Louis Vuitton, you know, the high-end brands. But for me personally no, I don’t really follow that.
Well trends are just a part of human nature at the end of the day.
It’s just human nature. Some trends are cool, some trends are not cool.
Is there any kind of a fashion trend that you think should never see the light of day ever again? Some trend that you hated?
Fashion trends… Oh, I mean…. I’m trying to think. I mean I guess you could take any trend and make it cool. There’s always cool aspects of every trend.
Of course. But I mean it’s more about your personal…
My personal hate, my personal grudge. I’m trying to think. Onesies are a bit annoying. They do look comfy though, they do look comfy.
Wait a second, I’m just interested. Have you ever followed, you know, some trends?
Followed a trend? Yeah I sure have.
I mean I bought some silly, oh I remember these trousers back when I was 19 years old. They were absolutely crazy, they… I’m trying to describe them, they looked like monkey pants where the bottom of the trousers comes… It’s so hard to explain cause they are very…
You will just have to attach a picture in the comment section. Please.
I bought these trousers thinking I was really cool and I just looked like such a Muppet at the end of the day.
Speaking of trousers. I just remember when I was a teenager there was a time when elephant pants were a thing.
What does that mean? Elephant pants?
They’re very… How will I describe this one? So it’s a bit tight on the upper part of the leg and then it goes…
Oh those, yeah! Okay, okay. I think it was several years ago right that they were quite popular.
And I tried to sort of follow the trend at the time because I thought it was cool. But I think that’s the only trend that I’ve ever followed.
I think there’s only one trend that I hope will never come back, please, don’t. I mean of course there are people who love it on whom this things looks great. It’s low-waist jeans. You know…
I mean, first of all, they tend to look amazing only on people with amazing figure. An amazing body. You know this one big downside to low waist jeans – when people sit…
You see what you do not want to see very often.
We call them builder’s bottoms.
Because usually when the builders bend over you can see their bottoms.
You know the reason why they wear that is because they want to show off, they want to show.
I mean it all started, and this trend started in the early 2000s because of Christina Aguilera, remember cause she rocked it? Yeah she rocked the outfit. Well of course you do. I remember you love her. But I mean and then more people started wearing that.
But I don’t know. It’s also so uncomfortable. You have to constantly think like do the people see what they’re not supposed to see? And then it kinda, you know, puts so much pressure on your lower abdomen and you’re like ugh. So uncomfortable.
But it looked great on Christina Aguilera.
Well she was one of very few people who nailed it. Like, really one of very few.
But it’s not for everyone. As you said the other will try to force themselves into, you know, doing a particular trend, but it doesn’t really suit them. So it just looks like a fashion victim or a fashion roadkill.
Other than that I can’t think of anything because as long as you’re comfy. But it was just, like, again, my personal grudge as you said. I don’t like low waist jeans, so that’s why I’m so happy that now you can go to a shop and find any kind of jeans, like mom’s jeans, high waist jeans. Like, thank you! Finally!
By the way I wanted to ask you guys. When you came to Russia have you noticed anything about what people wear? How they dress? Like, is there any kind of a big difference?
What I’ve noticed is a lot of Russians, well, younger Russians tend to be inspired by, I guess, Korean fashion. Do you understand what I mean?
Kind of Eastern fashion. It’s really quite interesting, it’s quite trendy in a good way.
Especially, you know, teenagers. But I just find it a bit funny in a way because I thought like why do you follow, you know, k-pop fashion? Well I have nothing against it because for once in my life I was also a k-pop fan. But I’m a little dedushka now, so I don’t…
I don’t really like it that much anymore. But I just.. I don’t know… You’re Russians, you should have your own style. Although I guess you know, Russians have their own, you know fashion. I don’t know.
You know, there’s this stereotype which is, well, actually it’s true more or less that a lot of Russian girls wear heels, a lot of… Well, most of the time they wear full make up. And if you are in any kind of a city where people mostly wear sneakers and then you see a lady, you know, wearing high heels, 60% it’s gonna be someone from Eastern Europe: Russia, Ukraine.
And it was so funny sometime. Oh my god. So, once I took my students to a Russian shop in Massachusetts. So you know, a field trip, yay! And they noticed a lady, she was like in her 60s maybe. She had a long fur coat and it was like -2 outside. High heels. And she went shopping, food shopping wearing this.
Oh you mean 02 Fahrenheit or Celsius?
No, -2 Celsius. So and they just looked at her like Katya. And I’m like yeah, you know, people dress up for this sometimes. So you can easily spot a Russian very often in other countries. And I always laughed at that cause when I was working at Wellesley, you know, I was going from one classroom to another and very often I was just going and our administrator would shout out of her room like Hello Katya!
Like how do you know that’s me? She’s like you are literally the only person on the whole campus who wears heels, so your click-clack click-clack click-clack can be heard anywhere. I’m like I love my click-clack click-clack sounds. You know, this… But there is another stereotype, not about Russians but about British people this time.
And I have no idea whether it’s true or not. But apparently people think that women in Britain dress horribly, you know, they don’t know how to combine clothes. But men, however, dress very fashionably. You know, there’s always this association of men wearing suits. So what’s…
Well men don’t wear suits In England necessarily. Depends which generation you’re talking about. Of course that was definitely the case of older generations, but modern generation it’s kind of similar to Russian fashion in a way. It’s not too different. I mean now the internet has kinda blended everyone together.
I was gonna say that, yeah.
But yeah, people in the West tend to dress in a more comfy style whereas here in Russia people, women especially get dressed up to go to a supermarket.
Especially now during the pandemic. Where else should I wear my clothes?
It is quite interesting, yeah. I’ve heard a lot of Russian youtubers talk about how they were shocked when they moved to the UK or to America and people just dress so casually. People would wear pajamas to the supermarket.
Oh god, oh may I? Oh I have so many comments right now. Oh what should I start with? Alright, let’s start with what you just said about moving to the US. That was my situation too. Because I was shocked when during the first week of me teaching at an American university ever in my life I saw so many students coming to class in yoga pants or pajama pants.
I’m like… Okay? So and then I noticed that it was okay. And there were even you know, like, videos when you are Russian moving to the US. First day, first month, you wear, you now, full parade let’s say. You know, heels, everything. One year later you wear pajama pants and everything.
So but yeah, that shocked me. But I loved how people in the US don’t’ care what others think. They dress… As long as they feel comfortable – they don’t care. So and I love that. That’s why I feel more comfortable in the US than I do here in Russia.
So there’s more pressure here to look great.
Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh god, yes.
And also there’s this whole other layer to Russian fashion culture whereby if you wear certain labels you can get in trouble. I heard that if you wear Stone Island in a certain part of town…
You can get in big trouble.
I love the Russian… Well they’re called Ultra, the Ultras, the football fans, the thugs, they wear Stone Island and it’s kind of like a badge of honor to be able to wear this. If you go to the wrong part of town and you wear a certain label you can get in trouble.
Yeah, look it up, type in Stone Island Russia. I guess thugs. I don’t know, you can…
I wonder if that surprised you when you came here in Russia. I’m not gonna call it fashion or something, but a trend, stupidity maybe. But when it was -30C, -25C, -40C, have you noticed those young people, usually teenagers with their jeans, you know, rolled up, with bare ankles wearing sneakers? And very often you can see them, you know, the ankles, being red because of the hypothermia.
Yeah, I’ve seen those and I thought oh my god, what’s happening here?
But so many people do that.
I’d roll up my jeans but I always wear socks under the unless it’s really a hot summer day.
And a lot of doctors say yeah we daily get patients with hypothermia, you know, and things like that, frozen ankles.
When I saw some of them I just thought to myself well, they’re Siberians. Maybe they don’t get cold at all.
No, it’s what you can say fashion over brains, like that.
Just stupidity. I mean you risk your own health just to look cool as you think.
I guess the high heels on the icy streets…
It’s also quite risky. I’m very often, you know, tempted to put on heels. But then I think what if I fall? You know, I’m good at falling even wearing flip-flops, so.
I don’t understand how people walk up steps on an icy day in high heels.
No. I mean I love wearing heels. A lot. And I can wear my heels for 9-10 hours straight and I’m feeling fine. But yeah, on ice? No. You know, I recently saw the picture, it’s like ladies who can walk all day, you know, wearing heels, I admire you.
Ladies who somehow, you know, trip over when they’re wearing flip-flops, I feel you, you’re my sisters. So that’s me sometimes. So and I think since we’re talking about fashion and clothes and everything we can’t but mention very serious issue that is so widely spoken right now which is fast fashion. So tell me how would you define fast fashion? What is it?
I think it’s more of the quantity and trying to follow certain trends. Can we name drop some brands?
H&M, Froever21, maybe Uniqlo which is a Japanese brand. It’s more like mass production, selling to people, you know, gaining more profit. But I don’t think they are, these aren’t timeless pieces that you can wear, that’s more classic and more sustainable.
So it’s just like, you know, fast food. Lower quality, lower price.
You’re gonna forget about that, you know, like, in a minute. And you know, I remember reading about fast fashion and I was horrified. Cause apparently in the world 80 billion pieces of clothing are consumed every year. 80! Billion! Like, my little brain…
You mean purchased or just disposed of? Consumed in what sense? You mean purchased or?
I think it’s more about purchased. I think purchased but that would include second hand as well. But still. 80 billion. I cannot even imagine a number like that. Like… So and fashion industry annually gets more than 1.5 trillion dollars.
That’s even more zeroes, like, too many zeroes. So and on average a person wears a fast fashion item five times if I’m not mistaken and usually it lasts 30-60 days. Very often. And I also read that an average American, one person, averagely produces 82 pounds of textile waste per year. Just one person, it’s like what? 30-something kilos. Like 35 kilos.
That’s a lot. Yeah. So and why is fast fashion bad? If we need to explain, like, what’s so bad about it? Well I can buy cheap clothes and I can throw them away. So, what’s a big deal?
Well I guess maybe it supports an industry of sweatshops.
Or some people would talk about the environment or environmental impact. I guess the worst part is sustaining industry of people working 18-hour days.
With like child labor. There was recently this conflict with China and cotton that they supplied for H&M and everything. That they used labor of Uyghur people who are kept, you know, in horrible conditions and not paid at all. So it’s like a concentration camp over there. So yeah, this is the first reason. And the second you’ve mentioned environment.
True. A lot of waste and that’s, you know dumped into the environment. And also I wanna add the superficiality of it all. Because it seems like they just care about, you know, what’s the latest or what’s fashionable but it doesn’t really last long. So that kind of mentality is also I guess the…
And I was shocked to find out that clothing industry now is the second highest polluter of clean water. Cause apparently you need a lot of water to, you know, to dye a piece of clothing and to dye everything.
And then the global cotton industry apparently uses more pesticides than any other crop in the world. So and this also poisons, since they use pesticides, this poisons farmers, it poisons the water. So yeah. And then if we talk about fast fashion materials, it’s usually not good quality cotton, but it’s usually polyester.
And that takes hundreds of years to break down. Like, yeah. And then, because of fashion over 70 million trees are logged every year. Just to produce clothes and everything.
Bad for the trees, you know. So how can we then be more sustainable maybe, you know? When choosing clothes or when…
Yeah, that’s one practical approach.
So, thrifting, yes. Actually in Novosibirsk there’s a cool thrift shop.
There’s not many guys items, I went there a few weeks ago.
I think that’s the problem in general with thrift shops in Russia.
In America you have loads of men’s clothes.
I can explain why. So for example, and I think this is the case for like 90% of men in Russia. My dad used to have let’s say 5 shirts and he was wearing them for like 20 years. And when my mom suggested maybe we can buy you a new one he’s like why? This one’s fine. Does it have holes?
No, so I’m fine. And I like it. So there’s nothing that men can bring to a thrift store just because they wear clothes until they’re, you know, torn apart and they fall apart because they are so worn out. Whereas women are more like, you know, shopaholics and they buy a lot of pieces and then not know wat they want to do with them.
You know, I’m laughing because your dad’s I guess fashion sense or whatever, it’s kind of reflective of what I do in my personal life. And going back to your question what should we do to make it more sustainable.
I guess we have to build a wardrobe with timeless, let’s say, staples that you could wear year after year so you won’t have to go shopping every now and then because well, you know, it’s just a waste of money. Personally, that’s how I see it.
And let’s be fair how many of us have had the situation when we bought something and then never put it on?
I mean I love going t thrift shops but I don’t actually buy that much stuff, so I mean…
We can pay more attention as to where something is produced, what kind of labor they use. Cause some companies, you know, they have become more transparent about that. Cause they know that it matters to people.
So and then maybe buy high quality goods aue then they are going to last. And you know, actually one step to that would be getting this capsule wardrobe, you know it’s like… Do you know the concept of capsule wardrobe?
Is it like capsule hotels where it’s very small?
No, a capsule wardrobe is when you get a certain set of timeless pieces and then maybe a couple of bright items. So and you can combine them in such a way, in a numerous amount of ways. So that you don’t need to buy anything else until one of these items actually, you know, wears out for example.
This way, you have some kind of a basis, so you don’t need to worry about, you know, buying and going shopping and everything and then you choose this capsule wardrobe, you know, for yourself so you take everything into account.
What you do and everything. And usually, you know, you can combine pieces so that you can go to work, then go to a party, then go to a birthday celebration or a theater, you know. So and I think it’s a fantastic idea.
So you can just mix and match, yeah?
Usually people, well, since it’s basic, it’s usually in neutral colors, like black, white, gray, beige. And then you usually have some kind of bright accessories maybe or let’s say a bright blazer so that you can combine it in different ways, so yeah. I think that also might be one of the steps to being more conscious.
Yeah. So and you know, when we start our podcast episode we say that the main goal of the podcast is to learn something new. So did you learn anything new today?
Regarding, you know, thrifting, that’s one. Because I don’t, you know, I do it very often. But I guess I will reconsider and rethink about it. And you know, just for me to be able to save up money as well. And for me not to contribute to the waste that’s dumped to the environment by this fast fashion thing.
I learned about the difficulties of buying clothes in an open market in Yakutsk.
I wish I could say you should go and check this out yourself, but there are no more outdoor markets there. Well, unless you wanna buy fish but then again, it’s not a very long experience. You won’t have to change and try something on. Yeah, you should’ve come earlier probably.
Swimsuit shopping in Yakutia in winter.
Well then you just have to trust your intuition. You know, like, yeah, that’ll do, that’s fine. Yeah. Alright, so that was the BigAppleSchool podcast and today we discussed fashion, trends, style and shopping. And we want to know what you dear listeners think about all of that. So do you often go shopping? Are you a shopaholic maybe? So what do you do to become a more conscious shopper?
And in general what style you have, what do you prefer buying or where do you prefer shopping? Let us know! We always want to chat! So and if you struggle to understand our conversation, you are always welcome to our website which is BigAppleSchool.com/podcast.
You can find full scripts of each episode there so you can read and listen and it’s very user-friendly. So, amazing. And if you want to get more content which will help you learn English, you can follow us on social media such as Instagram, Vk, Telegram – we are everywhere. Just search our name which is BigAppleSchool. So that was Katya and my guests for today were…
Stay tuned and we’ll see you around.
