Do you hear anything strange in my voice?
I'm sick.
Don't worry, it's just a cold.
By the time I post this video, it probably will have gone already.
As you guys know, being sick is really boring.
You can't go to work or go out to play like usual.
And right now my voice isn't very good, so I can't make a normal video, either.
However, I'm going to take advantage of my circumstances
and teach you guys a bit about illness in English.
But, you know, when I'm sick my brain doesn't work very well.
I'm going to speak English to make things easy for me,
and you guys can turn on the Vietnamese subtitles if necessary.
So first, I want to mention something that we often talk about in English,
but it seems like people don't talk about much in Vietnamese, which is "getting sick."
I don't even know what you would say in Vietnamese.
"Starting to be sick."
"Becoming sick."
"About to be sick."
Anyway,
getting sick is the period of time where you're starting to feel some symptoms,
but they're not really strong yet.
So, for example, on the first day you might say:
And then the next day you might say:
And then the day after that you might say:
And at that point, you basically feel like shit.
Yeah, in my "shit" video a month ago, I didn't mention the phrase "feel like shit,"
but we use it all the time to talk about being sick.
I think the meaning of that phrase is pretty obvious.
Now, I'm sure you all know the symptoms of a cold in English.
Wait, what?
Guys, take a minute. Write this down.
This word is pronounced /eɪk/.
Just like the word "make," but without the "m."
And then one more symptom that maybe you guys don't know in English is ngạt mũi.
For that we would say:
When we use "stuff" as a verb,
it means to pack something really tightly inside something else.
So we say "my nose feels stuffed up"
because it feels like someone packed a bunch of cotton or something up in there.
Of course, even though your nose feels stuffed up, there's still a bunch of fluid flowing out of it.
In English, we call that fluid "snot."
And then that fluid in your throat?
We call that "phlegm."
Oh, and if your snot dries up into little hard chunks,
we call those "boogers."
While we're on the subject of the nose, I want to mention something about sneezing.
Unlike in Vietnam,
in English-speaking countries, it's usually considered polite to respond to someone else's sneeze
with the phrase "Bless you!"
Now, that phrase has religious origins,
but no one really thinks about what it truly means anymore.
It's just something we say.
Seriously, try it the next time you're around an English-speaking person who sneezes.
They'll probably say something like:
Anyway, enough about the symptoms.
Let's talk about how to deal with them.
You could take medicine—
pay attention to that, "take medicine," not "drink medicine"—
but the thing is, if you have a cold or the flu, that's caused by a virus,
and medicine can't get rid of a virus,
only your own immune system can.
Plus, most medicines have side effects,
like dry mouth, muscle aches, or drowsiness.
"Drowsy" is a special adjective we use for that sleepy, stupid feeling you get from some medicines.
Or, if you want a cooler way to talk about it, you can use the phrase "out of it,"
which kind of means, like, your brain isn't working properly.
Me? I never take medicine for a cold.
I stick to things like ginger tea with honey,
a nose rinse with a neti pot,
a salt water gargle,
or "cháo gà,"
which in English we would call "rice porridge with chicken."
All of those things together, we call "home remedies."
And one more home remedy that we use in English-speaking countries,
but don't really have an exact word for is "xông hơi."
In English we would probably call it "breathing steam"
or "having a steam."
I don't really know.
So all of those home remedies help you feel more comfortable,
but, you know, the most important thing when you're sick is just to get enough sleep
and to stay hydrated.
And then you'll experience something which is the opposite of "getting sick," which is "getting better."
That's when you still feel sick, but less sick.
So, for example, at first you might say:
And then the next day you might say:
And then the day after that you might say:
So, yeah, I'll see you guys again once I'm better.