AE 1420 - Interview: He Sounds Australian, But Has Never Lived Here! with Elvin Flamingo

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Transcript

0:04

Hey you mob, welcome to Aussie English. I'm your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken yellow. So whether you want to sound like a fading com Aussie, or you just want to understand what the flippin' L we're on about when we're having a yellow month, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cup-up, and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go. G'day you Mob Pete here. Welcome back to the Aussie English Podcast. Today I have an interview episode for you with one of my students. Today's guest is someone who's genuinely hard to put into a single category. Elvin Flamingo, who's a Polish bioartist, academic, filmmaker, designer, and extreme sports enthusiast, as well as one of the most unique thinkers I've ever met. He spent years exploring the intersection between art, biology, technology, philosophy, and human culture, creating award-winning works that have been exhibited across Europe and beyond. His long-term project, The Symbiosity of Creation, combines living organisms, scientific research, and artistic expression in ways that challenge how we think about intelligence, creativity, nature, and ourselves. Alongside his artistic work, Elvin has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk for more than a decade and served as Associate Dean of Intermedia, helping shape the next generation of artists and researchers in Poland. But beyond all of that, Elvin is also a very passionate learner of Australian English. He's an adventurer who loves pushing himself through extreme sports and physical challenges, and most importantly, his dear friend. Over the last few years, we've had countless conversations about art, science, language, philosophy, culture, and what it means to live a meaningful life. I've really loved having Elvin as one of my English students and have deeply enjoyed these conversations, and I've wanted to share these with you guys for quite a while. After finally convincing Elvin to join me, after several months, he agreed to come on the podcast, and I'm really glad that he did. So today I'm excited to sit down with Elvin and explore some of these ideas together. So Elvin, I've heard skateboarding is only for young people. You think so? No, it's not true. I'm almost 60 and I I I'm skateboarding every single day. What do you mean you're skateboarding every day at 60? Isn't that dangerous? It is dangerous. You have to have a special outfit and you know, armor, helmet, um, you know, the safety stuff for wrists and wrist guards, yeah. Risk guards, yes. And what is it? Is it easier as an older person? Are you are you more um reserved, you take it easy, you're careful, or do you do you go a bit crazier because you're a bit older with a bit more knowledge? How do you feel like your age affects your skateboarding? Uh I feel like I am much, much younger than I am. In fact, that I am, in fact, you know. So um, yeah, it's funny because I I feel like I am on permanent vacation. You were just telling me that we were having this conversation and you were like, Yeah, exactly. Exactly. What were you telling me? Tell tell the audience what you're up to. You were saying I enjoy what. Yeah, I'm just I enjoy, you know, uh days that I I go outside my skate with my skates uh twice twice. So altogether I I I rode, I ride, usually ride uh almost 50 kilometers a day. And uh yeah, I've got uh three sets of tires up, but I used two of them: one for asphalt, and the second one is mountain tires, mountains, yeah. So for every terrain, and also also I wrote on the beaches, it was sane because on the beaches you I had this uh feeling of uh of um you know it'd be slippery, right? Like you kind of dig in and skid a bit and the sand moves and yeah, a little bit, a little bit. It was it was kind of you know um dangerous, I would say. How did you pick up this sport of e-skateboarding, right? That seems very niche, it's pretty rare. I don't know. I just met my friend and he's he's got uh e-skate, and he do you want to try? And I said, why not? But probably I will fall, I will fall down. Uh oh, you will not. So I just you know, he he gave me um his e-scate for one hour, and I wrote one hour. I just I was riding one hour on his skate, and then I was just is this you just got on it and you drove off, right? And he was like, Hey, come back, come back, and you were like singing. I was in, I was seen after it. I I just bought I bought my my e-skate. So you're you were hooked, you're right. You were hooked, yeah exactly. I I bought, but I bought uh all terrain, four-wheel drive, uh E skate. So it's it's really you know how to say for every terrain, all terrain, skip, east skate, and um it's really it's really I would say pro, you know. It's a heavy heavy duty shit, right? Like it's heavy duty shit. It's a tank. That was what it what was marketed as, right? It was called a tank, and it's it's a tank, it's a monster. All right, well, we should probably introduce you. We've started the episode by just getting straight into things, but so you're one of my students, Elvin Flamingo from Poland. Tell us a bit about yourself, Elvin. Well, um I've got two occupations. Uh, one is uh I am an artist, and the second one I am academic teacher, and uh so I've got a lot of students, young people. So uh I'm let's say surrounded by young people, and also so it's not only that I teach them, but I also learn from them. It's uh it's very you know common expression that uh teachers uh working with students also learn from them. So that's like this, and uh I really enjoy my both occupations being a creator and being a teacher. What kind of artist are you? Tell me a bit about your art. Um there are a lot of critics uh that say that I'm bio artist, but that's not not 100% true. Um, because I'm I'm not I don't I'm not I don't used to work only with biomedia but working in the art and science field. I also do stuff like pop art and conceptual art. But yes, that's uh that's kind of um major activity that uh I'm well known in Poland from my bio art and art and science activity. So I do art installations, bio art installations, live art installations, but also as I said, pop art stuff. Can you give me an example of what like bio art would be? Because I imagine the the average person listening would be like, I have no idea. Well, I like I understand that it's art, but what is bio art? You know, it's it's uh I would say everything because as you said, it's kind of niche. No, no, you said niche about skateboarding, sorry, but bio art is also another niche, yes, yeah, yeah. So um I would I would say that every single bioartist is totally different than others, yeah. Uh every work is unique, is it? Like they're always different from everything else. Every single individual working in this field is is has this specific, you know, kind of thinking, and what what is the outcome, what is the the final uh the final um autonomous uh autonomous uh artwork, it's it belongs to your way of thinking, way of um perception or way of how how you how you live and what you read, what you what you watch, what you listen to. And it's all together a mixture that uh your brain is producing um something special. So every single artist has his own individual um bone, I would say, structure and uh this um unique unprecedented uh energy in his in his works. But if you could you explain what what would you expect or what would the average person expect to see if they went to a bio art exhibition that would be different from just say paintings or um sculpture, you know, how would you define it? What would you tell them this is probably the kind of thing you would see? Let's say um it's kind of um it can be surprising because you can see something from uh taken taken out from the laboratory, and uh it can be uh semi-life or live 100% life or can be just you know dead, yeah, just a few few hours before. And uh also it can be also a form formula of documentation, so it can be just video video or photographs, but uh but the most uh valuable bio art stuff is when it is still alive, and you can um join this process of living of living this artwork that you can see how it changing, you know, day after day, and um you see the process the experiment is still going on in front of your eyes. So that's the most interesting for for our audience, I would say. And um what can you expect at the gallery? Sometimes you know it's um as I said, it's really surprising because you're entering the gallery and you probably wanna see some paintings on walls, and uh instead you see something like oh, this is some petri dishes or installations like living organisms, microorganisms, or interacting uh um fluids, or I don't know, processes that reflect the natural world, right? Yeah, exactly. So and then I as I said, every single uh creator, every single artist has this has his own individual way of thinking, way of working. Um so we we are recognized immediately, I would say this is this is done by him, this is done by her. Yes, okay. That's it. What gives away your work? What if if I were asking critics or if I were asking other artists that knew your work really well, what would you expect they would say about your work? What is the unique sort of factor that they would be like, ah, that's definitely Elvin? Yeah, um I don't like it, but but the most but the most people uh will would say ants. Ants, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. He loves ants, he's just obsessed with ants. Yeah, I'm obsessed with ants. But so I've got two main ideas. One of them is symbiosity of creation that I did with ants, and the second one is obsessive states, which I connected to other stuff, not only bioart. And now this um this skateboarding, this skateboarding part of my life, which is which I describe as permanent vacation, I will try this year, this summer, I will try to connect to art. So because uh because at the beginning of July, yeah, July 10th, I'm starting my art residency south of Poland, and I will try to connect my sport activity, like extreme sports activity, because I'm not only skateboarding, I I've got a lot of boards, like you know, uh for kite surfing, for snowboarding. We were talking about this in our class, right? You got about seven different board-related objects. Yeah, all together, all together, all together, 11, because uh I I I sold a few of them, and uh so I will try, I will try with my curators, uh join my artistic activity with my extreme sport activity, try to bring them all together and make them interesting for our audience. Kind of experiment because I I have never I have never so I have never saw this kind of stuff, and I'm always interested in making something new. So imagine that imagine a person, not only me, but a person who is an artist, like kind of you know, well known in his particular country, well known by artists, and he started almost 60 when he's almost 60 started, started e-skating elect electric uh four-wheel drive monster beast e-scate, and try connect them together and and make you know symbiosity kind of symbiosis, uh, and make something interesting for the for the people. So, how do you do that? Uh, we've talked about this before, but when you so you come up with an initial idea like that for your bio art, and you're like, okay, I want to combine e-skateboarding, one of my passions, with ants, one of my biological interests or passions. Once you have that in inside of you, what is the next process that gets from that initial spark of an idea all the way to whatever the finished product will be? What's that process like? Sorry, could you could you just uh ask me again? So so when you come up with that initial idea of okay, I want to combine skateboarding with ants, and I want to create some kind of art exhibition or or installation or bio art you know show, once you get that initial idea, what is then the process of coming up with the final product? What are the steps that you tend to go through, whether or not you know the specific idea in this case? But once you have this initial spark, what does an artist do to then progress through that that production of this art? You know, the thing is, because I mentioned this art residency, art residency in South Poland of Poland. You might you might need a you know might need to mention that first for people because I know what it is, but people may not. There's an art residency. What does that mean for people? Kelts. Yeah, so there's the chance for you to be able to put some of your installations there. Kind of, yeah, but you know, the the the thing is that um in in this particular place, in this particular era around Kelts, there was um science, few scientists found the first steps of four-legged creature, four-legged, four-legged um tetrapods, tetrapod, placed like timed 392 million or billion. No, million, million years ago, yeah. Million years ago, million. So these were the these were the first vertebrates to leave the water, leave the ocean and come onto the land, and they found those in Poland. Exactly. And as far as I have got this uh all terrain and four-wheel drive skateboard e-skateboard. I was uh thinking that I will explore this these um terrains, this uh, you know, small mountain mountains and paths, whatever. Around that area. Yeah, and I prepared. I prepared, you know, now this this skateboard has three uh mountain mountain places for my uh for my uh 360 camera. Oh also put them on it, yeah. Yeah, and I also have on a helmet. So I'm I'm preparing myself for recording um the process of of working what I will do as an artist, as and as a extremist sportman over there. So that's clever. So the I guess you could be thinking of what like the the way an ant would see with all of the the compact, what is it called again? Compound eye with a let all those different lenses that ants have in their eyes, and you could sort of try and put something together like that and then skateboard around seeing the world that way. Yeah, and also I've got uh three um microscopic lenses with with some you know um micro uh microcomputers, like very very small computers, and um yeah I will just try to do the the main idea is uh to make uh some art from the process from being you know from from the beginning of the each day to the end of the of each day, yeah. And trying to you know compare each other and and working on the finally it should be an exhibition. Are you so are you thinking of it from your perspective the whole time when you're generating this this artwork? Are you thinking like, what do I want to do? What am I interested in? What am I passionate about? Or are you thinking about the viewer, the person that will come and see the work and the questions you want them to ask themselves? Like, which perspective do you think more about as you design the the artwork, your own or the perspective of the people that will end up viewing the artwork? It shouldn't be my perspective only. It should be uh it should be somebody's like nobody's, you know. I mean that I shouldn't be important. Yes, okay. It I'm not I shouldn't be the person who is important in this process. Yes, okay. I should be just I should be just you know like uh like uh you know kind of robot machine or whatever, how to say it, and just use this, you know, um ideas, how to regal how how to capture um videos and how to capture you know stuff, this landscape, because the landscape over there is beautiful. Yeah, I was there twice already. So yeah, that's like this. Yeah, awesome. But so what do you normally do? What are the steps that you have to go through from like obviously once you finish this thing and I show up and it's there, if you were to take me through the journey of actually putting it together, are there specific Specific steps you try and follow, like an initial step where you're thinking about it and you're just imagining what to do, and then a research step where you go out and try and expand, you know, your ideas by looking at the locations, or reading about literature, or learning about ants, or learning more about scape. Like, what are the steps that you go through, or is it always different depending on the artwork? And there is no constant similar process. The main thing for me is being authentic. Yeah. Authenticity is the the most valuable valuable part of the process. That's my that's my way of thinking. So it's like uh it's depend on every single thing that will happen to me and certain things and to happen to the surroundings. So you just allow it to happen, and it sort of you follow it wherever it goes, you follow it. That's exactly what I wanted to say, yes. Okay. Is that the same for most artists or is that your process? No, no, no, that's my process. Yeah, okay. So tell me more about the um the fact that you're in Poland but obsessed with Australian English. Tell me how that happened. Yeah, I love uh I love Australian culture, uh I love Australian accent, I love uh Australia, I love sun, I love waves, oceans, um everything which is connected to you know aborigin aborigins, aborigines, sorry, indigenous people. And uh but now there is one problem because um e-skating in Australia almost every single state is illegal. So that's the problem. And uh only in Queensland you can write um e-skate. But yeah, that's the problem. Queensland's not a bad place to be. Queensland's good, it's beautiful. There's a lot of big beaches, lots lots to do. So yeah, Brisbane, Gold uh Gold Coast, uh, Cairns. Yeah, so what started your uh your sort of passion interest obsession with Australia? Oh, it was very very, very long time ago because I was just you know having this uh miniature of our planet, like globus, a globe, yeah, yeah, yeah. A globe, yeah, yeah. So um I just saw that that Australia and New and New Zealand is is actually the opposite side where I live, right? Yeah, yeah, it's on the opposite side of the planet, right? So you were looking at that on a on an earth on a planet on a globe. Why why not go there? It's probably good. It's probably good by good idea, the best idea ever. And um, yeah, and then you know, I watched you know, um I watched Australian movies, and um I used to listen to um Australian news news also. Tell me about tell me about I love the country. Our first lesson, what was the movie that I suggested that you watch? Do you remember that? Yeah, of course, it was the castle. The castle. And then in our second lesson, what did you tell me about the movie? Um, actually, I I told you what kind of shoot it was. You tell me this is shit, I didn't like it. Yeah, and it was shit. And why did you think that at the time? Uh I didn't understand the jokes. I didn't understand the sense of humor. Because something happened later, right? I think a few months, maybe six months, seven months later. Maybe maybe six uh six or seven months later, I watched again and I understood, and I understood the sense of humor, and I said, Wow, that's brilliant. It was such a good, it was such a good story and moment. Like, I just I'm never gonna forget you when we had our second lesson, and you were like, This movie is sh this movie's shit, Pete. Give me another option, let me let me watch something better. And I remember being like, God damn, he's so blunt. Maybe this is maybe this is just the Polish attitude. I'm not here to fuck spiders, I'm not here to muck around. I need to give me a good suggestion for film. And then months later, I don't know. Did I tell you to watch it, or did you just decide to watch it again? Months later. I decided to watch it again. Yeah, because I feel because I realized that I understand much, much more Australian English. So I I just remember that that I uh yeah, I should just watch it again. So you gave it you gave it a second chance, and then you came to class one day. I and I understood, I understood the sense of humor and jokes, and I said to myself, that's brilliant. This movie is is absolutely full of jokes, full of fun, and it's the vibe, it's the vibe, it's the vibe telling his dreaming. I remember you came in, and I think your exact words were like, Pete, I fucking love this movie, The Castle. And I was like, Whoa, I thought you hated it. Like, oh, that was great, yeah. But you have quite a passion for films, don't you? Yeah, I'm a cinema lover, yes. Who in particular are you a fan of? Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino. Why? Why do you like him so much? I don't know. He's got his he's got his thing. He's quite controversial, right? The it seems like a lot of people either love him or hate him, right? Really? I didn't know. Yeah, yeah. What uh well what are some of the movies that you like by Quentin Tarantino, just in case people listening don't don't know the the producer name or the writer name. What are some of the classic ones that you love by him? Of course, pop fiction is the classic one. I've seen it for more than 20 times. Yeah. And uh I know people who who watched it several times as well. I've seen it several times, uh probably not 50, but but definitely a handful of times it's a good movie. I need to watch it again, it's probably that time again. And you know, he's got his own narration style that nobody has ever. Yeah. It's a weird one, right? Because I think he got to the point where he made enough money that he didn't care anymore about what what the producers wanted, what Hollywood wanted, what um what was expected of like mainstream movies, and he just went his own direction. But he had a huge cult following that just kept he just kept doing really well with his movies, right? Yeah, there is something in that yes. But tell me about the um the fact that you actually turned your love of movies and your love of English into something productive. You sort of combined the two into something artistic. Talk about that a bit. You mean this uh this podcast? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh so yeah, I it there was a particular time uh like a month ago, I don't know, one moment uh that I I I just you know said to myself that maybe quoting um quoting you know the best the best you know monologues or dialogues from from my favorite movies would would be a good idea and um make some you know kind of podcast for people uh on YouTube that I'm quoting somebody, I'm quoting movie or speech famous speeches or famous interviews or TV shows, and then um people guess uh where it comes from and uh then I I I give them the answer like like a small you know uh small miniature of of the original movie or or interview. But but it was also for me like a homework after our lessons because we've got now we've got twice a week uh uh English lessons. Uh before it was once a week, and um so yeah, I did kind of six or seven episodes and I enjoyed it very much, but I I realized that I've got not a huge you know audience, it was like uh a few hundreds only, and I said to myself, no, it's it's too it's so many, you know, it's too too many work, it's so much work to do to do the episode so for only you know 200 people, come on. So I stopped it, but probably I will I will I will start the second season, maybe. Well, the reason you started it right was because you wanted to combine your love of um movies and and that sort of art with English learning, and then also be expressing it as art on YouTube, which I thought was just a brilliant idea, and it was cool that you were kind of using YouTube and your passion for movies in combination with English as a way of improving your English, right? As a way of studying and making it fun. After making every single episode, I I uh when I just was listening to uh my pronunciation, I just knew oh, I have to work on this, on this, and all this. Yeah, reflective practice, reflective practice, reflective practice, exactly, like you know, using dictaphone or something like this. Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, I'm getting better, I'm getting better, my uh pronunciation is getting better, and and now it's uh I I also have to focus on this. This is kind of you know uh Eastern European accent, you know. I have to get rid of them, get rid of it, and um that's it. Well, you don't have to get rid of it, but that's one of your goals, right? I guess it's not like yes, yeah, you're definitely keen to sound a little more Australian, right? By using the language, the vocab, the expressions, the pronunciation bits and pieces that make it sound very Aussie when you speak to people who know and also I had the second idea that I just you know, maybe of course I I am uh I'm not young, but maybe I would try to be a student, you know. So I decided maybe I can just you know uh go for the um interview uh and try to be student, just like regular student at the university, and I uh had this idea to become a student of biotechnology, marine, uh actually marine biotechnology. So I went there and uh I did it. And it was in it was in English, right? The whole thing was in English. It was in English, yeah, it was in English, and also it was kind of idea that I will be surrounded by surrounded by English language, and um but then it was too much for me, you know. Altogether, my work at the academy and uh you know, all this artistic stuff, and you know, it was taking too much time away from your board writing, and yeah, and being a student of marine biotechnology is hard, too much, you know, learning and yeah, a lot of book knowledge. It was too much for me, so I decided to quit. But it was worth trying. I think it's one of those things. I'm always impressed with you in particular because you seem to maybe it's the artist in you, but it's like you get ideas and you go with it and you try it and you give it everything and you see is this gonna go somewhere. Yeah, and yeah, exactly. That's that's uh yeah, that's good, but good point of view that because that's my way of thinking and working. Well, what happened with your your arm recently? Tell us tell that story. That's a good example of you starting something new, um, coming up against a roadblock or something very difficult, and then continuing anyway. You mean you mean my wrist? Yeah, I do. I mean your wrist. Tell the audience what happened. So after after uh one hour riding, uh my friend's escape, I was like, wow, I don't need wind for kite surfing. I don't need I do not need snow for snowboarding, I just need you know uh just uh chart charge the battery, which is very, very cheap. It it was surprising for me because charging the battery for this e-skate, monster in e-skate, costs me only one polyslot. It's no joke, right? Like you said, you get a hundred kilometers of battery power on this thing. Yeah, it's it's like you know, let it less than one Australian dollar. Well, and that that would take you from where I live to Melbourne, which is you know, it's an hour and a half drive. That means you could theoretically, if you could get on the road and legally do it here in Victoria, you could get from my house for a dollar. Yeah, it's pretty cool. For sure. So um, I was like uh as as I told you, uh it wasn't my first boat. I I've got longboard, skateboard normal, regular skateboard, longboat, and uh snowboards, board for kitesurfing, etc. Balance board as well. And uh I I rode kind of 62 or 65 kilometers, and then I decided that okay, today I will I will do a trip, uh, like uh 30 kilometers trip one way from one place to another and and way back. So, but I didn't think that there's a lot of people on this way, like a lot of uh um other skaters, a lot of uh rollerblader. Yeah, rollerbladers, yeah. You can call them skaters as well. Yeah, yeah, and uh one of the of them, one roller roller blader just crossed crossed my way. Cut me off. Cut me off, cut me off suddenly. So I um I know how to how to fall down, I know how to do how to how to fall down safely, but this time it was too fast, too too suddenly that I I just fall down uh at the back and backwards and fall on my wrist. So um this is the this part of my bones was totally obliterated, yeah. Shattered here and now I've got a metal plate here, metal plate here, and ten screws. Yeah, but it is today's May 28th. The the surgery was was on May 1st, so it's almost one month after, and yeah, I have to do almost everything. Yeah, it's turning into Wolverine with the metal bones, and uh of course the the Sargeon said to me, Do not skateboard, and you were like, Of course, Doctor, of course, do not skateboard for at least six weeks, and you were like, six minutes like shake shake my hands. I already I already uh did uh 400 kilometers, yeah. Since then, yeah, you were back on it the next day, weren't you? Even with a busted arm, you were still on there again practicing, or were you just using the balance board for the first day or two? For the first, I used balance board, and then you know, some a week after I was on the on my board. Yeah, I was like, uh damn, dude. You just no fear, no fear. I guess you're just like a life without skating is no life at all. Yeah, and and then I met my friends on the beaches, and one of them just uh I want to ride, I want to ride, and he fell down as well. He fell, uh did he but did he get injured or no no no, it was on the beaches, so it was sand. It was okay, a little bit better. But but if it was on asphalt or cement or whatever, we would be we would be in the hospital on the you were telling me afterwards, right? You ended up buying all this safety equipment and like gear, and now you look like um you know the terminator or blade, you know, the guy who fights vampires with leather or leather outfits and and everything. And and now uh now when I'm riding every single day, as I said, uh people just you know, people smiling to me, people just you know uh having just eyes. So it's it's all together like you know, fun and happiness. Do you think part of the enjoyment is the fact that you're like the only person nearby that does it and people recognize you, they know you. Do you think if there was a exactly how it is? Yeah, that's exactly how it is. I'm the only one person on this kind of board here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were saying, right, that it's very rare for you to see anyone else that is into well, board writing in general, let alone e-skateboarding, right? Yeah, I I am on I am a member on um Facebook group Electric Skateboards, yeah. Sometimes electric skateboards society or something like this, which is which is uh the most people are from the United States, yeah. Okay, so it's worldwide, yeah. It's a worldwide group, worldwide, and China and China as well. So I wrote uh any anybody here from Central Europe, yeah, and you know, and it was like, and I said Central Europe, and it was France, Italy, Nebraska, Texas, yeah, yeah. Every every every country in Europe's got one dude that everyone knows that doesn't, yeah. But do you think you think it's gonna take off, right? And it'll become more popular, assuming that it doesn't get made illegal. The strange thing is that in Germany, just our neighbor, it's illegal. It's in the whole country, it's illegal. That's a tough one. So, all right, random, I guess, sort of topic change, but tell me about your journey with English. Like, you've out of all my students, and I always hold you up as one of these examples of someone who has improved significantly in a short period of time. I always tell my other students when they tell me, Pete, if I get lessons, if I am even if they don't, if I try and work on my English, how quickly can I expect to get better if I'm at intermediate level and I want to get to advance? And I always tell them about you, Elvin. Um, partly because, well, you've you've improved really quickly, but the other part is typically because you're not in Australia, you're not in an English-speaking country, but but despite that, you've still done it. So I know I'm my question's always long, but tell me about the journey of improving your English over the last year. What have you done? And do you have any advice for for people listening who are learning English? Listen to um English news. English news. Listen to news in English, and what I do, I I um I also bought this um this stuff to that I can change my IP for Australian one. Yeah, so I I um bought uh the the Australian platform for movies, which which is very for the festival, it's very cheap, there's a lot of a lot of movies, brilliant movies, and a lot of Australian movies, uh and um so I'm surrounded by English uh every single day. And there was there was days that I'm go I I went to small shops like 7-Eleven or something, and uh I started to speak English. So it it it it is like you know, um when you realize that you you think in English and even you dream in English, yeah, that's kind of that's kind of you know you are in. Well, we went through that process, right? Right. I think we had conversations previously. You were you were sort of probably B one, B two level, and you're now B two, C one level, and you've made significant improvement, but you were like, I c I don't think in English. I don't I don't think in English. How do I think in English? And I think we're working on just you need to spend probably 50%, if not more, of your time in English, thinking about things, watching movies, listening to radio. And if you do that every day, you'll switch across easily. Whether you stay there the whole time isn't necessarily what will happen. You'll bounce back and forth between Polish and English, but you'll enter that space more easily. You know, it's like going in and out of the matrix. If that makes sense, you're like, you know, you plug the thing into the back of your head and you're whoa, I'm I'm back. Like, yeah, now switching between languages, it's it's it's absolutely no problem for me. Yeah. Like uh, like for example, if if there is a situation with students and one of them is Erasmus student with who who doesn't speak Polish, yeah, switching into English, it's it's absolutely no problem. And and also, you know, young people speak speak English very, very well here. Yeah. So what what has been the trick? Do you think it is just literally exposure and spending that time, or are there other things that you've done that in a short period of time, despite not being in an English speaking country, you were able to improve but also think in English? Was there is it just just exposure and spending time every day, or were there other things you specifically did? What advice would you have? What advice would you have? I guess I'm asking ultimately for advice. Um making notes. Uh if if you um my advice would be if you're watching a movie, of course, uh of course the good advice is watching with English subtitles subtitles, but uh then you can watch the same movie without English subtitles. And also if you think that that one particular expression that you hear may be important for useful for you and important in the future, just you know uh listen listen it again, make notes and use the dictaphone, uh record yourself, try to compare how how your pronunciation pronunciation is close, is it close or far away from the original one? So that's what I'm doing, and yeah, it works. It's a lot of active practice then ultimately. It's not just I have the news on in the background, I watch movies once every now and then with no subtitles. It's I have the movies, I have the sh the news and everything, but I'm taking notes, I'm actively listening, I'm repeating many times, I'm trying to say the phrases myself. It's much more of an interactive process. Because you know, for me individually, uh taking book, English book, it doesn't work. I am bored in in three minutes. I am bored, I'm just you know, oh no, that's not for not that's not for me. So I've got you know, like that's my no, you know, that's my no. He's got a notebook for anyone who can't see, he's got a very dense notebook full, and every page is full of notes and and writing. Yeah, it and this is not from books, this is from movies, from news, from news, and uh yeah. You've done very well. I'm very proud of your improvement and your your hard work, mate. Yeah, and also and also what I had um because uh this is uh yeah, Aussie, no? What does it say? Aussie English, it's blurred out, but what does it say? Aussie English? Aussie English with P. I like it, I like it. Yeah, you'll have to take a photo of it, you'll have to take a photo and send it to me, and I'll put it up on the um cover image. Yeah, it's it's full of full of expressions, full of uh short sentences or even single words, uh recorded by you. So I I've got a bunch of like altogether three hours of your recordings. Yeah, well, that's part of our lessons, right? Afterwards, I always send you voice notes on WhatsApp to practice with with good pronunciation, and I used to say it after you and try to improve my pronunciation. No, you've been doing very well. All right, well, that's that's probably enough for today, mate. We've chatted for like 40 or so minutes. Where can people find out more about you? If they want to learn about your art or they want to learn about your podcast, are you comfortable sharing that online? I think just I think just write Elvin Flamingo with V, Lvin V, Elvin Flamingo, Google, and you just find me. Yep. So just search it on YouTube as well as your website. Awesome. Well, and also uh this this podcast, this episode uh that we we mentioned, uh you can just you know find me on YouTube. Yeah, yeah, go check it out. I really recommend you guys check it out because again, it's it's a very creative way of thinking about even though I'm not in a an English-speaking country, how can I use the language to improve? How can I how can I like you know consume content, enjoy it, but then be interacting with it in a way that I can share with other people, but I'm improving the whole time. I'm learning how to YouTube, I'm learning how to podcast, I'm learning how to video edit it. There were so many things you were combining, so I thought it was a very clever use of your time. So yeah, I hope you get back into it. But it did look like a lot of work. Anyway, all right, thank you for joining us, guys, and um, hopefully we'll have Elvin back on in the future. But thank you, Elvin. Thank you. Alright, that's it for today. If you found this one helpful, leaving a quick review really does help other learners find the podcast. And if you know someone who's learning Aussie English, feel free to share this episode with them too, mate. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next one.