The Pressure to Always Be Better | B1–B2 Korean Podcast — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hello everyone, this is Teacher Sol
2. 0:02Thank you for coming back to my Korean podcast
3. 0:07On these chilly days, are you having a warm day?
4. 0:12Today, I’d like to talk with you about a book I’ve recently been reading
5. 0:16and I want to discuss this book with you together
6. 0:20This book is by Byung-Chul Han, and it’s called The Burnout Society
7. 0:27This author, Byung-Chul Han, was born in Seoul,
8. 0:30studied there, and then
9. 0:33—after a while— felt some exhaustion with Korean society
10. 0:36That exhaustion is like feeling tired
11. 0:38feeling worn out
12. 0:40and he went to Germany to study philosophy
13. 0:44He worked as a professor in Germany and Switzerland,
14. 0:48and he also wrote a lot of philosophy books
15. 0:52So, his books aren’t easy to read
16. 0:55It’s a bit difficult, but he has written a lot of books
17. 0:59talking about the issues—especially in our society,
18. 1:03in the society we live in
19. 1:06Personally, I ended up reading the book because it was a topic
20. 1:10I was slightly worried about
21. 1:13and kept thinking about a lot
22. 1:16Um, do you ever feel anxious sometimes?
23. 1:20Do you feel emotions like anxiety or depression, things like that?
24. 1:27Especially, the society we live in right now is really comfortable, right?
25. 1:32We have a home,
26. 1:33we can eat whatever we want whenever we want,
27. 1:37we can work, and we can also have hobbies—
28. 1:40really, in our daily lives,
29. 1:43there isn’t anything that’s very uncomfortable, right?
30. 1:46But it seems like more
31. 1:49and more people are feeling a bit more depressed
32. 1:52or sad than they used to,
33. 1:55and even I sometimes feel sad like this
34. 1:58Everything is fine and everything seems okay,
35. 2:02so why can’t I feel satisfied?
36. 2:04I thought about things like that a little
37. 2:07So as I read this book by writer Byung-Chul Han, Burnout Society,
38. 2:10about the thoughts and concerns I’d been having,
39. 2:15I was able to think, "Ah, that’s why I felt that way—
40. 2:22and that’s why I wasn’t satisfied."
41. 2:24So today, I’d like to share the contents of Burnout Society with all of you as well
42. 2:31Then shall we start the podcast right away?
43. 2:40You know, we’ve become freer than we were back then
44. 2:46We’ve gained more freedom
45. 2:48In the past, the things we could do—
46. 2:52or even hobbies—were pretty limited
47. 2:56There weren’t many options
48. 2:58But now, jobs are really diverse,
49. 3:03and our hobbies are really diverse too—
50. 3:05so our freedom has grown as well
51. 3:10As our freedom has grown,
52. 3:12so has our responsibility—our responsibility has grown too
53. 3:17When a problem happens to us now, you see—
54. 3:19Back then, my mom and dad would say, ‘Do this, do that,’
55. 3:25and I wouldn’t be happy
56. 3:28Then I could blame my mom and dad— say it was their fault
57. 3:32I could blame them
58. 3:36Back then, I could blame society—
59. 3:39society was the reason
60. 3:41What I’m feeling right now
61. 3:44is because society is the problem
62. 3:45I used to be able to blame other people like that,
63. 3:49but now, we’re just too free
64. 3:53So because we’re so free,
65. 3:55all responsibilities and every problem that arises now
66. 3:59become my fault
67. 4:02If I’m working on my job right now
68. 4:05and I really hate it
69. 4:07Then it’s still my fault, right? Why?
70. 4:11Because I couldn’t get into a better company
71. 4:14Or I want to go to a better company,
72. 4:17but right now I’m not enough
73. 4:20I’m not good enough
74. 4:23So when we have problems like this,
75. 4:26and when we weren’t a little happy,
76. 4:29then everything is my responsibility
77. 4:33Yes, I was the one who did wrong
78. 4:34Then I'd start comparing myself to others, thinking I should've worked harder.
79. 4:40I wish I’d studied harder
80. 4:43If I’d tried a little more, things might have been different
81. 4:47But when problems like this happen,
82. 4:49we start blaming ourselves,
83. 4:52and then we end up getting more and more sad—why?
84. 4:56Well, I’m a person who isn’t good enough
85. 4:58I didn’t do well
86. 5:00As I think, “It’s my fault,”
87. 5:04we start to feel more pressure,
88. 5:07we feel stressed and pressured
89. 5:10So I’ve become a little freer than before,
90. 5:15but in all these choices, don’t you think I might end up feeling pressured
91. 5:19and comparing myself more with other people?
92. 5:24So I feel like I’m lacking—
93. 5:26like I’m not enough
94. 5:28When I keep thinking that way, I’m like,
95. 5:31“Oh—then I need to work even harder.”
96. 5:33“I have to live even harder.”
97. 5:35And that’s how we end up making ourselves even more and more stressed and burdened
98. 5:42I can’t fall behind others—
99. 5:45I have to do better than them
100. 5:47That’s what causes us so much stress
101. 5:51Right now, we can’t even relax properly
102. 5:54If we rest now, we start to feel anxious:
103. 5:58“ Other people must be studying right now—
104. 6:01am I allowed to rest like this? Huh?”
105. 6:03if I want to succeed like that person,
106. 6:06I shouldn’t be resting now
107. 6:09Even when I rest, I feel anxious.
108. 6:12And you know, technology has advanced
109. 6:14a lot more than it used to, right?
110. 6:19It’s advanced so much compared to before,
111. 6:21so the technology is way better now
112. 6:24Now that we use AI,
113. 6:27we can make our work even easier
114. 6:30But then we’d have to do less work, right?
115. 6:35Because AI can do our tasks faster,
116. 6:39so then we should be able to rest more
117. 6:44But are you resting more? No
118. 6:49Because AI makes work faster,
119. 6:52we end up having to do more work
120. 6:56Because of AI, the time we save—
121. 6:59we think we should do other work or
122. 7:02study something else
123. 7:06Back when there were no computers,
124. 7:10after work and getting home,
125. 7:12you could just watch TV and rest
126. 7:15People would rest, of course
127. 7:17But now there are computers, and phones,
128. 7:20and even email
129. 7:22so even after you get off work and come home,
130. 7:24we can still do more work
131. 7:28So we do more work even at home
132. 7:31Since AI has come out now,
133. 7:33we’ve learned new AI and
134. 7:36technology has become more convenient,
135. 7:39but we haven’t gotten any more comfortable
136. 7:42As things became more convenient,
137. 7:44we ended up doing more work, faster
138. 7:48And since new technologies keep coming out,
139. 7:52now we have to study those too
140. 7:55We’ve gotten a bit more comfortable,
141. 7:59but in turn our efficiency has also increased,
142. 8:04so we can do work faster
143. 8:07meaning we end up taking on more work
144. 8:10That’s really paradoxical, isn’t it?
145. 8:12Technology is getting better and better,
146. 8:15but the hours we work at the company are the same
147. 8:19These days, IT companies
148. 8:21have AI,
149. 8:23so they lay off other people
150. 8:26They fire people easily
151. 8:28and give more work to employees who weren’t laid off
152. 8:33And they say that right now, our generation
153. 8:37is lonelier than any other generation
154. 8:42These days, we’re all connected
155. 8:46We live in a world where you can talk with people all over the world through the internet,
156. 8:51and you can see me too—
157. 8:53but somehow, we’re becoming even lonelier
158. 9:01As you probably know,
159. 9:03even though we have a lot of Instagram friends,
160. 9:06the friends we can really talk deeply with
161. 9:09when we have genuine concerns—
162. 9:13and the friends we see more often—are gradually becoming fewer
163. 9:20And because it’s so easy to meet other people,
164. 9:25things are becoming too casual
165. 9:29If we’re not happy with a small thing in our relationship,
166. 9:32we just read the message and don’t reply
167. 9:34you just disappear
168. 9:36It’s become so difficult in this society
169. 9:41to form such a deep, deep relationship
170. 9:45So they say we’re becoming lonelier and lonelier
171. 9:50And the writer also said,
172. 9:53“We don’t really know how we should live
173. 9:58in order to be happy.”
174. 10:01Especially, people who always have goals
175. 10:05are really, really used to setting goals
176. 10:09So when they achieve a goal,
177. 10:11they make another one,
178. 10:14and when they achieve that one,
179. 10:15they make another again—
180. 10:18there are many people who live hard
181. 10:20while focusing only on goals like that
182. 10:24At first, it’s about finding a good job
183. 10:26Next would be buying a house
184. 10:29Then what—having a good family,
185. 10:31having children,
186. 10:33then continuing to send the kids to good schools
187. 10:36If you live like that,
188. 10:39when exactly will I be able to feel satisfied?
189. 10:44Once you achieve this goal,
190. 10:46another goal appears
191. 10:48And when you achieve that one,
192. 10:50yet another goal comes along
193. 10:53So when will we be happy?
194. 10:57When will we be able to feel satisfied?
195. 11:01That's the kind of questions we end up asking
196. 11:04I was like this
197. 11:07Ever since I was young,
198. 11:08I always had lots of goals—like goals for my 20s,
199. 11:11goals for my 30s, and so on
200. 11:16But then I thought, if I live just by chasing goals, when will I ever be able to live satisfactorily?
201. 11:24Even in my 40s,
202. 11:26if I’m just getting older
203. 11:27and still only making goals,
204. 11:31when will I be able to live my life happily and with satisfaction?
205. 11:38I had these thoughts
206. 11:40So I could really relate to this book
207. 11:44Even if I don’t have goals like these,
208. 11:47even if I don’t achieve them,
209. 11:48even if I didn’t study a little today,
210. 11:51or do less work,
211. 11:53or skip exercising—
212. 11:54why didn’t I do it?
213. 11:56Why didn’t I do what I was supposed to do today?
214. 11:59You shouldn’t think, “I’m trash.” Instead,
215. 12:04“Ah, I didn’t do what I needed to do today,
216. 12:07but still, I’m okay.”
217. 12:09They say you need to be able to think that way
218. 12:13Especially, I really felt a lot of guilt
219. 12:18This writer says that
220. 12:21our society is shaping us like this
221. 12:27Even if I didn’t do something
222. 12:29during the day,
223. 12:31I should be okay
224. 12:33They say that even if I don’t have any goals right now,
225. 12:36I still need to be okay and happy
226. 12:41We’re trying every single day to live a better life
227. 12:46I want to become a better me
228. 12:48and work hard for a better life—
229. 12:52But what he's saying is that we're losing the time to actually experience
230. 13:00what it means to live a good and truly happy life.
231. 13:07Does it make sense to you?
232. 13:08We’re trying to live more
233. 13:11and more diligently every day,
234. 13:13but somehow
235. 13:15the time we have to be truly happy
236. 13:18and do the things we really enjoy
237. 13:21is gradually slipping away from us
238. 13:24Even when I’m doing nothing
239. 13:26and just staying still,
240. 13:28“Oh, it’s okay.” We’re saying that we must
241. 13:31not lose those kinds of moments when we can speak like this
242. 13:37Now, when I haven’t done something,
243. 13:40I shouldn’t think, ‘It’s because I’m lazy.’
244. 13:43Oh, we should recognize that society is shaping me into this
245. 13:47Taking a break is only natural—
246. 13:49I’m supposed to rest
247. 13:51But if I do, I’ll fall behind everyone else
248. 13:56It's also kind of a problem to live in a society that makes you think
249. 14:03you're going to live a worse life than other people
250. 14:07and this kind of enormous freedom
251. 14:10that makes everything feel like it's
252. 14:12my responsibility, like it's my fault
253. 14:14After all, even if it might not actually be our responsibility,
254. 14:18things can't all be our responsibility, right? That's right?
255. 14:22Have any of you, too, ever had that kind of anxious feeling
256. 14:26when you did less—when you studied less?
257. 14:30I also still have these anxious feelings,
258. 14:34but I’m trying to gradually feel less worried
259. 14:38Everyone wants a different kind of life,
260. 14:41and everyone likes different things
261. 14:45I really hope you’ll take some time to think
262. 14:49about what you want
263. 14:52and what you like
264. 14:54Today, I shared a few things with you about this book,
265. 14:56A Society of Fatigue, by writer Hwang Byeong-cheol
266. 15:03I hope you found today’s podcast useful
267. 15:08And in the next episode, I’ll come back with another story, too
268. 15:12Have a great day, everyone
269. 15:13Thank you