Feel like you're stuck in career limbo?
Clock in, clock out, repeat.
No growth, no new opportunities.
It's time to break out and break into tech. With CBT Nuggets, you can start building the IT skills that companies are hiring for right now.
We make training fast, simple, and practical.
From networking to cybersecurity, you'll get short, easy to watch videos and hands -on virtual labs so you can build real -world skills without expensive gear or complicated setups.
For just $59 a month, you get unlimited access to our full training library.
That includes certifications, skill -based learning, and practice exams, a $100 value included free.
Learn anytime, anywhere, and get job ready on your terms. Thousands have used CBT Nuggets to launch new careers, and you can too.
Right now, CBT Nuggets is offering a free trial.
Easily find the training you need and test it out with no commitment.
Start your seven -day free trial now at cbtnuggets .com.
Don't wait. A better job is just a few clicks away.
You just realized your business needed to hire someone...
yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast?
Easy — just use Indeed.
Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other job sites.
With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so you can reach the people you want, faster.
According to Indeed Data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have 45 % more applications than non -sponsored jobs.
Don't wait any longer.
Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed.
And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed .com slash P O D K A T Z 13.
Just go to Indeed .com slash P O D K A T Z 13 right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.
Hiring Indeed is all you need.
Welcome to the A to Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co -host, Xochitl.
And for those of you that listen to our podcast regularly, you might know that Xochitl is is both a US citizen and a Mexican citizen.
And she has an extensive knowledge of Oaxaca, which is a, is it a province or state?
How do they refer to it?
It's a state, okay.
And Xochitl is also a journalist as well.
She wears many hats, podcast, journalist, translator.
And you wrote an article for, I'm looking at the the article website is Oaxaca Travel Tips is that the website yes that's the website okay okay and I'll put a link to your article in our in our description so those listeners out there if you guys want to read about the state of Oaxaca in Mexico there's really interesting information in in Xocho's article and I don't know I guess let's talk about the A lot of it is based around markets, like outside markets, different kinds of markets.
Am I right about that?
It just seems like very much like a market society, like a market culture.
That's true. Yeah. Well, sorry.
Go ahead. Sorry. No, you go.
I was just going to say that, in Mexico, most people do their daily shopping at a market.
and we have these indoor market structures that are open just the same as a regular store.
They vary but they could be open as early as 5 a .m. and they usually close earlier in the day, sometimes around 7 or 8 p .m. and in the market you can find all the typical things you would need from a regular store like you can get snacks, produce, meat, dairy and local spices and ingredients, and you can also get clothing, especially local traditional clothing, house decorations, like hand -woven baskets, there's a lot of things.
We call them subsidies and this, which is just like handmade artwork, basically like a traditional art.
I love that stuff. It's just, everything's unique.
Like it's, there's no copy of a, you know what I mean?
It's not some like computer program machine that made it, you know, it's like there's no two are alike.
I think that's pretty cool.
Yeah, I think that's really cool.
It's like you get an exclusive piece and being Mexico, a lot of this stuff is pretty affordable, I would say, especially for something that's unique and exclusive that you won't see again, at least not in the same color, the same pattern or the same design.
Yeah, so a lot of that stuff is really interesting.
Yeah, I think what's interesting thing that you know, about like Mexican culture, which I think is similar to, like, a little bit similar to Thai culture is like, you don't, you don't go to the grocery store and buy like, a month's worth of food.
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah, I buy, you know, three dozen chicken, chicken legs, and, you know, 10, five kilos of like pork or whatever, and just store it all in my refrigerator and then never go shopping.
It's like, why are we why we do that?
I don't really quite understand American culture necessarily like the big box shopping, when you could just go like, walk out your door and go to a market and just get nice fresh stuff.
Let them do this. Let them us, you know, store it for you.
Like, why do we take on that responsibility?
Is it strange? It is really strange.
I think that the death of corner store culture in America really comes from the fact that one, we have really sizable houses, even a small house in America is usually a lot like not necessarily bigger than in Mexico, but we just do have a lot of storage space.
We have like refrigerators.
There's like consistent refrigeration, consistent electricity.
Yeah. So then we also have super busy active lives, like not saying that Mexicans are people and island or ever don't have super busy active lives.
But usually, that I think it was still a lot like there's a housewife that has a little bit of time to go out and do some shopping.
And so it's just it's more convenient for her to be able to make things fresh every day.
And then when we've moved to this kind of culture where both the men and women work full time, at least 40 hours a week, a lot of people work two jobs, I think it just becomes way more convenient to stockpile a bunch of stuff in your refrigerator, and your freezer and just cook from there.
Then it is to go to a market and like haggle with people.
And, and we're just a very isolated society, like we don't really walk anywhere, everywhere requires a car, we're very like, isolated, we don't have those like relationships with local vendors, we just like go to a grocery store and everything is prim and college and you don't really interact with people.
Like we have self check out now.
And yeah, yeah, we're getting even more isolated and uh, yeah.
And for the sake of the convenience, like as well with an American culture, like we even are having like, just like in Korea, it's that way too.
Like it's just easier to get like groceries or meal kits like shipped to your door than it is for you to go out and choose what you're going to buy at the grocery store and what you're going to cook that week.
It's like, we don't even have the emotional energy to expand on deciding what we're gonna cook that week or deciding what we're gonna cook that day and so yeah i think that's like part of it for American culture it's kind of become very...
the opposite of Mexican culture which um i think i think a lot of our listeners like whether you're from China or whether you're an older person from korea or an Hey Kristen how's it trackin'?
With Carvana value tracker?
What else? Oh it's trackin'.
In fact, value surge alert trucks up 2 .5%.
Van's down 1 .7. Just as predicted.
So we gonna... I don't know, could sell, could hold.
The power to always know our car's worth.
Exhilarating, isn't it?
Tracking. Always know your car's worth with Carvana Value Tracker.
From Japan or maybe like the Middle East or wherever you might be from, market culture existed in a lot of these different countries and cultures for a really long time.
And I think they can relate to that, like sense of belonging, of having people that you see every day, of like getting fresh produce.
like it's more cheerful and alive and there's a sense of community and You have those like connections?
Even if they're micro connections, like you don't have to be best friends with the fish lady at the market but you see her every day and you greet her and you like get to know her over time and I think that's a big reason That these other cultures, you know, some of them have improved mental health in those aspects for sure yes, they value these things.
And we don't value them at all because there's no place in capitalism to value a smile.
You know what I mean?
It's like a smile is worth nothing in capitalism.
But it's worth a lot in mental health and like mental well -being.
So you're right. We've made it so convenient in America that you can go and do everything without having to see a single person or interact with anybody you know like like that's like as if that's good for us you know what I mean?
A whole day I didn't have to talk to anybody.
It's like we're social creatures you know like that's not good for you.
You don't want to isolate yourself.
Yeah and people actually celebrate that in America like oh I didn't have to talk to anyone I didn't have to see anyone today like I got to do everything from my home and I See that in other kind of like quote -unquote first world nations I don't really like using that terminology But I think we know what I'm like a lot of those nations where things are more developed and things have become really convenient and technology based people have Secluded themselves a lot and our mental health is suffering because again like you said a Jack were social creatures.
We depend on these social connections even micro connections and and conversation.
Yes, yes. I totally, and I don't think you can get it from social media.
I just, I don't think social media, I think social media is like a, a very diminished version of it.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's not. Yeah, it's like junk food.
It's like junk food, right.
Yeah, like junk food, and like having a real micro connections in a community that's like a real hearty meal.
And social media is just like potato chips.
Like you could live off potato chips, but probably not very long and you're gonna have health issues.
And that's kind of what we're seeing with our mental health, which has become scented.
But yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm just I wanted to add one more thing because I think this is like really important.
And I could tell that like Mexican, we need to go back to like our kind of like, ancestors a little bit, you know, like, or look to cultures that like still value these things.
and ask ourselves as Americans, why don't we value this?
And instead of the next thing, which is injecting some sort of neuro, whatever transmitter drug into your brain so that you can feel connected to people.
How about just have the real thing?
Why not just skip back to some kind of more communal living?
living, I don't know, I just feel like there's, I feel like those tech people, those guys that, like, have helped, kind of, pull us apart through inventions, the invention of social media and those platforms. I think, I feel like even some of those people end up being kind of hippie, back to like, you know, they travel the world and they go to markets and they, you know, like Markeche or something or, you know what I mean?
Like that's where they end up going back to, it's like, oh wait, you're right.
The original source is better than this other thing that we created.
So I don't know. I really appreciated your article because I think it's really like, that's the main takeaway for me, it was like just how market -based it is and how much we get aside from just buying products and selling things.
Like there's some value there.
Absolutely. Yeah, it's really beautiful.
And I definitely recommend listeners if you guys are looking for a place to take a vacation, we'll have to, I'm told by people all the time that it won like best place to travel and leisure and travel magazine two years in a row.
And I don't put a lot of weight behind that obviously but I think that it kind of points to the fact that it is unique.
It is a lot of traditional culture, traditional indigenous culture is conserved, a lot of community is conserved, and it just gives you a chance to step into kind of another world, and enjoy like a slow pace of living in a way.
There's chaos and everything like markets are but your life just seems more lax and you let go of some of the stressors that we have now in the modern day.
Yeah, so listeners, if you're interested, make sure to check out the article please and keep an eye out on that webpage.
I've been commissioned to do some other articles and you should see them posted.
and yeah I appreciate Jack giving me a chance to talk about this and make sure she listens to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, red circle and everywhere else you usually get your podcasts send us an email at a to Z English podcast at gmail .com and leave us a comment down below if you so wish connect with us on WeChat, and we'll see you guys next time.
Bye bye. Bye bye. Music
