Hello, hello, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the BigAppleSchool podcast where the goal of the show is to help you improve your English listening skills by listening to us. My name is Benjamin. I'm from London, and today we have three wonderful participants. Our first participant today is...
Welcome, Maria. And our second participant...
And last but not least...
So welcome back. So, guys, what's new? What's going on this week?
Well, I've just come back from my vacation.
Excellent. Tell us, where did you go?
My family and I, we went to Altai Mountains. We traveled for five days. Enjoy the fresh air, the beautiful river. And we went not really to the border with Mongolia, but not far from the border with Mongolia.
Can you cross the border?
I mean, you have your documents. They check your car and, yeah, absolutely.
Is it true that they have a border crossing where there is no where there are no checks?
So I think I've read somewhere that somewhere you can and they just trust people to. Because how can you...
Yeah, because Russia has such a big border. How can you, like guard every single inch of the Russian borders?
Well, you can't, but that's why there are like points, you know, the border points and everything. I don't know.
Interesting. So did you get bitten by any ticks?
No, of course not. It's November.
Yeah, but was it snowy there?
It was not. It was not. So I was actually surprised that it was plus eight, plus nine Celsius all the time. Only once we went to one of the passes, which was 1700 above the sea level and there was snow. I was so happy. I was like, Sno-o-o-w. Yee.
And when you came back here to Novosibirsk, you were like, Snow? Uuu.
Oh, no, I was waiting for snow. My northern soul is like, I need the snow.
Yes. Because you're originally from Yakutia.
You do need a bit of snow.
I like it when it's just, you know, when it has just fallen. So it's just so beautiful. Sparkly, white.
So, yes. What else is new? Well...
Well nothing from my side, like literally nothing.
Have you checked out the new sales on the Internet?
Yesterday. I had some newsletters from, yeah, from some online shops, but I forgot. I forgot to check when I came home.
Fair enough. Do you like buying stuff in the sales?
It's interesting that they usually offer something that I don't need at this moment. So it's hard to find a real bargain.
Yeah. Like I said before to our participants, before the show, I bought some new police shoes so I don't slip when I walk on the icy streets of Novosibirsk.
So police shoes because they have a really thick rubber sole. So for our listeners, I don't mean soul was in like someone's spirit, I mean the bottom of the shoe. So that's...
Thank you. Varya, anything interesting?
Well, if you want to talk about sales, I'm not easily lassoed in by sales. And just for a note, we in America say on sale and you say in sale?
Do you know what? I would say on sale as well... In sale, no, actually no, I wouldn't say so. But there are some preposition differences between British and American. For instance, on the weekend, at the weekend, what would you say?
Definitely on the weekend.
Yeah, we could say at the weekend.
Yeah. So, yeah, there are some preposition differences. And of course, needless to mention, we have got and gotten, they are not prepositions, but nonetheless we have plenty of differences. So we also have a new studio which we are in, which is really cool, has amazing sound isolation.
Oh, my God. Yes. Which is which is making it so weird before the podcast when there is no music and we can hear everything.
Like the breathing, everything.
It's amazing. So we have.
I like how Katie is haloed by blue and Maria, you've got a halo of green.
You've got your halo of red.
Just take a picture, you know, after the podcast.
Oh, absolutely. So, yeah. So we have this isolation foam on the ceilings and on the walls, which completely I don't know how to describe it, what is it?
You know what? I have an idea. Why don't we take a picture of the studio and posted in our private chat? I think people would be interesting to see what the studio looks.
Well, guys, we definitely need to mention so we have a special private chat, which you can definitely be a part of. Just find, you can find the private chat in the telegram section of the BigAppleSchool chat. So definitely be part of that and you can get access to the aftershow of this podcast.
And there you can see video footage of us and you can see, yes, the colors on the wall and perhaps maybe you can see some of the sound isolation material. So definitely check that out.
So, yeah. And also I want to say thank you to those of you who comment on our social media platforms. So I just want to deal with a few comments here. We have a Instagram comment from someone called makhovsky. So he said, well, I'm going to try to translate into English. So guys, you're the best. Every time I listen to you in the gym. So that's a great way to listen to us, is when you're exercising.
Multitasking. Yes. So really good idea. I continue to do that. You can also listen to all sorts of any other English language material when you're walking or when you're commuting. So really good. Mr. Makhovsky. Thank you. And then we have Roman Egorov who said, I tell everyone about I'm telling everyone about your podcast. So that's extremely lovely of you. Very kind. We very much appreciate the fact that you're spreading the love to everyone.
And we also have a comment from Olga Leynveber. Oh, how do you pronounce your name, Olga? Leynveber. So interesting last name. Let us know how you pronounce your last name, Olga. But thank you very much for mentioning that you like the musical accompaniment to the podcast, so I guess you would call that the instrumental track, yeah? So which is the music you can hear right now with the piano in the background. I do agree it's very relaxing. So, yeah. Does the piano relax you, guys?
So it's a very one. And then we have another comment from KillReall. He said cool podcast but he also said just fire the f-u-c-k out of the woman who's always making "ohhh" noises. Well, thank you for your comments, Mr. Killreall. I like your name. Yes. We will try to fire the person.
So, yeah. Maybe you might see them on the streets of winter Novosibirsk in the winter soon. Well, as you know... So, yes, we're going to have to start a go fund-me page for the fired BigAppleSchool participants. So, yeah, maybe we might have to take up your suggestion, but the "uuhh" noises, "oohh" noises, maybe that's what you're referring to they are called filler words and, yeah, they can be annoying sometimes to a lot of people.
My father would say, don't say "umm". To be honest, I do agree with him. It's not a good idea to say "umm", but when you're speaking to people in a natural context, usually you're going to hear some filler words, whether you like them or not.
Actually, basically what is your..?
"So" is my annoying filler word. I can't stop saying "so".
People say "you know", "you know".
I guess my latest would be "right". I tend to and all of my, most of my sentences like this.
Another one is "do you know what I mean?", "do you know what I mean?".
Yeah. I have to... "yeah" is another one.
And we do the same in our native language as well.
Yeah. It's absolutely normal in any language because otherwise the speech would be so sterile, you know, as if it's not really...
Yeah. Too academic, too sterile, I guess.
It's impossible to avoid all of the fillers. It's just important to kinda cut down on, you know, like not to use them all the time.
Well, they add emotion to the conversation.
Sometimes you don't notice how you use them. I remember when I was at university in my first year, I had to give a presentation which lasted roughly around like 3 minutes. And after that, my professor looked at me and said, Katya, how many times do you think you said "so"? This is your, you know, this is the word, this is a junk word. And I said, Well, 3 minutes, I don't know, 10. She said, 49.
And that was the moment when I understood that, Oh, my God, I need to pay attention to how I speak. But it's so difficult.
Yeah, well, it reminds me of a TV show How I met your mom, I think you, guys...
I've never seen about it.
And it was, there was a character Robin, who was a TV presenter, and she had this annoying habit of, like "mmm", "umm". Something like this, yeah. And then they played a drinking game on her. Like every time she said "umm" on TV, they drank and they were like, they were so drunk in the end.
Oh, God. I remember that.
So, guys, you can also play a drinking game, I don't know.
See, I played drinking game with...
Instead of going to the gym or after.
Yes. Well, sometimes I have a cough, so maybe you can drink every time I cough. All right. I also need to mention, guys, that you can find a podcast on a few different platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Yandex podcasts, VK. And of course, you can see the video version of the podcast on YouTube. And like I mentioned before, we have a private chat, so definitely become part of that chat.
You can find the details on the BigAppleSchool telegram chat. And like I said before, you can get access to the backstage footage of this podcast. And of course, you can get access to the vocabulary lists of words that we mentioned in this podcast, which will definitely improve your English learning journey.
And of course, you can start a conversation that you can practice your English skills. We've had Ruslan recently ask us the difference between it and that, and Varya very kindly provided an explanation. So do not be afraid to participate in the chat. It's really useful for your English skills.
And, yeah, you need to practice in order to learn. And we have three new followers in that chat. We have Nataly Kuzmina, Анастасия and Mariia with two "i". So thank you, guys. Welcome to the conversation. And also, I need to say a special thank you to Dima Kiselev who guested the topic for our previous podcast, which was Honesty and Lying. So well done, Dima. All right, guys. Well, before we were talking about the new studio and how you can hear everything...
Yeah, we can hear everything.
Yes. What noises did we make before?
Funny you should mention that, huh?
It's also interesting that we don't usually notice this noises in a normal, like surroundings. Yeah, but when it is so silent here. So quiet, when, yeah, like chewing.
When people drink water or coffee. You can hear every, every bodily function.
I'm trying to, like, move away, you know.
To stand away from the microphone.
Exactly. Well, today we're going to talk about sounds and noises.
So. Yes, well, let's get started. So. There's three, yeah, there're three different ways people can learn things. And we have auditory learners and they are people who learn from sounds.
Maybe not only learn things, but also perceive the world around like this, yeah.
Through sounds. But can you be of the three main types of visual, auditory and kinesthetic? Can you be 100% one of a three?
I guess you can't. We are all a mixture of everything.
Yes. And what would you say you're more..?
I'm more kinesthetic, I guess. I like touching things. So that's why I like supermarkets. I touch things before I buy them. I can look at them, but I need to touch an then put them back on a shelf.
When you get a croissant or bread, do you like to touch the croissant?
Asolutely. Well, I mean, it is cover it. It's in package. So, it's, yeah.
I mean like the ones we have to open the box.
No, never, no. It violates my hygiene rules.
Yes. And if you think it's too hard, you just throw it back inside.
See, you're more of a kinesthetic.
And when it comes to learning languages, how would you incorporate kinesthetic learning into learning English or any language?
Oh, this is hard. I guess maybe when it comes to study languages, I'm not so much of a kinesthetic person. Then maybe I'm more of a visual learner.
Well, sorry, I remembered I guess that it has to do with kinesthetic. I write things down when I need to memorize something, and I truly believe that our motor skills are connected to our brain. So like neural connections and everything. So when you write things down, you are more likely to memorize things better.
Fair enough. Yeah, I would, yeah. I guess you can remember the scenario you were in when you learn words and write them down. Well, I was going to say makhovsky, the guy who commented on Instagram, maybe you are a kinesthetic learner because you listen to a podcast in the gym.
So. Mr. Makhovsky, let us know if you are kinesthetic learner.
But in this case, isn't that more of an audial one? Because then you listen to a podcast so which means that you can perceive what is being said without having, you know, some sort of supporting time.
Right. So it's a combination then.
Yeah, because I read an article a long time ago about how children can learn by if you see a child turning in a circle and this sociologist came up with the fact that it's connected with learning.
So, you mean like spinning in a circle.
Yeah, just turning in a circle. You know how the kids do and how they can learn.
There is even a method of teaching children like TBR - total physical response when they do things in order to remember words.
Well, you know about learning. I think no matter what type of a learner you are, whether you're a kinesthetic, a visual, you know, the auditory one, there is this saying which is repeated so often in the teaching community, which is Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I'll remember. Involve me in a learn.
Meaning if you just hear the word, you're most likely to forget that, if you write it down, or if you see it that higher, there are higher chances of you remembering it. But if you do something and you have this association with the word, you write it down, you use it yourself, then you're more likely to remember that.
But still, the first step would be hearing the word. So let's not ignore the importance of sounds and noises.
And also one thing you absolutely need to mention is part of learning words is forgetting the words and then look and reviewing the words again. So...
Right. So I will ask myself a question. How many times you have to look up the same word? And sometimes it takes me like ten times, but I make myself do it. And then finally, maybe you learn it.
It's pretty scientific, by the way, from 8 to 10. Yeah, and then you remember.
Yeah, 8 to 10 times you're going to remember. Well, what I've found from learning foreign languages is I tend to remember words where I've, for instance, let me take the word fire extinguisher like огнетушитель in Russian.
Like I do not use fire extinguisher on a daily basis. I do not know why I remember this word, but I must have been in a certain place at a certain time, and my brain must have had a lot of emotional stimuli.
Anchor, yeah. Maybe it was cold. Maybe... So if you want to really remember words, you have to give yourself as much light stimuli as possible, whether it's visual, any kind of sensory stimuli.
And repetition. And what Maria was talking about writing, because you discover letters that you didn't realize were there when you're writing them. I like the repetition.
Yeah, repetition, it's a key. I think it's for everyone. Everyone needs to repeat words to fully learn them.
Yeah, well, I guess we all are a mixture of this ways. Visual, auditory and kinesthetic types with maybe the leading art.
Yeah, I'd say maybe I'm a mixture of visual and kinesthetic. What about you, Katya? What would you say you are?
I think the same visual and kinesthetic. Visual for sure. So for me, it's important to see the word, you know, that's why I have a lot of post-it notes and stickers, you know, on my, above my desk with the words that I need to remember.
So I'm learning Spanish at the moment. And when there is a phrase that I really need to remember but I can't, I make sure to write it down in my special notebook, put a sticker on the wall, you know, just make sure I see this word often. Otherwise, I'm not going to remember. That's why I have notebooks, color coding. So I remember very often when I saw the word and where I saw the word.
We had we had a lesson just a couple of days ago and it was like, Oh, I remember this word was in the text about Día de los Muertos that we read three weeks ago, and she's like, Yeah, there was a word like that.
Yeah. I remember like where in the text it was, what context. So, yeah, I think I'm more of a visual learner.
But an interesting thing about languages is that we can't ignore the sound of the language.
Because it's like the primary thing, because even if we are visual learners or kinesthetic learners, we will still need to listen to the language.
So, yeah, it's so important.
If you don't listen to it, you just make up your own language and you're just talking gibberish. And then what you really hear is like, what?
That's why I think it's impossible to learn the language through just the book. Without a teacher, without anyone, without speaking. Impossible.
Oh, Steve Kaufman, who's this famous polyglot on YouTube, who's this older guy who teaches people how to learn languages really well. He says listening is, well. The most important thing is learning a lot of words. Second, most important thing is listening. So important.
And then reading and speaking is important, but not as important as listening, because that's what little babies do when they're born. They listen to their mother and father for like a year and a half. And then...
After one year of constant communication, they finally say their first word.
Yeah, I guess babies before they are born what they can do, they can only hear. They can only listen to something like outside to the world outside.
That's how they perceive the world.
Yeah. Which is probably why Steve Kaufman suggested that listening is one of the most important steps to learn a language. So, yeah. What about you, Varya? What's your... So you said kinesthetic.
Kinesthetic, yeah, and visual. I have to listen to it. I'm all of them. Yeah.
But like, yeah, seeing it on a sticky note or something. Somewhere in your bathroom or something. I remember writing in the bathroom, I think on the mirrors, in black marker in the bathroom. And my poor daughters. Oh, are you doing writing on the mirrors? Oh, I know. I'd write on the shower walls because, you know, you easily take it off. And it's kind of creepy and scary.
Yeah, writing in the condensation was something I used to do when I was a kid a lot.
No, with a black marker, I said.
Oh, with a black markers.
That's what was so, so creepy about it. You got, you step into the shower, you see these black marks.
It's what you can see in a film when the detective comes to the crime scene and like.
Some message from a murderer.
Well, but I guess the world would be boring without sounds.
Yeah. If it was silent, it would be quite boring.
It would be pretty horrible to be deaf. I would be really sad if well of course if any you lost any sense but, yeah.
Well, let's give the credit for sounds.
Yeah, absolutely. So would you say that you notice a lot of sound before you go to sleep? Do you need a quiet room when you go to sleep?
Preferably. But I know that. I remember we talked about it with you.
That you have your windows faced the roads, or something, and you are totally fine with falling asleep. And there are motorcycles.
Cars. You know, going round and all this hustle and bustle.
Yeah. Like engines of cars and trains. I love that noise. It kind of lulls me away to sleep.
If it is not too loud and if it is just the background kind of white noise. Yeah. Because when it is quiet, it's not quiet. And then maybe it's even more irritating when something comes up, like some second.
Like a faucet dripping that would irritate me so much.
Oh, no, clock ticking. I can't do that.
I remember I have a friend and every time she was staying at my place, she's like, Can you please take the battery out of the clock? I just tried to fall asleep. It's annoying. But all in all, you know, if I'm, let's say, walking in the street, I don't think I notice as much. So there are some moments when I try to pay attention to everything that is happening around, and then I start to notice the sounds. But in general, I think not as much.
So I have something with my ears that I guess is hereditary. Three bones in my each ear are broken or some kind of crack. And so I hear sounds in my head and I can hear my blood rushing through. And, yes...
I hear things. And so, like, right now it's on my right side. It's a shushing sound like when the TV channel goes off and it has that crackling sound.
Yeah, static sound is constant. Yeah.
And then, if I have red wine or too much chocolate, there'll be a high pitched tone. Yeah. And you just learn how to live with it. Yeah. One time when it was starting to be really bad was when I was in college and I was in this two hour exam writing exam, and there was this horrible woosh in my ears so loud it was just so horrible.
But it's not loud. And I think that if it were to get loud all the time, I would probably be driven crazy. So if you ever see me go crazy, it's because of that. But you just, I do live with it.
Yeah. So I know when I have a cold, a really blocked nose, I can hear my blood circulating around and... Do you have this as well if you have a blocked nose?
They say that when you go, you know, there's floating the sensory deprivation camera or something.
Oh, the chambers. Yeah. Yeah. So do you call them cameras actually? Because in Italian camera is room.
It's not a room. It's really more of, it looks like a fridge, you know, but it's like.
Maybe it's a chamber. Yeah, maybe.
You go inside, you know, they close the door, so you do not see anything. And they say that sensors send, you know, like sensory deprivation. You do not hear any external sounds. So you can only hear internal sounds. So there's the blood rushing and people say, I can hear everything. And it's so weird.
Yeah. So you said taps dripping or faucets dripping?
That annoys you before beds.
What else would annoy you before bed?
Motorcycles. I'm so happy that the season is over. All this at night.
Yeah. Or, for example, loud music from someone else's car, like, downstairs. Yeah. When they suddenly drive to your place and start playing music. Like at two in the morning when I am only about to go to bed.
I can't help but laugh when people do that because you just know that everyone in the neighborhood is getting angry.
I mean, it's so selfish, so rude.
And I'm more wondering, you know, how I mean, because I think my eardrum would just burst, you know, just be busted or something. How can they function after that? How can that can they hear? Are they going deaf? Is this is dangerous level music.
Oh, right, yeah. The 1980s rock days. Yeah. Being up close to the rock band, the amplifiers. Yeah.
So, yeah. My brother had a burst eardrum when he was a kid. I remember we were driving in a car somewhere. My parents, him and I, and I remember he would start screaming and we thought, Stop it. What's going on with you? Chill out. And then it was liquid, I think started oozing out of his ear. I can't remember all the details, but because I was a really little kid, but I remember it looked pretty excruciatingly painful.
So, yeah, I think eardrums can heal. Is that true?
If someone boxes your ears, that's when...
Well, sometimes doctors can penetrate it in order to heal some ear infection. So. And then, yeah.
Yeah, and laser surgery too. Like my condition can be.
So they can put a laser through your ear.
Well some kind of laser surgery can heal like put the bones back together or something.
Interesting. I wonder how that works. It sounds pretty tricky. Yeah, I had an ear infection, actually, two weeks or three weeks ago. I had to go to the...
Yeah. No, I went... Oh, I had a nice experience of the Russian private medical system, which is actually really good. And you can get health care same day really quickly. And they looked at my ear, made sure that I was healthy and just gave me some air drops, but it was quite painful. Have you had ear infections?
No, thank God. I've never had that one.
Yeah. That's quite annoying because you can't hear.
And you should have that's, this is why we should wear scarves over our ears with the wind. Because that can keep your back infected your ears by the cold wind.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I get infections because I have a lot of earwax and like when I clean it, then it's...
I feel like we all got a little bit closer to Benjamin right now.
As long as you don't do with the bobby pin.
Bobby pin. Probably would.
I use that word in a long time, bobby pin.
So, yeah, yeah. Do you explain to our listeners what bobby pin is?
When you put your hair in a bun and you need to keep your hair in place, they use this little metal clip that you just you have to open. Don't open it with your teeth because that will take the enamel off your teeth, but you open it with your thumb and then you stick it in and you can. You're good at it, you know, very quickly.
What do you call in Russia? Is this заколка? That's a pin.
Oh, because you can't see it.
It's different from a hairpin. A hairpin is different. It's opened.
Hairpin is like... It's bigger. No.
Would you call this thing? Clip. I think.
That's a clip. Then there's the hairpin, which is open like a V, and you keep it open as a V and that keeps your hat in place or really thick.
Oh, okay, got it, got it.
Well, anyway, coming back to sound.
That's all right. Well, we were speaking about my ears and...
Those waxy ears of yours.
So. Yes. What's the most pleasant sound, in your opinion?
If we don't speak about music, for example.
Well maybe birds singing in this summer morning. Then, well, summer morning or spring morning.
I think birds are quite annoying.
Well, it is not only about the sound of birds singing. It's about the whole impression they give, you know, because sounds, it's interesting, maybe sounds are not so important to me in isolation, but as a...
As a part of something bigger.
Yeah, as a part of something bigger like visual plus kinesthetic experience, plus sounds. It makes the whole thing. Yeah.
I think you would agree with me. Well, one of my favorite sounds are cats purring.
Yes, it is the best ASMR. It is for me.
Well, we're going to talk about ASMR sounds in the aftershow.
I think it's the only, yeah, the only ASMR I would appreciate.
ASMR - audio sensory meridian response. I believe that's what it stands for. So stay tuned for the aftershow where we will talk about that in more depth.
Yeah, cats purring are really comforting.
I like wind chimes and they can have a different tones and you know that the wind is blowing. It's a very nice.
How would you describe a wind chimes for our listeners?
I think ting, ting, ting, ting, ting.
It's metal, some sort of like metal tubes.
Oh, it could be bamboo, that's true.
The bamboo ones, I think would the best.
Those go clickety-click, clickety-click.
Oh, I love these onomatopoeic words. You know how you describe these sounds.
Yes. Onomatopoeia. Exactly. Do you want to describe?
So basically, it's a word that describes the sound of something by, you know, with the word. So let's say click, clickety-clack.
I have a weird experience with wind chimes because I remember when I was a kid, I had a wind chime in the middle of my room. So kind of hanging from the ceiling of from the chandelier. And once I was sleeping with my back to the window, so my face was towards the wall.
And I heard them, you know, moving. And I was like, Oh, is that Mom? And then I realized I was alone in the apartment. All the windows were closed. So what was that?
And I felt, like, so creeped out. Like, what was it? There's no one. No, Gosh, a wind would be possible in the, you know, in this space because all the windows are closed. I'm like, Oh. So I don't know what that was.
Or seashells. Have you ever made any wind chimes out of seashells?
Having made a wind chime by collecting some seashells on my recent holiday. Yeah. I went to the Caspian Sea in Makhachkala, Derbent and collected some seashells. Oh, maybe I should make a wind chime.
Yes. You need to just drill a little hole and then have get some string of some sort. Dental floss or whatever.
Dental floss wind chime, use dental floss.
Speaking of pleasant sounds. Also water like the sea.
Tides, the waves and the air. Oh, sorry. The air, the rain, the rain falling down.
Suggesting that water can be both pleasant and annoying. Let's say the faucet dropping.
Would drive me mad. Really, like, Oh.
I think because it's kind of a sharp sound.
Yeah. Because of the rhythm I guess.
It's more abrupt. I guess because it hits the metal sink.
Well, you're trying to go to sleep and it wakes you up each time. But then with the rain, what does that do? It just does the senses if you have your window open, you can smell it and hear it.
And I think it's because when, yeah, there's like a symphony of sounds when it's raining outside.
And the rustling of the leaves.
Yes. Whereas if there's a single isolated sound, it can be extremely annoying.
And because of some associations that it gives you because faucet gives you associations that you need to call a plumber.
Right, yeah. This is wrong. Some repair work needs to be there.
Also train the sound of the train.
When you're on the train.
Yeah, when you're on the train or when you put some, put on some background noise of a train. It could be nice.
I live next to railway and that is not the sound.
No, I think it's extremely relaxing.
Yes, I agree, Benjamin. Because I've lived very close just a couple of blocks from a track and I just loves hearing the whoo-whoo and that comes through.
Oh, see, this is a couple of blocks. I live like ten feet.
Do you know, I would still like it. I think it sounds...
When they're honking their horns at night.
You know, you like, What is happening? Like, where am I? What am I?
And how many come through the night? Just one or ten?
Yeah. Okay. So it might be like one or two trains. So that's nice.
Because, yeah, I live next to a busy railway.
That would maybe be a little annoying.
Can you get a discount on your rent because of that?
Fair enough. So, yeah. Good suggestion. What about planes? Would you live next to an airport?
Not so much. I guess this sound is disturbing. The sounds of an airplane taking off and landing. Kind of disturbing to me.
I used to live in Yakutsk, which is a really small town, really small one. And the thing is that because it is so small, you could hear all the planes taking off and well, you would hear them, you know, because when they take off a landing, they're getting, you know, lower. So you hear them well.
And I still remember how we were having, you know, we would be having dinner or something and there would be a plane. And my dad would just look out the window like, Oh, the flight to Moscow, 10 minutes late today because he worked at the airport. So and when I came to Novosibirsk, this was the first thing I noticed. You can't hear the planes. Very rarely can you hear the planes.
Well you can hear the fighter jets.
I love that sound. It's, when I first moved here, I thought, this is so cool. I get to see vintage Russian fighter jets flying around and making such a big noise. So cool.
It's annoying. We have the military planes.
I lived in Forest Park for 16 years. Right by the Atlanta International Airport.
Oh, my God. This is the busiest.
Yeah, right, right. You know, close enough. Five miles, let's say three or five, five miles.
And I never noticed the takeoff of the planes, ever, until one day I was trying to make a phone call outside. I needed to meet someone in a parking lot. And I said, I just a minute. I've got to wait for that airplane. And I realized then that I'd been living with these airplanes flying over and never noticed.
Yeah. So airlines can get fined now if they produce too much noise. A lot of cities have noise detectors placed around the airports. And if an airline, if an airplane exceeds the sound or the noise limits, the airline could get a big, hefty fine. And engines are being redesigned to be quieter. To be honest, I think this is sad. I love the loud.
But it does disturb birds and animal life as we're encroaching upon their habitat. So I'm very much against noise pollution.
Actually, that is true. So there has been some sort of research that proved that birds now have to sing louder so their mates can hear them because they live in the city. So and there are so much, there's so much noise pollution so that they have to change basically the tunes, the loudness and the pitch, because otherwise all the birds can not hear them.
That's pretty funny because geese, they make the funniest noises and ducks. So now are you talking about geese, you think? Were you talking about...
They've got the the city lights to contend with. And now noise pollution is horrible.
I always feel sorry for it. Like when there are fireworks and all those Oh, oh, oh, that's so beautiful I don't like fireworks because of the noise.
Noise of the fireworks are terrible for dogs and cats.
Can you imagine a birdie in a nest going, Oh, you know, we will be okay, children. I mean it's just horrible. It's terrifying for them.
Yeah. I've, I've known a few dog owners in London who and they freak out when it's New Year's Eve. Dogs. What is, how does your cat Maria respond to fireworks?
Oh, I don't think that I can hear a lot of fireworks from my place. Well, my cat is a bit neurotic, so he's afraid of a lot of things.
Should I tell them, Benjamin? Should I? Should I?
We were talking last time that we were recording a podcast together about Benjamin said how he's a little bit neurotic, and I said that his new nickname would be котик невротик.
You don't look like a neurotic person.
You look like very stable.
In the previous podcast we were talking about punctuality and I said how neurotically punctual I like to be. How it annoys my wife.
Yeah. Everyone has their points.
But if you're German like me, you're just going to do naturally be on time.
Yes. Well, speaking of languages, actually, you said German. I love the sound of German. A lot of people disagree with that.
Which languages sound the best to you? I would say German.
Spanish is a cool language because you can use it everywhere. But the Spanish Spanish is... Oh, which Spanish do you prefer? Do you prefer the South Americans or the Central American Spanish?
I love the...So. Okay. I do not know why, but I have this, I have a soft spot for weird accents maybe. I love the northern accents in English. I don't know why I just like them. I like this Scottish accent even though I make fun of it but still.
Scottish accent is amazing. I do agree with you totally. It really is.
I like the fun of it, but it is cool. The same with Spanish. I love the Argentinian accent because they say a lot of Th.
I was just going to say because it's more Italian noise, Argentinian Spanish.
Let's say S very often they have just the aspiration. Like instead of Espana, they say, Panya.
Whereas in Spain everything is like has this really sharp.
They say the sexiest language is the Australian accent.
I know. I don't agree. I don't agree. I don't agree.
A lot of people say that the sexiest accent is British.
Well, I have to say, yes. I have to say.
I think your voice has changed a little bit. Australian.
Well, I don't know. For example, you mentioned Arabic, yeah. It scares me the sound of the language. I don't know.
Actually, I have. I have a challenge for all listeners. Maybe you could, you could participate in our telegram chat and you can try to imitate a British accent. Or if you can imitate a Scottish accent, you will get a big thumbs up from me.
Oh, really? So, you know, I don't think this video has come out yet or the full of this video. But Benjamin and I were making a video where we guess the idioms and I said the phrase with more or less like a northern accent. And, you know, with what he did, a teacher, he made fun of me because I said like, Oh, to do the runner. And he said, Oh, runner.
He was not being a teacher that time.
Am I holding the grudge? My might.
Oh, different languages, different dialects of English, of course, have different ways of pronouncing letters. So, for instance, up in the north of England, the U is u. So I say butter.
Let's let's hold a little bit of this to the aftershow so we can discuss...
Yeah, dialects and how Russians approach English and common pronunciation differences.
We can talk as well about what is difficult about Russian language and what people do not really think about.
Yes. So let's save it to them.
You said that you like the sound of the Russian language. Is it true?
I love the sound of Russian.
Because I have always been interested in how it sounds to someone who is not native.
The reason why I love it is because there's this mixture of like Italian flow with like the harshness of German.
This amazing mixture of like these harsh consonants mixed with this rhythmic up and down. It sounds so cool to everyone.
Because we have a totally different set of intonation and pitch. So...
Yeah, you also have all these kind of Turkic sounds as well.
Yeah, well, let's leave it.
It's interesting when they try to copy to imitate the Russian accent in some American movies.
Oh, Harrison Ford. Yeah. Did you see that? I forgot the film title, but...
Harrison Ford. It was quite funny. He was the general of an admiral of a submarine. His voice sounded quite funny. So. Yes. Well, we were talking about noise pollution. And how it messes up birds and other animals. How does it mess up humans?
I think it can be a really destroy and destroying thing on some maybe cellular level, like the level of your cell or your like subconscious level because you don't even realize. But, for example, if you live near the airport for a long time, it can do harm to you.
Would you consider sound to be radiation? A form of radiation.
Well, it affects your body, if that's what you mean. Radiation.
Well, what is radiation? I mean, I'm not a scientist. I can't really say with certainty.
But also the radio... Yeah, it's like a kind of wave. It's a type of wave and sounds of vibrations. And of course...
A good example with me was that there was a time during the summer I lived next door to someone whose there was an L-shaped window, a L-shaped building, and my window was L-shaped to his window. In his window, he had a window, air conditioner that was very, very low.
Of course. And I didn't have an air conditioner, so I had to endure the sound. And it went through the, you know, all of these months because it was Georgia. So it's a long time that it was on. But I was sitting there and all of sudden it was time to turn it off for the season. It turned off and all of a sudden my shoulders went down.
Oh, so you had been tense all this time even, right?
Right. I looked at myself as, Oh, my God, I can't believe I was like this this entire time for five months. And then turned off and I went like this. And I knew how strong a sound can affect your body detrimentally. Oh, it was what an eye opener.
I mean, noise pollution. Even though sometimes we do not notice, it sometimes is really disruptive.
Yeah, we don't even notice it because we get used to, we adapt.
But it affects the sleep because we have poorer sleep. And because of that, that in turn can cause, you know, a whole lot of problems, cardiovascular problems, uh, let's say stress level, attention levels. So the list goes on and on and on. Concentration absolutely.
Oh, for sure, yes. Think about it when you've had some poor sleep, you get all moody and everything. Yeah. And I mean noise pollution. People who work on construction sites and everything, so they're exposed to a lot of noise. They can have impaired hearing. So, let's say, if you spend a lot of time in loud coffee shops with a lot of sound.
And the sound of the coffee machine, all this hissing, it's so loud sometimes. Spend there like five, ten years, you're going to have impaired hearing.
The work of DJ, I thought about it.
Recently my student was telling me about it. She used to date a DJ and like.
Yes. Because the DJ would have a repetitive we have to repeat over and over again the same snippets of a song. Snippets, I mean, like a little piece of...
Yes. And it would drive him or drive her nuts.
You know, what about sounds and noise pollution as well and being exposed to loud sounds. So my dad worked at the airport for 30 years I think so. Meaning that he had to spend a lot of time near the engine, which was very loud.
He had impaired hearing so very often he could not hear well, especially, you know, by the time he got retired.
Preventive earmuffs are supposed to be a part of the equipment that you're supposed to have.
Because especially for airplanes. So I love planes.
Yeah. They produce such high pitch loud, especially when a plane turns on. Do you know what an auxiliary power unit is?
Benjamin, no one knows what that is.
A lot of aircraft are banned from leaving these things on for too long. So it's how the plane starts its engines, you know.
So this like, I don't want to imitate the sound. It's gonna be weird.
Well because the engines, you know, they need to spin when they start and they need a simply speaking, they need a large gush of air to start spinning the fans.
Shouldn't have got to this topic of airlines, you know, and airplanes. I should have seen that coming Benjamin would be.
Basically the APU helps the engines start and they make extremely loud noises.
You're supposed to get the some sort of like earplugs or earmuffs. They they never got that. Never.
I need to mention, the APU is at the back of a plane. So it's the bottom of the plane.
It can go on and on until, you know.
I mean it could be a little bit of OCR.
Yeah. What about movies? Are you a fan of instrumentals in movies?
Oh, Star Wars. I hate that. I hate that music. Star Wars because I knew it when it first came out was like 1977.
Yeah, the march. And it was on the radio all the time in the year the Star Wars.
Well, catchy tunes can be irritating.
Oh, my Goodness. So I never saw the movie. It was just too loud and noisy. But Star Wars is the one that I am, I'm avidly against.
Yeah. Catchy tunes. I have a problem where songs don't just get stuck in my head. They are, like, tattoo to brain.
Oh, you mean like. Like a jingle? Like a commercial jingle.
What do you call earworms?
What do you mean you? Don't you.
Well, I don't know. I've never seen, I've never seen that. But maybe it does exist.
Yes, definitely, earworm.
So I've got pop earworms.
You get something inside your ear and it goes over and over and over. Repetition.
Maybe that's why I have so much earwax.
Exactly. See, Star Wars is your pet peeve.
A pet peeve is something that annoys you.
Yeah. So I've had to endure this since 1977. That's a long many decades of this.
Star Wars has been going on for a while.
So what was the question?
From films. It does affect the whole film. I mean, some...
Do you notice it? I mean, do you pay attention to it?
To soundtracks? Yeah. Yeah. I know some TV series have a lot of brilliant soundtracks and it just accompanies the whole thing. It's makes it like feel more harmony. You feel more harmony.
Yeah. Put everything together. I definitely notice it. And of course, like a scary part of a movie or something.
To build intense, you know.
Yeah, something? Right. Yeah, definitely. I like that.
Yeah. What would a film be like without the..?
Well silent films before sound.
Charlie Chaplin. But they had music.
But they had the piano players.
Yes, they did, they had the piano, exactly.
I do believe on the street maybe I'm wrong, but like in the 1920s or in the early days, I believe people could put in a little coin and manually watch a little film.
Yes. And I'm sure there's little tinking tink tinking music.
Yeah. Well, Charlie Chaplin was an expert of that. I love his mustache, so funny. It's like Hitler's mustache.
Take off the hat. So. Yeah. Okay.
Well. Do you have any other favorites?
The musicals in the sixties like all those...
Yes, the musicals. Mary Poppins and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I love that.
Helps the medicine go down. The medicine go down. Yeah, I could sing all of them.
Yeah. That's good to be stuck in my head.
I actually looked up in the dictionary. I was eight years old and I looked up in the dictionary as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I told my sister, it's not even in the dictionary. Of course, she looked at me and like, Oh, you stupid kid. Of course, it's not a made up word.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. If you hear the sound of that, it's really something quite atrocious.
Yeah, but there are longer words in English. Like this little Welsh town.
That's a non English word. It's a Welsh word.
Oh, I know an English word. The supposed to be the longest is antiestablishmentarianism.
That was big in the 1960s.
But the name of the Welsh place, oh, my God. Yeah, it looks horrible.
Yeah. I don't want, I want...
Oh, yes. Well, guys, for our listeners, definitely check out that long Welsh name and if you can try to pronounce it in the telegram chat, send us a voice message. We would love to hear your attempts and of course try your Australian or British accents in the telegram chat.
So that's it for today. And definitely join us for the aftershow, which you can find the details in our telegram chat. And of course, you need to check out our website which is www.bigappleschool.com and there you can get more access to podcasts, to videos and you can find more information about the courses we offer at the school.
And of course, you can check out some articles that we all write ourselves. So definitely leave some like and share your comments on the social media platforms. So thank you, guys. We'll see you next time.
