Category Archives: News

Ramble Message / Episode 800 Plans / World Cup Episodes?

A bonus mini-ramble about my plans for episode 800 (send me your questions) and why I haven’t done any World Cup episodes yet, but you can listen to me talking about it with Zdenek on his podcast (link available).

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LEAVE ME YOUR QUESTIONS FOR EPISODE 800 BELOW!! :)

797. Stephen from SEND7 interviews Luke about LEP

Stephen from SEND7 podcast becomes the host to interview me about how I started LEP, the ins and outs of doing this, plus some advantages and challenges for podcasting to learners of English. Video version available.

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Send 7 Podcast – www.send7.org

792. The Rick Thompson Report: LIZ TRUSS (16 October 2022)

My dad returns to talk more about UK politics, this time describing the disastrous economic policy of Liz Truss and her Chancellor (finance minister) Kwasi Kwarteng. Advanced level English listening practice – this is complicated stuff, but keep listening to develop your English skills and learn about what’s going on in UK politics and current affairs. Video version available.

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787. The Rick & Gill Thompson Report: Queen Elizabeth II / King Charles III

Talking to my mum and dad about events in the UK following the death of The Queen on 9 September, including the media coverage, the proclamation of King Charles III, comments about Charles as King and a discussion of the role of the monarch in the UK’s constitution. Also includes some comments about the new Prime Minister Liz Truss and the future of the UK government over the next 18 months.

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Introduction & Ending Transcript

Hello listeners, 

Welcome back to the podcast. Here is another episode, published only a few days after the last one. As you can see from the title it is another episode talking about the big news of the moment in the UK, the death of The Queen, but also this episode is about the new King, Charles III. 

Thank you for the messages which you wrote in the comment section in response to the last episode in which I gave my instant reaction to the news. It is very interesting to read your thoughts, and to see how people have reacted to the news in other parts of the world. There’s been a fairly diverse response but overall most people have expressed their sorrow or their sympathy, with lots of people writing things like “Sorry for your loss” and that’s “loss” not “lost”. Quite a lot of people made that little error. Lost is an adjective and the noun is loss. So, “sorry for your loss”.

As I suggested in the last episode, this one is a conversation with my dad in the form of a Rick Thompson report, but my mum is joining us this time as well. So you’ve got the two of them. Two Thompsons for the price of none. Three in fact including me.

So, if you were wondering what’s been going on in the UK and how it is from the point of view of British people, here we are. 

My parents are not flag waving royalists exactly. Long term listeners will probably be aware of their general views on the monarchy. My mum is probably a bit more sceptical about it than my dad, but I think they both think and care deeply about it all and have a critical yet balanced view of the system and the royals as people, overall. 

Here is an overview of the things we talk about in this episode.

  • What’s been happening since The Queen’s death – descriptions of the media coverage.

Vocabulary → Two words: coverage and footage

Coverage

The broadcasts in the media covering an event or series of events. Coverage means how a story is covered by the media.

Footage 

This is video of something, for example footage of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan meeting the crowds of people outside Windsor Castle. If someone takes a video of that on their phone or something, they then have some footage in their phone. If it’s filmed with a camera, then the footage is probably on an SD card and can be put into a news report, uploaded, broadcasted on TV as part of the coverage.  

Footage – actually refers to “rolls” or “lengths” of video tape, measured traditionally in feet (12 inches or 30 centimetres). Nowadays it’s all digital of course and not measured by length, but it’s still called footage.

Coverage – the way in which events are covered with all the news programmes and news reports of the event – this is media coverage and it includes the broadcasting of footage with commentary etc.

  • Why people say The Queen was extraordinary and that her 70-year reign was so significant
  • Details of the ascension of Charles to the throne, to become King Charles III. 
  • How this was officially pronounced as part of a ceremonial “proclamation” – a sort of traditional ceremony which took place in London over the weekend in which Charles signed legal papers and the news was announced to important people in the government. It was all filmed and broadcast on television for the first time in history. Charles had to sign official documents stating that he was willing and able to take on the role – all part of the legal and constitutional process.
  • Mum’s observations of how Charles handled the pressure of this momentous occasion, especially certain moments when he had to sign some papers and he didn’t quite have enough room on the table to do it, which must have been a very stressful moment for him.
  • How they feel about Charles and if he will be a good king, plus the challenge he has ahead of him, following in the footsteps of his mother, who was such a successful monarch.
  • This leads to a sort of debate or at least an exchange about the nature of that challenge and what it really means to be a successful king or queen in the UK, and the personal sacrifices which must be made in order to fulfil the duty of the role, and how this fits into the democratic process.
  • We also talk a bit about Charles’ health and some of the images going around the internet of his swollen fingers, and what might be causing that. It’s just speculation really and we are not doctors of course.
  • We do turn our attention away from the monarchy and towards the government nearer the end of the conversation, and the new Prime Minister Liz Truss who replaced Boris Johnson very recently, and what they’re all actually doing, the cost of living crisis in the UK and what the future might be for Liz Truss and for the government over the next 18 months.

As I ever I hope you find this useful as a way of finding out what’s going on in the UK at this moment in time, and also as a way of practising your listening in English and as a way to notice and pick up bits of English as it is spoken.

One thing – I had the wrong microphone selected in my recording software during this conversation, which is a bit annoying, so without realising it I was recording myself using the inbuilt microphone on my laptop, so the sound quality isn’t up to the same standard as usual. My voice is a bit muffled basically, but it should be ok.

Right, without further ado, let’s get started.


Ending Transcript

So that was the Rick and Gill Thompson report. I hope you found that interesting and useful.

Overall I think that the effect on the country of The Queen’s death has not been quite as profound as I predicted in previous episodes. I think I said I thought that the entire country would stop and that everything would be cancelled. Of course it means different things to different people and a lot of people will be very affected by it, but as far as I can tell to a large extent things are pretty much carrying on as normal this week except that the story is definitely dominating the news on TV. Over the weekend it was pretty much around the clock coverage of everything relating to the event and we’ve all been getting lots of notifications on our phones of news stories about it. But people are largely getting on with normal life and work and people aren’t mentioning it in their work emails and everything. Anyway, that’s just how I see it from my position.

As always, leave your comments in the comment section. I am always curious to know what you are thinking as you listen to this.

To end the episode here I thought I would play you the audio from King Charles’s video message to the nation, which was published by Buckingham Palace on Friday, the day after it was announced that The Queen had died. I was going to play just the second half of this, where he gives his promise to uphold his constitutional duty and then describes the new roles and duties of the other members of the family. I was going to play just that part, but in fact I’ve decided just to play you the whole thing. So this is 9 minutes of King Charles III addressing the nation, expressing grief at the passing of The Queen and the promising to fulfil his duties as the king.

This is a chance for you to listen to his statement, but also to notice how he does it. Pay attention to his accent, his choice of words and structures, the way he delivers it all and also the more emotional and personal tone which he uses, especially nearer the end of the message.

I’ll also put this video on the page for this episode on my website and you can activate subtitles on that by the way.

So this is King Charles III addressing the nation in a recorded message published on Friday 9 September.

That was King Charles III.

What’s next for the podcast?

I think I won’t publish more episodes about this now for a while, unless I manage to record interviews with people in London when I am there at the weekend. But we’ll see. I don’t want to do too much on this subject. Probably these two episodes are enough. But as I said, if I end up interviewing some local people on Saturday or Sunday, then I will probably publish that, but we’ll see. I don’t want to overdo it.

The official period of national mourning last until The Queen’s funeral which is on 19 September. I think I will wait until then before publishing any more content. That’s about a week away anyway so it’s the usual period between episodes. 

So, I will speak to you again in about a week. 

About my choice for what to publish next, I think that I don’t need to be too precious about it and I reckon I will probably publish those episodes I did with James, with a little disclaimer at the start stating that they were recorded before The Queen passed away, and any references to her were not meant to be disrespectful, and I hope people don’t take offence or consider the general tone of the episode to be disrespectful at all. Apparently The Queen had a good sense of humour anyway.

All right. Thank you for listening. Thank you to my parents for their contribution this time. 

Do take care, and I will speak to you again in about a week.

But for now, good bye bye bye

780. The Customary Pre-Holiday Ramble (August 2022) Train of Thought / My Daughter’s Magic Pet Shop / 4 Songs on Guitar

An unedited ramble in which I talk without a specific plan, includes a recording of my daughter speaking English, and a few songs on the guitar. Video version available.

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Songs & Lyrics

Talking Heads – Heaven https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/talking-heads/heaven-chords-1761334

The Beatles – The Fool on the Hill https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-beatles/the-fool-on-the-hill-chords-169399

Beck – Sing It Again https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/beck/sing-it-again-chords-1212027

The Police – De Do Do Do De Da Da Da https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-police/de-do-do-do-de-da-da-da-chords-640646

Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense (full movie)

https://youtu.be/53dikqNZLgA

The Beatles – The Fool on the Hill (from Magical Mystery Tour)

Have a nice August!

Leave your comments (if you have any) in the comment section below.

I hope you enjoy the episodes which will arrive every week in August.

Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ here https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

777. The Rick Thompson Report: Has Boris Johnson Resigned?

My dad talks about the latest news about Boris Johnson, who on Friday said the UK should now begin the process of finding a new Prime Minister. Why is Johnson going to step down? What scandals has he been involved in during his life? What might happen next? Listen to hear my dad’s comments in plain English.

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Introduction Transcript

Hello listeners. It’s new episode time. (applause)

Just before we start, I need to get a message to listeners who are subscribed to LEP Premium through Libsyn. 

You’ve heard me say in recent announcements that the podcast has moved to a new host (Acast) and that people who were already subscribed to the premium subscription with the old system (Libsyn) would have to cancel, get a refund from Libsyn and then sign up with Acast. But I need to ask you to wait before doing that! Wait! Hold on! Hold your horses!

Basically – Libsyn premium subscribers – please wait before you cancel and move to the new system. Some of you are saying “but I’ve already done it!” That’s ok.

There’s been a slight problem (a hiuccup) with the process of moving LEP Premium from Libsyn to Acast. I’m working on a solution right now. Everything will be OK, but Libsyn premium subscribers – please wait before cancelling your old premium subscription and moving to Acast+. I will give you instructions as soon as possible about what to do (I’ll record an announcement and I will send you an email)

Some of you have already sent emails to Libsyn and they told you to email me. Again, just wait – I’m working on a solution and I’ll give you more instructions as soon as possible.

If you are not already a premium subscriber – you might want to know that LEP Premium is now available on Acast+. So if you want to get access to over 100 lessons from me about grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation with PDFs to download  – go to teacherluke.co.uk/premium and choose the LEP Premium option.

Thanks for listening to that announcement. Now, here’s a Rick Thompson report for you to enjoy, recorded on Monday 11 July 2022.

I’ve got to do a quick intro just to help out the people listening to this who have no idea what’s going on – not generally I mean, but in UK politics. So, a 5-minute intro, then you’ll get your fill of Rick Thompson on Luke’s English Podcast. Here’s the jingle.

Jingle – You’re listening to Luke’s English Podcast. For more information visit teacherluke.co.uk

Hello listeners,

This is episode 777 and it’s a new episode of the Rick Thompson Report. 

Just in case you don’t know, The Rick Thompson Report episodes are when I talk to my dad Rick Thompson about what’s been going on in the news, especially UK news and especially UK politics. My dad is a semi-retired journalist, broadcasting consultant and writer. We’re very lucky to have him as a guest on this podcast.

If you’ve seen any news from the UK recently, you’ll have seen that it’s all been about Boris Johnson (for a change). Boris Johnson is the current Prime Minister of the UK. Yes, the one with the funny scruffy blond hair, the badly fitting suits and the look on his face which makes him look like a schoolboy who’s done something wrong. Boris Johnson – our current Prime Minister. The leader of the Conservative Party and the head of the UK government.

Some of you now are thinking “But wait Luke, he’s not the current Prime Minister! Didn’t he resign on Friday?” 

Well, yes, he did make a speech on Friday 8 July in which he said he the process to find a new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the UK should begin now.

So, it looked like he resigned on Friday – he basically said he would resign when the new leader has been chosen, although he didn’t actually say the word resign in his speech (or the word sorry, or anything like that) so he is still the Prime Minister and he will be until the new one is chosen, which will probably happen in September.

What’s going on? 

Why did he say he would step down?

What did he do wrong this time? 

What are the events that have led up to this situation?

What might happen next? 

And what do we really think of Boris Johnson?

That’s what we’re going to try and deal with in this conversation.

I hope you can follow this. 

It’s all a bit complicated. To be honest, while my dad was talking during this conversation, as an English teacher, alarms were going off in my head. I mean, I kept thinking “oh, god, we’re going through a lot of quite specific and complex language here, at a fast pace, and we’re not really stopping to clarify things in the way that I know, as a teacher, that my learners often need to be done.” Maybe I could have interrupted the conversation at various points and added in some explanations, but you know what – that just wasn’t possible this time. Also, my dad was in full flow here, so I decided to just let him rip. 

So, as is often the case, I’m just throwing you in at the deep end and playing the conversation for you. Hopefully you’re curious enough about this situation, and that listening to my dad is enjoyable enough, that you feel motivated to stay focused and keep listening. If you can do that, this will definitely help your English.

Perhaps I can make a premium episode explaining a lot of the language in this conversation, but – that might be difficult because I don’t have very much time available to me to do that. At the very least, I will try to add some words and phrases to the website page for this – you would check them if you want to see how certain words are spelled and you can check then in a dictionary if you like.

A lot of our conversation focuses on why Boris is resigning, and that means describing his personality, describing things he has done both as Prime Minister and before, describing the scandals he’s been involved in, and describing the way the UK government works (or doesn’t work in this case) and how leaders are chosen in the UK. Watch out for language relating to those things as well as little idiomatic phrases and so on.

But generally, I hope you can really just get into this subject and try to find out a thing or two about Boris Johnson that you weren’t aware of before. He’s not just a funny looking politician with a sense of humour. There’s more going on than that.

I’ll talk to you again briefly at the end of this, but now, let’s get started.

Sorry – I had no time to write some words and phrases from the conversation here!

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

773. What do British people think about The Queen and The Royal Family? (with James)

Luke and James discuss their feelings about the Royal Family, with some survey results about the popularity of royal family members among British people in general.

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Introduction Transcript

Hello listeners and welcome to the podcast. This is episode 773 “What do British people think of The Queen and The Royal Family (with James)”.

Yesterday I came back from my trip to London where I was staying with my brother for a few days. I mentioned it in the last episode. My weekend with James coincided with the celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. You might have seen reports of the celebrations on the TV or online wherever you are.

The celebrations involved a kind of military procession called the trooping of the colour, the lighting of Platinum Jubilee beacons across the country (a series of large flaming torches which are lit as part of a long tradition at this kind of celebration),  a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, The Derby at Epsom on Friday (a horse racing event usually attended by the Royals), The Platinum Jubilee Party at The Palace (a big entertainment show with live music and celebrity appearances), Jubilee lunches and street parties which happened across the country (although I didn’t see any in the areas where I was visiting in South London) and The Platinum Jubilee pageant which is a sort of procession through the streets led by the Queen’s Golden Carriage. The Queen wasn’t actually in the carriage and so a sort of digital version of her was visible inside the carriage instead (this was a kind of animated projection of her waving from inside the carriage – a bit like a hologram but not, technically, a hologram). 

I was planning to record an episode with James over the weekend anyway, and I felt we couldn’t avoid talking about The Royal Family because people are interested in it and so we decided to make a whole episode on this subject. The plan was to try and answer the question “What do British people think of the Queen and the Royal Family”. It’s hard to sum up what all British people feel about this, and so we decided we could only give our own opinions really, so it should really be “What do James and I think about the Queen and Royal Family” – but we are British people after all, so the original title still works. 

As you’ll hear we tried to be objective and to weigh up the arguments for and against, or maybe to just express the complex feelings that we have about this – complex, mixed feelings because we can see both good and bad things about the whole thing.

So we just tried to express our feelings, but also to deal with the different points of view, and to refer to some surveys and public opinion polls that seem to show how British people in general feel about the Royals.

After recording we were slightly worried that we came across as a bit too negative or cynical towards the Royals and that perhaps we should have had a Royalist on for balance. 

So here is a sort of disclaimer for the episode:  We’re just two people taking and this is just how we feel. Our comments represent a very small sample of public opinion in the UK. We don’t hate the Royals or the Queen but instead we are just not completely sure about the arrangement.

As you listen you can see whether we think the monarchy should be abolished completely, or maintained, or some kind of third way. In any case, I hope you enjoy this episode and that you find that we were able to express ourselves clearly and that you understand exactly what we actually think about this subject.

I also want to say that after having published episode 772 (the one previous to this) in which I made some comments about other recent episodes like Spinal Tap and Sick In Japan – I received a lot of messages from listeners which put my mind at rest – namely that they loved the episode about Spinal Tap and they thought the audience were fine at my talk at the BC. 

I do respond to a couple of those comments at the start of this, but then after 5 or 10 minutes we get properly into the topic of what we think of the Queen and The Royal Family, in quite a lot of depth. I hope you enjoy this conversation and find it informative.

Please leave your comments as usual. What do you think of the Queen and the Royal Family from your point of view. Maybe you observe these Royal events from a distance in another country, or maybe you are living in the UK and see it much more closely. In any case, let us know what you think too.  

That’s it for my introduction. Let’s now travel through space and time into my brother’s living room on Friday 3 June in the middle of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Make yourself a nice cup of tea, get comfortable and let’s get started.


Links

Young People Want to Ditch the Royals (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/young-british-people-want-ditch-monarchy-poll-suggests-2021-05-20/#:~:text=The%20survey%20of%204%2C870%20adults,unchanged%20from%20two%20years%20ago

What do the Brits think of the royals  (The Week)

https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/uk-news/952455/what-does-the-british-public-think-of-the-royal-family

Popularity of individual royals article with a poll (The Week)

https://www.theweek.co.uk/104474/the-most-popular-british-royals

Image by Jhoan Cordoba from Pixabay

772. Rambling in the Podcastle (June 2022) News / Thoughts / Reflections

This is an unedited monologue in which I talk about some things which are on my mind at the moment, including how my hair is stopping me from learning French (and vice versa), virtuous and vicious circles, how English is like a shark (or a river – or maybe a shark in a river), some comments about recent episodes and a visit from a friendly bat at my podcastle.

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Some vocabulary extracts

I have been deliberating about which microphone to choose

Geeky microphone chat

I have a plethora of microphones

People who have just stumbled across this and are wondering what this is all about

Perhaps you’re in transit somewhere, maybe you’re doing some housework, maybe you’re listening to this in a classroom while your teacher takes a well-earned break, or maybe you are lying in a floatation tank or in zero gravity in the international space station

Stick with me, and enjoy being a LEPster

Here’s a run-down of some of the things I’d like to talk about.

  • How my hair is stopping me from learning French, and vice versa – how my French is stopping me from getting a hair cut (virtious and vicious circles)
  • How my summer is looking, what my plans are and what that might mean for the podcast (busy – difficult to record podcasts in July and August – what’s new?)
  • Thoughts on recent episodes like Sick in Japan and Spinal Tap
  • Some metaphors and similes for language learning and teaching
  • That’s probably plenty!

I’ve been just sweeping it (my hair) back over my head

Maybe I’m being a bit precious about this but I can’t help feeling self-conscious

Taking initiative is very important but it can be hard. 

It can just be taking the initiative to speak, to make an effort to communicate with someone, to risk looking a bit stupid, going out of your comfort zone.

But if you take that tiny little risk, it can pay off in various ways.

You need to keep the English moving through you like a river or the water of your English will become stagnant. We all know this.

But without that little impetus to speak, you won’t do it.

If you don’t take initiative, you don’t put yourself into situations in which your confidence can develop.

Starting a virtuous circle is a matter of taking small steps in the right direction.

Micro-decisions or micro-steps.

Now I have to go out of my way to walk to the hairdresser.

Some people commented that the crowd were quiet.  Well-behaved maybe. 

I should have:

Hyped the crowd up more

Done more stand up at the start

Warmed them up by getting them to make noise. 

“French people make some noise!” Etc

I should have done more crowd work.

Spinal Tap – maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but at the end of the day I am the one who decides what happens in these episodes.

I find that with my learners it’s not just listening skills or vocabulary, but just “being on the same wavelength” and that includes things like little references to culture, or just having a certain sense of humour.

It’s also important that I do stuff that I am personally invested in, or this whole thing just won’t happen. So there.

I love teaching but sometimes I get a bit frustrated because it can be a bit like banging your head against a wall.

You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.