Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 164 of the Listening Time Podcast.
You can probably tell that I'm still sick.
In the last episode I mentioned that my whole family was sick and I recorded that episode yesterday.
So today, I'm still sick.
I have more congestion today than I did yesterday, I think.
And we're all still sick.
Nothing too serious, but it's a little bit annoying, of course.
So I apologize for the sound of my sick voice, but hopefully you don't mind.
In today's episode, we're going to talk about the golden rule.
The golden rule is the term that we often use to talk about the idea of treating people how we want to be treated.
And this golden rule comes from Matthew 7.12 in the Bible.
This is not a new concept and it's something that most people know about, and they know that they should follow this rule.
They should treat others the way that they themselves want to be treated.
And i think that this is a good topic to talk about, and to talk about some different areas of our lives in which we can practice this golden rule.
And I'll see you next time.
So both of those links are down below.
And of course, you have the transcript for this episode down below as well.
All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Alright, let's talk about the golden rule and how we can practice it in different areas of our lives.
So, first, I want to talk about neighbors.
So this is the first category of people that came to mind when I thought of this topic, because neighbors.
I've had a lot of inconsiderate neighbors throughout the years.
When we say inconsiderate, we're saying that someone doesn't consider other people's feelings.
They don't think about other people.
They're just thinking about themselves.
So I've had plenty of inconsiderate neighbors throughout the years.
And so that's one of the reasons why this group of people came to mind.
And when thinking about the golden rule with neighbors, it can be hard because for many people, if they're in their house or their apartment, they feel like they can do whatever they want because they're in their house, it's their property or they're renting that apartment so they can do whatever they want in their own property.
And that's true to an extent.
However, it's good to also consider how your actions might be affecting your neighbors.
Right.
So what are some examples of this?
Well, if someone is playing their music really loud in their apartment and they share a wall with someone else, that's probably gonna annoy the neighbor right.
Or if someone is uh, throwing a big party late into the night, the neighbors might have trouble sleeping right because of all the noise.
Or if someone's dog is barking all day long, that can definitely annoy people.
Or I can think of one that happened to me a few years ago when I was living in an apartment and we were paying more than the other renters in that apartment building because our apartment had a terrace and it had the best parking space.
So because of that we paid significantly more than them, the other renters in the other apartments, and for a while we didn't have a car and so we didn't have a car parked in that space most of the time, but we would have visitors sometimes that would come and use that space because it was our space that we were paying for.
But one of our neighbors who saw that we didn't use the space that much, he decided to just park his motorcycle there, even though he knew that was our space and it wasn't his.
He thought well, they're not using it, so i'm gonna take it and that's something that i would never think of doing to another neighbor of mine.
If I knew that they were paying for a parking space, I wouldn't assume that I can park there.
So even things like parking spaces are problematic sometimes with neighbors, and there are plenty of other issues that could come up.
And this brings us back to the golden rule.
Should we treat our neighbors as if we don't care about them?
Or should we treat our neighbors the same way that we would like them to treat us?
I don't think that most people want their neighbors to play their music really loud and park in their parking spaces and throw crazy parties into the middle of the night when you're trying to sleep.
Most people don't like that.
They don't like when other people do that, but they themselves do that.
So it's inconsistent, right?
If you don't want your neighbors to do that, then you shouldn't do that either.
It's pretty simple.
However, people can easily forget about the people around them, their neighbors, when they're in their own home and they feel like they can do whatever they want.
It's not until their neighbors start to do those things that these same people realize that they don't like that behavior.
And I mention this as well because I've had neighbors that have done some of these things, but they complain when other people do these things.
And that doesn't make sense, right?
If you do it and you think it's okay, why do you get mad when your neighbors do the same thing?
So I think that if we practice the golden rule with our neighbors, then we will all have a peaceful living situation for the most part.
So another area of life in which it's good to practice the golden rule is when dealing with strangers in public.
And I know that this can be hard, because we tell ourselves often I'm never going to see this person again.
I'm never going to see these people again.
So it doesn't matter if I do something that makes them mad or whatever, because I will never have to deal with them again after today, and that's probably true.
However, we don't like when strangers do things that make us mad even though we know that we won't see them again either.
Right, it goes both ways.
When we say that something goes both ways, That means that it happens in both directions, so to say.
So, for example, it's something very common for people to get mad at workers that are working at certain stores.
And I've done this too.
I'm not saying that it's just other people.
I've also gotten mad at employees at certain stores.
But some people really treat workers very poorly if they're not really really happy with the service.
And I get that we want to have good service and be respected.
However, I think it's important not to go overboard and get really mad at employees that are maybe not doing the best job.
By the way, when we say that you go overboard, we're saying that you go to the extreme.
You exaggerate in your reaction or your action, let's say.
And so if you're not receiving the best service, it's perfectly fine to say that and to sometimes even talk to the manager about it.
But there are many cases in which people aren't just simply complaining about bad service.
They're just really treating these workers really bad, maybe because they themselves are in a bad mood or whatever.
And I don't think that's a good thing to do.
And imagine if you, at your workplace, had to deal with people coming in and yelling at you and getting mad at you.
I'm not talking about your boss.
Maybe that happens sometimes.
I'm talking about just strangers who don't work there.
Imagine if you were working at your office and strangers come in and start yelling at you and telling you that you're doing a terrible job.
You probably wouldn't like that.
And yeah, sometimes employees do a terrible job for sure.
And it's a legitimate feeling to be frustrated by that when you're not being treated well.
But I think we should not just say, well, I'm never going to see this worker again.
So I can just yell and scream at him and leave, and there will be no consequences, because we wouldn't want other people to do that to us in our workplace.
Right.
So that's that. kind of what I'm saying here.
Another group of strangers who we should treat according to the golden rule is other drivers when we're driving.
This is something that is very important in my opinion.
I think that we shouldn't think of ourselves as being the kings and queens of the road and we can do what we want and we can cut people off.
To cut someone off means that you go right in front of them, so they have to break really hard, right?
You know what i'm talking about.
So we shouldn't cut people off and be aggressive and run red lights.
We sometimes think ah, no one is affected by it.
But yes, people are affected.
When a driver runs a red light, this means that the person goes through the intersection even though the light is already red.
OK, that affects other people and it puts other people in danger.
And one other one I can think of is this happened a lot when I was living in Mexico.
Someone might be trying to turn right on a green light, but they're waiting for the pedestrians to cross the street.
They're waiting for them so they can turn after those people have already walked across the street.
And then cars behind this car start honking their horns and yelling and getting mad that this person is simply waiting for the person to finish crossing the street.
So i think that's crazy.
That's ridiculous.
Imagine if you were someone waiting for a pedestrian to cross the street and everyone behind you is getting mad at you and honking.
Or imagine if you're the pedestrian.
Imagine if you're someone crossing a busy intersection and you know that all of these other cars are honking at this one driver because he's letting you cross the street safely.
You probably wouldn't be happy about that.
So you also shouldn't do that when other people are waiting for pedestrians to cross the street.
So again, this is the golden rule.
We shouldn't just think that our actions in our car only affect us, right?
We should drive how we would want other people around us to drive.
So I think that's important as well.
Another instance in which I think it's good to practice the golden rule is when you encounter new people in an environment in which you are very comfortable.
So for example, when there's a new person at work.
And you've already been there for a long time.
You have your friends at the office and you're comfortable and a new person comes in.
Or an even better example would be in school, when there's a new student who comes in in the middle of the year and And they have no friends at that school.
They don't know anyone.
But you do have friends and you are comfortable there.
I think that it's a really good thing to go up and talk to that new person, befriend them.
When you befriend someone, it means that you make friends with them.
So befriend them, invite them to come sit with you at lunch or whatever.
And i think that for us, if we were in that situation, if we were the new kid in school and we don't know anyone and we're really nervous and Everyone else knows each other already.
We would want someone to come up to us and help us out and be friendly to us and invite us to hang out with them and their friends.
I think we would all want that, right?
So I think that if we want that, it's important that we try to do that for other people.
I think that that's a great way to practice this golden rule.
We want other people to include us and welcome us, so we should include the new guy, the new girl or whatever, and welcome them into our friend group.
Obviously, we don't have to make good friends with them if they're not our type of person, of course.
But you can at least be friendly to them and make them feel a little bit better and not really scared and nervous about being the new person.
Right.
Or maybe a new neighbor on your street in the us.
In the past it was very, very normal for people to go over and visit a new neighbor.
When they see that someone has just moved into a house on their street, people would go over and bring them homemade cookies or a cake or something like that and welcome them to the neighborhood.
I don't think this is as common now as it was in the past, but I think that's a cool custom, a cool way to help a new neighbor feel welcome.
Because we would also like our neighbors to make us feel welcome when we move to a new neighborhood, for example.
And one other group of people that I think it's important to practice the golden rule with is foreigners and tourists in your country.
So we always want to feel welcome and treated well when we travel abroad, when we go on vacation and travel to another country, or when we live abroad for a while, or maybe we go to another country to live permanently.
We want other people, the locals there, to welcome us and treat us well, so i think it's important to do this when tourists and foreigners come to your city, your country.
If they're not doing something wrong or breaking the law or just being bad, then I think that we should try to make them feel welcome.
We should treat them well and we should want to leave them with a good impression of our country and our city.
I've been to some cities where I left with a really bad impression.
One of these cities was New York City.
I've only been there once, and it was for just two days.
But I got a really bad impression of the city because there were a few instances in which I or someone right around me was treated really badly by a person like a worker or someone living there.
And I had never experienced that before in any other city in the US.
So I was left with a very bad impression of New York City because of how the locals treated me.
And so I don't want foreigners to come to my country or my city and leave with a bad impression and say oh, the people were awful there.
They were really mean and they weren't friendly or whatever.
I don't want to leave that impression.
I hope that if people come to where I live, that they leave thinking that it's a great place.
That's what I wish.
That's what I hope for.
So that means that I want to treat people well when they're not from here.
And I'm an English teacher.
So for me, this might come more naturally than it does for other people.
But I think that, regardless of whether or not you have a lot of experience talking to foreigners, I think it's a cool experience to talk to them and make them feel welcome and just engage with them.
I love doing this and when I have the opportunity to do so, I always choose to talk to the foreigner who's at some event or whatever.
I think that's cool.
And I remember one specific situation with my sister in which she befriended this Brazilian girl who was living in the US.
And my sister just made friends with her right away and invited her to do things and to go to family events.
And this Brazilian girl probably left with a really good impression of the US or of Americans in general because of my sister, and so that's kind of an example that i'd like to follow and i want to try to treat people who come here to my country the way that i want to be treated when i go visit some other country.
So that's another group of people who it's good to practice the golden rule with right.
So I think that's it for today.
I'm sure you can think of other situations in which it's important to follow the golden rule, but hopefully this inspires you to treat others the way you want them to treat you right.
And, as always, remember that you can sign up for my advanced podcast episodes to start practicing with real English spoken fast.
The link is down below.
And you can also sign up for my US Conversations podcast so you can start practicing with two people talking and not just one.
That's an essential step that you'll eventually need to take in your English learning journey.
You need to be able to understand more than one person when they're talking.
So that's something that can help you practice with that.
And of course, the transcript for this episode is down below as well.
All right.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
And I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
