Faces and Places Across the United States: Sandra talks to August in Florida - By American English
Transcript
00:00 | Welcome back to Faces and places across the United States | |
00:04 | . This week , Sandra is calling august in florida | |
00:07 | . Welcome back Sandra , Thank you melissa . Hello | |
00:10 | everyone and welcome back to face is the places across | |
00:13 | the United States . My name is Sandra and I'll | |
00:16 | be your host today . Today I'll be talking to | |
00:19 | our guests august high august wow . Welcome to our | |
00:24 | chat . It's wonderful to have you here with us | |
00:26 | today in our american english at ST facebook page . | |
00:30 | Thank you so much for joining us . Thank you | |
00:32 | Sandra for that warm welcome and hello to all the | |
00:34 | many followers and participants around the world in this web | |
00:37 | chat . We are so delighted that you have joined | |
00:40 | us this morning or afternoon or evening . Let's ask | |
00:44 | our audience before we begin , where are they joining | |
00:46 | us from today ? Please let us know in the | |
00:49 | comments box , august thanks again for being here . | |
00:52 | Um why don't we start with you ? Tell us | |
00:54 | a little bit about yourself , where are you from | |
00:57 | and where are you now ? Sure . Shot ways | |
01:01 | . I was born in California and I grew up | |
01:05 | in the san Francisco bay area . I have lived | |
01:08 | in for very different states in the U . S | |
01:12 | . Uh I'm a career changer . Uh I'm an | |
01:15 | international english teacher and educator but this wasn't my original | |
01:19 | profession this past year I left Kazakhstan and have been | |
01:24 | living now in florida with my mom . What I'm | |
01:27 | doing now in florida is I'm a U . S | |
01:30 | . Department of state , Virtual english language fellow for | |
01:34 | Nursultan Kazakhstan . Before this I was an international english | |
01:38 | teacher for Nazarbayev intellectual schools in Kazakhstan , Kazakhstan . | |
01:44 | So now you live in florida . Tell us a | |
01:47 | little bit about the weather there today and um let's | |
01:50 | talk a little bit about florida's nickname , do you | |
01:53 | know what it is and why it's called that ? | |
01:56 | Yeah . So you know the weather in florida usually | |
02:00 | it's beautiful during the winter time will say right now | |
02:03 | outside it feels like about 65 F . Which in | |
02:08 | Celsius about a plus 18 19 degrees Celsius right now | |
02:12 | . And florida's nickname , it's it's a very nice | |
02:15 | nickname , the Sunshine State's , you know , and | |
02:18 | this is because of all the sunshine we receive year | |
02:21 | round the nickname . You know , it also helps | |
02:24 | to support the tourism industry's mission in the States , | |
02:27 | it just sounds great , right , You know , | |
02:28 | especially during the winter time . Sunshine . Yeah . | |
02:33 | So before we begin with our questions today , I | |
02:35 | want to tell you a little bit about where people | |
02:38 | are watching are watching us from . Today . We | |
02:40 | have Abdul saying hello from Indonesia . We have Wanbao | |
02:44 | saying hello from Vietnam . We have Nicoletta saying hello | |
02:48 | from Romania . We have Christina saying hello from brazil | |
02:52 | David saying hello from Mexico . We have money a | |
02:56 | saying hello from Tunisia . Yolanda saying hello from Bolivia | |
03:01 | . We have ahmed saying hello from Tripoli . We | |
03:04 | also have gps saying hello from Kyrgyzstan . She utopias | |
03:09 | from Mexico . And also mean means saying hello from | |
03:13 | Burma . So this is just the name of few | |
03:16 | of the many different places . People as people are | |
03:19 | watching us today . And also we had some comments | |
03:22 | and questions that our audience has submitted . We have | |
03:27 | interesting , it's really good to be here . It | |
03:30 | will be helpful to hear from you . We have | |
03:33 | Hannah lady saying um I will be , it will | |
03:36 | be a very interesting conversation . I want to hear | |
03:39 | what august has to say about living around the United | |
03:41 | States . We also have Jets saying I'm excited about | |
03:46 | this . Something that I need to consider living in | |
03:48 | different places . We also have bowled on do no | |
03:52 | saying it sounds great . We have Rihanna Mohammed saying | |
03:57 | beautiful things about the United States and also that this | |
04:00 | is a wonderful opportunity to discover America . We have | |
04:05 | Ariana saying , hi august , where are you from | |
04:08 | ? What did you do ? What is florida non | |
04:11 | for ? So we'll get to those questions soon and | |
04:13 | we have Lupica saying , where are you , where | |
04:16 | were you born ? And what places have you lived | |
04:18 | in ? And what do you like the most about | |
04:21 | them ? So let's get started august today . We | |
04:24 | want to talk about your life in the United States | |
04:26 | and a little bit about your career . Many people | |
04:29 | think that in America , people tend to stay in | |
04:32 | one place , but you have lived in many different | |
04:34 | places . What do you consider to be home ? | |
04:39 | Well , I'm a firm believer and home is where | |
04:42 | you hang your hat or you know , in a | |
04:45 | more personal way maybe to say it is , you | |
04:47 | know , home is where your heart is , you | |
04:50 | know what I mean by this is becoming invested in | |
04:53 | a community , you know say through like positive thought | |
04:58 | process being open and willing to embrace new places and | |
05:01 | experiences Honestly anywhere can be my home and I have | |
05:06 | had quite a few of those during the past 15 | |
05:09 | years in the US . and abroad . Yes and | |
05:12 | we have a few questions for you . So let's | |
05:14 | get started with , tell me a little bit about | |
05:17 | san Francisco , you said you were born there . | |
05:20 | So tell us a little bit about being in California | |
05:24 | . Yeah so that way you know California for san | |
05:28 | Francisco , you know I think the first thing that | |
05:31 | comes to most people's minds is you know , they | |
05:33 | think of tech and more tech and Silicon valley giants | |
05:38 | such as like google and apple and facebook , you | |
05:42 | know , and there's other obvious things feel like very | |
05:45 | strong asian influence in the community , but you know | |
05:49 | , some lesser known things , you know about the | |
05:51 | communities as well . It's like the strong pacific islander | |
05:54 | communities , you know , that's something that , you | |
05:57 | know , in the different places I've lived , you | |
05:59 | know , I didn't get to experience some of that | |
06:01 | , you know , when there's these great cultural centers | |
06:05 | in places like china town , you know , and | |
06:07 | of course the iconic images such as like the Golden | |
06:11 | Gate Bridge , you know , in the hills , | |
06:14 | I mean the hills , you definitely recognize the hill | |
06:18 | , you're going to see him , you're going to | |
06:19 | experience them , you know , they're big , they're | |
06:21 | steep , they're everywhere if you like the bike ride | |
06:24 | or walk , you know , you're gonna , you're | |
06:26 | gonna get a good workout , okay . And there's | |
06:29 | some beautiful things to , you know , like in | |
06:31 | the northern part of the san Francisco bay area wine | |
06:34 | country , Real nice place . And also you know | |
06:37 | there's some notorious stuff that's known for such as like | |
06:41 | earthquakes . You know that's true too . Yes a | |
06:46 | nice weather for most of the year so it's always | |
06:48 | good . So then you um and you currently are | |
06:52 | in you move to Tampa and you currently are in | |
06:55 | Tampa florida . So tell us a little bit about | |
06:58 | it is very different . Probably not a lot of | |
07:00 | mountains in Tampa . Yeah so you know definitely in | |
07:06 | Tampa where you know when I first came into florida | |
07:09 | you know the first thing you kind of notice and | |
07:11 | you see around especially around here like in Tampa is | |
07:14 | water everywhere you know so you're going to start to | |
07:17 | experience that and for a lot of people that's something | |
07:19 | that they don't experience regularly in their life you know | |
07:23 | and there was just this abundance of new wildlife . | |
07:26 | You know there was just some things were just really | |
07:28 | exotic , so many different types of animals and bird | |
07:31 | life . Really incredible things that I was seeing for | |
07:34 | the first time . And of course you like in | |
07:37 | Tampa in other parts of florida . There's of course | |
07:39 | a lot of tourists , people from all around the | |
07:42 | world but also you know there's a lot of people | |
07:45 | that are temporary residents you know here like in Tampa | |
07:49 | in florida and you know we have a nickname for | |
07:51 | that . We call them snowbirds , okay and other | |
07:54 | things you know about Tampa you'll notice is the weather | |
07:57 | , it's obviously quite tropical . You know potentially you | |
08:01 | might come across hurricanes , I've experienced those and some | |
08:05 | other kind of things that left me kind of in | |
08:06 | awe were a different type of scott and cloud formations | |
08:11 | . You know kind of hard to describe somewhat . | |
08:14 | I mean it's kind of thing seen as believing but | |
08:18 | you know the formation of the clouds was just something | |
08:21 | kind of , it just left me kind of an | |
08:23 | off something of beauty , this wonder you know that | |
08:26 | was always above me and of course there's like the | |
08:29 | strong influence is safe from you know the caribbean islands | |
08:33 | and also from south America . You know it makes | |
08:36 | everything very vibrant and just really leveling , wow that | |
08:42 | sounds beautiful and then you move or you have lived | |
08:46 | in Memphis completely different . So tell me a little | |
08:49 | bit about living in Memphis Tennessee . Yeah wow what | |
08:54 | a great place to live you know I mean if | |
08:58 | you're gonna talk about Memphis you know I got to | |
09:00 | go to right away to like what I really really | |
09:03 | liked about Memphis you know and it's I gotta go | |
09:06 | right to the food and barbecue if you've been to | |
09:09 | Memphis , you know what I'm talking about ? But | |
09:12 | you know the barbecue and the side dishes , you | |
09:16 | know , you can kind of describe it , it's | |
09:17 | like Southern comfort food . Now there's different states in | |
09:21 | the US and a lot of different states , you | |
09:22 | know , they have their claim to how they make | |
09:25 | barbecue and they make it like in a different way | |
09:27 | , but you know , typically like in Memphis now | |
09:29 | I'm not a barbecue expert , I definitely wasn't eating | |
09:33 | expert , but not not maybe the cooking expert , | |
09:35 | but you know , it was done with like a | |
09:37 | dry rub and less kind of vinegar taste and a | |
09:40 | little bit more sweet , less Tanguy , you know | |
09:43 | , So that's one of the first things I think | |
09:44 | about with Memphis . But other things , you know | |
09:46 | , like , I feel like it's like the soul | |
09:48 | of american music , maybe our followers around the world | |
09:52 | , you know , I have heard and know of | |
09:54 | Elvis Presley , the King of Rock and Law has | |
09:57 | his place , mansions , museum , everything there . | |
10:00 | Graceland is in Memphis . You know , Memphis has | |
10:03 | strong faith , emphasis on family and maybe a little | |
10:06 | bit more casual than some other places I've been , | |
10:09 | but I feel like it's more personal , you know | |
10:11 | , like it's very friendly and also they have the | |
10:15 | martin Luther King JR museum and this is significant right | |
10:19 | now we're in the month of february and you know | |
10:22 | in the United States , you know , we're celebrating | |
10:24 | black history month in february and you know , the | |
10:28 | museum's a real nice place historically to provide you with | |
10:32 | more information . Understanding inspired now , Memphis does have | |
10:36 | kind of a very strong significance in this because unfortunately | |
10:41 | this was where dr martin Luther King Jr was assassinated | |
10:45 | in Memphis . But but during the month of february | |
10:49 | , you know , there's a strong , you know | |
10:51 | this celebration of the accomplishments , the many significant contributions | |
10:56 | from the african american community into our society and worldwide | |
11:01 | as well too . So you know , it's a | |
11:03 | very special time in that , this right , you | |
11:05 | know what a great place to be right with a | |
11:08 | combination of historical places , good food and music , | |
11:12 | that just sounds perfect . If you're just joining us | |
11:16 | , we are talking to august who is currently in | |
11:18 | Tampa florida and who is talking to us about living | |
11:21 | across the United States in many different places . So | |
11:25 | the other place that you have lived in is completely | |
11:27 | different from what you have described so far and that | |
11:30 | is Chicago Illinois . So tell me a little bit | |
11:33 | about living in such a big city . Yeah , | |
11:37 | so you know Chicago , you know , definitely big | |
11:41 | city like he said , you know , a nice | |
11:43 | mixture of urban , big city and suburbs . You | |
11:46 | know , I got to see the first thing , | |
11:48 | you know , I got really mentioned about Chicago , | |
11:50 | you know , honestly before going to Chicago , it | |
11:53 | was maybe something that I didn't really notice to kind | |
11:56 | of really pay attention to , you know , in | |
11:58 | other cities and places I've been to . But the | |
12:01 | architecture , it's just something absolutely phenomenal in Chicago and | |
12:06 | it's something to be a lot of people don't necessarily | |
12:08 | think about . You know , if it's not a | |
12:10 | hobby viewers studying architecture . I took a boat tour | |
12:14 | around the Chicago river around the center part of the | |
12:17 | town . And you know , when the guide told | |
12:19 | us about the design , the significance of the buildings | |
12:22 | , the people involved , the impact on society and | |
12:25 | worldwide it would have to about varying different types of | |
12:29 | designs and architecture . But what really makes the architecture | |
12:33 | special in Chicago because a lot of wonderful cities around | |
12:37 | the world have these very modern cityscapes and skyscrapers , | |
12:41 | buildings going straight to the sky . But you know | |
12:44 | the Chicago has a real nice collection of some of | |
12:47 | the original skyscrapers from over 100 years ago and they | |
12:51 | are absolutely marvelous to see the progression and how things | |
12:55 | have changed in a city scape . You know , | |
12:58 | and other things about Chicago that you know , you | |
13:00 | would notice of course if you came from like a | |
13:02 | tropical place , you know like I did of course | |
13:05 | the weather much colder , winter time snow . But | |
13:10 | Chicago has this huge , beautiful lakefront . All along | |
13:14 | the city is the great lake michigan and it's huge | |
13:18 | and it goes from north to south all along the | |
13:21 | city and there's this very vibrant , you know , | |
13:24 | great lifestyle with so many events and festivals and things | |
13:29 | like that on the lakefront , in the many parks | |
13:32 | and plazas that they have , you know the marinas | |
13:35 | , the piers . You know , it just makes | |
13:37 | you want to just get outside and enjoy life , | |
13:40 | you know , so it's really just such a marvelous | |
13:43 | thing . Now something that has some personal significance to | |
13:47 | me would be that strong polish community in Chicago . | |
13:51 | Okay , so yeah , I think outside of Poland | |
13:54 | Chicago probably have the largest and strongest community . And | |
13:59 | this is significant to me because of my ancestry , | |
14:03 | my great independence coming from Poland . I've always wanted | |
14:06 | to explore this and get to know more about , | |
14:09 | you know about my ancestors and where they came from | |
14:12 | . I was exposed to language , culture , you | |
14:15 | know , entertainment , performances . I mean , you | |
14:18 | know it was just such a great rewarding enriching experience | |
14:22 | . And the last thing I got to mention about | |
14:23 | Chicago , you know if you go to Chicago already | |
14:27 | mentioned about food in Memphis in Chicago , you've got | |
14:30 | to talk about deep dish pizza . I know okay | |
14:33 | , all around the world is what 1000 different ways | |
14:36 | people like their pizza , you know , but you've | |
14:39 | got to try deep dish , I just got to | |
14:41 | suggest they don't eat too much of it . Okay | |
14:43 | . But it may be hard . I know I | |
14:48 | was going to ask you about this because I saw | |
14:50 | the picture and I thought , oh wow , that | |
14:51 | looks really delicious , but probably not eat a lot | |
14:55 | of it . So you mentioned that there are some | |
14:59 | challenges about moving to many different places . So can | |
15:02 | you tell us a little bit about what was what | |
15:04 | has been the most challenging part of adapting to new | |
15:07 | places for you ? Yeah . You know , and | |
15:10 | that's a real great question . Someone that's lived in | |
15:12 | many different places , such a distinct places in the | |
15:16 | US and for me , you know , one of | |
15:18 | the biggest challenges was whether , okay , I got | |
15:22 | to say , you know , whether really does shape | |
15:25 | communities in ways of life , they're built around the | |
15:29 | seasons and the cycles , you know , so growing | |
15:32 | up in the san Francisco peninsula , you know , | |
15:35 | whether it can be described as mild and maybe a | |
15:39 | little on the dry side in some parts , never | |
15:42 | got too hot for too long in order to get | |
15:44 | too cold for too long . And , you know | |
15:46 | , there's a lot of fog , you know , | |
15:48 | and for those of you who are followers and from | |
15:51 | like , you know , extreme weather climates , whether | |
15:53 | you're coming from , you know , a country that's | |
15:56 | tropical or has very harsh winters , probably san Francisco | |
16:00 | would be a welcome relief , you know , But | |
16:03 | I got to say that , you know , when | |
16:04 | I moved to florida , my weather world was just | |
16:07 | rocked . I mean , just you know , it | |
16:10 | was hard to comprehend , you know , going from | |
16:13 | such a mild place to an extreme type of weather | |
16:17 | , you know , and for all of our followers | |
16:18 | , you know that like I said , are in | |
16:19 | tropical environments . You know what I'm talking about like | |
16:22 | the constant heat , humidity , strong son . You | |
16:26 | know , you go to the state and there's no | |
16:28 | relief and the ring can be kind of monstrous at | |
16:31 | times , you know , plus hurricanes and tropical storms | |
16:34 | is a new experience for me . And then if | |
16:37 | you flip all that around , you know , and | |
16:40 | then in Chicago , you know , where it has | |
16:43 | extremely cold winters and can have heavy , you know | |
16:47 | , in constant snow . I got this little story | |
16:49 | that I kind of want to share with everybody , | |
16:51 | you know , it's kind of funny my first week | |
16:55 | there in Chicago remember it was like the snowiest day | |
16:58 | in november , My car , which is buried under | |
17:02 | snow , you know , and and me , I | |
17:05 | mean I came from florida in this tropical , here's | |
17:08 | Chicago , harsh winter had already november , you know | |
17:12 | , and I had no shovel , I had no | |
17:14 | gloves , I had no snow shoes , I had | |
17:17 | none of this yet , talk about , you know | |
17:19 | , not being prepared , you know , advice right | |
17:23 | there for all those that want to travel and go | |
17:25 | to new places , you know , really was an | |
17:27 | eye opening moment for me now on the bright side | |
17:30 | for weather , Chicago was the first time in my | |
17:32 | life where I experienced four distinct seasons though , you | |
17:36 | know , in Memphis of course , maybe somewhere between | |
17:39 | all three of these places , you know , so | |
17:41 | honestly , I'm not sure which one was better because | |
17:44 | I basically traded a summertime sweat cloth in florida , | |
17:49 | you know , for a winter time snow show in | |
17:51 | Chicago , you know , of course I had to | |
17:53 | constantly changed my wardrobe . I can never keep , | |
17:57 | you know , any piece of clothing has seemed like | |
17:59 | more than a few years with these extreme changes . | |
18:02 | So that was such a challenge . Yeah , it | |
18:05 | looks like you probably had to dig out your car | |
18:08 | from this uh , this picture , you have to | |
18:12 | wait a couple of days to get to that point | |
18:13 | . So , you know , this was after it | |
18:16 | started , not quite a bit and stuff and then | |
18:18 | you know , I'm using hands and other household items | |
18:20 | to claim the card . So I know , I | |
18:24 | know now you know my time in Kazakhstan , I | |
18:26 | was ready , you know , for the winter challenge | |
18:30 | . Yeah , definitely . So we are almost at | |
18:33 | the end of our episode but I want to ask | |
18:35 | you one more question before we go and it's about | |
18:39 | being um what we call a career switcher . So | |
18:42 | tell us a little bit about what you did before | |
18:44 | you became a teacher . Yeah , great . Yeah | |
18:47 | , I'm glad that you mentioned Sandra . So you | |
18:50 | know a crew change your first off , it's someone | |
18:52 | who changes their workplace , you know and profession completely | |
18:56 | . It's more than just a promotion . You know | |
18:58 | , we're like a new job , we're a new | |
18:59 | company and typically the two different careers have nothing in | |
19:02 | common . I was a bank manager and then I | |
19:05 | became a teacher . Okay . So yeah I was | |
19:08 | like wow . And I got started by creating you | |
19:11 | know a new public sl program at the Memphis public | |
19:14 | library , you know while I was a bank manager | |
19:17 | , you know I taught every sunday afternoon for almost | |
19:20 | a year you know and then you know I was | |
19:22 | able to blend my previous career as a bank professional | |
19:26 | teaching by you know incorporated focusing on teaching business english | |
19:30 | like japanese expats and also business courses the international students | |
19:34 | in Chicago you know and now here I am , | |
19:37 | you know I have transitioned becoming you know an international | |
19:40 | english teacher and educator , I got to see that | |
19:43 | this change involved , dedication , commitment , you know | |
19:47 | and also something really key . Everybody , all our | |
19:49 | followers listening , a good vision board , call it | |
19:52 | a dream board , call it a gold board , | |
19:55 | you need a vision board , okay , you can | |
19:57 | go , you can find you know how you can | |
19:58 | design it and of course plenty of volunteering , social | |
20:03 | programs and education programs . Get out a proactive through | |
20:07 | volunteerism . Well we are glad that you have become | |
20:10 | a teacher . I know we need excellent teacher . | |
20:12 | So thank you very much . Well I think this | |
20:15 | is the end of our time . We have gone | |
20:18 | a little bit of our time but I think it's | |
20:19 | been a really fun conversation and our audience has gotten | |
20:22 | a lot of information about not just one stage , | |
20:25 | but four different states in the United States . So | |
20:29 | thank you so much august for sharing your story with | |
20:31 | us today . We also like to thank our audience | |
20:34 | for such a lively engagement and participation today . We | |
20:37 | hope you continue to engage with us and share your | |
20:41 | ideas through social media . Don't forget to check out | |
20:44 | our resources to help you practice your english . You | |
20:47 | can check out our facebook page , youtube channel and | |
20:50 | our website american english . That state dot gov . | |
20:54 | Thanks again august , we are very glad that you | |
20:57 | join us today . Been a pleasure . Thank you | |
21:01 | very much Standard and thank you to all the many | |
21:03 | followers here for us and join us all around the | |
21:07 | world . I wish her a video . Good morning | |
21:09 | , Good afternoon or good evening . Yes . Thank | |
21:13 | you very much . Thanks everyone for joining us today | |
21:16 | . We look forward to seeing you again in a | |
21:18 | couple of weeks for our next session of faces and | |
21:20 | places across the United States . We encourage you to | |
21:23 | continue to engage with our community virtually like you have | |
21:26 | done today . Hi everyone and thanks for watching . | |
21:30 | Goodbye . |
Summarizer
DESCRIPTION:
In this episode of Faces and Places host Sandra talks to August about living in four different states in the United States.
OVERVIEW:
Faces and Places Across the United States: Sandra talks to August in Florida is a free educational video by American English.
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