There has been an awful heatwave in Europe recently, with really high temperatures and a humid, sticky atmosphere. In this episode I ramble about the conditions, explore vocabulary with the words “hot” and “heat” and show the typical things British people say when the weather is boiling. Expect various funny tangents, anecdotes and improvisations, including a David Attenborough BBC nature documentary about Luke trying to buy lunch on a red-hot Paris boulevard, and plenty more. PDF notes available.
What are the different English accents you can hear if you visit London? In this episode I am talking to Patricio from the YouTube channel Patricio Languages, who makes videos about diverse English accents from around the world. We talk about 4 specific accents that are native to his home town of London, namely Received Pronunciation, Cockney, Estuary English and Multicultural London English. We also chat about Patricio’s study routines for learning Spanish and Portuguese. So, plenty of insights about British English pronunciation, how to understand native English speakers, and some tips for language learning. Perfect topics for another episode of LEP, right? Full transcript available, and listen all the way to the end to hear me turn into a proper cockney geezer.
In this episode I reconnect with an old friend after 25+ years of not seeing each other. Expect a chat full of natural English expressions and slang, plus some marketing vocabulary, as Jez and I reminisce and jog each other’s memories of things we did together years ago, and talk about Jez’s career and recent projects. Check out the premium episode accompanying this conversation: P82 Vocabulary Quiz for LEP992.
In 2009 I did a solo travelling experience around Vietnam 🇻🇳 and I wrote a diary while I was there. In this episode, over 16 years later, I read out the diary, follow my descriptions of each part of my trip, explore how I was feeling at that time of my life, go off on some comedy and English teaching tangents, and take a journey into the past, across a very different country.
Here is an adorable episode with my adorable daughter. In this one, we discuss various absurd questions and end up improvising chats between odd socks, speculating about spaghetti hair, analysing the weaknesses of the human body, considering the importance of sleep, looking at the fear of long words, analysing completely mad nursery rhymes in English and French, speculating about societies run by ducks or cats, being painted by Leonardo DaVinci, and describing the dreams of dogs. All in a normal day spent chatting with my daughter.
This is a natural, funny and heart-warming English conversation full of real spoken English, perfect for English learners who want to improve their listening skills, vocabulary, pronunciation and fluency.
If your socks could talk, what would they complain about?
If you woke up tomorrow and your hair had turned into spaghetti, what would you do?
If you could change one thing about the human body, what would you change?
Would you rather sleep in a skip for a week or skip a week’s sleep?
Would you rather suffer from arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) or hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words)?
Would you rather be one of the three bears or one of the three blind mice?
If you had to eat only one food forever, what would you choose?
If pizza could have absolutely any topping, even crazy ones, what would you put on it?
What if gravity stopped working for five minutes?
What if everyone in the world suddenly started speaking like a duck?
What if cats suddenly became the rulers of the world?
If you were going to be in a race, would you rather be a tortoise or a hare? I know in the story the tortoise won, but how likely is that to happen again?
Would you rather be able to fly, turn invisible, or talk to animals?
If you were the boss of the world for a day, what new rules would you make?
If you could shrink to the size of an ant for a day, what would you do?
Would you rather play footgolf or basketballoon?
Would you rather be painted by Leonardo da Vinci or have a song written about you by Paul McCartney?
Would you rather discover the bones of an unknown species of dinosaur that would be named after you, or discover buried treasure?
Would you rather be locked down or locked up?
Would you rather have one marshmallow now or wait until tomorrow for a whole bag of marshmallows?
A funny conversation about food, cooking & eating habits, with my friend Martin. Why is British food a bit of a joke? Do French people have the right to criticise British cuisine? What is marmite, and why don’t Brits just throw it away? What did Luke eat for lunch every single day during secondary school? And, who would be Luke’s dream dinner party guests? All that and more, in a conversation full of tangents, recipes, rants and apologies, and a nice range of vocabulary expressions to spot. Enjoy! PDF Transcript available.
Join LEP Premium and listen to the vocabulary quiz episode with my wife, and learn 30+ vocabulary items from this episode. Start here 👇 it’s episode P79.
[984] English listening practice in the form of an authentic conversation about ghosts and the paranormal. Returning guest Anna Brooke returns to talk about her latest book “Death by Chocolate” which is inspired by various spooky and unexplained experiences she has had recently, including a suspected haunting of her apartment, poltergeist activity, cold and creepy atmospheres, sightings of spirits and more strange encounters. Anna describes these experiences and we have a discussion about the paranormal. A premium episode with vocabulary review is available for premium subscribers. PDF transcript also available.
Have you ever had a weird, creepy, frightening or unexplainable experience? Tell us about it! Send your description (email, comments section of this episode). Anna and I will judge the entries and choose the one we like the best. The winner will receive a copy of Anna’s new book. I will also read out descriptions on the podcast!
Practise your listening in English with a fascinating conversation with a writer of haiku poetry in English. John Stevenson is one of the world’s leading English language haiku poets, and in this episode I had the pleasure of talking to him for an hour. John taught me more about haiku and senryu poetry, revealed how he first became interested in haiku, and then was willing to discuss various haiku poems he has written over the years, giving details of what real events inspired them, what they mean and more about his process of writing haiku in English. I hope this episode is fascinating and inspiring. Keep listening because it becomes more and more revealing as it continues. John was a pleasure to talk to and I think this is the perfect conclusion to the trilogy of episodes I have done on this subject on the podcast recently.
In this episode I discuss optimism and pessimism, what forms our outlook on life, which is healthier, how we talk about optimism and pessimism in English and which perspective helps you learn English more effectively. Expect some discussion, science, vocabulary, advice for learning English and a few jokes thrown in for good measure. PDF available.
[980] Practise listening to British English conversation and enjoy some complaining, ranting and funny anecdotes in this episode based on the concept of a popular BBC TV chat show. My guest is Charlie Baxter from The British English Podcast. Charlie has chosen 3 things which he wants to be locked inside the mythical “Room 101” 🚪 an imaginary place where all the things you hate in the world are stored forever. What would Charlie like to remove from the world to be kept inside this room? And what is the shocking revelation about a certain popular British English YouTuber 👩🏫that could break the internet? 🤔
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