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"Rookies:" Reheating Episode 1 (Part 2)
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Thank you for listening! Since Rookie Season can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. Send us your fanmail to our email or social media inbox!
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Email: srspod@protonmail.com
Lau spoke with Erica Ito from @Seaweed Brain Podcast
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Since Rookie Season. Well, the summer before. A heated rivalry fan companion podcast where your hosts, Amanda, Lau, and Lauren, break down the episodes from the Crave Canada television series, the Game Changers novels, and various media surrounding this fan phenomenon.
00:00:18
Speaker
Today, we continue with our discussion of Rookies, the first episode of the series. We had a lot to say, so here's the rest of a long conversation and our very first fan mail bit.
Tech Nostalgia and Family Dynamics
00:00:41
Speaker
Hi everyone! Editing Amanda popping in to remind y'all where we left off last week since our disc discussion went way too long. So we had just left Shane and Ilya after they had had their first hookup in the hotel room. and Then we get some family context and discussions with each side of Holonov before the iconic All Stars game.
00:00:59
Speaker
Oh, and a quick side note. I was in the middle of moving when we recorded this first episode, so I know my audio quality is not great. I hope that it is better now that I am settled and on my actual mic that I use. So thank you for sticking with me through that. And stick around to the end of this episode for our first fan mail segment and our discussion afterwards. And thank you so much for listening.
00:01:19
Speaker
We get three months after that, so we're getting towards the end of summer of 2010 in Montreal. On the technology here, we see a bit of another hint at it. Shane's watching a YouTube video on his phone of Ilya. It's like a little slide phone. It's not quite like a touchscreen, like and and it's not quite iPod touch or like something like that, but it is also the capable of connecting to to wifi and playing video, which I thought was really interesting.
00:01:42
Speaker
And this is where we get the liar, liar told you that, which is one of my favorite lines. I know in my intro on social media I said my favorite was Russians gonna do this. The other one is liar, liar told you this. And I love that so much. Then we get to the family brunch, I'm assuming it is, lunch deal.
00:01:58
Speaker
We get Unimomager and the the YouTube discussion with the unlikely animals becoming friends, which that metaphor just hits you over the head, I swear. And David is so sweet and so pure. love him. adore David. I think he's just such, so precious. My love. Yuna is like, fuck him right up the butt. And I, that is like a bit further than the book, which I think they did on purpose to be like, haha, get get Yeah, this is ah another like Loki thing I want to track that's not present in like every episode, but it's something I find really important is this the family shot and how Yuna, David and Shane are framed where Shane is squarely in between his parents and supported by them and is not really needing anyone else at the table and in his life.
00:02:39
Speaker
Whereas in other episodes when I point this out again, we'll see this framed a bit differently and see Shane sitting and in a couple different ways.
Hockey Insights and Symbolism
00:02:45
Speaker
um So put a pin in that and we'll we'll consider that later. But right now, Shane is like right in between them. We've got this nice, solid, equative triangle. And I think that speaks bit to that family dynamic and that that role. Oh, and then lastly, the tracking stuff. We track the the games. We don't know who won this next game that's in this scene.
00:03:03
Speaker
but So I'm still counting it as tied, though Shane did win the face-off. And I think this goes back to what Jacob says about the hockey isn't the most important part for their relationship and their dynamic. So it's not about who won that one, but it's that specific face-off where there it's showing that they can taunt each other and how they can get under each other's skins in those those specific moments during the game.
00:03:21
Speaker
Okay, and it's so funny because, like, in a hockey game, there are actually, like, 50 face-offs in a game, like, Face-offs happen all of the time. Like literally anytime the puck, like there's a penalty, the puck gets like, goes out of play. It gets iced. You do like 50 or more face-offs a game, like up to a point where there is like a percentage of who wins the face-off score because it's, It's really easy to like score a goal off of a faceoff or whatever. So the fact that they make like a really fucking big deal about this faceoff is so funny to me.
00:03:55
Speaker
Also because Shane and Ilya are probably first line centers. So they're like, cause hockey's played in lines. So you have five players on the ice at a time plus the goalie. And so then you have your three forwards and your two defensemen. And they constantly are going on and off the ice. They play in shifts and shifts are like 45 seconds to a minute. So you're only on the ice for like 45 seconds at a time over and over again throughout a 60 minute period. And so the fact that Hudson and ah Hudson, Jesus Christ, Shane,
00:04:27
Speaker
are probably first line centers means that they've probably had like like 20 face-offs against each other in
Language and Multilingual Themes
00:04:33
Speaker
this game but like the fact that they make this like huge deal out of it i was like that's so funny to me yeah i think it's like amanda said is to show us that they can like taunt each other yeah will you disappoint them yeah because this is not the first like it is not the first and it will not be the last face-off that we ever see of them yeah We get the interview that Ilya is watching, Shane is being interviewed in French. I just want to say I appreciate very much that we kept the interviewer as a Quebecois and the accent is Quebecois, so we're not avoiding the fact that Quebec has a different accent. or not
00:05:11
Speaker
and Yes, yes. And Hudson's accent is quite good. I appreciate that this show is not shining the multilingualism that the geography and the characters ask for. It's not a show that only deals with English, even though HBO Max needs to do better with subtitling languages.
00:05:32
Speaker
Okay, and I actually do remember, they the Montreal Metros do win this game because in the book, Hudson, or Shane. Jesus Christ, why do I keep calling it? Shane wins the face-off and then scores the game-winning goal off of the face-off.
00:05:45
Speaker
Okay. oh Should I count that as 2-1? Yeah, 2-1. Shane 2, Ilya 1. No, I do love that Montreal, the Canadians, who the Metros are based off of, they do all of their socials in both like Canadian French and regular English. like Their players, most of their players speak French-Canadian, and speak French until they do a lot of like interviews with them in French. And so I kind of liked that moment. Also Jacob Tierney and Rachel Reid are both Montreal fans. I cannot be a Montreal fan because I'm a Chicago Blackhawks fan, even though we're not in the same division. i just can't be a Montreal fan because of a recent prospect. so But I do love that moment that they keep in the Quebecois. Yeah, that's special. So timeline Amanda.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yes, so timeline. We get four months later, so this is towards the end of 2010. This is at least two years after the boys have met. We're in Nashville for the first All-Star game that we get to see, which, given that our two stars here are stars for their teams, they're in the All-Star game. And technology side note, I love how they show the text in Medicons. I think I said this earlier, but how they update the text throughout the show. Just keep your eyes peeled for that. Even the interface on the screens, they update, which is really cool.
00:06:59
Speaker
But then we get the the conference, and this was huge, huge, huge, huge. So again, we're tracking the feed touches, but here the feed touches are so much more emphasized and are so much more critical. Them being there for each other professionally in a way that no one else sees, like Ilya inviting him to the commercial and then Shane fielding this fuck-ass question, like it's they're just them there for each other even though it's not visible and no one else knows they're there for each other, just a little...
00:07:21
Speaker
The little feet touches, it's giving, um this has been referenced in a couple other fandom spaces, but the Our Flag Means Death scene where they
Fan Mail Segment Introduction
00:07:28
Speaker
Blackbeard and Steed get captured again, and they're both, I think it's by the English, they're they get ambushed, and then they just kick each other's little feet again as the chain is playing like Lea Wood Mouth.
00:07:38
Speaker
um They kick each other's little feet so they know that they're there and they're doing this together. i thought it was real sweet and real cute. So anyway, that's another feet moment that I loved. Okay, so because I'm the hockey expert, I have to talk about the All-Star Game. So the All-Star Game happens pretty much every year. it didn't happen last year, and it's not happening this year. Last year, the and NHL did something called the Four Nations Face-Off, which was a like very small international hockey tournament between Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Finland. Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
And then this year is the Olympics. So it's really exciting because the and NHL players get to be in the Olympics, which they haven't been in for a couple of years or the past couple of Winter Olympics. And so we'll talk more about this when we talk about our Olympians podcast, because that will actually come out when the Olympics are happening in Milan, which I think is a really fun like little thing that we accidentally did. Um, accidentally on purpose, but anyways, back to the all-star game. So the all-star game is basically a collection of all-stars across the league. In the past, teams had to send at least like two players to be on the All-Star team, but that's changed a little bit. I'm not exactly sure how they are selected for the teams. I know there is some kind of fan vote, but it's generally 32 players for the game. This happens typically in February. And honestly, like, like players really don't want to go to the All game because it's like the NHL season goes till April and February is like when you're starting your like playoff push and so like the all-star game is a chance for you to get like injured and like negatively impact your playoff push and so like a lot of people don't really like going to the all-star game also like There's only like 32 people out of the like 700 NHL players that have to go to this like media obligation. And I don't know if you've ever watched an interview with and NHL players, but they hate the media and they hate talking to media because they're just like most emotional people. It's so funny.
00:09:46
Speaker
Pucks in deep, baby. We got to just get pucks in deep. That's all they say. So they hate going to the All-Star game too, because like all of their other teammates go to like tropical locations for like two weeks. Right. And if you go to the all-star game, then you have to like do media for a week and it's just awful. And it's not a break basically. like and The all-star game typically consists of a couple of different parts. There is the like all-star skills competition, um which is like fastest skater, hardest shot, stick handling, which is like, you can do cool stuff with the puck and your stick. One-timers, which is like the a specific type of shot in hockey. There's a passing challenge and then there's accuracy shooting, which we actually see Shane and Elia compete in during the All-Star game.
00:10:36
Speaker
And then there is a All-Star game. It's single elimination. I believe it's three games and it's three on three with ten a minute halves each. And this we don't really see until we see the All-Star game in episode five. But basically like They have all-star captains. The captains pick their teams. There's usually like, I think, 15 of them on a team or maybe 12. And like whoever wins that game gets $100,000 and they donate it to the charity of their choice. Also, most recently, there have been Professional Women's Hockey League showcases, which is the PWHL.
00:11:14
Speaker
And then there's also Rookie Showcases, which at the ASG where like players who are going to come into the and NHL are able to show off their skills and then they're also able to get like new fans for women's hockey as well yeah that is the all-star game there's also a American hockey league all-star game but it gets decidedly a lot less attention than the NHL all-star game does That's so cool.
00:11:40
Speaker
It's very interesting that they do seem, like, excited about it in the series, but it makes sense what you're saying, that players are not, like, super into the All-Stars game.
00:11:52
Speaker
Yeah, because it's, like, it's just basically, like, a ton of media stuff, and they have, like, the NHL has, like, content creators that they're, like, partnered with. So, like, the one that's off the top of my head is Rihanna Rust and then Coach Chippy. Those are, like, the two big ones. So, they'll do stuff.
00:12:11
Speaker
Like, the last All-Star game in 2024, they had celebrity captains for the teams. And the celebrity captains were, if I remember correctly, it was... I know Justin Bieber was odd was on Austin Matthews. He was the celebrity captain for Austin Matthews team. I think it was Tate McRae, who's like a singer, Michael Buble, and Will Arnett, I believe were the four celebrity captains. And the top points for the skills competition, Connor McDavid, who we lovingly call Hockey McJesus. Yeah.
00:12:47
Speaker
yeah He won. he won like the whole all-star skills competition. and he like made it around the rink in like less than 12 seconds, which is like crazy. He's like one of the fastest skates. It's a very impressive show of like athleticism, which but I think hockey is an impressive show of athleticism in general.
00:13:12
Speaker
I love this. Thank you for your knowledge. Then we get the whole, did you go out last night? Yeah, no boring Canadians, no stupid Americans. Ilya is with other Russians, other people from the East. And Shane is sharing a team with US people and Canadians. And we see Shane getting better at banter with the incest comment.
00:13:36
Speaker
And then we get Ilya inviting Shane to his room in a very subtle way that we catch, Shane catches. But then enters Scott Hunter, who is going to be very important later.
00:13:49
Speaker
And he said, I've clocked you. Yes. He's like, i gay and I clocked you. Uh-huh. And I'm in the room next to these guys. Yes. Which also want to say, the first time I watched this, I didn't give two shits about him. I was like, who? Who's the guy? and they're talking about his his score. And I'm like, oh, the did yeah, that guy. And then when he appears at the bar later, I'm like, do we know him? Who is he? I don't, I i fear if he's not a main character, we don't get their POV consistently. i like don't super remember them. So of course, episode three hit me like a ton of bricks in the face. But yeah, I did not understand his importance at first. And then obviously going back, I was like Oh my god, yeah, the dude!
00:14:27
Speaker
And he sees and the, and he's the dude! the dude! and then we have our next sex scene on a hotel room and we see like some highlights because it's very similar to the first one with some key differences that we want to track besides angry Shane who's always gonna be lovely because i love how Hudson is like angry kitten for Shane Shane leads with kissing this time so he is the one who starts the the action then Ilya's like, get on your knees, half joking. Shane immediately drops down Ilya, we can see him mouth, wow. And then he pants down in on his ankles, he just carries Shane to the bed, ah like it's nothing. And then Shane keeps his socks again.
00:15:14
Speaker
Then we have this conversation about whether or not they want to have sex right now. Ilia says very clearly, i want to fuck you. Right? And in a very sweet voice is also. But he is very respectful and super attentive to Shane's body language. Like, as soon as Shane starts to freeze and tense, he's like, whoa, are you afraid? It's okay to be afraid. He jokes a bit to ease attention, but he's very aware of, like, only if he's comfortable. like And at the end, we see... there's like There's a lot of reassuring kisses. There's a lot of banter. But also, there's a lot of, you're safe with me here. And I respect your boundaries. Which I love. Again, I am... Ilia is the king of consent. Girlie, nothing else will be tolerated in my home. What color is big it's so lesbian coded by the way. Yes. Lesbian coded. I just want to say. This one's for the lesbians. Also, Hollander, you were having panic attack. I blame because it's like.
00:16:16
Speaker
um But this is what i mean about him. He's so reassuring and he's so sweet. um I also want to say where he's like, oh Hollander, you're so boring, which I'm like, I don't even understand how that's boring, but I want to count how many times he calls or says something is boring or maybe just towards Shane. So this is number one. This is the first time we get Ilya calling him boring. it It kills me every time. You're so boring taking.
00:16:35
Speaker
Give me phone. Give me your phone. You have phone. Give me phone. The lack of articles, Connor really knowing how Russian works and trying to emulate what a Russian person would do with English. Love it. So yeah, we have that. We have the introduction to Lily and Jane.
00:16:53
Speaker
which are their pseudonyms on their phones. And this is like Ilya's way to tell Shane, like, we should text and that way we can arrange for future encounters. So I want you again and you want me again, let's do something about it. And we get, again, as Amanda was telling us, the introduction of technology.
00:17:17
Speaker
and how it starts like developing while the relationship is developing as well. I love this scene. I just, I'm just thinking about this scene over and over and over again. I love the comment about the dildo. Like that's so, also like Ilya, are you jealous of a dildo? I've read too many fan fictions recently where Ilya is jealous of the dildo. and so many. They're like, what about Dune? Also like,
00:17:41
Speaker
this thing i i have some I have some shit that's crazy style. You could never, Ilya. Amanda has seen that
00:17:57
Speaker
but no basically like lived at each other's houses for like two years so we see some shit anyway so so the next timeline and I believe one of the last ones we get for this episode is two weeks later so still end of 2010 or early 2011 so it's like really soon after like normally they don't see each other for months but here it is like literally two weeks so it they are fresh on each other's mind On our timeline, before you continue, sorry Amanda, on our timeline we have, not to be self-centered, but 2011, my queer awakening. So very important for queer history.
00:18:30
Speaker
And we have a lot of small victories across states and countries regarding same-sex couple discrimination adoption and marriage. I will highlight Nepal recognizes a third gender through a national census in May 2011. So we love to see that. I love that.
00:18:50
Speaker
So they're in the airport, or at least Ilya's team is in the airport. Who do we- I don't even know. Like I said, i don't usually pay a lot of attention to side characters. Like, I'll recognize them as a side character, but this guy is recurring. The one where he's like, aww, like, your girl can wait, or like, whatever. Wait, Amanda, are you saying that all white men look alike? mean- No, They do! They do!
00:19:11
Speaker
And all of their names are like ja a J, a J name. If you date a man with a J name, no fresh fun if you date a man with a J name, i have I immediately have a problem with you. It's a red flag. We got beef.
00:19:25
Speaker
It's a red flag. That man, put him in prison. Put him under the jail. No, no, no, no. No notes. Men with J names. And typically, blonde men.
00:19:40
Speaker
Usually, blonde men are below prison. But Counter-Story gets a pass. He's the only one. He's the only one. picing you know the The corset and the septum piercing. And really and the corset. That ass.
00:19:54
Speaker
He gets a pass. He gets a pass. No notes. The jawline. But who is the the the teammate that he's talking to at the airport? Because i noticed Hila is a recurring character. Marlo! that's the guy That's the guy that hates Shane.
00:20:07
Speaker
Yeah, see, I just thought he was one of the normal teammates. And then I noticed he's the same one that, like, teases Ilya later on. And I was like, man, who is this fucking guy? They only name tags. Because, again, we don't have the budget. We have $3, two freaks, and one dream. That's a It's kind of like this podcast, except it's three freaks, $2 and one dream. Real. yeah funny Real. No, this is Marlow. This is the guy that we see. This is kind of like Shane's Hayden.
00:20:34
Speaker
And it's M-A-R-L-O-W. There is a Marlow, which is M-A-R-L-E-A-U. And yes, this happens all of the time in hockey. I think there are three Elias Pattersons on the Vancouver Canucks currently. Oh my god. so okay this happens all the time in hockey. And then you get, like, men who have, like, names like Macklin.
00:20:58
Speaker
There's a guy named Zeeve. Like, they have the strangest names. um USA hockey players especially. So, yeah. But anyways. Speaking of Hayden, then we... And that note, a yeah, enters Hayden. Enter Hayden. Inviting Shane because we're dealing we're dealing with the fact that the game was canceled because the team cannot fly to Montreal because of snow. We get the our first mention of Shane's diet. Ah, yes, which is secretly an eating disorder. Yes.
00:21:28
Speaker
Secretly. I really hope season two does on that. Oh yeah, because that was kind like- There's lot control that we need to explore. That was like one of my biggest problems with the long game was that they didn't, like Shane like clearly had an eating disorder that entire book. And then they were like, oh, he ate a Snickers and he was fine. I was like, girl, what? What are your thoughts? Yeah, me too. I agree with you. And I hope season 2 does touch on that, because there's a lot about control there, a lot about the character that we can learn from the way he eats. Right. And we we have a lot of important characters entering, right? We have Svetlana, surprising Ilya, and I'm sure everyone had that moment of, he has a girlfriend, and then we realized they just fuck buddies.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yeah, I was very confused on who she was. I was like, am I supposed to know her? like And then I realized that she was just being introduced. But also, an important thing to see here is that she knows- Now you're supposed to know her.
00:22:27
Speaker
Absolutely, absolutely. And we're gonna put a ah pin in the you don't deserve me for episode 5, but she also knows who Jane is the whole time. Like, this is less than two weeks after we get the the Jane and Lily thing happening, and so she knows who Jane is the whole time. and that Ilya texts her constantly and that she's important to him and so over the course of these years and years and years Svetlana is um obviously very smart she's so intelligent especially what we see later on she but she's incredibly intelligent I think she can put together that Jane and Deepa shape like that is not hard yeah but those are not hard dots to connect so I'm wondering how long she knew like we'll have to discuss in a future episode of when she actually like is looking at the TV and looks at him and connects the dots Oh, yeah. And yeah, that I think Svetlana, I mean, she's like the smartest person, one of the smartest people on the show, her and Rose. Like, yes shout out to Rose and Lana shippers. You are doing the Lord's work. i see that AO3 tag. I see you all.
00:23:23
Speaker
We will will have an episode on the women in this show specifically, so we will go into depth. guys Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. We need to talk about Vegas. Fuck what we're talking about right now. We need talk about Vegas. Ginger. We need to talk about big Vegas before we- Okay, so let me do the timeline.
00:23:38
Speaker
So now this is definitely the last timeline of the episode. We get four months later, so this is like late spring 2011, maybe like April, May, type five. um We're in Vegas. We're in the hockey MLA Awards. um So this is like postseason. lot of small victories across states, like we said earlier. Once again, a random third person is thrown thrown in amongst their accolades and I thought that was really funny it's like imagine being that third person in their rookie year that got nominated for rookie of the year we get the ya boy gay panic and ginger ale mansion from Scott that's really cute and also the introduction of literal homophobia like the fear of being perceived as gay and how taboo it is like homophobia we say is like oppression is one thing but it is the literal in this moment Shane is fearing being perceived as queer so yeah I wanted to to throw that out there
00:24:20
Speaker
And Scott clocked it. Scott clocked it. Scott clocked it. Because Scott is gay. And so he's like, I i know. i know. But I also would like to say something I did forget to mention. In 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since the nineteen sixty 60s with two little 19 year olds leading the way jonathan taves and patrick kane they weren't fucking or may not secretly be in love with each other but they're fucking we got each other's talkeded they may or may not have explored each other's bodies and actually i went to the bar the other day where they had their 2010 cup celebration I've been to it several times. I actually watched a Love Island screening there. I love that. All right. So first of all, i would like I would like everyone to know that Shane Hollander, during these two scenes, or after he does shots with Scott Hunter, is drunk.
00:25:20
Speaker
He is a tiny little athlete boy. he does not drink. He's 19 years old, probably. This boy is drunk when he goes on the roof with Ilya, okay? And...
00:25:33
Speaker
you know sometimes drunk thoughts, even though they talk about in AA, like drunk thoughts are not excusable and your actions when you're drunk are not excusable just because you're drunk. This is a very important moment. Okay. Because i think i have so many thoughts about this. One, i think it makes Shane happy.
00:25:54
Speaker
realize that Ilya is in a very different place than he is because Ilya in this moment like kind of puts his heart out on the table like he's very much like I'm having a bad time because my father has told me that I cannot lose to you Like, I've been told that before, and I've just lost to you now a second time. And I'm going to have to go home to this country, and I'm going to have to live there for an entire summer and take care of my ailing father and, like, ah deal with all of this other mess. It's, like, so heartbreaking because, like, Ilya's like, here's my heart. Like, this is what's going on in my life. It really sucks for me right now. And Shade's like...
00:26:40
Speaker
ha ha ha i'm drunk and like completely misses the point this is like a a guy who like completely misses the point lot of the times but like this even more so and he says a lot of shit that i don't i don't think he means or he doesn't understand like he doesn't understand why somebody would not want to go back to their home country after being away from them for nine months the year He doesn't understand that families are not like a safe space because that's his reality is that home is great and families are a safe space. And so this moment is like so it's so heart wrenching, but then it's like it's so like. I feel like it shows like so much growth and I feel like it also clues Shane in a little bit to more about Ilya like I feel like because most of this TV show is seen through the like eyes of Shane that we like know so much about him but I think we get a lot more of Ilya in this film.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, and I do also want to add that Shane is so oblivious to why he could possibly be upset about going home. Like he- I will say, I do think he's still like a naive boy. Like he assumes Ilya's family's life is- like i was saying earlier, he just assumes it's hunky dory and it's just like his and why would he possibly be upset about going home? There's just no frame of reference for life outside of his. And especially because he is drunk too, he doesn't- the the neurons are not firing. He has no no idea what's happening, this poor baby.
00:28:01
Speaker
No, poor baby. And poor other baby whose jaw is working on the time. This just like made me want to cry for Ilya. He's clenching that jaw.
00:28:12
Speaker
I was so sad. i was so sad. This is one of those, like i was talking, I was praising how in sync they are for a lot of intimacy scenes here. Yeah. They're in completely different frequencies. And we love to see it because shout out to Anna on our Discord server who was talking about friction is important.
00:28:32
Speaker
to further the plot. We need friction. It cannot all be perfect. There cannot just be soulmates and that's it. And so we get this kiss, which is the only one way Ilya knows how to reach out, is kissing Shane. Yes. And at first Shane is like, yes, and Ilya pins him against the wall and then Shane's drunkenness clicks and he's like, oh, we are at this party, we shouldn't be doing that. We flip, like, he flips Ilya and now he's the one pinning him He's like, and this is what cracked us all. The sentence that will forever prove to me who Shane Hollander is. We are both in tuxedos. What does he mean?
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, no. I think shes he's trying to say this is a very formal event. We shouldn't be doing this. This is dangerous. But drunk Shane is like tuxedos. Okay, that makes a lot more sense because I heard that saw that and I was like, i get that they're in tuxedos and then it's like, oh, like, why are you in tuxedos? Why would you? yeah And adding in the drunk aspect makes lot more sense.
00:29:39
Speaker
The joint aspect is key to understand why Shane is Shane in this scene. Like, I mean, we were talking about this conflict drives narrative. It's something that we learn about in like our like early English classes. I've talked about it, you know, throughout all of my degrees. I think this is a perfect moment that shows that it's messy and it's not perfect. And like for us to like expect... there not to be these moments of friction or the, there not to be these moments of conflict with even our own lives have constant moments of conflict and constant moments of friction I think is like so disingenuous and I think like this idea that this show has to be like a perfect representation of the perfect relationship I think is also like very much something that like fans can never like expect from media because like it's never going to be that way we have to have the conflict in order to get to the happily ever after We have to see that Ilya only knows how to solve things through using his body. We have to see that Ilya is constantly doing things that help himself soothe, like the way that he like rubs his hands together or the way that he like touches his face. We have to see all of those moments and combine them all together. And then I guess get in a podcast and yell at people. But like... All of that is so important to how even the next part of the story pans out. And so I think there are a lot of people who are like, oh, Ilya's toxic or whatever. but like, this is... I think this is, like, such a crucial moment to, like, the rest of the series. Is that, like, we see them have... This moment where Ilya's like, here's my heart, here's why people don't understand me, and Shane's kind of like, well, I just don't get it.
00:31:27
Speaker
And so Ilya goes back to... He goes back to what he knows Shane gets. Right? He knows that Shane gets the physical stuff. I think it is all like a really... This is another really great moment. I mean, I keep saying that about all the moments in this episode, but clearly... It's all good! Because because this show does a great job with these Ilya-Shane moments.
00:31:48
Speaker
There's a lot being communicated in very simple scenes that when you look at it are not that simple. So I agree with you, there great moments. And it ends with see you next season.
00:32:03
Speaker
Again, the the see you like at the next point. And then Shane just walking away. And Shane just walks away and it is like Hollander... Hollander, please respond.
00:32:13
Speaker
This is his her of thing. Which echoes in the fourth episode when Shane's getting up and leaving Ilya's house. He's like, Hollander, Hollander. And I'm like, just let me cry. yeah Well, and also something I was going to point out in our final thoughts is that Shane's first, the first words of the episode and Shane's first words in this is Ilya Rosanoff. And then Ilya's last word is Hollander. i think that's really a really nice look into it.
00:32:36
Speaker
Okay, so here is going to be the last segment of our pod. I know we didn't have it on our first episode, but we literally talked about so much on our first episode, so we decided to put it on our second episode, but... We want to hear from you.
00:32:50
Speaker
When we started announcing the pod on our socials, so many people were like, oh my God, let me know if you can be if I can be a guest star. Let me know if I can be a guest star. And I love that energy. I love that energy. Keep that energy. So what we want you to do is we want you to record voice notes and send them in so that we can talk about them on the pod.
00:33:08
Speaker
They don't have to be voice notes. They could just be like your rambling thoughts that you might have. But basically we are looking for fan mail. We want to hear from you. We want to hear maybe your thoughts, your critiques, but also if you just want to like yell into a mic about how much you love Connor's story and Hudson Williams, like please, that is also totally acceptable. And It's totally okay. You don't have to be, we don't have to like say your name or anything like that. You can tell us how much you want us to share about you. But yeah, we're going to start doing a little segment that is about fan mail. So we got our first piece of fan mail this week. We're really excited to talk about it and I'm going to let them take it away.
00:33:59
Speaker
Hey, since rookie season podcast, I just wanted to yap a bit about how challenging it is to express your emotions in a additional language that is not a language you grew up speaking. I feel like when I talk in my first language, English, I have a completely different personality than when I'm speaking in my additional language of German.
00:34:19
Speaker
And when you're learning a language like in school or for a job, there's such a focus on like academic language. And you don't learn as many of the like emotional vocabulary and expressions to be able to accurately represent your emotions. So it can be so challenging.
00:34:36
Speaker
And I feel like that's definitely reflected in the show. like Beyond just Ilya being private and his personality leading him towards not feeling super comfortable talking about emotions, I feel like even if he wanted to...
00:34:50
Speaker
be more emotionally vulnerable it will be hard to even get his point across because sometimes the words and phrases that you would use in your original language to express yourself they don't even have a counterpart in the other language so that's why i think it was so sweet when he was able to talk to Shane in Russian and I love that it was Shane's idea too so yeah thank you so much those are my thoughts
00:35:21
Speaker
I have lot to say. I have first hand experience with this. First of all, thank you the person that sent this. I was super happy when I listened to it because this touches me personally.
00:35:33
Speaker
I don't know if I mentioned this, but English is my third language. What we call my native language is Spanish. And my second language in which I feel very comfortable is French. And I also speak Creole. And all of those languages make me feel more comfortable than English. So I was very happy to see the representation that we get with Ilya. And I would be an Ilya defender to the end because I know half of the time that there's miscommunication between Shane and him. we We did talk about cultural differences and there's also the language barrier. that I did mention a bit in our first episode, but it is so different to talk about your areas of expertise that you have practiced in English. like I feel very comfortable talking about my field of academics, that is Caribbean literature and Afro-feminist theory, that like gender, queer theory, animal studies, that's...
00:36:31
Speaker
what I feel comfortable discussing in English, but when i am when I need to be vulnerable and when I need to express myself, French and Spanish are the first ones that come to mind. And I get very frustrated. And I love how that was portrayed.
00:36:46
Speaker
We had at the end of our first episode of the series, we have this conversation at the rooftop, at the balcony in Vegas, and we can see Ilya say stuff in Russian language. very frustrated with Shane. There seems to be something that is not translatable. I also teach translation in the program that I work on. And we talk about those barriers, like this person who sent us the memo was talking about how some expressions would not translate the same way. And while you're emotional, you don't want to be hyper-focused on your discourse. You want to be able to be vulnerable and without a filter sometimes. So doing that in a language that you don't feel like you dominate very well, that sucks. When you're tired, that sucks. I say that English sometimes makes my jaw so tired that I don't want to speak it for days. I don't have that experience with French and Creole.
00:37:46
Speaker
which is interesting. I don't know what it is. Someone tell me. And I wanted to share a fun fact. So it was believed before that our brain will store the languages that we spoke in different parts, like separate in the brain. Like imagine you have like little boxes for French, Spanish, Creole, English in my case.
00:38:09
Speaker
And that depending on the situation, your brain will like take one of those boxes out and open it and use it. But now now we know that we store everything in the same box.
00:38:20
Speaker
I'm using boxes as a metaphor, we don't have boxes in our brains. um So what your brain uses to determine what words you're going to use is the same ability that you use to, for example, know what register to use with which person in the same language. So the thing in your brain that tells you not to use certain language with your grandma is the same thing that will tell you, oh, we're speaking Spanish or we're speaking English. Which is why when you are very emotional, when you're very tired, when you're overwhelmed or overstimulated, you get moments where that is not working. Because you need some sort of awareness of the social situation to know, oh, right, this is the register that I need to use to communicate to this group of people. So that explains why when sometimes when we're talking, And for people that speak two or more languages, you know this, you have the concept in all the languages that are not useful in the moment where you're speaking. So you remember how to say it in every single language that is not the one that you need right now. Or for me, sometimes my brain...
00:39:38
Speaker
When I'm really tired, i can skip from French to English to Spanish and take a while to notice which one I'm using. So I i definitely had those embarrassing moments where I was answering a question in class and I started using the wrong language for the wrong class.
00:39:56
Speaker
Oh no! no no i've had I've had those moments. I lived in France when I was a teenager and when I came back, the first few days were very difficult to go back to Spanish in many like day-to-day vocabulary. And people would think that I was like showing off.
00:40:11
Speaker
And it was actually that I was i was tired. The jet lag was there. i was mourning life because it was very hard for me to to return to Colombia. because I really loved the life that I had built in France. So emotions can really affect the way you communicate. And this is so central to the building of the character of Ilia and to the way we are building this dynamic between these two pe persons that come from very different worlds. With that, I wanted to maybe say a few things that I don't know if it's critique, I'm not sure. i was talking about it with a friend, our friend Erika Ito from Seaweed Brain, because they have delved into these with characters of the Percy Jackson universe as well. To me, it is very intriguing that we have all of that exploration of what Ilya's multi-language existence
00:41:09
Speaker
means to him emotionally and how it defines his relationship to people. But we don't see that in Shane's family. And we do know that Una is an immigrant. We don't know exactly at what age she immigrated to Canada, but we do know, we do get the sense that she was not a little child, right? Mm-hmm. So i I wonder, do they speak Japanese at that home?
00:41:34
Speaker
Does Shane speak Japanese? Because we we see a lot of scenes where Juna and Shane are talking. They're using English as their language of communication. I don't like, I'm not judging anyone here, but there is this phenomenon that we see in immigrant families where parents will refuse to use their native language with their kids so they can assimilate better to the host culture. I don't know if this is a case this is the case. I have no idea because we don't get that. we We have no idea how Juna feels regarding language barriers, how her experience was as an immigrant regarding that. Of course, the benefit of Japanese being that language is that Japanese is a very prestigious language, right?
00:42:24
Speaker
So you wouldn't necessarily have the same stigmatization that you would have with, say, Haitian Creole that is broadly spoken in Quebec or even Spanish. But still, there's a lot of, as as as we have discussed in the past, there's a lot of discrimination towards Haitian, sorry, Haitian.
00:42:46
Speaker
Haiti is always on my mind and my heart. towards Asian women. Oh, you're right. Yeah. And even if they're Japanese, which is, in my experience, was seen as more prestigious death than people from China or Korea or other Asian cultures, still, she is an Asian woman that is visibly an immigrant. And I'm very curious to know, do they speak Japanese? Does Shane, because we know Shane is, like, is very interested in learning Russian. So for me, this has so many, like,
00:43:17
Speaker
And we were talking with ah with my friend and they said, you know, not every story has to delve into that. They haven't watched the show, so ah they were relying on the context I was giving. And what the conclusion that we came to is, Yeah, of course, some some stories don't have to touch on that because that's not their focus. What what is weird to me is that we do we do it with Ilya. And it would make a lot of sense for it to be something that means a lot for Ilya and Yuna's relationship in the future. And for Shane himself, like we know that he speaks French as well. We know that I know. I don't know if we know that. that linguistic politics in Canada is a point of tension of Canadian identity. We know that there's a hierarchy between English and French ah or Quebecois, that the money is mostly in the Anglophone part of Canada and that there's a lot of shame around it for people that grew up in the Quebecois region and are struggling to speak English fluently because English has such much so much power economically in our world today.
00:44:30
Speaker
that we all, from every single nation that is not Anglophone, we feel forced to be fluent in it. There's a lot there that is not explored. There's a lot there that we have no idea. Like, there's so much we don't know about Shane and his family and his background, even though we have their we have his parents from the beginning, right there, and they have a good relationship. I would expect more information on that. I hope that maybe that's something that season two could explore.
00:44:59
Speaker
And it it takes it takes a couple of sentences. You don't have like to make a whole episode on it. But I would like to know a bit more about the linguistic politics in the Hollander household. yeah Definitely.
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, something i was thinking about. I mean, I personally do not speak Any other languages, but at the university that I teach at, I do have a lot of international students and I teach courses on like communicating across cultures. And so something that like we kind of consistently talk about is the difference between high context and low context cultures and like.
00:45:36
Speaker
Russian and Japan, like, or Russia and Japan are, like, very high context cultures, which means that they are, like, very implicit, like, focused on, like, nuance and indirect communication. it prioritizes, like, kind of, like, a collective, the, like, relations and emotions, like,
00:45:58
Speaker
shape the communication um so that they might not be like, there's like a very strong value of like the concept of like a face, like strong public image. And if like a member's like face is threatened, then the whole group's like honor is in danger as compared to like low context cultures or there's like, which is like the United States, Canada's in there. Spanish is like right in the middle. And I don't know like if that means Spanish or I guess like Latin America and Spanish or like, very close to one another in this high context, low context, but low context cultures like really focus on like independence, individualism, like everyone's responsible for themselves. There's like no concept of a face. There's very explicit community communication, very direct communication and language. And there's like very rationalized and like formalized language. And so I think even like something I think like what you're talking about, Alawa, is like switching from like a high context to a low context culture and like going back and forth. Like that's that seems so exhausting. And like not only do you have to remember what like. all of the vocabulary and how sentence structure works and all of these things. And then like, don't even talk to me about English idioms because what of those? And like English makes no sense, like historically as a language. It is, it is my worst nightmare. How to pronounce a word that I have read. It makes no sense.
00:47:22
Speaker
There is no way to know. Right. No, I will, I will give a little BTS um in the last episode when we first recorded it I said epistemology and instead of epistemology. Or no, I said epistemology instead of epistemology. And I literally was like, it's going to bother me so much if I don't pronounce this correctly. And Lao was like like, I wouldn't even like try to do that. like yeah It would just be what it is. Listen. Everyone gives French so much bad rap because of how french people pronunciation works. Yeah, yeah, I know. But that's also just because of the French people. Believe me, I know. i was i was My school was European. european I know. ah But um everyone says that French makes no sense. And it's true that French has a lot of exceptions for every single rule. But the fact that the pronunciation is hard does not mean there's no rules for it. And for me, it was a shock to go from learning French my whole life to attempting English.
00:48:27
Speaker
I was just, I am blindsided every single time that I try to pronounce something. And then I'm like, oh, that's not the way to pronounce it. No, it's yeah, English is an English, like English, saying English is like one of the hardest languages is actually like very kind of racist. But it's like as a person who has like linguistically studied English and like has studied the history of how English like came to be the language that it is today. Like at one point they were like, let's formalize. Because honestly, the French, the French were like, we're formalizing French. We're going to like have yeah a language center in France that like, like does, goes through and formalizes like all of the French things. We get rid of all of these like common language. I will eventually talk about how that is a tool of imperialism for the French. Yes. Yes. No.
00:49:15
Speaker
yeah Absolutely. Yeah. The colonizer. And then the American or like the English were like, we're going to do that too. So they went back to like Latin spellings for everything. So this is why in English we have like those weird Latin spellings of things like PBs or PFs when it's like, that's like, it's just because they like did this. And then they were like, no, this is too hard. This language is too much. And then you have like British versus English, like like American English, which is a whole nother thing. And there was like the dictionary wars between Samuel Webster and like all of the British people, the OED. It's just, it's it's a fucked up language. It's a fucked up language. And yeah, I cannot, I'm going to shut up now, but I cannot imagine. Yeah, I wanted, to before before we let Amanda speak, because Amanda has with things to say, and they are going to explode eventually, I just want to say two things. I'm going to be very quick, Amanda, and then I'll shut up. No, that's okay. Take your time. I'll shut up. Don't worry. um
00:50:14
Speaker
This is just so funny because I have a trauma with English. Like, i really I really hate it. Like, the fact that I'm doing a podcast in English shows growth. um I was gonna say! that shows a lot of growth.
00:50:25
Speaker
Because for me, English was the language that was imposed to me by imperialism. Never mind that French was also that way, but I have a relationship with French that is different emotionally. But I want to say also, our person that sent us this memo points out, ah they talk about vulnerability, and I think it is already very hard to be emotionally vulnerable to someone else. And when you are emotionally vulnerable, the last thing you want is to be ridiculized by how you sound, right? And I've had had that experience with French that I was having a fight with some sort of boyfriend that I had in France.
00:51:02
Speaker
And I said something that in Spanish makes complete sense. I was enraged. I was having a really bad time. I was being very vulnerable. And he couldn't help but laugh.
00:51:15
Speaker
Because what I'd say had like a big sexual connotation that I did not intend to do. Wait, man. Wait. ah Those things happened and that's why as a language professor, I always tell my students like the hardest part about learning a language is that you are taking risks in the terms of like you need to be vulnerable because you are going to make mistakes and that you're going to say stupid shit.
00:51:45
Speaker
you're going to sound dumb. I love i love the i love the Sofia Vergara in Modern Family GIF. That's the meme. Do you know how smart I am in Spanish? yeah Yeah, exactly. And that's what I wanted to say. Now Amanda can share with me. Now Amanda can speak.
00:52:04
Speaker
No, that's okay. I just have like a lot of thoughts, so you're going to have to follow me. But first, i do I do know a bit of ASL, American Sign Language, conversationally. I'm not fluent. I don't try to be fluent. I will say that in my experience with deaf people, I took a bunch of classes and I've i've interfaced with a lot of deaf communities, capital D Deaf. if But...
00:52:22
Speaker
English fucking sucks. English sucks so bad. It does not help when you can't hear anything. People that are hard of hearing in deaf are known to have a deaf accent because they can't hear how it's pronounced. And it's just ridiculous. Ridiculous in that they would be judged for it. I think it's perfectly normal because if you can't hear the words, how are you supposed to know how they're said? I don't blame them at all. And um to me, ASL makes so much more sense linguistically and just in my brain for me when I'm, oh my God, Laura knows this too well. When English doesn't work for me, i default to ASL sometimes.
00:52:51
Speaker
We won't go into those stories, but Lauren, there's been multiple nights. Trying to get Amanda to like- There's been multiple nights where Lauren is like- I love this. I love this so much. lore. It's so bad.
00:53:04
Speaker
The lore. I love the lore, not the lore. English makes no sense. English makes It makes no sense. this Yeah. And when I was snotty little teenager or a little kid, a young person, and I had to be, I wanted to be right all of the time and I wanted to, you know, prove that I was smarter than other people, which, you know, stupid kid. way that It's the way that my family is. I blame that. I blame my family trauma. But I, people would make mistakes and I... wanted to correct them and I tried to give myself grace for it, but i now I realize that that's stupid and that you shouldn't correct other people's mistakes because if who cares if they don't do the, convert the A-Y ending to an I-E-D or an I-E-S, like who gives a shit? It doesn't matter, you understand what they mean. And i learning another language, especially when I was a bit older after my brain evolved more later my tenure,
00:53:52
Speaker
teenage years I understood a lot more of like it's you're just trying to understand what they mean and that's all language is it doesn't matter about how correct they are or whatever it's respecting the culture and trying to get your meaning across in a way i also want to connect this back to hidden rivalry and that law and law and what y'all are saying about the face what was that called again oh high context versus low context cultures Yes, yes, high context. I didn't see this analyzed as far as that, but it's applicable in that I saw an analysis of that. um Someone who knows Russian or knows a few words in Russian or something, apparently there are there are other words in Russian for, it's not, it doesn't translate exactly to boring, but it's an explanation of why Ilya calls Shane boring and calls other things boring is because it's synonymous for a different meaning. It's like ah it's like a very like calm. It's like a very, like, like I don't,
00:54:41
Speaker
I don't fully know how to describe it, but it's it does it's another way English is silly of like, there are so many words, to but they don't have quite the same meaning. And it's almost like that experience that some of us English speakers have with German, where I've seen jokes over the years of like, oh, germany German people have a word for everything. There's a word for everything in German. And it's just because there are different ways to describe slightly similar things with different meanings and so I feel like that is something we see here with Shane calling ilia or Ilya calling Shane boring is that it's not boring in a way that we as English speakers understand it's boring in that the word that he's using in Russian is slightly different and so I think that is a purposeful different translation um or at least I'm choosing it to be like a purposeful thing to give it a different meaning into to to Ilya like he knows what he means but Shane is like I'm not what do you mean I'm literally a hockey superstar like I'm not boring but I we understand also there is that that funny context of the like um Ilya is the like ladies man with the cars and Shane just does yoga on his dog which is different which I don't think is boring either but I also wanted to say now this this is also one of my other frames of reference that when we when I listened to this fan mail from our anonymous friend I the first thing that came into mind and this is this is such a silly reference so don't come at me for this I've not seen this show but Emily in Paris
00:55:59
Speaker
I've never seen show. I've never seen show. Not an Emily in Paris mention in the pod. I know. Okay, I've never seen it. Because I know it's it's it feels silly. and so if I don't want to yuck your yum. If you love that show, cool. Enjoy it. have your Have the things you enjoy. You can make fun of me. Sorry, I don't want to yuck your yum as a French professor. Like a professor of French language. Yeah, that show is... like I will yuck your yum about a lot of things on that show. That's fair. No, yeah, but that's I feel like that's part of it too, is that she's supposed to be a bit like cringy in a way, but this is ah it hit my timeline a couple years ago. I don't know what season. I don't have other context for when in the show this was because I don't care about it and I don't keep up with it, but the the video that hit my feed was, i don't know if it was ah I think it was a love interest of hers, but she like refused to learn French, which was like
00:56:47
Speaker
I don't know the full context. Don't come at me for that. But she like didn't know French. And so she's trying to have, like Lau was saying, this emotional moment with this dude. And she expected him to communicate in English. And he like goes off on her and explodes on her of the like, I can't communicate to you what I feel because it's not a language that I know. I learned this and I speak to you in this, but you won't learn my language. How am I supposed to meet you where you're at when you won't meet me where I'm at? And you won't make any effort Excellent pronunciation Amanda, it's very good!
00:57:19
Speaker
french can be very poetic and very romantic i did take two years of french in high school and i know way less of that than anything else i know a few words but i i don't speak it at all jenna par popene but excellent cio um and sitrivia it Yeah, that's all I know. But I think that I don't want to digress from what I was saying, but I also think it's romantic to learn your partner's language. Like, I think it is a very or not even romantic, but it's like such a way to connect with someone like it's such a you know, I have friends whose native languages are other things and I want to like learn those things so I can be like, I want to engage with you on that. I want to share something that you love that I love and that's I love you so I want to do this for you and I want to do something that you love and something about you. And I believe that that's why Shane later on wants to learn Russian.
00:58:02
Speaker
I do agree that that like when Ilya is kind of like really frustrated with him and he kind of goes off on him and it's like, not everything's about you because also in that moment in Vegas, Shane just doesn't understand why Ilya would be upset about going home to Russia. And so overall, Ilya is just very frustrated because Shane thinks everything is hunky dory and it's not, which I mentioned in our last episode. That was one of my big reference points that came up was that video that I saw of this person speaking with this girl in the show and just being like, I cannot communicate with you because we are on different language language levels. And that's really important. The last thing I want to talk about in this heated rivalry context is when Ilya is watching Shane give that interview in French. and
00:58:40
Speaker
And Ilya is like, he's saying, or no, he's like muttering to himself in English. And he's like, perfect Shane Holland, or blah blah blah, blah, blah. And I saw people... on the timeline confused of like why is he so upset about Shane being bilingual like you're a bilingual king as well and i saw people where like other people were were speculating and talking that it's because Shane is so comfortable talking in both languages that he can give a perfect interview in French and a perfect interview in English and even in French responds to a racist comment I don't even know if Ilya picked up on, I know if he had subtitles on. Whereas in the fuck ass interview when it's just Shane and Ilya and they do the foot touch and Shane has to take over, Ilya cannot communicate perfectly in English. He struggles a lot and we see that like that is such ah a focal point and of of part of the show. is that I mean he gets better over the years, which Shane talks and that's something we're tracking is Shane's commentary on Ilya's English. But I think that that's part of why Ilya at first was so annoyed with Shane. It's like, how are you so perfect that you can know both of these languages and communicate them so well and have them in your personal and professional life? And so I think that that is ah is really huge and really important. And that's why Ilya feels insecure is because his English is not as good as Shane's French, which I do think that the Japanese would be really interesting because unless they're like, theoretically, no, I don't know. I think that adding a third language would be really interesting to him. But also, i don't know if though it would make him too perfect, actually. I don't know. It would be cool if... Are you calling me perfect, Amanda? You're perfect. I'll say it. You're perfect.
01:00:09
Speaker
I agree. Double down. you're You're so perfect and smart and beautiful. Yes, Perfect, smart, beautiful, funny. need to keep going? like Exactly. you don't even have a husband or whatever. I'm washing right now. I'm a husband. You made my life.
01:00:30
Speaker
When are you in the US?
01:00:34
Speaker
Oh my god. What are you kidding me off? My last point was, but imagine one of Shane's special interests or hyperfixations is, we know it haey hockey, obviously, but imagine it's languages as well, which is why the, almost like how connor Connor's story can pick up languages. Imagine Shane can that in like, He picks up Japanese to help his mom because he loves his mom and his family and culture there, but also imagine he picks up Russian because he loves Iliad. Because I believe that Shane would be would do that for the people he loves, that he is connected to those close to him, that I believe he would do something like that for them.
01:01:03
Speaker
And those are all of my thoughts. I hope you were able to follow them. Yeah, that was that was that was so cool. And you made me think of something before Lauren continues. Sorry. Fun fact. I was mentioning my conversation with Erika.
01:01:15
Speaker
I listened to the voice memo we got before sleep. And then I couldn't sleep because I was thinking. And my brain was very excited about the podcast. And so I planned in my head what I wanted to ask Erika. And I planned it in English so I don't sound dumb. You know, like I was very nervous as well. And then I start typing the next morning and I'm struggling. So I just tell them, okay, Erika, I'm just gonna send you a voice memo. And then I'm i'm trying to get my point across.
01:01:43
Speaker
and I'm sweating and my heart is beating really fast because I'm really frustrated. a few hours later, Erika responds. Takes a lot, like, takes the time to respond carefully to every single point that I made and then she tells me. Also, you could have said that in Spanish. I would have understood. What?
01:02:02
Speaker
And I literally told them, this changes everything for me. Completely different. My relationship with you has changed radically. The fact that I can just ramble in Spanish just changes everything. Thank you.
01:02:15
Speaker
No, and we told Lau, we were like, if you ever need to, on the pod, just explain something in Spanish, like, please do so. Like, we love, first of all, we love multilingualism. It's amazing.
01:02:28
Speaker
I think it's amazing because, like, I did, like, six years of Spanish and I don't remember most of it. And I've been doing a lot of, like, ice, like, rapid response in Chicago. And knowing a second language would be so helpful. Would be so just so helpful.
01:02:46
Speaker
Lauren, a language teacher, so you know where to find me. Wow, I need Spanish lessons. i mean Please help me. Mis amores hispanohablantes nos tomamos el podcast, si quieren.
01:02:57
Speaker
Okay, I got like six words out of that. I can read some Spanish and some French and get most of it, but hearing it, I go... don what but i did No, that's like of it.
01:03:12
Speaker
i was gonna say I was just going to say the fact that Lao can do all of this analysis in English just blows my mind every time they come to book club and have all these things to say. I'm like, you doing this in your fourth fucking language and it is fuck-ass English. I'm impressed all of the time, just by the way.
01:03:24
Speaker
No, and it's crazy that like you ah like when you were like, oh, I love Eve Sedgwick, and I was like, Listen, you can even get through, like, hard-ass fucking theory in English. This is not your first... Like, that's that's crazy to me because i don't I still don't understand Michelle Fuqua. I still don't understand what Guattari and Deleuze are trying to say. Like, I still don't get it. I know they really wrote it in French the first time, but, like, i you know, it's been translated into English at this point. So, like, yeah I still don't know what they're saying. Anyways, we'll we'll keep talking about how amazing Lao is forever. But the one thing that I want to say is that I read a lot of fan fiction because... That's who I am as a person. And a lot of, a lot of fics like deal kind of with like language difference. And I've been very surprised by how many fic writers have been writing Shane as a person who speaks Japanese or is at least a heritage speaker. So like learned growing up from his grandparents, which I think is like frickin amazing because that shows that like the fandom understands like the need for like deeply like developed representation and not just representation. to have representation. Because I think this all leads back to this, like, these issues that we talked about in our first episode about race and racism and how Shane's Asian-ness is portrayed or not portrayed. And so it's definitely something that I think should be expanded upon. I mean, Rachel Reed has all of the resources in the world to help her. I know Unrivaled is coming out in and September, which is going to be the third book in Shane and Ilia's story. And so... I think it's definitely something to explore. And I've been seeing recently on threads and stuff, a lot of people being like upset that fans, especially fans of color, are saying things about how Shane's racism is not really, or like how Shane's race is not really discussed. And to those people, what I would like to say is please check your privilege and listen to people of color when they are critiquing something about race because they that's kind of their lives like so yeah but that is all I have to say but thank you so much for the lovely fan mail I'm gonna throw it over to Amanda for one last thought on this issue or not this issue but this mail and we'll go from there Yeah, I'm so sorry this is drag down, but also I'm not. This is an important thing to talk about and we're going to talk about it, especially since we're tagging this at the end of our our yeah part two of Rookies. But you brought up fan fiction and I wanted to say that so many fan fictions I've read and fandoms that I've engaged in, people will be like, oh, sorry if my English isn't good, like it's not my first language. And usually the English, perfect. It's great. No, no. It's like it's...
01:06:10
Speaker
A lot of fanfic writers or people in fandoms that I engage with that have English not as their first language, they speak they use English better than English speakers themselves. like I say shit out of whack all the time. And I have friends from other countries or that are writing fanfiction and English. It's phenomenal. It's great. And they can write a lot better than I can. And I just wanted to say that that reminded me of that and to not discredit them and and like really uplifting them, like people who don't have English as their first language. because It's hard and it's um difficult to keep up with and to be able to communicate at that level and engage in fandom. Like, especially like I will say Brazilian stans, shout out Brazilian stans. I love Brazil goes so hard. yes. Brazil is amazing. result
01:06:53
Speaker
I picked up like words in Brazilian Portuguese from them. And it's so funny. It's so great. And so I love sharing communities with people who don't speak English. Cause I'm like, yeah, actually you do say things better than we do. no literally. We need heated rivalry to come to Latin America because we are real less than the best at doing fandom.
01:07:13
Speaker
It's going to France and it's going to, I think, like European continent. So it's spreading. She's coming. She's coming. Like Shane and Ilya. My favorite thing in the world is when you're reading a fic and somebody in their author's note is like, English is not my first language and any mistake that I make is because of my pure hatred of that language. And I'm like, please keep hating on this fuck ass language. Please, please. Bye. Thank you so much for our first fan mail question. We really appreciate it. If you would like to send in fan mail to us, you can do that at our email, which is S-R-S-P-O-D, S-R-S-Pod, at protonmail.com. Or you can send it to us in a DM on any of our socials, which are Twitter or whatever they're calling that platform now, ah threads, and Instagram. We would love to hear from you all.
01:08:15
Speaker
With that, we conclude our discussion of the first episode of Crave Canada's Heated Rivalry Rookies. Thank you so much for listening. And next week, we are going to be talking about the second episode, which is Olympians.
01:08:32
Speaker
And follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter, Threads. I think that might be it. YouTube. Find us everywhere. Yes. Also, besides following us, another way you can support us is to comment and rate us on your platforms, podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, even YouTube. So please go and tell us what you think of it how we can improve, what do you like?
01:08:59
Speaker
So we can keep on doing this in a way that is enjoyable for everyone. Yes. We'll see you loonies next week for the next episode. Hopefully we'll have some more fan mail. We're very excited. Cannot wait to yap about this trip to Russia. Yay. We're going to Russia. We're going to the Russia. We're going to we're going two of the Olympics. Olympics.
01:09:22
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Amazing. Amazing. Love you.
01:09:30
Speaker
Simps' rookie season is created by Lauren, Lau, and Amanda. The cover art is by Lauren and Lau, and Amanda is our editor. Thanks for listening.