Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
So first off, I would like to say that it has been too long.
It has been too long since I have made another podcast.
I really do apologise as I know that many people love this podcast.
I have had a lot of people message me asking, when is the next podcast?
Why are there no new podcasts?
In this episode I will explain everything.
I don't know how much people care about my personal life, but I will update everyone on everything that has happened and why I have had less podcasts.
And then for this week's episode, I would like to talk about social media, in particular TikTok and Instagram.
So first, what happened to me?
Why have I not been making podcasts?
Well, as many of you know, I was living in Edinburgh, in Scotland.
I was studying at university there.
Unfortunately, due to coronavirus, everything was online.
But I had already rented a flat.
A flat is an apartment.
In the UK, we say the word flat instead of apartment.
I spent the first number of months just inside because we weren't allowed to go anywhere.
And we still aren't.
Thanks to this, I had so much time to make podcasts and videos and Instagram stories.
It was really great.
However, I had a lot of exams and assessments.
Because of this, it has been very difficult to keep making podcasts and videos and all the different things that I do.
Especially because I do it all for free.
Currently, this isn't my job.
It's not my job at the moment.
I am still a full-time student.
However, in the future, i really hope that i can make this a full-time job.
But essentially, what happened was that me and my flatmate my neighbor who i live with had a very big issue with our landlady.
The landlady is the person that owns the flat.
The person that owns the apartment.
She basically decided to change our internet provider.
So to change companies that provide the internet.
I think she probably thought that she could get a better deal.
She could get a better price.
Because of this, we had no internet and she didn't even tell us before.
It was an absolute nightmare.
Not because I didn't have internet or that I really wanted to watch YouTube or something like that.
It was a nightmare because I have lots of exams and university work.
So because of this, my flatmate, my neighbour and I decided we have to go home.
We have to go back to our family, to our parents.
We had a lot of arguments with the landlady, with the owner of the flat.
And finally, we were able to leave and move all of our stuff out.
So I had to spend a few days moving all of my stuff into big boxes and sending it back to Northern Ireland, where I am from.
This was incredibly stressful, if I'm honest.
I had so much university work.
I was trying to still be active on Instagram and TikTok and a few other platforms.
All while trying to move and sort all of this stuff out.
But finally, I am back.
I am back home and I am in a position that I can make podcasts again.
And I hope that you will be excited and ready to listen to very many exciting topics.
And also please please please, message me on Instagram if you have any ideas or topics or questions that you would like me to answer or talk about on the podcast.
I really love and appreciate all of the messages that I get from you guys.
To me there is almost something special about the podcast listeners, about you guys that listen to the podcast.
Because here I talk a lot more about my personal life and about things that I really care about.
And I feel like it is a lot more personal than just an English explaining video.
In general, this has definitely been quite a stressful year.
2020 has definitely been difficult.
To make everything even worse, when I just arrived home, I checked my emails and I saw that my flight to Russia on New Year's was cancelled.
This was a bit of a nightmare as well.
Originally, I had planned to fly to St.
Petersburg from London.
I was going to arrive in St.
Petersburg and spend New Year's with my girlfriend and her family.
But unfortunately the flight was cancelled and I was forced to book another one.
My visa for Russia only begins on the 31st of December, so just before New Year's.
And the only flights available are flights to Moscow.
So now on New Year's I'm flying to Moscow.
I'm going to Moscow and unfortunately I arrive in Moscow at 10 minutes past 12.
So 12.10 in the morning on New Year's.
So I will be spending my New Year's in Moscow Airport.
Sheremetova Airport.
It will definitely be interesting.
It will be the first New Year's I haven't spent with loved ones.
I will be alone in Moscow Airport.
But it could be worse.
There are many people on New Year's that don't have a home or don't have somewhere to stay or don't have enough food, and I'm still truly thankful for everything that I have.
The fact that I can even travel to Russia and pay for that is a real blessing.
It is something that I'm very thankful for.
So, that is a full, extensive, detailed update.
And now I will begin to talk about a small little topic today, which is Instagram and TikTok.
These are both social media platforms that I have used a lot.
I created my Instagram account around 7 or 8 months ago.
And honestly it has grown very quickly.
I didn't expect it to be this popular. which is fantastic.
But recently, about six weeks ago, I decided to make a TikTok account.
One of my followers on Instagram recommended me to make a TikTok account.
They said that they thought that my videos would do very well on TikTok.
So I thought, why not?
I'll just make one.
I'll make some quick videos.
I'll not put a lot of time into it and I will see how it goes.
And it has been crazy.
It has grown so, so quickly.
So much quicker than Instagram.
I had really quickly, within about a week, grown to about 1,500 followers.
And then I uploaded one video which got 1.6 million views.
I couldn't believe it, I really couldn't.
And from this video I gained over 30000 followers, and now my TikTok has, I think, 43000 followers in just 6 weeks.
This is insane and I couldn't ever imagine doing that on Instagram.
So basically what I would say is that if you make content on Instagram or you have a business or a blog, I would really, really recommend trying out TikTok.
If I am completely honest and open with you, I used to think that TikTok was just for kids.
I thought it was for children or for people making dancing videos.
But the more time I have spent on the platform, I have realised that there is a lot of great content there.
And the opportunity to grow on TikTok is so, so much bigger and better than Instagram.
The reason for this is that it is very young.
It is not an old social media platform.
And there is a lot less content, a lot less videos there.
So this has been a very quick podcast, mainly updates, but I would really like to see you here next week when I'm going to be picking a topic, hopefully an exciting and interesting one.
And I'm so glad to be back here.
And if you haven't, check out my TikTok or my Instagram.
And I love to communicate with you guys.
So feel free to message suggestions or questions or absolutely anything.
And, as always, if you haven't yet, be sure to leave me a review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you are.
Thank you so much.
Have a wonderful, fantastic, beautiful day.
And I will see you guys in the next podcast.
