Hello, everybody! This is Jack and Kate
from tofluency.com and we are back with
a conversation about the future so we're
going to talk about the future we're
going to look at some predictions as
well, discuss those different topics and
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it's a great way for you to practice
your listening and to learn new words
and phrases and I'll list those words
and phrases in the description. So, Kate and
Emma, welcome! Thank you! Are you optimistic for the
future. So, I would probably say that
I am,
well, you know me. Yeah. I'm kind of a
pessimist
yes. I try not to be but I can
usually see what could go wrong and I
worry about things sometimes but I think
overall actually when I think about the
future in a big way, I'm pretty
optimistic about it.
Yeah. What about you? I I think
I'm an optimist. Sometimes, it's
difficult when you read the news when
you just read some articles and they
talk about all the bad things that could
happen, you start panic you start to
worry about the future - things like
energy and transportation and food all
kind of resources as well like drinking
water
yeah - in in the developed world
and it's just... sometimes you can feel really
down about it but on the other hand
yeah I'm of the opinion that you can
shape your own future within reason
especially if you live in a place like
America. Yeah, definitely. There are
great opportunities. I feel like right
now it is it is harder to be optimistic
about the future especially in our
country just because the things that
have really given me so many
opportunities like public education and
i went to a public school for elementary
school and for college you know our are
in danger right now really in terms of
getting funding and that's that's kind
of a strange thing to consider
and hopefully you know we have a baby
here she'll be able to have the same
opportunities and the same future and
resources that that we've been able to
have. Yeah, I think having children really
makes you think more about the future
it makes you think about what's going
to happen and what you can do as well to
build a better future because I know
when we were in our twenties, we were
just traveling living in the moment all the time,
we didn't really think about the future
that much - we didn't think about
saving for the future
no - saving for retirement - no - that still
seems like a strange concept to
consider - it does, yeah, I've definitely
started thinking about that recently. Yes.
But what are your hopes for the future?
What you want to get out of what's going
to come? Do you mean personally? Yeah, personally. So,
I think that personally I would like to
just be able to learn more like I want I
want to learn more languages i want to
learn my entire life and so I don't know
that would mean going back to school in
a former way or just continuing to learn
little things and more about the things
that I like to do, like, I enjoy cooking
and I would like to be a better Baker
and to learn about that and I would love
to learn more languages and be
able to travel and get to practice them
That's great, yeah. How about you?
well, just to go - just to talk about
learning and I really got this like
thirst for learning - desire to learn stuff -
after University. Yes! I think that's pretty common.
me too!
it wasn't that I wasn't learning at
university but I like, you know,
academics and academia can be kind of a
bubble like you're in it and it just
seems like you're going to classes, you're
taking tests, but you don't really get
the big picture and then once you get
outside of that and you see the big
picture you go: wait! I wish i could just dive
back in and you know learn these things
because they're not trying to like play
the system to get a degree
really
thinking about you know what you want to
know yeah definitely and I think you
know we're going to talk about some
predictions for the future
one of them is education. What is education
going to be like? Is it all going to be
online? is it going to be formal in
universities - it's going to be interesting to
see what happens but yeah my hopes for
the future and... it's really great
that you brought that up you know just to
continue learning - a a lot of what
we focus on right now is our children and
what their future's gonna be, but I think for
me just to keep growing - to keep feeling
enthusiastic about my goals and you know
and what I want to achieve and just to have
that energy to want to improve in all
areas
yeah, absolutely, because, you know, I think it's a great
[baby speaking] she's telling us
about her goals too.I think I
would also like to - I know that we've
talked about this in other episodes but
I want to keep traveling too. I want to... I want to
want to spend at least another year of
our life living outside of the United
States and England and I'd love to take
you know at least a trip every year
where we're going somewhere new too.
definitely definitely. So, yeah, travel continue
learning and then where do you see
yourself in 10 years that's a really
good question
well obviously I'm going to have a new
world famous novel published
yes naturally and probably my own
cooking show just so you know put it out
there and and I don't know maybe I'll
also be a world-famous artist so right
so, small goals. Small goals.
step-by-step, but
you've wanted to write a novel for
a long time. Do you see yourself
writing one in the next ten years?
I think so yeah it's hard to imagine me
doing anything big and ambitious right
now and just because it's every day and
every night you know just taking care of
Thomas and Emma - our kids - and right now Miss
Emma the baby is getting teeth and so
she's awake at night so it's hard to
really imagine doing something so
ambitious but i think that i think i do
want to get there - yeah, once things settle down a little bit and you can throw
yourself into it
yeah absolutely and they say that
having kids is the longest shortest time
of your life so while we're talking
about time in the future I feel like
time has been going so much faster in
general since Emma and Thomas came into our
lives like every year every month every
week even just flies by
but then there are some hours that are
incredibly long - yeah really really long
really long hours, especially when we're
sick. Oh, yeah, which we've also talked about
I'll leave a link to that conversation
in the description if you're
watching on YouTube and should we talk
about these predictions? Yes! I want to
hear what the predictions are.
I'm pretty excited about this. You seem very excited.
Very excited! because there was an
article i came across which talks about
I think it was like 15 reasons to be
optimistic for the future
ok I'm an optimistic person, I feel
like we should look at it from a more
optimistic angle
yes, and I've just written down three. And one of them
might not be a positive one and we
might go into a bit of a conversation
ok - but firstly and this is for 2020
ok so not that far away no well when I
read it when it said 2020 I thought: oh, wow
that's really far in the future but then
I realized it's not it's really not - it's three
years from now - the first one
self driving and flying cars
okay so are we gonna talk about whether
we think that there is going to be true or not?
yeah okay and and what you think about
them too if you think it's positive
thing. If it's a positive thing.
this is tough. Do you want me to start? Yes because I
think self-driving cars that whole
concept is going to be incredible yeah
and I know a lot of people when they
talk about it they say oh my i want to
be able to drive i'm not one of those
people
yeah I want to be able to just get in a
car and it just goes wherever you
want it to go. Yeah. I think one of the
most amazing things that people don't
think about is that is going to solve the
parking problem
oh yeah. Because you don't have to get in
the same car it's going to be like uber
but basically just a self-driving car.
So you wouldn't have your
own car? No. So, everyone would
have... well, I think people would have
their own cars uh-huh - but I think this idea
of of there being a fleet of cars that
service a certain city or an area and when
you push a button, it picks you up
- this hurts my brain! - and it drives you
somewhere - straight to the door
yeah - just like Uber, but then it just goes and gets
the next person so I'm wondering because
having a car and driving places is a really
big part of American culture
exactly - and I feel like we you know you
are from the UK and we've lived other
places and driving just hasn't been that big
deal you - like in Spain - we didn't even have a car in Spain
Yeah, in Spain from our experience anyway, a
lot of people relied on public transport
yeah - we certainly did.
think though that people would take convenience the
convenience and cost. It's going to be
cheaper- how's it gonna be cheaper?
because it's like you're sharing cars.
uh-huh and also a lot of these cars
are going to be - this is another
prediction - but electric uh-huh solar panels
you know
yeah solar powered - you think by
2020? I think self-driving cars could
just explode any moment
ok I'm not literally. No - that's really funny.
yeah not, no. No. Otherwise people won't
drive them. But what I mean by that is that
they will become really popular at any
moment - I think it could just happen
like that really quickly one day
and now, you talked about the
self-driving and i agree with you I
think that that there will be more and
more of that - that they'll just be safer and
more common but to be honest the whole
flying car business even though this was
something that we dreamed about and when you see
any science fiction movie like the Fifth
Element there are cars flying all over
a cityscape I just don't see flying
cars as being that necessary or that safe
well cool is one cool i mean definitely
cool convenient as well if they can fly
let's say 500 miles where you don't have
to deal with roads and traffic
well isn't that just like an airplane. Well, I know
but the idea is that you are in your own car
and then you fly and then you drive. Kind of
like your own airplane? Well, then when
you land, you can still drive.
Kind of like an airplane? Okay...
how many airplanes do you see going down
downtown Asheville? Fair enough. But then you
still need places to land these
airplanes and airplanes can be very
dangerous especially the little ones.
I'm gonna go ahead and say as a pessimist
I don't really see
a future for for driving or flying cars. For
flying cars. I think it's one of those
things that people talk about and one of
the number one things that people talk
about when predicting the future but
practically you know there's a lot to
work out there. I feel with self-driving cars
it's going to happen
it's going to happen yeah but flying
cars within you know the next to you
three to take 5-10 years - flying
cars seem a long way off. So, flying cars seem
like they're a ways off, I mean that's
that is what people do dream about with the
future at least
we did when we were little having jet packs
that would just zoom you around
personally and flying cars but but honestly
i think that the logistics of it would
be harder than okay well I feel like we
did not really well - the last one
yeah and we could talk about this
for hours but talking about bio fuels
renewable energy competing with fossil
fuels and there's one thing I wanted to
talk about well with TESLA where and how
what's the.. it's like they've got the solar panel roofing
the tiles get which can power the
entire house - by 2020 they're saying biofuels
and solar energy etc might compete with
fossil fuels i think that
that's definitely a prediction that I
would agree with because it just seems
to be clearly the way to go in the
future
yeah you know that it will cost less
over the long term using renewable
resources will be better for everyone
better for us to just the quality of the
air that we breathe and the environment
yes so I think that's kind of a
no-brainer yeah like I didn't I knew
that there are a lot of countries that
are doing a really great job already
with renewable resources and I think
that we're gonna get there
yeah there's a big barrier against it isn't
there? There's like a... what's a good word to use
resistance resistance against it by
powerful people to try and stop this
from happening but it just seems like
it's going that way more and more yeah
it's it seems like it's inevitable
yeah definitely but I mean but again
that's something that that seems really
uncertain right now just with
the political climate in our country
yeah can do this yeah I'm but then i
guess it once it becomes financially
viable - yes - and a cheap option for people
then that's what it really does change
absolutely and it doesn't need that
boost from the government, it doesn't need
subsidizing - it can just
go ahead yeah on its own accord.
absolutely yeah - well, we've reached
that time - already? - the best time of the
whole conversation
yes Katie asks the question - off the
cuff - off the cuff! -
so what is your question today? My
question is: are you optimistic or
pessimistic about the future? And what
kind of predictions do you have about
your life and about the world?
yeah in 2020 and beyond. I like that
yeah so predictions and if you're
optimistic or pessimistic again if you
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we'll see you in the next conversation
thank you, bye. Bye Bye!