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well hello and welcome to another episode of audiovisual cultures a very warm welcome if you’re joining us on the live stream or the replay after as well um it’s quite a rare event when i do a live recording like this it’s quite exciting and um i’m doing this because of my guests today which i will talk to you about in a moment um so audio visual cultures if you’re joining us for the first time it’s a podcast that looks at all the nooks and crannies of creative practice arts and humanities research and cultural production it’s a very borderless approach to looking at cultural phenomena just the sort of thing that we’re doing right now um so i’m your host paula blair and i am really excited to be joined today from tapai taiwan by my guest uncle dominic to talk about live video casting and wherever else our chat takes us and we’re going to talk probably mainly about dominic’s show just chat with uncle dominic but we’ll we’ll see where everything takes us so i’m going to bring uncle dominic in now hello welcome hello everyone i’m uncle dominic thank you for inviting me to your podcast paula you’re so welcome yes it’s uh it’s so great to connect with you and um i’m i’m loving your outfit i’m loving your spider-man hoodie that you’ve got on there
i love spider-man a lot because it has the the one of famous quotes right saying uh we with great power comes great responsibility so so it’s a good thing excellent yeah yeah he’s probably one of my favorite as well um so i’m like you’re so welcome and would you be happy first of all to tell us a bit about yourself just introduce yourself and tell us the sorts of things that you’re working on and then we’ll try and get into a bit more detail about those for sure well hello everyone i’m uncle dominic um right now i’m i actually have my own show on twitch and also on youtube under uncle dominic’s story time or in just chat with uncle dominic um what i do uh that is just part of my part-time job kind of so because i want to bring like more motivation to the world and more things because i’m an educator in taiwan so i teach i teach in schools public schools and private intuition as well and so one of my friends actually came to me one day and said dominic you have all these great you know telling stories and talking to people um why don’t you have like your own podcast and i was like what i can do that i said sure you can do it you can try and so that kind of you know put me into the map so i started doing this and i’ve been approached by a few people about talk to talk about motivational stuff uh things that we can help uh younger generations so that’s what i’m excited about right now to you know to help younger people with their questions in life and so uh yeah so that’s why i’m doing this for once right so yeah that’s so that’s a little bit about myself um and education i’m i’m just a teacher uh in a school nobody’s just a teacher it’s a very important thing today my mom i’m always gonna say you’re just a teacher why aren’t you a doctor i’m like oh well you know teachers well who teaches doctors to do anything hello that’s true right so yeah you’re very important people of course you are vital people what do you teach dominic um in taiwan i actually teach english language right so i teach the language english here um yeah so uh but before when i was in the states i used to work as a photographer and i teach people how to do photography and so back in the states but yeah so i’ve been in taiwan for 14 years now so in taiwan i i cannot teach photography here because they are actually much better than me and language barrier-wise so that is a problem and so yeah so i verge into teaching education and i thought that’s actually pretty helpful as well with a little bit from my background as well so yeah because my mom used to be a teacher uh in the school a long time ago so yeah it’s kind of i guess you could say it runs in the family somehow right okay oh that’s brilliant so yeah so your your vocation very much is feeding the work that you’re doing with your video casting on twitch and youtube then that’s right yeah yeah great so um yeah i suppose there’s quite a lot to get into then because you know you’ve mentioned language and then you’ve and i know that from watching some of just chat you’re most of your guests are are in asia somewhere and um you know so i was i was quite keen to know um you know how you how you get guests and i think it’s quite useful if there are other podcasters and video casters watching that’s something we can talk about is those connections that people make uh like right now i’ve been approached by a few um shows as well like like you approach me and they all liked the motivational part that i i’m putting it out so i feel like yeah so that’s what it is it’s a start so i told my wife i was like some i got invited again for another as another guest at another show and i was like so does that make me famous i feel like no it’s it’s it’s good that people are seeing the motivational things and try to put it out there right because i i try to do so much right and i can only get so much viewers and but i want to do this because i want you know younger learners well younger generation they need to to hear this sometimes and so i do this at school at my own schools as well like when i teach even though i’m teaching english i will teach a life you know life to my students and if they’re experiencing certain problems i told them you can always come to me i can help you if i cannot help you i’ll try to find some ways or someone else for you to talk to or share with them my life experiences as well um i would not say i have a perfect life and i will not say i have the the lowest of life but you know i i go through life just like everyone else everyone has problems so that’s why i want to put it out there in the sense of more real you know just like realness in struggle so i have my own struggles and some the guests that i invited on my show so far most of them have their own problems in life but they are very motivated to to share what they know and which is good because we can see real life struggles and share it to the world and at the same time you know share it to the world how we overcome them or with the knowledge that we have do you guys say what i’m saying paula of course yeah that makes a little sense yes and and i think it’s really refreshing to have and maybe this ties in with the persona of uncle dominic as well it’s really refreshing to see more men especially opening up over those sorts of media because um i feel like we’re very slowly encroaching on macho cultures and men aren’t supposed to talk about their problems they’re supposed to just get on with it and that’s repeated across many different cultures um so it’s really it’s quite great to see young men taking on a and i think what your uncle dominic title does is it it’s it sort of highlights okay i’m in a caring role and it’s does it you know so it’s um it’s making it more acceptable for men to be able to do that and um you know that it’s it’s quite useful actually for all of us to lay these things on the table and say we’re all going through this stuff but this is how we can have resolve and get through really challenging times and how we can respond to them so it’s it’s quite you know it’s a nice show to listen to to just hear oh that this person has overcome that adversity in that way um or this thing happened in their life and that was how they confronted it you know and it doesn’t mean you know it’s not the way that influencers say you should just revolutionize your life it’s not it’s it’s real life stories that people are telling you so i think that’s been really useful to hear i like to influence the influencers right right now in this generation i’ve never seen it before but it’s it’s been picking up like crazy like everyone wants to be an influencer on instagram tiktok um on all those platforms i mean they’re showing something for for the people in the world to see but most of the times what they show are not real right they show it because they want to sell stuff sell their brand for me i have nothing to sell so all i have is i want to share my experiences right and for other people to see and so it is like you said it’s very hard for for men to open up uh so far most of my guests guests are men so which is pretty interesting so uh most of the women actually turn turn down the show like they don’t dare to come on because they’re shy so in this case in my in my in my podcast most of the most of the guests are guys so which is very interesting in some ways but like you said it’s very difficult for us to open up even for me to actually start this i have this idea to to share this for almost over a year i’ve never done it it’s just i never dared to put it up never there to record myself you know and just i was like oh what should i do what should i do eventually you know just a tiny little push from one of my students it’s like you know you can do this why don’t you do it i was like really i should do it yeah and that’s where i picked up you know so that’s where i go from there uh but i’m not gonna say it’s all smooth you know it’s not smooth i’m trying to put motivational things out there but there are so many bad things in the world so it’s still it’s still a hindrance but you know we we have to move on like keep on you know like trials right this trials there’s stones in front of us we just have to go over the stones right just keep moving eventually you know eventually the world will get better i hope right people will get better more people will be more motivational um inspire more confidence in their life right that’s what we need because i think young people right now needs more confidence in their life so they can overcome uh certain trials right um yeah so yeah i don’t wanna talk too much no well that’s why i invited you on my podcast was to talk to me so talk away um no no it’s it’s great i mean i mean it’s great that you have that emphasis on talking to younger people and that you know of course is from your background as a teacher in schools but i find and maybe some of your guests find this as well that even as an adult there are things you don’t hear as a child that maybe you needed to hear but you don’t learn them until you’re well into adulthood and so i’m very open to the idea of having almost a second childhood and you know actually just relearning some of that when you’re at a time in your life where you can really understand it and apply the learning you know so i’ve i find it useful to to listen to the stories that people are telling on your show as well um yeah so i mean i i think yeah i think any of us at any time of our lives you know even if we’re around the same age you can be that almost parental generation person to a friend you know at times because i think there are times when we can revert to our childhood state and i think especially the way the world has been this past year so i think probably a lot of us have had to facetime a lot of maybe early drama and things yeah it’s difficult like with the covet 19 in the world right now everyone’s um the profession has to change the you know like for example my pay wise my uh my salary is actually cut in half because uh my income is has been cut enough because of covered 19. and i still have rents to pay children to feed you know families feed and then taxes and stuff and all those things but uh these are what what we say uh you know like negative stuff in the world it affects us but it just depends on how we see it right if we can change the perspective of how we see things uh we we can be better in some ways right and so that’s the one reason why i want i want to start my podcast because i want people to try to see things differently because i tend to see things differently sometimes like see different perspectives but of course it’s not always what people want to hear you know for example i have children on my own so i have three kids and so i’ll tell my older son don’t play too much computer right don’t use it too much your eyes you’re gonna break your eyes right so and he’s like no it’s not i’m not gonna break my eyes you know it doesn’t it doesn’t work like that i was like yeah it does look i’m wearing glasses but those kind of logic does not help you know and so we have to tend to try to look at a different perspective by saying okay son i like your spending time on the computer maybe there’s something you can show me that you’re doing well on the computer so you know things like that so like the other day he showed me his uh was it that thing that he made on his what minecraft you know young younger gen the games that they play i was like wow so you made a house okay so something like that maybe we just so as a parent or as older people we need to kind of try to see things differently you know but i guess it’s also affected in culture because we i had a talk the other day with uh on my chat um we’re talking about the asian culture versus the west western culture right okay where for example if the western uh let’s say the western culture a kid from the western culture when he when he or when he or she falls down the parents were like go pick them up or not right so when they pick them up or they will say are you okay are you all right is everything fine right but for asian countries a bit different like when when a kid fall down the first thing you’ll hear is like why did you fall down you know why did you run too fast i told you so you know so it’s kind of like a different upbringing right so there is good and bad of course but i tend to like if we if we as parents are able to see things not negatively like oh are you okay like towards another person more caring i think the younger generation will actually have you know better childhood i guess right uh i mentioned a lot younger generation because i’m pretty old right now i’m around 40 right so i can say people younger than me yeah so yeah so yeah um so things like that so that’s what i want to say and i want to tell people but of course it’s not good to hear it sometimes the younger people will feel like it’s like nagging you’re nagging me right so i kind of want to bring it out in a more reality form that you know these things does happen to it happens to everyone so i want to talk about it happens to everyone we cannot hide it we have to uh you know break break through the wall you know and share it now as as a as a man it’s difficult for me like for example it’s hard for me to show my feelings to my wife sometimes like she’s like yo you don’t hold my hands anymore and it’s like ah why don’t i hold my hold on my whole hands i don’t know why it’s just it’s not like i’m a touchy feely kind of guy you know it’s hard to open up sometimes so um doing this podcast actually helps me as well because i feel like if i do good out there good will come back if i motivate people i will motivate myself as well right um just like there was a youtuber that i was watching the other day he told us he said everyone has the same amount of time in a week what we do in that time you know brings brings a success or differs between different people so if i wake up in the morning the first thing i do is i look at my cell phone and go through instagram or whatever instead i could have used that you know few seconds in the morning when i wake up look in the mirror and say i’m gonna do well today so that actually brings a little bit of impact to your own life and to you know anyone’s life right or if you if you’re a kid and you’re in a house if you wake up in the morning instead of going downstairs and say hey mom what’s for breakfast you could say hey mom good morning right did you stick well things like that i mean it’s just a small tiny thing that can actually brighten a person’s life like a person’s attitude like if i actually if my kids actually wake up in the morning say say hey dad good morning i was like oh i feel good you know i feel good not not a whole good but still good all right it’s just one step upon one step we build upon opponent it’s just one tiny happiness about another happiness eventually you know i feel like eventually everything will fall into place and everything will picks up from there so it becomes like a seventh habit right a habit right yeah yeah good good habits yeah that’s really nice no no no it’s it’s good yeah um no because i think these these things all tumble into one another i think and i suppose with some yoga’s with your show it’s a way of just doing that on a more public level and it feels that because you know i mean we’re we’re both fairly small shows you know i’m not gonna pretend that this is a you know multinational conglomerate conglomerate or anything like that well that’s the thing right that’s why i feel right when i first started it i always took how many viewers do i have you know how many people are watching this and i try to promote my channel so i was like and then someone actually told me it’s not important how many viewers you find it’s more on what you show and what you give you know so if i’m giving good stuff good vibes to people i feel like if one person gets it i mean that’s good enough right so and he actually said that eventually eventually you know or may not but eventually one good will bring another good so you might get in 18 months or two years later your channel is going to blow up you know so but i guess most people are looking at the quick way of making money or whatever but i feel like this is not about making money this is more about you know sharing my motivation or motivate people out there you know one or two that’s i think that’s good enough i mean if there’s more great if there’s even more you know even better but it it has to pick up from somewhere you know because we talk about money right money money spent okay i don’t think people will actually spend money to go to a course to get a motivational course like for example if i’m having a seminar for uh two thousand dollars you pay two thousand dollars to come come to my two-hour seminar of of being happy i mean who would do that right i’m sure there’s gonna be rich people who like do not have have time in their life so they’ll spend two thousand dollars to go to this kind of seminar sure but this is not about that this is more about we need we are giving uh positive things out there throwing more positive things out there because there’s too many bad things out there in school so i just want to do a little bit all right just like this there’s a story right there’s a story about the the boy and the starfish on the beach did you have you heard that story before it sounds familiar but please do tell it right so there there is a boy right that walks walks on a beach and he saw all the little starfish on the beaches right so what he does is he picks up one and throw them back into the ocean right picks up one throw them back to the ocean and someone actually go to him and say why do you do that you know there are so many starfish you’re not gonna you’re not gonna be able to help them all so the boy replied well for this one it matters right so we’re actually doing one step at a time throwing starfish back in uh it doesn’t matter we cannot save everyone but we can save who we can so pretty much like do what we can right and i had a guest yesterday um yesterday on tuesday um he actually mentioned to me dominic we cannot control everything everything is gonna happen we just have to do our best i was like yeah that’s it you said it pretty well we have to do our best what we can do just do it you know if we cannot do it you know why worry you know we should just do what we can so that’s it right i feel like in life it’s we get stuck sometimes we get stuck about thinking about we can’t do this we can’t do this this problem but we shouldn’t think about why we can’t do this we should be thinking about what can we do you know not the part that we cannot do right just like the saying of uh do we see the glass as half cup full or is it half glass empty all right so yeah did you did you get what i’m saying yeah um i was wondering as well uh because i think it might be useful for i think as i say for anybody else who’s doing this kind of work is um actually choosing a platform on which to do all of that you know so there’s the work itself but then it’s um how do we decide how we put it out into the world so you’ve been doing live shows at set times and twitch isn’t that right right and um and i’m quite interested in that because i i i watch live streams of talks you know and you know people presenting talks and things on twitch and it started out i believe as a more of a gaming platform so people just watch yeah um so i was wondering about you know your decision to do that kind of show on twitch and you know is that um you know is that the idea of it is to try and get that international instagram capture immediately i started on facebook right so i have this i have to i started on facebook and i was i was recording my uncle dominic story time so and so what i do is read english books and share it to my my kids and my students right and so i initially did it on facebook and eventually i felt like i need to do more i can do more i mean and so my my students told me yeah do a chat you know share your share your positive out you know to everyone i was like yeah i should do that but um i guess like i mentioned i’m pretty scared at first you know doing a recording is different doing a live stream is different you know being live with another guest is a different thing you might say the wrong thing and you cannot you cannot cut it out right it’s there yeah and so uh and the reason why i picked twitch at first was because i i had a trouble with using youtube i wasn’t very good at using youtube i couldn’t i don’t know how to actually turn on the live streaming on youtube so i had a hard time at first i was like oh it’s pretty difficult and someone said well try twitch i was like oh yeah i should try twitch and so i went twitch and i saw it was actually much easier to to live live stream on twitch and so i decided to try to live stream on twitch first and then record it and then edit a little bit of it and then put it on youtube so i can have both of both worlds and so and and put it in facebook as well but again um it’s not it’s not gonna make money for four for one but it’s more like i’m putting things out there um hopefully some it will change someone’s life and someone will approach me and say thank you dominic uh your show helped me so you know something like that just like as a teacher like i i teach i’ve been teaching students in taiwan for 14 years um i don’t many thank yous for one but i do get occasionally where some students come to me um give me a flower and say you changed the way i think about english you change the way i think about life i was like ah thank you that’s it that’s all i want to hear you know as an educator that’s how i feel i did something i hear a little bit good that means it’s motivated me to do more to help others and maybe that person that i help actually help more people so in this way it’s a win-win win for me win for them right and yeah so this will be better yeah those ripple effects say you know that that drop that just ripples out that sounds like yeah yeah that’s great yeah that’s interesting about twitch because i’ve considered it as well and i just haven’t been too sure because i think i think you’re right i mean you know i i’m using a stream yard right now to to do this on youtube because it just is so much easier and you’ve got a bit more control with them with what you can do and um yeah yeah with stream yard and you know and i don’t have a huge following on youtube as well and i think with twitch it’s really nice because you actually you down on the sidebar you’ve got this ticker of who’s streaming and how many you’re watching and and you can actually just click on stuff you you it might suggest things that are similar to the thing that you’re watching you can go around one that you like yeah exactly yeah so it’s actually it seems that people are people’s what people are streaming is more findable on twitch so i do wonder if that’s something i should consider sometimes for this show but i think for me i’m primarily edited audio so you know i just like to do this sometimes because it just it’s just a bit different you know and then somebody like you you’re very happy to come into your life recording on video you know not not all of my guests like their video to be used so um right so that’s the thing i feel that i shouldn’t hide in a way i should share it you know and because if i hide myself most of the time if i have problems i hide it it’s gonna the problem is gonna pick up right um i i learned that from my dad actually my dad’s a little bit different uh he has lots of problems in his life but he never tells me his problem never and so every time i see him he’s happy you know he’s enjoying life he’s doing well but he has so much problem i didn’t know that only when he he left this world and then i start you know picking things up from his friends or whatever and i realized oh my gosh my dad has so much problems in his life but he didn’t share it and so because he didn’t share it in in this way i felt like i don’t know what to do when this happens so i feel like i need to put it out there in case you know if i die one day my children be like oh look look i’m on youtube oh my dad is still here you know things like that so they can learn something from me in the future like you know so i feel like i shouldn’t hide so much like i feel yeah you know hiding it’s it’s it’s good to help you but i feel like we should you know share it most times like you know like the concept of writing down your journal or your diary right right so here’s the thing that i always ask why do we write it down on a journal diary do we don’t want others to read it or do we secretly want someone to read our diary or journal why do we write it down you know and we put it at places where it’s reachable by anyone you know so there has to be a reason why journals and diaries existed is it because when we pass on from these lives someone will actually read our diary and journal to find out what’s going on so that’s not a secret anymore so why do we actually do it right i think it’s because we are shy but we secretly want someone to read our journal and read our diary so they can enjoy our life in in some ways right
it’s a process it’s an outlet for it so even if i mean i think for me the idea of the finished your full diary with every page written on it for me that’s the legacy of what was the live act of the sharing you of getting it out of your system and then whatever happens with that happens with that you know um i suppose in a way it’s an archive for yourself of your own memories and and this kind of thing it’s you’re creating an archive for yourself and then for your your children and um you know so you you leave a legacy and it is an interesting i don’t know if it’s a bit morbid that thought overnight it’s going to be full of our ghosts someday you know the documentary will be around longer than we will for sure and then it’s such a lovely thing to think that you know in a hundred years time somebody might still be benefiting from what we put out into the world which is really interesting that’s that’s why i feel like you know what we put on right now might not affect anyone so much like not many viewers but eventually one day you know someone will watch it and you know change something like you said an archive it’s definitely an archive we have to look at the generations now everything is internet now right everything is is computerized so if if we don’t move on with the times we’re going to be stuck behind you know like if i share all my motivational stuff or my strugglings in life in a diary in my journal who’s going to read it you know one day if if my house get burned down like no one’s going to be able to read it and so i need to put it up there so you know on the internet on the web i think that’s the best way to put things out and i notice there are there’s not a lot of people doing it but i do notice there’s a few and so i feel it’s better than none so so add adding more to it you know help out more yeah and um yeah i was wondering as well if you’d be interested in talking about the experience of you not just putting your own thoughts out there but but hosting a show where you facilitate other people putting their thoughts out there um but that experience that we’ve we’ve all had to do this past while of doing it remotely um i was wondering what how you felt about that and how that’s going for you um yeah if when i first started it um i actually pre i write down a lot of questions i want to uh thought provoking questions and you know and using some quotes like i mainly use a lot of quotes on my show so finding good quotes and sharing it out and asking for opinions uh using these quotes to talk with our guests or to my guests um because of this procedure i when i first started with my first few episodes it’s kind of i feel like well someone mentioned it to me um it’s kind of like i’m going through the process i should um slow it down and and take the examples and try to break it even deeper and so that’s what i’ve been trying to do for the last past two episodes um talking to my guests and actually um having less questions but more on trying to figure out the experiences that they had um you know the the share to others so we can actually dive deeper into more understanding of what things happen so um that process is i know gradually picking up so eventually i think right now i i’m in more comfortable zone um when i talk to my guests and asking them um certain questions to actually find out more about their life and their opinions because i know everyone has different opinions your opinion would not be the same as mine but um trying to bring it out out there into the open uh it’s a process but yeah so it’s all process you know at the same time i’m trying to learn how to use the computer how to live stream at the same time you know doing all those little gadgety things and my first episode was terrible out of terrible first episode out there i thought it was really good but it was not it was too much graffiti things are going around and then one of my episodes i tried to put a moving text on it and it eventually i made a mistake the moving text has actually audio on it so what we are discussing the text is still talking i’m like oh no i messed up so much and i realized i shouldn’t do so much of this graphic things on it because i need i need my audience to focus on what’s on the show what’s important which is their experiences so um yeah so finally i settle down with something more you know subtlety and then just focus only on what the my guest has to say and how we can talk about this questions right about this that we have because it’s important to actually to uh you know take someone’s thoughts and opinions and actually you know break it apart not break it apart isn’t bad but breaking apart and finding out why they think that way and how we can actually benefit from it you know so yeah so in in a sense i could say i should humble myself down and listen to my guests and try to figure out why they think that way
yeah that’s really interesting it’s interesting that you bring up your um your graphics because um you know i know the little um the little intro graphic that you have that you’re talking about and i think i really what i really appreciate it about it is it quite lays bare the process of making something like that because it’s you know it’s it’s more of a screencast of you putting it together and so it’s become you know it’s um if people go to your to you to your site i’ve put the link in the comments for your youtube channel if people go and have a look at that you’ll see what i mean where it’s it’s like you’re building it in the program and um and so it comes alive in front of you and um it’s as you say it’s i think any podcaster any video caster when they’re they’re just starting out it’s not perfect it’s you know there’s constant problems there’s it’s a total learning experience because we are amateurs doing this a lot of us and we don’t have that formal training in broadcasting so we don’t know how to hide a lot of that stuff or how to integrate things necessarily and so you’re learning all the time on the job and so it’s you know you should feel really positive if i thought that that’s part of the process and it’s normal and actually it’s quite endearing and it’s um it just shows you know there is work going on to producing something like this and i think audiences need to be aware of that that it’s not just a click a button and it happens it’s actually quite a lot of preparation on it so that’s the thing i was reading up another person he was telling he was he was actually advising all the youtubers out there and i thought this is a really good um advice right he said we should not put up content make content because we want people to see this content right we should make the contents evolve around us so that’s what he’s saying so he’s saying that he does not spend seven six days a week to record his content and you know five hours a day just to think about what he should put what should he record it should be more like recording his life and what evolves around him so i feel like that’s a great example and i and i do my recordings now recordings for my story time only on weekends when i have some free times with my kids and so when they are sleeping i’ll do my own story time and do the recording there but for live stream of course there’s certain time for it i feel like i need to have a certain set time for my guests to come in and talk about or for me to actually talk about some topics right so i feel like if we spend less time thinking about the process and more about the actual things that we are sharing i think in this way the audience can actually feel how you know real this is and at the same time experience it um actually be in the conversation with us um can you know yeah so it feels like they’re there listening to our conversation that’s going on about life and which is great because i know people out there are afraid to to talk afraid to voice out and so i feel like if we create these platforms that you you created your platform audio visual cultures and i’ve seen some comments and stuff and you have some great guesses but yeah this is it right this is it we put it out there not many people can voice out their opinions but there’s gonna be one or two that actually have an opinion and this will actually you know help you help us you know want to understand what’s going on all right um i actually like to watch one of the live stream um of a book author her name is sandra she wrote his book called uh always be happy right always be happy her book and so um she always live streams every other week all right and on it she talks about happiness right she gives a topic happiness and she waits for everyone to ask her questions about happiness and she answers them and so she breaks out a way to have the audience you know interact with her but you notice in the chat there’s so many people watching her but only five or six actually talk to her but i mean even the five or six there’s gonna be people that oh yeah i have the same question so there we go i don’t have to ask it again you know so if we put it out there we record the content because we want to share you know our life our experiences people will eventually want to see it want to hear it want to learn from it but i feel like if we put out you know comedy contents you know all these things sure people are going to watch it people are going to there’s going to be views more views on comedies and stuff it’s gonna but this is not what we want we’re focusing on oh oh this is not what i want i’m focusing on real life you know real life thoughts and you know things that can help us in our life in our daily struggles so it’s a different kind of genre right but still it’s different we’re not gonna i don’t think we’re gonna expect 2 000 viewers right how many views do we have right now actually i don’t see at the moment too
and hello to whoever you are and very welcome um yeah people have been coming in and i’d i think um we’ve had a maximum of three at any time while we’ve been doing this um but it’s quite early in the morning here in the uk and it’s i think just right at the end of the working day where you are in taiwan and america is not awake yet so you know it’s it’s just one of those things where um because it you you were saying you’ve got set times and that’s really good that’s a really good strategy if you’re doing a live show and because mine is mine is primarily edited audio as i say it’s more of a negotiation with the guest if there’s a guest on or when i have time and that sort of thing so this was just uh this was a sweet spot where we could both do this and that’s why we’re doing it at this time so um you know that’s that that’s just how that rolls but it’s great to see and i like i like putting i always put a video version of mine on youtube anyway because it helps with accessibility because you can use options um but it’s you have some of the feedback actually just as you say that um some really lovely feedback i’ve had is that people do really like seeing this they like seeing the conversation rather than just listening to it they’re like seeing the interaction of people on cameras yeah so so i think you know what you’re doing makes complete sense especially when you’re talking about things that are maybe quite emotional or life events and that sort of stuff because it’s just it is as if you’re in the room with those people and you’re having an intimate conversation you know so it’s not all planned it’s not all written down like i mean yeah it’s real life so like whatever is in my head i’m bringing it out so that’s what it is right so this way people can actually feel more you know like into it like it’s real this this advice is real it’s not it’s not a made-up advice where i’m looking at a script i’m not so yeah yeah you’re not going oh you you need to be happier in your life so you need to buy this product to do that you know it’s like this is a real life event this is the choice these are the choices you can make and how you confront that how you deal with that how you move on from that you know and um that’s really useful and i suppose it’d be nice to just quickly come back to that point you were making about you you tend to shape it around quotations that you find you know you you’ll take words of wisdom from maya angelou you know and quite common sayings and you know that sort of thing and get your guests to really think that through and go right well what does that mean to you how do you approach this and um and i think that’s a really nice way of shaping it as well and um i mean all the ones i’ve heard so far i think they’re from i think they’re i think they’re english sayings you know they’re in some form of english and or they’ve been written in english that sort of thing and i was wondering because um you said you you you lived in the united states for a long time and um i was just wondering about that um you know sort of why english and is that just the common language where you are for for all the different people yeah for english yeah i was just wondering a bit about that um i’m originally from malaysia i was born in malaysia okay so um but i was brought up in english environment so i speak you know completely english mostly english right um and so but my mom is my mom lives in australia and so i i’ve been in australia i live in the u.s before i came to taiwan so i’ve been living in all the english speaking countries right but taiwan is not english country so when i when i first got here it was a bit difficult with the language as well and so it’s just you know breaking the barrier of you know the language barrier so after the first couple years eventually i picked up some chinese and so yeah and so i’ve been here for 14 years so i’m able to go outside and buy food in in the chinese language and speak in chinese language but still it’s not my main language so sometimes i’m having difficulty in speaking it getting the right tone to it so that’s why most of my guests are all english speakers because i want to speak only in english because if i try to speak in chinese sometimes it’s difficult to do it although saying that i actually did one episode last tuesday live with a chinese speaker and someone told me dominic you should try doing one in chinese i was like oh man really it’s like yeah do it do it do it okay so i went around and tried to find some guests and i actually found one and he’s actually a retired teacher but i learned that he was also a counselor at school so i learned a lot from him and so but all this conversation is all in chinese so at the same time i felt like oh somehow my chinese has improved but the whole point is it’s not all about me right it’s all about the content what we want our viewers to see so i feel like you know language shh it’s a problem for you know but english is definitely out there people definitely knows english because i’m living in taiwan i feel like i should you know contribute a little bit to the taiwanese people by speaking a little bit chinese and get the chinese speakers to share their feelings because if i don’t know if you know this but there are a lot of motivational speakers in english but very little in chinese language yeah have you ever wondered why i’ve been thinking about it why yeah no go ahead yeah yeah it’s an interesting question well i i feel like let’s say that this way i feel like because the chinese culture of asian culture like we don’t like to give advice on things so much based on another person’s life for example if you’re if your life sucks okay your life sucks okay that’s it i’m not gonna go in there why does your life sucks right how can i help you with your life right and so but yeah so that’s why i guess that’s why there’s not many motivational speakers in chinese in the chinese language so having one out there actually helps out a lot as well i feel right so different language out there that’s so interesting um yeah teacher sorry i’m just trying to date with this echo just turn the mickey and dying to see if it helps um but uh yeah that’s so interesting um because i don’t know it makes me feel like well or does that just indicate that english speakers talk a load of nonsense all the time and is it more um practical to to or just you you’re just not getting into everybody’s business is it that kind of cultural difference but also as you say i think we were talking earlier about well it’s it can be a cultural thing whether you how much people share and what’s your internal life and that sort of stuff but yeah i think it is i suppose being that pioneering beginning to it and if you’re somebody who you come from this english-speaking background and then you’ve um you know you you’re trying to assimilate into uh you know a more chinese taiwanese area and then you know it’s you’re trying to marry up those cultures rather than you clash them i suppose is that right is that yeah well i feel like sometimes it shouldn’t be that way it should be like yeah but anyway it does happen because people tend to you know genderize or racialize that oh yeah there’s many western podcasters but there’s very little asian podcasters right and so there’s gonna be things like that but i feel like it doesn’t really matter in in the sense that who does it or you know what’s out there it should be like are you doing something to put it out there and so i’m doing something to put it out there are you guys doing something to put it out there i mean you know that’s that should be it right i’m very happy that paula is doing something out there as well right in your audio visual culture podcast and i’ve seen a lot of good stuff in it uh actually a lot of good stuff in it thank you yeah for me to compare up to you i i feel like i’m not up there yet i’m only on episode six right only episode six you know and so but you have like you know so it’s different so it’s more like i’m putting things out there and you are putting things out there so it’s all about you’re doing something on your part giving the best of you out there to the people out there in the world and i’m doing the best i can to the people out there in the world and i feel like english is because it’s a language that i speak so if i can speak in other languages then i’ll i’ll probably do those right but in in this in a sense english is the only one i speak right now and plus a little bit of chinese so and so if i can do those you know i would i would if i can do other languages like italian french sure if i can or japanese yeah but i cannot so for this case i will hope that there’s gonna be other japanese viewers out there who are interested in doing your own motivational podcast in japan do it you know that’s what we do that’s what we need that’s what people need you know we need to uh we’re not politicians i mean we’re not someone up there we cannot be in a government sharing our thoughts we cannot but we can show our thoughts in on on the web so people can actually see it um gain something from it learn or not learn from it you know yeah
great now that’s that’s really useful to hear yeah it’s it’s come up a few times when i’ve had uh buyer multilingual podcasters come and speak to me and um because there’s a guy who lives in switzerland but he speaks or not sister in sweden but he speaks english swedish and arabic so he does his podcast in whatever language his guest is happiest with and most of it is in english and it’s something i do wonder about is um you know is there provision for podcasting in all of the languages because it just feels that english is so dominant anyway globally and it has to be i feel like english is like the the global language right now right it’s like international language like everyone learns it because we we need to learn it and then you know yeah so like recently the last past two years two years ago yeah two years ago yeah two years ago taiwan said we want english to be the second national language in taiwan and so and everyone’s like what oh no wow is that possible you know and so it’s difficult to put a language as your second language right in your country and so because of that everyone almost everyone in taiwan are actually you know pick pacing things up by learning english and so a lot of english intuition into intuition are having lots of students and because they want to learn from it practice improve their english you know and there are lots of more foreign foreign teachers from other countries coming to taiwan to actually teach english i mean this is a good step i feel like english is important out there um before i used to think chinese and english is important because china has so much business opportunities for people to go there um but of course recently with a lot of you know political things happening in the world people are changing their mind oh we don’t want to go to china anymore we’re going to focus on different languages so i feel like it doesn’t matter right it’s more matters on what we want to learn like i feel like english is definitely important for me i like i like the the language english language and the japanese language and the chinese language and so i didn’t this two languages are great uh you know if you have those three languages i feel like you can go around the world and still do things of course i cannot go to italy but if i go to italy i’m sure they can still speak english they’re pretty sure right so yeah english is definitely we’re right so it’s a language that you have to learn you have to know it we don’t really have to like note 100 the language i mean it’s good enough to conversate and to get around i think that’s good that’s good enough right um okay now it’s just interesting to hear hear your thoughts about that i get i get worried that it’s much too colonial and um it’s taking over and i’m trying my best to learn different languages that aren’t english and but yeah it’s good to hear your perspective on it if you want to talk about colonization that’s a different whole point of view like i was in australia for a couple years before i live yeah my mom’s there now so um a lot of australians the older the the older generation they don’t like the japanese people because of the world war before right the war that had with the japanese and so when i was there they thought i was japanese so they don’t like me i was like i’m not japanese i’m not i’m not they i don’t believe you i don’t care go away you know so all these racial things is there okay but we we don’t want to feel that way i mean cause colonization happens you know people move to different countries it happens you know immigration you know these things happen you know so but we have to think about we are all humans right we’re just living in different worlds and trying to move and try to you know how do we say survive in this world right uh a lot of gamers out there love to play games like survival games right and so this is this is real life survival it’s like you find out what’s best for you and your family and you want to move there and you want to live there and so and yeah so that’s it you know we i have friends and families who want to move to the uk as well um and love australia i want to move to australia i mean this is what they feel you know if i feel like i like my life here in taiwan i’m here i’m still here i’ve been here 14 years so i definitely love it here and so but i’m saying you know it doesn’t matter where we go i feel like it’s just it’s all about yourself our own happiness and all our own thoughts right we if we feel like if we feel going to the uk is actually beneficial for me and my family then why not go do it right um go do make make your life there i’ve seen people done it so i’m not saying it’s bad i’m saying it’s what makes you happy go follow it and do it if it doesn’t makes me happy then why should i do it if i’m happy where i at where i am i should just stay here and you know focus on my life here but if i’m happy elsewhere then i should try to you know move on and do what’s happened you know happiness is actually important right it’s very important everyone’s everyone looks for it some some people cannot find it but it’s there we just have to actually you know dig deeper and find it okay that’s it yeah it’s really good to hear your thoughts on that um so uncle dominic is there anything we haven’t touched on say that you really wanted to put out there that you really wanted to tell people about it by any of your other work or or anything like that anything at all yeah uh well i think i touched on everything we pretty much talked on everything and i but if you do i do feel like for the viewers out there who are watching us right now watching this show um don’t be afraid to to ask questions don’t be afraid to go look for opportunities to improve yourself and to improve um if we talk about language improve your language but mentally improve what you think in your mind be positive you know be positive in life is i’m not going to say it’s easy to be positive in life it’s difficult it’s difficult every day i’m getting bashed down uh by negativity even today this morning even yesterday at work so it’s like that it’s going to happen you know bad things are going to happen it’s going to hit us um even while i’m doing my podcasting and doing my guest show it does happen but we should not let it drag us down we should not let drake’s down we should you know look at the positive side of things try our best to look at positive side of things and then you know yeah move on so to all of you guys out there i would like everyone to you know take the time you know you can come come to come to my youtube watch my watch my talk shows i’ll be as a guest in my talk show or at polar shows you know and well ask questions even even as a guest but just in as a viewer ask questions or email uh anything you know everything’s pos any there’s so many ways to communicate with us i mean that’s what i want people to know there are ways to help help everyone we just have to well there are ways to help everyone the the channels are there you just need to you know i know i cannot say take a pen and write a letter type on your computer right now you know talk to us there we go that’s it that’s what i want to say yeah that’s that’s really helpful yeah and i i very wholeheartedly second that that’s we’re easy to find and um yeah we’re very happy to hear from people because i think both of us were actively looking for guests to be on our shows so um so if you look at if you if you just search for just chat with uncle dominic and i’m going to put some links down in our in the show notes wherever you’re getting this so you can just get just find that really easily and audio visual cultures as well i think that’s a really really great note to wrap things up on and um yeah do you have any social media that you would like people to go and visit as well uh yeah if you yeah well paula already mentioned it you can find me on uncle story time with uncle dominic on youtube you can find the uncle dumbling on twitch tv and you can actually message me on twitter at uncle underscore dominic and if you go on facebook if you’re at facebook you can look up uncle dominic’s story time so i am there and so yeah so you can look me up in almost every social media sites out there i think pretty much even on tik tock i am even on top okay it’s not much on tick tock but i am on there so you can fight look look look me up there as well uncle dominic so yeah i’m old that’s like uncle dominic four day isn’t old come on why i was gonna put grandpa dominic but i haven’t reached those things no we’re still millennials we’ll cling on to that for a while well thank you paula for actually having me on your show as a guest it’s been great yeah it’s been a real joy thank you so much for taking the time i know it’s been um it’s difficult to try and get around the time difference and your working day and everything and i really really appreciate your flexibility with that and it’s been just an absolute joy to talk to you thank you for your time thank you so much for having me and it will be a good morning for you too as well in the uk yes my day’s just getting started here we go thanks get pumped up now all motivated to go out and meet the world absolutely absolutely okay thanks okay um just uh just a quick note everybody uh thank you so much for joining wherever you’ve been listening um if you’ve been watching this on youtube at all uh there’ll be an audio edit of this going out in audi visual cultures it’ll probably be a bit later on in the summer maybe later august for that and um you can pick the audio up just about anywhere you get your podcasts so apple podcast spotify etc and um just thanks so much and if you’re happy to um share this that would be amazing that would really help me and uncle dominic out so much and um if you’re looking for any extras as well as what we provide for free then have a look at audio or have a look at patreon.com forward slash av cultures and see what we’re up to over there but for now thank you so much and have a good day or evening wherever you are in the world and we will catch you next time
audiovisual cultures 