Today on the podcast I am talking to Lindsay from All Ears Engish.
Do you know the All Ears English podcast? If you don’t know it, then that is a surprise to me because All Ears English is an extremely popular, well-known and high ranking podcast for learners of English.
I’m sure you’ve come across it before. Yellow logo, Lindsay and her co-hosts Michelle, Jessica and Aubrey. American English. Their episodes are always full of positive energy. They promote personal growth through learning English and their mantra is “connection not perfection”. All Ears English. Over a million subscribers on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, ranked in Best of Apple Podcasts categories in 2018 and 2019, and #1 in US Education Language Courses category. Lindsay and her team have been featured in Podcast Magazine, Language Magazine, and Forbes. When your podcast is in a magazine, when you’ve crossed from one medium into another, you know you’re doing something right. You know, All Ears English! https://www.allearsenglish.com/
Lindsay is a returning guest on my podcast. She has been on this show a few times before. Long, long term listeners might remember her first appearance way back in episode 186 in 2014 talking about culture shock. So we’ve collaborated quite a few times. I have also been on All Ears English a number of times too, including recently.
Just a couple of months ago, Lindsay and I decided that it was about time we collaborated again on a couple of episodes so we invited each other onto our respective podcasts. I was on her show just a couple of weeks ago, in episode 2140 talking about differences between American and British English. We compared the vocabulary differences, communication style differences and more. If that sounds interesting, you could check it out. AEE 2140: The Subtle Differences Between American and British English with Luke’s English Podcast
And for Lindsay’s appearance on my show in this episode, we agreed that it could be really interesting to talk about Lindsay’s home country – the USA and what’s going on there at the moment in terms of economic, political and cultural changes.
You’re going to hear us talking about things like:
The actions of unions and how that has been affecting workers’ rights.
The way cities are evolving because of changes in people’s working lives especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Property prices, the energy crisis, American people’s attitudes about their government, trust in public institutions and other things of that nature.
Also, I couldn’t help adding my own comments about what’s been going on in the UK as well, in order to compare and find similarities between our two countries.
It’s a big year for both the UK and the USE – we have big elections coming up – a presidential election in the USA at the end of the year and a general election in the UK at some point.
There’s plenty to talk about. I hope you find it all interesting. I’ll talk to you again a little bit at the other end of this conversation, but now, without any further ado, let’s get started.
The return of the lying game on LEP! Amber, Paul and I play a speaking game which I sometimes use in my English classes. Listen to our stories and try to work out if we are lying or telling the truth. The second half of the episode contains story summaries and vocabulary explanations.
This episode is called The Lying Game #9 with Amber & Paul
To help you understand, enjoy and learn more from this episode, I’m going to explain a coupe of things here at the start.
Some of you might not need this introduction – it depends on your level of English – you can just skip forwards if you want, it’s only a few minutes. But my comments here are designed to be helpful.
This is another conversation with my friends Amber and Paul and we’re going to play a speaking activity called The Lying Game. I know a lot of you are already familiar with this game, but for the uninitiated – this game is something of a tradition on this podcast. It is based on a speaking activity which I’ve been using in my English classes for about 15 years. You’ll hear us recap the rules of the game in a moment, but it’s very simple. Basically, just listen carefully and try to decide if our stories are true or lies.
As you listen, I expect that you might have some questions which you would like answered. Some of those will be language questions about certain words, phrases, bits of pronunciation or grammar. For example, “What does it mean to “fall off the wagon?”, “What’s the difference between fat, fatty and fattening? “ and “is the funnest thing” correct English?”.
Other questions will be about the specific details that you might not catch when listening to our stories – What exactly happened in each case? Wait, was that story a lie or the truth? Which parts were not true, etc? What just happened? What are they going on about?
It can be tricky to listen to three fluent speakers of English (especially close friends) talking quickly together. I know what it’s like because it happens to me in French all the time. There are unfinished sentences, you get connected speech, people talk over each other a bit and interrupt each other.
That does make it tricky to follow, but what I will say is that this is normal, natural, fluent speech and it is important for you to get familiar with it. The more you practise listening to this kind of thing, the more you will be able to follow conversations like this.
But yes, you might have questions as you listen.
So, at the end of this episode, in the last 20 minutes or so, I will help you, by summarising each story and telling you in plain English what happened in each part of the game.
I will also explain quite a lot of vocabulary which comes up – phrases, idioms, specific words etc, like “to fall off the wagon” “to be fattening” and so on.
So, listen to us playing the game, try to work out if we are lying or telling the truth, and I’ll clarify vocabulary at the end and that vocabulary section at the end will be a little taste of the kind of thing that I do in my premium episodes, where I focus on explaining language.
And finally, premium subscribers – have you noticed, I have published parts 1-5 of P56 (which will be an 8 part series in total when it’s all done) This series is all about vocabulary which I used in episode 863 recently, called “You and Your English in 2024” – Remember all the words that I highlighted in that lurid green colour?
That’s the vocabulary I’m clarifying, explaining, teaching and helping you to remember and use in Premium series 56, available now for premium subscribers. There are vocabulary reviews, pronunciation episodes, PDF worksheets, video versions, discussion questions for speaking practice, memory exercises and more.
Just make sure, if you are a subscriber, that you have added LEP premium to a podcast app on your phone. If you have done that you will see episodes 1-5 in your list, with the other parts coming very soon.
Sign into your acast+ account to manage your subscription and add the episodes to a podcast app on your phone (I recommend PocketCasts) https://plus.acast.com/
If you want to sign up to LEP Premium to get access to those episodes – be my guest, just click the link you will find in the show notes of this episode.
But now, back to The Lying Game. I hope you enjoy it. And Stick around until the end to hear me clarifying and explaining some vocabulary.
Oh, and by the way, there is some rude language in this episode, as usual – including the use of a few swear words.
Conversation / Lying Game happens
Notes / Script – after the lying game conversation
How was that for you? I got slightly over-excited in this episode and I couldn’t help butting in with my own comments and jokes here and there. Apologies if that made it a bit harder to keep up. I’m always trying to get the balance right between keeping things simple and keeping things entertaining. But I know what it’s like to listen to a busy conversation between people in another language. It can be tiring, it can be tricky but nevertheless, you made it. Of course it depends on your level of English.
Story Summaries – SPOILER ALERT!
Let me summarise the three stories.
Paul’s Story
Paul said that after his bad show in Portugal, he “fell off the wagon” and got back on the booze.
He got “shitfaced” and despite having a horrible hangover the next day in which he was sick over and over again (lovely, I know) he then continued drinking regularly again.
There was a point of contention here, because…
Amber and I guessed that this was true and Paul said that it was true.
However, there was a point of contention here, because although the first part of that story was true – he did fall off the wagon after that show in Portugal, in fact the other part – that he then continued drinking again after that, was not true. He quickly went back to not drinking after that one, exceptional, evening. So, was this story true or a lie? To be completely honest, according to my rules (if one detail is a lie, the whole story is a lie) this story was a lie, and therefore Amber and I didn’t deserve to get a point.
But, that’s in the past now and in that moment the referee (that’s me, even though I am also playing the game – conflict of interest? Noooo) the referee said that Amber & I were right, so we got the points and then just moved on because we simply didn’t have time to sit around debating it any more. End result – Amber and I got one point each.
Scores: A 1, P 0, L 1
Luke’s Story
Then it was my turn and I said that I once took a hot air balloon ride with Bill Oddie (a tv presenter in the UK) and R2D2’s daughter (the daughter of actor Kenny Baker).
Kenny was there but didn’t actually go up in the balloon because he said that “R2D2 doesn’t fly”. In my story I said that upon hearing this, my brother and I were both a bit confused because R2D2 definitely flies in the Star Wars films, a lot – in all manner of spacecraft. But anyway, that was the story.
Amber and Paul both assumed that this story was completely true, and this is for a few reasons. 1) I almost always tell the truth in this game. 2) the story was way too specific and weird to be made up (they underestimated me) and 3) They just didn’t press me with more questions. If they’d been more inquisitive I’m sure they would have discovered that my story had no substance to it. In any case, Amber and Paul were both fooled and guessed it was true, but ah no, I made it up completely.
To be fair it is based on a true story. Once upon a time, my dad did produce a TV series for BBC Midlands called The Balloon in which a presenter visited different parts of the midlands in a hot air balloon (sounds like something from Alan Partridge), but it was presented by Sue Beardsmore and neither Bill Oddie nor R2D2 actor Kenny Baker (or his daughter) were involved in any way.
James and I were allowed to take a trip in the balloon one day at the end of the filming and it is one of the most memorable experiences of my life. It would have been even more memorable if R2D2 had been involved, but no. I got two points for this because both A & P fell for it completely.
Scores: A 1, P 0, L 3
Amber’s Story
Amber said she had developed a phobia of cows – “bovinophobia”. This was a result of several experiences she had with her family on holiday where they encountered cows in fields (including one time in Argentina) and Amber felt very scared, and since then she has realised that she actually can’t stand cows at all, and can’t even look at some paintings of cows which she saw during her recent art history course, finding their bovine faces strangely repellant. She hasn’t been officially diagnosed as suffering from bovinophobia, but she believes she has it.
But was this true?
Paul thought no, I said yes.
In fact, it was not true. Although Amber is definitely wary of cows, she doesn’t have a phobia of them. Remember, a phobia is the irrational fear of something. Being very scared of something when there’s really no reason to be scared of it. But Amber’s fear of cows is completely reasonable and logical considering they do actually kill quite a lot of people each year by trampling them to death. But she is not scared of pictures of cows, so her fear is not irrational or extreme (which is how a phobia is defined).
Final scores! A2, P1, L3
Vocabulary List
A little taste of LEP Premium here – just a tiny taste because I am not going to go into a lot of detail here and you don’t get all the other peripheral things like extra examples, memory exercises, pronunciation exercises, speaking questions etc.
Listen to the episode to hear my explanations.
You treated us to lunch
It’s one of thefunnest things to do
Is this true or is it made upbullcrap?
It was a rough show
I relapsed from alcohol
I got completely shitfaced
So you fell off the wagon
He still looks quite svelte. You do look in good shape.
I needed to stop. I needed to get fit.
Alcohol is very fattening.
I vomited. I threw up. [I was sick. I puked.]
You gave up drinking. You quit booze.
He’s back on the booze now. It’s a slippery slope.
A year of sobriety. Adam was not the most supportive of your sobriety. [to be sober]
Hair of the dog.
You never lie and [your story] is too obscure. (too obscure to be made up – she doubts my imagination)
He’s very old. He’s got aplethora of stories.
Oh ye of little faith, you didn’t think I had it in me to lie.
We should have known [that he was lying] but honestly he’s got such a track record [so we expected him to be consistent and to tell the truth again].
People get trampled by them (cows).
You’re repelled by the image of a cow.
Their fleshybovine bodies shifting left to right as they try to position themselves against the fence to have a look at you.
I started getting anxious, scared, nervous. (these words are similar. Nervous does not mean angry).
Farmers put their hand all the way inside the rear end of a cow.
Horses are renownedfor kicking you when you’re behind them.
You can get a hoof in the head. hooves (Actually, I’m not sure someone said these exact words, but I think the word “hoof” did come up)
Cows are all squishedup close to each other.
How do you feel when you get on line 9 at 9AM in the morning, and there are a lot of people mooingaround.
I don’t have animosity towards cows. [You just don’t want to get trampled]
You have a rational fear of cows rather than an irrational fear.
Flimsy naked monkies
A monkey with alopecia – [it was] ripped! They are just all muscle.
A monkey jumped out and I thought “that monkey can have me any day”
It was just like a bloke, a massive bloke.
The Zenith show (January 6) already happened so you can’t get tickets for it any more. I talked about it in LEP#864.
Thanks to James Kuo (LEPster) for making these two episodes happen.
OK, that’s enough from me I think! I will be back in your eardrums in the next episode.
I have a few more episodes with guests which I recorded late last year to publish and then I am planning to do more solo podcasts for a while, including more stories, which I have been enjoying a lot. Acting and storytelling – lots of fun.
OK, don’t be a ninja – leave a comment. I hope you’re not a skeleton.
Have a great morning, afternoon, evening or night and I will speak to you next time but for now, goodbye!!!
In this episode you will be able to listen to a conversation with Cara Leopold all about films.
If you are a long-term listener to this podcast, then you will know Cara. She’s been on this show a few times before.
Just in case you need a reminder, Cara is an English teacher from the UK, currently living in France, and she loves films and uses them to help people learn English. In fact she is the creator of the Leo Listening Movie Club, where she helps advanced, film-loving English learners understand and discuss iconic movies together in order to master conversational English.
Cara Loves films. I love films too, who doesn’t? We all love films, don’t we? And it’s very common to talk about films we’ve seen.
Are you able to do that in English?
I want you to think about what is involved in having a conversation about films in English.
When we talk about films, we do a number of things, including:
Summarising the plot or story of the film
Describing the main characters
Talking about actors and their performances,
Talking about directors and they way films are directed, edited, locations, effects and music.
Giving our opinions about films, including the things we like and don’t like
Discussing the meaning of films, and any social, historical or personal issues which are connected to them.
How do we do those things in English? Are you familiar with the language of cinema and the language of talking about films?
What I want to do with this episode is let you listen to a natural conversation (one that isn’t scripted in advance) about films in order to let you hear all those things being done.
So that’s what this is!
You can use this episode in several ways.
1) Just listen for enjoyment, listen to what we have to say about various different films, and just try to follow the conversation, and practice your general listening skills in the process.
2) Focus on noticing the specific vocabulary or grammar that we use to do all the things I mentioned before. Listen out for the ways we describe, summarise, give opinions and generally share our thoughts about films.
We mention lots of different films in this conversation and one thing which I’m thinking about is that those films might have different titles in your language. I hope you are able to identify the films.
You can see a list of the names of the films we mention on the page for this episode on my website. If you want to check out those movie titles, and perhaps google them to find out what they are called in your language, just go to the episode page on my website and you’ll see all the titles listed there, plus various other links to things which we mention or which you might find useful.
Right then. It’s now time to listen to my conversation with Cara.
I will talk to you again briefly at the end of this but now, let’s get started.
Ending Transcript
Thanks again to Cara.
You can check out her work.
On her website you can see details of the different courses and resources I mentioned before, which involve improving your English with films.
Episode 129 (parts 1 & 2) of Daniel Goodson’s podcast “My Fluent Podcast” in which Daniel and Cara discuss Groundhog Day
And a list of all the names of the films Cara and I mentioned in this conversation, in case you wanted to google them to find out what they are called in your language.
Here are a few questions which you could answer in the comment section if you like:
Have you seen any good films recently?
Do you prefer films or TV series? Why?
What films have helped you learn English? How did they help you?
Films we mentioned in this conversation
Pétaouchnok (The French film starring Philippe Rebbot, who Cara saw at a cafe recently)
Films which Cara has watched in her film club recently
A listener left a comment on my website asking for my thoughts on the new Beatles song which was released last week, and I was happy to ramble about it for 45 mins. Listen to hear me give my thoughts and tell several stories related to what is being described as “the last Beatles song”. First I talk for about 10 minutes about burning down my apartment and my thoughts on the content I make for this podcast, and then I start talking about The Beatles until the end of the episode. To skip straight to the Beatles bit, go forward to about 12 minutes into the episode.
Talking to my wife (and daughter) about the birth of our son, who came into the world just a few weeks ago. We describe what happened, and explain how it feels to become parents for the second time. This is a very personal, first-hand account of childbirth and the experience of bringing a child into the world. Watch out for the language of childbirth and children which has previously been explained in episodes 162, 491, 492 and 814.
Amber and Paul join me in my pod room again for a rambling discussion about everything! Includes a language point about adjective + preposition collocations. Notice the phrases and try to find examples of them in context. Video version available.
Check out the premium series which accompanies this episode (P39 parts 1-3) 👇
Sign up to LEP Premium to get the 3-part series of episodes (audio, video, PDFs) about the language point in this episode.
P39 Part 1 – All about the grammar of prepositions and how they fit into sentences, including plenty of vocabulary and a quick pronunciation exercise at the end
P39 Part 2 – Let’s go through my list of adjective + preposition phrases from the conversation with Amber & Paul. I’ll test your memory and help you notice the target language, while clarifying some of the adjectives. Also includes discussion questions for free practise.
P39 Part 3 – Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation. The 5 Ps. There’s a focus on weak forms of prepositions, -ed endings of adjectives and 40 sentences to repeat after me.
Here are a few words and phrases that you will hear us saying at the start of the episode.
Let’s do a wager. How long do you think it’s going to be?
I think he’s probably written a short introduction. The problem is he gets waylaid.
To go down a rabbit hole.
There is room for random rambling and tangents. I have factored that into the exercise. That’s all been factored in.
If I’d been left to my own devices I think I would have cracked that in about 2 minutes, but because I kept getting interrupted by you two, it took longer!
More random questions, talking points, accent challenges and “guess the idiom” with pod-pal Paul Taylor. Includes discussion of accents in English, cancel culture in comedy, some rude Spanish phrases and more. Video version available.
Here is a brand new episode, hot on the heels of the last one and my friend Paul Taylor is back on the podcast again this time and I just wanted to add a few things here before we start properly. This is not going to be a 15 minute introduction though, I promise. It’ll be 14 minutes.
Firstly, there is a video version of this episode and you can watch it on my YouTube channel or on the page for this episode on my website and if you’re watching on YouTube, don’t forget to like and subscribe.
By the way, I reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube the other day, which is nice. Thank you very much if you wrote me a message saying congratulations. It’s a nice milestone and if YouTube decides I’m eligible, I should receive one of those shiny things from them – a kind of plaque which I can proudly display in my pod-room at home. If and when that shiny plaque arrives I’ll do some kind of YouTube livestream in which I unbox the plaque and do some of the usual live streaming shenanigans. So listen out for announcements about the time and date for that on the podcast soon.
*By the way – this text is all written on the page for this episode*
Talking of YouTube live, after recording this episode, Paul invited me onto his Happy Hour Live – his weekly YouTube live stream, and we had a lot of fun celebrating my 100,000 subscriber milestone with a bottle of nice champagne, some funny accent challenges – reading famous lines and quotes from films in different accents, and also we looked at some common French idioms and tried to translate them into English.
You’ll be able to find that on Paul’s YouTube channel for Happy Hour Live and also that will be embedded on page for this episode on my website, along with the video for the episode you are listening to now. So, plenty of video content for you to check out if you like.
This episode is very similar to the last one featuring Paul, which was episode 698, published just before Christmas last year.
I decided to use the same format as last time, with a few random questions and little challenges and things, the idea being that we’d get a selection of different topics and bits of language during the conversation. So, it doesn’t really focus on one thing in particular, but a variety of things, some of them quite silly and others more serious.
You’ll see that this time I chose to call the episode “Lucky Dip with Paul Taylor”. I also could have called it “Pot Luck with Paul Taylor”.
I thought that would be a slightly snappier title than what I went with before, which was “Random Questions with Paul Taylor” although that is more descriptive. It’s possible to overthink the titles of episodes – it probably doesn’t matter that much as I expect or hope that most of you will listen to my episodes regardless of the title. Anyway, I should probably explain what those things mean now.
Lucky Dip and Pot Luck – they both refer to situations where you don’t really know what you are going to get, but you hope they will be good things.
A Lucky Dip is a game that you might play at a funfair or at a children’s party.
This is when some items, or gifts, are put into a bag and you have to dip your hand into the bag, rummage around and pick something out. You don’t know what you’re going to get, although you know it will be some kind of gift, prize or treat – like a bag of sweets, a little toy or something like that.
I thought that was a good title for this one because this episode is a bit like a lucky dip – Paul is essentially blindly dipping into my list of questions and picking things out, not knowing what he’ll get, and it’s just supposed to be a bit of fun.
Pot luck is another phrase which could be used to describe a game like the lucky dip, but it’s also a general phrase for any situation in which you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get, but you hope that it’ll be good.
Here are some examples of pot luck (A couple are from the Oxford Dictionary for Learners of English – other dictionaries are available)
It’s pot luck whether you get good advice or not.
When you sign up to English lessons at a school it’s pot luck what kind of teacher or fellow classmates you’ll get.
So I think you can see how those phrases relate to the concept for this episode.
Just a heads-up – there is some swearing in this episode, and not just in English. There’s a bit of Spanish swearing in here too, which I hope you don’t mind too much if Spanish is your first language – it’s probably ok isn’t it? I expect so, but I should say that I hope my mum doesn’t listen to this episode. I’ll let you find out more as you listen.
There was certainly no intention for us to be offensive to anyone in particular during this conversation and we only talk about rude expressions in order to understand them and perhaps laugh about them a bit (because some rude expressions in Spanish seem pretty funny when you translate them into English).
Also, there’s the usual fast talking that you get from episodes with my friends, so I hope you’re ready for that.
Alright, that’s it for my introduction then. I just couldn’t help doing some kind of introduction here at the start of the episode, but you can now listen to our conversation in full and completely unedited. So, let’s begin.
Song Lyrics for “I’m Only Sleeping” by The Beatles
A conversation with Paul Taylor involving several cups of tea, recipes for French crepes, our terrible rap skills, a funny old comedy song about English workmen drinking tea, some improvised comedy role plays and a very angry Paul ranting about bad customer service in France! Your challenge is to listen to this episode in public without laughing out loud, especially in the second half of the episode. Good luck, may the force be with you. Vocabulary list, song lyrics, definitions and a quiz available below.
I’m going to keep this intro as brief as possible so we can get straight into it!
This one is a conversation with friend of the podcast, Paul Taylor. It was lots of fun to record, I hope it’s also lots of fun to listen to.
There are links, videos, word lists and song lyrics with vocabulary and definitions on the episode page on the website that can help you to understand and learn more English from our conversation.
There is some swearing in this episode – some rude words and things. Just to let you know in advance.
Try not to laugh on the bus while listening to this. That might be embarrassing. That is a challenge from me to you. Try not to giggle – because everyone will look at you and will feel either jealous or confused at your public display of the joy which will be bursting forth from your heart as you listen to Paul’s infectious laughter. No giggling or cracking up in public please. Get a grip on yourself for goodness sake.
Where’s Amber? All will be revealed.
Keep listening until the end of the episode for more additional extra bonus fun.
Alrighty then, that’s all for the intro, let’s go!
Vocabulary List
A crepe = a thin french pancake made from flour, milk and egg – all whisked together and then cooked in a pan
To whisk = to mix ingredients quickly with a fork or a whisk
To kneaddough to make bread
To knead = to work/press/mix/fold dough with your hands when making bread
Dough = flour, water, yeast combined to make a soft paste, used for making bread
Cats go to the litter box, shit and then lick their paws
The litter box = the tray or box in your house that cats use as a toilet. It’s full of small stones, sand or something similar.
Paws = the hands and feet of a cat (or similar animals)
The Luke’s English Podcast Challenge – if you don’t know what a crepe is, leave a comment! You *might* get a picture of Paul as a prize.
Talking bollocks* = talking nonsense ( *bollocks is a rude word meaning testicles, or bullshit)
‘owzit gaan? = How’s it going?
It’s the first day back at school in France so everyone’s going mental
Going mental = going crazy, getting stressed
Anti-nuclear pens? = I suppose these are pens which somehow resist the effects of a nuclear attack. They don’t exist, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geEVwslL-YY
Losing your friends when they have kids – How having kids is like the zombie apocalypse (according to Paul)
“To put the kibosh on something” = phrase
If someone or something puts the kibosh on your plans or activities, they cause them to fail or prevent them from continuing.
[mainly US , informal]
E.g. “Rattray, however, personally showed up at the meeting to try and put the kibosh on their plans.” “…software that puts the kibosh on pop-up ads if a user doesn’t want them.”
I’ll be tutoring my child in the ways of righteousness
A voice-over = some recorded speech used in advertising, TV, radio etc.
“Right said Fred” by Bernard Cribbins
A 1960s comedy record featuring some cockney workmen moving a heavy object and drinking lots of tea.
Lyrics [vocab explained in brackets] “Right,” said Fred, “Both of us together One each end and steady as we go.” [be careful, do it steadily] Tried to shift it, couldn’t even lift it [move it] We was getting nowhere [yes, it’s grammatically incorrect] And so we had a cuppa tea and [ a cup of tea]
“Right,” said Fred, “Give a shout for Charlie.” Up comes Charlie from the floor below. After straining, heaving and complaining [making lots of physical effort] [complaining] We was getting nowhere [also grammatically incorrect] And so we had a cuppa tea.
And Charlie had a think, and he thought we ought to take off all the handles And the things what held the candles. But it did no good, well I never thought it would
“All right,” said Fred, “Have to take the feet off To get them feet off wouldn’t take a mo(ment).” [those] Took its feet off, even took the seat off Should have got us somewhere but no! So Fred said, “Let’s have another cuppa tea.” And we said, “right-o.”
“Right,” said Fred, “Have to take the door off Need more space to shift the so-and-so.” [the thing] Had bad twinges taking off the hinges [sharp pains] [metal parts that attach the door to the wall] And it got us nowhere And so we had a cuppa tea and
“Right,” said Fred, “Have to take the wall down, That there wall is gonna have to go.” Took the wall down, even with it all down We was getting nowhere And so we had a cuppa tea.
And Charlie had a think, and he said, “Look, Fred, I got a sort of feelin’ If we remove the ceiling With a rope or two we could drop the blighter through.” [an annoying person or thing]
“All right,” said Fred, climbing up a ladder With his crowbar gave a mighty blow. [a heavy metal tool] Was he in trouble, half a ton of rubble landed on the top of his dome. [broken pieces of rock] [head] So Charlie and me had another cuppa tea And then we went home.
(I said to Charlie, “We’ll just have to leave it Standing on the landing, that’s all [the hallway on an upper floor] You see the trouble with Fred is, he’s too hasty [in a hurry, rushing ;) ] You’ll never get nowhere if you’re too hasty.”)
Getting queue jumped and dealing with unhelpful staff = when people skip ahead of you in a queue [a line of people waiting]
Luke struggles to understand how to deal with waiters and shop assistants who say “c’est pas possible” (French = it’s not possible)
Listen to Alexander Van Walsum talk to Luke about how to deal with “c’est pas possible” in this episode from the archive
That’s nearly the end of the episode, I hope you enjoyed it and you managed not to laugh out loud on the bus.
Don’t forget, you can see a list of vocabulary and expressions from this episode all on the website, including the lyrics to that song that you heard. There’s also a YouTube video of the song if you want to hear it again and make sure you’ve understood all of it. So check that out.
By the way, the mobile version of my site has now been improved thanks to a helpful listener called Sergei who gave me some CSS coding advice. So if you check the site on your phone now it should look much better than it did before, which will make it easier for you to check vocab lists, transcriptions and other content from your mobile device. Try it now – teacherluke.co.uk. You will find the link for this episode and all the others in the episode archive – just click on the menu button and then EPISODE ARCHIVE.
Don’t forget to join the mailing list on the website so you can get a link to each new episode page in your inbox when it’s published.
As I said, it’s nearly the end of the episode – but it’s not actually the end yet. There’s more. In fact, I’ve decided to give you a bonus bit at the end here, because I’m nice.
So, what’s the bonus bit?
The Bonus Bit – “The Expat Sketch Show”
On the day that Paul and I recorded this episode (and in fact the next one too) we also recorded ourselves improvising a short comedy sketch. I’m now going to play you that sketch.
The idea of the sketch is that I work in an office in Paris and my job is to interview ex-pats (foreign people who have moved to Paris) – I interview ex-pats for a position on a kind of scholarship programme where we subsidise their living expenses and help them integrate into the Parisian community and in return they contribute something to community in terms of work, taking part in cultural events or making any contribution that will benefit the cultural mix of Paris.
Paul plays 3 different ex-pats who have come into my office for an interview, and let’s just say that they’re not exactly the ideal candidates.
The whole thing was completely improvised, it’s full of rude language and it’s all just a bit of a laugh so here is the Ex-pat Sketch show with Paul. Have fun!
Thanks for listening to the episode everyone.
Have a good day, night, morning, afternoon or evening!
Amber, Paul and I play another round of The Lying Game, in which we each tell a story and the others have to guess if it’s true or a lie. Listen for story telling, questions and general fun, plus some jokes at the end of the episode. Video available.
Jan Struve Last year when my listening skills in english improved I started listening to an english podcast which was spoken at normal speed. Two men and a woman took part in the podcast and they spoke and played a game like this : One of them started telling a story and the others had to guess whether the story had really happened or was only fictional. They called it the Lying game. I remember that I was listening to the podcast when I was driving by car to work. My workplace was about 35 km away from my hometown and I was heading towards the highway. On the way, I got very deep into the conversation of the three guys and their equally fascinating and exciting stories. I was driving and listening and felt happy having improved my english so far and was able to listen to such driven and awesome podcasters that I forgot everything around me. I drove and drove and after half an hour when the podcast finally ended I found myself way north on the wrong highway. I had missed the exit west and had driven more than 60km without noticing anything but the podcast. That was my first experience with the great and awesome Luke´s English Podcast.
Please take care when driving or operating heavy machinery.
It’s time to play the Lying Game again
Let’s call this season 2. It’s ‘even stevens’ again.
Rules
Someone tells us something – often a little story about their life. It can be either true or a lie.
We ask lots of questions like a detective and then decide if we think it’s true or a lie.
If you guess correctly, you get a point. If you guess incorrectly, the story-teller gets a point.
Listeners – just try to follow the conversation and try to guess if we’re lying or telling the truth.
Final Scores
Amber: 0 / 1 / 0
Paul: 1 / 1 / 1
Luke: 1 / 0 / 1
Jokes you heard at the end of the episode
Why are there no aspirins in the jungle? Because the parrots-eat-em-all (paracetamol)
What’s the difference between snow-men and snow-women? Snowballs.
I read an article on Japanese swordfighters. It’s quite long but I can samurais it for you. (summarise it)
How do you count cows? With a cow-culator. (calculator)
Visitors to Cuba always enjoy themselves. You could say they were “Havana” good time. (having a…)
How do astronomers organise a party? They “planet”. (plan it)
I saw a band last night. They came from an island just of the south of Malaysia.
Singapore? Yes, but the drummer was good. (Was the singer poor? – was he a bad singer?)
My wife’s gone to the West Indies.
Jamaica? No, she went of her own accord.
(Jamaica – “Did you make her (go)?”)
My wife’s gone to Indonesia.
Jakarta? No, she went by plane.
(Did you ‘cart’ her?)
A man got hit in the head with a can of coke
But it was alright because it was a ‘soft drink’.
Why did the can crusher quit his job? Because it was soda-pressing (so depressing)
Amber & Paul are back on the podcast in this episode as we respond to some questions and comments from the website and social media. Video available. Some swearing and rude language.
Amber is from London in England, but she’s been living in France for ages and she speaks fluent French.
She has the loveliest voice in the known universe, causing hundreds of thousands of listeners from around the world to melt as soon as she begins talking.
She has a son called Hugo who makes dinosaur noises and poos under tables (well, once).
She sometimes has nightmares about fish.
She loves listening to audiobooks and BBC Radio 4.
She sometimes works as a teacher with kids, but also has a background in theatre. In fact she studied mime for 2 years (actually it’s “physical theatre”)
She is a tour guide in Paris sometimes. In fact she is very well read and knows a lot about the history of this great city.
One of these days she’s going to produce her own podcast about the history of Paris and everyone is waiting for it expectantly. No pressure.
She recently learned the words burlap, gaslighting and Hobson’s choice. Listen to episode 431 for more details.
She’s probably more intelligent than either of us.
Paul Taylor
Paul is from Canterbury in England, which is in Britain, which is in the UK, which is in Europe (sort of).
He’s from England but also spent some time growing up in France where, as a child, he once nearly burned down his house and stabbed himself in the face with a kitchen knife while pretending to be one of the teenage ninja turtles.
He has a funny, infectious laugh which causes my listeners to make fools of themselves on public transport when they can’t help laughing too (which is one of the aims of this podcast)
He has naive eyes (a reference to a comment by a listener called Olga a couple of years ago).
He doesn’t know any words. (kidding of course)
He speaks French with “no accent”.
He also speaks Spanish, and has a bit of a talent for doing accents in English.
He used to work for Apple but quit his job to do comedy. It’s going pretty well.
He does his one man stand up show #Franglais twice a week to sold out audiences and his TV show “WTF France?” is a hit on YouTube and Canal+
He used to do a podcast called “Becoming a Comedian” which was all about the challenges of becoming a comedian, but now he’s become a comedian so the “Becoming a Comedian Podcast” is now redundant!
Comments & Questions from Listeners
Nick (on our recent ‘restaurants’ episode) I was missing Paul’s laugh while listening to this…
Anonymous (on an episode from few months ago) Amber’s voice seduced me
Eri No!!!!! I just found this comment now… Oh, dear… [thinking it’s too late] If I could add some message for both Amber and Paul… ☆To Amber I am looking forward to listening to your podcast with the most lovely voice in the world!!! ☆To Paul I have been checking all video of “What The Fuck France” and can not wait next episodes and other videos on YouTube!!! And please join in LEP sometime when you have time…
Alexandr Shnaider Hi, Luke. I wonder when we should expect the release of Amber’s podcast and how we can find it.
Sylvia I am looking forward to Amber’s podcast. I love her.
Naomi Hello,Luke,Amber and Paul! How are you doing? My questions are 1.You are very funny. Did you use to make jokes in the classroom when you were students? 2. If you could have a special power, what would it be? 3. What food would you bring to a desert island? Sorry for my silly questions. Have a nice recording. I’m looking forward to listening to the Pod Pals! And I can’t wait for Amber’s podcast!
Pavel Rybalko Do you guys have favorite YouTubers?
Paul: JaackMaate (angry rants by a British guy in a shed)
Amber:Diane Love (not really a YouTuber but she does have some lovely hula-hooping videos)
Luke:Nerdwriter1 (Brainy video essays)
Jairo Trujillo García Good luck for the show tonight!!! 👍 Question : What do you admire the most about the people you are sitting with right now ? and why ?
oksipuskya (Comment on the TripAdvisor episode – episode 431) One day about 10 years ago I’d a supper with my future husband and his father in a roadside cafe on the way home. The waiter brought my meal and we three noticed a small insect lying on the plate. In spite of this I ate all the supper. Then my husband’s father said that his son had to marry me. If I hadn’t been frightened to eat it I wouldn’t be struck by family routine. (?)
This image from Chris Benitez for fans of the Russian Joke (don’t know where it was originally posted)
Boy Trent (On YouTube) Are you the same luke english who bid on a PS4 PRO system on ebay at the last minute? Then. Didn’t pay or leave me with any information as to what was going on? Ebay are now going to issue you with a non payment mark on the 19th March. 2017. I should state that many honest people were bidding on this item and strangely – you appeared out of nowhere at the very last minute. After I had blocked bids from the usual eastern european fraudsters et al. I am a person of integrity and honesty and am really sick and tired of people making false bids on items. Destroying the core purpose of ebay and leaving me with an unsold item and without £300 from the honest bidder you dishonestly won over. Yes. I am angry. etcetc…
Sorry mate – you got the wrong guy! I’m not Luke English, my name’s Luke Thompson!
Wesley Hello Luke, Amber, and Paul, Are you doing all right? As the French presidential election is drawing nearer, I was wondering what the three of you think about the candidates. After Brexit and the Italian constitutional referendum result, Marine Le Pen being the next French President could be the final blow for the European Union. In your opinion, does she stand a good chance to win the election? In this so-called ‘post-truth era’, do you consider opinion polls to be reliable enough? All the best, Wesley
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