Daily Archives: April 10, 2012

92. UK Royal Family Opinions – Video (Part 2) [TRANSCRIPT]

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This is the transcript to my YouTube video “UK Royal Family Opinions (Part 2)”. Some of the vocabulary is defined at the bottom of this blog post.

Transcript of UK Royal Family Opinions – English Speaker Interviews in London (PART 2)

Girl: Hello!

Luke: So, whereabouts are you from, in the country?

Girl: Um, from London

Luke: Ok, great, which part of London?

Girl: North West

Luke: Oh yeah

Girl: Queen’s Park

Luke: Queen’s Park, alright. So, err, having a nice day?

Girl: Yeah, it’s really good, yeah

Luke: Um, what do you think of the Royal Family?

Girl: I like the Royal Family. I liked the wedding. I thought it was nice that everyone was coming together. Yeah, I think they’re alright.

Luke: What about, erm… let’s see… Who’s your favourite member of the Royal Family?

Girl: Harry

Luke: Why?

Girl: (Be)cause he’s kind of my age-ish, seems alright, seems quite normal. I think both of the younger ones seem quite normal.

Luke: Yeah, okay. What do you mean by normal?

Girl: As in, like, not too, they kind of try and be as normal as, like, they can, like go to uni, army, stuff like that.

Luke: Yeah?

Girl: Yeah

Luke: You think the others aren’t normal?

Girl: I just think they seem a bit more, higher. I dunno, like maybe can’t relate to them as much.

Luke: If you had a choice would you get rid of them? Keep them?

Girl: I don’t think they’re doing any harm. I don’t think I’d get rid of them. I think it’s nice for the country to have a Royal Family. I think it’s nice.

Luke: Anything else to say to the people of the world?

Girl: Yey London!

Luke: Alright

Girl: I don’t know!

Luke: Thank you very much!

Couple in Green Park

Luke: So I’m asking people about the Royal Family. What do you think? Do you think they’re a good thing or a bad thing?

Man: I think you can differentiate between the Queen and some of the other members of the Royal Family. The Queen does an excellent job. I think it’s more difficult for the  others to know quite what their role is supposed to be.

Luke: Right, okay. Right what do you think?

Woman: I think… I admire them and I think a lot of them work hard but I think the media can give them a bad profile. They’re quite invasive [the media] and I think if anyone was under the spotlight they wouldn’t come out glowingly. I do admire The Queen and also the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, I think she works very hard, does a lot of work for charity. I’ve actually met her so I think that overall they’re good for the country, they’re good for tourism and I think they keep, generally keep good standards, so yeah, that’s my opinion.

Luke: Ok, right, thank you very much

Both: Thank you

Party Animals near Buckingham Palace. The girl is from Lancashire and the guy is from Yorkshire.

Luke: Right, so, I’m asking people about The Royal Family. What do you think, are they a good thing or a bad thing?

Girl: I think they bring valuable tourism, but that’s as far as it goes really. I don’t, yeah I’m not interested in them in the slightest.

Guy: I think they give us a British persona, we wouldn’t be British without a famous monarch, and she does look bloody lovely on the coins, much better than in person.

Luke: Ok, right, have you got a favourite Royal?

Guy: Yes!

Luke: Who?

Girl: It’s Kate Middleton!

Guy: YEAH!

Luke: So you like Kate then?

Guy: She makes a lovely breakfast

Luke: Have you had breakfast with her?

Guy: I ate with her in the morning

Luke: She makes a lovely breakfast?

Guy: Yes

Luke: Okay and, err, who do you like?

Girl: Yeah, obviously Kate, in that dress

Guy: Prince Harry’s a nice guy, he seems like the most genuine person who you could actually have a beer with in the Royal Family, I’d suggest, the only ginger person who is attractive to women in England as well, no offence interviewer [Luke: I’M NOT GINGER!]

Girl: And, I met the Queen… I met the Queen’s husband, I met the Queen’s husband once

Guy: Oh Prince Philip

Girl: Yeah

Luke: You met Prince Philip? This is fascinating

Girl: Yeah because he opened part of my college up, so I had to represent

Luke: What was he like?

Girl: He was a pretty funny guy. Dead posh, and he was in Salford so he was probably shit scared!

Guy: I met Prince Charles at our university opening and forgot to stand up but I had been drinking, very very much

Luke: Alright, thank you very much

Guy: I’m sorry Luke

Guy from Australia

Luke: Right, so what do you think of the Royal Family?

Aussie: Erm, neither here nor there really, like I suppose they’re a symbol of an era gone by. I think they bring in England a great deal of revenue. I think they’ve been a good money spinner for England.

Luke: Are they good for Australia? Big question isn’t it, I suppose.

Aussie: I think they’re good for a lot of the smaller countries that depend on the commonwealth, you know, and that symbolism at the top really holds a lot of those small countries together and gives them a voice whereas a lot of the Pacific nations wouldn’t have a voice if it wasn’t for being in the commonwealth, yeah

Luke: What do you like about William?

Aussie: He seems pretty… he’s not up himself for a start, he doesn’t seem to be up himself, he doesn’t mind getting in and getting

Luke: Getting his hands dirty

Aussie: Getting his hands dirty you know, his younger brother he’s not too bad either. He does some bad, some stupid things but all young blokes do. People have got to just accept that and get over it. Yeah but they both put their arses on the line for their country, you know?

Luke: Right, well thank you very much I appreciate that

Guy from Birmingham

Luke: So what do you think of the Royal Family?

Brummie: I think overall it’s a good thing. They’re an example, and you know they’ve… for the past couple of years they’ve really come into their own again. We’ve got Charles, you know, looking like he’s going to be one hell of a king, of course that’s if the Queen doesn’t outlive him. We’ve got erm, Harry and William who look like they’re going to be two excellent princes and one day king, so yeah they’re… I like them. I like the fact that we have a Royal Family. I think we should be proud of such.

Luke: Really yeah. What would you say to people who think that we shouldn’t have one?

Brummie: Most people who I’ve spoken to about it seem to object to the cost, which is fair enough, yes the Royal Family does cost but they do an immense amount of work for that and per head it’s actually very very small so I don’t mind that.

Luke: Yeah, okay, who’s your favourite Royal?

Brummie: I’d say if you asked me around the same time of the wedding I would have said William but overall as a head of state I’ve got to say The Queen.

Luke: Really, yeah. Why is that?

Brummie: She’s just an immense woman and she’s served for so long and still she wants to serve, you can see it, and she’s quite stylish.

Russian girl

Girl: Hello

Luke: So, err, where are you from?

Girl: I’m from Russia

Luke: Okay and how long have you been in…

Girl: For 3 years

Luke: Okay, right, so I’m asking people about the Royal Family. What do you think of the Royal Family in England, in Britain?

Girl: Well, it’s a nice tradition. I think it’s nice that they have here a Queen. People enjoy it.

Luke: People enjoy it, yeah okay. Erm, who’s your favourite Royal?

Girl: Prince William, Prince Harry as well

Luke: Yeah? Why do you like them?

Girl: I fancy them

Luke: Do you really? Which one is more attractive?

Girl: Maybe Prince Harry because he’s still available.

Luke: Okay. So, Harry if you’re watching, err, what’s your name?

Girl: Daria

Luke: Daria

Girl: That’s my boyfriend there!

Luke: Oh your boyfriend’s here, okay you’ll have to deal with him first. So you like Harry, umm, okay, fine, so what about Kate, what do you think of her?

Girl: Well she’s very nice. They’ve been [in] a long term relationship before the wedding so they’re a great couple. I was here when it was a [the] wedding, so actually I made some videos and I sent them to Russian TV and they used it on [the] news, Russian news

Luke: Do you work for Russian news?

Girl: No I don’t, it was just, like a favour for my friend

Luke: Oh that’s good

Girl: So I appear on Russian TV!

Luke: Great, wow, fame and fortune is [are] one the way

Vocabulary in this video:

whereabouts = where exactly. E.g. “Whereabouts in London do you live?”

-ish = this is a suffix which means ‘approximately’

relate to them = understand them / feel that you’re similar to them

get rid of them = throw them away / remove them

differentiate = see clear differences

admire = respect and look up to

invasive = invades your privacy

under the spotlight = in the eyes of the media a lot

they wouldn’t come out glowingly = they wouldn’t look good

I’m not interested in them in the slightest = I don’t care about them

persona = an identity

genuine = real / true

ginger = with red hair

dead posh = very posh

shit scared! = very scared

neither here nor there  = without strong feelings for or against

an era gone by = an old time

revenue = income for the government

a good money spinner = something that makes a lot of money

blokes = men (infomal)

get over it = recover from it / learn that it isn’t a problem any more

put their arses on the line = take risks

they’ve really come into their own again = they’re being successful again

one hell of a king = a great king

immense = big and impressive

I fancy them = I think they’re sexually attractive

Competition Update

1 Reply

The competition is now closed. Voting ends on 16 May 2012.

Thank you very much for your entries. I am now processing them and I will upload them in a podcast (or two) in the very near future, and you will be able to listen to all the comments people have sent me. Then you can vote on which one is your favourite.

Other news, I am back from my skiing holiday and I had a great time. I did fall over a lot, but I didn’t injure my mouth so I can still speak!

Expect more podcast episodes to be uploaded soon.

Luke

91. The A to Z of Random Thoughts (A Rambling Episode)

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This is probably the most random episode of the podcast so far, and certainly the longest. It’s about the same length as a football match, in fact, why not listen to this while watching an actual football match? It might make it more interesting.

Small Donate ButtonRight-click here to download this episode.
In this one, I didn’t have time to prepare very much because I am going on holiday tomorrow and I have to pack. However, I wanted to publish something tonight so I decided to go through the alphabet from A to Z and just think of words randomly, and then make a few comments about those words. You can see the words I mention below in a long list.

Please feel free to add your comments to this podcast episode. I’d really like you to contribute your thoughts.

I also give you an update to the competition I launched in the last episode. I have received a few mp3s but not as many as I expected. So, I’ve decided the change the rules of the competition. You can now send me emails with your responses to podcast episodes. Write no more than about 200 words in response to an episode. Please write the word ‘competition’ in the email so I know it is a competition entry. I will read out your emails on a podcast in the near future and then listeners can vote for their favourite mp3 or email response. The winner will get the Phrasal Verbs dictionary.

Here’s the A to Z list I talk about in this episode. There are also some videos at the bottom for you to check out. Have fun, and please donate some money (even a small amount helps) so I don’t lose out by doing this podcast. Your donations make this podcast possible. If you’d like to donate, click the button below. It’s easy and PayPal is a very safe and secure way of transferring money online (you can use it for eBay and other stuff too)…

A to Z
Remember that I just wrote these words down randomly in a couple of minutes. In the podcast I talk about these things. There’s no overall theme. It’s just a random collection of ideas, all improvised into the microphone.
Action
Ambition
Business
Batman
Comedy
Destruction
Deserve
Dogs
Elephants
Eggs
Easter
French
Germany
Greece
Gravy
Hamburgers
Health
Hicks (Bill Hicks)
Holidays
Ice-cream
Igloo
iPad
James
Jimi Hendrix
Jazz
Jogging
Jobs (Steve)
Keith Richards
Keith Moon
Kissing
Luke/luck/look
Luck
Lazy
Lemon and Lime
Lennon (John)
Mum
Maths
Monopoly
Nose
Orange Juice
Obstacles
Opportunities
Police (crime fighters)/ The Police (rock band)
Pressure
The Queen (monarch) / Queen (rock band)
Qualifications
Questions
Respect
Remember/Remind
<b>Random</b>
Stones (Rolling)
Stone (in your shoe)
Stupid
Sorry
Trailers
Trees
Underwear
Underground
Violence
Women’s day
Wookie
Why?
Xylophone
X-Men / ex-men
X-Box
Yesterday
Yes
Yellow
Zebra
Zoo
Zen

Batman’s night out in Toronto
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLOps4qA5rM&w=400&h=233]

90. Competition + Phrasal Verbs A, B + C

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Enter the competition to win the phrasal verbs dictionary [now closed 10/04/12]. Details of the competition below. I also teach you loads of useful phrasal verbs that begin with the letters A, B and C.

Small Donate ButtonRight-click here to download.
Details of the competition
-Competition closes on 10th April 2012
-Send me an mp3 of your response to any of my podcast episodes
-Your response should just be something you want to say on the subject of one of my episodes
-The audio should be no more than 2 minutes long
-Don’t say anything really offensive please – of course I know you wouldn’t do this ;)
-Email the mp3 to me at luketeacher@hotmail.com
-Include your name, and where you come from
-When I have collected lots of mp3 responses I’ll put them into a podcast
-You can decide which response is your favourite (not just because of the English used)
-The one with the most votes will win the dictionary

VOCABULARY
Here are all the phrasal verbs I used in this episode:
A
to account for something -“All this traffic accounts for the noise in London”
to act on something -“I act on my ideas and make a podcast”
to agree with something – “I agree with everything you say”
to appeal to someone – “Living in Hawaii really appeals to me”

B
to back someone up – “My listeners back me up and vote for me”
to bail someone out – “The Bank of England had to bail out the high street banks”
to base something on something / to be based on something – “This book is based on a true story”
to begin with something – “The podcast always begins with a jingle”
to begin by doing something – “I’ll begin by giving you the background to this news story”
to begin to do something – “He began to start talking about crime in London”
to believe in something – “I don’t believe in UFOs”
to belong to something – “Some people belong to sects with strange ideas” “Why can’t ants go to church? Because they’re in-sects”
to blow someone away / to be blown away by something – “If I saw a UFO I’d be blown away”
to blow something up – “The army would try to blow up the UFO”
to break down – “My car broke down on the motorway” “He broke down and started crying”
to break up – “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to break up”
to bring something down – “They’re going to bring the government down”
to bring someone down – “Don’t bring me down man!”
to bring something on – “bring it on!”
to build on something – “They want to build on the legacy of the Olympic games”
to build up an interest in something – “They’re using publicity to build up an interest in the olympics”
to bump into someone – “I bumped into Mike and we went for a few pints”

C
to call something off – “It would be embarrassing if they called off the opening ceremony”
to camp out – “To stay outdoors in a tent”
to get carried away – “Some people might get carried away and drink too much”
to catch up with a friend – “It’s nice to catch up with a friend and catch up on all the latest gossip”
to catch up on the latest news
to charge someone with something / to be charged with something – “The police charged him with being drunk and disorderly”
to clean something up – “I’m going to stay in and clean up my room”
to cling to something – “People cling to these old stereotypes about Britain”
to come across something – “I came across a lovely old pub which I didn’t know about”
to come along – “I’m going to a party, you should come along”
to come around – “Why don’t you come around for a cup of tea later”
to come through something – “He’s just come through a very difficult period”
to come up with something – “She came up with some really good ideas”
to concentrate on something – “You can concentrate on your English”
to consist of something – “A typical episode will consist of interviews, vocabulary and pronunciation”
to contribute to something – “He really contributes a lot to the team”
to convert something into something – “I can convert WAV files into MP3s”
to be covered in something – “My desk was covered in CDs”
to crack down on something – “The police are cracking down on internet piracy”
to cut back on something – “The government are cutting back on public spending”
to cut something off / to get cut off – “They might cut off the electricity” “Sorry, I think we got cut off for a moment”