055 One Trick Pony

In this episode, we talk about the phrase "one trick pony", a little bit about psychology, and also about certain habits people have when speaking your target language.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Kuli English Podcast. As always it's gonna be me, your host, Chris. So in today's episode I want to talk about something a little bit deeper. 

So I guess in my usual episodes I talk about, I don't know, like there's like a bunch of different categories of episodes. And for example, like a one category is I talk about some story from when I was a kid. So like a story from my childhood. 

And I talk about, oh like when I was a kid I ate so many french fries or like, oh I had a lucky rock and I would kick the lucky rock or something like that. And these are like, you know, stories about me as a kid. And then so, you know, there's that kind of category.

And then for other categories sometimes I talk about like cultural differences. So like things that are different between, I guess, life in the U.S. and then life in Japan. And then like differences in people's expectations and things like that. 

And sometimes I also have like fictional stories. But today is not really gonna be any of those. I actually want to talk about something that's kind of like general psychology. 

Psychology meaning like the way that people think. So this is gonna have to do with like people and their feelings. And then also I'm gonna try to tie it back in so that it can be related to like everyone. 

So it's not just people who are interested in how people think and feel. But actually something that you can use to try to understand the way that you think and feel. In particular with learning English. 

So again this whole podcast, the whole goal of this podcast is I talk in my easy to understand English. And I call it like Kuli English. But what that really means is just it's like my English. 

I try to make it a little bit easier to understand. But at the same time it's not so easy that the topic isn't interesting. Like if I were to just give you some super beginner level English then we'd be really limited. 

We wouldn't be able to talk about funny stuff. I wouldn't be able to tell you about oh like there's this interesting story where like I messed up some Japanese and then the dude gave me alcohol and then I felt awkward so I had to drink it. And that's like a real story which I've talked about in the past. 

But I'm also kind of like avoiding like hard words and stuff like that. So as I talk about this thing I'll try to talk about the psychology thing in a way that's like interesting. And I might leave you behind a little bit. 

So if you're not really paying attention and you're just kind of listening in the background that's totally fine. But of course as always I want it to be so that if you tune in every now and then then you'll think oh okay that's actually pretty interesting. But this topic depending on if you actually like psychology, if you like talking about the way people think and feel, then maybe you'll have a little bit more fun. 

And if not well I don't know I guess there's always next Tuesday. And next Tuesday there's always a new episode. So I think that's a pretty good intro. 

Let's go ahead and take a short little music break here. I work so hard to make all this music stuff. And then when we come back I'm going to talk to you about some psychology things.

Okay so let's go ahead and talk about psychology. So again psychology is kind of like the way that people think. Or if you want to talk about individual science things in the brain that's also psychology too. 

But I'm gonna try to talk about everything in an easy to understand way. So I'm just gonna talk about like you know feelings. And then also not just for people but like to start out I want to talk about something that's easier than humans. 

Because humans are very complex. You know like humans have all these different feelings. Sometimes they don't even know their own feelings. 

And then I don't know like for example like oh like I want to go to school. Or oh I want to make money. Or like oh I want to have friends or something like that. 

Like these are like feelings that everyone kind of understands. I'm not sure if like you have said that phrase exactly. Maybe you haven't said it like that. 

But these are like feelings that if you hear it from someone else it's like oh okay I understand how you feel. I can imagine. So humans are a little bit like complicated. 

So let's talk about something simpler. For example I used to have a dog. And this dog was a very good dog. 

And by the way like I'm kind of a dog person. I really like dogs. I actually I like cats too. 

I like all animals in general. Some bugs too. I kind of like bugs. 

But anyways I used to have this dog. And this dog it always did this one trick. And then the one trick that this dog was really good at was sitting. 

So to sit it's not really that impressive. Like I don't know like if you ask the human to sit and they sat like you wouldn't think that's anything special. But for a dog you know sitting is kind of like oh that's like not so bad. 

Like it's good that you can do this. And so this dog anytime it wanted something. For example if it wanted a treat. 

Or if it was hungry. Or if it wanted to go for a walk or something. It'll like approach you. 

And then kind of look at you like it wants something. But because dogs can't talk. Then they can't say like hey I want to go for a walk. 

Or hey I want to eat something. Or like hey I want to eat something new, because last time I got tired of that food. 

Like they can't say that. I don't even know if they can like think complex thoughts like that. But what they do is they go up to you. 

And they're like. And then they just like sit. And so so my dog like anytime it wanted something it would sit. 

And so I think that's a really good example of like well you know like what is the dog good at. So for that dog the way that the dog has lived its life. It like learned that sitting will sometimes give you treats. 

So before the dog learned how to sit. It wouldn't sit right. It would just do whatever it wanted. 

And then nothing happened. But then because the dog wants treats. Then you know humans come along. 

So like me or like you know another like dog owner will come and tell the dog. Hey like if you sit then you get a treat. And you kind of train the dog. 

So from the dog's point of view. Like if we are imagining what the dog's thinking. The dog's thinking like very simple dog stuff which is like I want the treat. If I sit sometimes I get the treat. And then sometimes if I sit I don't get the treat. 

But at least sometimes when I sit I get the treat. And it's not just like treats or something. But it's like oh if you want something. 

If you have a dog that only knows one trick. It tends to repeat that trick all the time. And so this, there's a phrase for this. 

It's called a one trick pony. And you can use this phrase in like various things. But it doesn't have to be a pony. 

But I guess imagine that dog was a pony. And then it only knew one trick. Then the pony only does one trick. 

So it's like a special set phrase. One trick pony. And that means like something only does the same thing over and over. 

And so actually if we take this and kind of apply it to humans. Then we can kind of see it a little bit. So again the trait is one trick pony. 

And then so that means like something that only knows how to do like one thing. And it always does that thing. So this is the part that I think is really interesting.

If someone knows how to do something. And they're pretty good at it. It's actually pretty common that that person does that thing a lot. 

So let me give like a example. For example like a really really long time ago. By the way this is like not like a story from like real life. 

But like a story from like history. Well like a really really long time ago when people were still like you know hunting and gathering. So by hunting I mean like they send the men and they go to the woods. 

And they're looking for rabbits. Oh I see a rabbit. And then they get the rabbit and they get the meat. 

And then they bring it home. And then the family gets to eat like rabbit meat. And so that's like hunting. 

And they're also gathering. So gathering is like you like just gather things. You go to the woods maybe you like find some fruits. 

Or maybe you're like planting some vegetables or something like that. And then so these are like different skills. And so you can imagine that the people that were hunting like they were kind of like appreciated by everyone else because they brought meat. 

You know like oh that guy Tim like he's always hunting and he brings us a rabbit like when he succeeds. And then when he fails he brings us nothing. And then you know like sometimes it's dangerous for Tim and then he gets attacked by a bear and then he dies or something like that. 

But so like a hunter is like valued for its one skill of hunting. And then like a gatherer. So someone who like finds berries and stuff like they're valued because they bring like berries and herbs and vegetables and things like that. 

So then now let's apply this to like people in like everyday life. So I think this is something that kind of comes across my mind every now and then. And I'm not really sure if like I would feel comfortable telling someone like hey you you're a one trick pony every time like this. 

Every time you face situation A you do like action B or something like that. And I have thought this in my mind but I never actually like told anyone that. But I think if we all kind of think about like things that we do then we also all have parts of us that are like kind of like animal like and we have these kind of like one trick pony tendencies. 

So let me give a simple short little example. So for example when I'm cooking and sometimes I like experiment with like cooking stuff. But something that I often do is like if I'm like cooking something and it seems to be too hot. 

What I often do is I like I like add a little bit of water and then I cover it. And then like that's like something that I learned from like a cooking class. But I do that probably a bit too much. 

So anytime I'm cooking something and then I feel like oh like it's gonna go too fast. Let me slow it down. Then I have like one trick to handle this. 

I always like add water and put the lid on there. And there are actually other ways to like handle this like you could like you know turn down the heat. You can move it to a different pan or you know there are other things that you can do. 

But because I think a lot of humans tend to be like one trick ponies then they tend to do the same thing. So that's what I mean by one trick pony. And then so actually let's take a short little break here. 

And then I'm gonna kind of come back and add on to that.

All right so now let's talk about more examples of the one trick pony. So for example like at my old job so at Google like sometimes you have these kinds of like hard decisions that you had to make. 

And they're like hard decisions because it's not really clear which one's the right answer. And for example you have some kind of problem where you have to like make something for some kind of client. The client meaning like the customer and then we like the engineers plus some other people have to like decide what to do. 

And then sometimes sometimes the customer wants something that like can't be done. Like they're like oh please give us like this thing that just works always and it's like really good. And then like what happens is you know we engineers we think about it and we're like wait I don't I don't think we can do that. 

So then we say like well that's gonna be too hard or like this doesn't work like that or can we give you something else. And then I think every now and then you come across these teams. And the teams by the way I'm a big fan of like diversity in teams. 

I think that when you solve problems it's really good to have like different kinds of ways that people think. And then you kind of all work together and then you get a pretty good solution because you have lots of different things being represented. But if if you kind of simplify that so like you take the diversity part of it and we make it really simple then you can imagine imagine you have one guy and that guy he's the one-trick pony of oh let's uh let's try to push back against the customer. 

So anytime you have some kind of discussion we're like oh no what should we do we actually we can't make this this is too hard what should we do. Maybe we can make it like A or we can make it like B. And then like the one-trick pony guy would be like let's just go back to the customer and like tell them that we can't do it let's go argue. And so his one-trick pony is let's argue. 

And then there's always like some other engineer that's like and his his like main thing is like oh he's always like oh no we can we can make it let's just make it let's just make it and then like I will put in more time I will put in more effort and I will make it. And so like you have like that and then so you can imagine like in those meetings like people tend to say the same things. And then you also get these associations if you are on that team you're like oh that guy is always saying anytime it's hard let's like push it back against the customer. 

And then that guy is always saying it's not hard I can do it by myself. And so like these are things that maybe you know even if you don't work in like software stuff or you don't work in engineering then you can probably imagine like what it was like for me when I like thought about these things. But now let me talk about it a little bit more in a way that's like relatable for everyday people. 

So everyday people so like you and me like I I guess this podcast is kind of made for people who are like learning English. So for the average English learning students and I've met a lot of different English learning students since I was like a Japanese sorry I was an English teacher in Japan for a long time. But when people are learning English I think they also have these kinds of tendencies. 

So you can call them like one-trick ponies or there are like habits that they develop. And this is not a bad thing okay so when I talk about these things like you know like in the case of work or something oh that guy's always like trying to do the same thing. That sounded a little bit negative but when it comes to learning languages I think having these kinds of habits they're actually pretty good. 

They're actually really good until you get to like a really really high level. And when you get to a really high level and you want to go even higher then you need to know your habits. You need to you need to feel comfortable with like different ways to do things. 

But as an example I think a one-trick thing that I notice and what I mean by that is like things that Japanese people do a lot is when they don't know something. So for example if there's like an English speaker so either me or someone else and they say something and maybe it's a little bit fast maybe it's a little bit hard to understand and that if the Japanese person doesn't understand it then a lot of the times they're just thinking like yes. And this is a really common thing and I also understand this because I've done this in my process of learning Japanese as well. 

Like sometimes I'm not really sure what something is and then I just say yes sure and that's like the the one trick. And you can imagine that in a lot of situations if someone asks you like various questions and you don't understand everything a lot of the times the answer is like yes is probably okay. So for example someone's seeing you like walking by this thing they're like oh are you going to the gym over there? And then in that case if you say yes like it's probably fine. 

If you were actually going to the gym then you're answering correctly and if you're not going to the gym and someone asks you hey are you going to the gym? And you say yes like it doesn't really matter. Like in that case basically yes in most situations it's like it's the safe answer. But of course it's not always the case. 

And so if you have a lot of experiences in your life where you are learning your second language or like you know not your primary language. Let's say you're learning English and then you don't really know what to say and yes works. So this is what I call kind of a one trick pony. 

It's kind of like a safe answer but it's not a guaranteed safe answer. Like sometimes it's wrong. And by the way I think this is fine. 

It's just something that if you want to like notice stuff about yourself then you can kind of think about it and think oh like actually when I don't know something like what should I do? And like there's not really a correct answer to this. Sometimes like students will ask me like what should I do if I don't understand something? And then I think the answer is it basically depends on your personality. So if you are a very quiet person and you almost never say anything then the answer is pretty easy for you. 

Which is when you don't understand something you just say nothing. And you know if you are someone who is like very talkative and you like to understand every single thing that people say then of course the answer is probably well you can try to clarify. You can ask oh sorry what was that? And then after like you know two or three times of asking and it doesn't work then you can think about like what to do at that point. 

But I think in the end it actually really depends on the person and their personality for what they should do in that case. So as you think about these kinds of habits like I guess remember that it's okay. So these things are actually very good and I actually never try to correct like habits except if they're like you know obviously wrong. 

But most habits aren't actually wrong. They're just kind of like building their own personality or like it might be a little bit weird but it's fine. I don't actually try to mess with it because I think these are really valuable for language learning up until a very high level. 

And then once you're at a very high level then it's a different kind of game. Because you know at that point your motivation has to change. The way that you study has to change. 

And also like you also have to be able to like understand your own mistakes without someone else like pointing it off to you. So anyways let's take a short little break here and then I'm going to give you some examples about one trick things that I tend to do.

All right, so now let's talk about tendencies that I tend to do, and I say tendencies, which kind of means the same thing as like habits, and it's kind of like another way to say the one trick pony thing, but in a more general way. So, and this is something that I think it's not a bad thing, but it's something that I noticed that I didn't intend to do. So I didn't like start out saying like, oh, I'm gonna do this.

But then as I started recording like a bunch of podcast episodes, so I've had a lot of experience speaking in English in this way, then I started to notice, oh, actually I am doing these kinds of different things that I don't really do when I normally speak. So, by the way, the way that I talk in this podcast, like I call it Kuli English style talking, I don't actually talk like this in real life. Like when I talk in real life, it's probably a little bit faster and it's a little bit less enunciated.

Enunciated meaning like I pronounce every single thing. So for example, like, I don't know, like pendulum, pendulum. You don't have to know what that means. 

But when I'm speaking normally, I'll say something like, oh, pendulum, pendulum. Pendulum is something that swings back and forth. It's like, imagine like you're at a park and then someone swinging like that motion is, is like a pendulum motion, something that goes back and forth and back and forth. 

And, uh, so something that I noticed that I do in this kind of podcast is I tend to, I guess, like add pauses and the pauses, like sometimes I make it seem like I'm making a mistake, but I'm actually not making a mistake. I'm just like purposely slowing it down in a natural way so that it feels easier to understand. And, uh, let me give you an example. 

Okay. So this is going to sound kind of like a, like an English listening test, but I'm going to tell you some information and I'll tell you that information like in an easy way at first. And then I'll give you two different versions. 

So, uh, the, uh, actually let's just throw you into the hard version first and then I'll explain it with the easier version. So here goes the listening part for the hard version. 

Hey, Tim, it was great to meet you. Do you think you could go ahead and get that haircut reservation for me at 6:30 PM tomorrow? Because I have a volleyball appointment tomorrow at 8 PM. Thank you. So that's like a lot of information and the way that I said that sentence, you know, there were no grammatical errors.

Like it was actually pretty good. It's like almost like written English. It's like very concise.

It has everything. There are no like filler words. And so now, um, let me go ahead and fill in with a bunch of filler words.

So the same thing, but I'm going to pause a lot and say a lot of unnecessary things. Hey, Tim, it was so great to meet you yesterday. Yeah. 

Yesterday was, it was, it was pretty nice. Yeah. So tomorrow I want to get a haircut at, um, uh, maybe 6:30 PM.

6:30. Yeah. 6:30 is probably pretty good.

And then, uh, the reason why is because, well, actually tomorrow I have, um, I have a volleyball thing at 8 PM, so yeah, I think that's good. Thank you. 

So that one's like slower and it's just easier to understand because it's not as like compact with information.

It's not as like super dense with information. You have like these filler words, like the, you know, or like, uh, or sometimes you like repeat things and I think that kind of counts as like filler stuff. 

But, uh, these things I noticed that in the podcast, when I record these things, uh, this is something that I tend to do when I'm in my like Kuli English mode and I'm like talking in this podcast, but it's not something that I often do in real life, but of course in real life, if I need to do it, then I think it's kind of nice to have that experience using these kinds of filler words.

So, um, this is something that I would recommend to a lot of people, um, in general, but I guess, um, I have met, uh, students, so Japanese people who are learning English and then, um, due to some kind of, and I call it like trauma, but like some kind of teacher told them your pronunciation, your pronunciation is bad, so you should speak like faster and quieter. And then, uh, I think this is not good advice, uh, because you know, like they got made fun of for their pronunciation or something. And then the teacher says, it sounds like it's, it's harder to detect that your pronunciation is bad if you speak quieter and you speak faster, but that's not good because, you know, the goal of speaking is to communicate.

So I think, um, if you are like purposely trying to like make yourself sound quieter, I don't, I don't think it's good. And it's also good to speak slowly. I think, um, if you speak slowly, generally, um, it'll be easier to understand.

So for example, if somebody is going to say, you know, like tomorrow, I'm going to get a haircut at 6:30 because I have a volleyball thing at 8 PM, you can imagine it's kind of like, you should really slow that down and you should really say it a bit like slower and enjoy the process, maybe put a little bit more like filler words in there. And then it will be just easier to understand. Of course, of course, if it depends on the situation, like maybe you're saying this for like the 10th time, like me, because I'm recording this podcast, but if you're saying that thing many, many times and you get bored, then yeah, maybe, maybe you'll change naturally, but I think these kinds of things, um, they're just kind of good to keep in mind.

It's good to be conscious of. And it's not just that, but they're like, you know, habits in life as well. So for example, if somebody asks you something and you like kind of want to say no, but you don't want to just say no.

Like if someone asks you, Hey, do you want to get lunch on Thursday? And you reply, no. Like it sounds a little harsh, but, um, I think you can also kind of notice. And as you observe yourself, you can also observe your friends.

You can observe me, observe whatever you want, but you'll notice that people have certain ways of saying no. So they'll say like, Oh yeah. Like they'll start out that way.

Some people will start out saying like, Oh yeah. And by the way, when people say like, Oh yeah. Or like, um, any combination of like yes and no.

So they say, yeah, no, or no, yeah. The, the real answer is the last one.

Okay. So someone's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. What that means is no.

Okay. So let me give you an example. If somebody asks, Hey, um, I know that you're really busy tomorrow.

Uh, so how about you give me like the car keys and then I'll go ahead and do the chores, I'll drive and I'll take good care of everything. And if the response is yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that means like, no, it's a pretty strong no.

And then, uh, maybe the other example is like, no, no. Yeah. In that case, the final answer is yeah.

Like the last answer is always the case. This is something that, uh, I think if you ask a native speaker, they probably can't like give you that answer immediately, but I think it's a good trick to keep if you're not a native speaker and you get confused because sometimes people say like, yeah, no, yeah. Or like, no, yeah, no yeah.

I don't know why people mix it so much. And it feels kind of natural if you're a native speaker to understand that, but someone should just tell you the real answer is the last one. But adding in those other fillers, those are supposed to be fillers like the yeah, yeah, no.

The yeah is supposed to be kind of like, uh, it's like words of affirmation. It's like words to indicate that I'm listening. It's like, oh yes, I understand what you're saying.

Yes. I understand what you're saying. No, the answer is no.

That's what it really means. So, um, again, there are a lot of different habits that people have. And, uh, as we think about different kinds of habits, I think it will actually kind of improve you in your language learning process.

So, uh, let's go and take one last little break. It might be too many breaks, but I need that break. And then I'm going to tell you kind of like a one last little thing in particular for language learning, that is a habit thing.

And, uh, and then after that, then we can finally end. 

All right. So, uh, let's go ahead and make our way into this last section here.

And so in this last section, uh, I promised to tell you about like, kind of like this weird habit or like, uh, you know, like kind of a weird one trick pony thing, you can call it a weird one trick pony thing, but tendencies or habits will be a more neutral term to say it. And so let me tell you about some habits or tendencies that I have in Japanese. So in English, um, I think, uh, it's different because I am a native English speaker and I'm very comfortable in English.

I grew up with it and I teach it and I have this podcast. So I've spent a lot of time like speaking in English in this format. So it's like different, right? You can probably use this as you can use this as an example.

So it should be easy to listen to. And if you copy my habits, that's fine. Like, I don't really have, as far as I know, like terrible habits that you should not copy.

Um, I do have certain tendencies, for example, to use like my, what I call like Chris slang, and this is also like what my friends call it too, but I tend to make up words very often. So for example, um, the term super loser, I don't really know how I came up with this, but I tend to use it a lot. So anytime something is like, you know, not going well, or like, let's say I'm playing a game and then it doesn't really go well, or, uh, let's say you have a couple of different choices and you have some option that's like not good.

I call that option like a super loser. And, uh, I don't know. It's just, it just feels really easy to understand and really easy to use because you have like a winner, you have a loser, and then you have a super loser.

So super loser means like, you know, big loser. So it's like really easy to understand. But I guess because I use it a lot, then sometimes when I speak in English in a teaching context, like the people will think, oh, so that's like a normal term that native people use.

And the truth is, I think most people don't use the term super loser, but it's like very easy to understand. So you can kind of like use it if you want. I actually recommend that people use that phrase if they want to, but, um, just know that, um, not all the stuff that I say is like textbook level stuff.

Like you can't like cut out any single thing that I say and then use that exactly. But I think you'll be okay if you do that. I don't think you'll make any big mistakes.

Um, so another thing that I noticed, um, for when I speak Japanese is, uh, I guess for English it's different, but for Japanese, you know how I mentioned that previous story where I have like some Japanese students and then if I ask them some question, and then they understand like almost none of it. So they have no idea what's going on. Then sometimes they just say yes.

Well, actually I think I do the exact same thing in Japanese. And, uh, I'm kind of at a level where I'm like technically fluent, but of course I still don't understand everything in Japanese. So if somebody were to ask me some kind of question and I understand like, let's say 60 or 70%, um, there is a good chance that I am not really going to clarify and ask like, oh, what do you mean by that? Of course, sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't want to.

Cause it just doesn't feel like, I don't know. It feels like a lot of work. It doesn't feel like it will be easy to ask, but, um, it's probably not good for me to just like say yes or something like that.

Um, let me give a couple of examples of things that you can do if you have the tendency to say yes. So let's say someone asked you a question and you don't really know like what they're saying. Um, something you can do is you can take one part of their sentence and then speak a full sentence.

And this is like kind of safe as an example. Uh, someone asks you, um, let's say someone asks you, uh, have you ever been horseback riding because it's really nice in Hawaii and then, so let me say that slower so that you can understand, um, have you ever been horseback riding, horseback riding is like riding on a horse cause it's really nice in Hawaii, so Hawaii is a place you can go horseback riding in Hawaii, but if you didn't understand, like, let's say you don't know what horseback riding is, but you know, horses, like, you know what a horse is, then you can say, oh, I love horses or like, oh, are there a lot of horses in Hawaii? Um, so these are like, I think good examples of like safe ways to take it. And then you can kind of like kind of hide the fact that you don't know what something means.

Of course, the easiest thing to do is probably to just ask like, oh, what is horseback riding? And then someone will say, oh, it's like where you ride a horse. And then you'd be like, okay, now I understand it. That's great.

And you need to do these things or else you will never learn. Uh, or you can look it up on the side or something, but that's like more effort. But if you don't want to do that and you want to continue the conversation, which I think it really depends on your personality, it depends on the relationship that you have with that person.

And if you always ask people to clarify everything, that's also not good because the people around you will get tired. They don't want to have to explain it to you. Like if you're at a store and they're trying to ask you if you want this one thing, and then you keep asking, what does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? They're going to think like, you know, I'm trying to sell you something, I'm not like your English teacher, but, um, so that is one, one like tactic, which I think I kind of do by default. And I don't know if it's a good thing, but I think it's sometimes useful, which is yet again, let me explain. If someone asks you something and you don't really know what they're saying, then you can kind of pick one part of what they're saying.

And then kind of like put a full sentence together so that you can kind of like take things in some direction. And, uh, this, by the way, this, this has downsides to like, uh, if somebody asks you like, uh, for example, um, like, oh, like it'd be great if we could be good friends, so, you know, maybe we could go horseback riding on Thursday if you're free and then, uh, someone like is going to ask like, oh, are there horses in Hawaii or something? Then, uh, you can notice that in this first part, the first part, someone said, I want us to be good friends. Do you think we can go horseback riding together on Thursday or something like that, then you're kind of ignoring that part, which is like the, the friend invite, which is like, Hey, I want to be good friends with you.

Do you want to do something together? Like, that's like the main topic, but he also mentioned horseback riding. And if you take that one part, that's like not the main part of the sentence, it might accidentally seem like you're like rejecting the friendship. Even if you actually weren't.

So there are these kinds of like dangerous parts to it as well. And, uh, you know, there's no good answer here. So, you know, just do your best.

Um, and now, uh, I don't really know how we're doing on time. Let me talk about this one last part, which I think is, uh, also a pretty interesting thing. But, uh, I want to talk about, I guess like different personalities in English versus Japanese.

So in my case, it's English and Japanese. And then in your case, maybe it's English in some other language, but, uh, in your native language, like, uh, you, I think a lot of people feel like, uh, in their native language, they have no like restrictions. Like this is their truest version of themselves.

But, uh, I think, um, actually it's not always the case. Like sometimes you kind of give birth to a new personality in the new language. So if you like grew up speaking English, then English, you would imagine would be your main language.

And then when you speak English, you don't really feel limited. You don't feel like you can't say, uh, certain things because of language issues, like sometimes you don't know your own feelings and that's why you can't say it, but it's usually not like an issue because, oh, I don't know how to say this word or something like that. Um, but then, so for me, I have my English personality and then I also have my like a Japanese personality and it's like a different shape because my Japanese personality was born, like as I studied Japanese pretty recently in the past, like three years. So it's like a new Chris. And so the English version of me, like it has a lot of history, like growing up and then it has like certain terms and it knows a lot of like random English stuff because it spent a long time in English.

But the Japanese Chris is like emotionally more developed, I think. And, uh, I guess, um, just the, I guess, because when I first learned everything, it was from the basis of an adult as an adult, I learned these things. And then, so as I speak, um, once you reach a certain level and this is like, uh, I think a really good checkpoint, but if you are able to speak from your own feelings directly without thinking in your original language, then I think that's a really good checkpoint to have.

And at that point you should probably try to speak in that target language, but not a hundred percent. Um, so for, for learning purposes, you need to have like a mixture of everything. You need to try out things that you don't know and you need to try out things that you are supposed to know.

And, uh, I guess, you know, a big variety is good, but if you are able to speak directly from feeling, uh, what I mean by that, let me explain what that means is like, um, I think a lot of people they'll tell me, so they're like Japanese people learning English and they'll tell me when I speak in English, I first think of what I'm going to say in Japanese. And then after that, I translate the different things that I say, the different words, and I try to shape the grammar in a way so that I can speak English. And I think this is fine.

This is like a very simple way to do things, but at the same time, I should mention, this is going to be really hard to do like at the higher level. So if you need to keep up a conversation, it's pretty hard because you're not keeping up just one conversation. You're keeping up two conversations.

So someone says something and you have this job inside the back of your mind, which is like the translate that into your native language, maybe Japanese, maybe another language. And then after you translate it, you need to think about it. And then you have some time to think about it and like, you know, process it, think and feel, and then after that you come up with a response, you come up with a response in Japanese or whatever language you're thinking in.

And then after that, you have to translate it back to English. So there's like a lot of extra steps here. You have to take it and translate it to listen.

And then you have to like output something and then translate that again. So it's like, you know, 2x or like 3x the work. And, um, I think, uh, if you ask people who are native speakers in both languages, uh, they, I don't think they ever do that kind of like translation thing back and forth, like sometimes things will get mixed up, but in general, I think the most efficient way is to kind of like think directly in that language and speak from feeling.

So instead of speaking from translation, which is what I call it, which is like when you think in your native language and then you talk about it, it's better to think directly from your feelings and then go directly into that language. And, uh, of course it's going to be hard and it takes a really long time to reach that level. But once you reach that level, you kind of birth like a real personality.

So you're no longer like translating something. And on top of that, when you talk to people, like it'll feel more human, I feel like, uh, and that's a probably like pretty good goal to have. Uh, so anyways, um, I, I think I might've talked too much about random stuff.

This episode was a little bit different from most other episodes, just because this is something that I like think about a lot and it's probably pretty complex. If you didn't really understand it, well, it's okay. Because I think even if I were to talk about this with my native English speaking friends, then maybe because they aren't interested in the topic, then they won't understand.

So if you don't have any interest in the topic, like it's pretty hard to listen. So, you know, don't, don't beat yourself up if you weren't interested, but you didn't understand. You should only be sad if like you wanted to understand it and then you couldn't understand it.

But the good news is you eventually will. Just keep listening. Just keep, keep trying, keep studying. Good luck with your English studies.

And thank you so much for listening to this episode of Kuli English Podcast. So as always, like, uh, when I end, I tell people, you know, you can support me if you want. And, uh, I don't really know what that means because I don't even like take money from people.

But, um, you can support me by supporting yourself. So if there's some kind of money that you want to use to like support me instead, like take that money and do something so that you can kind of like give yourself a variety of English education, go like buy like a subscription to something. Try out a bunch of different stuff.

Buy like a new book, pay for like a subscription to some kind of English streaming service. I don't know. Try a bunch of different stuff.

And because if you succeed, then I'll feel happy. So anyways, that's probably good enough. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Kuli English Podcast.

As always, I have been your host Chris. And with that, we'll see you next Tuesday.