OPENING THE VAULT | Culture Corner | Superstitions

We're unlocking the vault and inviting listeners to enjoy this exclusive episode. Become a monthly subscriber for just $1.99 per month and receive an additional two to three episodes per week! https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9472af5c-8580-45e1-b0dd-ff211db08a90/exclusive-content In this exclusive episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack discuss superstitions that are common in America. Exclusive You Tube link: https://youtu.be/MH9WlyMngIU Transcript: 00:00:37 Jack Headquarter. 00:00:38 Jack Yours. It's really, really helpful and we appreciate your generosity. So social today we're talking about. 00:00:48 Jack Americans and whether or not they are superstitious. 00:00:55 Jack And maybe you could explain what superstitious means first, just for our listeners. 00:00:59 Xochitl Superstitious is someone who believes in kind of good luck, bad luck and. 00:01:07 Xochitl Those sorts of things. So let's say uh. 00:01:11 Xochitl If you do. 00:01:12 Xochitl XYZ. It will have a consequence of XYZ in the sense that. 00:01:17 Xochitl They believe in some larger sense of luck and karma and cosmic energy. Yeah. Jack, can you explain any better than nothing because. 00:01:27 Jack This magic, you know, like. Yeah. Magic or irrational kind of thinking or not non scientific. Let's call it non scientific thinking. 00:01:33 Xochitl Please. 00:01:37 Xochitl Yes, non scientific thinking. 00:01:39 Jack Yeah. So for example, if I flip this coin. 00:01:43 Jack And it lands on heads. I should accept the the the job, but if I flip this coin and it lands on tails, I should reject this job. And so you're you're basically putting the power of your choice into this coin. 00:01:50 발표자 Right. 00:02:03 Jack And so that would be considered superstitious. You know you're not using logic and reason and science to make your decision. You're using luck. Like social said, just luck. 00:02:16 Jack You know. 00:02:17 Xochitl And there are a bunch of little kind of superstitious sayings. When I was a kid, a popular one was step on a crack as in a crack in the sidewalk or whatever. Break your back. So it's like. 00:02:26 Jack OK. 00:02:28 Xochitl You had to. 00:02:28 Jack OK. 00:02:28 Xochitl Jump over cracks in the sidewalk because you didn't want your mother's back to break. I don't know why that exists. 00:02:36 Jack I think because it rhymes, you know, back and and cracks, you know? Yeah. 00:02:36 Xochitl But. 00:02:40 Xochitl And back. So there's a lot of little superstitious thinkings, or, for example, Friday the 13th. That's a very popular one in the US. You can go out on Friday the 13th. It's a bad luck day. 00:02:49 Jack Yeah. 00:02:54 Xochitl You know, if you have a job interview, don't schedule it for Friday the 13th. If you have a wedding, don't schedule it for Friday the 13th. A little superstition. Things like that are still, I would say, sort of prevailing in US culture, but on the whole, I would say. 00:03:14 Xochitl We're not a superstitious. 00:03:16 Xochitl Culture, what would you suggest? 00:03:18 Jack No, we're we're not. Not compared to like places. I've lived like Thailand, you know, which is very, very much like like instead of car insurance, you'll have like, a, like a Buddhist shrine, you know, in your car on the dashboard, basically set up. And that's. I mean, I'm sure they do have car insurance, but I mean, it's just like that's going to that's going to protect me. 00:03:23 Xochitl For myself. 00:03:31 Xochitl Ohh. 00:03:35 Xochitl So the help, yeah. 00:03:38 Jack More than like anything. Is this this shrine that I've built on my on my? Yeah. And I'm not. And I'm not trying to malign our our listeners out there, who who believe in in who might be Buddhist or believe in that but. 00:03:45 Xochitl Car dashboard. 00:03:54 Jack UMI would I would put that in a kind of superstitious uh basket, whereas like actual car insurance is probably much more useful than some kind of spiritual belief or something like that. That that may