Download Subtitles for Learn Real-Life English: Abandoned American Neighborhood

Are you ready to learn some real life English with comprehensible input? Well, good, because today you are going to continue improving your English by listening to me while I show you the America that you will not see in the movies. Today, we are exploring an abandoned neighborhood. So, the word abandoned means that people used to live here and they left. And a neighborhood is a place where there's a lot of houses, where people are raising their families, where people live. This neighborhood was once home to a lot of American families just trying to live the American dream. But today, we are going to show you what happens when the American dream turns into this. >> So guys, it's it's really kind of sad to see a neighborhood in this state because every house here was once somebody's dream. The dream of raising their family. the dream of giving their children opportunities that they didn't have. And now you can see what's become of it. Now, why is there a whole neighborhood just abandoned when we have a housing crisis in the United States? Stick around because we're going to find the answer to that a little bit later. Guys, it feels kind of creepy to be here. It feels so strange to be in a neighborhood with nobody around. And I know that it's just us here because when we got here, we saw a deer running away. That I've learned in all of my years of hiking, that means that you're the first one there that day because if somebody else was there, the deer would have ran away already. And you guys, you could just see that nature is starting to take this place back. There's trees and plants growing in the house. The house is starting to fall apart. Maybe in a hundred years there'll be trees right there and you won't even know there was ever a house there. Let's see what else there is. Guys, I just want to show you this street right here. Okay, this street. This street was once the kind of street that you see in any neighborhood where you could drive your car safely. And now it's been so long since anybody's been here that there's plants growing up out of the street. Wow. It it really makes you think, what happened here? Why is there nobody here? Why doesn't the city government take care of this place? Why are they letting this land go to waste when people need homes? Camera wife, have you ever seen the movie I Am Legend? >> No. >> So, it's a very famous actor, Will Smith. You guys probably know about Will Smith because he smacked somebody a couple years ago. >> Oh, yes. >> Yeah. The whole world hates Will Smith now. >> He's so famous. >> He's a joke now, but back then he was one of our most beloved actors. I'm a fan of his acting. I think he's a joke, but I like his movies. Anyway, he made a movie called I Am Legend where he's the last man alive. That's what you feel like when you're walking down this street. Like you're the last person alive. All you can hear is the animals. Here we have another house. And you could see every house here, guys. Has the windows broken out. Wow. And this at one time, guys, was actually a beautiful little home. A place you could have been proud to raise your family. When you're in a place like this, you should hear happy children playing, but now you can't hear anything. Now guys, a cliche is something that people say very often. Okay? A cliche is something that people have said so many times that it sounds old and it's played out. But a cliche about the American dream is that you'll have a home with a yard and a little white fence. Well, this was some family's little white fence. Maybe they had a garden here. Maybe somebody grew delicious tomatoes or beautiful flowers. But now you can see, like I said, nature is taking all of this back. The little fence has fallen. Now it's more like a nightmare. So guys, this kind of house really is the American dream. You've got a a home that's probably two or three bedrooms. Got a nice yard with a garden. You've got a garage. But now look at it. The door is sitting out back here. Garbage everywhere. Completely destroyed. Let's see what this garage looks like. Here you can see what used to be a grill on the ground, guys. Somebody probably had barbecues over here cooking delicious food, inviting their family over to see their home that they were so proud of. Now you can see what it looks like. Here's the garage. You can imagine somebody's father out here working on his little projects, trying to get some alone time. And there's even workbenches over here, so you know that somebody was doing some sort of work in here. Here's an old arcade game. So, this garage was probably once some guy's man cave. So, guys, you could see that when this house was taken care of, it actually was a beautiful home. These were nice and painted white. Everything was clean. You can see over here, they did really did have their white fence. And now that dream is just sinking back into the earth. Here guys, you can see what we call a street lamp. So what a street lamp does, you guys know, is when the sun goes down, the light comes on so people could see while they're coming home. You could see the electrical cable here is just down sitting on the ground. So this really was a real neighborhood, guys. It had a nice street, electricity, lights, and now every house has its windows smashed out, and there's nobody around except for us. So, once again, guys, this house, if it was fixed up, this would be a $230,000 house in the United States. This is probably a three-bedroom house. It's made out of brick. And now you can just see that the bricks are falling out. If you guys don't know, this material is called bricks. And this here was once a sidewalk. The sidewalk is where you walk up to the house. Not really a sidewalk anymore, though. I think you guys are probably wondering what's it look like inside. Should we find out? Let me look around for a second first. Okay. All right, guys. Let's see. Be very careful because the floor, you can feel it. It's not strong. And you can see here that the floor is raising up. That means that moisture has been eating it up and it's not very strong. Do you want me to show them? Okay, guys. This was the living room. This house even had a fireplace. This floor is not sturdy. This used to be the kitchen. You could see it even had nice lights. Wow. Stay right there, baby. Here's what used to be the bathroom. Once again, nice lights. This was a nice house, guys. One bedroom, two bedrooms. This was a threebedroom house. There's my wife about to fall through the floor. Be careful, baby. And maybe somebody used to sit out on this porch. Hey guys, I hope that you are enjoying this video as much as I enjoyed making it. Real quick, I want to tell you guys about a super cool way that you can practice your speaking in English. So, the English learning platform Sprout has a really cool new feature, Kyle AI. So, on Sprout, you can watch videos that are made specifically at your level of English, and afterwards, you can discuss that video with Kyle AI. So, let's see how it works. Let's say, for example, you just watched the collaboration that Jay and I made where we talked about very deep topics. Okay, let's see what it's like to talk with Kyle AI about that. >> Hello, Kyle. It's nice to chat with you. In the video, Jay and I talked about what makes life meaningful. What do you think gives life meaning? I think that finding your purpose, finding the thing that truly makes you feel alive and then dedicating yourself to be the best that you can possibly be at it is what gives life meaning. What do you think about that? >> That's a really interesting thought. It sounds like you're saying that having a purpose and striving for self-improvement are key. I agree that working towards something you're passionate about can make life feel very meaningful. Did Jay and I mention anything in the video that reminded you of your idea? >> Wow, guys. Not only does that sound like my voice, that sounds like something that I would say. So, my friends, if you want to try out Sprout and speak with Kyle AI, you can click the link down in the description, use my promo code, Pensando, and try it for free for a week. This is an awesome way that you guys can improve your speaking and really help creators like Jay and myself who are trying our best to bring real life English to the world. All right, let's get back to the video. Here's another house that you can tell was beautiful at one point. And you could tell just by that color that the people who lived here were happy people because only happy people paint their house that color, guys. Wow. I'm not even happy enough to paint my house that color. So, so who whoever lived here, this was their home, guys. This was where they wanted to live a life. And this house almost looks okay from the outside, but it is completely destroyed on the inside. Now, over here, guys, you can see a very old mailbox. And each one of those little spaces is where the mailman would put the mail for each one of those houses. But you can see that you can't even get there anymore. And those other ones right there, the the blue and the red one, those are newspaper mailboxes. So people still read newspapers back when they lived here. Now we all get our news from Tik Tok. Another house that >> Huh. >> or YouTubers >> or YouTubers. This house probably is the one in the best shape, but that does not mean that it's not destroyed. All right, guys. So, you can see that people have came in here and spray painted all over the place. This is what we call graffiti. Wow. This one has carpet, hardwood floors. Come here, camera wife. Can you guys picture me in here cooking, doing a cooking video? Actually has some pretty good space. This was once a nice kitchen for sure. Once again, guys, three-bedroom house at least. We have people in the United States that can't afford a home and people living on the streets. I'm going to make a video about homelessness here eventually. But how is a place like this just sitting here when we have people that need homes? The government could come in here and $30,000 later, this place could look brand new for a new family and a new chance at the American dream. So guys, you could see that the paint is falling off the ceiling. The fan is broken. But that was actually an expensive fan a long time ago. And we call these ceiling fans, guys. That was an expensive ceiling fan at one point. But now look at it. Just wasted the nice hardwood floor. Wow. So guys, this was a four bedroomedroom house. That's very expensive here. Four bedroomedroom, two bathrooms. But you guys got to see this last bedroom here. >> Look up here, baby. Look at the paint just falling from the ceiling, guys. With the time, it's just slowly fell. That's paint all over the floor. It's peeling off the walls. Wow. >> My wife says it looks like a a decoration, but it is not. That's just time. And guys, imagine how long it takes for paint to do that. >> Yeah. >> So, that is how long this place has just been sitting here exposed to the weather. Oh, wow. Guys, my wife just pointed this out. Bird's nest. A bird has made this their home. At least somebody's living here. All right, guys. So, we just had a runin. And a runin means when you run into somebody, when you see somebody, the police came out here, guys. Three officers driving around in a truck. So, instead of hiding, I went and talked to them. They said, "Hey guys, how's it going? Uh, are we breaking any rules being here?" They basically said be careful, don't cause any trouble and you're okay. So that is uh one thing that has always served me well. I treat the police with respect and they treat me with respect as well. So it's when you have an attitude with them that they have an attitude with you. Anyway, guys, this is one more of the houses. Wow. Tell me in the comments, guys, what you think about seeing all of these homes abandoned. Nobody here. It's incredible. What do you think, wife? >> Sad. >> Sad. It really is sad because like the house we were just in, you could see they had nice uh blinds, the things that go in front of the curtains, expensive bathroom things. It was once a very nice home, and now look at it. An abandoned neighborhood in abandoned America, which is what I'll be calling this video. So guys, why why on earth are there four bedroomedroom two bath homes sitting here doing nothing when millions of Americans need homes? Let's go find out. wife. All right, my friends. Here we have our answer. This is why that neighborhood and so much of this part of the country has been abandoned. Why? The steel mills, guys. These are the steel mills. And you can see that part over there where the smoke is coming up. That's a blast furnace. That means that they're making steel there. That is the reason that my family and so many other families in this part of the country get to eat, get to have homes. But I'm one of the lucky ones that still makes a living off of this. However, there are thousands of others who lost their jobs. How did this happen, guys? Well, over a hundred years ago now, a huge company called US Steel came here, built all of this, all of this guys, and started making so much steel, so much money that people from all over the country and even from different countries moved here to have a career in the steel industry. Now, US Steel chose this specific area for a reason. As you can see, we're on Lake Michigan, so boats could bring in all of the raw materials, the supplies, the iron that they need to feed those blast furnaces and make that steel. Another reason they chose right here, as you can see on this side of the lake, right over there, guys, is the big city of Chicago. So, they knew if they chose this area right here, they would have a place where they could bring in all the materials on the lake. tons of workers could come from Chicago and they built the cities of Gary, East Chicago, all of these places around here around the idea that there were jobs here at the steel mill. And not just jobs, guys, good jobs. A job where a person could come work, feed their family, send their kids to college, give their families a better life than they ever dreamed of. These jobs provided people with good salaries, provided people with health insurance for their families, which is a huge thing, and their union jobs, which people thought meant that they were safe. But for many people, they did not turn out to be safe at all. What changed from this place being a place that provided jobs and homes and work to being a place where people abandoned entire neighborhoods like we saw earlier? Well, really two things. One, technology started to advance and machines were invented. And the thing about these machines is now with one guy running the machine, he can do the work that used to take 20 people. Okay? So imagine that if it only takes one person to run the machine that can do what used to take 20 people, that means that they no longer need 19 of the other people. Okay? So they could get rid of 19 jobs and just keep the one. Now the thing about that is with every person who worked one of those jobs, they have a family that they were supporting. Okay? So the machines started to take a lot of the jobs that used to take many more people. That's one thing. The second thing, other countries caught up. Okay. At first, nobody around the world could do what we were doing here at US Steel. But then other countries started making their own blast furnaces like this. And not only could they make the same steel at the same same quality, they could do it for a lot less money. So a lot of those jobs started going to China and India and other places and they started making less and less and less steel here in the US. So guys, back when US steel here was the king of worldwide steel, there was almost 200,000 people living in the city of Gary alone. But once the machines started taking some of the jobs and then factories in other countries started taking more of the jobs, now there's less than 80,000 people living in the city of Gary. So the population is less than half of what it was when these factories were booming and people were coming here to work. So instead of people coming to this area to find jobs, the families who lost their jobs started to leave. they started to leave and look for jobs elsewhere. So, one family leaves one of those homes we saw earlier, another family leaves. The next thing you know, since there's nobody there to take care of the houses, they start looking worse and worse and getting more dangerous. And the last family there doesn't want to live by a bunch of abandoned homes. So eventually even the last family there left and now you have a completely abandoned neighborhood. Now this is happening not just in that neighborhood but all around these industrial parts of the country as technology changes and jobs are going from these places to offices and now offices people are working from home. So really guys it's changing times. is changing times. A hundred years ago, that was the best opportunity that a person, a young man like me could hope to give his family. A young man like me in his 30s would come all the way here from Tennessee. That's what my grandparents did, guys. My uh my mother's father moved up here all the way from Tennessee just to work in a place like that and feed his family. So my friends, that's the story for thousands of Americans. They came to this part of the country looking for that steel mill opportunity, looking for a great job to put food on their table. Eventually those jobs went away as times changed. And now we are left with an abandoned city full of crime, drugs, empty houses. So who knows, maybe one day things will change. New opportunities will come here to Gary. But for right now, what we saw was part of Abandon America. Thank you so much for being here on this adventure. Guys, this video was so much fun for my beautiful camera wife and I to film. And we want to start making more videos like this, like mini documentaries, okay? Showing cool things here in the US and then explaining why they're like that. So, if you enjoy this kind of video, tell me down in the comments, guys. Appreciate you as always being here, spending your valuable time with us and we will see you in the next