Uuuhh... Uff! Uuuhh... Shut up! I'm listening to Zdenek's English Podcast. You're listening to Zdenek's English Podcast. By far the greatest English podcast on earth for English learners since sliced bread. My name is Zdenek and I'm your host. Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is Zdenek's English Podcast, Zdenek speaking, and here is another episode for you. It's been a while and this one is a real gem because the guest is none other than Michael Lavers.
I say guest but it was more of a co-host because this episode of Zdenek's English Podcast was recorded as a crossover, which means we recorded this episode for both Michael's Podcast and my podcast. So it will be published exactly the same podcast is published in two different places basically. Now, who is Michael Lavers? Michael is one of the most popular English teachers out there. Yes, that's right. He is a very successful online English teacher from the UK.
He is English, he is British and you should know that this is not the first time that I have done a podcast with Michael. Not really, we have done some podcasts in the past, but it was the first time, however, that I met Michael in real life, in person. That's correct. It was about one month ago and we saw each other in Bangkok. We got together in one of the popular Bangkok parks. We found a quiet area and recorded this podcast, which was rather spontaneous, a bit kind of off the cuff.
We didn't have a plan, it was unscripted, but in my humble opinion, that's what makes it better. Because personally, I am a big fan of natural speech, natural language and this is exactly what we did. We discussed all sorts of different topics on the podcast, including language learning, living in a foreign country, like Thailand or Vietnam. I think it's a really interesting episode. What's more, there's also a video because Michael had a camera with him, which was really good, I have to say.
It's a really good quality image and this is also going on the TeachersDenik YouTube channel. Just like it's going on or it's getting published on Michael's YouTube channel, you should know that Michael Lavers has a podcast called Level Up English Podcast. It is also a YouTube channel and you can find this podcast slash YouTube channel wherever you find, wherever you get your podcasts, wherever, well, on the internet, obviously YouTube channel, that's simple.
Just type in Level Up English Podcast and Michael's channel will come up. Michael also has a membership for English learners, which you can find on his website, levelupenglish.school. Or just again, you can just Google Level Up English Michael and it will all come up. Simple. OK, well, that's it. Now, all that remains to say is enjoy this episode of Zdenek's English Podcast and Level Up English Podcast. OK, cheers, everyone.
Hello, everyone. I am sat here with Zdenek. Would you like to give a quick introduction and say what we're doing? Yeah. Hello, I'm Zdenek. I am sitting here with Michael. So we are doing a podcast. I guess we are both podcasters and YouTubers. But to be honest, I don't feel like one much. But you're way more experienced than me. You have your famous channel Level Up English Podcast. Yeah. Good memory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Podcast is in the wild today. We're outside.
We are in, I guess it's Chatterjack Park. I think that's the name in Bangkok. Chatterjack. Yes. OK, so it's convenient that you're sitting here with a Czech person. There's a lot of noise around, a lot of animals. You've shown me a lizard crawling up from a lake. That was cool. Yeah. First time I have seen anything like that, to be honest. I love taking people. I love giving people tours of Bangkok. I feel like I know Bangkok quite well at this point.
And I think the lizards is always one of the most shocking things to see. Maybe a lot of countries don't have that, especially in Europe. So you've got these huge monitor lizards here that you can see. We just saw one eating a fish, which I've never seen before. So yeah, it's very interesting. The largest one I have seen in Vietnam was the gecko, the small one. It sometimes gets inside your flat and starts eating all your mosquitoes, ideally.
Those are the ones that make the weird sounds. Is that right? They scream at night time. Yeah, it's more like a kissing sound, isn't it? The first time I heard that, I had no idea what it was. So I was a bit scared. I thought my ex-girlfriend was cheating on me. Yeah, I guess basically we had the idea since we were lucky enough to meet up. We had the idea to just meet up and chat, maybe do something for both of our podcasts.
So wherever you're listening to this, then hello, welcome. And yeah, not really much planned, is there? We can just talk about maybe a little bit why we're here and our experiences here. Yeah, I like to wing it. And I know you do too sometimes. You told me a few minutes ago that those are your most popular podcasts with the most downloads and stuff. So yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. And people might remember because we worked together before, right? And you came on my podcast. That's right.
And one thing I remember from that is you used so many good expressions like wing it, for example. Oh, did I? Yeah, more than me, which is always nice because I can teach something new. So, yeah, winging it, like doing something without planning, right? Right, right. I'm not sure it's going to happen today because I have to be honest with you, Michael. I'm slightly sleep deprived because I was so excited to meet you and to be on this podcast that I couldn't fall asleep at night.
So I often talk nonsense, but today it might be even more bollocks on your podcast. Is that all right? That's fine by me. And I did want to ask because I found out recently that you are a night owl, as you said. So be honest, what time did you wake up today? Just a disclaimer, I'm not an actual owl. I'm a human being. But do you really want to know because I don't want to shock your listeners. It's pretty bad. I imagine it was earlier than normal because you're meeting me.
Yes, you are completely right. Eleven, twelve? Eleven thirty a.m. Yeah, but I went to bed at about four o'clock, but I only fell asleep at six. So you're playing games, I guess? I blame you. I have got some students here who listen to your podcast and they kind of talk about the episodes with me sometimes in our lessons. So of course, it's a wonderful opportunity to talk to you. Thank you so much. That's nice to hear. And it's different when we've done this, as you said, we've done this online.
When was this? Like three years ago? I guess so. I lose track. It goes so quickly, especially, you know, people say since COVID, it's so hard to keep track of time. It just it's all messed up in my head. It could have been last year. It could have been five years. I have no idea. It wasn't last year. It was longer than that. But yeah, you're right. I'm the same. So it's all hazy in my memory.
Yeah, but this is different, right? Because you can kind of get to see the person. It doesn't happen these days much anymore, right? People people always use the apps and social media and it's kind of meeting face to face is dying out. Yeah, it's it's it's a shame. I think this is also a very weird kind of concept, a very weird format as well, because we're meeting like we were chatting before this, of course. And now we've turned on the camera and there's that sense of being performative.
Yeah, we have to perform when we pressure there's a lot of pressure. We don't even know what we are talking what we are going to talk about. But that's that was the plan just to kind of ramble. Yeah. And hopefully we'll find something along the way. One question, though, well, maybe this could be a good starting point is a little bit about you, first of all, why? No, let's take a step back. You're from Czech Republic. Yeah. Would you call it now? Czechia. Czechia.
Thanks for the correction. I don't know why everybody says Czechia. I guess it's like it's the way it's spelled and people assume because it's a new obviously it's a new word. They came up with this literally like six years ago. Our government people, they just decided it would be better for business because it's a shorter name. They've done something similar in Turkey, by the way. I still don't know how to pronounce that. Turkey is now Turkey or something.
Yeah, I prefer Turkey. Sorry, Turkish people. Me too. So, yeah, you're from there, right? And then you took a big move across the world. So how did that go? And why did you do it? If you don't mind sharing, I'm kind of interested to hear. Yeah, it's a long story. Actually, what I have to say is that, yes, it can be intimidating to go this far. And it's a completely different culture. Right. It's just such a such a contrast to what we know from Europe.
But for me, it wasn't that bad because obviously I had lived in the UK before and I worked there as a teacher as well right before Covid. And when Covid happened, when it all broke out, you know, it was hard for everyone. So I kind of started getting more active online and started teaching online as well. And after some time, I got bored. I was thinking of going back to the UK, but because of one specific thing that happened, you know what I'm talking about, the B word Brexit.
Right. OK. It got more difficult for me to go there and I got... What's the word I'm looking for? I got a bit distracted, disenfranchised. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I just said to myself, you know what? Let's do something different. Let's do something crazy, wild. Let's go to Vietnam. Wow. So it was a very conscious decision. It wasn't... You didn't fall into it by chance. You decided specifically Vietnam. Yeah, yeah. It was like a gradual process. I guess I did a little bit of research.
I watched a few videos on YouTube. And it made sense for several reasons. One of them being that we have got a lot of Vietnamese people in my country, actually, because it's like the third largest minority after Slovak people and Ukrainians. Number three minority, the largest minority is Vietnamese, which is mad. It's surprising. If you think about it, because it's such a faraway country, right? That's very interesting.
So you already had maybe some exposure to the people and the culture to some extent. Yeah, I completely do. Like it doesn't compare to this. Of course. Yeah. So how was the process for you going and moving? I know there's a lot of probably paperwork and boring stuff. Yeah, like the visa process. Yeah, maybe you can get to the fun part. That wasn't too bad. Like you can just, to be honest, like there's a visa you apply for it. It's called e-visa and it takes five days to process.
So that's not too bad after all. Then you obviously have to book the ticket. That's quite expensive for us flying all the way from Europe, right? So you're like, what am I doing? Where am I going? Is this cheap? Is this expensive? In the end, you just have to do it and you don't want to think about it anymore, right? And yeah, I guess I had a bit of culture shock at first, but I think because of that UK experience, it wasn't that bad because I was used to being on my own.
I'd say I found my feet pretty quickly. Not a good expression. Yeah. Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense. So you going to the UK, how old were you when you went to the UK? How old was I? Let me count. Were you a proper adult? I have to realize how old I am now. Now I'm 41 years old. So when I went to the UK for the second time was in 2019. And no, maybe 2018. Okay, so it wasn't too long ago then actually. 2019, yeah. So that's like five years ago, six years ago.
Okay. So you kind of, we could say you dipped your toes in the water, but you kind of gradually got used to the idea of living abroad. Well, you were living abroad. That was my second time because when I was 21 years old, that's when I went to the UK for the first time. Okay. That's quite young. I did it for one and a half years and then 15 years I spent in the Czech Republic. I did my university degree and started teaching English. And it was always at the back of my mind.
I always wanted to go back to those places that was almost out of nostalgia for me, you know, to go back to London. So in the end I did that. My dream came true, you could say. And then it all went pear-shaped because of not really Brexit, but COVID. A couple of things happened, I guess. Kind of rhymes, right? COVID, Brexit. Both terrible things.
Yes. But yeah, I mean, as you know, it's quite similar to my experience too, where except that I didn't really have that time in another country first to get used to it. So moving to Bangkok was like my first move abroad. Norway. Yeah. I thought you'd been somewhere before that. I've spent like a couple months here and there in different countries like Japan and around, a lot around Asia, but a little bit Europe as well. Because I know unlike me, you are a polyglot. You like to study languages.
I don't know about that. No, come on, you're too, he's too humble. I like to study, but my progress is so slow, you know, I never feel that confident in any... Not even in English these days. Well, the difference is that you do something at least. Right. I'm just lazy. I'm a lazy bastard. Lazy bones, you could say.
I think it's partially because it took me so long to learn English to this level that I almost sort of give up even imagining that I would have to do the same thing to go through that. Like it's not that it was not enjoyable. It was enjoyable, but like it was a lot of effort. Yeah. And it feels kind of futile to even think about it. How long would it take me to get to a decent level of Vietnamese, you know, and then I sort of give up.
I mean, I know really what you mean because that feeling sneaks in for me all the time. I feel like the best way is just as much as you can, try to avoid thinking about the long, you know, the whole climb of the mountain, you know, it's like going to the gym, isn't it? Like if you're going every day thinking, when am I going to have that six pack abs? It's going to feel so painful to get to that level.
But if you just focus like in the moment, focus on one pack day to day, yeah, one pack at a time. I can do that with beer. I don't need to lift weights for that. I don't need to pump iron. Focus on one day at a time, little progress, little by little. I find that works much better for me. But yeah, when I slip into that way of thinking, it's very demotivating because learning a language is such a huge thing. There's one thing I kind of admire about you. I have to say this.
Like whenever I listen to your podcast. Yeah, sorry. Thank you for just to explain to our audio listeners. Michael just reminded me that I should hold this recording device closer to my mouth because that's the way it records my voice. Right. Hopefully it comes out. Yeah. I wanted to say that I admire you for the way you talk about sort of your life and how you apply all that stuff. You can research for every episode. It's but it's also making me a little bit sort of intimidated.
Like a little bit guilty that I don't do any of that. I don't know. You seem to be very sort of single minded, like focus on your goals, like goal driven, right? I don't know if I would say goal driven. I love I love kind of optimizing and like self-improvement that kind of stuff. But I think a lot of it is not actually not goal driven. It's more just I maybe you know, maybe at the start of the year like I did this year, you know, at New Year's.
I take some time and plan what I want to do in the year in the next few years. Kind of just rough guideline, rough goals like improve this language or something. And I kind of work out in order to get to that what steps I need to take on a daily basis to do that. And then I just kind of forget about the goals and just focus on the daily tasks because I trust that that past version of Michael has decided in a smart way.
So I kind of just I get on each day with my language study and my going to the gym and stuff like that. I don't really think too much about the future if that makes sense. No, but like if I if I compare myself to you, obviously I must have planned things in my life. Yeah, I mean, I've lived in a couple of foreign countries. I have a podcast. I have a YouTube channel and I have done a degree. But still, I think maybe the older I get, the more I prefer to, as you said, wing it.
And even the way I teach, it's these days, it's mostly dogma. I don't know if you if you have ever talked about this on your podcast or dogma method. I've heard about it, but I don't know enough to talk about it. So maybe you could remind me. Well, basically, the idea is that you don't use any material, any course book. It's more based on sort of conversation you have with someone.
And anything that happens in the lesson or any sort of language work, it sort of crops up in a natural way from your conversation. So let's say you start the lesson by talking to your student about the weekend or something like that or an interesting article they've read, cool video they've seen, and then you sort of build the lesson around it. And then you notice maybe one language aspect they are struggling with.
And then you focus on it, you do some sort of, I don't know, drilling or error correction, feedback, whatever. So and but at the end of the day, it's very it's unplanned. It's it's sort of you're winging it all the time. You're improvising. And I feel like it's probably where I am at. Like it's even for this for this podcast, I haven't prepared anything. So I just feel more more at ease. Paradoxically, it sort of uses of the pressure.
I don't I don't know how it's even possible because usually it should be the other way around. Right. When you prepare, you feel more confident. Yeah. But sometimes for me, it puts too much pressure on me. And also it makes me maybe sound less natural or less sort of. I don't know. Like it's more force and you have that pressure that you have to do everything according to the plan. Right. And then when you don't and then you wear off the plan, you start getting uneasy about it.
I don't know. Tell me. Tell me what you think. I completely agree. I had you know, this has just happened to me. You have so many things I want to say in my head that they're all kind of fighting. And now I've kind of forgotten a lot of them as a result of that. That's all right. Yeah. I don't know. I can't think of the best thing to say. But one thing I was going to say is I love that dogma method of teaching. I think that it just makes so much more sense.
I think it's also a sign of a really good teacher that can do that and adapt to the students needs and not just have like a set cookie cutter plan for everyone. Maybe you talk a bit more while I remember what I was going to say if you have something. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Like it's interesting to think about how the students perceive it. Yeah. So you could have students who really expect you to have the lesson prepared to have a clear structure, aims, lesson aims. But you know what?
At the end of the day, it's the language inspectors or British Council or what not. Who like that the most? The students themselves. The students stick with me because they like this kind of way of learning. I think they feel less pressurized and I don't know. It's just I guess it can get repetitive and boring sometimes as well if you have nothing to talk about. But I'm lucky enough that pretty much all my students are interesting people that always have things to talk about. I don't know. Yeah.
That's what I was going to say. Actually, I don't know if this can be related to language learning at all. But when it comes to podcasting, I feel like at the beginning, I speak personally for myself. I had to do a lot more planning at the beginning because I had no experience like doing a monologue or a conversation. Absolutely. Being recorded because there'd be a lot of pauses and like, so what should I say now?
And it takes a long time for me to build up that skill to just talk off the cuff and wing it, as you said, and not prepare anything like today. But if we did this like five years ago, there's no way I could do it without a plan. I completely understand. And because we are both English teachers, I think it's the same with teaching. When you start as a teacher, when you are a novice teacher, honestly, you are a noob.
Like to use a gaming terminology because your podcast is called Level Up, the Level Up English Podcast. You are a complete noob. And now all those people are looking at you and expecting you to teach them and to take them to another level so quickly. And you're like, what? What am I even supposed to do? So you do need some sort of like guidance or I don't know, structure to what you're doing. I guess it could be applied to all aspects of life, more or less. Yeah, I think so.
How about you with Vietnamese? Have you made any progress with that language? I haven't even started. So I just picked up a few phrases like, please go slowly. And when I take a grab, which is the, you know what it is, the taxi, motorbike taxi. So like the important stuff like thank you and hello, you know, the basics like that doesn't really. It goes a long way though. Like people appreciate that, I'm sure.
Yeah, but like you don't want to spend like, it's almost like I use the same phrase like 50 times a day. There's one phrase in particular, which is like no problem, which I use so much. I don't know why it's so useful because it kind of means like not at all. Like you're welcome. It kind of means like you're welcome, but it also means no problem. So it's, you know, pretty useful. Yeah, I see that. It's, it is very difficult. I imagine where you live in Vietnam is very similar to here.
Like so many of my friends from the US, Australia, Europe, they don't know any Thai, even like 10 years here, which is quite shocking. But I think if you're, especially in the center of Bangkok, you can live very comfortably and not use much Thai at all. It's very easy. And I think also Thai people are so friendly. Vietnamese too, I know. Yeah, they are also friendly. They won't give you a hard, maybe they should, but they won't give you a hard time if you don't know the language.
And to be honest, they might laugh at you when you're attempting to speak. But to be honest, it never, it never really is a problem because I laugh at myself when I, when I try to speak. So for me, it's a wonderful icebreaker. Actually, I think it's more, it's different with English because I think the world has created a lot of pressure on everyone.
Like even in Vietnam, everyone, it's all about the IELTS score and, you know, there's a lot of pressure from the parents and from your peers and from the teachers. I think it's the English has a different status almost, you know, like that's why I like this. It's harder for people to be successful and people, people get more anxious. But when it comes to like these languages, like Vietnamese, where else is Vietnamese spoken?
Probably just in Vietnam, like Czech is only spoken in the Czech Republic, right? So I think there's less pressure. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, what came to my mind is it's a really unfair kind of expectation level, whereas you might know, like you need to know like five words in an Asian language as a white person to be like impressive. Wow, that's amazing. Good job.
But then if you're learning English, as you also might know, unless you're like really, really fluent, like no one's going to compliment you. Like it's kind of you're expected to know English all over the world. They might even frown upon you. Yeah. So you don't get much praise for learning and it's such a hard language, of course, isn't it? As a teacher, I feel like I know how people struggle to learn, but other native speakers don't. That's why this is such a big difference.
Like, for example, like you, that's why I guess I guess I'm more drawn to you guys. Like I'm going to mention for me, you're like the famous for Luke, you Martin from Rock and Roll English and also Emma from the Procrastination podcast with Emma. Very kind of you to include me. You know, I feel like you are the people that are also studying other foreign languages. So, you know what it means. You know how it feels and you can empathize with the students.
You can relate to that experience and it's so important when you're a teacher as well. So, yes, you're right. There are a lot of native speakers who have that sort of reputation. But at the same time, I think you guys are trying to break the stereotype and you know, you're doing really well. That's definitely motivation for me. Actually, it is being from such a monolingual country. That's part of my motivation to learn more.
Yeah. Of course, as a teacher, I feel like it's a good idea to know at least at least one language that isn't your native language. But yeah, I mean speaking about learning the local language, I was quite similar to you for like the first... It was almost first year honestly where I learned some basic Thai phrases. I did learn how to read before I got here, which helped a lot. But not much more than that. Just very basic stuff. And it wasn't until I went back to the UK last Christmas.
No, last summer, I guess it was in the summer. I took a step back and I thought like, I mean, I'm living there for almost a year now. I really should take it more seriously. I kind of felt guilty in some way. Yeah. No, this is the only thing I have because I have got a lot of excuses. Like I'm too old for this. Like even if I look at you now, like Michael is so much younger. So I can blame it on that, right? But no, you can't have these excuses. There's no excuse. I'm just lazy guys. That's it.
Like that's the reality I have to face it. And I either I'm okay with it. I accept the fact that I'm lazy and I don't feel bad about it. And then it's fine. Or I do something about it. Like there's nothing between you know, excuses. It's just it's ridiculous stuff. It leads nowhere. If I were to word it in a kinder way, I might say rather than lazy, you might, it might just be priorities, right? Because we all have, I think we all have time to learn a language. I feel so much better now.
But sometimes we just prioritize different things. You might prioritize having fun, relaxing or prioritize going to the gym. I think it's not always a bad thing. If you're not focused on learning a language, it's just you have to be honest with yourself. Like this isn't my top priority right now. You know, if you've just had a baby. That's that's what it is. At the end of the day, that's what it is. But the thing is like part of you wants to do it, right?
So that's why like there's this added guilt to it. Because part of you knows you should do it, right? It's also slightly hypocritical of you to not do it as an English teacher, right? Someone trying to teach someone a foreign language, although I'm in a position of someone who has learned English as a second language. So I guess that that helps me a little bit as well. But yeah, it's it's a psychological thing at the end of the day, isn't it?
Yeah. What I'll tell you what I'm doing, though, which I find super manageable. Maybe maybe you could you could try something similar is I made the goal to do one new Thai phrase or word every day. I'll be honest, it's not every day. It might be like four or five times a week. I don't usually do it on the weekends, for example. But basically, whenever I'm like going around about my life and I realize there's a gap in my knowledge, like I want to say something.
So I was in a Lyft and staff member in the Lyft kind of looked at me, expecting me to like tell her the floor number so she could press the button. And I don't know how to say floor in Thai. Right. So I realized there's a gap in my knowledge. It's a little bit of an awkward interaction, but I just kind of pressed it myself. So then I wrote down, OK, floor on my Thai notes app on my phone. And then the next morning I researched how to say floor.
I added it to my flashcards, add some audio from online that I found. And now I'm studying which floor, which floor? Floor number five, floor number six. I know how to say that now. So hopefully in the future I'll be able to say that. And like bit by bit, I'm kind of literally just no less than like no more than four or five minutes a day. And I'm kind of slowly improving. And this is quite nice. Great way and natural way to learn, of course, like out of necessity, right?
I don't know if you really need this to function. It's the what we call functional language, right? You need to function in that language. So that's what you go for, because often when we enroll in a course, an English course, we get this course book and we are learning about things that we don't want to learn about. We don't need it. So I feel like this sometimes is the better way as well. Yeah, definitely.
I mean, it's just it's more fun as well, especially if you're living in a place where you can practice. You can you can learn something in the morning and then practice it in a real situation that same day. Which you mean like enter the elevator more often than you need to. And then the people might think that you're weird or something. And every time people join you in the lift, you will be like fifth floor, sixth floor, floor, not one, floor two.
I mean, I've heard of people doing similar things where they'll ask people for directions, even though they know where to go, but they just want to practice their skills. And I don't know if I've ever done that. But if I was a little bit braver, I might consider doing that just to strike up some conversation with someone that could be a thing you try. Absolutely. It reminds me of that elevator story you just told me. Reminds me of the famous video, the Scottish elevator.
You know which one I mean? I'm not sure. So if you just Google it listeners, basically, I don't know, is it an ad? It might be an ad or something. I don't know why they recorded it. But Scottish people are somewhere. I guess they are in America or something and they have a voice operate voice operated elevator in there. And there's two Scots inside the elevator and they are talking to it and saying 11. In the Scottish accent like 11. I don't know.
You maybe know can do a better impression than me, but 11. And the elevator does not understand them. So it keeps saying, please repeat your floor and basically it they just get so annoyed because they keep repeating 11 11 and they get really angry. And then there's also a twist to that video. It's so it's so famous. 11. Could you please repeat that? I'm sure I'm sure a lot of your and my listeners know this.
Yeah, that's kind of like racism, but with accents, you know, like there's so many accents in the world that a lot of this voice activated stuff just wouldn't really work unless you're like that RP English kind of standard English. Yeah, it's very unfair. Yeah, but it's it's a nice money. It's like a little little joke, you know. One more thing I had in mind to ask you was a couple things, but one maybe about what you might miss from back home.
That's something that you don't have currently in Vietnam, but you miss from from back home in Europe. I guess when it comes to food, there's not much cheese in Vietnam or there is cheese, but it's more expensive. I guess they don't have so many cows. I don't know. There's a definitely a reason for it. So basically I don't end up buying almost any cheese and I miss that.
But at the same time, it's a blessing in disguise because I lose weight more more quickly and yeah, I feel much better as a result of that. That's interesting. I think, yeah, a lot of the things that you might miss from Western countries might be unhealthy anyway. Like a lot of pizza and stuff like that. Yeah, I guess cheese on pizza. It might be because a lot of Asian people are naturally more, what's the word, lactose intolerant.
So maybe there's not so much of a historical cheese culture, dairy culture here. Right, right, right. Yes, same here. It doesn't cheese me off at all. So it doesn't annoy him. Yes. Nice. Yeah. And then I guess that like, of course, it's always good and bad wherever you go. You can't say like one place is better than the other because it doesn't work like that. There are things that are better here. There are things that are better back in my home country.
There are things that are better in London, in England. But now I lost my train of thought, Michael. What was I going to say? There was a point to all this. What was I going to say? There's pros and cons. So having no cheese is bad. Maybe that was a good thing you were going to mention. No, I was going to mention traffic, I guess. So that one thing, if I were to say one bad thing about Vietnam is the traffic is just, it's too congested.
There's this, the traffic jumps everywhere and people drive in a different way. They're just sort of more, what's the word for it? Like push, push too much. They're aggressive. They're too aggressive. Like at the same time, I feel safer there. Yeah. It's weird because it's like organized chaos. Yeah, because these people don't have a choice because the roads are so busy. Sometimes they have to enter the pavement as well. They have to ride or drive along the pavement. So you kind of get it.
Some of the rules are broken as well. Like sometimes they just go the wrong way or they ignore the traffic signs or something. That's pretty common. But again, it kind of makes sense to do that in that environment under those conditions. So that's, I guess, one thing that sort of is tough for me to get used to. I don't know how it's in Thailand. Is it similar? It's similar. We were talking a little bit before we recorded.
Like it's similar, but I do feel like Vietnam, they're a little bit more aggressive and like they care less for pedestrians, people walking than in Thailand. Like in Thailand, they will go if they have the chance, but if they see a person on the road, they will stop and they'll also smile when they go by. Like it's okay, you can go, which it feels aggressive, but when they smile, it kind of makes you forgive them.
But as you said, like you can get mad at the system, but I don't think you can blame one individual person because if you're waiting, if you're a polite driver, you're going to get nowhere. Like you have to be a bit pushy, don't you? Yeah, you have to kind of do as the Romans do as well. Like it's just, I know it's just a phrase, a cliche, but you know what? It's where you end up in the end anyway, and it's the right thing to do and the only thing you can do.
Yeah, and there's no use like losing sleep over this, right? Probably more dangerous. If you have like, I mean, that's one thing that I realized coming here is how good driving is in the UK. I don't think I've been to a country where driving is safer than the UK. Obviously there's a lot of accidents and problems, but just comparatively, it's very good in the UK. People are quite respectful for the most part, but yeah, I think if you have that driving attitude here, it might even be less safe.
Like you're driving safely by the book, but it probably would be quite unsafe when everyone is not expecting that kind of driving. Because you have a completely different mindset and you just react in different ways. Like you react in the way you're used to from your own country, so you have to really start reading the people and start understanding the way they behave on the road. I think it's your responsibility to do that.
Like you can't expect the world to come to your feet and do as you are used to doing, right? I think for me, I'll just say pretty much everything I like about Bangkok and Thailand. It's such a great place to live, like Asia, South East Asia in general is generally so pleasant. That's why we are here, right? For so long. Like you've been here for one and a half years, me almost two years. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of benefits. It's obviously cheaper than Europe generally. People are friendlier.
Climate can be quite nice. Only two things. I was going to say two things, but I can only think of one thing. I'll just say one of the biggest things that I really dislike about here is the pollution. It's getting into that polluted season right now. Especially in these large cities, Bangkok. I just came back from Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon is called also. Before that, I lived in Da Nang. In Da Nang, it's less polluted because it's a seaside, it's a coastal city.
Saigon, I guess it's quite similar to Thailand, to Bangkok. I went for a bike ride on Saturday. So what's that like? Three days ago or something like that. It was very bad pollution. I was so looking forward to it that I didn't want to cancel. The whole weekend and today my throat's been painful. It's like you're coming down with a cold. It's really hard. You kind of have to stay inside, which isn't great. Do you use the face mask or not? Yeah, all the time.
When it's above an unhealthy level, I'm always wearing it because I do think it helps. Does it? Okay, I should start doing that too then. You always make me feel guilty, Michael. I'm very health conscious. I see a lot of people running and stuff. I'm thinking, what about your lungs though? It's good for your muscles, but not your lungs. You should show your listeners you also have an umbrella, which kind of impressed me. So explain it to us why you need an umbrella in such warm conditions.
Can you see it's tipping it down? No, it's not. First of all, there's a roof where we are. Secondly, it's scorching hot outside and there's no sign of any clouds approaching us. Well, I guess for me it's so normal. You were a bit surprised, I guess. I didn't think about it, but it's quite common, especially with women. I personally don't care if I look a bit feminine, but to worry about skin protection here.
But I just feel as a Caucasian, a white person in a tropical country, I should be a bit more careful. So when I'm out for a walk, now it's mid afternoon, it's very hot and sunny. I try to have this UV, ultraviolet. Oh, it's a UV. It's made for rain and sun. There you go. It's like a brand. So it's just like sunscreen would be 50 plus. This is the same kind of thing, but material.
So it should protect your skin, keep you looking a bit younger, but also it actually keeps you cooler because the sun is not directly on your skin, which is, you're not going to be that foreigner that gets on the train covered in sweat, which is nice. Well, I'll stick with my KEP for now, but this might be the next level. If I decide to upgrade, why not? I'll tell you one more thing I really miss about the UK. Not enough to move back, but it's just the sense of freedom.
I think it's Europe in general. There's such freedom when you, you know, I love exploring. You go to the countryside, go for a walk, hiking, cycling, very safe, very clean air. I don't really feel that here. Like there's a lot of private areas and also it's just not that pleasant to walk in the countryside where it's like this heat. So that's one thing I miss, but again, it's one of the small things compared to all the many benefits. We wouldn't be here otherwise if it was that bad.
There are a lot of good things, as you said, the people, I guess, is the most important thing for me. I have to say, I've made so many good friends here, even more than in the UK, where I've always only lived in London. And yes, it's a great place. It's a melting pot and different nationalities. But you know what, people, people always rush somewhere. Everybody's just chasing their dream, chasing money. And maybe that's the problem, because the kind of people you meet there as well.
I don't know. Now, now I've probably said something I shouldn't have said. And some of my listeners living in London, even my friends may be listening to this. They are the exceptions, all of them. I feel like the people here are sort of like more chilled. I don't know. Like even the expats sometimes. Does it make sense? Yeah, I mean, definitely attracts a certain type of expats, a type of foreigner. But also the locals, of course, they're just so friendly and just.
Yeah, I guess we are kind of exotic for them. The white Caucasian, as you said, from Europe. So I guess they want to get to know us more than maybe people from the UK would want to get to know us or in the Czech Republic. It would be too normal for them, too ordinary. I guess anyone you meet here that isn't Thai, they probably have a story to tell because they've come from another country. It's quite interesting to talk about.
But yeah, in terms of the culture where bin men are here, in terms of the culture where people are more relaxed, I do think there's a double edged sword where it's really nice. But on the other hand, when it comes to safety, for example, people are kind of like, oh, no big deal. Yeah, there's no safety first. Safety last sometimes. I don't know how it's here, but I don't want this podcast to come across negative.
I always do that. This is part of Czech. I think we have this in common with the British. British people love to complain. We also like to grumble and moan and Czech people do that a lot as well. I think it makes you feel better, though, just like there's so many happy things in life, which I feel like don't need to be said because we take it as a given. But we just focus on the bad things because sharing that makes us feel better. So it's not that we're just grumpy and we hate everything.
We might be a little bit grumpy. I am. At least I am. Michael seems the more cheerful one out of the two of us. But he's also younger and generally naive. I think the stereotype is that you can't teach an old dog new tricks and all that. I have another excuse here. But yeah, the people, even like the dating life, I think it's much better here. It's been so easy for me to just meet girls and hang out with them and get to know them closer.
And I feel like they're sort of more interested in me here than they would be somewhere in London. Because you're more unique. I'm more unique and more exotic. And also they like the fact that I speak English and I'm an English teacher. And you know, like in the Czech Republic, an English teacher, who cares? It's a low paid job. It's nothing special.
Yeah, you have a university degree, but you know, only people, only like the losers go to study teaching and study at the philosophical faculty and stuff like that. Right. Humanity. What would you say? Humanistic? Humanities. Humanities. Yeah. Teachers are very respected here too. Yeah. Right. So that's why I feel better here for all those reasons. Right. So that's yeah.
Yeah. And I mean, this is dating advice here with Michael, but also I feel like just generally, I don't know why I see a lot of kids doing this like back in the UK where they all have the same haircut, the same fashion and they're trying to get girls. I think what have you got to offer that this other guy doesn't have to offer? Like you're all the same. Yeah. Like if you really want to find someone, just be yourself, try to stand out.
Yeah, you have to stand out, right? You have to be like different. Yeah. It's what makes you interesting. Yeah. This is scary, but I think that's the best way to meet friends and partners. It's almost unfair. I remember the first day I came here, I met my first friend, a Czech guy, and he told me, Zdenek, you have a much higher value here as a man. I was like, what? Why? It makes no sense. Why should I have a higher value? And I understand. Yeah, it is like that.
And in the same way, in my country, Czech girls, they are obsessed with British people or Spanish guys or whatnot. Yeah, because they're just different and look cool. And yeah, you know what I mean. But just to put another slightly negative spin on that, there is another side. Here we go.
Where there's maybe you could call it racism in some cases where if you're not white, like from another Asian country, for example, you might be treated even worse or discriminated against in some way because you're not special, you're not from like a traditionally rich country and you get treated a lot worse. So there is a level of that here. And I guess we have some privilege in that way, don't we?
And then we should also talk about the fact that some experts come here to let's call it they are the sex tourists. Take advantage of that. Come on. Like a lot of people come here because they're just rich and they have money and they just exploit. I guess it's not exploit because like everyone is happy at the end of the day. Like the girls make money, whatever it is relationship, they just sleep with each other for money. I just I'm just not a big fan of this.
I feel like the girl should have more respect for herself. But then like you kind of get it because it's a developing country. Right. So for some of them, it's an opportunity. But but but it's it's a it's a we are on a dangerous ground. On thin ice talking about this topic. But like I think I think we should mention it. Basically, there are a lot of experts who come here just for this reason as well, just to to to get get girls, you know. Yeah. Sometimes they just come for a week or two weeks.
They promise them a lot of things and then they just leave. And that's why I like a lot of a lot of girls, I mean, they are often very sort of suspicious. Yeah, skeptical. Yeah. This mistrust. There's a lot of mistrust or distrust or whatever the word is. Right. Yeah. I don't know about you, but, you know, like you said, I've got I've got a lot of really good friends. It's very easy to make friends. But when I meet someone who is here for that reason, it's immediately obvious.
It's just kind of like some vibe they give off. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm like, I don't want to be friends with you. I'm just going to distance myself. Sometimes they don't they don't they don't reveal this immediately. You can tell. You can tell maybe. Maybe you have a better sort of you have developed some sort of skill like that. But like I don't I can't always tell. Yeah. And then sort of like, hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Because especially Bangkok and Thailand is a place that is famous for this kind of stuff. Let's be honest. Yeah. Unfortunately, yeah. Hopefully we they can attract better tourists here in the future. Yeah, I noticed the sun's slowly getting more on us and I'm sweating. We've got bugs all over us. The bugs. The bugs are coming. I wonder if we can finish up in a second. Was there anything you wanted to cover before we did? The bugs are bugging me.
I just hope I just hope you don't get cancelled on your on your YouTube channel for for the last topic that I've decided to include. Everything that's been said is is Zdenek's opinion, not mine. Wow. If you disagree, it's his opinion. If you agree, it's my opinion. Let's say that. And definitely leave comments. Yeah, this is the most important thing. Leave comments on Michael's channel as well as my YouTube channel. Teacher's Zdenek YouTube channel.
Yes. If you're listening on mine, I'll make sure to put links and everything to Zdenek's channel and make it easy to find. And maybe you'll do the same for me if you're feeling generous. Absolutely. I feel very generous today. Well, I guess now maybe we can take a bit of a walk through the park and we'll say goodbye here. Yeah. Thank you very much for listening and watching. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. I enjoyed it. Thank you very much for joining me, for meeting me.
Take care, man. Was that an awkward handshake? Maybe. I didn't know what was coming. Neither did I. Thank you so much. See you. Hi, I'm Jolie from Spain. I like the Achievers Chamber because it's a friendly place where I can improve my English talking to people from other countries. Thanks a lot for listening.
For more information, visit my new website, teacherszdenek.com, where you can find out about my speaking group for high level English learners called the Achievers Chamber and download my free course, Unlocking Your English Potential, Eight Secrets to Fluency. That's teacherszdenek.com.