Category Archives: American & British English

391. Discussing Language, Culture & Comedy with Alexander van Walsum

Here is a new episode featuring a conversation with a friend of mine who originally comes from the Netherlands but he has lived all over the world. You’re going to hear us talking about cultural differences, Dutch stereotypes, doing business in France, the UK and the USA, the different communication styles in those places, doing stand up comedy and getting Darth Vader’s signature. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

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Alex performing at Le Paname Art Cafe in Paris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDF_xdTVPpc

You can see Alex performing at “WTF Paris? – Comedy Therapy for Expats” with Amber Minogue at the SoGymnase comedy club in Paris every Friday evening at 8pm. Details here https://www.weezevent.com/wtf-paris

389. US Presidential Election 2016 – Trump vs Clinton (with Sarah & Sebastian) Part 2

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Here is part two of my conversation with Sarah and Sebastian from the USA about the upcoming presidential election. In this episode we turn our attention to Hillary Clinton.

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So, that was our conversation about the election. There were opinions flying around. There were words flying around. There was a hell of a lot in there. I could spend forever untangling it all and explaining the words, breaking it all down bit by bit so you understand it all. But frankly, that would take me hours and hours and I just can’t do that. In the end, I think perhaps the best thing to do was to play you a natural conversation about it instead, even if it was hard for you to follow.

Perhaps because we were talking rather quickly. Perhaps because we were talking over each other a bit. Perhaps it was difficult because of the American accents of Sebastian and Sarah. Perhaps because you don’t know the subject well and that made it hard to understand. So, if it was a struggle to understand everything, well done for making it through to the end of the episode here.

If it wasn’t a struggle and you feel you understood a lot of the conversation, then well done you!

I expect some Trump fans out there listening to this got triggered by some of our comments. You might have strong feelings. Can I suggest that before you do that you take a deep breath before you start writing. Also, I’m sure there are some anti-Hillary people out there. Again, don’t spread hateful comments on the website. Instead I encourage you to present a developed argument, and not the sort of hateful nonsense you find under the average YouTube video.

Whatever your thoughts and feelings, please join in the conversation and leave your comments on the page for this episode. I have a few questions for you. You can answer as many as you like.

How was the conversation for you? Did you understand it all?
What do you think of Hillary?
What do you think of Trump?
Who do you think will win?
Who do you hope will win?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on the website.

Thanks for listening. Speak to you soon.

Bye.

Luke

388. US Presidential Election 2016 – Trump vs Clinton (with Sarah & Sebastian) Part 1

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The presidential election in the USA is about a month away and I’ve been meaning to talk about this subject on the podcast for ages. So in this episode you’re going to hear me in conversation with a couple of American friends of mine who you might already know from their previous appearances on this podcast – Sarah Donnelly and Sebastian Marx. We sat down in my flat today to talk about the elections, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, their thoughts, feelings, opinions and predictions on the whole thing.

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The conversation you’re about to hear is very fast moving with quite a lot of specific vocabulary about American politics. It’s quite passionate and opinionated in places. I certainly hope that it is an interesting conversation for you to listen to and that you enjoy hearing about this subject from two American people in their own words.

Because it is so fast moving and we had so many things to say I expect that this will be a difficult one for you to follow. I think this will be a challenging episode. So, if it’s hard to keep up with – don’t be surprised. That’s quite normal because I think this is a fast conversation for any learner of English to keep up with.

Alright, I don’t want to go on about it any more in the introduction here, suffice to say that I know this is a fast moving and opinionated conversation so strap in, focus, listen carefully and I hope you enjoy it.

PRESIDENTIAL POLL

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381. Discussing Cultural Differences (with Amber & Paul)

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In this episode I’m talking to my friends Amber and Paul about cultural differences, particularly in the ways we communicate with each other in different countries.

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You should know that there is a bit of swearing in this one as well as a few dodgy jokes and references to previous episodes of the podcast, which you should probably listen to before you listen to this one in order to understand a couple of references and in-jokes. The previous episode is number 380. As for the swearing, I see it as just evidence of the fact we are all talking in a totally relaxed, genuine and natural manner, like we normally do in this social situation.

I just want to say that our aim in this conversation was to compare different cultures and not to criticise other cultures. We’re just expressing our own personal experiences from our point of view. Since we all live in France and we’re from England, there are quite a lot of comments about differences between French and English culture. If you’re French I’d love to read your points of view on many of the things we’re talking about and I am sure that you could make loads of similar comments about life in England – like, why the hell do we have separate taps in the bathroom? Or, why do girls go out on a Friday night with hardly any clothes on? Don’t they get freezing cold? And why do Brits drink so much? These are all things that might seem strange to visitors to the UK. So, I’m well aware that all cultures and behaviours can seem strange from the outside and it’s all just a matter of context.

In fact, I have already done several podcast episodes all about culture shock experiences of people moving to the UK (specifically London) from foreign countries. Check out the links to listen to those episodes.

192. Culture Shock: Life in London (Pt.1)

193. Culture Shock: Life in London (Pt.2)

I am sure you have points of view on this that you would like to express, so feel free to leave comments on the page for this episode. Don’t forget to join the mailing list on the website to get easy access to the page for every new episode when it is uploaded.

So without any further ado, here’s a podcast about cultural differences with Amber and Paul.

Discussing Cultural Differences

Luke’s Intro

Although we are all the same, we’re also different.

Ways we’re the same:

We all fall in love, go to the loo, get hungry, get tired, like laughing, listen to LEP.

But we’re all different – individually we are all unique, but we are also different as groups, tribes, nationalities or cultures.

Although it’s bad to generalise, it seems that cultures – like ethnicities or nationalities, tend to have certain shared behaviours and customs that mark them out as different to others. For example, although the English and French share a lot of things in common there are certain things which mark us out as different. Not just the language we speak, but the way we behave and the things we think are important. Like the way we queue.

So anyway, that’s just an example of culture shock I suppose. But it shows that there are cultural differences. Of course there are! Everyone knows it.

If you’ve ever been abroad or had contact with other cultures you’ll know that sometimes it’s incredibly obvious that our cultures are different. Sometimes it’s shockingly obvious, sometimes it’s hilarious, sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes it’s just weird, but we have to remember that they’re just differences and while they can be confusing, frustrating and also funny, ultimately we need to find ways to look beyond these differences and not let them become a barrier to things like communication, understanding, business, diplomacy and relationships.

In this episode I’d like to have a discussion about cultural differences that we’ve noticed around the world. These could be different types of behaviour, like certain customs and habits, or just different values – like, what people seem to think is important, and how those values reveal themselves in the way things are done.

Amber & Paul

What are your credentials in terms of your cross cultural experiences?

How long have you lived in France?
Have you visited many other places? Which other places have you been to?
Have you had cross cultural experiences?
Have you been in a relationship with someone from another culture?
Have you done business with people from other cultures?

I have a list of different behaviours and values. Just stuff I’ve noticed or heard about. Well go through the list.

We can answer these questions:

Where do they do this?
Do we do this in the UK?
Do we consider this to be weird behaviour or not? Is there a reason for this behaviour?
Do you have any experiences of this? Would you like it if we introduced this into our culture?

The list: (please note that we are not talking about ‘two-taps in the bathroom’)

Kissing or hugging someone when you meet them (Paul did a successful video about this)
Looking people in the eye
Indirectness/diplomacy/politeness (or hypocrisy) vs directness/straightness/clarity (or rudeness) – e.g. certain cultures tend to be indirect when giving negative feedback, other cultures favour direct negative feedback
conflict vs non-conflict
Smiling in public

For discussion in future episodes… PLEASE ADD MORE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN THE COMMENT SECTION SO WE CAN DISCUSS THEM IN THE FUTURE :)

Eating early vs eating late in the evening
Having milk in tea
Eating scorpions / spiders / toads / frogs
Eating with your hands / chopsticks / a knife and fork / not your left hand
Burping or farting after eating
Girls wearing miniskirts in the middle of winter
Hawking / spitting in the street
Saying “good morning” or “good afternoon” in shops/post offices before you can get anything done
Kissing in public
Begging
Crossing the road – waiting for cars to stop vs just walking into the street vs using pedestrian crossings
Driving on the left
Queuing in an organised and patient way vs Not queuing – “every man for himself” (or something in between)
Public transport – following the rules vs no rules (e.g. queueing, letting people off before getting on, etc)
Falling asleep on public transport
Talking to strangers on public transport
Having a strict attitude towards health and safety (e.g. wearing safety belts in cars) vs Having a relaxed attitude towards health and safety (e.g. not wearing safety belts, overtaking on corners)
Bribing police or other people
Having more than one wife, or having affairs
Saying “yes” in order to save face
Having carpet in the bathroom
Wearing shoes indoors
Sitting down to go to the toilet vs Squatting on the floor when you go to the toilet (or any other toilet related comments)
Putting The UK at the centre of the map

Is there anything else you’ve found to be weird or different?

357. Learning Languages with Olly Richards

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In this episode I’m talking to Olly Richards the polyglot from England. Our conversation covers points about what accent you should learn to speak with, the importance of developing clear pronunciation and effective communication in English, using Periscope to listen to native English speakers and the physical side of learning a language. See below for a transcript to the introduction, more information and links to Olly’s work.

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Introduction Transcript

Olly Richards, the polyglot from England, is on the podcast again today. This is the second time I’ve spoken to him on this podcast. The first time was back in February I believe. [A bit about how to say “February”] That’s episode 332. If you haven’t heard that one, I recommend that you go into the archives, find it (or click here) and listen to it because it’ll give you some good context for this one and also it’s just really useful for English learning because it contains loads of good advice and lots of motivation.

Olly is a great guest for this podcast because he basically spends his time learning languages and helping other people to learn languages too. Olly has managed to learn lots of languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic and Cantonese and he learned them all in adulthood, not as a child. That’s quite an achievement and he’s managed to do it using some pretty clever strategies, techniques and routines which we can all apply to our language learning too.

Now, I’ve arranged to speak to Olly over Skype in just a few minutes so I’m just gearing myself up for the conversation now. I’m getting my Skype settings correct. Last week I saw him briefly on Periscope talking about a recent work-related trip to LA and how the trip had affected his language learning routine and it sounded very interesting so I sent him a message saying “Hi Olly, I saw you on Periscope the other day – Do you fancy coming on the podcast soon for a catch up?” and he quickly replied by saying “I’d LOVE to come back on the podcast. I could do podcasts all day long, and especially yours since it’s so much fun.” So that’s that. It’s all been set up.

We haven’t done much preparation for this beyond just setting a time for the conversation. The idea is that we’re going to just catch up on his recent news, see where the conversation takes us and ultimately share more conclusions and tips about language learning.

Oh, there’s just one last thing. Do you remember in our last conversation that Olly asked me to make a commitment about my French learning? I promised that I would practice for 10 minutes a day. Also, I seem to remember a number of you made commitments about your learning in the comments section and I wonder if you’ve kept up with them. Well, honestly – I haven’t been the greatest student because I haven’t kept my promise. Yeah, I know, I know. To be fair, I did go out and buy some self study materials which I chose very carefully and I started with the best of intentions, but I only did a few pages and then got out of the habit of doing it. So, I feel a bit bad about that and I wonder if he’s going to bring it up. I think he probably will, but let’s see. Now, my French has definitely improved recently but the rate of improvement is just not good enough and I need to pull my socks up and turn over a new leaf and adding some daily practice into my routine would definitely help. Anyway, let’s see if he brings it up.

Now though, it’s time to talk to Olly Richards the polyglot from England. Here we go.

Conversation Starts

We talk about…

His trip to the USA
How accents change when people travel to different places (e.g. when Brits go to the USA their accents ‘accommodate’ to the local accents a bit, and vice versa)
The relationship between accents and our identity
Accent reduction vs learning clear pronunciation
The physical side of learning a language. Is it normal to experience any physical pain when practising your speaking
The importance of engaging in conversations in English to improve your effectiveness in communication – italki is a good way to do this

Click here to check out italki – www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk

342. Paul’s “La Bise” Video Success / Audition Story (with Amber & Paul)

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In this episode I’m joined by podcast pals Amber & Paul and we talk about Paul’s hit youtube video about French kissing habits, his newfound success as a stand-up (he’s the hottest kid in town), some online abuse he’s had and then an anecdote about an audition that we attended recently, which involved a surprising misunderstanding about accents. There’s also a brief language focus on using relative clauses with ‘which’ to extend your sentences when speaking. Enjoy!

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Image: c/o Robert Hoehn French Fried TV

Transcript for the intro and outro to this episode

Intro

Hello, welcome back to the podcast. This is episode 342. First of all I’d like to say thanks if you’ve recently left comments on my website, written positive reviews on iTunes or especially if you’ve sent a donation to the podcast. I appreciate all of those things very very much indeed and I hope that you feel like you’ve invested in this podcast, even in a small way. Every little helps. So thank you very much.

In this episode I’m joined again by podcast pals Amber and Paul

If you are a brand new listener and you don’t know them then here are the basics: Essentially, they’re both from the south-east of England, I know them from the stand-up comedy scene here in Paris and they both have super-powers, yes that’s right – super-powers.

Amber is a voice-over artist, actress and tour guide. She has a little 2-year-old son called Hugo (who has featured on the podcast before, making dinosaur noises in episode 297), and Amber’s super power is that she has loveliest voice in the world. Her voice is so lovely it could melt the heart of even the toughest person – like anyone at all. Even Vladimir Putin or Batman would be reduced to a little puppy when listening to Amber’s voice, right listeners? If Amber’s voice was on Darth Vader’s iPod and he listened to her talking, he would immediately give up his devotion to the dark side and turn into an ewok or something. That’s Amber.

Paul used to work for Apple – the company, not the fruit. It would be weird if he worked for an Apple. Anyway, last year he took the brave decision to quit his job in order to focus on becoming a full-time stand-up comedian, performing both in English and in French. Paul has a weekly one-man show called #franglais which he performs every week and he also performs a two-man comedy show with me every Thursday, and that one’s called “Sorry, we’re English”. He has his own podcast, called “Becoming a Comedian”, which you can find at paultaylorcomedy.com. Paul’s super-power is his infectious laugh, which causes podcast listeners to randomly split their sides in different countries around the world, which is nice. I imagine if he had to do battle with Darth Vader, he’d just laugh in his face and Vader would turn into Jar-Jar Binks or something.

The conversation you’re going to hear in this episode was recorded the other day when we were sitting upstairs on my little terrace enjoying some sunshine. We recorded about 3 episodes-worth of stuff that day. Two in the sunshine and one indoors because after a few hours it went cloudy and then started raining, which is typical for April in this part of the world. You already heard the first part of that conversation in episode 341.

Click here to check out a list of other episodes featuring Amber & Paul

But in this conversation Amber and I talk to Paul about recent success in his stand-up career, there’s a surprise phone call from Robert Hoehn, we talk about some online abuse Paul’s received, and then Paul and I tell Amber about an audition we had for a TV show recently, which involved a bit of a misunderstanding about our British accents.

One thing I just want to let you know right now is that I’m aware that this conversation is quite quick and you might not get absolutely every single word that we say, but that’s fine because as we know, listening to native speakers at natural speed is a valuable thing for you to do even if it’s difficult to understand every little thing. Just try to fill in the blanks, tolerate the stuff you don’t understand, read between the lines and keep going. Listening several times will help, but the main thing is to relax and just enjoy spending 45 minutes in the sunshine with us.

Where were we?

Where were we in the conversation at the end of the last episode?

There was a bit of a cliffhanger of sorts. Paul was about to tell us what happened in January, and it’s something about his progress as a comedian. Let’s get an update on how it’s all going.

A bit of language analysis – Paul’s long sentence – using ‘which’

In just a moment I’m going to start playing our conversation to you and it’ll carry on from where it ended last time.

The first you’re going to hear is me saying to Paul, “Give us an update on what happened in January” and then you’ll hear Paul speaking pretty quickly, and producing perhaps the longest sentence in the history of humanity. Actually, long sentences with lots of additional clauses are pretty common in spoken English, especially in spontaneous talking. In writing I think it’s best to keep your sentences short and clear but in speaking we often find ways to extend our sentences to include new thoughts and to keep the rhythm going, particularly with words like ‘and’ or ‘but’ (simple ways) but also with relative pronouns, particularly ‘which’, which we add to nouns and even whole clauses in order to extend sentences (like I just did there – did you notice?) Check out the way Paul uses ‘which’ to extend his sentences and add ideas, adding fluency to his speech.

Here’s the first sentence you’ll hear from Paul in this episode:
“Yeah, I think the last time we spoke, I don’t know if we talked about it but I was gearing up for the start of my own show, which was like an hour, my first hour-long solo show, which was starting on January 9th and I was excited (and) nervous because I’d never been on-stage for an hour (and) it was going to be cool, whatever, and then during the month of December, Robert Hoehn, who has been on the podcast previously, he runs an English comedy night and he’s, I guess, seen me do comedy for the last three years and he suggested to me that I make a video out of one of my sketches which I’d been doing on stage, which was around the French, their kissing and saying hello and it’s called La Bise, in France.”

Wow. There are a few examples of ‘which’ in there and also a ‘who’, after he mentions Robert Hoehn, who has been on the podcast previously. Also, there’s the phrase “gearing up for” which means “getting ready for”. OK. Now I’ll let you listen to that sentence in full, spoken by Paul.

One question: How many times does he say “which” and what’s the most common word that comes after it?

*Paul’s long sentence*

Answers:
He says ‘which’ four times and it’s most commonly followed by ‘was’ (3 times) and once it’s followed by ‘had been doing’.

This is often how we add information to stories. I mentioned this language point in the photo competition episode too. That’s episode 327. In Paul’s sentence, “which was” comes after a noun every time, but sometimes it comes after a clause. Question: What is the noun or clause that is followed by ‘which’ in these examples?

“He suggested that I make a video of one of my sketches which I’d been doing on stage which was around the French way of saying hello”.

Answer: Both times it’s ‘one of my sketches’

and “So, we sat on the terrace and just talked for about 2 hours, which was nice”.

Answer: it’s the whole clause ‘we sat on the terrace and just talked for about 2 hours’.

So, there was a little bit of language analysis. But that’s enough of that. I will now let you listen to the rest of the conversation properly, and enjoy another chat with podcast pals Amber & Paul, and by the way, just to let you know in advance – there is a little bit of swearing in this conversation.

conversation starts

Watch Paul’s Video about “La Bise”

A France24 TV news report about Paul

Outro – Transcript

We will be back, speaking more ‘crapola’ soon, because we’ll be playing the interactive lying game and that should be the next episode of this podcast.

What’s crapola? It’s just another way of saying ‘crap’ or ‘nonsense’. Crap is poo by the way. Crap is a swear word but it’s not as bad as ‘shit’. Crapola is not such a common word – it’s a variation on the word ‘crap’ and it means ‘nonsense’ or ‘stupid talking’.

Accents

Now, at the end there you heard us talking about accents. That was a slightly heated conversation and since this is my podcast I’d like to try and clarify what I was trying to say.

So, first of all we went for the audition and it was nice, but one of the producers said, “Can you speak with less of a British accent?” and we asked, “You mean you want us to use an American accent?” and she said “Not American, just less British. You know, like the way they speak in New York, because they don’t have an American accent in New York” and we were a bit stunned that doesn’t mean anything. So, first of all I think it’s not possible to have no accent. Everyone has an accent, but you might feel like your accent is the normal, standard position for the language and that every other version is an accent. Even accents which are considered to be the neutral forms are still an accent. So it doesn’t make sense to say that you don’t have an accent or that the people of a particular place don’t have an accent. If they pronounce words, using certain sounds, that’s an accent. Some accents are considered the standard forms, and in the UK and in the USA there are, broadly speaking, two standard accents. There’s Received Pronunciation in the UK, which is generally how I speak (although I have inflections from the midlands and the South East, reflecting the places where I grew up) and in the USA there’s an accent called Standard American, which is a kind of regionless accent. So maybe what the girl meant to say was, can you speak with a standard American accent, or a more trans-Atlantic accent? But then she realised that it could be taken as a bit rude, because it’s like she suggested that there was something wrong with our British accents or something. She didn’t mean any offence of course.

Another thing I often read online is the sentence, “There’s no such thing as a British accent”, which is a bit misleading. Generally people write that in response to comments on Youtube or Reddit or something when an American person has said something like “OMG I love the British accent”, or equally “OH my god the British accent sucks” or something. Then someone gets pissed off and writes a response, like “there’s no such thing as a British accent!” But that’s a bit stupid too. If an accent comes from a part of Britain, it’s a British accent. Obviously British accents exist, but the point is there is not just one British accent – there are many accents from different regions and it’s a bit short-sighted to just imagine there is only one “British accent” when in fact it’s so much more diverse than that, and I suppose that comment “There’s no such thing as a British accent” is the British person’s way of expressing annoyance or frustration over the lack of awareness of the diversity of British accents.

In the UK today we are very sensitive to accents, as Amber mentioned in the conversation. There are many many variations on the way people speak, and those variations indicate things like regional origin and social status. We shouldn’t judge people by their accents, but we do. We also are very affectionate about accents and generally very positive about regional accent variations. We love the diversity of accents in our country and generally it is considered inappropriate and snobbish to laugh at an accent or to suggest that there’s something wrong with speaking in a different way. Being snobbish about regional accents is now quite unfashionable in the UK. Regional accents are generally celebrated these days – and when you watch TV, including the BBC news, you’ll hear lots of different accents being spoken by presenters from around the country, because TV viewers appreciate the regional flavours of the different accents.

So, I suppose part of our surprise at the girl at the audition was just about her lack of awareness of accent variation, but also the slightly clumsy way she talked about the whole subject, suggesting that people in New York had no accent, or that our British way of speaking was just a regional variation of an accent that has its neutral base in Manhattan. But, I understand that identifying regional accents can be very hard when you’re not native to that language, so we didn’t take offence at the girl and it was fine, but we did find it amusing and interesting from a linguistic point of view. So, that’s that.

I must do more episodes about different regional accents on this podcast. There is just so much content to cover and it’s really important that you get a sense of the different accent variations. I have dealt with accents before a bit, but there’s so much more to do on that subject. We’ve only really scratched the surface.

Listen to Adam & Joe talking about British and American actors doing different accents, particularly Ray Winstone (UK – London) pretending to be an American in the film Fool’s Gold. 😂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIxQFUV_AcA

And this one about Leonardo DiCaprio’s Irish accent and how Hollywood helps actors perform in different accents.

Oh, and remember Tracy Goodwin the American voice coach from Episode 20 of Luke’s English Podcast? Here are Adam & Joe talking about that…

Using Apps to listen to this podcast

This is turning into another longish episode. It happens so easily, but you heard Paul earlier talking about the ‘pause’ button. I wonder if you use that, because as I’ve said before – you don’t have to listen to these episodes in one go, you can pause and listen to the rest later. If you’re using podcasting software like an app on your phone, it will remember where you were when you paused, even if you close the app or switch off your phone or computer.

Here are some recommended apps: There’s the standard Apple Podcasts app, which is fine. I use PocketCasts which is available on iPhone and android. You can also get it on your computer. There’s Acast which is good. Also, try the Audioboom app. All of them let you listen via an internet connection (wifi or data) and the also let you download episodes onto your phone so you can listen when you’re not online. All those apps will save your position in an episode so you can listen, pause, listen again, pause, come back later and listen to more etc.

You can still just download the files from the website and put them on your mp3 player – just check if there’s a folder in your player for podcasts because if you use that folder the mp3 player will probably save your position, just like the smartphone apps do.

Thanks for listening – speak to you soon, bye!

298. The Bank Robbery (Part 1)

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Hello listeners, welcome to Luke’s English Podcast. In this episode we’re going to plan a bank robbery. Not a real one – if any police are listening to this I should say it’s just a simulation, I’m not actually going to rob a bank, so relax… eat another donut. This is the bank robbery episode and I hope that it involve the usual magic ingredients of a good episode of LEP – authentic spoken English, native speakers communicating naturally, presentation of some specific language in context, the voices of some of my friends, a sense of fun and imagination. That’s the idea anyway. I hope that you will stay engaged throughout the episode. I suggest that you imagine what you would say and do if you were there in the room with us. As ever, you can leave your comments on the page for this episode at teacherluke.co.uk

[DOWNLOAD]

Introduction
Basically, in this episode you’re going to hear a group of my friends do a communication game in which they have to plan a bank robbery. We’ll listen to the whole meeting, hear their plan come together and then find out what happens in their version of the robbery. We’ll also consider some of the language used in the planning process. If it makes it more exciting, let me tell you that the stakes are very high in this episode – the team could get away with about £200 million in gold, cash and diamonds, or die trying.

What’s going to happen? How will the team organise the perfect bank heist? What language will emerge during the process? Will the team survive and escape with the money, or will they get caught red handed by the police in a dramatic shootout situation.? Listen, and you’ll find out… because this, is the bank robbery episode…

What is “The Bank Robbery”?
Sometimes in my classes at school, I give my students big communication tasks. These are like team building exercises which test the communicative competence of the group.

This episode is based on one of the games that I created, called “The Bank Robbery”.
The game is all about sharing information and working together as a group to come up with the right plan. It’s all about successful communication. If the team members share the information well, they’re more likely to plan a successful robbery. If they don’t communicate properly, they’ll probably miss some vital details, and they’ll get arrested or even worse, killed by the police.

Of course no one actually gets killed, it’s just a simulation. But if it helps to bring more drama to this episode – then yes you can imagine that there is real money involved, and real cops and real guns and bullets and all that kind of stuff.
The bank robbery game gives students the chance to practise speaking in a scenario that’s like a typical business meeting but with a fun twist. They can also get some feedback on their communication skills.
I find it fascinating to see how students deal with this game, especially from a language point of view, but also from a behavioural point of view, and I’ve always wondered how a group of native speakers would handle it.
And that’s what you’re going to get in this episode.

Here’s what’s going to happen
You’ll hear me explain the scenario of the game, I’ll go through some specific language that you might hear them use, then you’ll listen to them plan the robbery, and then they’ll present their plan. After that, based on their plan I will tell them exactly what happens in their robbery – we’ll see if they manage to get away with any money, or if the whole thing goes horribly wrong and they end up in jail or worse – in a body bag!
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s meet the team…

The Team
Who is this team that I have assembled?
We have none other than: Paul Taylor (Daniel Radcliffe, or Tom Hardy), Amber Minogue (played by Audrey Tatou, or Anne Hathaway perhaps) , and Sebastian Marx (Woody Allen, or maybe Ryan Gosling).
Thank you for coming to this meeting. I have brought you together today because you have a very specific set of skills… skills that allow you to communicate effectively in English… skills that could be utilised in order to plan something as a group, like a buffet dinner bank robbery for example…. skills that I take a keen interest in, as a teacher of English as a foreign language… and skills that my listeners (the lepsters) enjoy observing through their ears via the medium of Luke’s English Podcast, which has won a number of awards for being the best blog for learners of English even though it’s not a blog it’s a podcast. OK?
Basically, what I’m getting at is that I’ve brought you all together this afternoon in order to record you doing a communication exercise because I think it will be really interesting for my listeners to hear. OK? I might be wrong, it could be dull as hell, and that kind of depends on you, but let’s see…
You are going to do an exercise in which you have to work together as a team in order to achieve a shared objective. Your success in the task depends on your management of information and effective communication between each other.
The stakes are particularly high in this simulation because you are going to organise a bank robbery. If you succeed you could escape with millions of pounds in gold, cash and diamonds. Sounds nice doesn’t it?
If you fail you could spend the rest of your life in jail, or be killed or badly wounded by police. It all depends on how well you and your team plan the robbery.

The situation
You are a gang of specialist bank robbers – think Oceans 11, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, that kind of thing. You have identified a small bank in West London (not as glamourous as Las Vegas, but anyway…) a bank which you know is about to receive a delivery of £100m in gold bullion. The bank also has cash reserves of £20m in its vault. There may also be some diamonds in the bank which you could take as well. Why not, if there are diamonds too, take the diamonds.
So you could make upwards of £120 million – £40m each – not to be sniffed at.
Anyway, the bank is situated on a street corner. It has one main entrance (that’s a glass double door) and a smaller secutiry entrance on the side (that’s a solid, protected security door). It’s quite a small bank with a main room for doing business with customers, and a small back office on the ground floor, and a medium sized vault in the basement. The money (gold, cash, diamonds) is kept in the vault, which is protected by a solid locked door. Imagine a solid metal door with a huge lock on it.
You 3 are the core members of the team, but you can’t do this alone. You’ll need some assistance – especially from people with very special skills, specific to organised theft like this. Luckily you have a few connections in the criminal underworld. You can choose a maximum of 2 other specialists to help you.

Here’s a list of the other gang members you could employ. You’ll get more information about them during the game.
The Driver
The Shooter
The Inside Man
The Safe Cracker
The Tunnel Expert
Jimmy The Informant

You (the team) are going to plan to steal that money.

Have a meeting to decide these points
• VALUABLES – What exactly is available and what will you steal?
• DAY – The day on which you will do the robbery
• TIME – The time of the robbery
• GANG MEMBERS – Which two extra gang members you will employ for the job (you can employ two other people)
• ENTRANCE – How you will enter the bank
• MASKS – Will you wear masks or not?
• GUNS – Will you use guns or not?
• VAULT – How will you get into the vault?

Today is Saturday 1 October
You’re planning to rob the bank next week – that’s the week starting on Monday, because that’s when the gold and other money will be in the bank. You’ve left it a bit late to be honest.

But you’ve all spent quite a lot of time watching the bank, and collecting information to help you plan the perfect crime.
(I’ve written this information on small pieces of paper and I’ll deal it out to you all randomly, in a minute)
You will need to share the information in order to pool your knowledge. Please don’t let each other read the info you have. You’ll have to do it all by spoken communication.

When you are ready, present your plan to Luke (that’s me) and the listeners (Lepsters). Then I will tell you the final result of your bank robbery. We’ll find out what happens in the robbery, based on your plan.

There are a few different ways to complete the task and steal the money, but only one of those approaches will allow you to get away with the most money possible. Some options will get you arrested, some options will get you killed. Some options will allow you to escape with only some of the money. Only one option (I think) will allow you all to escape with the maximum amount of money, with no loss of life or jail time. (Which is at least £120,000,000 – 30m each)

I am the gamesmaster – I’m just going to sit back and let you get on with it. I might give you bits of guidance and advice at times. I’m like Obiwan Kenobi or something. “Paul… use the crow-bar Paul…” that kind of thing.

You can ask me questions if you want – I might help, or I might be a bit mysterious and say something like “That is a question which only the sands of time may reveal” or “Sorry, I can’t answer that”.

OK, is everything clear? Do you have any questions at this point?

Key Information
While the team are reading the information I’ve just handed out to them, I’d like to talk to you about a few things, to help you follow the meeting more easily.

So, the team is looking at various key information which is on small pieces of paper. The information relates to these things:
• Info about the money – What exactly is available, and when it’s available. There is only one particular period next week when the gold, cash and diamonds are in the bank at the same time.
• Info about the DAY & TIME – when the bank is open, when the money is in the bank, and other information about the best time and day to do the robbery, including things like traffic, extra security in the bank and hours of daylight.
• GANG MEMBERS – Info about the 5 other team members they could employ for the robbery. They can pick two. Certain gang members are crucial for the robbery. Other gang members will cause your robbery to go horribly wrong.
• ENTRANCE – Different ways to enter the bank and get into the vault. Basically, it’s either through the front door, through a side door when the gold is delivered, or through an underground tunnel directly into the vault.
• MASKS – Will you wear masks or not? With masks on, the team’s identities will be protected from CCTV, but everyone will instantly know it’s a robbery.
• GUNS – Will you use guns or not? Guns will allow the team to persuade the bank staff to do things, but could be dangerous.

I’m now going to read to you all the information they have in their hands. Then you’ll know everything they know, and it should help you to follow their meeting more easily.

Also, it might allow you to work out your own plan. BTW, all this information is on the page for this episode at teacherluke.co.uk

So now, listen to all the relevant information. I’ll try to make it clear for you. Listen carefully and try to make your own plan. Think about the best day and time.

THE INFORMATION WHICH THE TEAM HAS TO SHARE
Here is all the info which the team members have on small pieces of paper.
You can also download this information as a Word document, which you can then print and then cut up. Click the link below to download the Word doc. (Thanks to Zdenek Lukas for preparing the doc)
THE-BANK-ROBBERY-speaking-activity-by-Luke-Thompson.

The bank will receive the gold bullion at 11AM on Tuesday 4 October.
The gold will be removed from the vault on Monday 10 October at 8AM.
When gold is delivered at the bank, two security guards always take it through a back door and down the stairs into the vault. This takes 5 minutes.
The gold is easiest to steal when the security guards are taking it from the van to the vault.
The gold and cash are fitted with anti-theft devices such as paint and a tracking device.
These are removed when the money has been safely delivered into the vault.
The £20m in cash will be removed from the vault on Friday evening.
You have just discovered that the vault will also contain £80m of diamonds next week! They arrive on Wednesday evening but they will be removed on the evening of Friday 7 October.
It takes approximately 10 minutes to fill your bags with gold, cash and any other valuables.
The bank is open from 8AM to 8PM, Monday to Friday. The bank is closed on Saturday and Sunday.
When the bank is closed the doors are very securely sealed and protected. It is impossible to break in when the bank is closed.
The side door of the bank is reinforced and cannot be opened from the outside.
The bank is unstaffed at night. Nobody is in the bank after 8pm.
The sun goes down at 6PM. The sun comes up at 6AM.
A robbery in the morning will be more of a surprise, and the police tend to be slower in the morning as they are usually eating donuts and drinking coffee.
You are much more likely to be identified by witnesses during daylight hours.
A robbery in the dark is more likely to be a success because the roads are quieter. It will be easier to escape by car in the dark.
There is less traffic on the street at night.
No-one goes into the bank at the weekend. After leaving the bank on Friday evening, the next member of staff to come back is the security guard. He arrives on Monday morning at 7AM.
Friday is the busiest day in the bank. The bank employs two extra security guards armed with Remington shotguns on this day. They stay in the bank from 8AM to 8PM.
You will find it very difficult to get away from the bank quickly in the morning because of bad traffic.
You can enter the bank by the front door but you will appear on the CCTV cameras in the front entrance.
When the bank alarm is set off, the police are automatically called. They will take approximately 15 minutes to arrive at the bank.
The police will take an extra 5 minutes to arrive at the bank in the morning, because of busy traffic and because they’ll be eating donuts and drinking coffee in a local diner.
It will take approximately 5 minutes to persuade a staff member to open the vault for you.
If you have guns you will quickly be able to persuade the staff to open the vault for you.
Robbery with guns is more serious than robbery without guns, and therefore carries a much stricter prison sentence. Also, the police are more likely to open fire on you if you are armed.
You can use masks to hide your identity. They will prevent you from being identified during the robbery, but if you enter the bank wearing masks, the staff and customers will immediately know it is a robbery and the alarm will be set off.
There is a disused shop opposite the bank. The shop has a basement with an earthen floor, and vacant space for soil in the yard. The shop is available for rental.
It will take 5 full days and 5 full nights to dig a tunnel from the shop to the bank vault.
It will take 24 hours to arrange rental of the shop opposite the bank. The rental office is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.
To rent the shop opposite the bank you need to provide your name, ID number and address. The shop owner might accept a fake name if you bribe him with at least £5m.
The Driver is an excellent getaway driver. He is a professional stunt driver and he can escape from anyone, traffic permitting.
The Shooter is an expert with a shotgun. His speciality is crowd control and hostage situations. He has just spent 10 years in prison after his last bank job went wrong. He absolutely hates the police, because they killed his brother.
The Safe-Cracker can open any lock in just 2 minutes.
The Inside Man works in the bank as a clerk. He knows about everything that goes on inside the bank. He can delay the alarm by 5 minutes. Also, he can give you blueprints of the vault.
His knowledge of the vault is essential if you plan to tunnel in. You need him to tell you where to enter the vault by tunnel.
Jimmy the Informant has a close relationship with the police and for the right price he will tell you everything that the police know about your bank job. He wants £10m for this information. He is not particularly loyal to anyone – either you, or the cops.
The Tunnel Expert is brilliant at digging tunnels. Without him it will take you 7 days and 7 nights to dig the tunnel, and even then it might not reach the bank vault correctly.

Now you know all the information they have, so in fact, you know more than the team as a whole now.

Perhaps you have some ideas about a plan of your own. If you were paying attention and you’re clever, you could work out the best plan already.

In a moment, you’ll listen to them sharing the information and they’ll start building their plan.

USEFUL LANGUAGE
Before we listen to that I’d like to bring your attention to some language you’re going to hear.

Here are some things you will hear. Watch out for these things.

Essentially, you’ll hear them
– sharing information – giving info and asking for info
– evaluating that information and making conclusions,
– rejecting irrelevant information,
– making suggestions,
– interrupting each other,
– agreeing

Summarising and Rephrasing
This shows that you’re listening, that you’ve understood, clarifies and establishes the information which has been presented.
You summarise your point (intro), give details, then summarise it again (conclusion).
E.g. “I think tunnelling in is not such a good idea, because if we tunnel in we can only get half the money. So tunnelling is not an option.”
Summarise what the other person said. Rephrase to show you understand.

Giving information – Signpost the point you’re making
Can I just say one thing about time? It fits in.
Timing-wise, the 20m in cash will be removed …
So, speaking of Remingtons…
More things regarding time here…

Ask for information
What have you got?
What else have you got in terms of timing?
Is that all you’ve got for timing?
Do we know when the bank is open?
Who are the other people that could help us?
When’s the gold going to be delivered?

Making Conclusions
So, we can’t do it on Monday. (“So” is a word that signposts that you’re making a conclusion)
So, this means, we have to do it on Thursday.
Tunnelling isn’t really an option.
Thursday seems like a good spot right now.
It seems like it’s closed at the weekend.
Wednesday doesn’t seem to be a good day.

Clarifying, or when you don’t hear something
Sorry, 8AM to…?
Sorry, I missed what you just said.
Let me say that again.

Magic Words
Sorry – interrupt or repeat
Hold on – make someone wait
So – make a conclusion
Seems – for facts that look true but you’re not sure

Rejecting Information
We can disregard this because it doesn’t matter.

Make suggestions
I wonder if we should do this…
Let’s…
Shall we say no guns?
Let’s think about how we can get in the back door.
I would say after 6pm is best.

Conditionals – 0, 1st & 2nd
0 conditionals – the speakers think they’re absolute facts – definitely will happen.
“So if we do it on Monday the gold is gone.”
“If we want to get everything, we can’t tunnel in.”
“If we tunnel, we can get some stuff, but we’re aiming for all of it.”
“If we go in with masks, everyone knows right away.”
“If we have the safe cracker we don’t need to persuade anyone.”
1 conditionals – the speakers think they’re realistic – will probably happen.
“If you go in with masks, they’ll know.”
2 conditionals – the speakers think they’re unlikely – just hypothetical things.
“The inside man would save us more time…”

I hope you can keep up with all of that.

Let’s now listen to the rest of the meeting. How do native speakers manage information in a meeting? Also, will they come up with the right plan?

Here we go…

MAP

TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR “THE BANK ROBBERY PART 2”!

What do you think is the best plan?
Please leave your comments below. :)
[socialpoll id=”2296567″]

Image: http://therealasset.co.uk/gold-robberies/

297. Using Humour in the IELTS Speaking Test (With Jessica from All Ears English)

18 Replies

On the podcast today I’m talking to Jessica Beck who has been working in English language teaching for over 10 years. She is an instructor, a teacher trainer and an author of 14 textbooks for learning English. You may also know Jessica from her work on the IELTS Energy Podcast (www.ielts.allearsenglish.com), which is part of the All Ears English. I talked to Gabby and Lindsay from AEE on LEP last year about culture shock, remember that? Well, Jessica is part of the All Ears English team, and is known there as the “Examiner of Excellence”. So, she knows a lot about the IELTS test, and he’s got some good advice for any of my listeners who plan to take the test, including how you can improve your speaking score if you have a good sense of humour. If you’re not planning to take the test, these skills can also be applied to your use of English in general life too.

[DOWNLOAD]
Jessica has kindly written a blog post which includes the tips and useful language she mentions in this episode. You can read that blog post below.

I expect that most of you know what the IELTS test is, In fact, I have done an episode about IELTS before on LEP in which I went through every part of the test in one episode, dispensing various bits of Jedi wisdom to help you get a better score. That episode is called “Tips and Tricks for the IELTS Test”, and is episode number 254 of Luke’s English Podcast.
Check it out here www.teacherluke.co.uk/2015/01/22/254-ielts-tips-tricks/

For those that don’t know, IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System, and it’s now the world’s #1 test of English language level. The test measures your English in 4 areas: reading, writing, listening and speaking. The maximum score in each area is 9 (expert user) and the lowest is 1 (total beginner). Lots of universities, employers and other institutions around the world require an IELTS score as requirement for entry, and 7 is usually the target score, sometimes it’s higher, sometimes lower depending on the institution. Cambridge University in the UK for example requires a minimum of 7.5 overall, with no less than 7 in any of the categories. So, if you want that place at a great British or American university, the first challenge is often to get a really good IELTS score, and what you need is good advice and strategies to help you do your best.

So, in this episode we’re going to meet Jessica, and talk specifically about the IELTS speaking test, in which you have a 15 minute interview with an IELTS examiner and your spoken English is tested in a few ways. Jessica has loads of tips for the speaking exam, and I’m hoping that she can give us some advice on how having a sense of humour can get you a better score in the test. So listen for some more top tips for IELTS in this one.

Also, what do you think would happen if I took the IELTS speaking test? Well, listen to the whole episode and you’ll find out…

Now, let’s meet Jessica the “Examiner of Excellence”.

Read Jessica’s Blog Post:

Humor Increases IELTS Speaking Scores

Say what??!!

I’m serious. It does.

By Jessica Beck from All Ears English IELTS

Many students, and teachers, for that matter, view all exams as formal and academic. Because of this, they believe that on these exams, test-takers must behave, speak, and write in an academic, formal style all the time.

While this may be true for some tests, there are many reasons why an IELTS candidate should not behave this way on the Speaking exam.

As we discussed on the podcast, a common mistake students make is not learning about what the IELTS examiner is looking for.

Students often look at example questions, memorize high-level words and phrases, and believe this is enough.

It’s not!

You must know what you are graded on, and where to use these words and phrases.

Your score, which can be from 0 to 9, is broken down into 4 aspects- Fluency and Coherence, Vocabulary, Grammar and Pronunciation.

You can read definitions of the band scores in each aspect at https://www.ielts.org/pdf/SpeakingBanddescriptors.pdf.

What you must notice about the band score descriptors is that the examiner wants to hear a range from you- a range in vocabulary, in your ability to communicate about a variety of topics, and in your pronunciation.

The fact is that in Parts 1 and 2 on the IELTS Speaking exam, almost all of the questions are about you. They are personal and informal. Therefore, if you answer these questions in a formal way, you are showing that you do not have a range of communication ability and that you are unable to talk about personal, informal topics.

So, where does humor come in? How does it help you raise your score? Read on!

Humor helps you improve your pronunciation score. It helps you relax, allowing you to show your personality and use emotion in your voice. Showing relaxed and expressive pronunciation can push this score up to a 7 or higher!

It improves your fluency and coherence score. If you are able to answer some informal questions with a few informal anecdotes, or very short stories, about yourself, this will show that you can communicate appropriately and effectively in informal speaking situations.

It improves your vocabulary score, because you show you can use appropriate vocabulary to the question, and you have some knowledge of more interesting words and phrases. Showing the examiner a range of informal vocabulary in Parts 1 and 2, and formal vocabulary in Part 3, pushes your score up to a 7 or higher.

NOTE: Even though I’m encouraging you to communicate in a relaxed way, this doesn’t mean that you slump your shoulders and provide one word answers. You must always sit and behave respectfully, and ALWAYS answer in complete sentences.

We gave some examples of how to answer in a humorous manner on the podcast, and the phrase “self-deprecating” came up a few times.

Self-deprecation is the ability to make fun of yourself, or to share information about yourself that shows you make mistakes.

This is a humble way of communicating, and it can endear you to your listeners.

This is true on the exam and in real life!

For example, if the examiner asks, “Do you enjoy taking photographs?” A self-deprecating answer would be, “I’ll admit, I actually love taking selfies. I know this is a silly habit, and that is honestly a bit embarrassing, but I take selfies absolutely everywhere- at home, on the bus, walking up the stairs, waiting for my dry cleaning. However, I post almost none of them, so I guess it’s not that horrible of a habit!”

Other phrases you can use to introduce answers like this are: You won’t believe this, but…, This is crazy, but… and I’m a bit embarrassed to say this, but….

An excellent way to prepare to communicate in this way, on the exam and in real life, is to watch stand-up comedy, or see/listen to interviews with stand-up comedians.

Some podcasts that I recommend are Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, a news quiz with three stand-ups, How Did This Get Made, a show with 3-4 stand-ups who talk about really bad (but sometimes popular!) movies, and Comedy Bang Bang, an interview show with hilarious skits.

If you challenge yourself to experience this type of Western, English humor, not only will this help you communicate impressively with the IELTS examiner, but it will also help you talk naturally with native speakers, and understand more jokes in movies and TV shows.

Have fun and get your target score!

Click here to get the 7 Easy Steps to a 7 or Higher on IELTS

Jessica Beck is the IELTS professional at All Ears English IELTS. She has helped hundreds of students reach their target score through her simple, step-by-step systems and strategies. Learn more with Jessica on the IELTS Energy Podcast in iTunes.

295. California Road Trip (Final Part) Customer Service / Highway 101 / UK vs US English

18 Replies

Hi and welcome back to LEP. This is episode 295, and it will be the final part of this 8-part series which is inspired by my trip to the west coast of the US recently. I’m going to talk about the final part of our journey from San Francisco, down the coast via Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo and back to LA. I’ll also talk some more about customer service and give you some tips on how to make complaints in English and how to talk to strangers in slightly sensitive situations, like when you want a person sitting behind you to stop talking because you can’t sleep. You can expect to hear those things and more in this episode.

[DOWNLOAD]
I started this series on 26 August, which is just under two weeks ago. So, in less than two weeks I’ve uploaded about 8 episodes and each one is about 1 hour 15 minutes long. I realise that’s a lot of content for you to listen to, and I think a lot of my listeners are quite busy catching up with all this new content. I certainly hope that this sudden arrival of 8 new episodes hasn’t put anyone off. I know from experience that when I listen to a podcast and there are lots of episodes that I haven’t heard, that it seems harder to get back into it, like you’re falling behind and it’s difficult to catch up. So, I expect that some listeners are a little overwhelmed by the number of episodes that have arrived. Not you of course! If you’re listening to this I expect it means that you’re keeping up with the series without any problems! If you’re a new listener, then welcome to my podcast. It’s for learners of English. Visit teacherluke.co.uk for more information.

Anyway, I shouldn’t be worrying about anything because I have had lots of encouraging comments on episodes in this series and I’d like to read some out and respond to them here – not all of them, just a selection.

Comments from Listeners
One piece of correspondence from a listener in the USA, called “Lea”, which is worth mentioning:
Leah: “I’ve very much enjoyed hearing all about your trip. But I need to tell you that nobody in the U.S. ever says “galoshes”, lol !! Really it’s true. I do remember when I was in school (grade school & high school), in French class, and in language text books I would see this word.
We just say “boots”, sometimes more specific like, “rain boots”, “snow boots”, “hiking boots”, “riding boots” … But NEVER “galoshes”.
Did you hear someone in California use that term??
Anyhoo, I love the podcast!!! Thank you!”

Luke: “Thanks for the correction. I feel like I should now edit the podcast to include what you said! I might do it actually.”

Leah: “Ha! Just to check myself, I asked my 14 year old son if he knew what “galoshes” were. He said “No”, but he had heard the term used in a cartoon once. He further said that he got that they meant something like, “rain boots” through the context.”

So, I just wanted to agree with Lea and emphasise that it’s not galoshes in the USA, but in fact “rain boots”. In the UK it’s ‘wellies’ or ‘wellington boots’.
Google search results:
“Galoshes”: 454,000 results
“rain boots”: 2,090,000 results

Perhaps in the USA wellies are less a part of the every day culture, and so a well-known nickname hasn’t come up. Whatever the reason, it’s ‘rain boots’ rather than galoshes.

Perhaps it’s not that important that you know the correct term for rain boots in the USA, but who knows – perhaps it could be useful. Maybe in some emergency situation, like a flood or something. “Quick we need some wellies!” “What?” “I mean, we need some galoshes! Quick!” “Sorry, I… I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you British? I love your accent :)” “This is an emergency flood situation we need galoshes!” “Sorry – that means nothing to me. Have a nice day now, alrighty then, sorry about all this rain, but I guess you must be used to it because you’re British, right?”
“No, you don’t understand, we need rubber boots to protect us from the water, right now!! Boots, for the rain!” “Oh you mean rain boots? Why didn’t you just say?” etc.

Chriss Benitez
September 3, 2015 at 12:13 am
I love craft beer and california is the most famous place for breweries. Hoped you had lots of good Californian beers and American IPA.

I´m waiting for the Camaro photos :P, you get used to it don’t worry. I don’t have one but my Mustang is almost the same.

Great episode!!

ptholome/Antonio
August 29, 2015 at 11:38 am
WOW, WOW, WOW, WOOOOW

Hello Luke, This is a very great work you are presenting to us. I thank you for this huge effort you are doing to teach English to people all around the world.

I would say a lot about your new podcasts but even if I knew the adjectives you deserve I can only say that “Je suis resté sans voix” reading your four incredible podcasts.

I am waiting for the next podcast as impatient as people are waiting for the sixth book of the Game of Thrones.

I really only can say “BRAVO!” AND “CHAPEAU BAS MESSIEURS” (This means “hats off” or “well done!”)

Big Hug Luke

p.s. Why don’t you make a periscope each time you are going to work on a podcast?

Because watching AJ’s Periscopes for several weeks, I am surprised seeing myself waving the hand and saying bye when AJ finishes every Periscope video. I finally have the feeling that he is in front of me. It is a strange feeling, but it is really present.

Try it and be sure you are going to enjoy it, because you are going to have a real direct contact with your students. You have nothing to lose and a lot to find mainly our love and admiration.

See you

mollietai10@yahoo.com
August 27, 2015 at 3:06 pm
FANTASTIC journey with so much to offer . You give us amazing luxury through your account . What a romantic way of teaching English . WELCOME BACK ! Keep it up ! Million thanks !

petrokl
August 27, 2015 at 9:40 am
Dear Luke! Thanks for two very interesting and cognitive episodes. I found out a lot of new stuff about the US.

paquan
Hi Luke, this’s just a trivial comment, but I want to tell you that I like your jelly’s wobbling around noise making. It’s funny and cute. 😀

Rasul Ksirov
September 5, 2015 at 7:56 pm
The Eagles are single-handedly responsible for lots of people in my country mispronouncing the English word hotel as /’houtel/ – i.e. with the stress on the first syllable instead of the second. Which is funny, given that we have the same word in our own languages (Russian/Ukrainian – well, the Russian one lacks the initial h) – and it is stressed on the second syllable. But even fact is overlooked as a clue for correct pronunciation, against the popularity of the Eagles’ hit and its damaging influence on the unsuspecting English learner.

Explain yourself, I hear you say. All right, I will.

The musical metre (or rhythmic structure) employed in the chorus of “Hotel California” dictates that the word “hotel” is stressed on the first syllable thus overriding the actual word stress. Indeed, they do seem to be singing “welcome to the hOtel /’hou.tel/california” in the chorus.

This, coupled with the general notion that English learners tend to have about most two-syllable English words being stressed on the first syllable, gave rise to the infamous pronunciation error.

Myself, I was lucky enough to hear Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel” first, before the Eagles had led me astray with their confusing stress patterns.

Thanks for your comments everybody. Now let’s carry on with this series!

The Road Trip Continues – San Francisco
Dinner in Liholiho – an amazing Hawaiian influenced place

We’d never tasted food like this before. Some kind of battered and fried chicken, with fried broccoli and kale with cashew nuts. The broccoli in particular was amazing. Apparently they marinade it overnight and then deep fry it in soy infused oil, and the result is an amazing crunchiness combined with juiciness. We just made loads of noises during the dinner and couldn’t stop raving about the taste. Of course, we ordered way too much because we underestimated the size of the portions and ended up completely stuffed.

In fact, there’s quite a lot of Hawaiian influence in SF. It’s amazing to think that across the ocean there’s Hawaii and then Japan. It’s cool to be on the Pacific Coast. I’m more used to being near the Atlantic myself.

August 18
Extend our time in SF.
More acai bowls.
Lombard Street.

Grab some coffee in one of the many great looking coffee places on Polk Street.

Comments about annoyingly rude customer service, which happened a couple of times
Generally speaking, the customer service we experienced in California was really amazing and impressive, and maybe we got used to it because when we had bad service it seemed really obvious and annoying. This was usually from young people doing jobs they probably believed were below them, causing them to treat you with a kind of cool disdain, as if to say “I’m above this”. For example, we had a bad experience in a coffee shop in San Francisco. Two trendy girls who were far too cool, in their minds, to be serving people coffee, served us coffee in a really snooty and dismissive manner and it sort of spoiled my morning a little bit (I can’t stand unnecessary rudeness – it really gets my back up and bothers me a lot). I don’t know why. Perhaps it was my accent. Perhaps it was the fact we were tourists. Maybe it’s because it was Monday. Maybe the cafe management treats them so badly that they put in zero effort, maybe it’s the slightly specific coffee request I made, or maybe it’s just because I didn’t order the coffee just right. Maybe I’m making a big deal of it, when in the end it really doesn’t matter at all! In fact I’m probably reading way too much into this encounter and thinking about it too much. But anyway, here’s what happened:

We stood there talking about what we wanted, and there was nobody in the queue behind us. I stepped forward to make my order. There are two girls behind the counter and they’re standing back a bit, having their own private conversation. I notice that the girls are talking about us, and not nicely. They’re sort of talking under their breaths and glancing at us. I wonder what we’ve done wrong and try to ignore it. Time to get the coffee. I wait a little bit for the girl to come over. I feel like I’m annoying her. I start talking to the girl at the cash register.
Her: “Can I help you?”
Me: “Hi, can I have one black coffee of the day…”
Her: *sighs* “So, you mean one regular dark coffee?” (she says, putting the order into the till. There’s probably a button that says “dark coffee” but no button that says “black coffee”)
Me: “Ok, sure. And an espresso, with…”
Her: “And a single espresso”
Me: Yes please, with just a little bit of hot water added.”
Her: *Sighs again and gives her friend a look*
Me: *Thinks: what the f*ck is going on here?*
Her: That’s gonna be 5.25.
Me: OK, here you are.
Her: “Your coffee will be delivered over there”
Me: “Thanks”
Her: No response. She’s already turned away from me. The transaction is finished.
The other girl then shouts “Single espresso with hot water!” even though there are no other customers around and she heard the entire transaction and I’m just standing right there, and puts the coffee on the top.
I go to pick up the coffee from her, and I say thanks, but she’s not looking at me. She’s turned away and is doing something else. I feel totally unwelcome and I don’t know why. Did I just destroy the environment again without realising it? What did I do wrong?
This really ‘did my head in’ for some reason. What happened? Did I order the coffee slightly wrong? Is it because of my accent? Why is it necessary to serve me my coffee in a miserable way because you feel that you’re above this job?
Maybe I’m way too sensitive, and after all it’s just a couple of coffees but this put a downer on me for about an hour until I got over it. (My wife got over it instantly, but I had a little dark cloud over my head for about an hour as a result of it) As we walked around I speculated about why they seemed so rude.

It reminded me of a routine by Louis CK about exactly this topic. I might play it to you right now because you might find it amusing, but there are some swear words that I’ll edit out because I’d like this episode to be a clean one. So, I think I’m going to play that to you, or at least just embed the video on the page for this episode. We’ll see…

So, in the end, there’s no excuse for being so rude!

How to make the right impression on a waiter
I just want to reiterate something I said in an earlier episode about dealing with waiters and other staff, because this struck me as being quite important, and as I was a foreigner in an English-speaking country it made me realise how important this is.
Remember that staff are just doing their job and you can help make it a little easier for them by showing that you understand that.

So, help them to do their job, don’t make it extra hard for them.
Smile, be friendly and respectful. Don’t have the attitude that this person is your own private slave for the evening and they should have infinite patience and they have no right to complain or be unhappy about your behaviour. This is unrealistic and rude. The waiter is a human being and they might be tempted to spit in your salad.
So, smile and be nice.
When the waiter asks how you are, respond positively, and ask how they are too.
Don’t forget to say please and thank you. Definitely show your appreciation if a waiter has done something special for you.

If in doubt, tell them it’s your honeymoon.

-How to ask for an upgrade in a hotel (this worked for us a few times)
Tell them it’s your honeymoon.

-How to make small requests

Certain phrases are useful.
“Is there any chance you could…?”

Tell them it’s your honeymoon.

E.g. “Is there anything you can do or recommend in order to make our stay even more special? It’s our honeymoon, and we want this to be a really special and memorable stay.”

We got a few hotel room upgrades, and also some free fruit and wine, and in one place they wrote a special message on our mirror, and another place gave us a card. One guy gave us some free bottles of water because it was the only thing he could offer. Everyone seemed genuinely happy for us and it broke the ice quite nicely.

California Diary Continued… 18 August
Union Square.
Drive to Monterey.
Another Japanese restaurant!

August 19
Next it’s Monterey. Beautiful coastal town, but not much more than the aquarium.
Touristy place near the old cannery, where the aquarium is now.
I visit, and the wife goes to the beach.
Wildlife from the waterfront (whales, otters, sea elephant “it’s a whale!”)
Then to Carmel.
Beautiful sunset on the beach with whales and dolphins in the water.
All about Carmel.

August 20
Another day there, including the beach.
17 Mile Drive.
This is an incredibly beautiful and rugged area with stunning coastline. It’s also right next to the Pebble Beach golf course, which you might know.
More whales and dolphins seen. It’s quite touristy, but nice.
By this time we’ve had lots of sun, sand and sea air and we feel like we’ve really absorbed the atmosphere of the place, so we’re feeling very relaxed and cool.

Highway 1 (coastal highway) through Big Sur. Epic views. One of the most stunning and attractive drives ever. Many romantic moments and photos on the way, with the sunset.
San Luis Obispo – the happiest town in America?

Audiobook recommendations
I just wanted to remind you about the audiobooks I’ve recommended in this series. Here are those titles again, just in case you wanted to check them out. Remember you can get a free audiobook if you sign up to a trial membership with Audible.com, which is the internet’s top provider of downloadable audiobooks. They have hundreds of thousands of audiobooks available. Go to audibletrial.com/teacherluke – you can try it out for 30 days, download an audiobook free, and if you don’t like the service just cancel your membership but keep the audiobook. All the details are on my website. Audibletrial.com/teacherluke or click a button on my site that says Audible.
Let’s just re-cap the titles I’ve recommended so far.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
The “For Dummies” series – e.g. English History for Dummies
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

August 21
Next day…
Slight miscalculation of distance and a satnav error and we end up missing Malibu and getting stuck in a huge traffic jam in LA.

Last evening – super trendy vegetarian restaurant with a live jazz band. Huge place.

August 22
The problem with the rental car.
Getting fobbed off by Avis.
Fixing it the next day. Describing the story, being clear about what the problem is, taking emotions out of the equation, being clear about what you expect, showing that you’re not happy…
Explaining what happened is very important.
Making sure the person knows exactly what the point is, is very important.

How to make a complaint. (After the Avis situation)
Say that you’d like to register a complaint. Many companies have official channels and ways of dealing with complaints, that might include some rectification. Be clear from the beginning that you are making a complaint, or the staff might just try to fob you off.
Ask to speak to a manager. This shows that you mean business.
Ask for the names of the people involved and write them down. Again, you mean business.
Ask for evidence of anything important – e.g. a print out of a new rental agreement with a price adjustment. Don’t take anyone’s word for it. You’re in a legal area here, so you need paper evidence!
Explain the background story quickly and simply. They need to know what happened.
Be firm and confident and businesslike. Don’t get too personal or emotional.
Explain what you want.
Remember that these people are just doing their jobs.
Tell them it’s your honeymoon.

How to ask people to stop talking on a plane. (During the return flight)
Remember that the people doing the talking are probably going to take it really badly or personally. How would you react if someone told you to be quiet on a plane?
Do not bring all your anger and frustration to the first comment. Be utterly reasonable, giving them no choice but to respect your wishes. If they don’t like you or find you unreasonable, they won’t want to comply.
Say things like “I don’t want you to stop talking, but…”
Explain why you would like them to stop.
Again, don’t get emotional, aggressive or angry, but you can say it firmly without being aggressive.
“I’m really sorry to bother you, I don’t want you to stop talking, but could you please try to do have your conversation more quietly? It’s just that nobody else is talking, and we all need to rest and I can hear every word you are saying!”
It would be pretty hard not to say “Oh, sorry!” in response to this.
If you just turn round angrily and say “shhhhh!” then I’m sure they’d be less willing to comply – remember, they’re not aware of all the anger and frustration that’s been building up inside you, so you’ll just look like an insane person, and you’ll have a couple of enemies on the flight.
Final tip: Tell them it’s your honeymoon.

American English Vocabulary vs British English Vocabulary
This is a mix of things like games, job titles and household items.

Wardrobe – Closet Furniture
Plaster – Band-Aid Personal Care
Ladybird – Ladybug Insect
Noughts and Crosses – Tic Tac Toe Game
Draughts – Checkers Game
Flat – Apartment Housing
Tap – Faucet Furniture (sink)
Lift – Elevator Housing (in a building)
Torch – Flashlight Household Item
Football – Soccer Game
Estate Agent – Realtor Job
Rubber – Eraser Stationery
C.V. (Curriculum Vitae) – Résumé Job
Spanner – Wrench Tool
Autumn – Fall Season
Holiday – Vacation
Canteen – Cafeteria Room

In Conclusion
We had an absolutely fantastic time travelling around California. It has so many things to offer, including lots of things that we didn’t get to see. Two weeks are not enough, and the time went by so fast that it was almost over before it had started! It is a wonderful place for a honeymoon, and in fact for all types of holiday – for single people, honeymooners or families. I would definitely recommend it, although it is a bit expensive in some areas, particularly San Francisco and the coast. All in all the people were really friendly, the weather is fantastic and there are loads of impressive and entertaining things to see and do. There is plenty of really amazing food, which is a contrast to the stereotype of USA with its unhealthy food culture. The landscape is varied and beautiful and there’s a lot of shopping to be done as well. We’d love to go back one day and see lots of other things we missed. We shared a really special two weeks that we’ll remember forever.

I really hope you’ve not only enjoyed this account of my trip, but that you’ve also learned some things too. My intention has been to not just share our travelling experience with you, but also to just invite you to think about the culture, history and geography of the place along the way, as well as teach you some English.

I’m going to upload photos of our California trip on this page, or on each page in this series. Check them out – it might help to bring some of my descriptions to life a bit.

As ever, leave your comments on the pages for these episodes with your thoughts, feelings and questions. Join the conversation at www.teacherluke.co.uk

That’s it for now, until the next episode.

Take it easy.
Luke

293. California Road Trip (Part 6) San Francisco / AJ Hoge Interview / UK & US English

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Welcome to episode 293, which is in fact part 6 in this mini series based around my recent trip to California. There’s still a lot to talk about, and in this episode I’ll tell you about our time spent in San Francisco and that’s going to include these things – my interview with AJ Hoge the well-known online English teacher, more British and American English, earthquakes, a short biography of Robin Williams, a history of the peace & love movement in San Francisco, more descriptions of our trip down the west coast of California, and some more tips about how to talk to waiters and customer service staff.

[DOWNLOAD]
It seems pretty obvious to me that this is too much for one episode, so I think there will probably be a part 7 to this series, and after that we’ll return to normal podcasting and English teaching, with perhaps some more UK oriented topics in future episodes, and more episodes featuring authentic unscripted conversations with my friends Amber and Paul.

Video
Here’s a video of the Periscope live feed I did while recording this episode. Watch the video for about 20 minutes of extra video content, and to watch me recording this episode.

AJ Hoge Interview

I think I should start this episode with my interview with AJ Hoge. This took place in San Francisco in the lobby of the hotel where we were staying.

Who is AJ? http://ajhoge.com and http://effortlessenglishclub.com
AJ is an American-born English teacher who started his career as a social worker (what’s a social worker?) before going into English language teaching. He taught English abroad in Thailand, Japan, Korea and other places, and at home in San Francisco before becoming an independent self-employed teacher on the internet. He has created his own online English teaching courses and has written a book about learning English, and he sells all those things on his websites (see links above). He’s also a public speaker who has been booked to do conferences, speeches and presentations about learning English, sometimes to thousands of people at a time. He’s probably the most well-known English teacher on the internet (yes – more well-known than me – he’s good at marketing himself!) and I’m sure that you’ve come across him. I’m very impressed by what he’s achieved as an independent teacher and it was really interesting to meet him and find out about his work. I recorded our conversation and I’m going to play it to you right now.

Unfortunately I had a bit of a technical problem during my meeting with AJ. I was using a new portable audio recorder and for some unknown reason it kept turning itself off during our conversation, which was very frustrating indeed. So unfortunately some parts of our conversation are lost. That explains why the conversation cuts out a couple of times, particularly at the end. Fortunately, the main part of our conversation was recorded, so let’s listen to it now!

Part 1 – You’ll hear an introduction, but then the recorder switched itself off after a couple of minutes, which is why the conversation stops abruptly.

Part 2 – I started again after discovering that the recorder in my hand had in fact switched itself off again. We spoke for another 20 minutes or so and then the recorder switched itself off again! This is why the conversation stops abruptly before I had the chance to say thanks and goodbye to AJ. We plan to stay in touch though, and we might talk again via Skype in a future episode of the podcast.

More British and American English Vocabulary (Part 3) – Clothing
Trousers – Pants Clothing
Nappy – Diaper Babycare
Jumper – Sweater Clothing
Tights – Pantyhose Clothing
Waistcoat – Vest Clothing
Trainers – Sneakers Footwear
Braces – Suspenders Clothing
Dinner Jacket – Tuxedo Clothing
Polo neck (sweater) – Turtleneck Clothing
Wellington Boots (Wellies) – Galoshes Footwear

August 14
Let’s go back to the day we left Yosemite, before I met AJ in San Fransisco. Remember that this is after we had our long hike in the mountains and my wife sprained her ankle and had to use crutches to walk down.

In the morning my wife tentatively tries walking a bit on her ankle and thankfully seems ok after all that rest, and because she managed to keep her weight off it during the rest of trek with the help of the crutches. She’ll be able to rest it even more in the car, and take it easy for the whole day as we won’t do much walking.

We drive out of Yosemite. It’s a bit of a pity to be leaving all these huge rock formations like El Capitan and the Half Dome. We’ve got to know them quite well, and it’s always an exciting surprise to see them through the gaps in the trees. They’re like the big celebrities in this park and whenever you see them they dazzle you with their charisma and charm. As we’re driving out of the valley we stop a few times to just stare up at them for a while, particularly El Capitan, which I think is one of the biggest vertical rock faces in the world. Rock climbers enjoy climbing it, but it can take 4-5 days to go up the whole thing. The climbers actually sleep on ledges on the rock face, or they set up beds which hang from hooks in the rock face. Imagine sleeping on a tiny camping bed, hanging from the cliff, with thousands of feet of air below you. I’d never be able to sleep in those conditions! But it must be an incredibly thrilling way to enjoy the place.

We’re going to miss these mountains and rock formations, but it’s time to drive to our next stop – a place we’re looking forward to very much. San Francisco.

As I outlined in the second part of this series when I talked about California’s history, SF was originally a Spanish settlement for missionaries, but then when gold was discovered at almost exactly the same time that California became part of the United States, the city grew really fast to be a gold rush town, with thousands and thousands of people moving into the area, including many Americans, but also Europeans and Asians. That multicultural mix is still evident today.

SF is also known for its earthquakes. There was a big one in 1906 that destroyed large parts of the city, but it rose again, like a phoenix from the ashes. In fact, the flag for San Francisco shows a picture of a rising phoenix to commemorate the city’s recovery. There have been a few big earthquakes here over the years, including another one in 1989. The city is still expecting another really big earthquake to hit at any time, which is a bit of a worrying thought, and one that I suppose the residents of the city don’t think about too much. Does that idea give San Francisco a kind of laid back and open-minded atmosphere? Possibly. I suppose if you know in the back of your mind that everything could be destroyed any minute by a big earthquake, it makes you a bit more philosophical, or it makes you enjoy every moment while it lasts. That feeling does pervade the place a bit. It’s got a peaceful, meditative and bohemian atmosphere which is really refreshing.

San Francisco is also known for being the focal point of the beatnik and hippie movements of the 1960s. Haight Ashbury in particular is the district that was associated with those movements. More on that later.

Long drive to SF.
First views, Bay Bridge.
Obligatory Wholefoods stop.
Our hotel and the area. Polk Street. Home for the next few days.
We’re staying near a place called “Nob Hill”. In fact our area is known as “tender nob”, which I found particularly funny, because ‘tender’ means soft, and a ‘nob’, well, it’s a bit rude – it’s a willy, a penis… So…

Being in SF was like being back to civilisation, and a really great kind of civilisation. A really bohemian and cool atmosphere, with interesting places, loads of originality, lots of good little shops, cafes and bars with long lists of local beers, coffees, wines and ciders. We pretty instantly fall in love with the whole Russian Hill/Polk Street area. We walk up the street looking for places to have dinner and breakfast the next day.

Bookshops, bars, cafes, the boardgames shop (Sherlock Holmes boardgame) and pizza & beer. Settle in nicely.

August 15
Next day, explore. Russian Hill, Pacific Heights. Those hilly streets and amazing views!

Have breakfast in a place called “Toast” which seems to me like the most American breakfast place ever, and I order a big American breakfast plate loaded with pancakes and fruit, with butter and maple syrup. It’s absolutely delicious, but later that day I feel like my blood-sugar levels are such a mess that I really shouldn’t eat more food like that and decide to try to be more healthy.
Again, I’m reminded of films which are set here, including Dirty Harry and Bullitt.
Beautiful multicolour houses and quirky doorways. Very expensive neighbourhood.
We come across a tribute to Robin Williams outside a house where they filmed Mrs Doubtfire. It’s exactly one year since he died. We hang around there, thinking about Robin Williams.

Who Was Robin Williams, and What Happened to Him?
Let me give you a brief history of the life and death of this great comedian.
Trained at Juilliard School.
Had a particular gift for improvisational comedy.
Became famous in Mork & Mindy.
Also did stand-up.
Had big problems with alcohol and substance addictions, particularly cocaine.
He managed to quit when his first child was born. Lived as a recovering alcoholic.
Went on to do some very popular movies, in both comic and straight roles.
Won an oscar for his role as a psychiatrist in Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s film Good Will Hunting.
Apparently he was a very sweet, very generous and warm guy, but he was affected by bouts of depression.
As a performer I find him incredibly versatile and animated. His comedy seems almost to be compulsive in its nature. He’s a whirlwind when in front of an audience, full of impressions, different voices and many bizarre tangents which are often dialogues between different characters, all played by him at break-neck speed.
In interviews he seemed to occupy two modes – the first was the extrovert comedian, the other was the sweet and sincere actor. He seemed a bit bipolar. I guess part of his talent was that wildly free sense of instant creativity, but it might have been quite difficult for him to deal with on his own.
He fell off the wagon (began drinking again) in 2006 while filming in Alaska. It’s kind of understandable that he turned to alcohol again considering the circumstances – I mean, he was in Alaska. (just kidding)
He went into Rehab but I think the return to alcohol was a symptom of a difficult time in his life.
He later had heart surgery which involved part of his heart being replaced, and apparently this affected him quite badly as his physical and mental condition seemed to get worse and apparently from that time forwards he suffered from depression, anxiety and paranoia. He was wrongly diagnosed with Parkinson’s too, and given medication and treatment that didn’t help the real condition that he was experiencing, which is called Lewy Body Dementia, a degenerative condition in which nerves cells in the brain are blocked by protein clumps (bodies) that interfere with function. Apparently the Parkinson’s medication made the Lewy Body Dementia worse and may have exacerbated his low state of mind, pushing him to suicide.
He killed himself almost exactly a year ago to the day that we found ourselves at the shrine to his memory on this San Francisco street.

I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad about this because I really enjoyed Robin William’s comedy, but also it’s just such a pity that he had to go through such misery, and that anyone has to go through any kind of misery caused by physical and mental conditions. I hope with more research and the right kinds of treatment, this sort of thing can be prevented in the future.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention Robin Williams there, as a sort of tribute.

SF continued…
Korean Barbecue

End of Part 6 (Oh my goodness, will I ever finish this series!?) Part 7 coming soon…

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293. California Road Trip (Part 6) San Francisco / AJ Hoge Interview / UK & US English

Alex performing at Le Paname Art Cafe in Paris

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