Vi & Alex Before Bed

[ 50% English - 50% Vietnamese ] This is the last episode of this first season. Vi and Alex talked about their feeling and their expectation for the next season (if it is available).  We want to thank you for all the support and encouragement for the last year. We had fun doing this project. 

What topic that you like the most in a language class/exchange? Relationship? Vi likes it, too. In this episode, Alex, a former ESL teacher, will discuss more how he thinks it is an exciting topic in his English classes.  *Note: We are sorry for the bad quality of this recording... again. Vi did not choose the right recording setting and we could not save it. But, we hope you like the content instead.  Reference: Dujmovich, J. (2017). What’s Love got to do with it? Motivating Intercultural Competency and Language Learning Through Discussions of Intercultural Romantic Love Relationships [Oral Presentation]. IICLLHawaii2017: Language Education, Honolulu, HI, United Sates.

[ 100% English ] It was a hard week at work for both Vi and Alex. After listening to her favourite TEDtalk video: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | Robert Waldinger, Vi decided to express how grateful she is to have good relationships in life. By the way, we have a new microphone arm hovering just above our bed, which is believed to make the recording experience more comfortable before bed. 

[ 100% English ] Vi found a fascinating article researching language shaming. However, she did not like some of the explanations about "Vietlish," which was written by a Vietnamese. The incident became a topic to discuss in this episode. What do you think about language shaming, and why people do that to each other? 

This is a love story. As usual, it’s whimsical and off the point... and that’s how Alex and Vi spend time together every day. Happy Valentine’s Day!

[ 90% English - 10% Vietnamese ] We make up the vocabulary for the title totally. We mean, in contrast with a bye-stander (who stands and says "bye"), a hi-stander reaches out to people who need help (and says "hi"). In today's episode, Vi and Alex discuss a scientific article about the bystander effect... So, let's relax in bed and enjoy the argument.  Oh! and by the end, Alex did not forget to wish everyone a happy lunar new year, the so-called Vietnam Tet.  *Note: We are sorry for the bad quality of this recording. Vi giggled when she was holding the microphone, and she giggled constantly. Bad Vi.   Reference:   Hortensius, R., & de Gelder, B. (2018). From Empathy to Apathy: The Bystander Effect Revisited. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(4), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417749653       

[ English 95% - Vietnamese 5% ] SPOILER ALERT: There is a big argument in this episode. We were about to delete this draft recording a month ago. Today, we listened to it again and we laughed. This must be a real normal bed time for Vi and Alex. You may see Vi as the emotional one and Alex as the calm one naturally. That was how they handled emotional moments with patience and humour. We hope you love the dynamic of them.  Enjoy!    

[ English 100% ] We hope you are having a nice and cozy holiday with your loved ones. We hope the vacation time can help you recover and perform better at work after Christmas and New Year. In this episode, Alex and Vi explore an article about work and stress before and after the holidays. If you listen to the end, you might just get a cookie 😆  Reference: Carbonneau, N., Vallerand, R., Lavigne, G., & Paquet, Y. (2015). “I’m not the same person since I met you”: The role of romantic passion in how people change when they get involved in a romantic relationship. Motivation and Emotion, 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9512-z

[ 100% English ] How are you doing these days? Christmas is coming. We hope you are all safe and happy with your beloved ones. :D 

[ 100% English ] This audio was recorded in October. We did not like it as we argued about the disadvantages of working from home. Vi decided to edit the best parts of it because it was a good time to be grateful. We were safe and we had our jobs. We thought everything would soon be back to normal. At that time, BC had just extended social restrictions because of COVID-19. And now, it has been getting more serious, with Christmas 2020 just around the corner. Everyone, please stay safe and healthy! 

[ 99% English - 1% Vietnamese ] Today is Vi's birthday so let's talk about birthdays. We recorded this episode to review a discussion about celebrating birthdays for kids. How did your moms celebrate your birthdays when you were a kid? Do you wish to do the same for your future kids?  References: Lee, J., Katras, M., & Bauer, J. (2009). Children’s Birthday Celebrations From the Lived Experiences of Low-Income Rural Mothers. Journal of Family Issues - J FAM ISS, 30, 532–553. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X08327861

[ 100% English ] Alex has just finished a book about Vietnam - Catfish and Mandala by Andrew X. Phạm. In this episode, Alex shares with us the Vietnamese cultural details that he found them interesting from the book. He is always curious about Vietnam :D

[ 100% English ] Vi has planned to have an episode about Reddit for a long time. It is because Alex is a huge fan of Reddit. However, research articles and also stories about Reddit are not simple. Finally, it was a good time for Alex to speak his mind (heavy editing though). At least, we hope to introduce some discussion about free speech on the internet these days.  References:   Jhaver, S., Birman, I., Gilbert, E., & Bruckman, A. (2019). Human-machine collaboration for content regulation: The case of Reddit Automoderator. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 26(5), 1-35. Retrieved from http://eegilbert.org/papers/tochi-jhaver-automod.pdf Marantz, A. (2018). Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet. The New Yorker, 12. Retrieved from https://sites.tufts.edu/cartereng1fall2018/files/2018/08/Reddit-and-the-Struggle-to-Detoxify-the-Internet-.pdf 

[ 90% English - 10% Vietnamese ] On the first date, Alex paid for the meal and offered Vi to pay for the next time. That is not only cute but also straightforward trick to show his interest in Vi. However, do you think that men always need to pay for dates even though they don't feel they want to? Let's listen to some discussion from a related research article.    Reference: Lever, J., Frederick, D. A., & Hertz, R. (2015). Who Pays for Dates? Following Versus Challenging Gender Norms. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015613107

[ 95% English - 5% Vietnamese] Have you ever felt that your relationship was being ruined by Pokémon GO?... Just kidding, we love Pokémon GO.  However, in this episode, Alex thought that Vi wanted to confront him with his habit playing the game too much. It is just a conversation to explore some of the benefits of Pokémon GO in our relationship. References: Alloway, T., & Carpenter, R. (2019, October). “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” - Can Playing Pokémon Go Influence Mood and Empathy? The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 19(2). Retrieved from: https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/ejtale/metadata/edit  Arjoranta, J., Kari, T., & Salo, M. (2020). Exploring Features of the Pervasive Game Pokémon GO That Enable Behavior Change: Qualitative Study. JMIR Serious Games, 8(2), e15967. https://doi.org/10.2196/15967

[ 100% English ] Have you ever wondered if your partner changed since he/she met you? Is that change positive?   Let's go through that thought with Vi and Alex. This may be a complicated and abnormal conversation about  the concept of passion in romantic relationships. As usual, we have a dialogue with playful arguments and lots of laughs.   Reference: Carbonneau, N., Vallerand, R., Lavigne, G., & Paquet, Y. (2015). “I’m not the same person since I met you”: The role of romantic passion in how people change when they get involved in a romantic relationship. Motivation and Emotion, 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9512-z

[ 80% English - 20% Vietnamese ] We don't have any article for today. It's a free talk about our feeling of doing podcast and being off-topic. We also mention why we wanted to bring articles and research as a background theme of each episode. Enjoy! :)

Alex had an idea that we should try couple quiz and we failed so hard. The questions were so serious and not so entertaining. We decided to make a silly quiz for ourselves. Everything in this lost episode is kinda ... silly. 

[ 80% English - 20% Vietnamese ] Do you prefer being self-employed and traveling the world? Or do you prefer the security and comfort of being employed by a specific company? This time, Alex had the honor of hosting the episode with some insights about digital nomads who live abroad and use digital technology to earn a living.    Reference: Cook, Dave (12 March 2020). "The freedom trap: digital nomads and the use of disciplining practices to manage work/leisure boundaries". Information Technology & Tourism. doi:10.1007/s40558-020-00172-4

[ 80% English - 20% Vietnamese ] That night was an emotional night. Vi and Alex shared about their conflicts with their family in the past. Now, they are both grateful and happy that family is still their best support system.  

[ 90% English - 10% Vietnamese ] Vi had an idea to talk about dating AGAIN after reading an article in The Economist. The article is about how online dating changed through the pandemic. AGAIN because intensive and sensitive topics about dating were the reason led to the Lost Episode before.  This time, the talk got smoother and the content is more appropriate to share publicly. We hope you enjoy our weird thoughts about online dating and real-life dating in general.  Reference: Virtual dating. (2020, May). Fever when you hold me tight. The Economist, 45-46.

[ 90% English - 9.5% Vietnamese - 0.5% Korean ] In this episode, we talk about our years living and studying abroad. As a multi-cultural couple, we are always happy to expose to different languages and foreign experience. We think that we will continue to explore new countries in the near future but this time will be together.  Reference: López-Moreno, C. (2017). The year abroad: understanding the employability skills of the Global Graduate. In C. Álvarez-Mayo, A. Gallagher-Brett, & F. Michel (Eds), Innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability (pp. 21-28). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017. innoconf2016.651

[ 100% English ] In this episode, we talked about a research article done by MIT. It’s about the spread of false news on Twitter. As always, we added some off-topic discussion like how Twitter got popular, using Twitter in school... The reason Vi and Alex tackled this topic was because Vi heard some terrible rumors about her. Talking about this helps her confront her disappointment.  Reference: Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559

[ 100% English ] In this episode, we talked about one of the most important elements of our lives: technology. We are both working in technology industry even though their original background was not related to IT. Let's start with what quality a teacher needs to apply technology in school better.  References: Becker, H.J. (2000). How Exemplary Computer-Using Teachers Differ From Other Teachers: Implications for Realizing the Potential of Computers in Schools. Journal of Research on Computing in Education. 26. 10.1080/08886504.1994.10782093. 

[ 70% English - 30% Vietnamese ] In this episode, we have no articles or research to talk about. It's free-talk about our baby tomatoes. 

[ 60% English - 40% Vietnamese ] This is the first lost episode which we decided not to share its content. However, we want to save funny and heart touching moments of the process. In this lost episode, Alex tried to be the host when Vi went emotional. 

[ 70% English - 30% Vietnamese ] As a Vietnamese, Vi sometimes feels unconfident that her speaking English accent will get judged. She is practicing to accept her accent as a part of her true self.  References:  Norman, J. (2017). Student’s Self-perceived English Accent and Its Impact on Their Communicative Competence and Speaking Confidence : An Empirical Study Among Students Taking English 6 in Upper-Secondary School (Dissertation). Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-25351

The first hello from Vi and Alex. :)