Let's have a relaxing chat about English and the US.

Let_s have a relaxing chat about English and the US.

 Learning English doesn’t always have to feel like studying from a textbook. Sometimes, the best way to improve your language skills is through a relaxed and natural conversation.
In this episode of Mind Life In English, host Profe Lao invites you to sit back and enjoy a calm discussion about the English language and life in the United States. This episode is designed to help listeners practice their listening skills while exploring interesting ideas about culture, communication, and everyday English.
🎙️ In this episode, we talk about:
• Why English is such an important global language
• How English is used in everyday life in the United States
• Cultural differences that English learners often notice
• How relaxed conversations help improve listening and fluency
• Tips for understanding natural English spoken by native speakers
This episode is perfect for English learners who want to improve their listening skills in a natural and comfortable way. Instead of complicated lessons, you’ll experience English the way it is used in real conversations.
Whether you're learning English for study, work, travel, or personal growth, this relaxing discussion will help you feel more confident and connected to the language.
🎧 Take a moment, relax, and join Profe Lao for a friendly conversation about English, culture, and life in the U.S.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. I'm trying a new thing this video. I realized that this microphone is very sensitive and I didn't like the tone of my voice in the last video. And honestly, even before I used this microphone, just watching some of my other videos, I think that I have this bad habit of over-projecting in my videos, like talking in this presenter projector voice that is not even how I talk on a normal basis. Like it's louder, it's it's stronger. It's like it's like I'm projecting, like you guys are in a room and I don't have a microphone, and I need you all to hear me as if I'm a teacher in a classroom for real. But that's not the case because I have a microphone right next to my mouth. Like this. I'm talking softly intentionally this time, and I'm having it very close to my mouth, so so the quality is great, but it's a soft voice. So you can let me know what you think in the comments. I know some of you like my Learn English Why You Sleep videos, and those have my soft talking voice. So uh people seem to like that, so yeah. Okay, anyways, let's get into the videos. Today I'm gonna be talking about a couple different things. So, first I'm gonna talk to you about a couple phrases that are used incorrectly often by students. I've often seen them used um incorrectly. I just said the same thing twice. And I want to explain why this is used incorrectly and what is my advice and how you should use it, or maybe not even use it. And the second part of the video, if we have enough time, I think I'm gonna briefly talk about kind of a continuation on the topic in a couple videos ago when I talked about um the food, the diet in the United States, and responding to common myths about what we eat at home in the United States. And I have some interesting uh I have an interesting thing to show you about the United States and about which regions of the US are healthier and which regions are less healthy, and I'm gonna tie that to like education and politics and stuff like that. So I'm gonna be talking about some some spicy topics, some interesting topics in this video. So I recommend watching all of it as always, and let's get into it. So let me share with you a comment that I saw on one of my videos. So this person says, I do way more than only watching your video. I like them, and I always write a comment below, and finally, I am a big fan you of you. Yeah, so I'm not gonna correct the mistakes in this comment, and I'm just gonna talk about the use of the word finally, because that's what this video is about. By the way, I appreciate uh comments like this. It's very nice, as always. Uh I don't care if your comment has a million mistakes, if you are writing something nice and positive to me, um, I appreciate you. I appreciate you very much, and thank you. Um, so in this comment, the person just kind of listed some things. They said, I do more than just watch your video. I like them. I always write a comment, and I'm a big fan. So they're they're just like listing facts. Like they're not telling me a series of actions. They're just telling me one thing and then telling me another thing, and then another thing, and another thing. And they're using finally to indicate that this is the the last thing that they're saying, right? They got to the end and they wanted to say one more thing, and so they wrote finally. That's not how we use finally. Finally is used to show the last point in a list or the end of a process. Yeah, keyword process. It's like a list of actions. So, for example, we talked about cost, timing, and finally quality. Okay, so this is just a random example. So first we talked about cost, the cost, and then we talked about timing, and finally we talked about quality. So it's a listing of actions, right? So first we did this, and then we did this, and then finally we did this. But honestly, even that way of talking is a bit formal and weird. It's it's like what you would see in an essay, like it's what you see in writing. You like sometimes people put finally in their conclusion when they're writing an essay or something like an academic paper. But it's not so common to talk like that. It's not as common to talk like that as it is in writing. You can, but normally in everyday life, the way we use finally is like this. It's used to show relief after waiting a long time. So this is probably the most common way you'll see finally used in real um speaking. So for example, after three hours, the bus finally arrived. So the bus finally got here after three hours. Well, actually, probably the most common way we would say this is after three hours the bus finally came. The most common way that we use finally is like to say after after a period of waiting, then something happened. Like I couldn't find my keys, I was looking for my keys all day, and then finally I found them, right? But finally is not used in normal everyday life just to indicate that this is the last thing you're gonna say. And I think the problem comes from students feeling the need to use a transition, to find and use a transition all the time in their speaking and their writing. And a lot of the times I notice that students are looking for a transition when they don't even need one. A lot of the times you can just say what you want to say and then say the next thing you want to say and the next thing you want to say, and you can just say what you want to say. You can just go right to it. Really, that's what I recommend in English is just just to be very direct, is go right to the thing you want to say and just say it. You don't have to always use a transition or prep prepare the person for what you're about to say. Like you can just say what you want to say. But if you are listing things, probably the most common way that we're going to add a transition is by saying also, right? So you could say, I love your videos, I always leave leave a comment, and also I joined your channel membership or something. Like if you want to add another thing or you know, an additional piece of information, you can always just say also, blah blah blah. And also, blah, blah, blah. Also, also, it's a four-letter word, it's used constantly in English, in everyday English. It's very good, very good word. Sometimes when I'm feeling a little fancy in in debates and in and conversations about more complex topics, I like to use like furthermore, uh, or in addition or additionally. But honestly, you could just use all also. I almost said always. No, you can use also. The need to use a transition or this desire for students to to use a transition, I think is also the reason why students often use the phrase on the other hand incorrectly. I don't think I've ever seen or heard a student, an English student, use the phrase on the other hand correctly. I think it's always been incorrect. And first of all, I need to establish something with you guys. On the other hand, is a phrase that exists in English. You will come across it from time to time. But it's not everyday English, and it's nowhere near as common as students think. I personally never say on the other hand, like I don't think I've ever said that in my whole life, like like seriously, like seriously, like in a conversation. Maybe, but really, I don't use that phrase. So it's completely unnecessary, first of all. You you can usually just use the word but. You can say blah blah blah, but blah blah blah. Because on the other hand, is used to provide a different perspective, like a contrasting perspective. So for example, uh, yes, it says on the other hand, used to contrast, used to contrast with what you just said. It introduces an opposite or different point. For example, I like the pay, oh, like the salary. I like the salary. Sometimes we just say the pay. I like the pay. I like the pay. On the other hand, the hours are terrible. Okay, so you're saying you like how much you make at the job in this job, but the work schedule, the hours are terrible. So you're providing like a like a contrasting point, right? Uh the apartment is small, on the other hand, it's cheap. But honestly, okay, these are examples from Chat GPT, but honestly, guys, honestly, we don't talk like this in real life. Like nobody freaking says this. Nobody says this, like, I don't think I've ever heard anybody s talk like this. Anybody say, Yeah, my apartment is really nice. On the other hand, it's expensive. No, we don't talk like that. We don't say that. That sounds so weird. We just say, Yeah, the apartment's really nice, but it's expensive. But, but it's expensive, but it's so expensive. Yeah, but it's like crazy expensive. Yeah. That's how we talk, okay? When you say on the other hand, it sounds like you're just learning English from a book, from an learn English book from the past, and you have never actually heard English in your life, and you're just reading a book about how to learn English. That's what you sound like. Nobody talks like this, okay? People don't usually say, on the other hand, we just say but. We just say but. But is the word that you will use all the time in English. And the the reason that I've seen students use it incorrectly or heard them incorrectly, is not it's not just because it's not common, but they literally use it wrong. Like I've seen I've seen students use it just to transition to say something else, or just to start say something saying something else. Like in the group chat that I have on WhatsApp, most people in that group have a decent level of English and we we have conversations and and it and it's great. But of course, mistakes happen, and I help people sometimes with their mistakes in the group chat. If you're interested, you can join my WhatsApp group chat. The link is on my my channel. But anyways, in the group chat, we were talking about Iquitos, the the city in Peru in the Amazon. And I just said, Oh, Iguitos, yeah, it's pretty famous, but I've never been there. And then another person in the group said, on the other hand, you have to take a plane or a boat to get there because you can't drive there. There are no roads. And I said, Okay, but why did you say on the other hand? You saying that you need to take a plane or a boat there is not a contrast to me simply saying that I've never been there. Those are not opposites, or those are not contrasting points. So why did you use on the other hand? And essentially he just said that he wanted to use a transition. And I said, Well, you don't need a transition here. You just say, Yeah, Iquitos, yeah, you have to take a plane or a boat to get there. Or you could say, like, yeah, the thing about Iquitos is you have to take a plane or a boat to get there. Or it's an interesting place because you have to take a plane or a boat to get there. You know, like you can find something else if you want to present this next thing you're saying, or you want to make a transition or whatever. But like, on the other hand, it doesn't work there. It doesn't work there. But I've seen this mistake from so many students. So I'm not trying to pick on this one person in the group chat because so many students have made this mistake. I don't know what the obsession with the phrase on the other hand is, but um my advice to you is to just completely remove it from your vocabulary, just stop using it because native speakers almost never use it, and um and it's very easy to use it wrong, is what I'm seeing. So just forget about that phrase completely. You need the phrase you need the word finally. So don't forget about that one. You definitely need to use finally sometimes, but mostly for those situations where there was a long wait and then finally something happened. You got it? You you understand, you understand what I'm putting down? Alright. You're picking up what I'm putting down. That's that's a phrase we use sometimes. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? It's like, are you understanding what I'm saying? Alright, fantastic. Well, I think I think we talked enough about that topic. I think we we covered that, and now you guys are experts on on the other hand and finally. So now I want to move over to the food and health topic a little bit. Not really going to be talking much about food, but I just wanted to to tell you guys real quick, because in that in that video I made, I was talking about how one of the myths of the United States is that like people just eat like hot dogs and hamburgers. We don't even say hamburger, honestly, we say cheeseburger, but hot dogs and cheeseburgers or whatever, like and what I explained in the video is that that's just the food that got globally popularized by like McDonald's and stuff. Like that's just the famous food, or some of the famous food, but that's not that's not what we eat at home. That's not what I ate at home most days of my childhood. Uh people don't eat that every day of their childhood, like that's not or or of their life at home. That's not that's not realistic. Um and and what I said in the video is that people eat pretty similar to what people in other countries eat, like in terms of macronutrients on a plate, right? So people typically eat like like a um like a carb, a protein, uh some kind of vegetable thing. Like people typically eat this structure in Latin America, in Europe, and the United States. Maybe the specific foods on the plate are different, the specific ingredients, but the general, like I said, macronutrient profile. Macronutrients, if you don't know, are like protein, fat, carbs, like those are and then micronutrients are things like vitamin B7 and stuff like that, like more specific things. So it in terms of macronutrients, in terms of fat protein, and carbs, like people are eating generally the same ratio, the same amount of that stuff. Um, and people are not just eating burgers and dogs, all right? And I thought it was funny recently because I made that video and then recently I went to a restaurant, I went to a vegan restaurant here in São Paulo, Brazil, where I currently am and I am vegan, and I I went there and I just ordered something random off the menu that I had never had, I didn't know what it was. I think it was called uh Escond Escondaginho, Esconda Escondaginho or Esc it was something like that. I was like, huh, what is that? So I ordered it, and like most Brazilian meals, like it came with the standard um rice and beans and like a tiny tiny bit of salad, not enough salad in my opinion, but and then the classic farafa. So that was like the base of the the plate, but then you had um the little like escondaginho thing, which is essentially was like a little bowl. I'm gonna put a picture in you. A little bowl with there was mashed potato on top, and underneath was like the meat, like soy meat in this case, because it's vegan, and it was like a soy meat stew on the bottom, and then on the top was like the mashed potato. And I was like, oh my god, this is shepherd's pie. This is essentially like a shepherd's pie. Shepherd's pie, I guess it probably comes from Europe originally, I don't know, but it it's very common in the United States. Like my family used to eat that a lot. It's like a layer of mashed potatoes on top, and then like meat on the bottom. Like we used to use ground beef. My family was not vegan, but they're still not. I am, so I would use soy meat today if I were to make it today, or say tan, or some some kind of probably use soy meat, but you there's different things you can use. Sometimes even some vegetables with it underneath. But yeah, it's bas is essentially like mashed potato and then like a ground meat type thing on the bottom. And that's it. Now, the one in Brazil is a little different, the flavor is a little different. I think it tastes a little more tomato-y, like in the sauce of the meat, it's like a little more tomato-y, and there were some olives in there. So, of course, the the seasonings and the sauces and stuff, the flavor is a little different. But essentially it's the same thing, like it's like the same thing. And I thought this was funny because you know, because I I actually had a conversation with the waiter, with the guy at the restaurant, and I told him, I said, This is like shepherd's pie, this is like what we we ate, you know, growing up in the US. And what I ate, I don't know why I said we, uh it was just me at the restaurant. Anyways, and I told him this and he and but I told him it was slightly different, and and I told him the the version in the US is a little bit simpler, it's a little bit more basic, it doesn't have like olives in it and stuff, but it's essentially the same thing. And then he he he brought up hot dogs and burgers. Like, and he's vegan and he's vegan and he's like a cool guy, but he he brought up the burger hot dog stereotype. He said, like, um, yeah, the the food in the US is like more is more s basic, right? Like you guys eat like burgers and hot dogs and stuff. Oh my god, I I don't know what it is, man, but this like this this this propaganda is strong. This stereotype is strong. I didn't realize how strong it was, I think, until the past year or so. But a lot of people have been saying this. Uh a lot of people in Brazil say this. And I'm just surprised. I'm just surprised that the stereotype is so strong. I wasn't aware of that, but yeah, it's crazy. So that I had to tell him, no, that I said that's just the the fast food, but like we eat like more normal food at home. He seemed like kind of surprised for that I would say that or confused. The irony, the irony of like in Brazil and in the United States, we're eating like the same meal, like the mashed potato with the meat on the bottom. So we're eating like the same thing, but there's the stereotype that we don't eat stuff like that. Now, granted, we would not eat this type of thing with rice and beans on the side. That's very Brazilian. We wouldn't eat that with rice and beans. We would just eat like a huge portion of just the mashed potato in the in the meat, and then maybe like some more vegetables or salad on the side or something. That's probably what we would do. But the point is it just I just thought it was funny because I just made that video and then I ordered something random from a restaurant, and it was basically like one of my childhood foods. Anyways, okay. So I want to talk about one last thing before before we end this video, and I'm not gonna get too deep into like politics or anything, but I just want to show you this this diagram. Diagram? I don't know if that's the right word, but it it's an image that I found on a website called visualcapitalist.com. I believe that is the website. And I thought it was super interesting because essentially what they did is they looked at um 99 different measures of health. So like things like physical inactivity, smoking rates, air quality, fruit and vegetable consumption, mortality rates. They looked at 99 different indicators of health. So you can't say, oh, it's oh, they're just looking at food, oh, they're just looking at smoking, oh the no. They looked at 99 different things. And they they analyzed all the states in the United States. And this picture shows that the the darker green states are the unhealthiest, the least healthy, and the lighter green states are the most healthy. So it's super interesting because if you look at New England, New England is the region in the northeast of the United States, north of New York, that consists of six states. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island. I grew up in Maine, and you can see that the four healthiest states in the United States are in New England. Number one is New Hampshire. New Hampshire is ranked as the healthiest state in the United States. Number two is Massachusetts. I'm from Maine, but I spent a lot of time in Massachusetts. My brother lives there, my my stepdad lives there. Number three is Vermont, and number four is Connecticut. So the four healthiest states in the United States are all in New England, which is all the area where I grew up. And then Maine is 13, Rhode Island is 10. So they're not as high, but they're not too far on the list. So this region where I grew up is basically the healthiest region in the entire country. I just want to say that, of course, that does influence my perception of the United States and my childhood experience and all that. So I am aware of this. I am aware that I could be a little biased. I am probably biased because of growing up in the healthiest part of the United States. Because if you look at the southern states in the US, pretty much all of the South, these are the unhealthiest states. I think this is super interesting because not everybody knows this, but some people know this. Historically, and even up until modern times, like typically, traditionally, the South has had lower education rates, like lower test scores, lower education results compared to the North. The South also has a history, a strong history of. Anti-intellectualism, where they are very, very skeptical of professionals, of experts, of people who devote their lives and their careers to studying different topics, like scientists, for example. The South tends to be the most skeptical of these people. Like back in the day, they would be skeptical, they would they would like make fun of like northerners who would like read books and wear suits and and come down to the South. Like there's this history of kind of I just want to believe what I want to believe, and I don't want to accept what these educated people tell me, basically. And then religion heavily works with this as well, you know. Rel religion reinforces a lot of the stuff that they believe that they want to believe that isn't backed up by science, for example. Now, of course, I'm I'm stereotyping here. Not everybody in the South is like this, and not everybody in the North is not like this, right? But this is just kind of what numbers show, what statistics show. If you're gonna find someone who says things like, humans aren't animals. We're not animals. No, I don't believe in evolution. You can find these people anywhere in the world, but like in the United States, you're gonna probably find a lot more of them in the South than in the North. That's all I'm saying, okay? And I find it incredibly ironic because the South tends to be Republican, right? And the North tends to be less Republican, let's say, you know, this is not a black and white thing, this is not I don't mean that in a race sense. I mean like a this is not such a simple like Republican order Democrat thing. Like this is is way more nuanced and complicated than what I'm saying. I'm I'm simplifying, I'm generalizing here. But based on the numbers, the South tends to be more Republican, the North tends to be uh less Republican, more Democrat, or more independent, or none of that stuff. Like just whatever. I just think it's ironic that the South has lower rates of health and education, meaning that they are struggling more with health and education, they are suffering more with their health and education. At the same time, the South is the most resistant to the idea of spending more money on health and education. The people who need better health and education the most are the ones who are most resistant to spending more money on it and trying to improve it or just prioritizing it more. These people are usually the most resistant to improving their health and education in the various ways that you can do that. And it's also interesting that people who have the lowest rates of health and education, which is all connected to cognitive function, right? If you if you have lower rates of education and you have worse health, your your physical health is worse, well, that's connected to your brain health. That's connected to your cognitive functioning. So if your education and health rates are lower, you're less likely to use critical thinking and make smart decisions. So it's interesting that the people with the lowest rates of health and education are allowed to have this much political influence. Now, even though people don't believe me often when I talk about stuff like this in videos, for the record, I'm not Democrat, I'm not liberal or whatever any of those stupid two-party dumbass names that people want to put on me. The two-party system is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life, and I will not go into that box. Life is not that simple. There are contradictions and hypocrisies on both sides, and also corruption and also lies and bullshit, and yeah. So, but I just wanted to say something about this, considering what's going on in the United States right now. Not a day goes by that I don't feel tempted to say something. But really, this stuff has been happening forever, it just it just changes forms, it takes different forms, different shapes, and it manifests in different ways, but the root of the problem has always been there and it continues to be there today. And psychologically it all comes down to the objectification of sentient beings, whether we're talking about the way that we treat immigrants, human beings, non human animals, children, victims of assaults, victims of pedophilia, whatever we happen to be talking about at the particular current moment, the root of the problem is always the same. It's always the objectification and as a result the extreme disrespect of sentient beings, of beings who have subjective experiences, of beings who suffer. And as long as you care about these beings and you consider these beings when you address all topics of politics and life and society and everything, then you'll know what the right thing to do is. Alright, guys. Thank you. Guys and g gals. In the North we when we say guys, it's like all genders, like we say like, hey guys, but I I like to say y'all because it's not so it doesn't sound so much like a gender, so but sometimes I say guys, but but yeah. Okay, just so you know. So anyways, guys, so anyways, y'all, thanks for listening. Thanks for being here, thanks for supporting me, thanks for being so great. You guys and all your lovely comments and support and everything always motivates me to keep making videos. It makes me excited to make videos, interested in making videos. You know, even when this this dumbass YouTube platform doesn't pay me as much as they should, even when they take my money and they rob me and stuff, I still am motivated to post because because of you guys. Because I enjoy reading your comments and I enjoy talking about all kinds of different things and seeing your feedback. So I really appreciate it and I hope you take care of yourself. I hope you make smart decisions, I hope you think about the victims always, and until next time. Bye bye.