This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 136.
Lisa from English Fluency Now talks about Pacific Northwest culture.
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Now here are your hosts.
Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck, coming to you from Portland and Boston, USA.
In this episode, you'll learn about the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
You'll find out what makes it different from the rest of the country and get inspired to learn more about this laid back, outdoorsy lifestyle.
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Hey, Jessica, how's everything going today?
Wonderful, of course, because I live in the Pacific Northwest.
Of course.
Oh, my gosh.
Well, life is good out there.
You know what I've noticed about the Pacific Northwest?
When I go out there, I feel like I breathe in the air and I can smell the trees.
It's amazing.
Yes.
It's so true.
There is a natural crispness to the air out here.
When we say Pacific Northwest, guys, we mean Oregon and Washington.
Like that's basically what we think of, of the Pacific Northwest.
So like the biggest cities would of course be Seattle and where I am, Portland.
I love it.
So what are the things that you think of?
So, other than Portland and Seattle, what else do you think of when you think of the Pacific Northwest?
You know, my mind always goes to pop culture.
And so I think of Twin Peaks, the series Twin Peaks, which was based in, like you know, small sort of lumber town in Washington.
And also the movies and books Twilight, which are also based in Washington.
Yeah.
But then like music as well, like grunge music is from, you know, around Seattle.
What about you?
Oh, my gosh.
Well, let's see.
What do I think of?
Like I said, I think of lush forests.
I think of well, I do think of kind of a bit of Silicon Valley in a way kind of technology, because we know that Seattle is a huge tech town, right.
Yeah.
Huge tech down.
I think Microsoft is based there.
So I think of expensive cost of living, especially Seattle, maybe not as much Portland, sort of right.
Somewhere in between.
Yeah.
I mean, like any state in America, you guys, every state is a mixture of.
There's going to be some cool big urban cities, at least one in every state.
Yeah.
And then a lot of it is going to be small towns, which are a whole different culture.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
But guys, on this episode, today we have some quotes from an interview that we did with Lisa Biskup from English Fluency.
Now
That is a podcast and a website.
She's going to teach us a little bit about the Pacific Northwest culture, because I was really curious Jessica, if personalities are a little bit different out there.
Yeah.
I think we've talked about this before, right?
And this is so important for you guys as students studying English.
This is your target language.
It is so important for you guys to also think about the target culture.
And how culture is different, not just across states, but between cities, right?
Totally.
Between Arizona Portland, New York City.
Every region has its own culture for you to explore, to connect, to right.
Yes.
And to get into.
So we're hoping we can inspire you with Lisa today to get into the Pacific Northwest.
I know.
And, by the way, I just want to make sure our listeners know about our Connected Communicator Fluency Course Jessica, because on this course I actually drove 12000 miles.
I went out.
I met you in Portland.
We met some locals there in Portland.
And then I drove back through the south and the northeast back up to New York City.
That is the way to see the different regions of the U.S. with us while improving your English.
Right, Jessica?
Definitely.
I mean, most Americans will never experience this much America.
And I think, from students' point of view at least, that is the number one cool thing about this course is knowing all the different cultures across America.
It's so cool.
Yeah.
Let's get to Lisa.
All right, let's do it.
So let's get into Lisa's quote.
So first, what did we ask her in this first part of the interview?
Yes.
So, you know, I'm a West Coast girl.
You're an East Coast lady.
And so we asked her what makes this region the Pacific Northwest region?
How is it different than New England, where you're from?
Okay, so let's listen in.
Here we go.
Okay well, I haven't spent very much time in New England, but I can definitely tell you that here in the Pacific Northwest, and especially in Washington State, one of the things that I think makes us kind of different from the rest of the United States is that we're really focused on the environment.
We spend a lot of time outdoors.
We really appreciate the mountains, the waterways, the Pacific Ocean, the Puget Sound.
And we just really like being outside.
You know, it rains a lot, especially in areas like Seattle.
But even when it's raining, people like to go outside.
And of course, when it's not raining, when it's the spring or summertime, it's beautiful.
It's not too hot.
It's just perfect weather.
And so a lot of people go hiking, they go kayaking.
All right, for sure.
It is gorgeous here, right?
Like you said, you can smell the trees.
It's so green.
Yeah, there's a certain freshness for sure.
So green.
And even in winter, I mean, you can go skiing.
I remember I was out in Washington a few summers ago and visited Mount St.
Helens, which is so amazing.
Yes.
You know, we had the best trip up there a couple summers ago.
There's this place next to Mount St.
Helens called the Ape Caves.
And when the volcano erupted, it created these underground lava tunnels which you can like, hike through.
It's a mile underground hike.
So this is just another example of how much amazing outdoor experience we can have up here.
And that's why, yeah, she's right.
People up here are outside all the time.
It's true.
Yeah.
And you can really actually, I was just having this conversation yesterday with someone.
Who was I talking to?
I think who's from that area.
We're talking about the rain, how it does rain a lot.
And the person said they just throw on, you know, a windbreaker all the time.
They just always have rain gear on.
Totally.
Nobody carries umbrellas.
It's just everyone has a waterproof jacket with a hood if you live here.
And just as like a side note, because we're not going to play this clip for you guys, but there's some great vocab.
In our conversation with Lisa, one term she brought up was crunchy.
You can see this in the blog post for this episode, guys.
Now, if I describe someone as crunchy, what do you think that means?
I love this term.
It's fantastic.
So I think of... kind of a hippie sort of vibe, but kind of a more modern hippie vibe, right?
Someone that's certainly outdoorsy.
And I think it directly comes from the food granola, right?
People who eat granola, which is a mix of different greens and what is granola anyways?
Raisins?
Nuts?
Granola is like a specially like sweetened, toasted sort of oatmeal almost, right?
Toasted, right.
Exactly.
So you just eat it out of a bag.
Very high in sugar.
Okay.
It's not actually that healthy.
Not that healthy for you, surprisingly.
Yeah, so that is, but you will hear that, guys, in natural everyday English, the term crunchy.
And I guess be careful who you say it around.
That's the one thing I would say, because if people are really into that lifestyle and they take themselves a little bit seriously, they may be offended by that term.
Would you say so, Jessica?
Totally.
Totally.
Again, like culture and language, we got to know both, guys.
Yeah.
I would say often, if people are describing others or activities or foods or whatever as – crunchy or as granola, because that's also like an adjective now, that it's usually sort of negative and judgy, just like, oh God, like eye roll.
Why are you such a hippie?
So yeah, but at least you'll know what those adjectives mean now, guys.
But they do bring to mind one of the food.
So let's go back to Lisa and hear what she has to say about the food culture up here.
All right, let's do it.
Yeah, that's true.
And that's another thing that is different about this area.
Especially if you live in Washington or the Pacific Northwest, even including parts of Oregon, Northern California and you try to travel to other parts of the United States, one of the things that can be difficult is finding good local, organic food.
So that's what a lot of people value here.
We support local farms.
We support organic farming.
You know raising animals in humane ways, like grass fed beef.
You know chickens that get to wander around.
That's really popular here, to people using, you know, using their hard earned dollars to buy these types of products, which are, you know, oftentimes more expensive, but it's a value.
Yeah, I'm guessing you have a lot of farmers markets as well, I would imagine.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah, farmers markets in most of the towns around Washington.
A lot of vendors are organic farmers.
And if you go to Seattle and you go to Pike's Place Market, a lot of farms come from around different parts of Washington.
The farmers come and they get to sell their stuff at the Pike's Place Market and other markets around Seattle as well.
Okay.
So yeah, definitely farmer's markets, which also remind me of the Connected Communicator, because there's a whole farmer's market lesson in there.
Yeah, I know we did.
Yeah, I met someone in Washington State actually and interviewed her at a farmer's market.
She had so many cool ideas about cooking with food from a farmer's market.
Guys, that is in that first module.
And just to let our listeners know where to go.
By the way, to get into that course, it's allearsenglishcom slash connection.
So let's talk about what Lisa shared here.
Yeah.
So it's so right.
It's such a stereotype, but it's so true.
People up here, we love organic food.
We are crunchy as all get out up here.
As all get out.
And because this is one of our values right, like wholesome, healthy people do spend a lot more money to have this sort of value in their – not just their food, but all the products they buy from places like farmer's markets – where you live, because you're in Colorado now, right.
You're not in New England anymore.
Do people spend money on stuff like this, like, you know, organic food and such?
I think they do.
I mean, there's Whole Foods here and Whole Foods does really well.
There are definitely farm.
There is definitely a certain segment of the population in Denver that will spend, you know five, X the price where you have to to get organic food and you know farm to table food for sure.
But then there's also a more general population that just I don't go to Whole Foods on a regular basis.
I used to in Boston because it was on my way from the train, which was dangerous.
But I will not.
If I can avoid it, I'll just go to our King Soopers, like our local cheapest possible grocery store.
No, totally.
Yeah.
I mean, I am 100% Costco woman all the way.
I love it.
But I do like to buy local produce because it is so lush up here.
There's tons of farms.
Yeah.
It's not actually more expensive to get local produce.
Yeah.
Just like as a side note, and this is another way you guys could see the extreme stereotypes of the Pacific Northwest.
There is a sketch comedy show called Portlandia.
Oh, yeah.
And there's this whole sketch in the first season about this guy ordering chicken at a restaurant.
And he grills the waiter about the chicken's life.
Where did it come from?
What did it eat?
How was it treated?
And he traveled to the farm before he would consider ordering chicken to eat it.
Hmm.
Anyway, it's a famous moment in that show.
I think it's the only one I know because it's probably all over YouTube.
If you guys want to see that clip, just go to YouTube.
I'm sure it's there.
It's fantastic.
It's fantastic.
Oh, that's awesome.
So yes, people love clean, healthy food up here, but also coffee which, of course, you and I love coffee.
This is one thing I noticed about.
Back in 2009 when I was living in New York.
I visited my friend in Seattle and I noticed that that there are so many more coffee shops and people.
It almost feels European in a way that people actually sit in the coffee shops and talk.
Whereas in New York, people don't really do that.
You usually can't find a place to sit.
It's just too busy and too crazy.
People are always running around.
But in Seattle, there really is that.
What about Portland?
Definitely.
Oh, for sure.
I would say the pace of life in Portland is even slower than it is in Seattle.
So you'll definitely have no problem hanging out at a coffee shop and speaking English to people.
They will want to talk to you here.
I promise.
Love it.
So let's get back to Lisa for a little bit more about Seattle which, of course, is where Starbucks started.
So let's hear what she has to say about that.
Yeah, it's a really big deal.
So Starbucks has brought this kind of coffee or cafe culture to many places throughout the United States and the world.
But even in Washington there are even other local coffee shops and cafes, local roasters, local coffee roasters.
And so each you know a lot of the towns I don't know if every town, but a lot of towns and especially even in Seattle.
Still There are lots of individual independent coffee roasters and they roast their own blends and they have their own followers.
And so a lot of people, they just have to have a good cup of coffee.
So they're pretty picky about their coffee.
Yeah, for sure.
I would definitely say there is a coffee culture here, which that's always a funny term to me coffee culture.
It seems like we're making it too narrow, you know, like there can't really be a whole culture about coffee, right?
Yeah.
Right.
This idea of like you have to be in this in group to drink coffee.
Is that why you're trying?
Why?
It sounds kind of weird.
Yeah.
Like exclusive.
Yeah.
Whereas in Europe, it's kind of everyone starts the day in Italy with a little espresso at a cafe.
Right.
And so but yeah, it's true.
I mean, if Starbucks started in Seattle, there's got to be something there about coffee.
No, totally.
You know, it does rain a lot up here.
And so we do get to spend more time inside coffee shops.
Guys, this is such a great way to practice your English.
Like I mentioned real fast before the last clip from Lisa, if you guys and I hope you do visit the Pacific Northwest,
You can definitely show up to any coffee shop and just hang out, bring a book.
And I guarantee you will be able to strike up a conversation with someone that's also just hanging out passing the time getting out of the rain in the coffee shop.
I love that idea.
And I really enjoyed my time.
Because it's like when you go to a place, you want to really do what the locals are doing.
You know what I mean?
You want to really indulge in that.
And I actually think the coffee is better there, too.
I think the coffee is actually really really good in Washington and Oregon just because there is that culture.
So maybe coffee shops are forced to have better coffee.
Well, yeah, we have so many local roasters.
That's something that we're really proud of up here.
All right.
So one more thing about the Pacific Northwest culture, guys.
We're getting away from food, away from coffee and a little more about the people and our values up here.
So let's hear what Lisa has to say about that.
Well, it kind of stems from being outside and caring about nature.
So I would say it would be the kind of progressive or liberal politics of this area.
It's not to say that of course, everybody's a progressive or liberal, a liberal or a democrat or something, but a lot of people do value things like the environment.
Gay marriage has passed, they legalized marijuana for medical use, that type of thing, so a lot of social issues, environmental issues, are supported in this area.
Some issues that maybe in some other states of the United States would be not very well supported.
All right.
Yeah.
I mean Lindsay, you would probably already think that even if you hadn't been here that people up here, we definitely are more liberal.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, you know, this is a very liberal, especially.
Yeah, exactly.
Right on the eastern seaboard.
I mean, maybe it gets more conservative as you go further east in these states.
Right.
So that's something that's important to know.
No one state is going to be 100 percent liberal or 100 percent conservative.
Right.
But yeah, these especially the cities on the seaboard.
Oh, yeah.
Very, very liberal.
Well, like we said at the beginning of the episode guys, I mean big cities and small towns.
That's always going to be a difference in every state.
Right.
So big cities, of course, definitely more liberal than the small towns.
Small towns up here are also very conservative, usually.
It's true.
But I think it's interesting because some states have a bigger spread than others.
Like I think about New York State, and I don't know this for sure, but...
I think upstate New York tends to be more blue, like more, more democratic.
Right.
But I think about Oregon itself.
And I'm interested what you think about this, Jessica.
I mean, Oregon, Eastern Oregon is super conservative.
Like it's known to be very, very conservative.
And Portland is very liberal.
How does that happen in a state?
Yeah.
You know, that is a topic for a whole other episode.
That gets into so much politics and everything else.
But I mean, I've been to a lot of small towns here.
We do take lots of road trips.
And the difference is enormous.
Yeah.
Big towns here.
Portland, Ashland, Bend, right?
These are all, Eugene, these are places with universities and people have more money.
Right?
There's so many differences.
Small towns, they're very working class and it's different.
The politics reflect that.
We have to encourage our listeners to visit, right?
Visit and meet local people.
You got to see both.
And there's nothing wrong with either.
And all the people are nice.
People are more than politics.
Yeah, of course.
Absolutely.
So guys, get in the car, visit if you are. living in the US, maybe you're living in LA, right?
Take a road trip up to Seattle and Portland and drive through the States, especially.
Don't just stay in the cities, you know, go into the countryside.
Yeah.
Definitely, definitely.
And you know some of these small towns, guys.
This is where the best sort of events and activities happen, I think, because you'll get to go to these like strawberry festivals or like pumpkin patch corn mazes.
And like this is the stuff that I really want you guys to experience about America, because there's None of these things are connected to politics.
Everyone is there with their family.
They will want to talk to you and learn about your culture.
You guys can connect over food.
You know, like these are the experiences I want you guys to have.
I love it.
So good.
So good.
That is our recommendation for today.
Make sure you travel and go to every corner of the country.
Right, Jessica?
Yes.
Exactly.
So, guys, we hope that you can also visit the Pacific Northwest specifically.
We love nature and the outdoors, healthy food, coffee and, of course, having different political opinions, which you will get everywhere, guys.
And that is not the number one.
Yeah.
That you're going to talk about anyway.
So let's not worry about that.
So guys, you can learn more about this area and about your English studies from Lisa and get her podcast at englishfluencynowcom.
Yes.
So good.
I want to thank Lisa for coming on the show, for giving us this interview.
I love interviewing people from different parts of the country with different perspectives, Jessica.
So good.
So good.
We learn too.
We do.
We absolutely do.
Well, thanks for hanging out on the show today.
I'll talk to you very soon.
All right.
Awesome.
All right.
Bye.
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