Hey, everyone.
About a week ago, I celebrated my third anniversary as a YouTuber.
And now I'm going to answer some of the more than 5,000 questions you guys asked me.
But I'd rather shoot outside,
This'll do.
Let's do this.
I wasn't happy to see that happen, but at the same time,
there's a weird thing about having subscribers, followers, or fans or whatever,
which is you don't know who they are, and you also don't know how dedicated they are
to your channel or your content or whatever.
Maybe they love you and watch every video,
or maybe they're just kind of a casual viewer who watches one video out of every five.
You don't know.
And then if you're losing people, you don't know which kind you're losing.
A long time ago, the comedian Bill Hicks said this:
I try to look at it the same way.
If someone decides they don't want to watch my videos anymore . . .
okay, that's fine.
You know, I'm thinking I might make a video about that.
It's really a great story.
I've seen this question a bunch of times.
I don't really want to say. I'd rather keep his name private.
You know, I've seen this question so many times, and I just want to tell you guys . . .
babies don't have to learn one language first. They can learn two at the same time.
In the case of my baby, I speak English to him,
my wife speaks Vietnamese to him,
and she and I usually speak Vietnamese together.
So he's getting both languages.
He's both actually. He got his US passport just a few weeks ago.
I hope so, but I think he probably will.
Well, I haven't been everywhere, but my favorite so far is Ha Giang. Beautiful place.
The most hypocritical thing, I'm not totally sure, but one hypocritical things is
a lot of people who make a big show of how much they love Vietnam,
while simultaneously throwing trash everywhere.
Like in the trip that I made to Ha Giang with my wife a few years ago,
we stopped in this one forested area. Looks really nice in the photo, right?
But the thing you can't see is all of the garbage left on the ground by picnickers.
And a lot of those picnickers had their Vietnam shirts, and Vietnam stickers on their helmets,
and Vietnamese flags on their bikes.
It's kind of like, "Wow, you're so busy loving your country that you can't even take the time to keep it clean."
Now, don't get me wrong, that same hypocrisy exists in other countries, too,
including my own, to some extent.
But it seems particularly strong in Vietnam.
Yes, all the time.
Well, go ahead and say "hello,"
but keep in mind that you're a stranger to me,
and I might be busy, I might be stressed out about something, I might be just in a bad mood,
so I can't promise you that I'm going to be super warm and friendly,
or that I'm going to take the time to talk to you or take a photo with you.
Well, I really don't think that it has.
First of all, keep in mind, I'm not that famous.
A lot of people know who I am, but I'm not living some kind of glamorous star's lifestyle.
I still ride the same Honda Wave that I had before I was a YouTuber,
I'm still living in the same apartment.
I don't think that any of my friends or family would look at me now and say,
"Oh, fame has changed him. He's not the way he used to be."
Some commenters online have said:
That's not true at all. I've always been an asshole.
A bit of an asshole, not a complete one.
Okay, there were a number of questions about Elight.
If you're totally bored of that whole saga, you can skip to this timecode in the video.
So, to answer your question. They did contact me once. Or, they tried to.
After I made the video in August with my parents,
they sent a message to a mutual acquaintance, and then the mutual acquantaince told me
that Trang wanted to, like, talk to me,
and maybe appear in a video with me to discuss and explain the mistakes that they made in their videos.
It wasn't really clear to me, and I said, "You know what?
They've got their own YouTube channel, and their own Facebook pages.
They can respond to this however they want.
But I'm not going to appear in a video with Trang in order to, like absolve them of their mistakes."
Well, it's really just that Elight's mistakes and dishonesty were so public.
In the case of the first video that I made in August,
I didn't set out trying to focus on them. It was just that I found the most mistakes in their videos.
In the case of the copyright thing with Hotra back in January,
I didn't go looking for something that Elight was doing. I just stumbled upon it.
And in the case of the book, you know,
it's a public book which they promoted heavily on Facebook.
Anyone else could have looked into it.
I think that with a lot of other centers that make mistakes or aren't totally honest,
those things are sort of more private, like in the classroom,
so it would be hard for someone like me to really look into it.
It took a long time, but, you know, all of my videos take a long time to make.
I think that one maybe took about 10 hours more than usual.
Well, my kid is too young to be eating it yet,
my wife likes it, and my parents don't.
I've found very few Westerners who like boiled chicken.
Yeah, one of them is pho.
I think it's all right, but it's a bit weird to me how it's often held up as, like . . .
the crown jewel of Vietnamese cuisine
when I think there are loads of noodle soups that are so much better.
Pho is okay, but to me it's just not that special.
No, I have never tried it. I'm way too scared.
In this video, I actually faked it.
I inhaled smoke from a cigarette and then pretended to be blowing it out from a thuoc lao.
Let's see, I was a big fan of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas,
the first two Halo games,
Metroid Prime games,
Zelda games,
Mario Games,
and Jak and Daxter.
Well, most of them come from things that happen in my classes,
maybe a question that a student asks, or something that I see my students struggling with,
and then I'll think to myself . . .
"Hmm, that could make a good video."
To answer this question, I'm going to steal something that CGP Grey said a long time ago:
There's really no better advice than that.
There isn't a formula that you can follow to be successful.
Also, even those of us who have had success on YouTube,
we know that our success isn't guaranteed.
Each video that I make, I hope people will want to watch it, but there's no guarantee.
Yeah, I have thought about making videos in English with the hope of reaching, like, an international audience.
But I don't really know what kind of videos I would make.
Just comedy videos? I think I could, but I don't know if I would feel very motivated to do that.
Making videos like CGP Grey, and explaining complicated topics?
I don't know if I would really have the dedication to do all the research that goes into those.
The videos that I've enjoyed making the most are the ones that require the least preparation,
like my Hanoi video.
That one, I kind of got to just kind of grab my camera and go out and shoot stuff.
That was a lot of fun to do.
That is a great question.
I would have to say I see myself as more of a YouTuber.
I love teaching English, and I find a lot of meaning in it,
but if someone told me that I had to choose one,
and I couldn't do the other one ever again,
I would choose YouTube.
Although not necessarily YouTube.
There will come a time when I stop making videos on YouTube.
Who knows, it could be relatively soon,
but I still want to continue making videos in some way.
The thing that's kept me committed is just that I love making videos, the whole process of it,
so I really haven't felt like giving up.
Like I said before, I have thought about making videos that aren't related to English,
I've thought about making videos not for YouTube,
but I still want to make videos in some way.
I learned entirely from experience.
If you don't believe me, go watch some of my early videos and see how bad they are.
I didn't delete it. It's just unlisted,
so if you have a link to the video, you can watch it.
I think his pronunciation is great.
Not 100% perfect, but outstanding.
Well, yeah, I mentioned in my video last year that my favorite was Every Frame a Painting,
but they're no longer making videos.
I think my new favorite is You Suck at Cooking.
It's probably the most inventive channel on YouTube.
And if you want to know any other YouTube channels I like, you can go to my channel page
and look at "Some stuff I like" on the right.
A few of my favorites are Todd Barry, Louis CK, and Norm MacDonald,
but I think my very favorite is a guy who, very sadly, died a number of years ago,
and that's Patrice O'Neal.
Savagely funny guy.
Uh, sure. For those of you who don't remember, my hometown is called Spokane, WA,
and every June, Spokane is home to Hoopfest, the largest 3-on3 basketball tournament in the world.
That's an easy one to answer: the outdoors.
Vietnam does have some beautiful landscapes, but sadly, they're often not very well taken care of.
And, most of all, the opportunities for independent outdoor recreation are very limited.
Where I lived before I came to Hanoi, in Bellingham, WA,
oh my god, you could just go out and go cycling, hiking, swimming, paddling, whatever.
Like, take a look at this picture from 2010.
My friend and I went up there on a day trip.
We woke up in Bellingham, drove up there, hiked to the top of the ridge,
and then we were back in Bellingham by late afternoon.
We didn't have to hire a guide or pay some big fee,
we just decided to go, and we went.
Yes, I really read all of them, and it took several hours.
No, I am not.
No, I cannot.
Waffles, no question.
About Vietnamese people specifically, I don't think there are any.
Most Americans just don't know enough Vietnamese people to be stereotyping about them.
But about Asians in general, the two most common stereotypes are that they're good at math
and not very good at driving.
And after five years in Vietnam, I have to say that I find quite a bit of truth in both of those stereotypes.
Most of all, I just find them more feminine than girls where I'm from.
Well, you know, I'm living in Hanoi—
that's the Red River behind me—
so I can definitely tell if someone's not from the North.
But when it comes to differentiating Central and Southern . . .
I think I can do it sometimes, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Yeah, I've made some things like mackerel with tomato sauce,
crispy fried pork belly,
uh, I don't know, some others, braised beef with cinnamon.
My mom taught me how to cook when I was pretty young,
uh, and most Vietnamese dishes aren't really that hard to learn.
Franchise?
I don't know, he's a great character.
Yeah, that phone belongs to my wife.
I'm still using a stupid little brick phone.
Well, the thing about using a car is you have to buy one first.
No, but I do have a Vietnamese motorbike driver's license.
Read.
That's the best way to improve your vocabulary in any language, including your native language.
At the moment, I'm reading "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" in Vietnamese.
It's a good choice. It's not too easy, not too difficult.
Well, I'm sure it's harder for non-native speakers than it is for native speakers, but it's not impossible.
I've known quite a few non-native speakers who have CELTAs.
So if you try for it, good luck.
I started losing my hair when I was 19.
It didn't happen very fast at first, but still, it kind of made me depressed in the beginning.
After about six months, though, I kind of just said, "Fuck it," you know?
I buzzed my hair really short, just like I do now,
and after that I tried to just not think about it and move on.
So my tips for a balding teenager are cut your hair short or shave it off entirely,
and just try not to think about it.
If you're worried about not being attractive to women, don't!
Women do like handsome guys, and some women don't find bald heads very handsome,
but appearance is not that important to women.
They are far more concerned with things like a guy who's got a decent job,
a guy who's got a bit of money,
a guy who's got talents and skills,
a guy who's responsible, and most of all,
a guy who's confident in himself.
If you have those good qualities as a human being, there will still be lots of women who like you.
Yes.