Hello listeners, welcome to the Fluent Mind ESL podcast.
I'm here with my co-host Jack, and today we're going to be talking about influencing or de-influencing each other's travel lists.
And for those of you who are active on TikTok, I'm sure you guys have seen these viral posts.
Asking everyone to influence or de-influence their travel lists.
What we're going to do is that Jack is going to kick us off here talking about a couple places that he would like to travel.
And then if I have any experience with those places, I might chime in.
If I don't, then I might just say, hey, I would like to go there too.
And I think it would be really funny if you guys as listeners chimed in below.
Maybe you're from these places or you've heard of these places or you visited these places.
We would love to get a comment from you guys or an email from you guys at the A to Z English podcast at gmailcom.
And you guys can tell us what you think about these places.
We always love to hear from you guys.
So, yeah, why don't you kick us off, Jack?
OK, so I'm going to think of like three places that I would like to go and that you could give me some advice on.
So I'm thinking the first one is definitely Oaxaca.
I want to visit Oaxaca.
And what do you think, Jessica?
Influence me, de-influence me.
I'm going to influence you.
I'm going to say that I think you would really like it.
But if you went, I would be the first person that wrote a whole itinerary for things for you to do.
With your family that, like I feel like they, like your whole family, would like, and then things that maybe just you would like and things like they could do on their own, like shopping and stuff.
Yeah, because my wife and I, we love Mexican food.
Like, we're big fans.
Because I think Korean food and Mexican food are actually kind of like uh, lost cousins.
Yeah yes, they're like cousins.
Like you know, you guys have some like the black bean sauce and like spicy food.
Yeah, and chili peppers yeah, they are like long lost cousins.
Um Yeah, I think you guys will love the food.
I think your wife would like the shopping.
There's so many like beautiful, hand-bordered and like handmade items and like dresses and stuff.
And I don't know how your wife is.
I know a lot of Korean women love those like cotton dresses like, especially for summer, those like long cotton dresses.
Yeah yeah, i think those are great for traveling.
You know what i mean.
Like it's just.
Yeah yeah, they breathe very well.
You know yeah, it's hot there.
So yeah Yeah, handmade ones in Oaxaca that you can buy that are like embroidered and they're really affordable, like 30 bucks, like 25 bucks, 20 bucks.
So I feel like I would have a field day shopping.
And for you, I feel like you would just like love to get mixed up in the local culture.
Maybe go to like a village close by.
There's like a village, like about half an hour from the city, maybe like an hour from the city.
That's in the mountains.
That's really beautiful.
Eat some traditional food, maybe have like a chocolate making experience where they make chocolate like you peel the cacao bean by hand and like This is like real 90 cacao, right there.
This little bit of sugar.
Yes.
Yeah, well, you can get 100%.
You can just get the nubs without any sugar, and then they can just add sugar if you want.
They customize it based on what you want.
Yeah, so there's so many things that I definitely recommend it for you.
What's the price of an average meal if you go out to eat in Oaxaca?
It really depends.
But you can get like a meal at like a fancy gourmet restaurant that's Michelin star.
That's a really amazing meal for like 30 bucks or 25 bucks, I think, per person, probably.
I'm talking, like you know, like some nice like, like just traditional Mexican food from like a, like a, like a respected street vendor, you know.
Yeah, you can go.
You can honestly get comida corrida, which is like you go, like in the afternoon, which is their big meal time, and you get like a meal.
Um, and it includes like, it's just like a meal with two sides basically in a drink.
And that's like, You can get that for like $3 or $4 probably.
Oh, wow.
Okay, yeah.
That's what I was kind of thinking, that it's not expensive.
That you can know the right places to go.
It's really cheap and really good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, yeah, you can go and get really cheap stuff.
I like to do like a mix.
So you can go get like street tacos or like memelas or tlayudas for really cheap.
And then you can go to the Michelin place, which are just like the.
It's like they use all traditional food and ingredients that are locally sourced.
But it's just like jished up to the extreme, you know.
But it's really good.
It's still like really good and authentic.
And it's really inexpensive for a Michelin restaurant, obviously.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
All right.
You have another one on your list.
Let me see here.
Yes.
I want to go to Chicago.
What do you think?
Chicago.
Okay, I'm going to get some hate.
One of my old college roommates, slash closest friends to this day, Shamika Davis.
She is from Chicago, the actual city, not the suburbs.
People from Chicago, the actual city.
They'll be like you're not from Chicago if you're from the suburbs.
They really get passionate about it.
I think it's cool.
They have good soul food.
It's really diverse.
Good blues.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a famous Chicago deep dish pizza.
Yeah.
But personally, like i think, have you never been?
Have you been to chicago or not?
I think i've driven through it, i i've been to the suburbs of chicago, but i don't think i've ever been to, like you know, the big, like um, what's that big?
Uh yeah, the silver bean.
Yeah, i've never, i've never like taken my photo.
You know, through the reflection of the being.
Of the being.
I don't even know what the being is.
Anyway.
I mean, I think it can be cool, but I don't think it'd be like.
It's like oh, you have to go if you're in America.
Like, I don't really think it's that amazing.
The thing I used to love is we always had to go to the embassy there to get our Mexican passports and stuff, because I have dual citizenship.
And we would stop by the Rainforest Cafe.
And I was like a little kid.
And that was the coolest thing in the world to me was the Rainforest Cafe.
Which, for our listeners who don't know, it's like if you come to America, you have to go to a Rainforest Cafe.
It's so kitschy.
But it's in every city, right?
Yeah.
Huh?
It's in every big city, right?
Yeah, it's in every big city.
It's like super kitschy.
There's like animatronic um, like alligators and stuff in the water and it's like i don't know how to describe it.
It's so bizarre.
There's like animal jungle, animal sounds and there's like a thunderstorm like every few hours fake thunderstorm noises and stuff crackling.
It's very bizarre, but it's very fun.
So yeah, I highly... If you go anywhere, I highly recommend the Rainforest Cafe.
It's just a very... I've never been, but I actually would enjoy it.
But I think, you know, now my daughter's too old for appreciating the Rainforest Cafe.
It might be a grandchildren thing, you know, like in the future maybe, or she could like it as like an ironic thing, i don't know.
Sometimes teens really like, like i weird ironic kids she's, i don't know.
I was like that yeah yeah, all right, what's up next on the list?
Um, The last one.
I was thinking, oh yeah, Tokyo.
Tokyo.
Wait, you've been to Tokyo, haven't you?
Oh, yeah, I have been to Tokyo.
Yeah, I went there last summer.
All right.
Well, we have to influence or de-influence anyway, whether you go back to Tokyo.
Do you prefer Osaka or Tokyo?
Tokyo.
I prefer Osaka.
It's got a little more unique vibe or whatever.
More energy, more personality.
I liked Osaka better too.
The food is better in Osaka in general.
Yeah, so i definitely.
If you're gonna go back to japan, i mean osaka probably, but i think that tokyo is cool for some.
Like like i really like going to the, to asakusa and being in the sensoji temple.
I know I butchered that pronunciation, really bad.
I didn't do any of the cultural stuff.
We just shopped.
You have to go to the Sensochi Temple and to Asakusa.
You would like Tokyo so much more if you went.
Oh, now i am, you need to go back.
I should go to that temple.
We did.
I didn't go to uh uno park or whatever ueno park um, uh-huh.
Yeah, There's a couple of things we didn't do that were kind of on our list, but the Meiji Shrine we didn't visit that either.
Did you not go to any shrines?
No.
Wow.
It wasn't really that kind of trip.
It was like three days, you know, so it was just.
Oh, yeah.
Three days is nothing.
Yeah, no, I get it.
I totally get it.
But to me personally you have to go like you have to go and do the cultural stuff, because that's the most fun I had.
I think of the Shibuyu – we went to Shibuyu Station where they have the – Yeah, the crossing, yeah, because I like the – That's like modern culture.
Sorry, go ahead.
I just –
I don't want to sound, I am kind of pretentious.
Maybe I should just embrace that.
Because I'm like, I don't want to sound pretentious.
I'm like, I sound pretentious.
I just do.
I don't mean to, but I do.
But I just meant like, I don't know about modern culture.
I really like historical stuff.
Yeah.
See, yeah.
When we get together, my family, we go out.
It's more like shop.
And, you know, like I think the most cultural thing we tried to do was like.
Tokyo Tower or whatever, but we just never made it like we tried to.
We tried to walk there just looking at the tower, but it was way farther than we thought it was.
You know, like you yeah, but it's not.
You know, you're not even close.
And then then it's just a tower, it's not even interesting.
So yeah Yeah, yeah.
No, you have to do like the old culture stuff.
That's the stuff that's really cool.
I think for me, samurai stuff.
And yeah, do you like do you like older cultural stuff?
Do you think like if it was just you and not with your family?
No, I mean, I think I'm just like, you know, I'm kind of, I've got like...
Generation X brain rot a little bit.
You know, like I grew up watching TV and so it's like the cultural stuff.
If I, if I'm interested, I'll just Google it, you know.
I just like integrating into the city.
I mean, that's my... That's fun.
How I've always been.
Like, when I lived in Bangkok, I didn't go to temples very often.
It wasn't really interesting to me the whole like religious element in history.
I was just more interested in like the vibe of the city and just putting myself into that in circulation there and just being like, just try it because i feel like you'll like it.
Like don't have any like preconceived notion about it and all that like Because I didn't.
Honestly, I'm not the type of person to go to like every temple and stuff you know.
But when I was, It just happened to be like really close to where I was staying the Sosonji Temple and they were like you should go.
And then I went and I like It was really cool.
It like absorbs you and you feel like it's there's not like too much, because you know we're kind of on the outside, so like i mean, obviously there's element of respect but it's not like you're immersed really in the religious aspect or anything.
But it's so cool to like go in and you see older people who are still like immersed in and that's really cool because you can.
But yeah, you see like older people that are like really immersed in, like respectfully.
You know people watching or you just catch glances of them around, but like it's really cool and then to feel like immersed.
And then they put on these really cool shows.
I got to send you some pictures, but like I took some pictures.
It's like, it's kind of like being back in time.
And there's like all these cool like food vendors that are like, you know, old traditional food.
I, it was really cool to me.
Yeah.
No, I liken it to like reading versus watching TV.
You know what I mean?
Like it's it's like everyone knows reading is better.
You know, it's better for your mind, better for your soul.
But it's easier to just like watch Netflix, you know.
So but once you start reading, you kind of you can get into it.
But that the the kind of the gap between, like starting a book and you know is that it gets wide.
You know, like i don't want to start that book.
It's going to take me a long time to read it and yet once you start, you're so much happier that you did it.
So i think it's kind of the same idea.
You know, when you're traveling, Don't just go for the ritzy, glamorous stuff.
Go to do the traditional things and the historical things, because you will appreciate it on a deeper level, I think.
Yeah, no, it's just really cool to get absorbed.
So, yeah, I don't know.
Listeners, let us know, like, what do you guys think?
What's your travel style?
If you agree with me, like, let's convince Jack to go back and go to the temple.
I feel like he would really like it is the thing.
I'll just do it in a day spam a to z english podcast at gmailcom and tell jack to do it.
Spam our um comment section and force jack.
Maybe if we can get like how many, like 50 comments asking jack to go, that he'll do it.
So let's do it.
Oh yes.
I'm supposed to take us out again in another messy exit.
I'd say, well, let's do it.
Let's do it like a full episode of yours next time.
OK, so I think otherwise this will be like an hour long episode.
Yeah, it will be a long episode.
That's true.
OK, three.
Next time I'll try to de-influence or influence social on her three episodes travel destinations so um, but the thing is you're way more traveled than i am, so i'm not sure i'll.
I can do it, but i'll try to pick ones that i feel like you can, you know, influence me on.
Okay cool um, check us out on all the major platforms apple podcast, spotify And send us an email at adesaenglishpodcast at gmailcom if you want to send us an email.
We're still using our old email.
And, yeah, we'll see you next time.
Thanks, everybody.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Thank you.
