Rock and Winston interview each other for our 1st Podcast!

[newlifeinphilippines]

Winston, our stories are kind of similar. Both christian background, both san francisco area, both bullied and alienated in america, both lived in philippines, both had a long term girlfriend from the bar in philippines, and both have been to hookers in america and philippines, and both of us make are money online, both of us are "cheap" minded.

[Winston]

Winston, our stories are kind of similar. Both christian background, both san francisco area, both bullied and alienated in america, both lived in philippines, both had a long term girlfriend from the bar in philippines, and both have been to hookers in america and philippines, and both of us make are money online, both of us are "cheap" minded.

Yeah we have similarities. But my experience and view of Filipinas is much more positive than yours. And you refuse to show your face or identity. Also, Dianne is not a bar girl, as I've explained many times. But I've had some bar girl girlfriends.

Btw everyone, we have some other expat experts here as well who specialize in the Philippines. Here are some interviews with them that Steve Hoca did. They are very informative too.

Interview with Ladislav
http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts/L ... erview.mp3

Interview with Larry Elterman
http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts/L ... erview.mp3

[newlifeinphilippines]

Winston, our stories are kind of similar. Both christian background, both san francisco area, both bullied and alienated in america, both lived in philippines, both had a long term girlfriend from the bar in philippines, and both have been to hookers in america and philippines, and both of us make are money online, both of us are "cheap" minded.

Yeah we have similarities. But my experience and view of Filipinas is much more positive than yours. And you refuse to show your face or identity. Also, Dianne is not a bar girl, as I've explained many times. But I've had some bar girl girlfriends.

Btw everyone, we have some other expat experts here as well who specialize in the Philippines. Here are some interviews with them that Steve Hoca did. They are very informative too.

Interview with Ladislav
http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts/L ... erview.mp3

Interview with Larry Elterman
http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts/L ... erview.mp3

Your voice and personality on audio is different than what i expected.


Also i come from a very strict upbringing like you. I know shes not a bargirl but you know what i mean she worked in that atmosphere and most girls will not. Our personalities are quite different I like to maintain privacy whereas your an open back and our viewpoints on other issues like religion and how we like to enjoy spare time are vastly different but sort of shows how people can have similiar experiences but have different personality still.

[Zionosis]

Winston has a more masculine voice than I imagined. Although even though the western media portray Asian men as having weak voices in my memory from Japan the average man had a deeper voice than white men here from Australia.

Winston is Chinese though but clearly born in the USA from his total American accent.

[Winston]

Updates:

- I made the podcast files with Rock a smaller size by lowering the bitrate. Now they are about half the size they were. Hope that doesn't degrade the quality. It doesn't seem to so far.

- I spent a lot of time today putting up a Podcast file directory on this site that serves as an index of our podcast files. It contains a list of all our podcast files, not just the ones with me, but with Steve Hoca, Mark Davis, and others as well. The files appear as links you can click on and listen to or download. You can browse the file directory at this link:

http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts/

In my experience, IE browser simply downloads the mp3 files. But Google Chrome and Firefox browsers will stream the files directly through the browser.

- The description of each podcast is on the new podcast page here:

http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts.php

I've redirected the interviews.php page to the new page above.

However, I put more podcast files in the directory than are described on the podcast page, so they can be stored for safekeeping and referenced in the future. And also so browsers can play them for fun.

[Winston]

Winston has a more masculine voice than I imagined. Although even though the western media portray Asian men as having weak voices in my memory from Japan the average man had a deeper voice than white men here from Australia.

Winston is Chinese though but clearly born in the USA from his total American accent.

Really? I think I sound geeky, immature and undeveloped, like I didn't finish puberty yet. lol

Rock thinks I sound kind of nerdy. I was surprised that even Repatriate, my big critic, thinks that I sound good on audio and could host more podcasts.

I've managed to reduce my stammering and stuttering at least.

What did you think of Rock's voice? Did he sound like you imagined? What impression did you have of his voice?

Btw, if you like my podcasts, you can listen to more of my interviews on my new podcasts page:

http://www.happierabroad.com/podcasts.php

[johnnyderp]

Great stuff from both of you.

It's funny how we imagine a person's voice/persona based on forum posts, and for some reason I'd imagined Winston like this:



Like the others have said, his spoken words are calm, balanced and insightful, articulating strong controversial opinions without any anger or bitterness. It's a difficult balance to achieve, so very well constructed podcasts for mine.

[Jester]

Heard the first one, where you interview Rock. He is a good guest, very forthcoming. You are a GREAT interviewer, in terms of asking good open-ended questions that get the guest talking.

I enjoyed the 2 hour format, because I listen while working.

But it would be better for your business, more likely to have people sharing the podcasts, if that 2 hours had been broken up into say 5 segments. Or more. 20, 40, or 60 minutes, something like that. You could do that by sorting by topic, OR, you could ask the same questions, but have a separate segment for each country. By topic would be easier.

[Jester]

OK, just listened to the second podcast, where Rock interviews Mr. Wu.

Some observations:

-- Much smoother. Winston was nervous as host, Rock is not.
-- Rock had a plan of attack, an organized format.
-- Winston is a tough guest, he is tough to open up. but Rock does an excellent job of getting him to open up.
-- I learned more from this one personally. The comparisons were helpful. I loved the way that Rock refused to let Winston stick to generalities about America versus other places. Instead Rock forced Winston to compare destinations.
-- Rock talks a little too much for an interviewer.
-- The last few seconds needs to be chopped off.

[Winston]

To all:

Notice that in my interview of Rock, that Rock does not spend any time bashing America or American women. He merely says that he did not fit into American social culture, and leaves it at that. The rest of the time, he focuses on solutions and practical advice.

That's a good attitude to have. It's much more productive. Many of you guys ought to learn from that and try to emulate it. There is definitely too much bashing and ranting on this forum.

You know what's funny? When we talked to Jester on the phone, Jester said that if he were me, he would have something different with the Expat VIP Forum. Instead of creating one Expat board to talk about relevant issues, he would have done the inverse. He would have created one forum for America/AW bashing to contain all that, and made the rest of the forum more focused on relevant solutions and expat life and dating. lol

What do you all think? Would that have been a better idea?

[Winston]

Great stuff from both of you.

It's funny how we imagine a person's voice/persona based on forum posts, and for some reason I'd imagined Winston like this:



Like the others have said, his spoken words are calm, balanced and insightful, articulating strong controversial opinions without any anger or bitterness. It's a difficult balance to achieve, so very well constructed podcasts for mine.

LOL. How come you never listened to my other podcasts before or seen my videos? Then you would have already known what I sounded like. lol. They are easily accessible from the navigation menu at the top of the forum.

Most of my posts here are not angry. Most of them are calm and articulate too. It's just that you only focus on the angry ones. lol

OK, just listened to the second podcast, where Rock interviews Mr. Wu.

Some observations:

-- Much smoother. Winston was nervous as host, Rock is not.
-- Rock had a plan of attack, an organized format.
-- Winston is a tough guest, he is tough to open up. but Rock does an excellent job of getting him to open up.
-- I learned more from this one personally. The comparisons were helpful. I loved the way that Rock refused to let Winston stick to generalities about America versus other places. Instead Rock forced Winston to compare destinations.
-- Rock talks a little too much for an interviewer.
-- The last few seconds needs to be chopped off.

I wasn't nervous. I just overthink things a lot and am too perfectionistic, so my words don't always come out smoothly. Rock didn't attack me. lol. He merely asked some light critical questions to get me to think and clarify things.

How am I a tough guess? I was not evasive in any way. If you had asked me those questions on the forum, I would have answered the same way.

How did you learn more from this one? I didn't really reveal anything new in that interview. The stuff about me and my life are already in my stories and articles on this site. It's just that I did better in talking about them this time because I have more practice now.

Yeah Rock did talk a lot for an interviewer, but he made a lot of good points. He has a nice sounding voice. He sounds down-to-earth, sensible and intelligent. And he comes across as credible. I think he would be great as a regular podcast host.

[Jester]

How am I a tough guess? I was not evasive in any way. If you had asked me those questions on the forum, I would have answered the same way.

How did you learn more from this one? I didn't really reveal anything new in that interview. The stuff about me and my life are already in my stories and articles on this site. It's just that I did better in talking about them this time because I have more practice now.

Yeah Rock did talk a lot for an interviewer, but he made a lot of good points. He has a nice sounding voice. He sounds down-to-earth, sensible and intelligent. And he comes across as credible. I think he would be great as a regular podcast host.

Yes Rock would make a good host.

He was able to pin you down and make you give useful actionable intelligence, instead of just repeating generalities, which is what you kept trying to do. He didn't let you do that.

[eurobrat]

Thanks Mr S.
But you aren't making sense on a lot of points.

First, you forgot to notice that my stuttering was a lot LESS in these recent podcasts. I did stutter a lot before. But there is a big improvement in that area now. Anyone who listens to my podcasts in the past will notice the difference. You failed to for some reason. Even Rock, who is very critical, noticed the big improvement. I stutter much less now. Are you sure you heard our interview? It sounds like you are referring to my interviews years ago.

Deep thinkers and introverts cannot speak as fast as they think or write. So it sometimes comes out as stammering. Deep thinkers also overthink things, which slows down our speech as well.

Second, I don't see how you could say that the interview is scattered and not focused. ALL my questions were VERY relevant and ON TOPIC. How did we jump around? That doesn't make sense. All interviews do the same.

Third, why should I have a more energetic voice? This is a serious authentic discussion, not an entertainment show. Your voice is not energetic either. Your voice is solemn and serious and with no bull. Why would you cite that as a flaw? Content is king here. I would like to see you try to do better. How about we interview you?

Fourth, the interviews you do are for students taking an English exam. That is totally different than a radio show or podcast show. Come on now.

The discussion was not circular at all. The same questions were repeated maybe once or twice, but not much.

You have a point about the sound though. The smart phone was closer to me, and Rock didn't speak up. But he did speak louder in the second interview though. And in the second interview, the phone was placed the same distance between us.

Yes a round table discussion would be great. Maybe we could have Rock, Ladislav, Jester and Mr S. But too many people talking could get too confusing though, as the listeners would not know who is who. lol

Maybe three people at the most.

Would you be interested in doing one over Skype? We just have to find a way to record Skype conversations. I could use my smart phone for that of course, but the sound may be inconsistent. I'd just have to hold it close to the computer speaker.

There were a few things I disagreed with Rock on and a lot of other things I did agree with him on. I could have easily challenged a few things he said

Also I don't understand why you guys go back to America for short breaks from Asia. Is Asia that chaotic? Because honestly living here in Europe I never have the craving to go home, actually I find Europe way more laid back than living in the US. I just don'e understand why you guys get together in the US just to say how much you miss Asia

Winston you could do a 3-4 person Skype interview as long as you structure the call right and everyone has proper time allotment. There's a lot of free Skype audio recorders like this one http://www.ifree-recorder.com

Winston I could write up a good one that me and you could do and make it very interesting for the viewers. I could segment it based on my experiences here in Europe.

Maybe something like this:

1) Introduction
2) Life in Europe vs. Life in America

Subsections:
- Emigrating to Europe
- Lifestyle
- Cost of living
- Culture & People
- Dating culture
- European problems vs American problems
- Wrap up

3) Life in Italy vs. Life in Germany

Subsections:
- Jobs
- Cost of living
- Food
- Culture
- Dating
- Southern Europe vs Northern Europe wrap up
- Bonus: Travel to Eastern bloc countries*

4) Happier Abroad vs. Other website solutions

[Winston]

Eurobrat,
Well I thought Rock made a lot of sense and was very realistic. He asked some critical questions, but he did not make any claims. What did you disagree with him on exactly?

We already explained to you why we go back to America. Rock goes back to see his parents. He is close to his parents, not like most white American families are. I go back to the USA to see nature and because I miss the big portions in restaurants and the clean air. The US is unparalleled when it comes to nature and national parks.

Some people get homesick after traveling a while too. You gotta understand that. The grass is always greener on the other side. If you don't travel, you itch for adventure and being on the move. If you travel a lot, you miss home. That's how it is.

Yeah my friend Robert in Prague also never came back to the US since we were together in Poland. His mom visits him there.

Thanks for the link to the free Skype recorder. I downloaded it and tested it. It worked great. I can now do podcasts with it.

Yeah your outline looks great. But it doesn't have to be that structured. If you take it seriously, you won't relax and will sound stiff. You know what I mean? Don't focus on the structure too much.

We can use your outline as a guideline. But we don't have to stick to it strictly. We should let the interview flow.

[Banano]

There is too much talk about Asia and PI on this site, HA is about variety

Rock can tell us about DR and other South American countries and how they compare to other places

Cover things like cost of living, girls, p4p, safety, etc


I can understand Australians love SEA due to its proximity, girls and cheap tickets but if i was American I would definitely chose Caribbean and LA over Asia. Latinas have better bodies, faces, different shapes and colors, more intellectual and it is few hours away.

Thai and Filipina girls are like a cheap vanila ice cream you buy in your local supermarket, it doesn't taste good from the start and you get bored after 1 or 2 days. Am i the only one feeling this way?