How to Be DIRECT in English Like A Native Speaker

How to Be DIRECT in English Like A Native Speaker

 Have you ever felt that your English sounds too indirect, too polite, or even unclear?
Many English learners struggle to express themselves in a clear, direct, and confident way — especially when speaking with native speakers. In real conversations, being direct is not rude; it’s often seen as honest, natural, and effective communication.
In this practical and insightful episode of Mind Life In English, host Profe Lao breaks down how native speakers use direct language in everyday situations — and how you can do the same without sounding aggressive or impolite.
🎙️ In this episode, you will learn:
• What it really means to be “direct” in English
• The difference between being direct and being rude
• Common indirect phrases and how to make them more natural
• How native speakers express opinions, requests, and ideas clearly
• Simple techniques to sound more confident and natural in conversations
This episode is perfect for:
Intermediate to advanced English learners
Professionals who want to communicate more clearly
Anyone who feels their English is too “soft” or unclear
Learners preparing for real-life conversations, interviews, or meetings
🧠 Communication Insight:
Being direct in English is not about being harsh — it’s about being clear, respectful, and confident at the same time.
🎧 Listen now and start expressing yourself in English with clarity and confidence like a native speaker.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, internet, hello world, hello people out there. How are we doing today? Today I am bringing you another, another, another, another episode of something that you guys really liked. I made a video last year, toward the end of last year, about basically all kinds of random situations, things that may or may not happen in real life. I don't know, but just random things and how I would naturally react as a native English speaker from the United States. And I am looking at it for the first time. You and I together, we are looking at it for the first time, and I am showing you my instant, automatic, natural reactions. So you're getting the real deal here. This is not scripted, this is not filtered, this is not like I didn't look at this stuff and plan ahead and get an idea. No, this is all instant, all natural, natural. The word is natural, okay? Don't I just like to play a little bit, but the word is natural. All right, I forget sometimes that I am an English teacher. I have to, you know, say things correctly now. Say, say things correctly. Okay, so let's just get right into it, right? Let's jump right in. Let's that was like a dive. Let's dive right into it. Okay, so hi hi. Just interrupting the video real quick to let you know that I do offer conversation classes and my price has been lowered. It has decreased. So if you haven't checked my price in a while, or if you were ever interested in taking a class with me, a conversation class, if you can have a basic conversation in English and you want to practice your English speaking skills with me, check the link in the comments or on my channel page. It's always going to be up there on my channel page. It's the link that's Callends Lee conversation class with me. Okay, just so you know. It is available and the price is lower than it has been in the past couple years. So check it out. All right, and back to the video. Number one, you're at a party and realize you don't know the host. You've been chatting with a group for 20 minutes and eating their food. How do you handle this? Okay, so you're at a party, you're eating the food, you don't even know who who is like the host, like the host of the party, like the owner of the party or the place where the party is, maybe. You don't even know them, but you're there and you've been talking to people and you've been eating the food. Look, why does that matter? Okay, a party is a party. Now, if they don't want you there, if they see you like if they see you and they're like, I don't know that person, or if you think that might happen, or if like you feel like you shouldn't be there, then okay, leave. But like if you feel like nobody cares and it's all just fun vibes and it's just the party and it's okay, so-and-so brought so-and-so, and you know, people brought friends, and not everybody knows everybody, and the host doesn't always know everybody there, and that's okay. So it's not really a big deal. So you can just chill. I don't know. I I would I would probably just be like, well, whatever. Like, I'm just gonna hang out at this party. Like a lot of times, people who throw parties, they just want more people to be at the party, right? They just want people. They I don't I don't know. There there are a lot of factors, like this really depends on the context. This depends on what kind of party, what's going on. You feel me? Like, I don't know. I don't know about in this situation, but if you for the sake of teaching you English, which is kind of what this kind of video is about, right? Is for you to get a feel of how to actually react to different situations in English. That's the whole point. So if if you want to introduce yourself to the host, or if you want to, you know, meet the host or whatever, then just go up to them and say, hey, I don't think we've met. I am so-and-so. My name is blah blah blah. What what's your name? Hey, hey, is this your party? This is a great, great party, or hey, so-and-so invited me. Hey, uh, thanks for for I don't know. Thanks for well, you can't really say thanks for inviting me because I didn't invite you. I don't know. You have to say like something else. Your house is great. You got a beautiful house. Hey, I don't know. Hey, are you the host? Hey, uh, I brought some I brought some food. I brought I don't know. I don't know. But you could say, hey, I don't think we've met. Hey, I don't think we've met. Okay, now remember, meet, this verb meet, which in the past is met, okay, this is only for people. So many language, no, not language, so many English students. I'm looking at you, speakers of Latin-based languages. I'm talking Spanish, Portuguese, probably Italian and French, I'm not sure. You guys love to try to use meat with places. You can't. You cannot meet a place. You can only meet a person, okay? You can't meet a thing or a place. Only a person. You can only meet people. And what does meet mean? It means to uh see someone for the first time, like to be introduced to someone for the first time. The first introduction, the first day of our encounter. That is meeting. Okay. So you meet someone once and then you never meet them again. Unless we're talking about the other meaning of meet, which is like to meet up with someone, like to meet somewhere for lunch. That's more like, you know, to join someone in a in an activity or something, to, you know, go to a meeting point and like, you know, to just to just go together, uh, or to um go to the same place where you will see each other. That's kind of a different meaning. But in in this way that I'm using meet, it's like to meet someone for the first time, right? And then you know the person. Once you have met someone, then you know them. Okay. So you could say, I don't think we've met before. Hey, I don't think we've met before. That's a great thing to say. Hey, I don't think we've met before. My name is but what what's your name? Yeah. My name is I I I forgot my name. Oh, I'm so silly. Okay, next one. Um, number two, a coworker you're friendly with keeps venting to you about personal drama. Ooh, give it to me. I love the gossip. Okay, but they never ask you how you're doing. Okay, so they just like to talk and talk and talk and talk. They never they never ask you. This is I call this a one-sided conversation. It's one-sided. They're talking to me, but they don't care about what I say. Like they don't care what's going on with me. It's starting to drain you. It's starting to like drain, you know, like when the water goes in the sink and it goes down the drain. So it's like draining your energy. All of your energy is going down and out. It's coming out of you. Okay. So it's draining me, it's making me like low energy, tired, or just like annoyed. They just walked up to your desk to start again. Okay. So, so what would you do in this situation? So, so uh there's this coworker, right? And they're always just going on and on and on about stuff you don't care about, right? And or or maybe you care, but they don't talk to you. It's it's a one-sided conversation. So you don't really like talking to them anymore. It's draining. You don't want to do it. You don't want to do it, you're over it. And you see them walking up to your desk. Okay, now I gotta put myself in a situation here. I gotta imagine that I am in the situation. So someone's walk up to my desk, I don't really want to talk to them. Um, I'll just I'm just very honest, and I highly recommend that everybody else be honest as well. Like I live by this, and I highly promote this. I highly recommend this. Like, stop being fake, okay? Just be honest with people, all right? Don't be afraid of confrontation. Set boundaries, be honest, just do it. Just do it. Why? Because you, when you're 80 years old, is gonna wish that you had done it. That's why. The older version of you that's not gonna give a crap, okay? They're gonna look back and be like, you should have just been honest. You should have just you should have just said what you wanted to say, okay? That's why. That's why. So, so it I I would just say, um, look, I I'm I'm busy, I don't have time for this. Um, like, I can't talk to you right now. I'm doing something else. I'm not available. Uh I'm I can't, I can't like yes. Um, I don't know what to tell you, but I'm I can't I can't keep doing this. I can't keep I can't keep doing this. You just could you just talk to me too much. You talk to me too much, you go on and on and on. It's not a real conversation, okay? It's one-sided and is training me. I mean, I would just be honest. I mean, I would literally just say that. Or, you know, you could just say, I'm I can't, I'm just I'm not available. I'm I'm busy. I'm busy doing other things. Okay, I have work to do. I can't, I can't do this, you know? And you can I don't know. I mean, d does this really happen? Like, is this even really realistic? Like, does anybody let me know in the comments, do you even experience this? Because a lot of students tell me that like at work they don't really get a lot of ch opportunities to a lot of chances, chances to talk to people because it's all just like work-related stuff. So, do you have any coworkers that just talk to you about their life and they go on and on? I don't know. But a lot of times work is so boring that you might like it. I mean, you might just be like, eh, it's better than work. I don't know. Once again, these things, these situations, they depend on a lot of different factors. It's not a one size fits all, it's not this is how you should deal with it in any situation like this, regardless of the factors. Obviously, you know, use your own discretion here. Use your own um personality. But uh, I'm just giving you a little something, a little something for the sake of entertainment and for teaching you some English and just for talking for a while because meh, yeah, it's helpful for your English um listening, vocabulary, all that good stuff. Okay, so next one, number three, you run into an old classmate at the grocery store. You remember them, but you cannot for the life of you. Oh, that's a good phrase. You can't for the life of you remember their name. Yeah, we say that a lot with like um if you can't remember something, we're like, I couldn't remember, I couldn't remember it for the life like how do we say it? I could I couldn't remember it for the life of me. For the life of me, I couldn't remember. Yeah, I don't know why we say that phrase sometimes, but yeah, for the life of me, I couldn't remember. It's just like a way to add emphasis. It's a way to be extra dramatic, like, yes, like even if my life depended on it, I wouldn't be able to remember. So I guess that's what it means. Like, for the life of me, I couldn't remember. Yeah. I don't really use that phrase that much, but uh but it exists and you might hear it. So you remember them, but you cannot, for the life of you, remember their name. They're walking right toward you smiling. Okay, so some someone is walking toward you and wait, hold on. I just gotta show you something. Look at this, look at this cat at my window. Look, can you see the cat? Hello. I'm I'm literally in the middle of recording of this making this video, and a cat has just visited me. Okay, bye-bye. That is a cat that um lives with me. I mean, that that is well, I'm at a I'm in an Airbnb, but that's like uh oh, he's back. She's no, she's she's a girl. I'm just gonna have to ignore you, kitty cat. I'm sorry. Her name is tuna. Tuna. Like not tuna, like tuna, but like tuna, like the fruit in Mexico, you know? Because I'm in Mexico. Yes, tuna is a fruit. Tuna in English is the fish, but in uh Mexico is a fruit. Anyways, that is tuna. Okay, what was I even talking about? So somebody is walking towards you. You know, like you know that like like they look familiar. Like you feel like you should know who it is, but you can't remember their name. Was it that? Was that the prompt? Was that what it was? Yes. Okay, um, it's not a big deal. Like, there are a million names, especially if it's a class, if it's somebody who you haven't seen in a long time, like if it wasn't like a close, close friend, it's not really a big deal to not remember somebody's name. Like people say, hi, nice to meet you, my name is blah blah blah, and then two seconds later I forget, you know. Like it's like it's not uh anything crazy. It's normal, it's normal. It's very hard to remember names. Everybody has one. Everybody has one, and there's so many people, so you know, there's just so many, like, hi, nice to meet you, hi, and I don't who who's gonna remember all the names, you know, and and who really remembers all the names of their classmates and stuff like that. I mean, I do because I have a great memory, and um, those classmates were with me for like friggin' over a decade, I s like every single year, but not everybody remembers them. So it's not a big deal. No shame if you don't remember somebody's somebody's name. Just be like, you I know who you are, you are so familiar. I know we went to school together, or blah blah blah. I know you, but I cannot remember your name. Just be honest, just tell them. I I know you, I know that I know you. You look so familiar. Could you tell me your name again? Could you remind me of your name? Something like that. It's not a big deal, guys. Stop it. Stop being anxious for no reason. Okay, next one. Um, you're out with a group of friends and suggest a restaurant. Everyone agrees, but once the food arrives, it's clear everyone hates it and is being polite. You're the one who suggested it. Oh, this is a great one for me because um this this class is not just an English class, it's also teach it's a straightforwardness class. It's inspiring you to be extremely straightforward, like me, you know, just extremely honest. So I I consider myself a foodie and I'm very critical of food. And the reason why is because I love it. I'm passionate about it. So I like to be very critical of food. Doesn't matter if I made it, it doesn't matter who made it, doesn't matter where I am, what it is. Like obviously, I'm gonna be respectful. I'm not gonna look at the person who made the food and be like, this food is trash, this food is shit. No, I'm not gonna do that. You know, I have some basic social common sense, but but I I am gonna definitely vocalize it to anybody who's eating with me, like my friend or whoever that you know, like I'm definitely going to like one time I went to an Indian restaurant and the food was like bland, which is shocking. I know it was in Brazil. Bland Indian restaurant. Those two words do not go together. Bland Indian doesn't make sense, doesn't compute in my brain. We know Indian food is like some of the most flavorful food. When I tell you it was bland, like it didn't even have salt, like crazy, crazy. And now I was thinking like this food is trash, and I was eating it with somebody and I was like telling him like this is bland, bland, you know, and he knew, and he knew, but he was like getting uncomfortable because you know people get really some people get really uncomfortable about anything like negative or confrontational or anything um like critical. And this guy is like kind of a friend of mine, but not not really like a close friend, but um, we are very different in this way, you know. And so uh I am not like this at all. I don't like this. Um I think we should just be honest, you know, like say say it like it is, you know, if the food is bad, the food is bad. Okay. Now I went up to the the owners, um, or the not the owner, I don't know. I went up to like the waiters or whatever, the the people who worked at the restaurant, and I said, I love Indian food. I eat it a lot. This was um it it tasted like it didn't have seasoning or it didn't have enough seasoning, okay? So I just want to let you guys know um that it was uh it didn't really have enough seasoning. It wasn't it didn't have enough taste, or I said something like that. I don't know exactly, but uh I said it in a respectful polite way, but I let them know. I let them know why so that they can do better and so that this doesn't happen again, right? Because if I were them, I would want to know. I would want to know because I want to improve and I want to do better, and I don't want to, you know, why would as a business, why would you want to give a bad experience to a customer again and again? You know, I would rather have a customer just tell me, you know, so that's my logic. Um, is that with honesty we can just like identify problems, fix them, and do better, and then we can like enjoy life better. And it it's not like no, we all make mistakes, so I didn't look at them as like they failed at life. Like I didn't look I didn't judge them bad like harshly. I just think that there was a slip-up, there was a mess up in the kitchen. Whoever was in the kitchen was just like distracted or not doing, you know, not doing what they're supposed to be doing. Because I can't imagine that every dish is like that. I think they just messed up. Um and it and I know that the waiter is not the person who made it, so it's not even their fault anyway. So like, yeah, I'm I'm never the type of person to be rude at a restaurant. But I will now it rarely happens that the food is is bad, but if it is, I will I will say something. Um and so basically that was a little detour, but just to show you how I I am very critical of food. I like to um evaluate food food because I love food and I like to compare food, contrast food. I like to, you know, travel to different countries and try different things and like, you know, evaluate things. I like to pretend to be like a food critic, you know, like it's my job, like I'm getting paid to do it. I like I like it. It's like something I'm passionate about. So that on top of just my high how do I say this, highly valuing my my high value that I place on honesty, like my my priority of honesty. Um, if I offered, or not offered, what am I saying? Eh, forget that. If I suggested that we all go to a certain restaurant, I would I would probably be suggesting it because it's a good place, right? So if we all got our food and I tasted it and and everybody else is eating, everybody, you know, we're all eating, and like I noticed that like the food is not as good as it normally is, or the people that I'm with are not really enjoying it, I would probably be like, wow, I'm really surprised because normally the food is so much better. Like normally the food here is so much better than I don't know, maybe they had a something happened today, like they had a bad day because this is not this is not what it normally tastes like. Like I would just be honest, I would tell everybody, like, look, if this is what the food always tasted like, I wouldn't have suggested this place. The reason why I suggested it was because it's normally better than this. So just so you guys know, uh, I would say, uh, normally the food is a lot better. Yeah, today, today it's not very good. It's not good. Uh we're gonna have to go, we'll have to we'll have to try it again another day, because I promise this place is really good. I wouldn't suggest something that isn't really good. I wouldn't suggest it if it weren't good. So, okay, just know I don't know what happened today. Okay, that's what I would say. Okay, next one. A friend asks you to watch their pet for the weekend. You say yes to be nice. You should never do that. Don't say yes to be nice. Why would you do that? Why? These situations are annoying me because I would never be in this situation because I would never I would never say that I'll agree to do something just to be nice. Like uh, I would either do it because I can do it and I'm cool with doing it or I'm not. I'm either cool with doing it or I'm not. There's no just like, what do you mean yes to be nice? What do you mean? Like, I don't even my brain doesn't even understand this concept. Anyways, you say yes to be nice, but you really didn't want to. Now you're stuck at home resentful all weekend. They text you asking for a photo of the pet. Okay, just send them a photo of the pet. That's it. That's like well, at that at that point, if you have failed yourself, and that's really what it is here, right? You have failed yourself. You have not been authentic, you have not been honest, you have not honored yourself, you have not respected yourself and your own desires and your own needs and wishes, and you have agreed to something that you didn't want to do, and now you find yourself in a situation where you don't want to be there, but it's just the weekend. It's just a couple days. At this point, you're in it, you can't back out now. Suck it up, okay? Suck it up. This is a great phrase. It means like deal with it, deal with it. The cat is back and meowing at me. What do you want? I love cats, but the cats at this Airbnb are crazy. They're very needy, very needy. They're always trying to climb on me, and this one's always asking for food. I'm not even in the kitchen right now. But every time I go in the kitchen, she's coming. Anyway, um, yeah, i a weekend is only like a couple days. So, yeah, it sucks. You agreed to something you didn't want to do. Now you're stuck there, but so what? That's what like it's a couple days, you'll be okay, you'll survive, you're fine. You just have to take care of a cat. You have to watch a cat, ironically, a cat. You have to um take care of a cat for a couple days. You got your the the the owner is asking for a picture of the cat. Um, okay, so send the cat send a picture. Wait, did I did I misunderstand this? Um okay, so you're at your house and you want I don't know, there's not enough details, so I don't understand where the friend lives and where you live and if it's close together or not, and if you they expect that you're there and you lied and you'd not really I don't really understand what's going on, but if you agreed to something and it's already the weekend, it's already happening, then just do it. Just do it. Go look at the cat, take a picture, do like, you know, sometimes you just have to suck it up and deal with it. You just have to like, you know, you just have to do it anyway. Okay? Sometimes. It's not gonna kill you. All right. It's a cat and it's two days. All right. So please. Okay. Next one. You're in a quiet waiting room, like at the doctor's office, for example. There's a there's a waiting room, we call it, like the space where you wait for their doctor to call you or the nurse or whoever. Like you go to the doctor's office, you go, you talk to the secretary, you say, I have an appointment, my name is blah blah blah. Sometimes they give you like a uh clipboard with some paperwork to fill out sometimes. Usually I think and you go sit in the room with the chairs and it's it's the waiting room. That's what we call it the waiting room. So you're in the waiting room, let's say, and your phone suddenly dies. You have no charger and no book. Okay, like for entertainment. You'll probably be here for 45 more minutes. 45 minutes waiting at the waiting room why why are we waiting 45 minutes in the waiting room? That doesn't even make sense. Why would you be there for 45 minutes? I don't even understand why this would happen. But if you are in a situation where your phone died or you don't have you're not going to use your phone for whatever reason and you uh you don't have a book, you don't have any other kind of entertainment, I don't know. I would just stare at the wall I would just I'd probably just stare off into space. Stare off into space just like daydreaming. Like I would probably just like sit there and just look randomly at random stuff like the wall and just probably be thinking about other things. I probably I probably would just be thinking about stuff whatever I want to think about whatever I need to think about. Yeah I'd probably just think well what else are you gonna do? What else are you gonna do? I mean you could try to strike up conversation with somebody strike up conversation like you like start conversation. You could try to strike up a conversation with someone if there's somebody there but I mean I would probably just sit there and think about stuff. 45 minutes is okay. Yeah but nowadays we're so used to being constantly entertained and distracted we think like we're gonna die if we have to go through that. So okay next one you're walking down the street and you see someone you went on one mediocre date with a year ago you made eye contact do you pretend you don't see them or do you say hi? Well if you've made eye contact you can't pretend that you don't see them. You already made eye contact what the hell what the hell okay so you walk down the street you see somebody you went on a date with you don't want to see them again you're like oh God what the hell um I don't know why does it have to be we like just just walk by just like just pretend well whether you are or not just continue on your mission right you're walking for some reason so just keep going keep walking you don't need to stop but you could just be like hey you know you could just say hi hi or whatever. And now if they want to stop and talk you can just be like uh sorry I'm in a hurry but nice to see ya that's what we say like hey hey nice to see ya nice to see ya hey nice to see you hey I gotta go I'm I'm in a hurry I'm in a rush I can't talk right now but well I probably wouldn't say that one that's like more on the phone. Well I don't know when do we say that can't talk right now. Yeah somebody calls and you're like sorry I can't talk right now I'm busy I'll call you back call you back um yeah if you see someone you don't want to talk to it's not that big of a deal you just say I gotta go I mean I can't I'm busy like I got I got I got I'm in a hurry. I'm in a hurry nice to see you I'm in a hurry. Okay it's not that complicated. I'm in a hurry I'm in a rush I gotta go okay uh next one you're at a restaurant and the waiter brings you the wrong order the food looks good maybe even better than what you ordered do you speak up or do you just eat it? Okay well in this case um I would let them know that that is not what I ordered. Why? Because I love transparency and honesty. I've made that clear so I would let them know that they messed up I have to no I would say oh this is not what I ordered but this looks even better than what I ordered so I'll keep this it's okay it's okay I want to eat this instead this looks better yeah I don't know what my eyes are watering I I'm not I'm I promise I'm not crying sometimes sometimes uh sometimes like when I'm talking about different things it happened in the last video too and I I don't know I'm I'm I don't know what causes it because I'm not sad and I'm not if they're not like tears of joy. Maybe they are tears of joy but I don't feel like that happy I'm just kind of I'm happy but I'm just like neutral happy neutral neutral happy I don't know why sometimes I just my eyes start watering and I don't I don't know this pro this is probably like a known phenomenon that there's a name for feel free to tell me in the comments I don't know what it is but the cat is still outside the window has stopped meowing she's not meowing so much but she keeps looking at me she keeps turning away and looking back at me like girl what do you want I when I'm not filming a video she never does this she's never come to the window and done this but now that I'm filming a video she's like who are you talking to what are you doing? I want to get in there or maybe it's just because it's later in the day and her mother my Airbnb host has been gone all day or I think she's been gone all weekend. I haven't seen her at all and the kitty is hungry maybe she's had it fed up she's not fed but she's fed up you know what that means when when someone is fed up it's like they're sick of it they're tired of it they're done they've had enough they they're they're up to here you know she's fed up she's not fed though because if she were fed she would have been given food to eat. She's not fed she's fed up the phrasal verb which has a totally different meaning she's she's annoyed because she hasn't been fed. So this is funny she is fed up because she hasn't been fed I don't know if I've ever used that those both in a sentence and I and I have just done it right now. I just did it and it's fantastic. So um anyways the point of this video is just to have fun with it and to it's okay if I get distracted, okay? Just just roll with it. Just go with it. Just go with it. Okay so that's what I would say in that case. This is not what I ordered but this looks even better. I want to eat this thank you very much I would I would say I would say um I actually ordered the blah blah blah but this looks even better. So I will keep this don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. And I would still give them a good tip because yeah stuff happens and as long as they give me good food I'm happy. But if they give me something that's worse or something that I don't want I'm gonna be like um I ordered the blah blah blah and they'd probably be like oh I'm sorry you know and they would take it away whatever and I'd be like it's okay it's alright and inside I would be like this is kind of annoying. I'm hungry and I don't want to wait any longer. Why did they mess that up? But whatever. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? Stuff happens mistakes happen and I'd still leave them a tip if we're in a place where tipping is like normal. Okay the next one you're in a work meeting and your boss says something that is factually incorrect, but it's a minor detail, no one else will probably notice do you correct them? Um I would say it depends on the repercussions of that incorrect detail. Like if them being wrong about a minor detail is going to lead to some kind of issue or miscommunication or something to not work properly like if it's going to have some kind of negative consequence then yes I it's important it's important to to to address that. But if not if it's like so minor it's just like it doesn't even really have any impact then it doesn't matter. Then just let it go. Let it go. Just don't say anything like why? What is the point? You know like you have to evaluate if things are worth mentioning or not. Um if yeah because like you could just be one of those annoying people that just needs to constantly correct people uh for no reason when it doesn't even matter you know you don't want to be one of like make sure you understand if this is really worth it or not. Make sure you're thinking about that. Okay. Okay next one a neighbor knocks on your door to complain about noise you made last night. You weren't being particularly loud but they seemed really annoyed. Okay. Um well um I don't know I'm a person who really respects noise levels. Like I really try not to be loud because I care about other people's um perception of not perception. Uh I care about people well yeah but I also care about people's um life experience like I I have empathy for people's experiences and I can relate to it because I know what it's like to want quiet and to not get it. Right I've lived in Latin America uh for like eight years. I know what it's like to want quiet and not get it. So um I empathize with that. So I try my best not to be loud and not to cause loud noise for people. Because yeah because I I I know what it's like to be on the other end and it sucks. And even if you don't care about it yourself, you should care because like even if you don't mind about having quiet, you gotta understand that for some of us people, for some people like me, quiet is like it's like our mental health. It's like our peace. It's like our it's like it it has a huge impact on whether or not we are having a good day. Like it's like it affects it it can affect our work. If it's loud I can't film a video like you know maybe I want to take a nap maybe like there's a lot of things that could be affected. And so you have to you have to be considerate of noise. I don't care about culture. You have to be noise considerate and I will die on this hill. People who are not considerate of noise levels it's no it's okay to throw a party once in a while or have a big thing, you know, like once in a while on a Saturday night whatever. If it's like that situation, you know, I don't really have empathy for the neighbor in that case because it's like if it's if it's not every weekend, if it's you know rarely if it's a special occasion and it's um you know once in a while and it's a it's a weekend or whatever like you just have to expect expect you have to accept that human beings are going to party sometimes they're gonna do stuff like that. Like you this is to a certain extent you just have to live with that. You just have to deal with it to an extent. But so once again it depends on the factors, the context it depends um but I do empathize with people's um need for quiet. But it but it but it depends. It depends now if it's something that happens frequently or if it's like a weekday then yeah you gotta like you gotta be conscious of that. You've got to be responsible um don't be inconsiderate. Right? So um depending on the context uh I would you know but i if I if I really think that the neighbor is is valid in their you know reason to complain or to be annoyed I would say I would you know say uh yeah I I'm I'm sorry about that. I was hoping that it wouldn't disturb you up I was hoping that it wouldn't be too loud. Um I it it got out of hand or it you know they um yeah they ended up getting louder than I hoped. I tried to tell them to be quiet but they didn't really listen to me. I'm I'm I'm sorry about that. Um it's um you know it's gonna be quiet every other night this week like don't worry about like it's it's not gonna happen again anytime soon. So um yeah so uh I'm I'm sorry about that. I I emphasize I I I don't like when people are loud so I know how it feels and and uh it's it's not gonna happen again. So yeah just just just apologize. Like yeah I have no issue with apologizing if I think that the person's not being ridiculous. Like I if it's a valid thing like yeah I I apologize a lot. Well not a lot because I don't like I'm not like constantly doing things that are bothering people but but I definitely do apologize in my life sometimes. Um okay next one um you're at a family dinner and a relative asks you loudly so are you seeing anyone yet? Are you seeing anyone? It's like are you dating anyone? It's like that are you seeing anybody? Are you seeing anyone? Are you dating anyone? Are you going out you know? Um so they a relative asks you loudly so are you seeing anyone yet? You are not and you don't really want to talk about oh so you're single. So you're single and you just don't want to talk about it you're like tired of just talking about or you just you don't really want to talk about this but you're single. Um I would just be like you know if it's that annoying like aunt or uncle or grandma or whatever like and you know I would just be like I I for me personally when I'm single which I'm single right now I like to just joke about it. I like I like to laugh at it like l laugh about it and have fun with it. So you know if if somebody in my family said this I would probably just be like I'm still single I'm I I want a boyfriend but I'm I'm still single. I'm very single and it's it's starting to get old it's starting to get annoying believe me I'm trying I'm going on dates I'm trying but I'm just so selective I just don't like anybody I don't I don't like any of these people I've I've gone on dates I don't like them I'm I'm trying I'm on the apps I know I'm I'm trying to socialize and meet people and ugh yeah um but but but I I'm trying and I hope and I want but I I want it I hope for it I'm hoping it's gonna happen but I'm single so yeah I made that answer way longer than it really would be in real life it would probably just be like still single but I'm trying I'm trying but I just I'm too picky. I'm just too selective my standards are too high and I don't like any of these people what are you gonna do but I'll find somebody eventually I thought I'll find it's no no rush I'm in no rush but uh it'll happen yeah normally I don't really get annoyed by this I I can't really relate to being like oh my god I don't want to talk about this what's the big deal just be like just be like haha I'm single um yeah and if you don't want to be in a relationship and if you're single and you want to stay single just be like nah I just want to be single I I don't I don't want a relationship right now. I just want to be single and like like I would just I don't know I guess I am so content with myself and my life that there's not really a lot that a relative could say to me that would like really get under my skin, you know, which is an expression that means like really bother me. Like there's nothing they could say that would really get under my skin or really bother me or trigger me because I don't know I'm already very self-aware and I'm like I am happy with myself I love myself I'm comfortable with myself and my life and I'm not like hiding anything I'm not like embarrassed or insecure about anything I think like well most things. So yeah. I think if this bothers you it's probably because you're insecure about it. It's probably because you feel embarrassed about being single but like there's nothing to be embarrassed about like I'm single and I'm amazing. No I'm just kidding I'm kidding I'm kidding stop it. I'm kidding no but for real for real um you could be Beyoncé and be single I mean you could be you could be like the most beautiful amazing incredibly successful attractive I don't know you could be like the best person in the world if that ex if they exist and just so to speak you know and you could be single. Like being single is not a failure like we all experience being single and if you've never experienced being single or you've never been or you've never experienced being single in the past that's that's a little bit more embarrassing. If you're one of those people that has always been in a relationship and you've never been able to be single like you just go from one relationship to the next the next like that and you've like never been single since you have been like an adult that's kind of embarrassing. Sorry but that's kind of like weird like I know some people like that and it's like I don't know I just I think it's weird. Maybe they're just lucky maybe they just happen to meet somebody who's compatible with them right when they're getting out of a relationship or something I don't know like maybe maybe it works like that for some people but I think in a lot of cases it's because people like their their standards are too low. Either their standards their standards are too low. They get they like people too easily like they get into relationships too easily or they're just like afraid of being alone being single like they just don't want that. So they'll they'll stay in relationships that they really don't want to be in for too long and then they will get into relationships that they probably shouldn't get into too quickly right and so this is what happens but yeah but being single there's no shame in that being single is so normal like and so fine and yeah so I don't I I don't I can't believe this. Okay. Anyways next one uh you accidentally liked a post from someone on social media from three years ago while creeping their profile and you were doing a little stalking you were doing a little stalking and you accidentally liked something from three years ago they just sent you a message saying going deep in the archives huh? Oh that's funny that would be I I would love it if somebody would send me that oh I would love to be caught like that that would be so funny. No but that's so cute and funny like some like somebody is just like playing with you because they wouldn't even have sent that message probably if they didn't want to talk to you right so they probably would just be like just freaking creep and just like not reach out to you. But because they saw you liked something and they messaged you in that kind of cutesy almost maybe flirty way depending you know and I think that's a good sign to talk to them. Like be like yeah you caught me just doing a little stalking I was a little doing a little creeping. I was interested you know it's quite normal I think a lot of people I think most people do this and it's not you know like whatever you know if you're interested in somebody you're interested in somebody just say it just tell them like it's not a big deal okay I know that I am a very confident person and not everybody is this confident and some people are like afraid of rejection I I I get it I get it but I don't know I once again and I always think about this one you're gonna die someday you could die tomorrow. Two never forget that two two what are you gonna think when you're 80 when you are 80 freaking years old what are you gonna wish you had done remember that remember that you think when you're 80 you're gonna be sitting there you're gonna be laying there whatever whatever you're doing you're gonna be sitting there like I wish that I hadn't been so brave I wish that I hadn't been so confident I wish that I hadn't been so honest I wish that I hadn't told people what I really think. Do you think that that's what you're gonna say hell no what you're gonna say is I wish that I had done all of all of those things more. I wish that I had been more honest more brave courageous more of a go-getter I wish I had just told people what I think and told people this is what I want and this is what I'm gonna do and this is what and I like you and I'm interested in you and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah like you're gonna wish that you did all these things you're not gonna regret liking that person's post from three years ago and then messaging them. You're not gonna regret that. But you might regret not having done that because if you didn't do that you might not even have ever talked to them you know so yes like I have I have met some people in my life where it's like if I had not reached out to them if I had not initiated something if I had not made the effort to do this or go to this place or do this thing or whatever I I wouldn't even have met them. I would they wouldn't even be in my life I wouldn't even have anything with them and and that's terrifying like you know because now I know that that person in my life is such you know a good thing or or or was a good thing at least for some time in the past you know imagine if I hadn't done that you know so it's like just remember that remember that that's like my biggest advice takeaway from this video I hope that you take away I hope you carry this with you and I hope you think about it a lot from time to time. What would you do? What would you think about what you should do if you were 80? If you your 80 year old self, what would they want you to do in this situation? What would they wish you would have done? Yes it's important to think about our older versions of ourselves when we're considering like what actions we should take, right? And it's good to think about the child versions of ourselves when we are considering like what would make us like happy and how How do we love ourselves, right? So to love yourself and to you know prioritize your happiness and your your play and stuff, it's good to think about your child self, right? Well, if you if you were your child self and you were looking at yourself, you know, what is the love that you would give to your child self, right? Give the same love to yourself as an adult. And when you're considering what actions to take, think about your older self, right? So it's good to be thinking about your younger self and your older self when you're considering how to live life, how to approach life, and everything in between. Everything else related to life. Everything at all. Anything, anything at all, and everything. Anything and everything. So I didn't even think that this video was going to be so inspirational. Here I am dropping the inspirational bombs on you. Sorry, that was so violent. I shouldn't have said bombs. Dropping the inspirational um pillows of of love. Sorry. Okay, next one. You're in an elevator, you are in an elevator, and a stranger makes a casual comment about the weather. Uh, they want to make small talk, they want to talk to you. This is rare because a lot of times people just ignore each other in the in the elevator. So if somebody is actually trying to talk to you, I don't care what they're talking about. I don't care what it is. If somebody is trying to make a conversation with you in the elevator, you better talk to them. I don't care that you're introverted and you don't like people and whatever you tell yourself, I don't care. Human connection is very important for our mental health, okay? I am the type of person who will happily spend all day in my bedroom not talking to anybody. I understand this, but we don't realize how important human interaction is for our mental health. And um just a little elevator conversation can be cute, can be fun, and you never know. You never know. You never know what could happen. You never know. Um, and I personally like it. It brightens my day. I enjoy interacting with people. Um, I call myself an ambivert, like introvert and extrovert, because um I definitely feel the need to like go be alone and recharge, but like recharge my energy and stuff, but I also will have you know experiences with people out in the world, and it gives me energy as well. So and I and I can thrive in both and I can enjoy both. And yeah, so and I think that we all really are this way, or could be this way, or should be this way, but it's kind of like I don't know. We have a lot of issues, humans, but I think we should uh take advantage of it and you know, because like what I can tell you is somebody who travels around different countries and like speaks other languages and stuff, I love any moment I get to interact with locals. Like I I I appreciate that, you know? It makes my I'm gonna start crying again. Okay. It makes me it makes me happy, like to be on the on the to like here I'm in Mexico City and I was on the Metro bus the other day, in Metro Luz, and you know, there's this I'm sitting in one of the seats, and there's an older lady behind me, and she's standing. And I just turned around to her and I said, Do you want to sit? Or or you can sit, and she said, No, no, I I'm gonna get off soon, but thank you, dear, you know, basically in Spanish, but basically said that. And that made me so happy, just that short little interaction. Maybe I am getting emotional because of stuff that I'm talking about. Ugh Okay. Um, just the little moment uh of like interacting with someone like that. I just thought it was so sweet and cute, and it made me so happy. And it's such a simple little thing. And I'm fluent in Spanish. Like I don't it's not like I need that to practice or anything, but um it just felt like it felt good. And I even if it's just small talk, just talk to just talk to them. I didn't even read the full prompt. I just started telling you to just like people say like, oh, I don't like small talk. Yeah, okay, so try to talk about something interesting if you can think of a topic. But regardless, regardless of whether you like small talk or not, it don't think of it like that. It's not about it's not about the weather. You know, when I'm in the in an Uber and they're talking about the weather, we're it's not about the weather. The weather the weather doesn't matter. It's about the human connection, it's about the human interaction. And in this day and age with with screens and you know, so much isolation. Uh I mean, think about like the lockdown time and the pandemic. I mean, just like, you know, just all of these ways that we isolate, it's so good to have human weekend. And even if it's over the weather, in an elevator, in an elevator, talking about the weather, take it. Take it. Because yeah, 80-year-old you would probably take unless you turn into an 80-year-old crank pot, like a cranky, like a stick up your ass. You know, you know how some old people are just like mad at the world. They're just like, they're just like chronically unhappy. Don't be one of those people. I'm not when I say think about yourself at 80, I'm not talking about that. Okay, don't you're not gonna be like that, okay? I'm not gonna, we're not gonna be like that, okay? Think about you at 80 years old, happy, in a good mood, full of life, reflecting on your life, okay. Old people who are happy, they love to chit-chat. All right. Anyways, next one. Okay, uh, we'll do one more. You run into your boss at the grocery store on Saturday. You're both in the same aisle. Oh my god, I just realized I didn't even finish the last one. Okay, so it was basically you're in an elevator, they make a comment about the weather. You have to ride 12 more floors together, you run out of weather things to say. Oh, so if you if you don't know what else to talk about related to the weather, um, well, if you want to keep talking, then just talk about something else. I would just be like, um, I would I would probably just ask them if they're from here. I always do that. Like, are you from here? Um and if they're not, then you could ask about the weather there or the climate there. Um, yeah. Remember, weather and climate are not the same. Weather is like temporary, like what is the weather today? Climate is more about like a region of the world and what happens throughout the year, right? So maybe you live in a tropical climate, but today the weather is like rainy. It's a rainy day. So the rainy day is like the weather, but the climate is not rainy day. The climate is like you live in a tropical climate or you live in a um mountainous climate, or I don't know. Like you can get more specific than that. You can, you know, I live in a climate where we have a rainy season and a dry season, whatever. There could be many ways that you could define your climate, but the point is that it's like about like in general, right? So if you run out of things to talk about related to the weather, you could just talk about the climate, or you could talk about if the person lives here, if they're from here, where they're from. That's an always easy thing to say. So you can you can talk about if you want to keep talking. Sometimes people don't really want to have a full-blown conversation, the whole elevator ride, and it's okay if you just talk about weather for a little bit and then you go silent. That's okay. You don't have to fill the silence with talking. I know I just told you that human interaction is very important, but silence is okay as well. You don't have to talk just to talk. Like you can you can be silent. It's okay. You can be silent. Okay, so now we finish that one. So the last one. You run into your boss at the grocery store on a Saturday. You're both in the same aisle looking at something slightly embarrassing, like ice cream or junk food. Once again, not embarrassing. Why is that embarrassing? Okay, well, I'm vegan, so I would say it's only embarrassing if it's not vegan, because then you're ex you're supporting animal exploitation. That's the only reason it's embarrassing. But if I'm looking at my vegan ice cream, I have no that is guilt free. No cruelty. I I have no um I have no I have no guilt about that. So that's not embarrassing, okay? It's food. And everybody everybody has the right to enjoy um, you know, unhealthy food. Like you're right. You don't need to you don't need to justify eating unhealthy. Like you're only hurting yourself, you know, hurting others. So it's only a problem if you're hurting others, you know, like if it's animal products, right? There's victims. You're not the you're not the victim. The animals are. So as long as it's vegan junk food, it's fine. It's guilt-free. So um, yeah, so there's nothing embarrassing about buying food. Like I would just be like, the same thing. If you see your boss in any other context in the world in the real in real life. Oh, hey, hey, how you doing? Oh, looks like we're both we're both uh having some ice cream cravings. Yeah. Looks like we both had the same idea. That's a common phrase we say. Like, oh looks like we both had the same idea. Yeah. Or um, yeah, I don't know. We both had we both had a good idea. I don't know. I don't know. But you could just say like make a comment about how we're doing the same thing. Uh look, you know. Oh, another phrase we use is um great minds think alike. Great minds think alike, like the same. So you uh if you're both like in the ice cream aisle, you could say, I uh great minds think alike. But vegan ice cream, why? Because the dairy industry is extremely cruel and unethical and totally unnecessary because we are not baby cows, we do not need to consume cow breast milk. Uh, and only pregnant cows uh who can produce breast milk and their babies are taken away from them and they are exploited, they are um forcibly impregnated, violated. There's a lot of horrendous things. And it's completely unnecessary. The human body as an adult has no need for breast milk and especially not breast milk from another species. So there's no reason to consume dairy, highly unethical thing. Um, so just grab the vegan ice cream and uh, you know, there's a bunch of different kinds. You might not like one, you can try another one. I'm sure if you try some different kinds, you'll find one that you like. You could also make it at home, you can make um some uh vegan ice cream at home. You can put uh if you if you have a high-powered blender, you could put some frozen bananas and some uh cacao powder in the blender, and you can make chocolate ice cream and banana nice. There's a lot of different, but they also sell vegan ice cream. So as long as uh it's cruelty-free, um, you could say, you know, oh, we both want we both wanted vegan ice cream. Oh, great minds think alike, great minds think alike. Just just just be cool. Like, why you why is everything embarrassing? You know, stop it. Stop being embarrassed. All right. You know, my group chat, I have a WhatsApp group chat, and um uh recently someone in the group chat made a mistake. Now people people make mistakes all the time in the group chat, but somebody made a mistake, uh like an English mistake, and I corrected them and and they said, like, oh, it's embarrassing, you know, like I'm I'm embarrassed. And I said, why? Like, if someone else in the group made a mistake, a language mistake, you wouldn't think that that is embarrassing. So why do you think it's embarrassing when you do it? It's because you're hard on yourself. It's because you are judging yourself differently than you judge other people. Like you are you are you are like expecting more of yourself than of other people. You're expecting yourself to be superhuman. You're expecting yourself to not be human, essentially, which is crazy. It's crazy. You know, it's totally normal to make language mistakes. And so if you don't think it's embarrassing when someone else does it, then why do you think it's embarrassing when you do it? You know? And yeah. We need to have more empathy for ourselves, and uh we need to understand that like there's not a lot of things in life that are worth being embarrassed about, except like really bad things where you're actually harming people or or any sentient beings, you know. If you're actually harming beings who can suffer, who are suffering because of your actions, because of your what you are doing or supporting, paying for, that is that is embarrassing. But just stop. Just don't do it. Problem solved. Um, but there's no reason to be embarrassed about like normal mistakes, like making a mistake in English, or or your boss seeing you buying something at the store. Like, this stuff is not okay. All right. So um, thank you all uh for watching this video to the end. I really appreciate you. Like those of you who watch or listen to these long like podcast style videos, like you are my internet family. You are my internet friends. I love you, I cherish you. I I don't know even know I have I have no words. I have no words. I I don't know what to say. I'm speechless. I am forever in debt to you being dramatic. It's for comedic effect. I like I like to be dramatic. It's part of my culture. Okay. Um I it's part of my personality. I am forever grateful, honestly and truly, and I wish you the best in all of your endeavors in life. And always ask yourself, like, what would you at 80 years old want you to do? Okay. Thank you. Um, I hope this helps you with your English. Let me know in the comments. Always let me know. Like, please, like, it takes two seconds, well, more than two seconds, but it doesn't take that long to leave a comment um on my videos. You could just literally you could write like, um, this was a great video, or like, I want more videos like this. Like, that's you could write something so simple like that, you know, really quick, and it helps me so much. It helps me not just with the engagement, but also like for this YouTube, you know, algorithm, but also it just helps me know uh it helps encourage me to make cont more content like this. So yeah, please let me know in the comments something, anything, always, and love you. I already said that. I don't know why I keep telling you guys I love you. Uh because why not? Because why not? Okay. And for all of those people who think that I am like on drugs or I or I'm passive aggressive, I don't know, I get all kinds of crazy comments. Um, no, okay. I'm this is just me, sober, happy, neutral, neutral, happy, but not fake happy. Like not, you know, I'm I'm straightforward, I'm direct, but I'm I'm fine. This is just me, normal. And I have fun with these videos. I enjoy, I enjoy making these videos. I like just being my just free self with my personality to just be me. And people like it, people watch. So, okay, I'm gonna keep doing it then. Okay, time to go. Bye bye. Thank you.