Hello, hello, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Big Apple School podcast, where the goal of the show, of course, is to help you improve your English skills by listening to us. And of course, you can widen your vocabulary range by listening to us, speak to each other. So my name is Ben. I'm the normal host of today's show or of this show. And we have three guests today. Our first guest today is...
Excellent. Second guest..
And last but not least, we have...
So excellent guys. So what's going on? I haven't seen you guys in a while.
Well, I've passed Natalie in the hall several times during the week.
And I've looked in on Ugur several times. I chatted with you.
A little chit-chat. Yeah, yeah. Busy couple weeks. Lot's of happened. Yeah, the weather's changing, of course, here in Novosibirsk.
Yes, it's going up and down.
Oh, my birds have come back. My bolshaya sinitcas are back. Yes, yes. They're the same ones. This is the fourth winter now and they're back.
So do they come to your windows?
Yes, they do. And they, they look in sometimes.
So but what do you give them?
Sunflower seeds. So good bread. Not bad bread. Good bread. Yeah, cheese. They like cheese.
Oh, they like cheese? All right.
They like insects. And I said, "Well, I can't get insects for you guys, so let me give you a little bit of cheese".
Oh, it's like also protein basically but...
You can actually buy insects from pet shops. If you want to...
If you go to the pet shops you can buy cockroaches, you can buy all sorts of stuff. Yeah. Check out your local pet shop.
I mean, just before we get started with today's topic, I need to mention, you need to be careful with feeding breads, too, because I went to the to the pond in Академ Городок, which is nearby Novosibirsk for our listeners who are not familiar with this city, and I brought some bread to go feed the ducks with my wife and everyone, of course, goes and feeds the ducks bread. But there was some signs around the corner saying "No bread. It is harmful for the ducks".
Actually we can feed them bread, but different kinds of bread. Not like with the yeast. Yeah, yeah, but just with sour dough or something like that.
The problem is if the bread gets wet that's the problem.
Also, yeah. It will look disgust.
These signs everywhere around this pond saying, "Do not feed bread to the ducks". But you have old people, young people, everyone with huge loaves of bread feeding.
Yeah. Specifically, white bread is really harmful for them because it's bad for the digestive system or something like that.
But maybe it's okay for birds. Other birds.
Maybe for pigeons. It's okay.
I mean, they eat anything basically.
Well enough about pigeons and bread and stuff like that. Maybe another time we can talk about.
Birds' digestive systems.
And today we're going to talk about roots. So heritage in general. What do you feel? What do you think about when you hear the word "roots"? What's the first thing that pops into your mind?
Yeah, yeah, I get my roots done.
Yes, the roots of your hair. Yep.
Two things mostly come my mind. Like one of the song of Sepultura, the Brazilian heavy metal.
I don't know. I should know.
Roots. Bloody roots. Yeah. And the second one is that the TV series that I used to watch when I was a kid, like Roots, it was about African American people and African American people living, was living in the United States after segregation. So yeah.
The heritage. Well, before we get started with today's topic, I just want to mention to everyone we have a special private telegram chat where you can share your opinions and we can, you can roll discussions with us. And I'd like to thank our two new subscribers. We have number one Edam Rus. So thank you very much, Edam Rus. And we have Nina Nina.
So welcome on board the special private chat. So we'll have an aftershow after this podcast where we're going to discuss the roots in more detail. We will get personal, we'll talk about our own private roots, our own personal histories, which will be really interesting. So stick by stick with us to the end of the show and we'll see you there. All right, guys. So let's get started. So have you guys ever done a genetic test before?
I haven't, but I've heard a lot about it. Some friends of mine have done it, and I'm not sure how much of a scam it is actually, but. Okay. For example, there is a guy and he's... He's from Norway I think. But he's done his test and apparently his from...
Something like that. Like Poland or something like that, basically. So. And he also has like Turkish blood. I mean, his mom, I think, was Turkish, but there was no Turkish blood there, like. So, I don't know. Yeah.
Well, how far back do you know in your family? How was the oldest relative you know, in your family? 'Cause I don't know my great great grandfather.
Like three generations maybe back, not much.
Maybe two or three, like so.
Maybe four, ok, maybe four.
You mean with pictures? Are you actually... you've met them?
Yeah. Just pictures, stories, like from my grandma.
Yeah, well, we're going to save our personal histories for the off the show, guys. My brother, he personally did a genetics tests. So we'll talk about that in the aftershow. So, guys, stick by if you you're interested to hear. All right but would you like to pay for a genetics test? So I believe they're like $100.
I would not. I wouldn't because it wouldn't change anything. I'm still who I am. And just like Natalie said, "Is it a scam?" I've read different things like that. They can tell you a little bit about blood quantum, but not where you're actually from.
Yeah, exactly. What is interesting about that is that you can learn about your diseases. For example, you have a predisposition for heart diseases or I don't know...
Yeah, exactly. So and I've heard that potentially you can, you know, for example, you have a future partner and you plan to have a kids with him or her. Yeah, I don't know. So and basically you can find out if you have some common, I don't know, genetic diseases and you can either avoid it.. Just break up with this person.
Oh, I don't know. Just basically, as I've heard, there is a way to fix this somehow. So again, you can use ECO, yeah. Or whatever it's called, you know, and it's like...
Yeah. The ultrasound tests.
Actually it's kind of late, you already have the baby inside and then you get the test.
Oh, no, no, no. I mean...
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And basically, potentially, again, you can try and fix this problems somehow. I don't know.
Yeah, I saw a video documentary several years ago and it was really brand new. It was some kind of machine that could tell your kind of diseases or your potential for disease, and it can even predict when you're going to die.
I've heard about it too, actually.
But it's not for the open public. It's just still in...
Well, that's because we all think we're not going to die. That's why. But, yeah.
Also, I think it depends on, like, some extra, you know, things. For example, if you exercise a lot or if you're been drinking too much or something like that, probably.
Yeah. You said you don't think you're going to die. Yeah. I was so surprised when the queen died.
She was old. She was 96, but I thought she was going to make it to 100 and 10.
Yeah. Well, the queen herself, she has, what, mostly Germanic roots, I believe she is. I don't know, maybe a quarter German or something like that. And the rest - British Isles. So maybe that had something...
That's to keep the peace. You've got to intermarry with royalty from different countries.
Yeah. You don't want to marry too much within your own community, yeah.
Yeah. Speaking of genetics.
Yes, yes. Yeah. You don't want to get too close.
You mean like first cousins or something.
Exactly. Oh, actually. Let's speak about that. Because in some countries it's normal for, I mean, I'm just going to say, no, I don't want to.
Marrying with the cousins or something?
I don't know what it is in America. Maybe you can marry your second cousin, third cousin, I don't know.
Some states have different laws. Yeah. I mean if any kind of cousin I'm not touching... Stay away from the weird cousin.
Yeah. As long as you don't have kids I think it's okay. Yeah. Okay. Get married. So whatever. I mean, yeah, it sounds terrible.
Well, there's this show, this American show called "Inside Edition", maybe Varya... Do you know?
Yeah, Inside Edition. I love watching it. They present many different clips of interesting, violent things, political things, strange things. And I saw this interesting episode of this, these two first cousins who got married to each other.
Yeah, first cousins. And they seemed to be happy.
They have a lot in common.
And they have a kid and healthy kid or something? No?
I can't remember to be honest I just remember the fact that.
The fact they are married, yeah?
Yeah, it creeped me out. Sorry. I hope...
An audience will never marry cousins.
We might lose a subscriber. But, yeah. I'm sorry. It's just not cool.
Don't do that, guys. Yeah. Don't marry your first cousin.
Don't do drugs. Don't marry your first cousin. Some advice, yeah. I've heard that some people in the. This is just a rumor, but some people in the kind of the eastern side of England and the western side, they have webbed hands. And webbed hands means so like the fingers are not completely separate.
They were too close to their relatives. Yeah.
Because of close relatives.
Exactly. It's serious. You shouldn't... I mean you need to be considerate to the children like it can be really bad. Anyway, so we're talking about genetic tests. Enough about incest and enough about that. Gross subject.
But I met a student who took a genetic test to see what kind of dietary products he should be, consuming.
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, it was really interesting. Would you be interested in taking such a test?
Yeah. I don't know. I don't have any reaction to any products, so it doesn't make sense, probably.
I know my allergies. I don't need an extra one, I guess.
This is not much for allergies. It's more for optimizing your diet.
Do you know how people have things, little contraptions, devices to help them and then go against it anyway. Cause we're all rebels and we're not going to have a device tells us what to do.
So you can have all the tests in the world, but you still do it?
Yeah, probably $200. And you're still going to go eat McDonalds anyway.
Yeah, well, because in eastern diets they have less dairy products and maybe dairy products are not as good for people from Eastern Origins or...
From Asian origins. Whereas in the West, a lot of us grow up with dairy products and, well dairy products. I mean, I know it's kind of a side topic, but they can produce too many hormones and it can be bad for you. But other people say dairy products...
It depends on the country. Again, I think because as I know in England and in the UK, milk generally has bad reputation because for example in the 18th century, 19th century they used to add really bad, you know, things to milk, especially in London as I know, yeah. So and that's why it has basically bad reputation. What in Russia...
They add this... inject the cows to produce milk or are you saying that they're injecting milk?
No, no. So it was basically again, I read an article about that and it was really hard to get milk in London because again, to many people, everybody wants milk.
Yeah, exactly. They mix chalk. So and basically it wasn't real milk. Yeah. But now again, always...
Yeah. Well different genetics have different predispositions of course, to different food products. For instance, I know in the East people don't really drink too much alcohol, they do drink some alcohol, but they're not big drinkers like they are perhaps in Western cultures.I mean...
Yeah. So maybe some cultures, they can take a drink much more than others. And also, I heard, you know, speaking to some Asian people and they were saying, "Oh, white people smell like milk", which is probably true. Yeah. Imagine if you come from a culture where you don't really consume dairy products and...
It comes with a white guy.
Exactly. Well, okay. Well, I would love to take one of these tests maybe because it'd be nice to know exactly which foods would make me function best in the day. Yeah. So you don't need to have, like, ten cups of coffee to stay awake in the morning.
But basically it's just protein as I know, just you take more protein and you don't feel sleepy or, I don't know, tired as much too.
Or carbohydrates. That's a very controversial topic. But if you don't eat carbs, how are you going to have energy?
But anyway. So another question. Why do you think people in America really interested in their heritage? For instance. So we have. Well, for instance, the current president, he's an Irish and he loves to show that he's Irish. And the previous president showed that he was Scottish.
Okay, so I didn't, I wasn't aware of this. But because you gave that example. The reason is we are a land of immigrants, and we we've been discriminating against certain immigrants, and you might... not notice, but there's certain shades of whiteness. And so, of course, the English would be the most welcomed.
I'm half-Jewish, so get out of jail free card.
But there was a time where there was a great discrimination against Irish people. And the reason was because... and Catholics too, because they thought that you'd be an Irish citizen, would be more loyal to the Pope rather than the president. And so... I think that's why in this day and age, we say, now, you know, "I'm Irish and I'm okay". You know, "Kiss me. I'm Irish".
Yes. Well, maybe because well, I guess the Irish people were subjected to more authoritarian regimes and the in the British monarchy. Well we basically owned Ireland for a long time.
But they came, you know, from this very famous potato famine because of the potato famine in Ireland. They came over and they got a lot of jobs in the factories. And then they took jobs away from the people who are already here. So there's prejudice against the Irish because of that.
Fair enough. So, yeah, because I've noticed that a lot of people in America, they say, "Oh, I'm German". No, I'm not. I'm not mocking them at all. I'm just interested.
I hadn't been aware of that until you brought this to light. I... Because I as a child would say, you know, we'd say to each other, what's what's your nationality? And I would say, well, because I should I say it now or later?
Go on, let's save it till later. Save it till the AfterShow.
Okay. There's a big secret.
Okay, a clue. I'm a mutt.
A mutt. Oh, very good. So you're mixed breed.
I think all mixed breeds, but, yeah, we're going to get into that. But my dad, I mean, I'm not 100% sure if this is a completely true story. But he told me he went to Boston in Massachusetts and he went into a pub and most pubs there are Irish pubs, not English pubs in Massachusetts. And of course he has an English accent and apparently he was told to get out of the pub because he was English. And I thought...
Yeah, he's in company with women because women aren't supposed to go into those Irish pubs as well.
'Cause they have more traditional outlook.
Seriously? Like seriously they are not allowed to?
May be like old people pubs.
Maybe, maybe they're allowed to...Maybe a woman special pub.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. And in London, for instance. Of course there are many pubs but you have one pub that just some old geezers go to and geezars. Is it just...
You know, I mean people who are local lads, they would congregate at one pub and if anyone new came into the pub they would think, like "Don't really like this person".
Well us against them. So humans are tribal, we are animals. We, we do like to have our own clubs.
Maybe that's the reason why people in America very...
Exactly. To group together. Yeah. To stay together.
England is also a very multicultural society, so a lot of people cling very closely to their roots. Yeah. And maybe that's a way of was how our tribal nature manifests in real life.
Yeah. So if you're talking about like certain neighborhoods, like an Italian neighborhood or the Irish neighborhood.
Yeah. Just so that you can function better.
Yeah. Well, what is your favorite neighborhood? Because I love Chinatown as much.
Not, it was like, "Oh, wow".
And, okay, you might go to New York City, Chinatown. But the best is San Francisco.
Do you know, I haven't... Well, maybe I went there when I was like, three or four, but I can't remember it. Tell us more about San Francisco's Chinatown.
Oh, you can get everything. Well, I love qipaos. You know, qipaos are? These are Western style Chinese dresses. So the ones that you know...
Oh, yes, they are beautiful.
Yes. And they're well-shaped and they're in come in small sizes and different colors. Oh, you'll look great in a qipao.
Yeah, also my hair tights somewhere like this.
Yeah, a long, a long braid or something. Yeah.
Yeah. I love Chinatowns, like in New York and in London. They have...
They're not recycled garbage, just warmed up garbage like you can get in some Chinese restaurant. Okay, how old is this garbage?
I don't mind. I mean, I don't mind a week or two week old garbage but all is this.
Yeah. Well, I love the shops. Like you can buy the little...
Yeah. Have you heard the word tchotchkes? I think maybe it's Yiddish word, but tchotchke, maybe it's Yiddish. But sometimes I've heard it in English. So tchotchkes means little things here and there. Bits and bobs.
Bits and pieces, yeah. You can buy little tchotchkes.
Trinkets. That's the words. Yeah, trinkets. Exactly. Yeah, but I love Chinatowns, however, because there's so many restaurants, you always have lots of rats. And it's around Chinatown, especially in London and New York. Don't really want to hang around the street.
Actually I think I've never been to Chinatown anywhere. I mean, I've been to China.
But not in Chinatown seriously. So, again, imagine it's probably like China. Yeah, but...
Really is. Yeah. I love Chinatown.
Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, what other kind of towns are there? So you lived in Vegas as well, didn't you, Varya.
Yeah. We had the north side were the blacks and then the south side were the tourists. That's how it was divided.
Oh, okay. Which year were you in Vegas?
Oh, okay. So. All right. So because I was there 2019. Yeah. 2020. And they had a Koreatown. They had... Maybe it's developed a lot. So Koreatown. Chinatown. Taitown.
Yeah, which is your favorite town, Ugur?
When I was living in Vietnam we had like a Korean town and Chinese town and Taitown too.
My favorite has been always like Chinese town, like Chinatown. So the food and the little things that, as you mentioned. So it was kind of fun.
Yeah. And what about in Istanbul?
We have a China, not town, like China neighborhood's kind of like two or three streets, one after another. So we have the restaurants and like small shops, like gift shops and everything. So, yeah.
I love Asian food. Well, moving on, do you think that's different cultures should all just integrate together or would you think it's better to have different towns?
You mean melting pot or..?
Well, yeah. Talking about do you think that cultures should adopt the host culture or do you think it's better for them to, to remain within their own cultures.
I guess you should follow the certain rules of the society that you're living in, but you should be free what you are doing or what you are practicing, coming from your original culture? I guess so.
Yes, there needs to be a balance. So you have your group.
Yeah, you have your celebrations and then you have to be able to function in society.
Yeah, we speak about China. Chinese people, they don't integrate too much. They just stay on their own. They just talk to Chinese people. They don't even speak, like, the local language sometimes. So maybe it's not really good.
What are you talking about? Chinese people who live somewhere else.
Exactly. Like, I mean, anywhere, basically. So they all kind of stick together.
Yeah. And if they bring their families over, like their parents and their grandparents, they won't be speaking that.
Exactly. Same as Russian people anywhere in the US. For example, they have this specific area where they just live.
Exactly. Exactly. They just don't speak English basically. Most of them.
Yeah, I remember I went to Brighton Beach a long time. Well, not that long ago. Maybe about ten years ago. And I had just started learning Russian like the first few words in Russian and I thought I'd marched into a Russian Ukrainian store in Brighton Beach, New York and try the few words of Russian. They just said, "Can you just speak English?".
Yeah, it's much easier to understand.
Yeah, but I thought it was pretty cool. Varya, have you been to Brighton Beach?
No, I lived in Atlanta, but there was a Russian section. It was kind of spread out. It wasn't like a a real dense populated area. I just kind of heard about it and kind of drove through it. So there is something there.
Oh, they have newspapers.
Yeah. Like little news sets, I would say.
Yeah, London has a Russian newspapers called "Англия".
Yeah. A lot of Russian people there as well.
I would say that actually there aren't that many. There are a lot of wealthy Russian people in London who do naughty things with their money. But we... But we do have a small Russian community. Well, it's not as big as the Polish community.
And our biggest communities in London or the UK are people from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh,.
Yeah, of course. China as well Poland.
Vietnamese people all over Europ.
Yeah. Can you guess what the second most spoken languages in the UK?
I would think I would have thought so as well. But actually maybe it's changed. But the last time I checked...
Not Hebrew. No, no. Hebrew is only spoken by like.
Yeah, well, what is like 5 million people? Something like that.
No, Hindu would be a good guess, but no. And any other guesses?
That's another good guess. We have a lot of people from Spain. No.
A lot of Turkish people in the UK as well.
We have Kebab places everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. And. Okay, so it's Polish also makes sense.
Yeah. A lot of immigrants.
Yeah, lots of Poles. So, yeah, we call Poles.
The slang word is pollacs.
Slang with the bad connotation I guess?
Maybe, maybe. But Pole is the official adjective for Polish people. Yeah.
Which is quite funny because a pole is like a stick.
But America, of course, you have a big polish population.
Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know about that. Growing up in California, of course, a big Mexican.
There are at least Spanish speaking. And let me make this clear. Maybe someone would be interested in this. So some people don't know, should she call people from Latin America, Latino, Latino or Hispanic? But Hispanic means Spanish speaking. Oh, so literally someone from Spain who's not from Latin America would be Hispanic, right? And what about people in Brazil who speak Portuguese? They're not Hispanic.
So it's better nowadays we call them Latinx, meaning I don't know if you're a girl or a boy. And so I should say I was really seems like I was more familiar with Mexicans, really Mexican proper, that they did come from Mexico, but then more South Americans would come up. But Spanish speaking. Yeah. Hispanic.
And in Georgia, too, because, the Georgia. Where is Georgia? Yeah. No, that that's Florida...It's close to the Gulf of Mexico. And in Mexico...
Georgia's not too far from.
No, there's a lot of Mexicans there. Yeah. They make their way up.
From Texas and then they...
Come all of way round. Well of course. Texas. Техас.
Yeah. Right on the border there.
Exactly. Texas I think it's a Spanish name isn't it?
All of that is Spanish because a third of United States, a third of the West, all belong to Mexico. And then we had a war with Mexico in 1848 where we kicked them out and said, "No, this is now our land". We bought it for very little money and they're still mad at us, rightly so, rightly so. And so if they ever talk about immigration coming up, they'll say, "Hey, this used to belong to us".
Yeah. It's really interesting because America has so many Spanish and French roots. But then also from Spain, you also have Arabic roots that come from Spain.
Yeah, exactly. And so California, I was reading somewhere, I was thinking, "Oh, this is quite an interesting name. California".
It sounds kind of Spanish, but if you look at it, you have the Arabic word, I think is "Khalifa". And California comes from...
Well, when you saying the California means... Because California means "hot furnace" because it's so hot. It is a Spanish name.
Well, yeah, I mean the Spanish words.
Yeah, they came from Arabic.
Well, are you saying that the Arabic word is "hot furnace" as well?
Khalifa means, as far as I know, the leader of a group or some.
I don't know. Like leader of some group or team or whatever. So California.. Khalifa of something maybe.
Leader of something. I don't know.
But it means hot furnace so I don't see the connection between that.
I'm not sure, but I do, well, of course, Morocco and Spain. And yes, each of the Arab man of Spain had a history of well, lots of Muslims were in Spain and Arabic. Yeah. And in the south of Italy as well. Which is why Sicily in Italian has a lot of Arabic kind of words.
And they all kind of melted to get melded. So melted together. And, yeah, now we have... So California, Spanish name with some Arabic roots inside it. Read up about. I'm not a complete expert on the subject, of course, but yeah, it's quite interesting. And Nevada, which neighbors California that comes from Spanish as well, means, well it means "snowy", I think.
Yeah. I can't remember what it means, but Sierra Nevada. Sierra maybe means high.
Yeah, Las Vegas means I think it's the meadow, the meadows.
Yeah, yeah in Spanish. So. Yeah. Well, America wouldn't be America without Spanish.
And, you know, Napoleon used to own the middle third of the United States.
We actually bought it from Napoleon's. Yeah, he needed money for his wars, so we... we bought that.
Well, do you think about. So you have all these French cities like Detroit.
Exactly. Yes, it was the middle strip of the US, which is why you don't really see many French names on the West Coast. I mean, all the many...
Right. Right. That's true. So Spanish.
Hispanic names. Spanish names as on the East Coast is mostly English.
English and French. French up there in the northern.
Spanish in the southern part.
Central parts more German?
Yeah, well, yeah, I would say more like Pennsylvania, so maybe.
Yeah, exactly. And then we have Canada, of course. Which is a whole...
So I would love to go to Montreal because that they really keep the French going there. That is really French. And when I worked in a hotel in Vegas, we had a lot of guests who came from Montreal and they couldn't really speak English, which was really funny.
Like there were a few guests and but my French is kind of primitive, but, you know, they they would literally some guests would just not speak English, which I was so surprised about. And yeah, so it's like a whole other world within North America that you just wouldn't think about.
So what about Novosibirsk? So you're native?
What are the cultures? Mainly come to Novosibirsk.
Basically Russian people. Surprisingly so. Yeah. A lot of German people as I know. Yeah... I guess...
What I find so interesting about Russia is how a lot of Russians look Asian, which is really interesting. And you have that whole mixture. Yeah. Yeah. Because maybe like Mongolian history.
Kirghizia. Oh, Central Asia is so interesting because it's literally like the melting pot between Asia and Europe. Yeah. So you have people with, like, Asian looking faces, but blue eyes. That's such an interesting thing.
Yeah, it's a cool mix. Yeah. So what about Istanbul? What other cultures other than Turkish people?
We are also kind of a mixed culture, like in huge city, but like for the last ten or 15 years, we have like an Arabic kind of immigrants, like from Syria, from northern African-Arabic countries, like Algeria and Tunisia. And we have also like Russians in Istanbul a lot of Russians.
They all live in Istanbul.
How close is Turkish related to Persian and Arabic?
Actually, it's completely different. But because of the immigrants that they started living in Istanbul, in Turkey in general for a long time, the culture is kind of merged, you know, like in Turkish culture, northern American, sorry, northern African culture and Arabic culture and culture and the Persian culture is all mixed.
So you can see all bits and pieces of each culture's kind of little examples and you can just see it everywhere without having any kind of distinction between them. So...
I always thought, why is Turkey so different from, you know, all the Middle East? So like, why because I guess...
They're so mixed in a way. That's why. So in Iran, all the Persian people are living there, mostly like 90% or around Syria, old Arabic people live there. So no Turkish or no other cultures. But in Turkey, it's all kind of melting part. Or we can say it the mosaic.
Maybe because it was next to the sea. But I mean, Iran is also next to the see.
Sea. I guess people are seeking kind of...
Geographical location must have something to do.
Well, yeah. I mean, in ancient times, all of that was Persia. Right?
Yeah, all of that area in ancient times.
No, it was Ottoman Empire.
Yeah. Ottoman Empire and then you had the Persians too. Well, I went to Dagestan recently and obviously is Russia, but previously that was the Persian Empire a while back, which is really interesting.
They are still Muslims, I guess, right?
Oh, yeah. Very religious. Yeah, very religious.
Oh, yeah, very religious. Yeah, but really recommend you actually had a great holiday there. It's not a typical holiday.
But it's just beautiful, yeah.
Yeah, it really is. And and also the ancient Persian.
Like architecture as well. It's really...
Yeah, it's Russia. But I went to their Derbent which is like one of the most southern cities in Russia.
Right next to the Caspian Sea and it's amazing you have this old Persian fortress there, which is so cool. Yeah. Check it out.
Yeah, it's right. It's right next to the border. Azerbaijan. Well, speak of Azerbaijan. So it's kind of multi intelligible of Turkish, isn't it? The language.
Yeah, we are kind of sharing a similar background.
So if you go to Azerbaijan but you from Istanbul, you can understand what they're talking about. And if in as Azerbaijan person comes to Turkey, they can understand what the Turkish.
Is it like Spanish and Portuguese?
Kind of thing, yeah. We have different vocabulary, but in general, we understand what they're saying, what they're talking about.
Yeah. I find it interesting because you have Turkic language, not Turkish, but so Central Asia.
It's also similar to Kazakhstan, I guess.
You told me you can understand a few words.
Couple of words like we are using like similar words with the Kazak language, Kazakhstan language.
So I remember looking at Kirghiz. Not, not that I want to learn Kirghiz but the way they say welcomes the same is in Turkish, which is like...
Yeah, yeah. Hoşgeldiniz is something like that. And it was really similar in Kyrgyzstan. So it's amazing how like.
It's like a Central Asian kind of centric language.
And we have some same words in Russian and Turkish too. So first I was surprised when I first came in. Yeah, like, шапка.
Seriously? It's the same?
That comes from maybe Italian, like fagioli.
I don't know. Well, it was kind of surprising.
Portuguese it is feijões. Like they all kind of...
For example, cheburek. Same.
Exactly. But maybe, I guess it comes from, you know, from somewhere there, maybe. Yeah. Like it's not a traditional Russian dish.
And histories all our cultures invaded and killed each other.
We all lived on each other's lands at one point.
That's why maybe we are sharing a common ground.
Well, that's what like a language families are like Indo-European languages. They all came from the same roots.
And they all just split off and did their own thing of the centuries. It's kind of like how people from Romania can understand Italians, but then they're not exactly the same language. But there's so many roots.
Saying French and Italian. French and Spanish.
Yeah. All right, guys. Well, like I said earlier, we have an off the show. We have lots of interesting stuff to talk about. So make sure you check out our telegram chat so you can gain access to the after show. And of course, you can just use our normal telegram chat for common use or if you have any things to share or if you have any suggestions, please let us know.
And of course, if you want to share information about your own personal family history, we'd love to hear about that in the comments in the comments section. Hey, excuse me. All right, guys. Also check out our website, which is www.BigAppleSchool.com where you can find more information about the courses we offer and videos and other cool podcasts like this one. So be sure to check that out. And also our social media platforms, for instance, VK. All right, guys. So that's it for now. We'll see you later on on the off the show. Bye for now. Take care.
Наталья Мамонова
