Kuli English Podcast

036 Birthday Culture in the US

• Chris • Season 1 • Episode 36

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My birthday is almost here! So in this episode we'll be talking about birthday culture in the US, along with a few personal birthday stories.

Bookmark Chapters:

00:00 Start
04:02 8th Birthday Party
17:11 Chuck E Cheese
31:49 My favorite birthday toy
37:32 Bop it YouTube video

Hello everyone and welcome back to Kuli English Podcast. It's me, your host, Chris. So today is going to be episode 36.

And today I want to talk to you about birthday stuff. So what is a birthday? A birthday is the day that you were born. So for me, I was born on December 22nd.

So I would say my birthday is December 22nd. And by the way, that's next week. So that's kind of why I decided to talk about birthdays in this episode.

So actually, I also want to tell you a little bit about birthday stuff. I don't know if I can call it birthday culture, but kind of like birthday culture in the U.S. And it's not that, you know, it's only in the U.S. So, you know, people have birthdays in other countries, of course. And they probably also have kind of similar traditions or like similar things that they usually do on their birthday.

So when I tell you these things, if you also have it in your country, then, you know, feel free to say that or feel free to not say anything and just think, oh, this guy's this guy thinks that he owns this culture. I'm just I'm just kidding.

So anyways, I want to tell you about like birthday culture for kids in elementary school.

So I'm thinking about like, you know, first grade or second grade of elementary school. And so that, you know, it's about like eight or nine years old. And there's kind of like this culture where if it's your birthday, you have to bring cupcakes or like muffins to the class.

You bring like some kind of dessert to the class. So, again, you might be thinking, wait, on your birthday, you're supposed to get stuff, right? Like you get presents. You're supposed to like have people sing to you.

Well, in elementary school in the U.S., usually you give them cupcakes, but then they sing to you. And also you get your own cupcake as well. So, again, to describe this in more detail, imagine that you have like a class and there's probably like, I don't know, like 19 kids or something.

And we have a birthday boy. So the birthday boy is Tom and it's Tom's birthday. Then if that day is like a weekday and you're going to school on that day, so meaning like it's like a it's like a Tuesday or something, then what happens is Tom brings muffins to school or Tom brings like cupcakes to school or Tom brings cookies to school.

And these are something that, you know, Tom's parents bought from the supermarket and then you bring it to class. And then at some point, maybe in the afternoon or I don't know when, it depends on like when the teacher wants to do it. But Tom says, hey, everyone, I brought muffins or cupcakes because it's my birthday.

And then everyone gets one. And then, you know, the teacher kind of gives it out. And then they they have all the kids use like a little bit like alcohol wipes or hand sanitizers or something so that their hands are clean.

And then you eat like the cookie. And the funny thing is, if if it's your birthday, I don't know, like for me, I always expected, wait, the birthday person should get something. But what ends up happening is the birthday boy gives people like muffins or cookies or something.

And I always thought like, well, why would you give that out? You could just eat it at home. Like you can instead of eating one muffin and you give out the rest of the other 18 kids or whatever, like you could just keep them at home and eat them all. But, you know, I was a stupid kid and I thought about a lot of random things.

So anyways, in this podcast, I'm going to be telling you about like, you know, at least two birthday parties that I had in my life. And I've got little funny stories prepared for you. And along the way, I'm also going to be explaining a couple different like phrases.

And I think I also have a little bit of a description of like a birthday present that I had. But anyways, I hope you enjoy it. And but first, let's take a short little music break.

All right, so let's go ahead and get started and talk about birthday stuff. So again, when I say birthday things, the things that you can think about in your mind is probably like, you know, birthday presents, a birthday cake. And maybe there's candles in the birthday cake.

And then, you know, the birthday boy blows it out. And then they also, you know, have everyone sing happy birthday and stuff like that. And there's also like one kind of funny thing.

But anyways, the song Happy Birthday, probably most people already know it. But there is something that I noticed in Japan. So but before I talk about that, let me tell like the version of the birthday song in the U.S. So in the U.S., the birthday song kind of goes like, you know, happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Chris. And, you know, there you say the name.

Happy birthday, dear Chris. Happy birthday to you. But what I noticed in Japan is like sometimes people don't know like who's who's like the birthday person.

I don't even know why they're singing it. But what do you do if you don't know the name of the person whose birthday it is? So, you know, if it's my birthday, it's a happy birthday, dear Chris. Happy birthday to you.

But then if you don't know my name, what do you do? Well, in Japan, I found out that a lot of people just say happy birthday again. So you don't say the dear. You say happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you.

And then you don't have to say the person's name. And actually, I think some people don't even know the dear part, but that's the part that I grew up with. So in the U.S., I always heard people saying like happy birthday, dear something.

If it's a really long name, like happy birthday, dear Sanjay Ravichandran. Sanjay Ravichandran was the name of my tennis partner in high school. But anyways, so that's the song.

Happy birthday. And when I talk about birthday stuff, like, you know, you can think about these things. But I want to tell you about my first birthday party.

And well, when I say my first birthday party, I actually mean my eighth birthday party. So when someone says like number something birthday party, so eighth birthday party, that means the birthday party that I had when I was seven years old and I was turning eight years old on that day. It's not that I had eight birthday parties in my life, and this is my eighth one.

And technically, like, it's kind of vague. It's kind of unclear. You're not really sure which one it is.

But for me, my very first birthday party in my life was my eighth birthday party. And that was in the first grade. Very confusing.

A lot of numbers. But I had a birthday party at this place called Bullwinkle's, and the name actually has changed already. So that's the old name.

But at Bullwinkle's, Bullwinkle's was - you don't have to know the name, by the way - but it was kind of like half of an amusement park. Amusement park means like, you know, roller coasters. There's like rides, there's junk food, and then half an arcade.

So arcade, meaning like there's like video games, you put in quarters and then you play like these fighting games. You play like driving games. It's like a bunch of video games.

And then, so this place had both. And my birthday was, I went there and I think my parents got some kind of reservation. You buy some package and then you can have up to, you know, 10 or 12 people or something like that.

But I didn't really have that many friends. So I think I only invited like, you know, five or six people, which are my friends. I also invited my sister, which I'm including in that number.

And then, so, you know, you invite them all. I wrote like little cards for them that says like, oh, please come to my birthday party. And it tells you like when, where.

So when is like the day, where is like where it is. So it's going to be at the place. I'm not going to mention the name of that place because they're to change names and you don't have to know what it is.

But, uh, so I invited like, you know, five or six people to my birthday party at this place. And, you know, it's kind of a small number, five or six people, but the good thing is, and at the time I didn't really know it was a good thing, but people would always bring like extra people. So for example, if I invited like my friend named Bobby, I didn't actually have a friend named Bobby, but if I invited my friend named Bobby, usually if Bobby had like an older sister or like an older brother or like some kind of sibling, then the sibling like also comes too, and, you know, my friend is Bobby.

I don't actually know their sibling. I don't know their older brother or their younger sister, whoever, but because, you know, siblings usually go together as like a set. I remember, I think a lot of people came as a set.

So like, I have like my five or six people that I actually knew. And then there's like other people's friends or other people's siblings. And then, uh, I actually now as an adult, what you call it is like friend circles because like, you know, somebody you invite that person, that person always brings their girlfriend or you invite that person.

That person always brings like, you know, a set of like two or three people. But so at first I invited like, you know, five or six people and then they also brought like extra people. So we ended up having like eight or nine people and, uh, it was, it was pretty fun.

I had a good time. And I remember because back then I super loved Yu-Gi-Oh cards. So if you don't know what Yu-Gi-Oh is, Yu-Gi-Oh is like the anime.

Um, and, uh, it was popular in the US too. I think for a lot of young boys, I'm not sure if I talked about it before in this podcast, or maybe it was in a, in my previous podcast, that's no longer available. But, uh, Yu-Gi-Oh is the one that's like, it's time to do the duel.

And then like, you know, there's a guy and he's got like some yellow hair and then he like duels people, which is. It's just a card game. So he plays like a magic card game and he fights other people in this magic card game.

And then if he wins them, you know, you banish their soul to the shadow realm, which is like, that's just, you don't have to know what that means, but like you, you beat them. And then they like, like lose like really bad and they lose their soul or something like that. But I love that show and I love the game and I really loved Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

So in my invite to all the five or six people, I said, for my birthday, I want you to give me Yu-Gi-Oh cards as a present. Because remember, you know, when it's someone's birthday and you're going to the birthday party, you have to give them like ideally a card and a present. So you have like the card, which says like, dear Chris, happy birthday.

I hope you have a great eighth birthday. Thank you. You're a friend of Bobby or something like that.

And not just the card, but you're also supposed to give like some kind of present. And then I remember thinking, well, you know, people, maybe they are going to be worried or stressed out if they have to decide, you know, what kind of present they're going to get for me. So I just made it easy for them and told them I'll tell them exactly what I want, which is I want Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

So then I got a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh cards from almost everybody. But I do remember there was like, I think one sibling. So I invited like, you know, a couple of different friends and then one friend brought like an older brother.

And I don't actually know who the older brother is, but that guy like, you know, also didn't know me, but he's coming to my party and he's supposed to get a present. So he got me not Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but he got me some kind of Yu-Gi-Oh action figure. And I remember thinking like, I don't want this.

I don't like action figures, but you know, from an adult's point of view, you might be thinking, oh, that's actually some good variety. So, you know, what kind of kid wants the exact same present from every single person? Like this person just wants Yu-Gi-Oh cards. That's, that's, that's like sad.

You're supposed to give them like a variety of things. It's like, oh, happy birthday. You get like a sweater.

You get like a new pencil. You get like some Yu-Gi-Oh cards and maybe like some new toys or something. Maybe you get like, I don't know, some gloves or something.

And as an adult, that makes sense. But as a kid, all I wanted was Yu-Gi-Oh cards. And then so like this stranger who gave me like this action figure, I was like, I don't want this.

And then I think I just like put it in some corner of like some toy box. And then I never like played with it. But, you know, I was like a weird kid.

So anyways, I got a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh cards for my birthday and it was pretty fun. But I got to tell you something that I really regret. So regret is like, you know, I think about it.

Oh, I wish I did it differently. And it's because I forgot to invite a friend and that friend, his name was Dallas. So I actually, I don't know his last name.

Back then as a kid, I knew everyone's first name and last name in school. But I totally forgot his last name. I don't even know what it is now.

Cause you know, I got old, but I had a friend named Dallas and in school we were like kind of decent friends, but we weren't really friends during school. So when school starts and up until when school ends, like we weren't really friends, but after school ended, what happens is the school bell rings. It goes, and then like, okay, everyone go home.

And then how do you go home? Well, most people, they get picked up by their parents. And what that means is the picked up by their parents usually means the parents come in their car and they drive to school and then they pick you up and then you like drive home with your parents. And so all the parents will be in like the parking spot area, right.

And they're like driving the car and the kids come out of the class and they come to the parking lot area to get picked up. And then I would always walk to that area to get picked up with Dallas. And it was always just us two.

We're like best friends, but we're only best friends after school ends. And in those like five minutes, so like after school ends and you go to the area and then you wait there for the parent to come, or if the parent's already there, then you don't really wait. But I would always walk there with Dallas.

And then my mom who would always pick me up would ask me like, oh, who's that? And I was like, oh, that's my friend Dallas. And then my mom was like, wow, so you and Dallas must be pretty good friends. And that'd be thinking like, oh yeah, sure.

Whatever. The truth is I didn't actually know what like friendship meant. Cause you know, I was in like first grade.

I'm not even sure if I really spoke much English back then, but, uh, I had Dallas and we'd always walk together and for the birthday party, I invited like, you know, five or six people and I had space for more people. Like, I think the reservation was like, you have to pay the same amount of money, no matter how many people come, but you can have up to, you know, this number of people, you can have up to 10 people. So you can have eight people, you can have nine people, you can have 10 people, it's all the same price. 

And then, so my mom was asking me like, Hey, why, Hey, why didn't you invite Dallas to the birthday party? And then I think my response was like, I don't know. And the truth was, I really didn't know.

Like I was in first grade and I was a pretty stupid kid. So I just like, I was like, I don't know. I don't know.

I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think to invite him. And then, uh, what's even worse than that is like, uh, after this kind of thing happens, so if you have a friend and you forgot to do something like for that friend, then usually you feel kind of bad. But you know, in first grade, I was kind of stupid.

So like, I think I didn't really feel that. So then like the very next day after the party, like I went to, I went to school and then I was like, Oh, Hey Dallas. And we're walking back together.

And Dallas was like, you know, how was, how was your week? Or like, how was your past day? And I told him, Oh, I had a really fun birthday party and invited all my friends. And, you know, we had a lot of fun and I got a lot of presents and I'm so happy, and then Dallas, I think his response was just like, okay, that's great. And so, you know, he wasn't bitter.

He wasn't like, he wasn't like sour. And you know, if you think about this in, if we were both adults, if both me and Dallas were adults, and then we were talking about this, then there would definitely be some like negative feelings. Right.

So I had a birthday party and I said, I invited all my friends. And then Dallas would be thinking in his mind, wait, I didn't get invited. I guess that means I'm not your friend.

Like maybe, maybe there'll be that kind of stuff, but we're both kind of stupid. So I didn't feel any bit of guilt and he didn't feel any bit of FOMO. Uh, so, uh, sorry.

FOMO is slang for Feeling Of Missing Out. And this is how you describe the feeling of like missing out actually. So in this case, I didn't invite Dallas.

And then I told him, Oh, I had a really good birthday party with all my friends and it was really great. And then Dallas was thinking like, wait, I, I didn't get to go. Then if he really thought about it, then he would be feeling FOMO, F O M O. It's it's slang.

I'm like coughing because I'm like cursing. I'm like cursing Dallas, even though, even though he didn't get invited, I feel so bad. If I ever meet Dallas, I promise I'm going to say sorry to him, but I don't actually know his last name.

But, um, so Dallas might be feeling FOMO in that case, F O M O feeling of missing out. Okay. Uh, so maybe let's take a short little break there and I'm going to come back and I'm going to tell you about Chuck E. Cheese's, but first let's take that music break.

All right, so let's go ahead and continue and I got to talk to you about Chuck E. Cheese's. So first off, you know, when it's someone's birthday, where do people have a birthday party? Well sometimes it's like, you know, at their home or sometimes it's at like a bowling alley. So like people go bowling and then you invite a bunch of people.

Or maybe it's at like an arcade. For example, in my case, I went to like kind of like a half arcade, half amusement park area. And then there's another one, which is a really good arcade, which is called Chuck E. Cheese's.

And Chuck E. Cheese's is like an arcade. So an arcade, meaning there's like little video games that you play. You like exchange money for tokens and use the tokens and you put it into the machines and then you have like a bunch of different games.

There's like a basketball game, like shooting games, driving games. But Chuck E. Cheese's is like a special type of arcade that's only for kids. So it's really meant for kids and all the things are really small.

And then I remember seeing a lot of commercials on TV. And this was also back before Netflix was like popular. So like we would actually watch cable TV.

I feel so old talking about this now that nobody watches cable TV anymore. 

But there would be commercials about Chuck E. Cheese's and they have a motto. They have like a slogan, which they always said, Chuck E. Cheese's, where a kid can be a kid.

And then, you know, this is probably marketing. This is probably advertising for the parents so that the parents can think, oh, you know, for my son, my son wants to have a birthday party. Well, I can do it at Chuck E. Cheese's.

And, you know, you can go to Chuck E. Cheese's and reserve something.

So I do want to talk a little bit about Chuck E. Cheese's. And there's kind of two different things.

I have like two different parts of the story. But part one, I want to talk about my like view of Chuck E. Cheese's as a kid. So what did I think about Chuck E. Cheese's as a kid? Well, I really liked arcades, right? I really liked games and stuff like that.

And Chuck E. Cheese's had a lot of games. So it was like generally pretty good. But at Chuck E. Cheese's, you know, like at the arcade, if you don't have like money, then you can't like play any of the games.

And I was kind of a stingy kid. It's kind of funny because like, you know, like I want to play the games, but I'm like, oh, no, I don't want to. I don't want to pay 25 cents for this.

I want to do it for free. But at Chuck E. Cheese's, like what you're supposed to do is you're supposed to exchange money for tokens. And then I'm not, not for quarters, like in a lot of different arcades, you exchanged money for quarters.

So then you just basically exchange the money and you get the same money back, but in quarters. So again, you know, $1 is like four quarters. And then if you have four quarters, that's $1.

You can also call it one buck. But you exchange money for tokens. And then the tokens, like they look like quarters, but they're not quarters.

They look like quarters. They're like the same color, but the front and the back, it just says Chuck E. Cheese's. And it has like a picture of like Chuck E. Cheese.

And Chuck E. Cheese is actually, he's like a mouse. That's like the character. So imagine like, you know, if I talk about, oh, like a Disney, then he might be thinking Mickey Mouse.

And Mickey Mouse is like a black and white mouse. And he's like smiling. And then a Chuck E. Cheese's, again, Chuck E. Cheese's is an arcade.

And their mouse is like, it doesn't really look like Mickey Mouse. It looks more like a real mouse. And he's like kind of a cartoon gray.

And of course he's smiling. Everyone's always smiling. But he's like gray.

And you know, his like mouth is open. He's got ears. He's got teeth too.

And Chuck E. Cheese's, that character, it's like a famous character. Because I guess, you know, Chuck E. Cheese's was probably famous in the U.S. But every now and then they would do these things where they have the actual Chuck E. Cheese's come out. Okay.

So Chuck E. Cheese's is just a character, right? Kind of like Mickey Mouse. But some high school student or somebody that's working at Chuck E. Cheese's puts on a Chuck E. Cheese's costume. So they put on like, you know, the mouse legs, the mouse hands, the mouse gloves.

And they put on the big mouse head. So there's like this giant Chuck E. Cheese's who's like probably about my height. Kind of like the height of an adult.

And then they come out and they like meet the kids and they like hug the kids. And they're like, hey, I'm Chuck E. Cheese's. And then, you know, I think Chuck E. Cheese's is really trying to be like a Mickey Mouse.

Because if we talk about Mickey Mouse, then probably a lot of people know what that is. And then on kids' birthday, they might meet Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mouse might hug them. Or, you know, some Disney character might come out and hug them or something.

But Chuck E. Cheese's is like kind of like trying to be like that. And, you know, everyone likes kind of furry, fuzzy animal characters. So they're like, sure, whatever.

So then they hug Chuck E. Cheese's. But it's not just the hug that's good. Chuck E. Cheese's also drops money.

So Chuck E. Cheese's, the character, like he'll come out. Really, it's some person wearing the Chuck E. Cheese's costume. But during some birthday party, Chuck E. Cheese's will actually come out and like hug people.

And then he'll also like give people some tokens. So he'll like, actually have these Chuck E. Cheese's tokens like in a small little cup. And then he'll like give it to people.

So people can play games for free without having to buy the tokens. Because Chuck E. Cheese's will give you some tokens. But another thing that I experienced, which I remember very well, is once I went to Chuck E. Cheese's for someone else's party.

So it wasn't my party. It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't my family member's party. It was like some party for someone that I wasn't really friends with.

I think this time I was the extra sibling for someone that was like my sister's friend. But anyways, I went there and Chuck E. Cheese's came out. And I remember thinking, wow, that's a really big mouse.

And I don't think I want to touch that mouse. He looks kind of weird. But Chuck E. Cheese's was like throwing Chuck E. Cheese's tokens.

Just throwing it here, throwing it there. And then it's kind of like he's just giving it. You know, it's like a charity.

He's just giving out tokens. And so a lot of kids come and they see, oh, wow, you get tokens. And so they run.

And then, you know, they got their hands and knees on the floor. And they're like picking up these tokens. Because they know that the tokens, you can use them to play games.

So it's good. And, you know, I did the same thing, too, because I want tokens. So then I would pick up the tokens.

But then my tokens that I picked up, like I would pick it up. And, you know, maybe I wasn't holding on to it that hard. But some other kid would come and take the token right out of my hand.

And I was thinking, wait, I picked it up. And someone else was like, give me that. And then they take it.

And then I was like shocked, right? I was like, oh, no, like, should I cry? Because as a kid, you know, you don't really do that much. When something upsetting happens, it's like, okay, is it time to cry? Should I cry? Or should I like tell an adult what should I do? But I saw someone else, the person who took my coin. He was like, you know, taking coins from other people.

He was also taking a lot of coins from the ground. And he was really, really fast. And he collected so many coins.

And I was thinking, wow, actually, that's kind of smart. Because, you know, these free tokens, if you get a lot of them, then that's good. And so, you know, he's just working really, really hard picking up the tokens.

And so, you know, I thought about crying. But somehow, I don't know, like, because the person, I think they didn't have any bad intentions. They didn't mean any evil, right? So they just wanted tokens.

They just wanted tokens. And they're doing a really good job picking up tokens. And they happened to pick up a token that I was picking up.

And then they like didn't even look at me. They didn't even like, you know, try to pick a fight or anything. They just like picked it up, like nothing happened.

And they continued picking up tokens. So I didn't cry in that case. But I do remember thinking that is not nice.

That's scary. Like if I pick up free stuff, it's scary because someone else is going to come. And they're going to take my thing.

So then I don't feel safe. And I was like kind of smaller, right? Because I was a younger brother. And other people are older, which means they're bigger.

They're scarier. So like I didn't really have a good experience at Chuck E. Cheese's. And I was like a little bit scared of Chuck E. Cheese's.

But here comes part two of the story. But, you know, so, you know, as a kid, I was like weak and scared of like bigger kids that would steal my coins. But then I grew up.

And then I went to college. And after college, I went to, you know, work. And I should also mention like I did a judo tournament in college and I got first place.

So like, you know, I'm like really ready to redo that experience. I'm ready to beat up some kids. Nah, I'm just kidding.

I'm not actually going to beat up kids. But I did have a birthday. And this was after I already started working.

So after I finished high school, after I finished college, and after I already started working for a couple of years, I wanted to have a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. And it was kind of like it's kind of like a joke. I don't really know if I can really explain my sense of humor.

But it's just funny because Chuck E. Cheese's is meant for kids. It's kind of like it's a little bit like how Disneyland is kind of meant for kids. But also adults can go and they can have a good time.

But Chuck E. Cheese's is a place where kids can go and the adults don't really want to go because it's like a place where you bring little kids and then you let the kids play. And it's like loud and it's not really comfortable. But I wanted to redo my Chuck E. Cheese's experience.

So I went and I set up a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's as an adult. So I went online and then I scheduled, OK, I want to have a birthday party on this day. And then I contacted a bunch of my friends.

And this time, you know, I had friends because I was an adult. And then I invited a bunch of different people and then ended up having about eight people, eight people total. And then I had a birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's.

I scheduled like some kind of package thing. So there's like three different plans to choose from. There's like, you know, the small happy kid plan.

There's the medium happy kid plan. And there's like the extra deluxe super happy kid plan. So I picked that one.

I picked the absolute best one. And then I think that comes with basically four wristbands that are like all you can play. And then you get like some pizza, you get like a cake.

And then you also get to meet Chuck E. Cheese. And Chuck E. Cheese will come out and give you a hug and you can take pictures and stuff. And by the way, the first thing that I mentioned, the four all you can play wristbands, it basically means unlimited tokens or unlimited plays.

So they changed the system because, you know, people started getting better technology. So instead of like using tokens and putting in actual little coins, now they just have like a wristband system. So you get like an electronic wristband, kind of like a smart watch kind of.

And then it says Chuck E. Cheese on it. And then if you scan it on a machine, then the machine will go VRRP and then it understands, okay, I will now take one credit away from your wristband and then you can like play. But because I got like the super, super package, then we have four wristbands and we have eight people total.

We have four wristbands and those wristbands are all you can play. So it means you can scan anything and then it like, it just has infinite money. It never runs out of money, but only for like two hours.

So then what we did was we have eight people and four wristbands. So then we just have two people per wristband and people have to share. And usually, you know, we're adults.

So we're like, we're like friends with people. We don't like steal tokens from kids, but like you scan stuff, do whatever you want. Play whatever you want.

It was actually pretty fun. There's like this fishing game and some of the like basketball games and stuff like that. Like it's actually a pretty enjoyable time.

But the most crazy thing is just again, Chuck E. Cheese is really meant for kids. So I remember when I first went there, I was like, hello, I'm here for my reservation. I got a reservation for Chris and Chris is the birthday boy.

And they're like, okay, where is the birthday boy? And I'm like, I'm Chris, I'm the birthday boy. And they're like, what? And then like some other employee comes out. And that employee has like a little a birthday crown.

It's actually just made out of like paper or cardboard. And it says like birthday, like birthday boy at Chuck E. Cheese or something. And so, you know, somebody comes out and they're like, where's the birthday boy? And they're like looking for like a small kid, but there were no other kids that day.

And they're like, wait a minute, but we have a reservation for someone named Chris. And I was like, it's me. And then they like look up and they're like, oh, it's an adult.

And it's just even the employees have never seen some like adult reserve for Chuck E. Cheese's like at a birthday party. But it was pretty fun. And then, you know, they put it on me.

And then we ate some pizza, we had some cake. And then I also snuck in some of my favorite food, which is like this place across the street in Cupertino called the Liang Mama's. By the way, that place's name has also changed.

I feel like today we just keep talking about things that have their name changed. There was like the birthday place that I went to that changed their name. And then there's like this restaurant that also changed their name.

But I did sneak in some food and drinks and stuff. And these are things that I really liked. And so I also prepared all those things so that like my friends can also eat that stuff so they don't have to eat like pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's.

So I had a great time. And, you know, my friends, I think most of them had a good time. Although some of them were kind of like it was a little bit awkward because Chuck E. Cheese's is not really meant for like adults.

It's meant for kids. So I felt a little bit weird. But I'm glad that you had fun.

And I went there for you because you're my friend and it was your birthday. So happy birthday. And I don't think I got any presents.

But I don't really care because I'm not really someone that wants presents. I usually tell people, no, I don't want any presents. It's always a little bit awkward to get presents.

And most of the time I don't really need anything. But anyway, so that was my second part of the story. That was me redoing the Chuck E. Cheese's experience.

And that time I invited, you know, all my friends and stuff. I didn't forget to invite anybody. So none of my friends were like, oh, I feel FOMO or something.

I feel left out. There was none of that. I invited everybody.

The people who couldn't come, it's because they like couldn't come because my birthday was pretty close to Christmas. And so maybe they went home for the holidays or maybe they weren't in the area. Maybe they were busy that day or something.

But I had a glorious birthday party. And it was probably the best birthday party I've ever done in my life. It was a good idea that I had.

And I had a lot of fun doing it. So anyways, let's take a short little break here. And then I'll come back for the last section.

Okay, so let's go ahead and make our way into this last section here. And so again, just to review, I talked to you about like some birthday culture stuff. Again, I don't really know if that's like an American culture thing or if it's just like a local thing.

But in elementary school, then, you know, if you're the birthday kid, you're the birthday boy or the birthday girl, then you're supposed to bring like some cupcakes. And then, you know, everyone can kind of eat that. And then I also talked to you about like my birthday party from my eighth birthday party.

So when I was eight years old, and I forgot to invite someone named Dallas. And, you know, if I ever meet Dallas, I'm gonna say sorry. And then I also talked about how I went to Chuck E. Cheese's like twice in my life.

Like once was as a kid, and it was kind of scary. And then again, I went as an adult. And that was kind of just funny.

And also they had really good pizza. But anyways, I want to talk to you about one more thing in this last section here, which is like one of the presents that I got as a kid. And but before I talk to you about that, let me explain that, you know, this is probably something that you already know.

But when it's someone's birthday, like usually you get them like a card or a gift, or ideally both, you give them both. And then so for me on my birthday, I think I this was probably my seventh birthday or my eighth birthday. So I was turning seven or I was turning eight.

I kind of forgot. But I remember I was walking around in Target. So Target is the name of a store.

It's like this name of a supermarket. So they have like, you know, groceries they have like milk, cheese, potato chips. But it's not just food.

They also have like toys and stuff. So they have like video games. And they have like random other things like pillows, pillows that you like using your bed to sleep on.

And then I remember it was probably pretty close to my birthday. And I was just walking in Target with my mom who was buying stuff. And my mom was like, hey, it's going to be your birthday soon.

What do you want for your birthday? And then I was like, actually, how about that thing over there? And I just saw some toy. And like, I think I really don't know what was going on in my mind, because it's just so long ago. I was probably not really thinking that much.

But I was like, I want that toy. And then so there was like the $7 toy, I think, or maybe $8. And it was called a Bop-It.

So Bop-It, again, even if you're a native speaker, you might not know what it is. It's the name of a toy. And the Bop-It is like this little toy.

And it basically has three buttons. And then the buttons actually, they all are kind of like a different shape. And the way that you push it is kind of different.

So it's not just three normal buttons. You have like three different parts. And you're supposed to do different things with them.

So one of them, you push it. And that one is called a Bop-It. By the way, to bop something, that's a verb.

You don't really use it that much in everyday life. But it just means like to push something in a playful way. So it basically just means push.

So there's one button that's called Bop-It that you just push. And there's another button that's called a Twist-It, which is you're supposed to twist it. You're supposed to spin it.

You're supposed to rotate it. And then there's one last button, which is called Pull-It. And Pull-It, you're supposed to like just pull it.

You just put your hand on it and you kind of pull it out. And then so you have these three different parts of the Bop-It. And what happens is when you start playing it, the machine has like a little voice inside.

And it's like a really old toy. So it doesn't really sound great, okay? It's not like a real person talking or anything. But it's just like, all right, let's play.

And then it tells you, all right. And it tells you one of the three things. Let's go.

Bop-It. And then you push the button. Twist-It.

And then you're like, you know, take the thing and twist it. Pull-It. And it always has the same sound effects for each button.

So, you know, Bop-It is. And then Twist-It is. And then Pull-It is.

And then it gives it to you in a random order. Sometimes you're like Bop-It. Bop-It.

Bop-It. Pull-It. And then you're supposed to react to it and do the right thing.

So I got that toy very randomly. I was just like, I want that one. And my mom was like, that's like the cheapest birthday present ever, wow, so easy. And I was thinking like, oh, that's great because this thing is pretty fun. And then I remember I would take it with me on the car and play with it a lot.

And it was a really fun toy. I play with it a lot. So that's the Bop-It.

And then I would like show it to friends. And then like when the friends played it, because they haven't played it much before, they usually aren't very good at it. And the real trick to it is there's a certain way to hold it so that your hands are really close to all the buttons.

You want to be ready to pull it and twist it and Bop-It. You want to be ready for any of those three at the same time. And the way that you do it is you just kind of hold it kind of like you're driving.

One hand's on the twist thing. One hand's on the pull thing and your thumbs over the Bop-It, the middle button. And then you're like pretty good to go.

And Bop-It was like, I don't think it was really popular, but they had like a bunch of other versions of that toy. And then I never played with any of the other versions because I just had like my super cheap, simple one. But it was really fun.

And I'm not really sure where that toy is now, but it was one of the best presents that I've ever gotten. It didn't come in like a wrapping paper or anything. It wasn't like wrapped.

There wasn't a ribbon. There wasn't like a card that said, happy birthday, dear Christopher. Enjoy this Bop-It.

There was none of that. I just got it. And then I went home and I opened it.

And, you know, it's about the joy that it gave me. So this was a really good present, I thought. Also, there is one more thing here.

So there is a YouTube video called Bop-It and it's kind of like a comedy video. So it's a skit, if you know what a skit is. A skit is like people are kind of like acting out something.

So it's like they're like pretending that it's someone's birthday and someone got a Bop-It. And that's like the story for it. And I think the English isn't too hard.

It's actually kind of a little bit more well pronounced. It's a little bit slower because they're like acting it on stage. And the Bop-It story, I recommend that you watch it if you are interested in watching some kind of funny video.

I thought it was really funny. But at the same time, you can maybe think of it as like an English challenge. So if you want to see if you can understand this kind of video, feel free to look it up.

It's a pretty funny video. And if you just search like Bop-It, Bop-It birthday or something like that, it should probably come up on YouTube. So anyways, I think that was a good enough explanation for, you know, this little birthday present that I got.

And in this whole episode, we talked about birthday stuff because my birthday is coming up. It's going to be up next week. And then, well, it's really just another day to me.

My birthday is just another day. So nothing's really special there. But maybe that's a good point to wrap up this episode.

So thank you so much for listening until the end of this episode of Kuli English Podcast. And if you want to support me, you can subscribe or follow or do something. But you also don't have to if you don't want to.

You can just take this and do whatever you want with it. So you can listen to it while you drive. Listen to it while you fold laundry.

Listen to it while you poop. Do whatever. Share with people.

Do whatever you want. But anyways, thanks so much. And I hope to see you next Tuesday on Kuli English Podcast.