Hello and welcome to bonus episode number 144 of the Qloops English podcast. How's it going my name's Andrew.
I'm your Canadian English study buddy and it's great to be here with you for another week and another bonus episode.
If you're new to the series let me quickly explain what it's all about.
As I mentioned I'm Canadian but I live abroad in Seoul South Korea and what I do each and every week here is just tell you some stories from my everyday life.
The idea is that you're gonna spend some time with me and we're gonna hang out and speak English.
Just as if I were your friend in real life, telling you about some updates about my life.
Through listening to my stories you'll be able to hear and learn natural vocabulary, natural expressions and improve your English listening fluency which eventually then will translate to thinking in English and speaking more natural English as well.
All of these stories are totally unscripted I do have my notebook here with some notes to help me so that I can remember some interesting things to tell you guys but I don't write a script okay everything just comes out of my head in a natural way and you're going to be listening to natural English in this series so if you're down for that if you're up for that these are two expressions that we can use to say like I want to do it so if you're down for it or if you're up for it it's kind of weird how we have those two expressions that mean the same thing with opposite directions, but that's just
the way english works sometimes.
If you're down for it, if you're up for it, then let's continue on.
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So visit our website Qloops .com, you can sign up and become a member today and one more time Thank you to all the members out there for your support Okay, so guys today, I just kind of have a mishmash of different stories I don't have one longer story to tell you I've just jotted down three or four things here that I've been up to over the last week or two that I thought I'd give you an update on and Yeah, we might as well just jump in and get started.
Here we go Enjoy. So the first thing that I wrote down here in my notebook, and everyone I wrote one two three four five, five little stories here that I can tell you about in my notebook.
We'll see if I can get to them all, but the first one is great sleep.
That is the first note that I wrote and I had a great sleep last night.
Maybe you can hear it in my voice, I'm not sure, but I feel really, really rested.
But at the same time I feel really guilty for having that great sleep and I feel really guilty for being so rested And that is because last night I slept by myself I slept alone My wife's parents live around an hour away from us hour and a half away from us So we don't get to see them too too often and my wife was missing her folks So she decided to go home and eat dinner with them and because of the distance She was like, I'm just gonna sleep here and I'll come back tomorrow so I got to sleep by myself and maybe married couples or couples in relationships where you're sleeping with your partner
in the same bed maybe you guys can relate to me and and my feelings on this I don't know like of course I love sharing a bed with my wife I wouldn't have it any other way for us I think this is the best sleeping arrangement for us but we have a Queen -size bed we share a queen -sized bed not a king -sized bed Not one of those gigantic huge beds, but a bed made for two people and it's good Usually I sleep really well But for whatever reason when I get the whole queen -sized bed to myself I can starfish and I can sleep super super well I don't know maybe just because it's a once -in -a -while thing or maybe
maybe I would have slept really well anyways I'm not sure but last night I was able to starfish out and to starfish is an expression we use to talk about people who sleep by spreading their arms and their legs out as far as they can go and so you look almost like a starfish with your head being one point and your arms being two points and your legs being the third and fourth points so that you have the full five points just like a starfish does so yeah i starfished last night in the bed by myself and i slept really well and that was the first point here in my notebook my wife's on her way back
home now so i don't think i will be able to starfish again tonight but i did enjoy it for one night the next thing that i have written down here in my notebook everyone is recording gone wrong!
I've been doing Culeps now for over ten years believe it or not it's been over a decade and for the first time in over a decade I wasted my time in recording an episode because I stupidly forgot to turn on my microphone before hitting the record button so I actually recorded a whole bonus episode and I told what I thought was a really funny and interesting story about well I don't want to spoil it because I'll probably re -record this story because I do think it's an interesting one and a funny one so I'll re -record it I just couldn't do it right now after I stupidly hit record on my camera but I
forgot to hit record on my microphone so that was a waste of time.
I guess I'm kind of thankful that this is the first time it's ever happened in 10 years of doing the QLIPS English Podcast, but yeah it was disappointing.
So I recorded this great story.
I'm not going to spoil it because I will record it again here because I really thought the story was funny and a good one to share with you all.
But after I recorded it I to transfer the files to my computer and once I did that I realized oh no I didn't click record on the microphone I only clicked record on the camera and my camera has a built -in microphone so it did still pick up my voice but the built -in mic on the camera is so so bad the audio quality was so so bad but I didn't want to accept that I had wasted my time recording that whole story it was like a 35 minute story so I tried my best to salvage the audio recording file from the camera and to salvage means like to save or repair something so that you can use it and so I tried
my best to salvage that audio file I actually ended up spending time editing the episode and doing all of the prep for it because I was really really confident that I could save that audio file and you know I've been doing audio editing for the podcast now again for about a decade and I do have some experience with music recording in the past as well.
I don't want to say I'm an audio engineer or anything like that but I do know a thing or two about audio a little bit.
So I was really confident that like okay this is not going to sound as good as a regular Qloops episode where I get to use my good microphone but I think it's going to be acceptable and to tell you the truth after I worked my magic and tried to save that audio file I thought it did sound pretty good now when I'm doing audio editing for QLips I'm always using my headphones I always have my headphones on.
So I edited the file and tried to salvage and repair the file and I thought it sounded acceptable.
Wasn't perfect but I was like It's probably good enough.
We can release it and yeah, it'll be alright for just one week So I went ahead I made the video.
I made the audio I made the transcript made the glossary it did everything and then at the last moment I thought you know, I have my headphones on and I'm listening to this file, but many q -lips listeners Maybe you're not listening to the audio with headphones where you get that up -close listening experience maybe you're listening in your car or maybe you're listening with your iPhone speaker or something like that right there are so many different ways that people can choose to listen to audio files so I thought I better give it a test with my phone speaker so I transferred the audio file to
my phone and I pressed play and I took a listen and it sounded terrible I was like no why didn't I do this from the start so I don't know I guess this episode was It wasn't meant to be because I wasted time recording it and then trying to fix the audio and then editing it and doing all of the steps that go into the production process and at the end of the day it didn't sound good through the phone.
And then my coworker here at Culeps Yoshi who does a lot of the work behind the scenes I sent the episode to him and I said, Yoshi can you listen to this in your car because I know so many Qlips listeners listen to the podcast while they're driving, but I don't have a car so I can't test it that way." And he said, yeah, doesn't sound very good.
I think it's best if we don't release this episode.
So I thought that was the wise decision.
So we cut that episode out and I'm going to have to redo it from the start.
I just couldn't do it today.
I couldn't tell that story again.
I need to give the story a little bit of time, a little bit of space.
and I'll come back to it.
But yeah, that was a bit of a disappointment.
However, first time it's ever happened in ten years, so in a decade mistakes are bound to happen at some point.
However, I always try to look at the bright side of things and try and have a positive mental attitude, PMA, and although that was kind of a waste of time trying to prepare that episode, I think there are a couple of good things or several good things really that will come of it first of all I'm going to be super careful going forward when I record anything to double check that all of my devices my camera my audio recorder everything is plugged in and working.
That's going to be a huge priority and I hopefully won't make that mistake again and then also when I do tell you that story it's going to even better because I've already practiced telling it once so probably the end result when I do record that story and that episode in the future will be even better than the original was so in the next couple of weeks I'll rerecord and upload that story for you guys so you can hear all about it but yeah that was a bit of a bummer from the last little while as I was working on episodes.
Let's move to the next point in my notebook which is, ah!
I am trying to replace Instagram and social media with a Japanese reading app.
So as you guys know I recently visited Japan and living here in Korea is great because we are very close to Japan.
So it's an easy place to go and visit and I've been there several times over the last year or two and I would like to go again in future.
My last trip there ended up being not so good in the end because I got food poisoning and got sick or I caught a virus and got really sick I'm not sure what exactly happened but I was super sick so I feel like I want to go back in the future but one thing I noticed as I was there last time is that wow my Japanese really really sucks it's at zero and I want to improve that.
Of course living here in Korea my main focus is still and will be for maybe the next 10 15 years I'm thinking is going to be Korean as tempting it as it is to start learning another language uh I can't do it.
I have to stay true to my first love Korean and make sure that I spend time with that language because not really at the point where I can just be in automatic mode with Korean yet so I still have to focus my main language learning attention on Korean.
However I do want to be able to do just some basic Japanese when I visit Japan in the future.
And so I thought first thing I need to do is learn how to read Japanese.
You know they have three or four different writing systems. I guess three different writing systems. Japanese listeners please correct me if I'm wrong.
And I would like to read at least the two of them, the two that are most like an alphabet.
Of course there are the characters as well.
The Japanese characters that originally, I think, came from China.
That's like a whole different ball game, right?
That's really difficult to memorize and learn.
They are called the kanji, right?
All of those different kanji would be super, super difficult for me to memorize and learn.
But, the other two writing systems, I think I can master.
so what I've been trying to do is spend less time on social media, on Instagram, on Reddit those are my two bad ones, Instagram and Reddit.
And instead when I feel tempted to open one of those apps just to open this Japanese reading app that I got instead.
And it's been great I'm making like slow progress I'm not really investing a ton of time into it but just a little bit day by day.
And I think when it comes to these things, instead of spending a ton of time with it, it's just like consistency.
Doing it on a regular basis helps me to memorize something.
And especially now I'm 40 years old memorizing things.
Not as easy as it used to be.
So yeah, it's been cool and I think I'm almost there.
I can almost read all of the Hiragana characters and then next I have to go to the other writing system that is used to transcribe foreign words into Japanese.
So that will be my next, I believe that one is called Kadakana.
So yes, slowly but surely working on Japanese and at the same time trying to minimize social media and doom scrolling, which is just so so addictive for me.
And yeah, I think I'm replacing a bad habit with a healthier habit.
And I hope I can keep it up.
Cheer me on, guys, cheer me on.
Finally, the last thing that I have written in my notebook here to tell you about is caulking, ca -u -l -k -i -n -g, caulking.
Do you guys know what caulking is?
Caulking is the kind of white rubbery material that we put between two surfaces.
Usually we put it between two tiles to make sure that water doesn't go in between the tiles.
So in my bathroom, in my shower, I have a shower that's made out of tiles, and now that we've been living in our home for two years here the caulking is starting to peel off or disintegrate.
And I'm worried that when that happens water when I'm taking a shower is going to go into the tiles and then get behind the tiles and cause a big problem.
So I don't want that to happen and I need to fix the caulking in my shower.
So this is something I've never done before and something that I must do as a homeowner.
It's kind of cool when you're a homeowner suddenly well it's not kind of cool it's kind of annoying actually.
Of course I would like a maintenance -free lifestyle but nothing in life is free and you do need to maintain your house to keep it in good order and so there are little tasks here and there that I've had to learn how to do or we've had to hire someone to come and fix in our home just some little little things but this one I think it can be a DIY I can learn how to do it myself so that's my weekend plan I'm recording this episode Saturday morning for you guys but after I finish recording this episode then I'm going to do some caulking I think so I need to watch some YouTube videos and figure out
how to do this I've already prepared some of the tools but I do need to go to the local hardware store and buy some caulking that comes in the tube and yeah I've seen people do this a lot I don't want to underestimate the skill level I'm sure when I try to do it it will be more difficult than I'm assuming right now but I'm gonna try my best to do we just need like a little three or four centimeter section to be honest It's really really small so I think I can handle that and hopefully I won't mess it up too bad but yeah I'm kind of looking forward to doing it.
I get to learn a new skill learn how to do some caulking and keep my home safe and dry and hopefully rot free.
We don't want any water getting behind the shower and I don't know getting some of the wood wet and then turning into rot and mold.
all of those things.
So that's my plan for today everyone and I think it's time for me to stop rambling here and to let you get on with your day as well.
But thank you for listening all the way to the end.
You did an amazing job!
This is what you need to do if you want to improve your English fluency.
You need to spend time with the language listening to the language and you did that today so great job.
Okay I need to leave a completion code for you and I think will go with the word starfish because I talked about star fishing last night and that led to me having a great sleep so let's go with the words Starfish Starfish and if you could leave an example sentence on our YouTube page or our discord community or even on our Instagram and that will signal to me and all of our listeners that you finished this episode alright so go go go I'm Looking forward to reading your example sentences.
I think we'll get a lot of funny ones with this word, starfish.
Okay guys, take care, have a great week up ahead and I'll catch you in the next episode.
Until then, bye bye.
