Simplified Speech #223 – How we’re spending summer

Hello everybody and welcome back to Simplified Speech, the QLIP series which features clear, natural, and easy-to-understand English conversations between native speakers. And today I am joined by my co-host, Indiana. Hello, Indiana. How's it going? Hey, Andrew. I'm doing pretty good. It's been really nice summer weather here, getting started. The summer weather here. I don't know how it is in Korea, though. Has it been brutally hot or not too bad? Hot, hot, hot. And Indiana actually...

I think this is the first day this year that I am recording with the air conditioner on. It's just too hot to record with no air conditioning. I think if I just tried to record an episode without the AC. I'd probably be dripping in sweat by the end of it just because. Yeah, it's the last few days here. It's been over 30 degrees Celsius. And I apologize. I can't translate that to Fahrenheit for you.

probably like in the 90s and very, very humid as well. So we're just in the middle of June when we're recording this episode and already... It's like full-blown summer mode here in Seoul. And I'm not ready for it. I actually kind of hate the summer in South Korea because it's too hot and too humid. But it's all right. It's a part of life.

And Indiana, in today's episode, we're going to talk all about our summer plans, some of the things that we have on our schedule or some of the things we want to do this summer. And yeah, we'll...

discuss that in this episode but before we do i should let everybody know that there is a helpful study guide to accompany this episode that we have designed to help take your english to the next level In the study guide, you'll find an interactive transcript. detailed vocabulary definitions and examples. There's a quiz and much, much more. And you can get the guide if you are a Qloops member. If you'd like to become a Qloops member, just visit our website, which is...

You guessed it, QLips.com. You can sign up and become a member. You'll get the study guide and tons of other benefits and bonuses that we've designed for you guys to help you improve your English. And thanks to all the Q-Lips members out there as well for your support. Guys, we couldn't do Q-Lips without you. So thank you so, so much. All right, Indiana, let's get into our conversation about the summer.

our summer plans. And I told you before we recorded, don't tell me what you're going to talk about. I want it to be a surprise here. So yeah, surprise me. What is your first summer plan that you would like to talk about?

Okay, so the first thing I'm doing very soon. So I have actually three different live music events I would love to share with you about the summer. But the first one is coming up this Friday. I'm so excited to go see this Japanese musician called Yuma Abe. He was in a band called Never Young Beach, which was pretty popular maybe like 10 years ago. I think like they had a kind of...

Beachy, breezy, summery sound. And maybe like if you enjoyed Mac DeMarco, some indie rock musicians like that, you would probably really like them to any listeners out there. who like that kind of genre. But since Yuma Abe went solo, he's kind of changed his sound a little bit from that. And he had an album a few years ago that was produced. by one of my favorite Japanese musicians. Not produced, actually. Some of the songs were mixed by Haruomi Hosono.

who's famous for being in Yellow Magic Orchestra and just all of his solo work. So yeah, I'm just so excited to see Yuma Abe. I can't believe he's going to be near my city. Like it's so rare for, I feel like. any of the Japanese musicians I love to be anywhere near me so I am just so excited to see him and it's gonna be at this tiny little jazz club

It's going to be a really intimate setting. I love to see musicians in small settings instead of like huge stadiums or halls. Yeah, like I cannot be more excited. Yes, that's it. That's my first thing coming up. Yeah, that's really cool that you're going to get that experience. And yeah, I would say in general, it's not too common that artists from Asia tour in North America.

Right. Maybe. Yeah, obviously, because of the distance and the costs involved, it's yeah, unfortunately, doesn't happen too, too often. So a great experience for you and a small, intimate venue like that, that'll be.

amazing so enjoy the show that'll be sweet absolutely i'm so excited and i'll quickly share two other musicians i'm excited to see because that's my my main excitement this year for the summer um Another really cool, unexpected group that will be coming to my city is a Brazilian group who was prominent in the 1960s called Os Mutantes. I cannot be more excited to see them. I was like, what? They're still together? They're still alive? But they are, and they're touring, and wow.

That'll be amazing. They were involved in this musical or art movement called Tropicalia during the dictatorship in Brazil in the 60s.

um yeah they were contemporaries with like gilberto gill yeah really cool band and then finally towards the end of the summer i'm gonna see paciman who is this puerto rican dub reggae guy that I just love so much his music is so relaxing and cool and like you could just sway in the crowd and feel really good when you're seeing him I saw him last year I was like wow so so in love with his vibe

So that I'm so hyped for all of those, all of those shows. Do you have any like any shows or any big plans similar to that this summer? Yeah, there are a couple of festivals that I...

been considering going to but I just haven't pulled the trigger on yet and I probably won't do it in the end just because the one that I would really like to go to is Fuji Rock Festival. And yeah, I guess that's, I'm not exactly sure where in Japan, but maybe somewhere around Mount Fuji. So like around the center of the country, but it's a big festival every year. I think one of the largest.

sort of indie, alternative music style festivals in Japan. And they have a three-day festival. One of my friends went a couple of years ago and just said it was an awesome experience and he had a lot of fun. And this year, I believe they do it like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And the older I get, Indiana, I don't know if you experience this as well, but the older I get, it's like the fewer names that I recognize on the posters.

And I still think I'm kind of plugged into the music scene. But yeah, when you see the posters advertising the festivals, right, there's like 100 band names on there. And you're like, okay, I recognize 10. So there's like 90 that I don't know, which is... Kind of exciting at the same time because you could potentially learn about so much new music. But the Saturday is the day that I would like to go to because the two headliners are Fortet, who is like an electronic.

musician slash DJ slash producer who I really like. And he's from the UK, but I think actually he lives maybe in upstate New York, maybe. Kind of in your neck of the woods, Indiana. Yeah, one of my friends is really into him. I should ask him and get back to you. But yeah, very cool musician. Yeah, cool musician. So he's headlining, and the other headliner is Tatsuru Yamashita.

who is like a city pop legend. And I don't think he plays too often these days. He's probably kind of up there in age. So I thought, is it worth it to go? Like, it's a big trip. to go to Japan for a one day music festival, right? Got to buy your airplane tickets and concert tickets and then accommodation and how do you get to the festival and all of these things. So.

I would really like to go, but I just don't think I have it in me. If I were a little bit younger and I had more energy, maybe I would go. I'm begging you if you can find the energy. For me, seize the day and see Tatsuro Yamashita. That would be like a dream of mine. Oh, my God. Well, it's funny because it's the poster is written.

like in Japanese, right? Or at least the one that I saw. But all of the foreign artists' names are all in English, but all of the Japanese artists are written in Japanese. And I know that Yama means mountain in... Japanese and I know what I know barely like any of the I guess the Chinese characters or the what do you call it in

In Japanese, the... Kanji. The kanji would be the Chinese characters. Okay, the kanji. Yeah. I know barely any of those, but I know the one for mountain because it kind of looks like a mountain. So I was like, no way. Is that Tatsuri Yamashita? that is playing. And so I had to get my phone out and do the little Google translate. I was like, no way it is him. He is headlining. So I almost missed it to be honest with you. But yeah, that, that is one festival that I was considering going to.

And then here in Korea, where it would actually be a lot more convenient to go to festivals, it's really weird this year because it seems to be the trend that really old bands are playing. oasis is um you know a band from the 90s that brit pop band from the 90s who are just huge in korea at the moment they're massive and even like young kids in

that are like 18, 19 years old are really big Oasis fans. They're having this huge renaissance. And so Oasis is playing a concert. There's some other Brit pop bands like Pulp is playing a concert. There are another like older bands.

Guns N' Roses just played a concert. And there are a handful of other like older bands from the 80s and 90s that are playing, which is really surprising to me. Not so much like... contemporary music but one artist that I'm still on the fence about this too I don't know if I want to go or not but there's a festival in Busan which is the southern part of South Korea probably about

three or four hour train ride away from seoul but uh there's a festival there i think happening in early september if i'm not mistaken and the headliner is the smashing pumpkins and i was In the late 90s, they were a huge band for me. When I was maybe in middle school or my early years of high school, I was kind of obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins and I just loved their sound and I thought they were so cool.

but they haven't really quit making music. You know, they like peaked maybe around the year 2000 for me at least. And then in the previous 25 years, they've just been releasing records that I thought were... Well, I haven't even listened to them because I didn't think they were really worth listening to. And then, you know, as guys get older and I don't know, their lead singer, Billy Corgan, kind of went on a different path in his life than...

the cool rock star that I once thought he was. And so I'm really like debating, should I go for nostalgia's sake and like try and see, I looked up some playlists online and they do play a lot of. They're classic big hits from back in the day, thankfully. Also their drummer, like I played the drums and he was a huge inspiration to me when I was learning how to play the drums. So I thought it would be cool to see him play as well. His name is Jimmy Chamberlain.

So yeah, I'm debating, but the thing is, it's like a festival. So far, when I checked, they weren't selling any one-day passes. You had to buy a three-day pass for the whole festival, which was around $200. There's probably some other acts that might be cool to see, but nobody that like really jumped out at me. And so $200 in a town four hours away to see an old band. Like they're probably, I have no idea, like in their 60s.

Late 50s, 60s? So, I don't know, aging rock stars, right? That's the story of this summer here in Asia. Tatsuru Yabashita and Billy Corgan, these aging rock stars. So I don't know. I haven't pulled the trigger on that, but those are two things I've been thinking about. I mean, I'm not you and I'm a little biased, but I'd say, gosh, you got to go to one and I know which one you should go to.

All right. Well, I'll keep that in mind. Indiana, let me tell you about one of my other summer plans because actually those aren't what I was planning to talk about at all.

Kind of randomly, speaking of Japan, I got a call or a message from one of my good friends. His name is Luke. I've talked about him on the podcast before. He's one of my best friends from my hometown. We've been friends for 30 plus years. And he actually lives in Shanghai in China. So it's kind of cool that we're both living in...

Asia and we're both in similar time zones and during the summer sometimes we can actually meet and hang out and we've done this Many times over the years, we've met in Taiwan, Jeju Island, Japan, Vietnam, like all sorts of different places we've visited together just for like little trips because we're kind of in the same region where we live. And so he messaged me just a couple of days ago and he is going to be visiting Canada. He's going to go back home for the summer.

I won't be doing that. I'll just be staying in Seoul. But he mentioned that on his way back from Canada, he's going to stop in northern Japan in Sapporo, I believe, is the city. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Is that how I would say it? Indiana? Sapporo? I would say Sapporo. Sapporo. Okay.

So he'll be there. And he said, Andrew, can you come and hang out? Like I'm going to be there for three or four days. And what do you think? And so I checked my schedule and I actually, I think I could make it happen. Last year when I visited Japan, we had a Q-Lips meetup in Osaka and it was awesome. It was a really fun time. Yeah, one of the best travel experiences I've ever had, to be honest with you. But it was so, so hot.

in Osaka in the summer that I swore that I was never going to visit Japan again in the summer just because it was so hot and uncomfortable. I thought I'm going to have to save my future travels for any season but the summer. But then... Yeah, my buddy invited me to go to Japan again. But I think he said, like, don't worry, it's in the north. So it's cooler and less hot and humid. So I don't know if we have any listeners from Sapporo and...

you guys agree that it's cooler in the summer, please send me a message on Discord and let me know. Or if any listeners out there live in Sapporo and would potentially maybe like to hang out in... Late July slash early August. Send me a message as well. Maybe you did.

meet up for a coffee or something like that because I think I want to do it. I'm going to try my best to make it happen. That's kind of my summer travel plan that I'm thinking about doing. I think it would just be a really fun time. That sounds so great. And I, you know, I've never been to Hokkaido, but I have heard and latitudinally.

It does seem, if you look on the map, that it should be much cooler than that subtropical zone of Osaka in the summer. So hopefully it won't be too brutal at that time of year. But you never know. Yeah, yeah. Luckily, just because of the proximity to Japan, it's quite easy for me to visit. And...

I talked about this lots on Qloops before in some of the bonus episodes, Indiana. So I won't say all of the details again to our listeners here. But when I visited... japan last time which was in the winter i ended up like getting food poisoning and having a really bad time and i was pretty much stuck in my hotel room in tokyo the whole like few days that we were there my wife and i so

uh i kind of want to go back just so i can be like i can explore a little bit and get out of the hotel room yeah so i think i think i'm going to do it so okay now i again i've never been there but i've heard Okay, there's a special, you know, each region has a special kind of ramen. Sapporo ramen might be unique if you've never had it. You should probably seek that out if you go. I think if you eat fish, I'm pretty sure that there's some famous sea urchin.

uni that you could check out it's like maybe a bit luxurious or expensive but I'm pretty sure Hokkaido is famous for that and then also so like the indigenous people of Japan I knew There should be a lot of cultural museums and opportunities to learn a little bit about them and their history in Hokkaido. But otherwise, it seems like it's just like a beautiful... nature, natural place to see. I hope you go. That sounds wonderful. I would love the opportunity to visit Ogrido.

Yeah, yeah. I know about it more like in the winter. I know there's like a big snow festival there and they're famous for getting lots of snow and maybe even like skiing and snowboarding and mountains and that kind of thing. But in the summer, I'm not so sure. So yeah, sign me up. I'm down to do it. And I think I'll do it. Indiana, how about one of your other summer plans aside from the music and the concerts? Well...

Overall, I hope it's going to be a pretty low-key summer. I often end up, I think, like overbooking myself. And every weekend I have a plan and I'm going out of town and I'm doing this and that. I really want to avoid that this year and just kind of enjoy my new home and spend some time relaxing and exercising in my local area. So I don't want to do too much traveling, but...

I will be going to Colorado to attend a wedding soon and to visit my brother-in-law. And that should be a lot of fun. I haven't been there in like eight years. And for listeners who are unfamiliar with Colorado, it is in like the western part of the United States, but it's not as far west as California. It's like the... central western yeah on its way towards the west coast but it's definitely landlocked it's kind of weird right because you would almost want to say like objectively it's midwest

But then the Midwest is a totally different region in America. So yeah, it's like a state or two over from California. Yes, right. So yeah, definitely. Although you could describe it as the Midwest. That would be the wrong term. Yeah. Very confusing. Yeah. But it's very famous for, I think, it's mountains, like wonderful hiking in Colorado.

Um, and for me personally, I think there's a lot of awesome breweries I'm in pretty into, not pretty into, it's hard to say. Like I love craft beer. I think I drink like once a week. So it's really. Not like I'm super into it, but I think if I'm on vacation, I would love to seek out a really nice craft brewery. And so craft, that means that it's like that small scale beer. It's not like a major distributor.

There's some wonderful, wonderful breweries in Colorado and in Boulder and Denver. Those are the places I'll be. I can't wait to go and revisit some of those awesome breweries. Nice. Yeah, that would be great. I've never visited Colorado myself, although it's always been on my bucket list and a place that I would love to visit. We have the Rocky Mountains stretch from...

Well, from that area of the United States all the way into Canada, into our province called Alberta. And I visited the Rocky Mountains last year when I was in Canada with my wife. And it's just beautiful. So I can imagine that the scenery is... somewhat similar throughout the whole Rocky Mountain range. So definitely you're going to see some beautiful, amazing scenery. And yeah, I heard that Colorado is just a pretty chill place in general.

I'm sure you'll have a good time and you'll have to tell us about your trip after you return back to your home. How are you getting there? Are you going to just fly or are you going to take like a road trip adventure and drive there?

Yeah, gosh, I wish I had the time to do that because I did take a cross-country road trip once between... years of university for like a month it was like one of the best experiences ever like if anybody has the opportunity to take time off of work and do that kind of thing you should totally do it But no, I'm just going to fly, which I'm not excited about either. Like, I really don't like air travel. So that will be stressful. But yeah, I'll just be flying in, spend like five days.

Yeah, I am looking forward to it. It's nice to go to a wedding. And yeah, it'll be great to see my brother-in-law. Yeah. But Andrew, do you have any other plans besides the possible Hokkaido trip and these possible but hopeful festivals? Yeah, this is another like possible, well.

Something that I would like to do, but I have no idea if it's going to be possible to do or not. It's not really in my hands per se, but Indiana about three or four weeks ago, maybe four weeks ago now. My wife and I adopted a dog. So we have a new dog in the home. And what I would like to do, the dog's name is Owa, which means May, like the month of May. It's the Korean word for May. What I would like to do is a kind of biking picnic adventure with my wife and with Owa. So my wife and I...

I wouldn't say that we're like avid cyclists or anything, but we live pretty close to this fantastic bike path. And we can take that bike path all the way to the Han River, which is like the major river that flows through the middle of the... city here in seoul and there's great parks and areas for picnics and so occasionally we do that just my wife and i we uh borrow or rent these bikes like the city bike share program called

And so we rent a Darangi bike and we drive it or ride it to the river and just have a nice picnic. And I thought it would be great to do that with our new dog as well. So what I would like to do, I probably couldn't do it with the...

the bike rental, but I could ride my own bike. And I would love somehow to take the dog with us on a trip like this. I think it would just be really fun. I've seen some people do this where they get like the special... dog carrying backpack and they put the dog in the backpack uh the trick would take about 30 minutes maybe from our home to the river so

That might be a little bit long for the dog to be in the backpack. So I don't know if that's a good choice. But what I would really like to do is get like a trailer. You know, have you seen... Those trailers that sometimes parents use to like haul their kids and the kids sit in the back of the trailer.

Definitely. Yeah, that sounds so cute. If I could somehow modify that so it would be safe for the dog to travel in the back of the bike trailer, and then we could just have like a nice family picnic on like a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Seoul. That is one of my goals. But yeah, like I said, it really depends on how Owa would react to being in the trailer and if it's safe or not. I'd have to do a little test ride around the block.

to give it a shot and see if she would be okay with it. But yeah, that's, that's one of my plans. And who knows if it will happen or not, but something that I guess it's almost like a dream, dream or a wish. Yeah, something like that. That sounds so nice. Yeah, I was going to say definitely give it a little test run.

has the temperament or, you know, that sense of calm for such an adventure. And I think my dog could not handle that. But yeah, totally depends on the personality of the dog, I'm sure. Yeah, she's super, super chill and is pretty good at just like hanging out and sitting down and lying down. That's one of her favorite activities, I think, is just relaxing pretty much all day.

I think it would be okay, but be something maybe we'd have to go like step by step a little bit of training before we do like a longer half hour ride. But yeah, it's something that maybe I'll work on with her in the summer because yeah, I don't know here in Korea. pretty popular to have like a really small like toy dog or lap dog just because of you know people live in smaller homes and don't really have backyards or anything like that so it makes sense to have a smaller dog

And Owal is a poodle, like not a full-size poodle, just like a mini poodle, but not a toy poodle, but the medium-sized poodle. She's probably about 10 pounds, I guess. She's a little bit too big to like sit comfortably in a bag. But sometimes I see like the people with the little toy.

like teacup dogs and they just like put them in their purse, you know, and they were like walking around. You're like, it's kind of weird that you have the dog in your purse, but also the dogs seem fine and they're so tiny that you can do that. They usually seem half asleep. Yeah. Kind of funny, but I don't think we'll be able to really put oil in a bag like that. But anyways, that's something that's...

perhaps on the radar for me this summer. Well, Indiana, we went kind of all over the place here from Japan, Japanese rock stars to aging rock stars to a potential... trip to japan to a trip to colorado to dogs in handbags so that was kind of fun and quite a random conversation

But I certainly enjoyed it and I hope our listeners enjoyed it as well. Guys, we would like to continue the conversation about this topic, about summer plans over on our Discord community. So that would be a great... great place for you to share your summer plans with us.

Tell us all about what you're going to be up to this summer. And you can let other Q-Lips listeners know as well. And we can continue the conversation over on the Discord, which is, by the way, 100% free to join. And we'll put the link to it. join in the description for this episode so you can easily do that.

Also, remember there's a study guide and an interactive transcript available for this episode for all QLOOPS members. And if you'd like to learn all the details about becoming a QLOOPS member so you can get access to our study guides, so you can get... access to our speaking classes. So you can get access to our member only series, the fluency files, and so much more. Just visit our website, qloops.com. You can sign up and get all of those things today.

Okay, and Deanna, I think let's wrap things up here. It was great talking with you. Please take care, and guys, we'll talk to you in the next episode. Until then, bye-bye. Have a great summer, everyone, and talk to you soon.