Shadowing Practice: Would I Ever Leave Vietnam & Return To America? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Would I ever leave Vietnam and return to America?

Short answer, no. Long answer, hell no. And that is hell no with capital letters.

So there is a thousand different reasons why me leaving Vietnam

and going back to America would be one of the dumbest decisions I've ever made.

But today I'm just gonna give you a few reasons because

if I give you all the reasons my camera's gonna run out of battery

and surely you guys will get tired of hearing me talk.

The reasons I give today are specific to me.

Maybe other foreigners will have different opinions so just keep in mind

that these are my opinions and my experience based on living in America and living in Vietnam.

So let's get started.

Reason number one, the cost of living.

The cost of living in America is astronomical economical compared to Vietnam.

The way I look at it is everything in Vietnam is roughly 8 to 10 times cheaper than it is in America.

So for example, rent is about 8 times cheaper.

Transportation, taking care of your car, taking care of bike, whatever, food, everything, it's about 8 to 10 times cheaper.

Now it can be more than that, it can be less than that depending on your habits, you know whether you eat healthy whether you eat fast food

if you eat like a local if you go out

and to dinner every night all that it can kind of depend but let's talk a little bit about the rent

so my rent in Miami now the house

that I had was about $2 ,500 a month

and this was not a super nice villa beautiful place it was just a very basic house

and I don't want to say it was in the ghetto but it was in the ghetto.

So $2 ,500 a month, that's like 40, about 50, about 50 million BND per month.

Now that does not include electricity, that does not include the air conditioning, your insurance, all that.

I have, you know, I'm a actor here in the film industry, so I have many actor, producer, fashion designer friends that live in Hollywood,

and Los Angeles is unbelievably expensive

so my good friend who is Bao Chan Chi she is the lead costume designer of Chang Ho Lin Si

and also the lead costume designer of World's Greatest Beer Run

which is a Hollywood film that was filmed here in Vietnam

so she is extremely famous well known in the industry there I've never seen her house

but I would imagine it's a pretty nice house

and the reason I bring that up is because the other night her

and I went out to dinner

and we were talking about you know just the differences between America and Vietnam and she was telling me that

last month or the month before

that her air conditioning bill only air conditioning bill was $1

,200 $1 ,200 is like 30 about 30 million BND can

you imagine spending 30 million BND just for your air conditioning just to keep your your house cool

that is that's crazy that is

so much money now don't get me wrong that's Los Angeles

you know around Beverly Hills in Hollywood like that's you know much much higher everything is much more expensive there

so the cost of living rent you're going to spend about eight to ten times as much

so many people when they move to america they try to get a roommate

which is always a good well not always a good decision

if the person's not not good

but getting a roommate is usually very helpful as long as you can you can trust the person

but if you have family uh

or anyone you can live with in america to where you don't have to pay rent

or just pay less rent that is always a a very good decision

when i talk to people about my career about my life here in vietnam they always ask like oh

when are you going back to america

and i'm like why the hell would i do

that you know i obviously i don't say it like that

but i tell them i plan to be in vietnam my my

which means forever so when i talk to people who are studying in college

or whatever i always ask them like oh after you get

out of college do you want to stay in vietnam

or do you want to live abroad and

so many people will be like oh i want to go to america

so i can get a high paying job

and i'm like bro okay sure you can get a high paying job in america

but your cost of living is going to be so high

that you're really not going to be able to save money

you're going to be basically living paycheck to paycheck depending on

what your job is you know as a police officer i my salary was good but the stress of you know, the danger of the job,

the things that I saw, you know, you see murder, suicides, rapes don't know

if i can say this on youtube

but anyways you know i just see the worst of the worst stuff it's very stressful

and for me no amount of money is worth

that kind of stress yeah and in miami you know of course you're going to see

and do a lot a lot a lot of stressful things

so the cost of living for transportation you know in america

it's a car culture it is not a motorbike culture taking

care of a car is unbelievably expensive bro tires are

so expensive getting an oil change is expensive

and time consuming uh getting gas is expensive

and time consuming you know it's not like a motorbike where you just pay a couple dollars

and you're good for a few days you know no no

getting gas in america is like you it can cost you

a hundred dollars for a hundred dollars is like 2 .5 million bnd uh you know

and that's going to last you a few days

and then you have to fill up again then you have

your insurance on your car insurance prices are very high you

know insurance I don't really know too much about insurance here in Vietnam I would imagine it's quite cheap

but in America it can be like a hundred

and fifty two hundred dollars a month just for your insurance then

if you get into an accident whether it's your fault

or not your insurance is gonna go up even higher

so it's crazy

so number one the cost of living would be my number

one reason why i would never go back to america even

if i was wealthy in america you know a famous actor

making millions of dollars i really wouldn't want to live there

compared to vietnam the only reasons i personally would go back

to america there's three specific reasons number one is my mom to visit my mom

and none of these reasons uh mean living there i'm only talking about going to visit okay

so number one is my mom my mom is really the only family i have in america her

and i are very close we talk every day

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but she has skin cancer

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so she cannot live somewhere with a tropical climate meaning like she cannot come to vietnam

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and live and stay with me but she did come here

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and visit like i think three years ago

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and just 20 minutes of her being in the sun here her skin was

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so red like it's very dangerous she has lupus

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and essentially lupus is

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if you're in direct sunlight for a certain amount of time like your organs will just start shutting down

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so she lives in north carolina north carolina is a very

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beautiful state very mountainous very it's kind of like how you

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would have dalat here in vietnam that's kind of like what north carolina is

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so my mom has a beautiful house on top of a

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mountain overlooking you know everything around she can see the sunrise in the east

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and the sunset in the west

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so for her where she is it's perfect she can do all the stuff outside

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that she wants with her garden because there's trees

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and there's plenty of shade for her to do it safely

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so anyways so my mom would be number one number two I would go back to America for filming

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but I would only go there to film it would not

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be to live uh i would go there i would do my filming

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and then as soon as the filming is done it's like

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all right buying a plane ticket back to vietnam bye bye

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and then i would come back to vietnam

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and i would just do whatever until i get another filming job in america

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and then go back so that's reason number two reason number three would be to travel

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because america is such a huge place.

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You know, America is gigantic.

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And there's so many beautiful areas to visit.

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For me specifically, I want to go out west, which is where Yellowstone National Park is, the Grand Canyon.

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What's the other one?

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Yellowstone.

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I forgot the name of the other one.

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I'll put it right here.

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But anyways, out there is just so unbelievably beautiful.

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So for me, my one of my ultimate goals in life is to you

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know have enough money to where I can go back to America rent an RV a nice RV

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and then just travel around the country around you know all the national parks the Grand Canyon all of that

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that is one of my life goals uh for sure like

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you know one of my life goals was to become a professional actor in Asia well check I've done

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that already so now it's time for me to start achieving other goals

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and traveling out west in America whether it's with my girlfriend my wife family even alone

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which I really wouldn't want to do it alone just

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because it's like it's such a big area you're going to

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be driving a lot I would want someone to talk to for sure

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so that is reason number three that I would go back to America

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and that's really the only reasons why I would ever consider going back there

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so let's see what else do we have I have a

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list of things i wrote phone bills you know paying for

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a phone bill like here here in vietnam you you have like Vietnam Mobile.

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mobi phone via tell all that is

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so cheap like i don't even keep track of how much money i spend on it

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because it's so cheap i spend i usually add like 200k vnd

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which is like eight dollars and

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that lasts me for about i want to say two months two months maybe even three months sometimes like especially

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if you use wi -fi and here in vietnam everywhere has wi -fi

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so phone bills in america can easily run you like a hundred dollars uh same with internet

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if you have your internet set up at your house a hundred dollars it everything adds up

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so quickly so yeah a cleaner uh having a cleaner in america is usually around like maybe 25

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or 30 an hour uh now here in vietnam I have a cleaner

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that I don't I don't use an app you know because

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if someone's coming into my house to do whatever it needs to be someone

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that is reliable and someone I can trust meaning like

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if I have money in my house I don't want to

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have to worry about like bro the person cleaning my house

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today I don't really know them like you know the woman

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that I have she's the kind of person where

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if she finds money somewhere she will take a picture of it

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and then she will take a picture of where she put the money for me to to get later

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so she she charges me 100k per hour

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and 100k is like four dollars or something like

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that usually it takes her about two hours to clean my house

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and she does a fantastic job so

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if anyone ever needs a cleaner here in saigon i have

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someone i can highly recommend she does a wonderful job all i do is i just message her

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and say hey can you come tomorrow like she doesn't come

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on a set day she just comes whenever I need her

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and hey can you come tomorrow okay sure I'll be there done that's it she shows up

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and then I just pay her you know usually once a month

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or something like that

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so yeah it's very cheap having a cleaner here is very

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cheap all right let's talk about the traffic the traffic culture

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in America is a car culture the traffic culture here in Vietnam is a motorbike culture

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and here in Vietnam it's kind of like just do whatever you want just don't hurt anybody you know

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which is very convenient but also a lot of times it's very stressful

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so one thing i want to talk about is the police uh

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and i want to be very careful how i how i say this

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but as a police officer in america okay let's talk about

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a speeding ticket okay very something very simple speeding ticket if you if i stop you for speeding in America.

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You're going to get a ticket and I'm going to write you a court date.

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Whatever date I give you, you have to show up for court.

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You cannot be like, oh, I'm busy with work.

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They don't care.

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You better miss work and go to court.

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And if you don't go to court on that date, they can issue an arrest warrant for you

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and you will be arrested for not showing up for court that's called a bench warrant.

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So getting a speeding ticket in America can be a very complicated and time consuming process.

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If you have kids, you're going to have to get a babysitter to watch your kids while you go to court.

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You know, you go to court, they're going to be like, okay, this is how much your fine is, please pay it at the window, you know, such and such.

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So it's very, very time consuming.

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That is what I love about Vietnam, is a lot of times, I would say even like 90 % of the time,

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you can pay your fine on the side of the road.

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And there's a lot of people that complain about that.

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And I understand why, don't get me wrong.

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I do understand why that is wrong.

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But at the same time, coming from a police officer's view in America,

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how complicated it is, I would much rather pay a fine on the side of the road

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and then just continue my day much rather do that it's just

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so much easier now when it comes to drinking

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and driving things like that obviously

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that is not something you can do here in vietnam

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if you get caught you know you're going to lose your license you're probably going to go to jail

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and you're going to get a big fine they do take

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that very seriously

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but in terms of like you know many other small things

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just take care of it on the side of the road

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and continue your day because if you do that in america for one

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if you offer money to a police officer in america it's an immediate felony

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and a felony you have different kind of trouble you can be in you have an infraction

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which is something like you didn't use your turn signal

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while changing lanes okay infraction is no problem misdemeanor is like

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you're driving without a license okay that's a little bit bigger

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a felony is like you know you rob someone you rob

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a bank you rob whatever felony is like very high up

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so if you try to offer money to a police officer even a dollar 10 cents

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if you try it off offer money to a police officer

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you get in big trouble you will go to jail they're

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not just going to be like oh no you shouldn't do

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that like no you're gonna go to jail for sure

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so that's one thing i really appreciate about here in vietnam uh

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but like i said i kind of have to be careful how i talk about

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that so yeah that's just my opinion another reason

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that i would never ever ever ever ever ever ever go back to america is the convenience

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so like i said vietnam is a motorbike culture which means everything is designed around motorbikes so for example

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coffee you know getting coffee in the morning it's so easy to just stop on the side of the road

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they bring you your coffee you go literally it takes 30

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seconds in america you have your car you can't stop on the side of the road

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and get coffee like you can't do

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that you need to find a parking lot

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or somewhere where you can safely park unless it's like a drive -through something like

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that so it's always very consuming

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but here you know here in vietnam you just stop on

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the side of the road like one coffee please you pay

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50 cents you take your coffee you go same with food every morning not just morning all times of day

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but specifically in the morning because they know

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that lots of people are traveling for work they have kids they don't have time to cook

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and a lot of people work nine to five jobs so they need cheap food.

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Well street food is ideal for that kind of person.

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So in the morning you can find anything you want on the side of the road.

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Sushi, bún tét nún, căm tăm, pretty much anything.

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And whatever you can't find you can always order on grab.

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So convenience in Vietnam is always just a fingertip away.

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What I mean by

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that is you can use your phone for anything uh there's been many times

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when like for example my girlfriend needed tampons

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and i wasn't at home i was i wasn't able to go get them at the time

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so i just open grab ordered tampons

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and then she had them within like 10 minutes it's just

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unbelievably convenient i went to the gym the other day i wear i wear contacts

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and if i don't have my contacts it's a big problem i can't see

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because my prescription is saudo uh six my prescription is negative six

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so if i can't see it's a very big problem

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if my contacts are dry it's a very big problem especially

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when i'm on camera if i'm filming a movie

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and there's fans going something like that it can dry my contacts very easily

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and that's very irritating it's a very big problem

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so i went to the gym

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and i realized like oh i don't have my i don't have my eye drops

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and i have to have specific eye drops from my contacts

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so i realized like oh i don't have my i don't have my contacts like i need to leave

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and go get whatever

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and then i was like oh wait i live in vietnam

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let me just order let me just order eye drops on grab

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and so that's what i did and then 10 minutes later i had eye drops

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and i was just thinking at the time like bro this is

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so unbelievably convenient like the the convenience of everything in vietnam

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is just mind -blowing the convenience of tourism of traveling of doing anything like you want to travel anywhere it's

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so easy to get on a train it's

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so easy to get on a bus order a grab bike order a grab car

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if you drive yourself it's super convenient to do you can

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get to the beach you can get to the mountains you can do whatever you want

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so easily here vietnam is a very very very patriotic

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and proud country

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and as they should be you know they were ruled by you know i would say colonized uh

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which is probably the better word they were colonized for thousands of years

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and so now they are finally free

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and they are themselves like they are being run by the

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vietnamese they they have such a strong reason to be proud of the progress they've made

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and where they are as a culture

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so vietnamese are a very very proud country you know in america you have

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so many woke people like regardless of oh i hate america

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oh fuck the government you know fuck donald trump you know

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oh america whatever you know in america you can say whatever you want

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and you won't get in trouble it's not like

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that in vietnam in vietnam you know if you talk bad about vietnam

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or the country or the government it's not so much

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that the government will get mad at you it's

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that the people the citizens will feel disrespected in america it's not like that

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if someone were to be like oh fuck america americans wouldn't

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really care they'd be like oh yeah america okay bye

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but here in vietnam like if i were to say something like

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that like it would probably be the end of my career you know it's kind of like

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that foreigner like many years ago this was before my time

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i forgot his name i think his name was dan something like

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that but he was very famous he was an english teacher spoke Vietnamese super well.

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like i said he was very famous

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and for whatever reason i don't i i i know the story

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but i don't know the full details

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but for whatever reason he decided to say some terrible things

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about vietnam he said some stuff about uh oh who was

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it i forgot i'll show it in the video now

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but anyways he uh said some horrible things like things

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that is not just career ending but like it's gonna make people hate you

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and i have no idea why he would do that even

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if you you hated vietnam like just be like oh i hate vietnam

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and then leave but like no he like he said some stuff

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that dropped an atomic bomb and boom so it wasn't

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that the government punished him it was

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that the whole country the citizens all turned on this guy

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and news and everything in vietnam spreads

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so fast you know everyone uses their phone for news for whatever like

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if if a foreigner does something good in saigon people like

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and it's on you know

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and someone takes a video of it people in hanoi are

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going to know about it within like an hour you know it's spread

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so quick same with doing something bad like

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if a foreigner does something bad in saigon like people in

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hanoi are going to know about it within like five minutes you know news spreads

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so quickly so everyone in vietnam turned on this guy

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and was like get the fuck out of our country like

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we don't want you here anymore you're disgusting you're blah blah

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and i agree with that absolutely the things

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that he said were just horrible horrible horrible things i couldn't imagine why he did

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that or you know i i don't know i don't know

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so for me as an actor i'm always on camera

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so i'm always very careful about what I say even

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if I'm making something as a joke I a lot of

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times I have a habit in my life much before not

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so much now but of speaking before I think

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but here in Vietnam I have to think before I speak especially

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when I say something in Vietnamese for example muh new ball

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that means stupid like a cow okay so if you say

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that to someone you might not be meaning it in a very mean way but saying

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that to a vietnamese is unbelievably disrespectful very disrespectful like for

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example someone does something someone leaves their phone you know out in the open where it can be stolen

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and you say like oh moon you ball okay

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that is super disrespectful like that person's gonna want to fight you

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so i like saying moon you bob because it's funny

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but i make sure i only say it about myself i never say it about someone else like for example

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if i leave my keys in my bike

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and i go into a coffee shop and do whatever

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and then come back out

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and the security guard's like oh your keys are here i'm always like oh doing new ball

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and he just kind of laughs

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but that's something i would only say about myself i would never say

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that about someone else ever ever ever So Vietnamese are very proud, very patriotic.

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They love their country as they should.

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I mean, I love their country.

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As everyone knows in the past, you know, Vietnam and America has a history and my country did some terrible, terrible things.

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And for me to live here in Vietnam permanently

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and feel as loved and as welcomed and as appreciated and as cared for as I do, it says

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so much about the Vietnamese people these these people are some

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of the kindest most understanding people I've ever met in my life

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and I haven't traveled too much around the world

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but I mean like I am okay with traveling

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but Vietnamese are without a doubt the most kind and understanding people

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that I've ever met like for example in traffic the way

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I look at traffic is it's kind of like ants

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if you ever look at ants when they're traveling across the ground in a line

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or whatever you get the ants kind of doing whatever

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and every now and then they bump into each other

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and then they just kind of like go on their merry

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way that's exactly how it is in vietnam as long as

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it's not like serious damage for example the other day i was at an intersection a very dangerous intersection

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because of construction

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and i was going through it the same time another bike was going through we were both going slow

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and we hit each other okay neither one of us said anything we just kind of like hit each other

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and then kind of like okay all right

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and keep going exactly like ants exactly like ants so

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that is how i would describe traffic in vietnam is just

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like a whole bunch of ants yeah now there are some myths about america

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that i never realized were

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so well -known until I until I started living here I forget you know I grew up in America

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so I know America very well but 95 % of the population here,

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unless they have family in America or unless they have traveled there before,

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the only thing they know about America is what they see on the news, on TikTok, on TV, in movies, things like that.

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And I always forget that.

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A couple weeks ago or a couple months ago, I had a fan meeting in Hanoi and there was like 50 different people to show up to my fan meeting, which was awesome.

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So shout out to all you guys.

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I really appreciate that.

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And at this fan meeting, one of the guys came up to me, you know, asked him for an autograph.

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And then he's telling me like, hey, in a couple months, I'm actually going to be moving to Tennessee.

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He was like, I'm going there to study or work.

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I think he said study.

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But anyways, he was like, oh, I'm going to Tennessee to study.

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And I wanted to ask you, is there any tips you can give me so I don't get sued

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and I thought that was hilarious like

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that was one of the funniest things someone had asked me

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and the reason it was so funny is

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because he was totally serious he wasn't like making a joke

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like oh how do I not get sued no it was

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like hey bro like what do I do how do I not get sued

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and it was then

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that I realized like bro that's crazy like this is what Vietnamese think about America and

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while yes people do get sued in America it's very like

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oh I'm gonna sue you i'm gonna sue you i'm gonna

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sue you just mind your own business you know don't piss

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anyone off don't do anything you shouldn't be you'll be fine

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so that was one thing that's one myth is

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that you're gonna get sued for everything which could happen

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but it doesn't mean you're actually gonna get in trouble uh

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number two no you cannot just easily buy a gun now

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yes guns are everywhere it is part of our history it's

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part of our culture it's it's a part of who we

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are it's in our constitution like everyone has the right to bear arms

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which means everyone has the right to carry a gun as

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long as you're not carrying it in an aggressive way i get lots of people

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that ask me like oh i hear

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that you can just walk into a store

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and buy a gun it's like bro no you cannot do

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that like of course you have to do paperwork of course

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like they do do background checks uh now unfortunately there is a lot of crazy people

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and people that have mental problems that do buy guns

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and the the problem with that is

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when buying a gun it's really hard to determine

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if someone has negative or bad intentions like

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if they've done something wrong in the past you will see it in the background check

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and you will be like oh this guy you know committed

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a crime with whatever like no we're not going to sell him a gun okay of course that's easy

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but maybe someone is planning on doing something bad in the future

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and they walk in and they're like oh hi yeah i want to buy a gun

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and they're super nice

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and they're smiling they do the paperwork you do the background

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check they've never been in trouble okay well here's your gun

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i mean you don't get it immediately like there is a

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waiting period you're not just going to walk in a store

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and walk out with a gun it doesn't work like

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that it takes time and so anyways that person will eventually get their gun

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and now someone with bad intentions has a gun

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and that's what you will see in the news

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so yes america is a gun culture but you cannot just show up anywhere

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and buy a gun someone actually told me one time they were like oh i heard

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that babies can buy guns

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and i'm like bro babies don't even have money where are they gonna buy a gun with no money

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so yeah anyways these are just some of the reasons why

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I would never ever leave America for Vietnam here I feel so loved

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and appreciated I feel more at home here in seven years

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of living in Vietnam than I did my entire life living

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in America in America I was a decorated police officer saving

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lives saving multiple lives two of them I saved with CPR

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and one with Heimlich maneuver and two of those were children

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so I'm very proud of

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that that's something i'm very very proud of people a lot of people ask me

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when they talk about my police career they'll be like oh have you ever killed someone

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but like no one ever asked like have you ever saved someone

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and so for me no i've never killed anyone

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but yes i have saved multiple people uh so

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if there's ever an emergency

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if there's ever anything i can handle the situation you don't have to worry about

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that uh yeah

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so anyways i just want to give a shout out to everybody in vietnam thank you

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so much for helping me to achieve my dreams like you

461

know now i am an extremely famous actor here in vietnam

462

and my career is growing and growing and growing

463

and all of these vlogs i'm doing now is just to kind of document my life

464

and you know show people what i'm doing here in vietnam

465

so if you like this video please make sure you like comment subscribe

466

that would be great share the video tell anyone about it tell your grandma about it tell your grandma to watch.

467

But if you like, leave a comment, tell me what you liked.

468

And if you did not like it, leave a comment, tell me why you didn't like it.

469

If you have any suggestions about what kind of videos you would like to see in the future

470

or what places you want me to go, anything you want me to do.

471

I love interacting with people and I love trying new things.

472

So leave a comment down below and I will do it.

473

All right, so that's all for this video.

474

Bye -bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Would I Ever Leave Vietnam & Return To America?”. This video has 474 sentences and 5641 words to shadow. The speech runs for 30:12. The speaker talks fast, about 187 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
anyways adverb	/ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/	Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
ant noun	/ænt/	Any of various insects in the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera, typically living in large colonies composed almost entirely of flightless females.
sue verb	/sjuː/	To file a legal action against someone, generally a non-criminal (civil) action.
consume verb	/kənˈsum/	To use up.
horrible adjective	/ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/	Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
convenient adjective	/kənˈviː.niənt/	Serving to reduce a difficulty, or accessible with minimum difficulty; expedient.
convenience noun	/kənˈvinjəns/	The quality of being convenient.
designer noun	/dɪˈzaɪnɚ/	A person who designs something, or who designs things as a profession.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
stressful adjective	/ˈstɹɛsfəl/	Irritating; causing stress.
disrespectful adjective	/dɪs.ɹɪˈspɛkt.fəl/	Lacking respect.
complicated adjective	/ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/	Difficult or convoluted.
habit noun	/ˈhæb.ɪt/	An action performed on a regular basis.
warrant noun	/ˈwɔɹənt/	Authorization or certification; a sanction, as given by a superior.
safely adverb	/ˈseɪfli/	In a safe manner; without risk; using caution above all else.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
show up verb	To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically.
add up verb	To take the sum of; to total.
come up to verb	To approach.
fill up verb	To make (something) completely full.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if she finds money somewhere she will take
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've ever made · I've never seen · I've done
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was filmed · will be arrested · is designed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friend who is · people who are · west, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 132 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: myth /mɪθ/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intentions /ɪnˈtɛnʃənz/, shout /ʃaʊt/, prescription /pɹəˈskɹɪp.ʃən/, intersection /ˈɪntəɹˌsɛkʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/
Long words — get the stress right: disrespectful /dɪs.ɹɪˈspɛkt.fəl/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, intersection /ˈɪntəɹˌsɛkʃən/, patriotic /peɪ.tɹiˈɑ.tɪk/, electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like anyways, ant, sue.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Would I Ever Leave Vietnam & Return To America? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?