Shadowing Practice: Podcast Chậm Rãi - Cùng mình nói về Tết nhé! | Tập 19 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

And of course, we have to talk about lucky money.

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And of course, we have to talk about lucky money.

Now, this lucky money, it comes in red envelopes for good luck.

And the bills are always in perfect condition and brand new.

What's up, my friends?

Chào mừng các bạn quay trở lại với podcast Slow and Clear của What's Up English.

Chúc mừng năm mới, everyone.

Happy 2025 New Year.

This is the first time I have done a podcast about Tet, Tet?

I'm going to call it Tet or Lunar New Year.

But yeah, the first time I've done a podcast about Lunar New Year.

And for anyone who doesn't know me,

my name's Carter and I created What's Up English.

All right, so for this podcast,

first we're going to talk a bit about the history of Tet,

and then we're going to move on to some Tet traditions.

And then I will tell you some things about like what foreigners do on Tet.

Like, have I been just alone in my room for the past five days?

Am I starving?

Do I have no more food?

I will tell you guys everything.

And remember, as always, every podcast that I make comes with a free PDF

that includes all of the words related to the topic,

like the word list.

And it comes with a transcript with everything that I said in this podcast.

All you have to do is click the link in the description,

put in your email, and then I will send it to you completely for free.

So before we start talking about Tet,

I have to tell for,

I have to say for my viewers who have watched me for a long time,

long time no see.

I'm very, very sorry for disappearing for like five months.

It's been quite a long time.

I want to apologize for that.

I just disappeared for five months,

but I promise there is a good reason for it.

Or should I say a few reasons for that.

One of those reasons is because I've been focusing a lot on my online university.

Another reason is because my brother came to Vietnam to visit me for about three weeks When we went to Hazang,

we did a lot of really cool things.

And I'll actually tell you guys all about that in another video.

But also, I'd say the biggest reason why I haven't uploaded is because I've been working on a huge project.

And that project is a step-by-step system to help you guys go from not being able to speak English to speaking English.

And one of the first steps towards speaking English is learning pronunciation.

And that's why the first course I created in this step-by-step system is the Complete American English Pronunciation Course.

This course is perfect for those of you who can understand my podcast,

but who struggle to speak English,

or for those of you who can speak some English,

but you want to improve your accent or your pronunciation.

Because in this course, you'll learn every sound in the IPA.

So you'll be able to look up any word in the dictionary and pronounce it perfectly.

But it's also full of examples like words and phrases

and sentences that you can practice that are actually useful in daily life.

I designed it specifically for Vietnamese people like you,

where we go over some tricky sounds like the dark L,

like in full or world,

and ending sounds like the ending S, ER, all that stuff.

And to top it off,

you'll get a free shadowing course as a bonus where you can shadow my slow and clear speech.

It's actually not too slow,

but you can slow it down in the video player where I talk about topics on daily life like work,

school, all of that stuff.

So if you're interested in that course,

then click the link in the description.

There's a big sale going on for Tet right now,

and that sale will last for two weeks after this video is posted.

After the two weeks, the price will go up,

and this is a real sale.

It's not a fake sale that goes on forever.

No, the price will actually go up after two weeks.

So if this course is interesting to you,

then just click the link in the description below.

And yeah, I would really appreciate your support.

For What's Up English, I'm trying to build a real business because this is my full-time job.

So I want to give you guys something that is very useful for you,

a guided system where you can learn step by step and the value is really high and the quality is really high.

All right, so let's get on with the podcast.

First, I'm going to tell you guys about a personal story of mine for Tet,

which is I've been in Vietnam for quite a few years,

I'd say almost nine years.

Most of the Tet holidays that I've had,

I have pretty much stayed at home.

There were a few times that I traveled,

but I'll tell you about the one during COVID.

And this one was the worst and the best because,

well, COVID was happening.

So people were not able to go out and Tet Holiday came.

At that time people couldn't really go anywhere.

They were stuck at home.

I was lucky that my landlords gave me a ton of noodles and I got a lot of chun cakes.

And so I stayed at home for about five days and every day I ate fried chun cake and noodles.

Only pretty much those two things.

I was too lazy to go anywhere.

I was working on some work of mine.

And yeah, I would wake up,

slice the chun cake, fry it, eat it.

It's chun cake.

So you're full for like four hours, four or five hours.

And I ate that every day for four

or five days i remember near the end of the four

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or five days eating chun cake every day i started to really get tired of it

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but yeah so that and i and i'm saying that was the best and the worst

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tet because it was really nice to actually just stay home for those few days guilt-free

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because we weren't really allowed to go outside

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so I just stayed home did some work played video games

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and it was quite nice because I'm a pretty introverted person

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and so yeah it wasn't too difficult to stay home I'm sure many of you could understand

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that but it was also the worst

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because it was hard to get anything else to eat other than noodles

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and chun cake but like I said I was very lucky that my landlords got those for me.

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So that was my personal story about Tet.

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I know it's not it's not too amazing but let's move on to the history and the meaning of Tet.

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I think talking about these will help you explain to your friends

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or whoever you talk to about Vietnamese Lunar New Year to them in English.

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So firstly, TET, which is called Lunar New Year in English,

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it marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

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So it marks the changing of seasons,

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going from one season to another.

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And it's based on the lunar calendar.

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And since it's based on the lunar calendar,

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the date of Tet changes each year

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because it follows the cycles of the moon

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so the actual meaning of Tet was it used to be for the agri-fed agricultural festival

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but now it's more about fresh starts and families getting together

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and celebrating but before it It had more to do with farming and the changing of the seasons.

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So how do people prepare for Tet?

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One tradition is that you don't clean during Tet.

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You have to clean before Tet.

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By the way, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these things.

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Throw it in the comments.

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If something is wrong, please correct me.

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but people clean before TET because the dust around your house and the dirt whatever

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it represents the bad luck from the last year

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and you shouldn't clean during TET

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because it symbolizes sweeping away the new fortune the new luck the new wealth all right so that's an interesting one.

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You can't clean before, or you can't clean during Tet.

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You have to clean before Tet.

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So for food, one of the main foods,

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of course, is Chung Cake.

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And the way that they wrap the Chung Cake are in these things called Zong leaves.

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What's interesting about these leaves is that they're naturally antibacterial.

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So they're a good way to naturally preserve the Chung Cake.

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and if you're wondering

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if in the west do we have our own type of

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chung cake i suppose for christmas it would be like fruit cake i've never really eaten fruit cake

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but for many families it is quite popular one interesting thing is

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that one of the reasons why they made chung cake

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and it's wrapped in those leaves is

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because the markets would be closed for a long time

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so with these chung cakes you would have food to last a few a few weeks

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while everything was closed now there are two types of chung cake there is the chung cake in the north

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which is square and then there's bangtet in the south

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and i don't know i suppose we call it that cake

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but it's round

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and it's wrapped in a banana leaf instead of the zom leaf zom leaf i'm not sure what

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that is in english let me look it up real quick oh man maybe just call it dong leaves

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because the real word for that is stachy Faryneum placentarium.

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Yeah, stick to zong leaves.

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So anyway, one thing that's common between them is they both have to be boiled for a long time.

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Apart from bánh chưng, apart from chưng cake,

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people also eat candied fruits.

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You don't really need to say dried candied fruits because I found the most common word for these were just candied fruits.

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These fruits can be things like ginger,

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coconut, winter melon, lotus seeds.

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Personally, I like the coconut one the most because it's a little bit crunchy.

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Okay, so moving on to more Tet traditions.

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During Tet, you'll see a lot of peach blossoms,

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a lot of cherry blossoms,

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and a lot of kumquat trees.

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And the funny thing about these kumquat trees is you'll be driving on the road

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and then you'll see a bump in the road

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and just a bunch of kumquats

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because everyone who was driving past there with the kumquat tree hit the bump and then the kumquats fell off.

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So that's kind of funny.

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Now we'll talk about some more traditions

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and the big one is the first day visitor

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so apparently to choose the right person to be the first

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one to step foot in your house they should be born in a zodiac year

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that is compatible compatible with the homeowner they should be a person who is successful happy and pretty good with their money.

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And there are some combinations with the birth year with the zodiac symbol that you should avoid.

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Like if the homeowner is one zodiac symbol,

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then there are some combinations with another zodiac symbol that you should totally avoid.

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So now people will pre-plan or pre-book the person who steps foot in their house first.

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And this is taken so seriously that some people will even hide at home and not go out.

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So they're not accidentally the first person to step in somebody else's house.

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And during Tet, from what I've heard,

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people wouldn't used to travel much.

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But these days, a lot of younger people and just normal people are traveling more and more during Tet.

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a lot of young people also play some card games.

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So there are three main games.

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So I've heard I have not played any of them.

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So you could say young people often play some card games.

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And of course, we have to talk about lucky money.

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Now, this lucky money, it comes in red envelopes for good luck.

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And the bills are always in perfect condition and brand new.

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So the bills are perfect.

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You can give these bills to whoever you want,

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especially if they're older or younger than you.

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And now some banks even give digital lucky money.

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So you can gift someone lucky money just through the app.

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In my opinion, it's not really the same.

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You might as well just bank transfer them money.

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But yeah, it's an interesting way to keep a tradition alive in the modern times.

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And during Tet, there shouldn't be any arguing or crying.

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If you want to comment why that is below, please let me know.

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Like, what does that mean?

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And why are you not allowed to argue or cry?

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I assume it will bring bad luck or it will attract bad spirits.

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and it's also not good to borrow money or ask for money from people who owe you money during Tet.

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So you shouldn't try to get people to pay their debt to you if they owe you money.

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All right, so let's move on to the last part of the podcast,

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which is what is Tet like for foreigners in Vietnam?

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So if the foreigner has a boyfriend or girlfriend or a spouse,

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then they will often go with them on a trip or to their hometown.

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Well, assuming the boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse is a Vietnamese person.

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Now since many cities in Vietnam,

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I guess pretty much all of them,

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turned into ghost towns during Tet,

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because of that a lot of foreigners will decide to travel for Tet.

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For example, one year I went to Thailand,

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another year I went to Malaysia,

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and when you come back then things are pretty much back to normal.

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But the funny thing that happens with a lot of foreigners is when it's their first Tet in Vietnam,

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their first Lunar New Year,

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and they don't expect it to become a ghost town.

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And then they don't know what to do.

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Like, everywhere is closed.

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How do I get food?

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How do I survive?

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And then it becomes pretty much a survival challenge for about a week.

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and so yeah that can be kind of funny

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so yeah I think that covers a lot of the main things about Tet

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if I missed anything feel free to comment down below I

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hope this will help you to talk about Tet to your friends family co-workers whatever probably not your family

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because you'll speak Vietnamese to your family but to anyone who speaks English

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and guys again I'm sorry for disappearing for five months.

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I'm really sorry about that.

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Uploads will be consistent again once this course is uploaded.

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Make sure to check out the course in the description below.

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And I hope you guys have a fantastic tet.

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Have a great holiday and I will see you in the next video.

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See you later.

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Happy New Year.

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Shadowing Practice: Podcast Chậm Rãi - Cùng mình nói về Tết nhé! | Tập 19 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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