The "Wurst" Podcast Ever Episode 4: Jacob Lopez

this is the worst podcast ever by Dean scoffield this podcast is for a Capstone project at Brigham y University Idaho for the purpose of helping others acquire the taste of the German culture and language through interviews of students professors and Friends of the host hey everyone this is the worst podcast ever welcome to this week's episode I have a special guest with me this week and his name is Jacob Jacob go ahead and introduce yourself yeah how's it going yeah this is Jacob and Jacob is one of my good friends uh he was a student of mine for quite a while um when we were taking German up here at school before the program got cut and the reason why I brought Jacob on today is because he actually um did his internship in Vienna and we're going to hear a little bit about that um in a little bit but before that we're going to start out with the Germany adum of the week and this is AIS in bua which stands for everything is fine oh what's kind of funny about that is uh so on my mission I had a I had a copy of hot rod in German so like the movie right and so you know the scene where they said like cool beans like cool cool beans beans cool beans everyone knows about that okay yeah exactly right but here they say so it's like and it's like it's freaking hilarious what yeah no just check it out check it out when um when we're done here it's pretty awesome um so Jacob um introduce yourself a little bit more tell us about a little bit about yourself yeah well my name is of course Jacob Lopez I'm Hispanic if you can't tell the last name my parents are Mexican um first generation American um last year of my senior this is my senior year also for school and I'm studying Financial economics um and uh for out of nowhere I never even thought about ever going to Austria in my life or even going to Germany but somehow life led me at that point during the summer awesome uh what made you interested in taking German at school in general yeah that's a really good question so um last not this summer the past but the the the summer before that in 2016 uh 2017 actually I had um my parents went on a trip to Germany and uh so they went ahead without me I was in summer school here at byi I was dumb I was like I need to finish school kind of attitude and um I my parents like hey if you want to you can come down to Germany for a week um at least and come enjoy the time we've been here already for a month I'm like and I was like you know what how often do you get invited for your family to go to Germany and so uh right away I went and uh my first night there was Berlin uh it was my first night there I've never heard German in my life really never was never was um it's never hit me ever before all I know about Germany was the World War II and that they make really good computers or like really good like Machinery you know um so I went my parents were tired like Hey we're going to go to sleep and um I went to uh to go get some gelato because it was always like um jet lag you know yeah and so I sat down and like um this uh beautiful young lady came sat next to me and uh I was just like okay like I'm like hey what the heck maybe she might speak English and so I was like hey uh do you know any good places around here and then um 30 minutes after the conversation I feel comfortable she felt comfortable and I was like Hey do you uh have any plans tonight and she was and she was like no I don't I was like do you mind showing me those places and so from like 8:00 p.m. till 7:00 a.m. um her name is Stephanie she showed me all around Berlin from like the West mural to like the to the wall to the nice area and uh for yeah I was scared I never went this woman don't understand any German but when I was with her I asked her a bunch of questions about what the culture is and everything and the next you notice she was uh telling me and I felt very prompted I was like you know I need to start learning German and um then I signed up for class and then U then we met in like oh was it fall 2017 or so fall 2017 yeah and I was it was the second semester that was a the uh ta for brother mcdermit yeah it was really cool um and so but yeah like I I know you had like the biggest difficulty picking up the language as well oh man I was I I I love the idea of learning to speak German but I I just you know I'm studying Financial economics language is just not my strong core especially the English language and grammar itself I have difficulty math I'm great at but just yeah it's it's a struggle for me but I have my y yeah that that was that was in my position as well German's like 10 times better as soon as you get back from you know wherever it was that he practice it to um so I guess what kept you motivated to keep up with your German when um when you knew that you were kind of struggling with it at first like what kept you motivated in order to uh to keep it up with it um I I always had to go back to um to especially living in VI um you had to not everybody spoke English and um actually the first lady I interacted with they set me apart from the group and uh she only spoke German and polish and so and there was this om ma this old lady this grandma and uh I was trying to communicate with her and I try to even switch to English she's like kindy English kind English and then and then I was like I really need to crack down and uh so my German's not amazing it's I still have difficulties but I can I can read more I can understand more it's uh sometimes I read it and it's natural um but it's it's a step by step I like the progress that I've made but I can I plan on continuing afterwards of course right so um and so you in and you did that for a um it was pretty much months yeah it was through BYU mhm and you did it for like well is was it an internship or considered an internship as well or okay so tell me about the internship part like what were you able to do there what did they find work for you there definitely so um just kind of explain the BYU program it was a BYU Vienna program so what happened was you got accepted to the program and you go to day school so you go to university of VI and so they taught you German and everything was in German when they taught you you and then uh after that in the afternoon oh no my apology is the way around so they set you with internships according to your degree so I'm studying business or just business oriented and so I worked for a consulting company and in this consulting company they worked with cyber security companies from around Europe um trying to help them start up invest uh presentations and so I was able to work in an environment where there was plenty of German plenty of French plenty of English and there was plenty of Spanish so it was a very diverse area yeah and uh I enjoyed it the people were very um I was I was very surprised how very kind they were to me they were very U willing to teach me new methods or even teach me how to speak the language even more right um yeah and especially me being Mexican they would ask me all the time like oh how's Mexico or like do you feel like an American citizen being a Mexican in America so they would ask me all these questions and uh it was just a good time in general and uh yeah I I don't know if I can say more about that yeah um so what were your thoughts before going to so you went to Austria but you also went to Germany um so what were your thoughts about going to Austria and Germany before you actually went like did you have any expectations before you went there about culture or anything or U what's your take on that so uh definitely I wanted long story short when I was trying to go back to Germany P that's what my goal was to go back to Germany so I can start learning language even more um my goal was Germany but I landed in Vienna which is a sister sister country you call it or sister company whatever you want to call it uh but VI bran on the same tree yeah it's a bran they speak good German they speak a little their accents different um they spoke a different slang a couple actually some of my peers like my colleagues in class would actually said that my German started become more V more more Austrian yeah Austrian German because I'll start using their um their um what's it their ah what is that word their accent yeah okay gotcha yeah yeah um so um do you plan on keeping up with your skills that you learned like so German wise so like language wise U culture wise all that fun stuff do you plan on keeping up with that or um like has it had a super big effect on your life in America or anything like that it actually has um my perspective of Germans and German people like Austria and Switzerland and Germany which is a lot a lot of people do speak German you'd be surprised right it's uh definitely when you learn a new language you open yourself to New World and uh I've been actually been able to the first day I got back from my trip I was going to work I went to this gas station and these people were speaking German and they couldn't communicate to the cash cashier person and so I was able to communicate uh translate for them and um was that in Vegas or that was in Vegas okay no cuz I had the same experience too like so um when I got done with I think my first semester or even like when I got home from Germany in general um I was working at a gas station that's pretty popular because my hometown Kingman goes like Route 66 goes through Kingman of course and so during the summer all the time you get like people who are on vacation from yeah tourist you know I hate using that term but that's pretty much what it was and so all the time I would always get these tourist too and I was lucky I was luckily you know I was a cashier and people came up who were speaking German I was like oh hey yeah I can help you and they're like what no way so were you born in German then or no it's like no man I just spent two years over there um and there's like well you learned really quick I just you you know it wasn't my help it was someone else and so they they definitely do light up when you speak German oh all the time they're like wa and even though you might mess up they're they're at least happy that you're trying I've kind of picked that not everybody's like that but I've noticed that the majority is like you're learning my culture and so I'm willing to they open up a lot faster than anyone else yeah it's it's the same thing for my other job too online because I work with um just like on last Monday I was working with people who work for deche Bank okay and um it was really fun CU they knew that I was American and so they started speaking in English but I always spoke back to them in German um because they're like uh well you understand me better if I speak English I was like but I'm doing my job it's required that I speak German to you and it's just kind of funny that way cuz you know I I still practice like that and it still helps you know it's a more professional matter instead of you know serving a mission over there but that's what it is um you know just just kind of tag on that too like even when I was there and they notice I have an accent they'll start speaking English to me and so what I always always do like kind English Spanish oh really yeah and then I actually I was always like hey I don't speak English I speak Spanish so my D is I'm vessa mhm and then um they would start speaking more German to me because I told him I to speak any English so I was it was always a good way to like cover myself that's a good strategy actually yeah just kind of fool him like that like it's kind of mean but it's actually badire twice actually I had two guys that started speaking to me in Spanish and so I'm just like well I was just like I like well I was like well I'm American I'm from Vegas I'm just trying to learn German and then they switch back to German to me you're always kind though but yeah good people well I mean I you speak Spanish too don't like yeah so that's no problem yeah that was definitely not a problem uh were there any kind of like social norms that you picked up when you were over there so yes there definitely was I remember I was hanging out with some people that were not also from Austria they were from like the chech republic or from Britain and uh they would say like you have you have Austrian friends and I'm just like yeah like do you not have Austrian friends like no they're very like to themselves and I and I kind of saw I think it has to do with the language barrier right so um and I did have the church and I also did have my work where I was working with completely with a bunch of austrians and so that helped me build like a base of social life within their Community but I've noticed that people that are usually strangers or like foreigners usually they don't really integrate that well with the culture unless you speak the language and go to their activities but forever you're kind of a mentality of you're always a tour you're always a foreigner right you never be in Austrian unless you're born raised and from Austrian unless you're bloodborne bloodborn I always caught I caught that Vibe I didn't feel I didn't feel weird because I never wanted to be Austrian a Mexican American you know yeah I love America and um but I did catch that Vibe when I was with them right yeah and so like and socially and like I guess in your habits as well did you pick up any habits that you found that austrians were doing as well yeah definitely uh I think this is more uh European culture in general when you ask someone hey how are you doing M you um you tell them how you're doing you don't you don't bubble it as like most Americans do they kind of just oh like how are you doing I'm doing great great and then you just walk by there I I forgot once I was talking and I was talking to my colleague and another guy came out and I was like U HD and then he grabbed his chair pulled up and started talking to me and so I was I was like oh crap a life story yeah and I was listening to the whole time and he asked me a bunch of questions he's like how much are you making and he started like just like all these personal questions you usually ask someone that you're really good friends with yeah but um that's one thing I liked another thing um that I I admire is that they're very um they're very acceptable for other languages too um so usually in America when you're in public you're like hey speak English where everybody can understand like that there they're just they actually admire you when you speak more than one language they love hearing it they actually want to learn it that's another thing I learned from the austrians I really appreciated it right that's really cool so I mean like um I've never had any experience with austrians too much because I was in Germany and like Northern Germany of course yeah um and so do you think that they are and sorry if anyone listening to this takes offense but do you feel like that they're friendlier than Germans are um or I I personally believe they are friendlier okay I kind of thinking about the experiences I've had uh they are I've it's it's it's just kind of back and forth on this one usually the people are more open they're more because they also there's a lot of political things they they bring out especially as much as like in the in the work field I was they always mentioned politics they had to it was part of the work field I had it too don't worry yeah it's no matter how much you try to avoid it it's it's popular especially how the things are running in the EU new refugees um in all these programs that are happening I believe vien in general is welcoming to um to many foreigners in general but at the same time you can kind of start getting a A vibe of that people like want their own country and their own space to at the same time they're open armed but they also saw that people have abused it and so I've kind of saw that aspect but people are friendly as long as you understand the cultural norms and know how to approach them right and so I guess we go on to a quote that I have here as well and then we'll close it up definitely uh so you want to go ahead and read this quote right here down at the bottom the Germans had all sorts of Virtues such as discipline and hard work but they were Dangerous by tradition and character wow so I mean I I definitely agree with that too they have Virg like they're disciplined they hard work you know yeah um I I picked up for example when I was over there and I talked about this on my last podcast as well the idea of cleanliness and organization you know they're super big on that it's it kind of sucks when especially when you clean something and someone else dirties it and then doesn't clean up after you like you put in so much more hard work and that's what kind of makes you mad at that point and you're just like dude I just clean this and I want it to be clean so that way I don't have to waste time now doing something that I already did later or earlier corre and so that's that's one of the Norms that I picked up over there too and it definitely goes along with discipline hard work as well you know I just want to throw in one thing usually here in the United States when you don't see any cars outside it's late at night people would rock the cross like they would cross the the street without a problem M there you know when they're a German or a local or an austri in general they would stand there until it becomes green even if there's no cars passing by even though it's just 5T away from you or 6 feet away from you they will wait there until that green turns well you know why too cuz it's so heavily fined oh really yeah like you you know that's jwalk doing all the time all the foreigners well I mean so now you know is that so they uh it's a to fine if you if you jaywalk essentially okay here in the United States too but they don't in the states we practically give you like a sop on a RIS you know like over there um I remember especially one time that I forgot my bond pass or whatever the train ticket there we go can't think of a word um move on move on pass and did you ever have those people who were like undercover working on the on the tram oh yeah okay so that happened to me and um I got fined 40o for not having my pass no and I was like dude okay and I like how high the price is so they know that you don't want to do that again yeah so it's a SL really big slap in the wrist exactly that's more of a slap to the face to me in that case instead of slap on the wrist yeah that was a lot of it messed up that I spent so um cool um that's pretty much all I got so Jacob thanks for uh coming and expressing yourself [Music]