 Hi everyone, and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade and this is Adam Navas. Hi Adam. Hello. How are you? I'm pretty good. And we are here to have a conversation about the Spotlight Program, the Spanish Siesta. And that is a really fun program to me. Before we talk about that program, I wanted to remind you that you can become a Spotlight English member by, if you're on YouTube, you can click on Join below and you can learn more about becoming a member there, where you can get scripts, PDF scripts delivered right to you, any of our scripts in our whole library of programs. You can see special videos, you can get special videos from Adam and I and other really great perks. And the other opportunity we have for you is our scripts by email, which is a subscription, where you get our script and the link to the program every week. Every Monday, you start out with the script, it's a great opportunity for practice. I think it's the cheapest English practice curriculum that you can possibly get. And of course you're learning about all sorts of things all around the world in an easy English method. So those are two ways that you can join us, you can support us in your English journey and us helping out, giving you resources and things like that. And yeah, I think I got all of them. Yeah, I think so. Make sure if you're watching this on YouTube that you click like this video, subscribe that really helps out our algorithm, more people can see us. And Adam, let's get to this program. Yeah, this is a fun program. We have several, I think there's other programs about sleep if I'm not mistaken. But I love them all. Because this is really about sleep and work. Yes. And that's what I was going to say, I love about them is because sleep is something that I think a lot of people take for granted. Like it's something they have to do, but it takes away from life. Yeah, well okay, so if you haven't seen this script already, you can find it on our website at spotlightenglish.com or you can watch it on YouTube and that's a great way to follow along and also learn more about this topic. But basically this script is about Spain's siesta. It's a sleep tradition there and people have been asking for years, should that tradition change? Right. A siesta is a sort of nap or a rest time in the afternoon and many, well Spain still does the traditional siesta. But people are asking should we take away that time, should we go to a more typical work day? Should we change our time zone? All of these questions and so this program really goes into a lot of those questions. Yeah, it doesn't answer them because well it's not really up to us to solve that problem. But it's an interesting thing to think about I think. It is an interesting thing to think about and I think that a lot of people who could have listened to this program might think about some of the unique aspects of their own culture that seem to be normal in their country, we'll just use country, but maybe from the outside people are like oh this is not normal right, we called it a typical or a normal work day but for people who live in Spain that's normal. So if I can, I'd like to start here because I think that part of this let's say problem or issue starts with the fact that Spain has a different, it's in a different time zone than the countries around it. Which I think is first of all a very interesting issue to have because then you know you're in the UK say, which is directly above Spain, I know the earth is round and all of those things but it's above Spain, but Spain is in a different time zone so that it's an hour off. Now what is it? It's an hour, oh what is it? It goes otherwise. It would be an hour earlier. So they're doing things later than people in their time zone, so one of the quotes talks about like you know we're going by the sun and the sun is at like one o'clock and we're actually eating lunch at three o'clock on the clock. Which first of all must be a very interesting way to live, don't you think? Yeah, I think it is, you know anytime there's a difference whether it's when you eat a meal or when you start working or stop working, excuse me, or even I know that you and I have had conversations about how much vacation people get, what your country holidays, some countries have a lot more national holidays where the country shuts down than say the United States which has, I don't know, we have not very many, and even when they do shut down it's not the whole country. Well this time zone thing, we have a program about time zones which is actually, you know you think time zones, this sounds like a very boring subject, but it is actually pretty interesting and one of the things that I learned in that program is that China has one time zone. It's as big as the United States which has four time zones, not including Alaska and Hawaii. So the US has the lower contiguous states, has four time zones, and China which is as big has one time zone. So I wonder if, I mean that's a similar situation to me where like you know some of the people in China are experiencing like the sun in the sky and the actual time on the clock in a very different way. It's got to be similar to what people in Spain are experiencing. If you're watching this in Spain, like how does that feel to you? Does it feel normal or does it feel strange? Do you feel like we have no idea what we're talking about? You're like this is not a big deal, we just, we live our lives, it's fine. Let us know in the comments. Yeah, that's probably it. So okay, so there's this issue of the one hour off. And then the work day as well has to do with that, right? So a typical US work day, let's say, what would you say? It's maybe like 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.? Well, the phrase is nine to five. Like that's the, if you might hear that on a TV show, I got to work mine, nine to five. Yeah, nine to five. People mean when they're like, oh, it's just a job. I show up at one point, I leave at one point, and I just work in between. But there is some flex in that 8.30, you know, starting around that time, ending around that time. Yeah, it's a pretty set, fairly rigid work day, I would say. With no breaks. I mean, some people take a lunch break, some people eat lunch at their work station, at their desk. Of course, a lot of that is changing now over the last year or so with remote work. Yeah, with COVID. But there's definitely not, it's not encouraged to sleep at your desk or to go home and rest. That is seen as a bad thing if you're not in the office or wherever, whatever kind of job you have doing that. But in Spain, and I guess we should touch on this, why the siesta became a tradition was because it was from a time when Spain, a lot of people worked in the fields. They were agricultural. So it was very hot in the middle of the day. And so they would get out from the sun and they would take a rest and then work during cooler times of the day. And that made sense when the country was primarily farmers and field workers. But it has become part of the culture. And the question is, is it still a good thing? There's a case to be made that it continues to be a good thing. Yeah, I was just going to say, I do think it's kind of a lovely tradition on its face, just looking at it. A tradition where your rest is built into your day or your time for maybe if you want to meet friends for a meal or if you want to go run your errands where you have to pick up groceries or whatever. Right. But of course, all the people at the grocery store would be shut too. Oh yeah. I guess that's true. In the program, it does say people run errands. Maybe that means it's more like, I don't know, or I mean, grocery stores maybe might be different. I don't know. Although I have been to Spain a few times and it is true that everything does shut down during siesta time. Maybe not everything, but many, many things. You cannot go wherever you want during the siesta time. Right. I like the thing, and this is, I think, what you're kind of touching on is this sense of like, we all know we should be sleeping a little more. We all know that we can't go, go, go, go all day. But you almost need everyone at your company or everyone in your city or everyone in your country like in Spain to say, you know what, let's do this together. Let's all value something other than work. Everybody, we need everybody to rest at the same time. And you know, and when we, you know, as we've marched through a global pandemic, we know the value of everybody working together towards something or lack thereof, as the case may be. And so I was, I really like this idea of, yeah, everyone valuing. I don't know if I lived in Spain, or if there are people in Spain who are like, I really don't like the siesta. Yeah. I mean, there's got to be some. There's always somebody, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do think it's a very difficult thing for me to wrap my mind around. Right. But I do, we have programs about like how rest is good for people. Like we have a program about sabbaticals, right? Right. And like how it's so important to give your mind a rest, not only because you need rest like for your body physically, but you also, that rest is good for your mind and your thinking. Yeah. So Liz, let me ask you, do you enjoy a midday nap? No, I would never, ever take a nap in the middle of the day. What? If I take a nap in the middle of the day, it's because I am sick. Now tell me, are you just not good at it, or do you like principally, you in your heart are opposed to it? I think that it, for me, and I sometimes, you know, when you say things that seem like judgments, people can take offense and say, oh, that person is talking about me because I take naps in the middle of the day. And this is not for me. If Liz offends you, please put it in the comments. For me, I feel like if I take a nap in the middle of the day, I am wasting my time. Oh, interesting. Now, I take other breaks in the middle of the day. And you don't feel like that's wasting. Yeah. I might take a small walk outside or, you know, go down, go make my lunch and just take a longer time doing that to give my mind a break. But taking a nap, I don't think I would do. See, I am the opposite. I was just going to say, I know you're the opposite. I am, and I know some people don't like to nap because if they fall asleep, they need to sleep for a long time or they wake up and they're all, and this is a fun English word, groggy, which means kind of you're awake, but you have a hard time being awake. Yeah, you can't concentrate. For me, I will fall asleep and I will sleep from 10 to 15 minutes and wake up and feel great. Like, my brain will have, like, slushed out all the feelings and thoughts and I wake up feeling so much better. And it's only a short little thing. I don't know if that would count as a siesta. I don't know. I mean, if you're talking, like, strictly naps, I mean, I love this example in the program, actually, of the program, are the study at NASA and about how pilots were something like 100% more physiologically ready to fly a plane. I mean, so I mean, there are benefits, studied benefits to taking a nap. Maybe you're doing it the right way. Well, and I bet there's a factor of how much we're sleeping overnight, too. Yeah, that's true. If you're getting enough sleep, maybe a nap isn't necessary. Maybe if you're not, it is more necessary and more beneficial to taking a nap. So I would say let us know in the comments below whether you are a napper. If you like the idea of sleeping during the day or if you're like Liz and it just doesn't appeal to you, you feel like you're wasting time or how you like to rest. Because we all need breaks in our day from the things that we have to do. Yeah, what's your break like? What's your break like? How do you celebrate? How do you re-energize and find that break? Where you can not work. Yeah, so I think this has been a great conversation. And I think if you have not found us on social media, we're on social media, wherever you want, Facebook, Instagram, the Twitter. But we would really encourage you if you have never gone to our website, spotlightenglish.com, to check that out because there is a lot there. If you are new to the spotlight community, leave a comment, introduce yourself. We are always amazed, we've been doing this for a long time, but we're always amazed when people stumble upon us or how they find us. And kind of the best, we always say this, we're going to say it again. We have the best listeners, audience, watchers, however you want to do it. It's true, and it continues to be true. We keep struggling to find a, I feel like Spotlighters is not an... We have the best audience, the whole internet. Let's just go with that, yes, the best audience. I feel like every single person who listens to spotlight English is the best. Right. I really do. No, I definitely think that's true. Okay, I just want to point out, Adam, that you said no. I definitely think that's true. That's, and we do have a great blog post about that. No, yeah, yeah, no. Yeah, no, no, yeah. That is interesting. It's a very confusing way that English speakers speak. But anyway, you were saying your goodbyes. You were saying how much we love the people who listen to spotlight English. And we want to welcome, if this is your first time watching, we welcome you to be part of that community. So hit that little bell, hit that subscribe button, so you'll never miss out on any of our videos. And until next time, make sure you listen, watch, practice, and learn Spotlight Out.