Moving English Lessons

TRANSCRIPT

So today, I’m speaking with Elena Mutonono, a seasoned business coach for online language teachers who helps teachers work smarter not harder.

0:08

Elena’s podcast is called Online Bound where she shares strategies and tips related to marketing coaching and the world of online teaching.

0:17

Elena has a Multilingual identity and is a polyglot today.

0:22

She’s going to share a little bit about the culture and language in her city, New Orleans, Louisiana, a fascinating multicultural place in the United States.

0:31

I’ve been looking forward to our conversation for the longest time and I’m sure the listeners are excited to hear about your culture, Elena’s cultural surroundings and all of the interesting linguistic features of, of New Orleans.

0:44

So, thank you for joining me today.

0:46

Thank you for inviting me.

0:47

This is so much fun to talk about something that I don’t normally talk about.

0:52

Like the place where I currently live.

0:56

How would you describe it?

0:57

Charming is not the word, right?

1:00

Kind of.

1:01

Yeah.

1:01

Well, first of all, the very first thing that I can hear when I heard your introduction is I need to give you a list of how to pronounce the word, the name of the city.

1:11

It’s New Orleans.

1:13

Ok.

1:13

If you, yes, if you go to, when I first came here, like, I also used to say New Orleans, New Orleans.

1:21

, but no, nobody, nobody from New Orleans ever calls it anything but New Orleans or New Orleans.

1:31

Like, it’s almost NOL, NOLA is what people call it.

1:35

New Orleans, Louisiana

1:38

and, you know, I live in Nola or Nola or Nola culture and stuff like that.

1:43

So that’s how people usually refer to it.

1:46

And so of course, when you say New Orleans people are like, yeah, she’s not, she’s not from here.

1:53

So that’s how I was when I first came.

1:56

And of course, now I will never say New Orleans.

2:02

I’m glad I made the mistake so it so that we could have this lesson of how to pronounce it or Yes, yes.

2:08

So tell us about this.

2:10

Is it the city?

2:12

Is it sort of just, it’s very multicultural, it’s right.

2:16

They call it a melting pot of everything, all the cultures.

2:21

It is distinctly different from any other place.

2:26

It’s kind of, you know, it’s a birthplace of jazz music in the US, right?

2:31

And Louis Armstrong is Louis Armstrong Airport is the, is named after Louis Armstrong.

2:38

So I really find the place very much like jazz, you know, like there are lots of parallels.

2:47

It’s also very sort of chaotic.

2:51

It’s a very it has its own architecture that takes after French.

3:00

And and Spanish, which were like distinct influences in the area.

3:06

It is a port city, you know, seaport and therefore, unlike the rest of the South and geographically, could say, oh, New Orleans is south of the US.

3:18

But, you know, whenever they talk about southern hospitality, it’s a little different here, it’s more like a party city and, it’s more like life is easy.

3:32

I felt it very strongly when, at the beginning of, December just a few months ago I went to New York and, and one of my favorite things to do anywhere I go is go find a, like, local coffee shop and go and hang out and see how, just feel the city.

3:51

And I went to New York and I just felt so uncomfortable because, like, I’m used to New Orleans.

3:57

You, you go to a coffee shop, you sit and you, like, sip on your coffee, you talk to everybody, you just like, it’s like a social experience.

4:07

Yeah.

4:07

You talk to people, you don’t know, you never really, it is super friendly.

4:12

It is like, you know, people will start talk to, talking to you and, and I guess I just got so, so used to it.

4:20

I mean, people know what I want to order, you know, some coffee shops, what I want to, what I usually order.

4:29

they’re like a regular customer.

4:30

Yes, I’m the regular.

4:32

Yes.

4:32

And nobody, like, ever pretends that they don’t know mee and if they, you know, see me like, how are you doing and how’s your daughter, blah, blah.

4:40

But yes, but in New York, I remember just buying this coffee and then sitting down feeling very awkward.

4:48

Like I’m not supposed to be sitting here, I’m supposed to be like grabbing coffee and on the go, go go and it’s so different.

4:57

And then I came back in the next week and my husband and I went to check out another coffee shop that we had seen and we just walk in and like, everybody is so like, life is slow, nobody’s running, nobody’s rushing.

5:13

You don’t feel like this.

5:15

It’s just such a slow vibe.

5:19

And I was sitting there drinking coffee with him and I was like, wow, I can now see a huge difference between New Orleans and New York like it is night and day.

5:32

So, yeah, so it’s very laid back.

5:38

People love to celebrate.

5:40

It is like jazz, very chaotic, disorganized a little bit.

5:45

There’s lots of things that, you know, don’t even feel like you’re in America sometimes I feel like is this America is this, you know, because of people may not feel like they’re fast enough for you.

5:59

If you are like somewhere in the, you know, bigger cities up north, then it’s like, oh go, go, go here.

6:05

It’s like, well, who cares?

6:07

We’ll just get this job done one way or another and if not, life is great.

6:12

Anyway, let the good times roll.

6:17

Yeah. Let the good times roll.

6:18

So everybody’s just going along with it and it just feels so, so lovely and it sounds like a good place for creativity too to be creative.

6:29

Yes.

6:30

Yes.

6:31

It’s, it’s a great place for musicians.

6:34

You know, many musicians came from here but also artists and a lot of, sort of nonconforming people that, would not fit into any, like, particularly, you know, suburban kind of culture in bigger cities.

6:54

well, medium sized cities because New Orleans is not really that big.

6:58

It’s, I think about 600,000.

7:00

So in other cities they would probably feel awkward because of the, you know, certain expectations of what you’re supposed to look like and, and here, like, people don’t usually care.

7:12

So it’s a lot more free.

7:16

And in terms of fashion too, you can dress how you want to dress.

7:20

Yes.

7:20

Yes, particularly uptown, which is a very sort of modern place.

7:27

Well, modern slash old architecturally but modern in terms of people just being themselves and expressing themselves and, yeah, you can, you can definitely see that feel and, and, you know, feel that, when you’re, you’re there, like, and I feel it especially strongly when I get out of New Orleans and out of Louisiana and going up North, because you kind of miss order a little bit.

7:56

It’s like, and then you’re going to Tennessee and all the roads are lovely and straight and there’s no potholes.

8:04

And you’re like, oh, ok.

8:06

Ok.

8:07

Ok.

8:07

I get it.

8:08

I get the difference.

8:10

And so New Orleans in terms of all of the French influence that we see because I know the French was spoken until like 1830s as like the primary language.

8:20

And so I know it’s highly influenced the food.

8:24

Yes, the food culture there.

8:26

So do you feel like restaurants are just so like amazing to go.

8:31

It’s just, oh yeah, restaurants are places you absolutely want to go.

8:36

I mean, and check out it’s very, it’s going to be very difficult to choose.

8:42

There, there is a lot of French cuisine influence.

8:49

and they, they’re different, like there’s one called creole and creole used to refer to the white elites of French origin who lived in the area from the 1800s, then  they started mixing with the enslaved people.

9:13

And then currently the word creole is referring to people of color.

9:19

And, and then there’s Cajun which is a separate sort of group of people, but it can refer to people, it can refer to food as well, but it comes, it’s about, it refers to a group of people that, that resettled from Acadia from places like Nova Scotia in Canada.

9:43

And it’s referred to as Acadia and around 1700s.

9:48

And they were speaking French and they did not want Canada to become, you know, British.

9:55

And so that’s why they moved to this area, but mainly they lived the Cajun, people mainly lived on the land.

10:05

They did not want to mix with kind of the, the other groups and people.

10:13

And so that’s what makes, your, your cuisine so diverse because you have influences from, from West Africa.

10:26

because, you know, New Orleans was a port city as well.

10:30

And, so that is a lot, quite prominent and then there’s French cuisine and there’s a large Vietnamese population as well currently that came later.

10:44

And, they have their own bakeries in the eastern part of New Orleans.

10:51

So it’s, no, I know, I always think about it and, and that’s every time, like you are around people from New Orleans and I’m becoming one of them.

11:03

Like, people talk to me, like, where should I go eat?

11:06

Ok.

11:06

What do you want?

11:07

Let me tell you this and that.

11:09

And, yeah, my husband and I are big foodies.

11:12

So we go to different places and there are like, I think it’s almost sacrilegious in New Orleans to go to a chain restaurant.

11:22

Oh, yeah.

11:23

Yeah.

11:23

So, like Applebee’s that you, you know, you can find everywhere or, you know, like Panera bread and other, like, it’s almost a waste of money and it’s kind of like, no, you, you don’t want to go to these big, chains you need to go to the local places and there are plenty of those.

11:45

And I’m such a food junkie and here restaurants in order for a restaurant to survive in New Orleans, they just have to be so, so good.

11:54

And so the restaurants are absolutely amazing.

11:57

Like there is no, I mean, it’s not like you will go and it’s like, yeah, you’ve got a steak.

12:02

If you got, like, here people just really have to, like, go out of their way. 

12:06

It’s super, like, I mean, it’s, it’s really, really good.

12:10

So, I think that’s like the big thing that I always miss from here and, and I think, take it for granted a little bit, like all the potlucks and people bring all this variety and then you go to some other places.

12:24

It’s just more like bland, you know, like where you’re from.

12:27

Like potatoes.

12:30

Yes.

12:30

Yes.

12:30

Yes.

12:31

Yeah.

12:31

It’s spicy and it’s just very, like, so flavorful and, yeah, it’s really, it’s really good.

12:40

Like, I mean, people just really have to go out of their way to, to keep it, you know, your Japanese restaurant is going to be like, super, super restaurant, you know, like, even, even if it’s, if it’s, you know, small and like in the part of town where it’s, you know, not so, not so well known, but they are trying to keep their rating ratings up and stuff.

13:03

So, so, yeah, because the I, I like shrimp at, to like a lot of the words are French, right?

13:13

Food names are French.

13:15

Right.

13:15

Yes.

13:16

Yes.

13:17

Yes.

13:17

So, Cajun Seasoning, I’ve always heard about Cajuns seasoning.

13:20

It’s very spicy, kind of paprika and lots of.

13:24

Right.

13:24

Yeah, a lot of them.

13:25

Yes.

13:26

And they, they mix this into a gumbo which gumbo is like a local soup.

13:32

Yeah.

13:32

It can be, made with, meat gumbo.

13:37

so they use specific sausage and, it can be, a shrimp gumbo because, you know, there’s lots of that.

13:47

I was gonna ask you about that because is something I have southern relatives from Mississippi.

13:53

So, is, is flour and oil that you make the kind of the base of the soup with, of the gumbo with is that it’s French, right?

14:00

It’s a French.

14:01

It’s actually, yes, it actually has to be, butter, I think.

14:07

No, no, no oil.

14:08

You’re right.

14:08

But you need to be mixing it for so long.

14:11

Like I had never, I had never.

14:14

And you, you need to be very careful if you, because my husband and I, we took a class.

14:17

My husband is the chef in the family.

14:19

Yes.

14:20

And so last year for his birthday I bought this class and we went in and he was like, learning to make a, and I was like, taking pictures.

14:28

So it was great and we heard lots of stories.

14:30

The guy that was our teacher chef.

14:34

He actually his, his grandmother was Cajun.

14:37

He lived out there.

14:38

And, and so Cajun also, it’s like, like I said, it was all these people, French speaking people coming from Canada and settling here and they brought their own culture and their own food and their own language even so they, they spoke their own sort of French.

14:56

And now people are referring to it as Cajun French.

14:59

And there are quite a few people in some rural areas outside of New Orleans, there’s a place called Bridge, which is quite famous.

15:12

They have these like Zydeco music.

15:16

Yes.

15:17

And Zydeco music is also their local.

15:19

And we, we went there and we met people, they talk, they’re like out on the streets, people like retired people, but they’re speaking French and they come to you and they start speaking to you in French and you’re like, which country am I?

15:33

Yes.

15:33

And and so they maintain the French language over all of it.

15:37

Yes.

15:38

And surprisingly because the one person we talked to, he told us that his whole family spoke French, but the government believe it or not would not allow them to speak French at school.

15:53

Like today, they have specific French immersion schools in New Orleans, right?

15:58

And, and all over Louisiana and my kids go to a French immersion school and it’s like a big deal like you, you want to be bilingual, trilingual whatever.

16:07

But back in the day, they were forced to speak English and they were actually punished at school.

16:12

Like this old gentleman told me for speaking French to, to their peers or siblings that went to school with them.

16:20

It’s a, it’s a really rich cultural place and all these and you know, there’s still a lot of unfortunate slavery history and there’s still plantations that are open as museums.

16:40

and some of them are used some plantations.

16:44

Sadly, to me personally, tragically are used for special events and I always feel like really repulsive like inside.

16:55

But before I knew that it was like, oh yeah, so, so and so’s wedding is at this plantation and you go in, it’s like, oh these pretty pictures and all that, but you don’t realize what was happening, you know, here a long time ago and, and people are kind of, some of them are sort of oblivious which I think is quite common for especially white America, you know, like, oh we have, you know, conquered racist and we know, you know, like that.

17:28

Yeah.

17:28

Yeah.

17:28

Yeah.

17:29

Yeah.

17:29

Yeah.

17:29

It happened sometime in the sixties now we have the Civil rights Act and we forgot all about the inequality and now we’re all equal.

17:37

Like, yeah, because you’re white, that’s why you’re saying this.

17:41

But yeah, so, so there is that heritage and it’s, it’s quite, you know, sad still there’s still names of the confederate generals that they named streets with.

17:55

Yeah, believe it or not.

17:56

Yeah.

17:58

Yeah.

17:58

The word plantation is almost like, yeah, plantation here, plantation there.

18:03

So, unfortunately, that’s still a part of it.

18:08

I am so used to the names and the way they sound.

18:12

So let’s say it’s very common for someone from around here to, for a woman to be called John.

18:19

And yes, what does that mean?

18:22

Like Jje?

18:24

Well, you’re saying the name, the name?

18:27

So usually, yes, usually it’s spelled Jean, either that or Jeanne.

18:37

And if, if they go elsewhere, outside of New Orleans, people would call them Jeanie Jean.

18:44

Right?

18:46

Yes.

18:46

But, but here, if I see this name, I will always pronounce it as John and, and I, yeah, I have, you know, the, the ladies that I’ve known like older and, and they would always like Jean.

19:01

It’s Marie, it’s all these kind of French ladies names.

19:06

Yes.

19:07

particularly like local.

19:10

And so that’s, that is the legacy of the French language for those who do not speak it.

19:18

But otherwise, if you want to learn and to speak French, I think this place has a lot to offer, you know, because particularly, you know, Cajun French and Cajun culture and music and all that.

19:35

Yeah, and it’s even in the Mardi Gras language and the Mardi Gras culture as well.

19:42

Yes.

19:43

And there’s also native American influence as well because I know that during carnival there are, you know, the Native American influence as well comes up.

19:51

Right.

19:52

Right.

19:52

 I, I am not a big parade person.

19:56

I am, quite introverted.

19:58

I did go to see the parades in the beginning because that was the big deal.

20:03

and they are so, they’re so big, like during Mardi Gras my whole family.

20:11

Well, everything stops, like, New Orleans has Mardi Gras breaks at school that are one week long.

20:20

And that is usually when other kids are still at school.

20:25

But, but here it’s like, you know, everybody’s on break.

20:28

Monday and Tuesday which is the Tuesday is the fat Tuesday of the Mardi Gras and, and Monday is the lun lundy or Lundy because and they call it.

20:42

Yeah.

20:42

Yeah.

20:43

So, so those two days are usually off for all, like all banks are closed, just New New Orleans, the other part of Louisiana.

20:55

I am not sure about the other part of Louisiana because they, some, some of them adapt and adjust.

21:04

But I can speak for New Orleans.

21:06

It’s so, so common to just have all this time off and, but like you said, it’s more laid back.

21:14

So maybe there are more vacations and more days off.

21:17

Right.

21:17

Right.

21:18

And so there’s a lot of going back to Native Americans.

21:21

There’s also a lot of voodoo influence, which of course, that comes from West Africa and particularly when the ships came in with the enslaved people and they stayed here.

21:33

So that’s the culture that they, they brought in.

21:38

And so it’s very common to see, you know, voodoo dolls or voodoo callers and you know, people that are practicing voodoo religion as well locally.

21:49

So, and a lot of like I said, names and names of the streets that are pronounced in, in a French way, like Jean Lafi, for example, Jean Le.

22:04

So that would be, you know, you don’t pronounce it John Laugh it or whatever.

22:11

So you have to always like, be conscious of like how do you pronounce?

22:16

But there’s some streets in New Orleans that are, you can definitely tell the name is Native Americans, like, so that’s like another street in the city.

22:29

And so there’s, I think quite a big influence of that as well.

22:33

Wow.

22:34

It’s such a unique city and it really is an incredible place to live.

22:39

It’s, it’s a kind of like a micro microculture, micro world by itself.

22:46

And and when people say that it’s different, it really is different.

22:50

It’s like nothing else like any other place.

22:52

Like I go North Carolina, Tennessee, maybe Kentucky and you can sort of swap the city and cities and they look similar and feel similar except, you know, like Nashville has its own thing.

23:03

I, I just find that New Orleans is like so different.

23:06

It looks European feels a little bit.

23:10

Not, not European, not in a sense like Boston.

23:12

Boston is European and clean.

23:14

New Orleans is European disorganized stuff falls apart, you know.

23:19

It’s like, oh, yeah, it’s a little dirty.

23:22

Yeah, it is.

23:22

Yeah, it is very chaotic.

23:24

So, I think that’s the cool part is that it’s so, I guess it just, like, gets into you and then you’re like, oh, you know, and then you can’t, in a way you hate to leave.

23:34

Of course, with the climate change and the impact it has had on New Orleans and the fact that, you know, the, the water levels are rising.

23:45

So, it’s very tricky where you live and, you know, but in the past I heard from people that, you know, locals and they’ve lived their entire lives and their families lived here, they told me that nobody ever evacuated for hurricanes.

24:01

Now.

24:02

I also, yeah, I also think that probably people didn’t know, you know, as we know today about the hurricanes and the strength, you know, usually people like, whatever, we’re just going to stay, city because it’s with, with countless hurricanes.

24:20

Yes.

24:20

Yes.

24:21

And, and some of the people just choose to stay and, you know, rough it and, and usually it’s like, it’s pretty, uncomfortable because you, it’s, it’s hot around that time, really hot and the temperature goes up and when the power goes out then you might be without the, without power for like weeks.

24:45

particularly the last hurricane.

24:48

we were without power for like 10 days or two weeks.

24:51

Now, I was not, we, we, we were able to, we knew that it was like a big hurricane so we had evacuated but a lot of people stay and then they, they have their own generators and they have their own solar panels and they have this and that, and when the hurricane goes through they just, you know, they have parties, you know, they, the day before the hurricane people are grilling meat and yes, yes, we usually just, we have a, an evacuation plan.

25:28

mostly we just tell our friends, like, is it ok, this season if something happens for us to come to you and, and, and, and that’s usually how it’s, it’s, it’s worked but so far we’ve only had to evacuate, twice for Isaac and for Ida.

25:47

, other times it just, just so happened, like, you really never know where it’s going to hit, you know.

25:54

So, sometimes it was like a strong hurricane but it just went into another direction.

26:00

So,, either goes towards Texas or, other parts of Louisiana.

26:06

So, but it’s, it’s quite precarious and that’s, you know, not for everybody.

26:11

Yeah, it’s a little risky in some ways but maybe the advantages of the city outweigh the, the disadvantages.

26:17

Right.

26:18

And, and like, people that are musicians, like you said, creatives and people that just just like food and like, you know, the life that is not harsh and he heard I don’t know when I was in New York and I, I was glad to be done with my trip.

26:40

Like I really enjoyed seeing all those amazing places, both like the, the temple, the, the past pace is just not for me.

26:49

Hustle and the bustle is a bit too much.

26:51

Right.

26:51

Right.

26:52

Like I was saying, like I just felt so it’s almost like why am I sitting in this cafe?

26:58

There’s nobody, literally nobody and they have seats there, there’s nobody in this cafe, people but people keep coming in, getting their coffee on their way in, out, in out and it was so cold outside.

27:08

Like who wants to be walking?

27:10

Like it this cold like with this cup of coffee.

27:13

But it’s just a normal thing, I guess the first very first time when I heard about this area, I, I had certain expectations of what it would feel like and look like.

27:28

And then I came here and it has a lot more in common with the Europe that I’m sort of used to and even sometimes with its chaos.

27:40

It, it reminds me of places where I grew up like, you know, in Ukraine where systems sometimes are broken, systems, bureaucracy and all that.

27:51

It is more, it has more in common with that, that, than in the rest of the US.

27:58

And that’s why it makes, it kind of almost doesn’t feel like I’m in America sometimes.

28:04

It’s like, oh, ok.

28:06

You know, this, this, this feels, this feels familiar.

28:09

But, yeah.

28:10

Mhm.

28:11

Have you ever been, would you like to have visited New Orleans a few times with my family?

28:16

Because I have family in Mississippi and it has in Mississippi,, on the coast.

28:22

Yeah.

28:22

Ok.

28:23

Like near Biloxi.

28:24

Biloxi.

28:25

Yes.

28:25

Yes.

28:25

Biloxi golf.

28:27

Port golf for the, the coast.

28:30

And basically, and, and my grandmother was originally from Jackson.

28:36

And so we always went to Jackson but then they moved down to the coast.

28:39

So we would always go to the coast, but we did go to New Orleans a few times.

28:42

New New Orleans.

28:44

I want to make sure.

28:46

Yeah, it was incredible.

28:47

I mean, the, the what?

28:49

Yeah, like what you said the beignets.

28:50

I remember going and getting coffee and beignets and these kind of dots.

28:55

These French, I think, I guess they’re French.

28:57

I don’t know.

28:57

They, they’re deep fried, Fred.

29:00

Yeah.

29:03

And I just remember eating all of the, the Cajun shrimp and the delicious dishes and then we would always go out and hear music because my mom is a huge fan of jazz and hearing live music in New Orleans.

29:15

So New Orleans.

29:16

Sorry, I’m gonna have to get that.

29:18

You get it, I get it right to the docks with my brother and there’s this guy, this old African American guy singing, sitting on the dock of the bay watching the wind, you know that old, that Otis Redding song and singing that song on the dock.

29:38

And I just remember so peaceful, what a relaxing place.

29:43

And it was, it was just, it was, yeah, a really neat city to visit.

29:48

Yeah.

29:48

Yeah, it’s very, it’s very good to visit and it’s, it’s good to visit around, Mardi Gras.

29:54

If you like to party and to experience, parades.

30:00

It’s good to visit around the, the time.

30:04

Like about now if you don’t want to get the hot, hot weather or sometime after mid October, maybe November.

30:14

That’s, have you ever tried alligator?

30:18

Oh, yes.

30:19

All, all I’ve tried alligator.

30:24

Alligator sausage and turtle soup.

30:28

Those are delicacies, lo local delicacies and turtle soup is incredible.

30:33

Like, it’s just so good.

30:34

I mean, it doesn’t taste like turtle.

30:36

Not that I know how turtle tastes, but it’s, it’s pretty good.

30:40

It’s, it’s really good and Commander’s Palace is one of the,, top notch restaurants where presidents usually eat and, you know, you can go and have lunch there and it’s not like skyrocketing prices if you get lunch.

30:55

and I remember going and we just ordered like turtle soup and it’s incredible and the, the level of service they usually have three servers per person.

31:05

Which is very unusual, but they always, like, make sure that you feel loved and cared for.

31:13

The service is impeccable.

31:15

That’s another thing that’s different in New, in New Orleans and New Orleans because in other parts of the country it’s very slow.

31:21

And I’ve heard that service is just kind of going downhill in many other places because of the pandemic.

31:27

People just don’t want to work in the restaurant.

31:29

So there’s like a shortage of servers.

31:30

I don’t know if that’s the case.

31:32

That was the case.

31:33

Yes.

31:34

But, I think it’s coming back, coming back.

31:37

It just really depends on, on what restaurant it is.

31:40

But, yeah, they just, they can’t afford not to,, not to do that because it’s, Right.

31:48

Yeah.

31:48

Yeah, that’s how it gets all of its revenue.

31:52

Mhm.

31:52

Mhm.

31:53

Yeah.

31:54

Well, thank you so much for sharing all of this incredible information and I think your, your people are going to love hearing about the business side of the.

32:08

Yeah.

32:09

Right.

32:10

I really enjoy that.

32:10

Thank you for inviting me.

32:12

I love chatting about something.

32:14

This cultural experience has been incredible.

32:16

You’ve, we’ve almost traveled there with you, I think during this conversation and experienced a little bit of it.

32:23

Yes.

32:23

Thank you so much.