Topic Talk | Xochitl's trip to China

In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl talks about her trip to China. To become an exclusive subscriber, follow this link: https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/exclusive-content or WeChat: atozenglishpodcast Transcript: 00:00:00 Jack Hey, it is the English podcast listeners. This is Jack here. We are excited to offer you a new way to get even more involved with our podcast for just $10 a month, you can become an exclusive subscriber and join our private WhatsApp and WeChat groups as a member. 00:00:20 Jack You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and leave comments that we will address in a special weekly episode dedicated to our support. 00:00:30 Xochitl Yours. 00:00:31 Jack Your generous donations help cover the operational costs of the podcast. 00:00:36 Jack Allowing us to keep delivering the content you love to join, simply click the links in the description to pay via our stripe account or directly on the WeChat app. 00:00:50 Jack Thank you for your support. We can't wait to connect with you in our exclusive groups and hear what you have to say. 00:00:57 Jack OK. 00:00:58 Jack Now let's get on with the show. Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host social. And today we are doing a topic talk. 00:01:16 Jack And today's topic is social's trip to China when she was 16 years old and social I I didn't know that you went to China when you were sixteen. I think this is the first time I'm learning of this and. 00:01:34 Jack Why did you go? Who did you go with? What did you do? You know all the WH questions? I'm so curious. 00:01:41 Xochitl UM so. 00:01:45 Xochitl What can I say about this trip? 00:01:48 Xochitl UM, well, we went. I was learning Mandarin at the time I started learning Mandarin in the in freshman year of high school, which for our listeners that means first year of high school and in US we have four years of high school so. 00:02:06 Xochitl My I want to say it was my junior year. Yes, because I was 16 my junior year. 00:02:12 Xochitl I the summer of my junior year, we went to China on a trip because as it turns out, my dad is a a university professor and his university, the Confucius Institute, holds a trip to China. And you have to pay like your ticket. But I think everything else is paid for it. 00:02:29 Xochitl It's like it's subsidized, so that means like they pay for a lot of your trip and. 00:02:34 Jack So you just buy the ticket, but they pay for like your accommodation. They pay for your food and that kind of stuff they travel. 00:02:41 Xochitl Yeah, I believe either that was the case or it's subsidized, meaning they put a lot of money towards your your accommodation and your food and your travel. And. Yeah, so it was pretty affordable. So my dad said. 00:02:50 Jack It lowers the price down so. 00:02:53 Jack Don't have to pay much. 00:02:55 Xochitl Hmm. 00:02:57 Xochitl Hey, I'll pay for it. My dad found it, actually, and he said he would pay for it for me. And so I. 00:03:01 Xochitl Said. 00:03:02 Xochitl Yeah. OK and. 00:03:07 Xochitl A few like only one other person who was in my class in Chinese went, and besides, that was all students from Louisville, which is the capital of Kentucky. 00:03:17 Jack Yeah. 00:03:18 Xochitl And so we all went to China, and it was a a an age range from. 00:03:27 Xochitl 1617. 00:03:30 Xochitl Pretty much and. 00:03:34 Xochitl We it was a really great time. I think we landed in Beijing and we went to Shanghai and Xian. 00:03:41 Jack Hmm. 00:03:42 Xochitl And I really, really loved it. I think that's probably one of my favorite places that I've ever visited. 00:03:48 Xochitl I really like the food. I liked the weather, I liked how busy it was, and there were a lot of really beautiful parks, like especially she had a really beautiful park and we spent the most time in Shannon and spent a week in Shannon. If I'm not mistaken, and went to a high school and got to meet like other kids our age. And then we went to host family and have like, dinner with them. 00:03:54 Jack Yeah. 00:04:04 Jack Yeah. 00:04:13 Xochitl And we got to go shopping and we got to take the subway and like, we got to, like, eat street food and we got to go on the Great Wall. We hiked on the great. 00:04:23 Xochitl Wall of China. 00:04:24 Jack Oh cool. 00:04:25 Xochitl Yeah, we went to Shanghai, we went to like some traditional palace. I want to say. 00:04:32 Jack Yeah. 00:04:33 Xochitl Yeah, because we went to some gardens. Some like traditional gardens in Shanghai, and it was very hot and humid in Shanghai and in Beijing it was very rainy and cold. It was like. 00:04:44 Xochitl Very because Shanghai's the South and Beijing's like the north, right? And then Shian was probably my favorite because. 00:04:53 Xochitl The weather was just perfect the whole time, so I really liked it there. 00:04:57 Jack So social you said you went to Shanghai. I I heard some quotes by a famous chef and traveler, Anthony Bourdain. And he said. 00:05:00 Xochitl Yeah. 00:05:09 Xochitl Yes. 00:05:10 Jack Shanghai makes New York City look like a. 00:05:13 Jack Third world country. 00:05:14 Jack Country. 00:05:15 Jack Like and and I I've always found that really interesting because I think the perception that Americans have of China is that it's somehow backwards or, you know, it's not developed or whatever. And if you look at some of these projects that they have and they're building. 00:05:37 Jack And the things that they're doing in China, they're it looks like it looks like it's in science fiction movie like it's in the future. 00:05:43 Xochitl Yes. Yeah. 00:05:46 Xochitl That this was almost 10 years ago. At this point, I guess, or 10 years ago. So. But I do remember that it was really insane how tall all the buildings were, and we had a race after I think in Beijing is where we ate Peking ducks because it was a specialty. And I want to say that's from Beijing. 00:05:57 Jack Yeah. 00:06:06 Xochitl But he's saying. 00:06:06 Jack Yeah. 00:06:07 Xochitl Just correct me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure that's. 00:06:10 Xochitl And so after he had pecking dunk, it was really delicious. But it's heavy because it's kind of fatty and sugary, and it's really. 00:06:15 Jack The duck is the duck is is wonderful, but it's so oily and so. 00:06:22 Xochitl You're saying it's like delicious cake buds, and then your stomachs like so. My friends and I like waist because we were staying on like the 13th floor or something. I don't think any of it. No, it was higher than that. None of us had ever been that high up and like, stayed that high up. And so I remember that we got in like an. 00:06:23 Xochitl Rich. 00:06:26 Jack Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:06:40 Xochitl There and they got an elevator and my friend and I tried to. 00:06:45 Xochitl Race him up the. 00:06:45 Xochitl Stairs. There's no way we could make. 00:06:47 Xochitl It you know we. 00:06:48 Xochitl Were just like running. It isn't good, I think made it and I made it and like they were. I think they had, like stopped on the floor because of something or something. And so they we made it close to the same time. 00:06:48 Jack You got to like the 8th floor and. 00:06:52 Jack Yeah. 00:07:02 Xochitl But I like threw up after cause I ran so hard and I was like, no, I'm not taking that. 00:07:09 Jack Amazing duck goes in Beijing. Duck goes out. Yeah. 00:07:12 Xochitl So it was very. 00:07:15 Jack Ohh my gosh. 00:07:15 Xochitl Yeah, and seeing how I was very beautiful, we actually I believe we stayed at a university in Shanghai and. 00:07:23 Xochitl It was really nice. I remember the dorms and everything and. 00:07:29 Xochitl We were saying some college dorms, even though we. 00:07:31 Xochitl Were. 00:07:31 Xochitl High school students, but it's because I think the university Shanghai has like some exchange program. That's what we are looking at. And yeah, it was really fascinating. I we really enjoyed it. And I would say it's a beautiful country. I think it's one of the the. 00:07:39 Jack Yeah. 00:07:48 Xochitl That in Seattle are two places that I went and I was like, I love it here. I I could live here. I could stay here forever, you know. 00:07:55 Jack Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shanghai is a city that I've I absolutely must visit. I'm I'm I'm more interested in visiting Shanghai than I am in visiting Beijing. Oddly enough, I know it's the capital city and everything, but I really want to visit Shanghai. It seems like such a cool. 00:08:14 Jack Vibe, like such a cool city. 00:08:16 Xochitl Yeah. And the Chinese listeners don't hate me for this. I like the Southern accent more, even though it's more improper. 00:08:25 Xochitl The the northern accent is more difficult for me to pronounce because it's like it's rougher and like the the tones and like the the sounds like the consonant sounds are much sharper and the Southern accent is like. 00:08:38 Xochitl Mm-hmm. 00:08:41 Xochitl More, it's softer and it's easier for a foreigner because it's hard to like. Enunciate those. Those like sharp consonant sounds like like that kind of for the for the north and for the South. It might be like the instead of the. And so it was just easier for me to pronounce because my first teacher was actually southern Chinese. 00:09:02 Jack No. 00:09:02 Jack OK. 00:09:03 Xochitl And my tutor after that was also she was from Nanjing, so she was from the South southern capital city. I guess so I was more used to that. And then when I went to college. 00:09:13 Xochitl The professors were from the north and it was so hard to keep up because it's like it's a more proper, supposedly I think pronunciation. 00:09:21 Jack OK, be more formal or something like that. Like yeah, yeah. 00:09:26 Xochitl I guess it's more. It's kind of like how in in the southern US like dialect or regional accent, we kind of slow words together or whatever. 00:09:35 Jack Yeah, there's a southern drawl. They call it, you know, which I think it would be really funny if if for like, a a Chinese student or a Korean student to go to America and study English in Louisiana or Georgia or Alabama. 00:09:38 Xochitl Yes, OK. 00:09:52 Jack And so they learn, you know, English with that, like how y'all doing, you know? Hey, y'all, you know, something like that. It's it's like, yeah. 00:09:58 Xochitl Hey. Yeah. Yeah. So that's basically how I learned Chinese. So that's what I had this funny accent to them, to the Northerners. So it was fun, though. But yeah. So yeah, that was my trip to China. I have so many very fond memories, and I loved it. And I definitely, I think it's one of the number one. 00:10:18 Xochitl Countries that I that I really want to go back. 00:10:21 Jack OK. And what how about the people I we we I forgot to ask you about the people but. 00:10:22 Xochitl The one that I. 00:10:26 Xochitl Everyone was so friendly and it was crazy because everyone was so friendly and it felt really safe and I remember I left my like wallet full of money at one of these stands and the the old lady went after me and I was like, hey, you forgot this. 00:10:40 Jack Wow, I love that. 00:10:40 Xochitl And crazy cause a lot of places they'd be like, oh, I just do that in the US. Don't do that. You know what I mean? 00:10:44 Jack Hey. 00:10:47 Jack In the US, that money is Gonzo. Yeah. Gone for sure. Yeah. 00:10:52 Xochitl And here you left your money here and I bought all this merch because I knew my dad would really like it. It was really fun. It was like these. 00:11:00 Xochitl T-shirts Obama was president at the time, and they were called like Obama. Mao, like Mao did. The only guess, but Obama added it's like not in the Red Star. And it was really, I really. I had a fun time with that. I got my dad like a watch and AT shirt and a hat and all this stuff. 00:11:07 Jack Yeah, Obama. 00:11:18 Jack Nice. That's great. 00:11:20 Xochitl Yeah. And the people are so nice, so friendly and. 00:11:24 Xochitl They were, so they were. 00:11:25 Xochitl So, like nice and flattering to us and and like accommodating and I don't know, I really, really appreciated it. And yeah, nothing, nothing bad to say, all good things. And I really hope to come back someday and be able to see. 00:11:40 Jack You maybe wanna go to China. I really wanna get there so. 00:11:43 Xochitl You have to go. My dad also really wants to go. And I tell him, like, come on, man. 00:11:48 Xochitl You should go because the circus we also went to the circus. It was so cool. And The thing is really funny is that the popcorn is like sweet there. It's not salty. It's not like like. 00:11:58 Jack Yeah, it's the same in Korea too. They got, you know, yeah, the, the the sweet popcorn, the caramel popcorn. Yeah, it's. 00:12:02 Xochitl Yeah. 00:12:05 Jack It's it's interesting. 00:12:07 Jack Yeah, I'm. I'm definitely a savory. Over over. Yeah, yeah. 00:12:10 Xochitl Yeah. Anyway, listeners, let us know, are you too sweet or salty popcorn? Have you been to China? Are you from China? Tell us your experiences. I really love it. Definitely country that I want to go. 00:12:22 Xochitl Too, and yeah, we'll see you guys next time. Make sure to join our WeChat and WhatsApp groups. That way we can interact with you directly if you have any money to spare, make sure that you join to see our exclusive content episodes. It really helps. I can I make more content for you guys and send us an e-mail at at [email protected] and leave us a comment. 00:12:43 Xochitl And below at A-Z englishpodcast.com and we'll see you guys next time. Bye bye. 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