Easy English: Learn English with everyday conversations

Making friends is hard, especially the older you get. So Isi guides you... and Mitch through the different ways, modern and old that you can make new friends.

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:26] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast, the hangover from episode 100. - 101. - 101, we're into the... into a new century of podcasting, but with the same ethos, to help you improve your conversational English.

Isi:
[0:50] You do sound very unmotivated. I have a good topic for us, though.

Mitch:
[0:55] Yeah, you're at the steering wheel today, right?

Isi:
[0:58] Yes. It's a topic that is interesting and important for everyone. Maybe only those people that hate humans a lot. They will not like it now.

Mitch:
[1:09] Good build-up.

Isi:
[1:11] It's important for everyone, because we're talking, today, about how to make friends.

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We did it... 100 episodes!
All thanks to your support, so what better way to celebrate than to answer some of your questions.

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Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:24] Hi everybody! Exciting times.

Isi:
[0:28] And why is it exciting? Because this is episode... podcast episode.

Mitch:
[0:34] Podcast episode.

Isi:
[0:35] Not video, podcast episode 100. And we didn't even train this. Rehearse this. 100, this is insane. It feels more and less, with so many things in life that's what it is right? It feels like, longer and shorter, more and less. But It's a nice number, 100.

Mitch:
[0:57] A great milestone to reach. - Not the last one. - Won't be the last 100 we reach. But um... as a way to celebrate it and also to say thank you, we reached out and asked you to send us some of your messages. So, that's why we're here today. You wrote in to... on our YouTube channel, you sent us emails and you also sent us voice messages. So we're gonna read them out. - Let's go. - Should I play an audio message? - Yes. - Okay, here is a message from Paskali Safari, for us.

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Isi and Mitch show you different, everyday conversations and small talk topics with neighbours.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:23] Hi, everybody.

Isi:
[0:25] Welcome to another episode. But now I am doing this. Oh, no.

Mitch:
[0:28] You're doing it.

Isi:
[0:29] Oh, no. Well, let's not do this.

Mitch:
[0:32] I pointed at you.

Isi:
[0:32] It's Easy English Podcast. We're starting now.

Mitch:
[0:37] Wow, what a surprise.

Isi:
[0:38] Whoever listened before knows that I got a bit annoyed that, not annoyed, I thought it was actually, now we talk about it even longer, that Mitch always says, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Mitch:
[0:48] Every episode.

Isi:
[0:50] When you actually probably know that it's the Easy English Podcast you're listening to.

Mitch:
[0:53] I just want to be formal, like you're opening your front door to somebody.

Isi:
[0:57] Yeah, but you're wasting people's time, and now I'm wasting people's time. So we start now.

Mitch:
[1:02] What are we talking about today? You're taking control again.

Isi:
[1:05] Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about another conversational topic. We have just talked about, if you listened to our last podcast, about flatmate conversations; living with people in houses or flats, in the UK. It's now, you would think it's similar, but it's not. We will, today, talk about small talk with neighbours.

Isi:
[1:37] Those people you might not know that well. They might live up your street, 10 houses up your street, and you just know them from, you know; "hiya, lovely today, huh?" Like, that kind of conversation. And this kind of small talk, I will say as an expat living in the UK, is very important.

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Get to know Isi and Mitch with their feelings and opinions about the modern relationship between humans and animals and how they co-exist today

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Do people tune in these days?

Isi:
[0:33] We are such boomers. We're not boomers, though. The new boomers are millennials.

Mitch:
[0:39] But to say tune in sounds cool, but nobody tunes in.

Isi:
[0:43] Tune in on Saturday.

Mitch:
[0:45] Thanks for typing in that URL code.

Isi:
[0:48] Okay, now how do I get to my topic?

Mitch:
[0:50] Well, actually, you mentioned a good way, because if you are a regular listener, you'd have heard our relationship test episode. One of the questions are; what's something that Isi likes to speak about, on a regular basis?

Isi:
[1:05] You did it wrong, you said music, which is actually true though.

Mitch:
[1:08] I said music or Nola. - Yeah, I love it all. - So I got half a point, because...

Isi:
[1:12] Nola is actually number one.

Mitch:
[1:13] But Nola opens up a whole topic of animals and like, you said, animal welfare. - Yes. - Which is an important part of your life.

Isi:
[1:22] Very important for me.

Mitch:
[1:24] The consideration of animal welfare.

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Part 2 of Mitch and Isi's discussion about living with people in the UK vs Germany... this time they share their dreaded bathroom experiences.

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Intro

Isi:

[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:

[0:23] Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast. We're back at it with Isi's episode today, a part two-a of co-living? Flatmates? - housemates, flatmate conversations.

Isi:

[0:40] Yes. I directly want to... No, let's start a bit easier. We're not going to the bathroom directly. If you didn't listen to part one, do that first.

Mitch:

[0:52] Yes, we covered the kitchen, as part of living with other people.

Isi:

[0:57] We covered broken things, and we covered the first day in the flat.

Mitch:

[1:02] Food, cleaning, the whole thing. Oh yeah, introductions, icebreakers.

Isi:

[1:08] I now want to talk about the 'quiet vs the loud flatmate'.

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Mitch & Isi compare their experiences with this week's cultural topic of living with strangers or... co-living.

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Intro

Mitch:

[0:22] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:

[0:26] Hello!

Mitch:

[0:26] Today...

Isi:

[0:28] I chose the topic again.

Mitch:

[0:30] Again. Taking the driver's seat.

Isi:

[0:33] You give me too much power.

Mitch:

[0:34] I'm constantly the passenger now.

Isi:

[0:38] You can leave us a message if that's a good thing. Maybe my topics are boring as hell.

Mitch:

[0:43] No, yest... the last one with couples was really good.

Isi:

[0:47] Well, now, I wanted to talk about something that we both have experiences with, where we can share some insight, not only into our experiences with it, mine will be from Germany and yours from the UK, but also, you can share some things about how that is working in the UK, because it's a bit different to how it's in Germany, I think. And that is, living together with flat, or housemates.

Mitch:

[1:15] Co-living.

Isi:

[1:16] Co-living, which is a big thing in the UK, at least when you study, but even afterwards.

Mitch:

[1:23] Yeah, especially if you are kind of a young professional, trying to climb the job ladder.

Isi:

[1:29] Or you live in London then it's all your life. - Or if you live in London, then you live with random people until you're 95. - Actually that sounds quite nice. So what I want to do, and we might make out of this, two podcasts, because I have a lot of topics. - Great. - I would like to go through different situations that you will face, while living together, with other people. And I thought we could, we can change it a bit. But first of all, I would like us to talk about it, if we have experience with that. How that was, share some personal stories. You can obviously share the British perspective. There's obviously a lot of new vocabulary that you can learn around living with people. Something that not in every country is common, but in lots of countries. Or maybe you come to the UK and you will live with somebody. And you are well prepared after this podcast, we hope. Or you don't want to do it any more.

Mitch:

[2:27] Yeah, you're put off completely.

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Isi tests Mitch's knowledge with practical examples of using the word 'sorry' for different, everyday scenarios.

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Intro

Mitch & Isi:

[0:24] Hello again. - Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast, also available on YouTube. So if you want to quickly head over and watch us discuss different types of 'sorry's in the UK, then head over to YouTube now, to our YouTube channel. Youtube, YouTube Youtube. - You know that you also, are just talking to the YouTube viewers. And if you're watching on YouTube, hello. - You set it into the camera? - Oh yeah.

Mitch & Isi:

[0:50] So today we're discussing also British people's most used, maybe not favourite, but is, maybe you say overused in the UK, but for good reason. - You hear it all the time. And we will show you many different ways to use the word 'sorry'.

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Justin from Texas is back... this time he is fact-checking Isi and Mitch's experiences, comparisons and stereotypes of the United States.

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:26] Good morning.

Mitch:
[0:27] Good morning in the morning. We're loaded up on coffee as we have a part two of an episode that we made recently. We're reintroducing you to our correspondent from the United States. Justin is back.

Justin:
[0:44] Hello, hello.

Isi:
[0:46] Hi. Well, he's corresponding from Berlin., I would say.

Justin:
[0:51] But originally from. - Yeah. - The United States, Texas to be specific, if those don't know. I usually always say that I’m from Texas, I never really say I’m from the United States, it's very interesting when people ask; "where are you from?" I always just say Texas.

Isi:
[1:05] That is very interesting.

Justin:
[1:06] I guess I expect people to know Texas and most times people do. But I like to represent Texas more than I like to represent the United States of America.

Isi:
[1:15] Okay, and how... what do you think... like I do know Texas, I guess, from the... I haven't been, but from the... a bit from the stereotypes more like the cowboy stereotypes.

Mitch:
[1:26] Beyonce!

Justin:
[1:27] Yeah, Beyonce.

Isi:
[1:28] And the heat.

Justin:
[1:29] And The Cowboys. Yes, all those things are very... all of those things are very much correct.

Mitch:
[1:34] Have you ever said yee-haw in a non-cliched way?

Justin:
[1:38] No, but I do say howdy all the time. Howdy is my favorite... howdy is my favorite introduction.

Mitch:
[1:45] Wow, like Woody from 'Toy Story'.

Justin:
[1:49] Yeah, howdy.

Isi:
[1:50] How would you describe a Texan within like a few sentences.

Mitch:
[1:54] That's a good question.

Justin:
[1:55] That's a good question. I would describe a Texan as a soulful, country...

Isi:
[2:04] Soulful that's nice

Mitch:
[2:05] I like that too.

Justin:
[2:06] Soulful, country, cowboy.

Mitch:
[2:08] Wow.

Isi:
[2:09] A soulful, country, cowboy.

Justin:
[2:12] At least that's how I describe myself.

Isi:
[2:13] So, I was once only in the U.S but like for five weeks or so. Which is 10 years ago, oh god. And it was with Easy German, we did a tour, a great tour from New York via some like countryside, Virginia to Colorado and from Colorado with a car to California so, a really really cool tour. But what we did on the way is a lot of videos about being in the U.S and we did this video about like, where we shared our three things that we like, three things that we don't like, or things that would surprise us. And I literally found the list that I wrote back then on the road trip, can you imagine? - Exciting. - Yeah. And I was a bit surprised myself, what I wrote down. But I thought I'd share it.

Mitch:
[3:00] Yes so Isi's gonna... you're gonna read some of those out and I'm gonna... I also have been like, recently and then a long time ago um and there's some things which I sort of always kept in my mind, like experiences, stories and little notes I'd sort of, mentally made.

Isi:
[3:16] So, should I start?

Justin:
[3:18] Yes, I'm excited to hear.

Mitch:
[3:21] And Justin, maybe you can go into it, explain why, these cultural phenomenons, or whatever Isi is going to say, and maybe because you have an inside eye from all three places, can sort of, compare your experiences.

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Mitch & Isi take a quiz to test their relationship...

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Mitch & Isi:
[0:23] So, hello. - Hi. Hi. - Hi. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. But... - But today as a video podcast. So, if you're listening, now, on a podcast app, you can also switch over to YouTube, where it's already out and watch it, as a video. But you don't need to. We will explain everything. You don't need to see our lovely faces. I prepared today's episode. - Wow. I'm nervous. - I think we thought about this topic, because it's an episode about us... - Oh god. - being a couple. - Usually we only speak about British culture and other people, but now we're talking... - Sometimes about us. - a little bit about us. We're opening up to you guys now, so be kind. - I prepared us a game where we have to, both answer questions the way that we think our partner, the other one, would answer. - A test of my knowledge of you. - So, the first is a little warm-up, with favourites. Do you know my favourites? - I hope so. I think so. - Okay. - I do.

Mitch & Isi:
[1:34] What's my favourite food?

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Listen to part 2 of the podcast where Isi and Mitch give advice on how to pass an English speaking test, based around the IELTS test.

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast.

Mitch:
[0:28] This week's episode is a bit different, as we're carrying on from our part one of easy taking the IELTS test. What is it you ask? Let me tell you. It's one of the most popular English exams in the world. And you can take it to help you to study abroad, to work internationally, you might have to take it for your immigration or visa status and it's mainly just a way to prove your English level, officially. Now the IELTS stands for the 'International English Language Testing System', and last time you heard from us, Isi was taking it and there are three parts to this test and in the first episode, we covered part one, which were simple questions and at the very end I asked her part two question which is the main task, asking her to describe a place she enjoys visiting in the UK. If you didn't listen to it in episode one, then that's coming up next and if you did listen to it, maybe you just want to skip ahead a little bit, to hear my analysis of how well she did. And then afterwards, she'll be taking part three; the discussion task, asking her, what the benefits are of living in another country. I hope you all enjoy this episode, and you'll hear from me at the end.

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This week, Mitch and Isi guide you and give advice on how to pass an English speaking test, based around the IELTS test.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello. Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast. Today, we want to try something a little bit different. We're not going to be discussing so much cultural topics. We're actually going to be focusing on something which is going to help you, the Easy English listener, maybe even English learner. We're going to be taking a mock or a test.

Isi:
[0:52] Oh I'm taking a test probably.

Mitch:
[0:54] A test, test, a mock...

Mitch:
[0:56] I have the feeling this podcast is only about me taking tests.

Mitch:
[1:00] You're the guinea pig in the Easy English Podcast. - In your world. - In my world. But we're going to be taking a fake IELTS speaking test. And for those of you who don't know the IELTS it stands for the International English Language Testing System. It's one of the most popular English exams you can take in the world. Perhaps some of you who are listening are thinking about taking it, are about to take it, and are maybe nervous about taking it and would like a bit of help, a bit of backing, a bit of support. So for those of you who don't know about the IELTS, you would take this test, usually, to help you with studying abroad maybe, if you're going to study in the UK, Australia, Canada, if you maybe want to work internationally, your company might suggest you take it, or even require you take it, or maybe even for immigration or for your visa, they might suggest for maybe your citizenship or something.

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Mitch and Isi give you advice on things you shouldn't do, things you should do when making conversations with strangers in English in different, everyday scenarios.

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Welcome aboard the HMS Easy English.

Isi:
[0:27] Her Majesty's sail.

Mitch:
[0:29] Her Majesty's ship.

Isi:
[0:30] Why are we on a ship?

Mitch:
[0:32] I don't know, because people are on a journey with us when they listen to the Easy English Podcast. And if we had to pick any mode of transport, we'd pick a boat.

Isi:
[0:40] I just realised that I didn't have this peach tea. Little fun fact for that.

Mitch:
[0:45] Fun fact.

Isi:
[0:46] For months and months.

Mitch:
[0:48] Fun fact.

Isi:
[0:49] I think I got a bit sick of it. I love a certain peach tea from Germany that we always bring to England.

Mitch:
[0:54] Oh yeah, you do. That has nothing to do with today's episode. Today's episode, we're going to be talking about introductions, specifically, how to start conversations in English and when in England or in the UK, because starting conversations is always quite difficult, in these in different scenarios, right?

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Mitch and Isi give you 10 useful English contractions to help you sound like a native speaker! They also update you on a new, Asia-friendly 'Zoom' conversation call time.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya, podcast peeps.

Isi:
[0:25] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:25] Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast. Just in case you didn't know what you're...

Isi:
[0:32] What's your alarm for?

Mitch:
[0:34] That the laundry's done. Okay.

Isi:
[0:37] We're both eating sweeties.

Mitch:
[0:39] Mm-hmm. I'm eating a chocolate bar that is based on the stars, the Milky Way. I just said the name of the actual chocolate bar. So I'm eating a chocolate based on a space-themed chocolate.

Isi:
[0:55] We cannot make advertisement. There are also other really great...

Mitch:
[0:58] Space-themed chocolate bars.

Isi:
[1:00] Yeah, like Mars. They're probably all from the...

Mitch:
[1:02] Don't say Mars. Don't say the name.

Isi:
[1:04] You just said Milky Way.

Mitch:
[1:05] Oh yeah, sure. Yours is based on the planet.

Isi:
[1:07] Mars is the planet.

Mitch:
[1:08] Are there any other space...

Isi:
[1:09] We need to name them all now so that we don't do advertisement.

Mitch:
[1:11] Space-themed chocolate.

Isi:
[1:12] They're all yummy, yummy. Kinderriegel.

Mitch:
[1:13] Uranus. Oh God, what's going on? So in today's episode, we've got a few subjects to cover. The first thing I want to do, part of our 'Topic of the Week', is I realised, when making a lot of these street interviews, that there are a lot of informal contractions that people and myself are saying. And I sort of, thought it'd be good to sort of, do a rundown of maybe, 10 that you will commonly hear, that are very useful for you to try to pick up, try to integrate into your English vocabulary, into your English speaking. So I'm going to read them out and Isi, maybe you're going to tell me what two words are being contracted into one or what three words or... I think these are all mostly two words though.

Isi:
[1:55] This is always a test of my English knowledge, isn't it?

Mitch:
[1:57] A little bit, yeah. But you'll get them all, for sure.
Topic of the Week

Mitch:
[2:07] Okay, the first one, and it's almost the same as this infamous 'bottle of water'. It's got the same sort of feel to it. Do you know what I mean?

Isi:
[2:18] Do you know what I mean?

Mitch:
[2:20] Exactly. Do you say, are you able to do this? Are you doing it in your everyday speaking?

Isi:
[2:25] Yeah, but it's even shorter.

Mitch:
[2:26] What?

Isi:
[2:27] Do you know what I mean?

Mitch:
[2:28] Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean? And that's a very common one that people say. And it will almost be like a reflex kind of thing, you'll say when making a point. Like, maths is boring, do you know what I mean? Okay, next one. Probs. It is a contraction, but only of one word.

Isi:
[2:48] Probably.

Mitch:
[2:49] Probably. So how would we use this in a sentence? Mitch, is the laundry done? Probs. A classic one, which you like to use. You alright?

Isi:
[3:00] Are you alright.

Mitch:
[3:01] And you're not even saying the 'are' at the beginning.

Isi:
[3:03] No.

Mitch:
[3:06] Are you all right?

Isi:
[3:07] All right.

Mitch:
[3:08] Which can be used as a question or even just a sort of, a greeting.

Isi:
[3:12] All right, all right.

Mitch:
[3:13] You all right? And then the other person would respond.

Isi:
[3:16] Yeah, all right.

Mitch:
[3:17] Yeah, you all right? You all right, mate? Tomoz.

Isi:
[3:21] Tomorrow.

Mitch:
[3:22] Is shortening for tomorrow. Okay, here's ones that are very common that you should be using if you really want to sound like a native speaker, because everyone's using those. Those previous ones are kind of, quite informal. These ones are almost so commonly used, that they've almost become formal contractions. Dunno.

Isi:
[3:44] I don't know.

Mitch:
[3:45] I don't know. Dunno. I don't know. I don't know. What do you think?

Isi:
[3:49] What do you think?

Mitch:
[3:50] Dunno. What do you think? Gonna.

Isi:
[3:54] I'm going to.

Mitch:
[3:55] I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to go get the laundry in a bit. What are you going to do?

Isi:
[4:00] I'm going to go to the doctors.

Mitch:
[4:02] Nice. That is all very true statements we're saying.

Isi:
[4:05] For today.

Mitch:
[4:06] Wanna.

Isi:
[4:08] I want to.

Mitch:
[4:09] I don't wanna go get the laundry, how about you?

Isi:
[4:14] I don't wanna go to the doctors.

Mitch:
[4:16] Got... gotta or gotta. a lot of people say gotta.

Isi:
[4:20] Like, gotcha?

Mitch:
[4:21] g-o-t-t-a gotta.

Isi:
[4:25] I have to, I got to.

Mitch:
[4:27] Yeah, but I got to get the laundry.

Isi:
[4:30] But you would probably more say; I have to get the laundry than I got to get the laundry.

Mitch:
[4:34] I got to get, got to get.

Isi:
[4:35] Got to get, got to get.

Mitch:
[4:36] I got to get, got to get, got to get through this. I got to get through this. Lemme.

Isi:
[4:43] Let me.

Mitch:
[4:44] Yeah, like the singer from Motorhead. Let me go get the laundry, please. Or let me avoid the laundry duties for this week. Gimme. - Give me. - Gimme some peace of mind. Gimme shelter. Oh yeah is that... yeah the Rolling Stones song; 'Gimme Shelter'. - Yep. - Kinda. - Kind of. - It's kind of, yeah. Lemme, kinda, is spelt the same way as the singer from Motorhead but there's no 'I' at the end it's just l-e-m-m-e.

Isi:
[5:20] lemme kinda tell you how I'm gonna... - Wow! - Blah, blah, blah.

Mitch:
[5:24] We can make an Easy English contraction song. I don't know what I'm gonna wanna get a lemme, give me kinda.

Isi:
[5:32] Shoulda, shoulda, woulda.

Mitch:
[5:34] Yeah, shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Isi:
[5:36] Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Mitch:
[5:37] Sounds like you're doing an Eminem really fast rap. I shoulda, woulda, coulda, coulda. And then sorta.

Isi:
[5:43] Sort of?

Mitch:
[5:44] Sort of. I sorta like doing the laundry, to be honest.

Isi:
[5:49] Do you? It's a lie, guys. No one likes to do the laundry. Do you like to do the laundry

Mitch:
[5:53] Not really uh outta.

Isi:
[5:56] I'm out of love set me free this is what did you.

Mitch:
[6:05] Misery.
Easy English Updates

Mitch:
[6:16] As you may or may not know, every Tuesday, we are hosting an online conversation call for our Conversation Members, which are a group of people from all around the world, who are looking to improve their English conversational skills. So they're speaking and listening. I truly believe that the best way to improve your speaking and listening skills is just by doing it, and speaking and dusting off those cobwebs and overcoming those nerves to speak. because making mistakes is the best way for you to understand and to learn and to progress with your English speaking skills. This is absolutely the perfect place to come if you're feeling a bit nervous, or you just want to sort of shake off some cobwebs and dust which has settled on your English speaking level, that maybe you stopped doing when you left school or maybe you got a bit overwhelmed with your New Year's resolution and you stopped suddenly.

Mitch:
[7:13] We're offering one free group class as part of our seven-day free trial of the Conversation Membership and the reason why this is part of our Easy English Updates is, at the moment we have, like I said this class at 18:15 in British time but that doesn't allow for people that are living in Asia, so we would like to, in the summer, open up our first ever Easy English call which is going to be at a time which is friendly for Asia. So we're looking at doing it at 10:15am in England, which will equate to 15:45am in India, 18:15am in China, and 19:15am in Japan and Korea. And if you're interested in us starting this call, we would really appreciate it if you would click the link in the show notes of this podcast and that will also take you to a time conversion website, which will show you exactly what time the pub call will be at in your country. And by clicking this link, we'll be given a notification that you are interested in joining this call when we start it in summer. So if you are, like I said, looking to improve your English speaking skills in a nerve-free and inclusive way, where there's no pressure and we're going to learn all through making mistakes, then join our Easy English Conversation membership with a seven-day free trial by going to easyenglish.video/membership. It will be in the show notes, click the link and we're looking forward to greeting you and welcoming you into our conversation calls. Now back to the episode.
Mitch's Movie Club

Mitch:
[9:01] As part of this topic, we'd like to speak about a movie that we both watched and give it a review and really recommend it. Because we, last week, watched a movie on 'Netflix' called 'Materialists'.

Isi:
[9:14] Are we now making an advertisement?

Mitch:
[9:17] No. Well, we're recommending a good movie, which I think would be very nice for any of you, anyone over the age of 18, I think it's for 16, to watch.

Isi:
[9:27] Did you think it was 16? There's some harder topics.

Mitch:
[9:31] There's some harsh language, some sexual references.

Isi:
[9:34] There's also sexual assault, so that should probably be for...

Mitch:
[9:38] Yeah, so we would like to recommend a movie to all you adults listening to this podcast. We watched a movie called 'Materialists' last week, didn't we?

Isi:
[9:48] Yep.

Mitch:
[9:48] What style would you say this movie is?

Isi:
[9:50] I'm not a movie person. I thought, I think it was advertised as a rom-com.

Mitch:
[9:59] Which means? It's another good contraction.

Isi:
[10:00] Romantic comedy but I would say it's not

Mitch:
[10:03] I would say it is.

Isi:
[10:04] I think it's a rom drama if that is a category.

Mitch:
[10:07] Nice. But there was comedy. It's dark comedy. Okay, let's put it that way. It's very like.

Isi:
[10:12] No I don't mean it's not funny, but it's like it's... I don't mean it's too dark to be funny, I mean it's too not funny to be funny.

Mitch:
[10:20] Right. Yeah okay. But there are funny moments but that's just it's kind of quite real I'd say, it's kind of like, quite a realistic comedy, realistic drama, realistic romance.

Isi:
[10:31] Yeah. I... yeah yeah, and I really like the cinematic style which you have to talk about because I have no idea how they're called. But it's like, it's very like, first of all the look is very New York, I would say, but in a realistic New York way, not like sparkly New York. - Yeah right. - But like, big city, bit greyish, normal colours in a nice way you have the feeling you watch, yeah, a realistic um scenery and the whole movie is quite slow paced, but in an interesting way. I like slow paced movies when you really get like into it and you completely are there, I think I not once got up. I really enjoyed the whole thing. It was not predictable, but not too much and I like that it was the you know, other rom-coms are; something funny happens, something bad happens, and then something really nice happens and yay. And this is like very subtle movements, some bad things happen, definitely. That's why it's probably should be 16 or 18, but there's like, it's like little waves, nice waves that you go with I would say.

Mitch:
[11:42] But can I say that there is something about it, because the rom-com has, people like rom-coms because they're predictable, right? You know that it's going to be like; two people meet, at some point there's going to be a twist, and they're going to fall out But you know the end there will be love at the end, that's the whole point of a rom-com right?

Isi:
[12:01] There's love at the end.

Mitch:
[12:02] And this has... is that, if you made it into a package. But there's always... there's something about this movie where you're never quite... there's parts where you're like, I don't know what's gonna happen next. You know there's gonna have to be something that happens, but in this movie, because there are two love interests for the Dakota Johnson who's the...

Isi:
[12:21] For the Dakota Johnson.

Mitch:
[12:22] For the Dakota Johnson, the protagonist of the movie. But you're never quite sure what the twist is going to be and because this movie is not so glitz and glamour and sparkly, how dark it's going to get or how big the twist is going to be. I wasn't sure if maybe one of the two love interests wouldn't make it or if she would even make it at one point. There were some really uneasy feelings with this movie. And this movie is produced by my favourite production company, A24. Because A24 is kind of known for being kind of a bit like highbrow movie-making.

Isi:
[12:56] You said at the beginning of the film, oh, this is an A24 film, so it might be quite dark. And I was like, no, Netflix advertises it to be like very rom-com. That's why I thought I want to watch it. And then you were like, nah, it will be a bit different. And you were right. And then actually the entering scene is very like odd, not odd. looks very like why is this the scene to start with. They're like in a cave, not they are not. Like, they're a cave a cave man and a cave woman in a cave, long long time ago, having a date. - Yeah. - Anyway, that is I was like; huh! And then you were like...

Mitch:
[13:33] You were like; I think this movie's not right, Netflix has put us into the wrong movie.

Isi:
[13:37] Yeah, and then you were like; no that's A24.

Mitch:
[13:42] There's a lot of mo... a lot of metaphor metaphorical kind of things going on, right? At the beginning, and sort of foreshadowing what will happen in the film a little bit.

Isi:
[13:51] Yeah and it's nicely written

Mitch:
[13:54] Would you... do you want to give a little synopsis? Can you summarise the whole movie, what it's about in like two sentences

Isi:
[14:00] You want to spoil that

Mitch:
[14:01] No, don't spoil it but like what what's the kind of overall.

Isi:
[14:04] Um.. - theme of the movie. - The main character she's a... - The Dakota Johnsonhe Dakota the Dakota Johnson is a how are they called? - A matchmaker. - A matchmaker. So she, well for high profile people.

Mitch:
[14:20] Oh yeah right, a bit like Raya, but a matchmaking version of Raya.

Isi:
[14:23] Rich New Yorkers and she matches... well she has clients that look for love are looking for love and she matches them and puts them on dates and kind of is a bit like a therapist as well meets with them, motivates them to go into it, because often they're like having problems to open up to other people or so. Which also goes very wrong in the movie. I wouldn't say that because I think that's like a part that you don't want to know before.

Mitch:
[14:52] Yeah.

Isi:
[14:53] In a dark way. Not in a... Oh, it goes wrong. They hate each other.

Mitch:
[14:57] But also like the realities of modern dating maybe. The anonymous modern dating.

Isi:
[15:02] Yeah. She meets... a guy. - Pedro Pascal. - At a wedding of one of her clients. - Oh yeah. - And he's very into her, they begin dating , she cannot really believe that he's into her, but she doesn't really fall in love with him, because there is her old love interest, ex-boyfriend.

Mitch:
[15:24] Chris Evans; Captain America.

Isi:
[15:26] I didn't know anybody before I mean Dakota Johnson I've heard of um who is the opposite, he's like an upcoming... not really upcoming, he's like a struggling theatre actor. - Yeah. - Trying to make it in york living in a shared flat, having like doesn't have much money. Pedro Pascal is a mega mega mega mega mega rich guy.

Mitch:
[15:50] He's like, a nepo-baby isn't he

Isi:
[15:52] Yeah I think, what was his penthouse 18 million or 20 million? Like, mega rich. Anyway, so it's also all about that she always thought she's quite superficial and she wants to go for the same that all her clients ask for; rich, tall, handsome.

Mitch:
[16:11] It's all about the height of men.

Isi:
[16:13] Yeah that's also a thing but then yeah, You will see what the end will be.

Mitch:
[16:18] The height of men and the age of the woman is like a horrendously honest, but true theme in this movie. The men are always like, I need under 27. She's like, okay, we have this 29-year-old woman, maybe. He's like, that's basically 30 for me. And he's like a 50-year-old guy. He's like, she needs to be, he doesn't care about, yeah, that's the theme of the title of the movie, Materialists. But it's funny but very true. Like it's a really sort of, honest, mirror image of today's world of dating, right?

Isi:
[16:52] Yeah. You would hope it's different already, but it's not.

Mitch:
[16:55] Right.

Isi:
[16:55] Let me tell you.

Mitch:
[16:56] Is that what it is? Is it a bit of a kick in the face of modern dating, this movie?

Isi:
[17:01] Yeah. But all how we describe it sounds very predictable and pretentious. And I think it's not.

Mitch:
[17:07] Yeah. It sounds like that movie 'Hitch' with Will Smith.

Isi:
[17:11] It's done really, really nicely.

Mitch:
[17:13] It is, yeah. Yeah it definitely takes... it laughs at itself this movie and that one thing that I really liked about it, is that even though it's a rom-com and you know it's probably going to happen at the end, throughout the whole movie you're there's a very uneasy feeling about everything. There's a very there's a bit of reality sort of lingering in this sort of Hollywood movie which you'd be like, oh no something's gonna happen. It's too real for there not to be something real. And yeah, it does happen right? Lots of real things happen. So there's your movie review for this week, go watch it and let us know what you think and you'll also be picking up on lots of American English while you're watching it and some very good acting. Okay, that's the end of the podcast, thank you very much for listening and for you podcast Aftershow listeners who are, Podcast Members of our membership we're going to carry on speaking for a little bit longer about some behind the scenes Easy English things and I'm also going to read a British joke to you. - Oh no. - It's a good one you'll love it, you can remember... - That's what you always say. - Say it to all of your friends. Okay anyway, thank you for listening to this week's podcast. - Thank you. - See you next time, te-ra

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Justin, an American from Texas and Easy Languages family member joins us to talk about money, driving on the left, the Royal Family, plus culture shocks and strange similarities between Brits and people from the United States

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello, everybody.

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:25] Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Podcast. Isi, we have an exciting episode today, right?

Isi:
[0:33] Yes.

Mitch:
[0:35] Why is that?

Isi:
[0:36] We have a guest from our Easy Languages family. And, it will be exciting and interesting. Maybe we let our guests introduce themselves.

Mitch:
[0:49] Yes, greetings to our mystery guest. Who are you

Justin:
[0:54] Hello hello, my name is Justin, and I am a part of the Easy Languages family. I've been with Easy Languages for over four years now, which is beautiful, amazing. - Wow. - Yes. - And I'm really... yeah, I'm really excited to be on this Easy English podcast, because my native language is English. I grew up in the United States, in Houston, Texas, to be specific. But I also lived in Manchester, UK for a bit of time, around nine months, I want to say. And yeah, there are definitely a lot of differences. Some of them I kind of yearn to go back for, if I'm being honest.

Mitch:
[1:40] Wow, amazing. That's a good introduction. And you're a really amazing guest to have on to do these comparisons and contrasts, I guess. Can I ask a question before we start, Justin?

Justin:
[1:53] Yeah, go ahead.

Mitch:
[1:53] Can you name us some famous people from where you're from? Where in Texas were you from again?

Justin:
[1:59] I'm from Houston, Texas. And the most famous person that I will always represent is Beyoncé.

Mitch:
[2:03] Oh, really!?

Justin:
[2:04] Beyoncé is from Houston, Texas. Yes. So is all of the Destiny's Child. Some younger artists that I know. Post Malone is from Texas.

Mitch:
[2:14] Really? Wow!

Justin:
[2:15] Yes. But... Khaled, if you know that artist.

Isi:
[2:20] Yeah.

Mitch:
[2:21] DJ Khaled?

Justin:
[2:22] Not that one. The one that made that like breezy song. I forgot what it's called.

Mitch:
[2:29] Is Dolly Parton from Texas?

Justin:
[2:31] I was thinking about that, but I think she's from Tennessee.

Mitch:
[2:35] Because with Texas, it comes with a stereotype of people that look a bit like Dolly Parton in my mind. That's what I always think of.

Justin:
[2:42] I mean, they do exist. - Cowboy hats, cowboy boots. - The "bless your heart", type of people. Bless your heart, darling. Those people exist for sure.

Mitch:
[2:51] Pumpkin pie, people.

Justin:
[2:54] Matthew McConaughey. He's from Texas.

Mitch:
[2:57] Wow. All right, all right, all right.

Justin:
[3:00] Yes. He actually was a professor at the United... at the University of Texas in Austin.

Mitch:
[3:07] Wow. From Matthew McConaughey to Liam Gallagher, you went from. But this is great. This is already good. I'm already sort of getting a sense for the cultural comparisons that we're going to get. So, I believe you've prepared a list of certain contrasts and similarities for our 'Topic of the Week', right?

Justin:
[3:31] Yes.

Mitch:
[3:32] Okay, let's get started with that.

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Isi and Mitch give you 5 (and a half) tips and tricks for keeping the conversation not only going, but flowing if you're a non-native English speaker trying to improve your conversation skills

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Show Notes

Find your ideal English teacher on italki 🎉 Use the code ENGLISH2026 for €5 off your first class (minimum €10): https://go.italki.com/english2

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello everybody.

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:24] Greetings from sunny Germany, sunny Münster.

Isi:
[0:29] It's so nice. Winter's over.

Mitch:
[0:31] Yeah, newsflash. Winter for us, at least, is over.

Isi:
[0:35] It's 17 or 18 degrees today.

Mitch:
[0:37] Wow.

Isi:
[0:38] It's absolute spring.

Mitch:
[0:40] The worst thing about that is now we're stuck inside doing a podcast.

Isi:
[0:43] Yeah, but only for now. And then we do nothing else today and just lie in the sun.

Mitch:
[0:48] For you guys, we sacrificed the sunny weather to make up a 20-minute podcast. Today, Isi, you have no idea what we're talking about today.

Isi:
[0:58] Nope.

Mitch:
[0:58] This is a very interesting topic, actually, one that I've wanted to do for a while, and it's taken me a while to conjure five points, the most important points. Today, we're talking about how you guys can keep a conversation going in English. So I've come up with five little tips and tricks and you'll be able to help out with this as well Isi, because you obviously learnt English and you speak in English to English people. There's five points I have, five little tips and tricks to help you keep a conversation flowing, because you're obviously trying to manage your English speaking and you, maybe feel a bit nervous, maybe a bit anxious speaking English and so then, also having to think about topics and how to easily, keep the conversation flowing so they're doing some talking as well and you're able to feel confident in asking these questions, using these tips.

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Mitch and Isi give you 5 common scenarios in a British pub and give you advice, vocabulary and conversational tips to help you, not just survive... but thrive! In a traditional pub in the UK.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Okay, hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:27] Hi, hi.

Mitch:
[0:29] I just want to let you guys know that if you're currently listening to this, then you should know that you can also watch it on our YouTube channel.

Isi:
[0:37] But you don't need to.

Mitch:
[0:39] You don't need to for this one.

Isi:
[0:39] You don't need to see our faces.

Mitch:
[0:41] No, there shouldn't be many pictures or images that you should have to see for this. But if you want to see our reactions and faces, then feel free to pop on over. - Our tired faces. - Our tired, exhausted faces, then head on over to our YouTube channel. because today we're doing an episode uh about everyday common scenarios that will happen when you visit a British pub the pup an easy uh semi-professional pub goer now now that you have been in the UK for some time that makes me a professional publishing actually uh you will answer these five scenarios what you should do um phrases and vocabulary that you'll hear that you'll need to use and sort of cultural rules that are unwritten uh in the UK in Britain okay,
Topic of the Week

Mitch:
[1:41] So let's start with number one. I wrote them down on my phone. So the first one, you go to the pub with a British acquaintance. And you both walk up to the bar and I'll play the bartender and I ask, Hello. I look at you. What can I get you? In this moment, what do you do? What phrases would you use? What can I get you?

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Mitch and Isi will give you their honest pros & cons list, advice & knowledge. And overall, try to convince you to travel to the UK by boat.

Our new, Asia-friendly, conversation call - 10:15 GMT (15:45 in India / 18:15 in China & 19:15 in Japan & Korea) every Tuesday will start if 10 people email me - mitch@easyenglish.video with the phrase "I'm in".

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello, everybody.

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:24] Long time no hear. Usually you say long time no see, but you don't see us. So long time no hear.

Isi:
[0:32] Sometimes you see us.

Mitch:
[0:33] Sometimes. So today, as you can see from the title of this podcast, Isi and I are proficient travellers by boat, when it comes to going between the UK and the EU, as it is now. - Yes, by ferry. - By ferry, which is the name of the big ship. And so we wanted to convince you and give you a bit of a pros, mostly prose, but some cons, list of why it is better to travel to the UK by ferry and give you some hints, tips, advice, because I think, when you're thinking of travelling to the UK the main thing you're always thinking of is Calais to Dover. But there's a huge extensive network of connections, all around Europe that can bring you to the UK by boat.

Isi:
[1:26] I think most people think about flying here, probably.

Mitch:
[1:29] Exactly. But I want, or we would like to give you a rundown of why it's actually better to travel by ferry.

Isi:
[1:35] Is that true?

Mitch:
[1:36] I think so.

Isi:
[1:38] Environmentally. Well, I've not compared the emissions of a ferry to a plane.

Mitch:
[1:45] Yeah, there will be a pros and cons list.

Isi:
[1:49] Don't... uh yeah, sorry.

Mitch:
[1:51] But before we go into that, I want to go into our section, our regular section of Unhelpful Advice, because we have a message. - Oh
Unhelpful Advice

Message:
[2:11] Hello, I wanted to talk English, but I'm shy. And I want you to help me, so I can speak English, for a long time, because I need to.

Mitch:
[2:29] Thank you for your message. So it sounds like you are someone who is very actively trying to learn English, but you're quite shy, which is understandable. I'm also trying to learn German, and I'm very nervous and shy about speaking German to people.

Isi:
[2:44] Even with me.

Mitch:
[2:45] Even to my wife. So the best way to learn English, one, is to watch our YouTube videos, to listen to our podcasts, to surround yourself in the English world.

Isi:
[2:59] Watch English films, series, listen to news, radio.

Mitch:
[3:05] Mm-hmm. - Podcasts. - Yeah.

Isi:
[3:08] And when you have that level of comprehension... listening comprehension, reading comprehension.

Mitch:
[3:14] Then speaking is your next level.

Isi:
[3:17] Or at the same time, but it's easier when you already have a... have a certain level of understanding I guess.

Mitch:
[3:23] Another way that we can help you, alongside our videos and podcasts is through our membership.This message gives me a good reason to mention that we also have something called the Conversation Membership which is great for any of you that want to improve your speaking and listening skills.

Mitch:
[3:38] And currently, we have a conversation call which starts at 18:15 in British time. And it happens every Tuesday night, 18:15. One thing that we realised is that we have lots of people from Asia listening and watching our videos. And we want to support your English speaking and listening skills. And so we're thinking about opening a conversation membership time for the Asian world. So, we would have our conversation calls at 10.15 in the UK, which in Japan and Korea would be 19:15, in China would be 18:15, and in India would be 15:45, I believe. The reason it's at 18:15, 19:15 is to allow for you to finish work, drive home and you have 15 minutes between that to sit down prepare yourself and jump in the call, join Isi, and I and other members who are all trying to improve their English speaking & listening skills. If you are interested in joining our Asia-friendly conversation call at 18:15, 19: 15 time, then what we'd like to ask you to do is to write to me on my email address, which is mitch@easyenglish.video and just write the words, "I'm in". Once we get 10 people who are interested in doing this call, this Asia-friendly call, then we will start it and it will be a regular thing, every Tuesday night for you.

Mitch:
[5:07] And maybe you can join. We even offer a seven-day free trial of our Conversation Membership. So if you're a bit nervous or you don't know, am I B1, am I B2, am I even C1? Come give it a go with our seven-day free trial. See how you fit in. You'll be welcomed by myself, by Isi, and by loads of our other lovely conversation members, who are there and ready to welcome you. To become a Conversation Member or to check out our membership, you just have to go to easyenglish.video/membership. Okay, back to the episode.

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Isi and Mitch give you 10 everyday sayings that British people use - and what they really mean...
Go to https://go.italki.com/english2026 to get 5€ off your first italki lesson with our code ENGLISH when you spend at least 10 €.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch
[0:22]Hi everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Long time, no see. It's been a while.

Isi
[0:29]I think we said we leave this welcome.

Mitch
[0:34]I'm still petitioning for it.

Isi
[0:37]Okay, hello.

Mitch
[0:40]So, today we're back in Brighton, from Münster. And as we've come over, I've already started noticing certain things, that us Brits do quite differently to the rest of Europe. And, one thing that we do, which is probably useful for you guys, whether you are coming to the UK as a tourist, whether you want to move to the UK, or maybe you're just working for a company and there are certain Brits there, maybe your boss is a British person, or your colleagues. Or maybe you just want to... - Your boss. - Your a boss.

Isi
[1:18]Your boss is a British person. That sounded a bit like, intimidating.

Mitch
[1:20]Yeah exactly

Isi
[1:22]But don't be. British bosses, hopefully, are all nice.

Mitch
[1:25]Well, funny you say that. Because, maybe your boss says certain things and the reaction or action, afterwards, is very different from what they're saying. Isi, you bring this up quite a lot, that Brits like to say things, which don't exactly reflect what they mean.

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In our Easy English Updates, we announce our 'Kick-Off 2026 Challenge' on Monday to improve your English, every day for 14 days.
Isi and Mitch then give you 10 everyday word pronunciations that reveal if you're speaking either American or British English, but for we answer a question from Hanan and then Mitch tells a very British joke.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:23] Hi, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. The winter version. Winter has come. We're currently in your parents' basement and it's freezing cold.

Isi:
[0:35] Hence the jackets. It's cold down here.

Mitch:
[0:37] Yeah. So, today we're going to show you some of the differences between the British English and American English pronunciation. We're giving you 10 words which you'll be using every day, that you'll need every day. Depending on how you pronounce these, we can sort of figure out, whether you are, or whether you are speaking with American English pronunciation or British English pronunciation. - Oh dear. - Yeah. But, before we get into that, we have quite a nice surprise, that we've already revealed a bit about in some videos and earlier podcasts, don't we Isi? We have a kickstart to our 2026 Easy English year.
Easy English Updates

Isi:
[1:23] Yeah, we have, well, you said it already, the 'Kick-Off 2026 Challenge', which means we give you challenges to improve your English, every day, for a continuous 14 days. So every morning, get a challenge. You have to write something. Maybe make an audio message if you can. You don't need to. You can also write everything, share something, maybe write a letter to your boss, complain about something, apply for a job. It will be like personal, reflective things, but also business English to have you, basically, every day improve your English. We know from past experiences, that if you do those challenges, really every day, that this really boosts your language learning experience. So we are excited. 5th of January, we start for 14 days, come join us. If you become a member, on easyenglish.video/membership you can join us with any membership you're in, it all happens on our Discord server. What else do we need to say

Mitch:
[2:25] That's it you did explain it very well. It's an intensive, every day, for 14 days, English challenge to level up and improve your English. Get going where you left off and yeah, like Isi said, join any one of our membership levels, we have three different types and all of those gets you access to our Discord server, where Isi and I will be posting each and every day, the challenges for you. Let's go to our Topic of the Week.

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This week, we announce our 14-day challange in the new year for you to kick-start your 2026 and improve your English. Is also opens an early Christmas present from Mitch on the podcast and they compare the differences and similarities of Christmas time in the UK and Germany, before Mitch tells a couple of Christmas-themed jokes... Merry Christmas!

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Good morning!

Mitch:
[0:25] Merry Christmas!

Isi:
[0:27] It's not Christmas yet. - It's not Christmas yet. T'was the night before Christmas.

Isi:
[0:32] It's also not the night before Christmas.

Mitch:
[0:35] But, this is the Easy English Christmas Special.

Isi:
[0:41] Oh, it sounds like Gavin and Stacey Christmas special, but not as exciting.

Mitch:
[0:47] And we have a couple of Christmassy features, including me gifting Isi her first early Christmas gift.

Isi:
[0:55] Yes?

Mitch:
[0:56] From Santa Mitch.

Isi:
[0:58] Oh, not real Santa. He's not yet around the house, is he? Oh, I'm excited. Why?

Mitch:
[1:07] Because you've been a very good person this year and the elves told me.

Isi:
[1:13] To give you an early one. Okay.

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Isi guesses and explains 10 commonly used idioms in conversations, while Mitch explains where they came from.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:22] So, today, we want to bring you an episode introducing everyday English idioms. And, what I've done is I've compiled some images for isi to look at and we're going to describe them for you audio listeners. And for you YouTube watchers/viewers, we're going to look at these images, and try to distinguish what the idiom is and what it means. Make sense?

Isi:
[0:52] Yeah, let's start.

Mitch:
[0:53] Let's start.

Isi:
[0:54] I have questions.

Mitch:
[0:55] Okay, so here is number one, everyday English idiom. What are you thinking?

Isi:
[1:03] Instead of a head, that person has a bowl of baked beans, as a head.

Mitch:
[1:09] Baked beans, very English. So?

Isi:
[1:13] Do you have a bean head?

Mitch:
[1:15] No.

Isi:
[1:15] You're a bean hat.

Mitch:
[1:16] A bean head, no. A bean head.

Isi:
[1:19] Could that mean that you're like, an idiot? Yeah, no?

Mitch:
[1:23] A bean head. Yeah, like a tiny brain. But no, that's not the idiom. this is an.. - Stew... you are... stew? - No, you know this idiom you use it a lot, actually. Or I use it a lot... - His head is farting? - Yeah, that's the correct idiom.

Isi:
[1:38] They're all in his body

Mitch:
[1:39] Imagine that the beans are filling up from his... up through his legs. - Full of beans! - He is...

Isi:
[1:46] That's a weird picture for it, though. Did you find that, for 'full of beans'? Did chat ChatGPT do this for you

Mitch:
[1:51] I made all these images on an AI image generator.

Isi:
[1:55] That's 'full of beans'

Mitch:
[1:57] That is the best way I could describe 'full of beans'. Okay, tell me then, what does 'full of beans' mean, and when would you use it?

Isi:
[2:05] Um... you would describe a person or yourself.

Mitch:
[2:10] Yeah.

Isi:
[2:11] I think you don't really say it about yourself.

Mitch:
[2:13] No.

Isi:
[2:14] More about others. - Yeah. - If someone is in a very good mood, very active, busy, maybe a bit like, dancing around.

Mitch:
[2:24] Exactly.

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Mitch and Isi find out facts, slang and phrases from Scotland. The duo then answer Marianne's question about British TV shows before Mitch reads out a few classic British jokes.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] We've hit a milestone as well. I just... I didn't even notice. We're on episode 80.

Isi:
[0:30] When is 100?

Mitch:
[0:32] Next year sometime. Well, as it's the milestone, we'd like to say welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode 80.

Isi:
[0:42] Whoop, whoop.

Mitch:
[0:43] Wow. 80 episodes. Crazy. And welcome to any new people who have just discovered us.

Isi:
[0:50] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:51] Today, we've got a few topics and a brand new topic, which I'd like to make a continuous topic, that appears in every episode. But our main 'Topic of the Week' is a subject which was requested, in the last podcast by Marcel, from the Swiss-German border.

Isi:
[1:14] Scotland. - What?

Mitch:
[1:17] Oh yeah! - Scotland's not on the Swiss-German border.

Isi:
[1:21] But, wasn't that the topic.

Mitch:
[1:22] Yeah, so Marcel asked for us to talk about Scotland. And, one issue we have with that is... we have been to Scotland right? - We have been... - But we don't know that much. - several times. - Yeah, several times, but we still didn't really know that much. - No. - So I did a bit of research and I’m gonna sort of, enlighten all of us, because a lot of these things I was like, what? Wow, that's amazing. There's so much interesting stuff about Scotland. And we also have an 'Unhelpful Advice' question, from another listener, who sent in a voice message. And then at the end, we have our new brand new section, 'British Jokes'.

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The pace of life, food habits, market days and more... Mitch and Isi talk about the culture shocks they discovered during their time in the south west of France

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Did you see this? They think they have a video now of... did you see that the Louvre was robbed?

Isi:
[0:29] Yeah, I didn't hear much about it. I saw this video as well.

Mitch:
[0:31] And they didn't have any... oh, you saw it? They think someone filmed two people escaping down a mechanical ladder, with the jewels, because they have no video footage from inside the Louvre. Sounds like such a...

Isi:
[0:43] Why don't they have videos in the Louvre?

Mitch:
[0:45] They do, but they said that there's the one place where they didn't have footage was exactly the place where they came in and stole it, which is like...

Isi:
[0:52] Which they probably knew.

Mitch:
[0:53] Inside job, maybe.

Isi:
[0:55] I mean, they can research that.

Mitch:
[0:56] I guess they scouted out for a while. But, funny that we speak about the Louvre being burgled because...

Isi:
[1:04] Did you say already we started this podcast? Oh, you don't anymore. Did we just... went in like this, now?

Mitch:
[1:11] We just start cas... casually.

Isi:
[1:13] Oh, our talk about the Louvre was already on podcast?

Mitch:
[1:17] Not you blowing your nose, though. I'll cut that bit out.

Isi:
[1:20] Good.

Mitch:
[1:22] This is a soft entry, we call it.

Isi:
[1:25] Okay, cool.

Mitch:
[1:28] But today, that links in with our topic today, because, we just returned back from France, and I thought we could talk about some key differences, between not, the UK and France, but very specific, I thought we could bring up differences between our two lives we have just been living, between Brighton and the south of France, specifically the Dordogne region, where we were living for some time.

Isi:
[1:58] Yes.

Mitch:
[1:58] And I've got five points, that I sort of, have realised are very different, between our lifestyle here and our lifestyle back then, when we were living in the south of France.

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Crossing on a red light? Table service in a pub? Bus, supermarket and London Underground ettiquette? Mitch tests Isi with 5 very British scenarios to see if she knows the unwritten rules of British life.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:24] Hello! Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:28] I'm pro-leaving this out next time. We should... please leave your comment on Spotify, or your other favourite apps. On Spotify you can leave a comment and say, stop telling us which podcast we are listening to.

Mitch:
[0:43] What did I say at the beginning now? Hello!

Isi:
[0:46] How are you? Without an answer, but that's very English.

Mitch:
[0:51] It is very English.

Isi:
[0:52] Alright. - Alright, mate. - Alright.

Mitch:
[0:54] Alright. So today, we're going to be playing a little scenario game with you. - As usual. - As usual, putting you to the test. And proposing five situations, that will happen to you, in the UK and will happen to you in the UK, if you come. Let's call them 'unwritten rules of the UK'.

Isi:
[1:15] The first one is already an odd one then. There's no should or shouldn't in that one. well basically there's a should.

Mitch:
[1:21] Hold your horses. we'll get on to that in a minute. I just want to quickly say, that if you're listening to this podcast, on your podcast app, you should be made aware, that this podcast is also available as a video on YouTube and we're going to be showing some pictures, in-between Isi and I, of these sort of proposed scenarios.

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Come play along as Isi ranks traditional British food, such as the full English breakfast, Sunday roast dinner, crumpets ans the famous fish & chips.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello.

Isi:
[0:24] Hi.

Mitch:
[0:25] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:29] How long will we say this? Always?

Mitch:
[0:31] Always. Forever.

Isi:
[0:33] It takes five good seconds of our podcast.

Mitch:
[0:37] That just took five good seconds, saying that. So today, our main Topic of the Week we'll be ranking the best and worst British foods.

Isi:
[0:50] It's very fitting, because we just had one of the best ones, last night.

Mitch:
[0:55] What did we have last night?

Isi:
[0:56] A Sunday roast, by Mitch's mum. That was really nice.

Mitch:
[1:01] And we're going to be ranking them by this chart, which you can see in the middle of us. And their ranking goes from 'God tier' to 'top tier', 'mid tier', 'low tier' and 'crap tier'.

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Improve your English listening skills as Isi tries to guess where these 7 strong accents from the UK are from...

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:27] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:28] I'm overdoing my enthusiasm I feel, because we are in a low energy state. We've just come back from Berlin and we both caught the dreaded Corona.

Isi:
[0:44] Dreaded.

Mitch:
[0:45] So, we've been a little bit under the weather. So, I'm going to try to infuse some extra energy to the podcast, right Isi?

Isi:
[0:54] Please. I don't have it today.

Mitch:
[0:56] Aww... but before we carry on actually, because we have just come back from Berlin and we met lots of really nice people, it wasn't anything to do with Easy English we were actually there for the Easy German Summer School. But we met loads of you who were also Easy English Podcast listeners, so huge shout-out!

Isi:
[1:17] Shout-out to everyone. And we also did a new episode for Easy English.

Mitch:
[1:21] We also made an episode in Berlin, about Berlin, comparing um... cultural, culture shocks, that we noticed in our time there, the one week we spent, before we caught the dreaded (Co)rona. But that's not what we're discussing today. Today, a little bit of a follow-on from last episode, where Isi tested me on cultural slang words.

Isi:
[1:46] Yes.

Mitch:
[1:46] The reason she did that, was because, we like to play a game now, where she quickly, guesses the accent of a person, when we're in the UK. And she's on fire. She's on a hot streak of victories.

Isi:
[2:02] Well... God, you make me scared.

Mitch:
[2:06] So I searched online and found some... because Brighton is very southern, most of the time. Only rarely do you hear someone from the far reaches of the UK, so I went and found accents from the far reaches of the UK. So we're going to play a little game, maybe you can play along with us, and pause and try to guess yourself, where you think this person's from, and we're going to discuss little hints and tips as to why we think they sound like where they're coming from. Because there are some giveaways in all of these, because they're quite strong, regional accents.

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Ballpark figure, shift, chur, keener, a double-double, lekker, togs, thongs, jonesin & craic... do you know these English slang words from outside the UK?

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:25] I'm nervous.

Isi:
[0:26] Really?

Mitch:
[0:28] Nervously excited.

Isi:
[0:30] Mitch is confused, because he doesn't know what's coming up today.

Mitch:
[0:33] Yeah, I feel like I'm in the hot seat for the first time in a long time.

Isi:
[0:38] So, yeah, I prepared this topic. Mitch doesn't even know it yet. What I thought, actually, it has a little background story. At the moment we play this game, whenever we are somewhere where people are, where I guess if someone has a different accent to our southern British surroundings, I guess where the people are from. Because I would love to master this, and to bring my English to the next level and know when someone is from Australia, the US, Ireland, or Liverpool.

Mitch:
[1:18] You're getting really good at it though. You're quite quick.

Isi:
[1:21] Why did you say though? Wasn't it expected? Actually yesterday, good example, no?

Mitch:
[1:28] Yeah, I just quizzed you... there was someone behind you and I just quizzed you quickly; do you know where they're from? You're just, like a flash, "Ireland." What part of Ireland? "Republic".

Isi:
[1:40] I love Ireland. Yeah, so what I thought is, I would like to, a bit, quiz you, if you know slang words from other British English speaking countries or regions, actually countries, I think, only. Yeah, other countries. Would you like to go for that?

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Working holidays, lunch at your desk, small talk at meetings, wild Christmas parties & tea breaks... we discuss 5 strange work habits in the UK.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:22] Hiya!

Mitch:
[0:23] Hiya!

Isi:
[0:24] Hiya!

Mitch:
[0:25] Welcome to Easy English... Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. For those of you listening, you should be made aware, as per usual, that this episode is also available as a video episode on our YouTube channel. Because in this one, I'm going to be showing you some pictures and you might also want to look and watch along, as we identify five work habits that Germans might not understand.

Isi:
[1:03] Oh.

Mitch:
[1:03] And, I've harnessed the power of AI to create some images of typical work scenarios in the UK, which might be a little bit strange, not just for Germans, but for you guys, wherever you're watching from, if it's not in the UK.

Isi:
[1:23] Okay. I don't know what's coming, but I'm prepared for nothing.

Mitch:
[1:31] But, before we go into this week's topic, we have an exciting announcement that we've been working on over the summer, right Isi?

Isi:
[1:42] Yes. We changed our memberships, I think that's the first announcement. And with that, also produced a new trailer on our YouTube channel, so if you're listening, hop over there. If you're on the YouTube channel, click on it here, somewhere. So yeah, there's a new trailer, a very detailed, long trailer, that explains everything about our memberships, about our work, about our content, so please, please watch that. What we can tell now is that we, made our memberships easier and... we had before five memberships, now we have three, and to us they make more sense, then hopefully, to you.

Mitch:
[2:26] Yeah we've defined them a bit more in the areas of Supporter, which is for anyone that wants to help keep our project Easy English running, because at the moment it's currently just myself and Isi, little old us, and our project Easy English is kind of a community funded project, run by you, designed by you, inspired by you and made for you. You know, our podcasts and videos are free to watch and listen to, so becoming a member not only helps you learn with us, but also helps keep our project running. It's just a small amount you pay every month if you were to join the Supporter Membership and in return we'd also invite you to join our Discord server, which is a chat-based app, Is that right?

Isi:
[3:13] Server. Tool.

Mitch:
[3:14] Tool, where you can meet other members like yourself, who are supporting us, who are learning with us. But you can also meet with myself and Isi, and we'll discuss just general topics, get to know each other, and we'll get to say thank you for helping to support Easy English.

Isi:
[3:29] Yeah. I share lots of pictures of Nola.

Mitch:
[3:34] There'll be Nola pictures. There'll be dinner pictures. There'll be holiday pictures, food pictures.

Isi:
[3:38] All my guilty pleasure food. It's on there. So, yeah, for sure. I mean, our Discord is, for us, a place where we daily, meet our Easy English family, and it's a lot of fun. It's like a place where we just daily hang out. It's great.

Mitch:
[3:57] The second membership is the Learner Membership, which has now just combined the Video and Podcast Membership into one. So you're going to get all of the learning material for all of our episodes, whether it be a podcast episode or video episode.

Isi:
[4:10] All in one.

Mitch:
[4:11] Exactly, and you'll also be invited to Discord. And then the final membership is our Conversation Membership, which includes everything we've just said, but adds on our really fun, really relaxed and really useful and helpful conversation calls, which happen every Tuesday. It's a group setting it's online we all create a pub themed background, a bit like what we're doing here in the background and we just chat about topics which will be referenced in videos, we chat about topics that will help you if you're working in English, if you're coming to live in England, or if you're just wanting to surround yourself in the English-speaking world.

Isi:
[4:50] So, if you want to become a member and get more comfortable with your English, learn with us, get to know us, chat with us, be part of our little world, then go to easyenglish.video/membership

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This week, Mitch and Isi were joined by special guest Harry from Easy Spanish. With Harry being a Brit living in Spain, they talked about reverse culture shocks; things Harry misses, loves, finds annoying and more, when he comes back to the UK.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hi everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today we have a very special episode. We're going to be doing an episode called Five Reverse Culture Shocks. And a culture shock is, for anyone who's just wondering, is when you arrive in a place, a destination, and there is something happening which completely surprises you or is contrasting to what you're aware of. So a reverse one, which is kind of, we're making up our own sort of definitions here, is what happens if you come back to your own culture and are shocked, or still shocked. And to sort of traverse this topic, we have invited Harry from Easy Spanish. Hello, Harry.

Harry:
[1:16] Hi.

Isi:
[1:17] Hi.

Harry:
[1:19] Or Hola.

Mitch:
[1:22] How's it going, Harry? Nice to speak to you.

Harry:
[1:26] Going very well. Thank you, Mitch. What a pleasure to be on the Easy English Podcast.

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This week, Mitch finds 5 very British things that he thinks will annoy Germans. Isi debates whether separate hold and cold taps, basic bakeries, pubs that close early, narrow and dangerous roads and short-shorts in winter would annoy ALL Germans.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya! Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today, we're going to be discussing five things that annoy you, that I know annoy you, as a German who is experiencing the UK.

Isi:
[0:39] So that people can hate me afterwards

Mitch:
[0:43] No, but these are things which I think all Germans will be annoyed about, and I'm going to leave it up to you to decide what the pictures are that I’m going to show you, what they really mean, what the annoyance will be. And if you're listening to this podcast, you should be made aware that this podcast is also available on our YouTube channel, where we'll be showing pictures to Isi and we'll be discussing five annoying things that all Germans hate about the UK.

Isi:
[1:14] I doubt that all Germans will hate it.

Mitch:
[1:17] Yeah, clickbait.

Isi:
[1:19] Hate is a very strong word. Let's say dislike or criticise.

Mitch:
[1:26] Five things Germans criticise about the UK.

Isi:
[1:34] And in the end, it's only me.

Mitch:
[1:35] Let's go. Five things Isi criticises... about the UK.

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Today we're joined by a special guest... Mitch's mum. She talks about having and raising children in the UK; how kids speak to adults, how to educate children & being a childminder. She also defines common phrases that parents say to their children and answers your questions about raising a boy in the modern world & what Mitch was like as a child.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today is a special episode, not because Isi is also not here, but because today I'm being joined by my mum. Hello, mum.

Angeline:
[0:39] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:41] How nervous out of 10 are you now?

Angeline:
[0:45] I'm not sure, really. Just because I don't know what's happening, really. I don't know what's going to be asked.

Mitch:
[0:52] Wonderful. - That's more than nerves than anything. - That's great. - Great. - No it's not really. The... the point of this episode is, we're still in France, at my parents; myself and Isi and we had the idea that we would interview my mum and ask her about things to do with children, me as a kid, the UK, from a mum perspective and things like that. So I've divided up the podcast into kind of three sections, the first is kind of, general questions to ask you about being my mum and mum stuff. - Right. - We'll call it 'mum stuff'. - 'Mum stuff'. - Then, the second section I would like to call it by a name I've invented called 'mum-isms'.

Angeline:
[1:45] 'Mum-isms', okay.

Mitch:
[1:47] All phrases which I remember from my childhood that you said.

Angeline:
[1:50] Oh no, "I told you so".

Mitch:
[1:54] And I want you to define what they mean, because they're quite commonly said.

Angeline:
[1:59] Yeah, okay.

Mitch:
[1:59] Not just by mums, but by parents I think, to their children. - Yeah. - And then the third bit is, we've got a couple of questions from our listeners and members, that they'd like you to answer. - Okay. - Okay. Sound good?

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Mitch and Isi discuss the lesser known traditions in the UK; can you really walk off-road from Brighton to Scotland? Is Guy Fawkes a modern-day superhero? Has Isi won a pub quiz? Boy George as Captain Hook?!?!

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:00] Let's go on.

Mitch:
[0:00] Let's go on.

Isi:
[0:01] Okay. What is this? Is it like this?

Mitch:
[0:11] What was that you were reaching in for?

Isi:
[0:14] An apple?

Mitch:
[0:15] From where?

Isi:
[0:16] Garden Eden. I love Peter Pan! Peter Pan is with Captain Hook?

Mitch:
[0:26] F&%ing hell.

Isi:
[0:28] That one story. Don't touch me!

Mitch:
[0:36] It's called a bonfire.

Isi:
[0:37] Still not so fine, by the way, for wildlife. But we could walk to Scotland.

Mitch:
[0:44] We could, but we might die. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[1:13] Welcome, welcome.

Mitch:
[1:14] For those of you listening to this podcast, you should be made aware of that this podcast is also available on our YouTube channel. And the reason I’m saying this, is because today, we're going to discuss cultural phenomenon in the UK. - Yes. - These are cultural phenomenons which you may not know about in the UK

Isi:
[1:42] First picture, let's go. I'm ready.

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Mitch and Isi go back in time to the 1990s England and Germany and make each other guess the titles to the shows they watched as children. How have these shows defined both of their personalities? Isi finds out with a ChatGPT summary at the end.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:00] Water, earth, fire.

Isi:
[0:03] Is that the kid from '(The) Sixth Sense'?

Mitch:
[0:11] I see dead people.

Isi:
[0:15] Imagination, escapism, and adventure.

Mitch:
[0:18] Yep.

Isi:
[0:20] I asked ChatGPT to connect all those five shows that I have. And...

Mitch:
[0:31] Are you going to cry? It was called 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?'

Isi:
[0:36] Second picture...

Mitch:
[0:38] Gladiators! Do you have the power... - Wait. My show... -Do you have the speed, the strength, the heart to be a hero?

Isi:
[0:48] Very 80s.

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Mitch and Isi discuss English words that are originally from the German language and answer your questions in our regular segment of 'Unhelpful Advice'

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Is it all on? Is it all going?

Isi:
[0:25] What are we talking about?

Mitch:
[0:27] Hello and welcome to the Easy English Podcast episode... I don't know.

Isi:
[0:34] We don't know anything. We were on holidays. We don't know anything anymore.

Mitch:
[0:38] We're back from Hollibobs. So as we are a bi-national couple, myself being English and Isi...

Isi:
[0:46] Being German.

Mitch:
[0:47] We thought we'd do a topic about German words that are being used in the English vocabulary. We also have some messages from some of our listeners, which we'll play in our Unhelpful Advice section first. But before we do any of that, if you're listening to this podcast as someone who wants to improve their English, let's say you've hit a wall and you just don't know how you can improve it and take it to that next level to become really fluent and understand people like me, native Brits, who are speaking grammatically incorrect and with slang and swearing and maybe even non-native English speakers like Isi, who you think oh that's - Speaking really incorrect. - Who are speaking quickly with an accent and you want to be sounding like them because they're at this C level. With our podcast you are able to download an interactive transcript and what this does is it allows you to listen to the podcast, like you're doing right now, but on your phone on your laptop whether you're at work, commuting to work, sat at home, sat on the toilet, you can learn listening to us however you wish and the interactive transcript will help you by translating each and every sentence that we speak in the podcast into your language of choice. Therefore, you're able to keep up and understand exactly what we're saying and feel like you're improving your English and taking it to that next level, where you can come to the UK and interact with other Brits, other non-native English speakers and hold a nice conversation, make friends and have a great time. So go to easyenglish.video/membership and become a Podcast Member to improve your English with us.

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Mitch and Isi discuss the social class system in the UK and how, just by simply changing your car, supermarket or dog can affect your status. They discuss the upper class and how normal people like you and me can enter this privileged world.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:27] Poddy.

Mitch:
[0:28] The poddy. The poddy. This week, I wanted to speak about something which we've made an episode on, and I want to ask you for your opinion Isi, now you've been in the UK for some time. We want to speak about the British social class system.

Isi:
[0:46] Okay, I'm in.

Mitch:
[0:47] But before we do that, I just want to do some housekeeping, general housekeeping of the podcast. And that is to firstly, give you another nudge to remind you that we, at the moment in May, have a 50% sale of all of our memberships. That includes this podcast; there is a membership for, which you can join and get an interactive transcript, which helps to translate the entire podcast, interactively - whilst you're listening into your language of choice, to help you keep up and listen along with our podcast. Really useful for if you're someone who is struggling with your English comprehension and want to really understand exactly everything we're saying, because English people, we talk fast, we have really crazy accents and dialects all over the place, for such a small country. And we use a lot of slang and quite frankly, a lot of grammatical errors. And this will help you keep up and listen along with our podcast.

Mitch:
[1:54] We also offer memberships for our videos on YouTube, which is where you can get worksheets and things to help you if you're maybe more of a beginner. And if you're a more proficient English learner, maybe an expert you'd like to say, but you'd like to be able to practice your English speaking, because maybe you don't have any English friends or English speaking friends, then you can join our Conversation Membership for a 50% discount, this May. But you only have... tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, you have less than two weeks to claim your 50% discount. To check it out, all you have to do is go to easyenglish.video/membership to take you to our membership site, to check out all of the memberships we have on offer for 50% off in May. The second thing I want to say is that we forget, always, to mention that if you want to leave a message and feature on our podcast, then you can, you just have to go to easyenglish.fm and you'll find there's a little microphone button you can press and you can ask us questions. Maybe about an English language learning question, an English culture question, or anything you like, we will answer all of your questions.

Mitch:
[3:18] My question for you, Isi, speaking of culture, is; are you aware of this class system? Do you feel it when you're in the UK? Because it's a big cultural topic.

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Sweetheart, darling, ducky, honey, sausage, poppet, mate and of course... love. This week, Mitch and Isi discuss names of affection, or 'pet names' in the UK.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:00] Treacle. - Alright treacle? - Pumpkin, muffin, poppet, sausage. - Allo sausage. - And cabbage?!

Mitch:
[0:10] Cabbage is not one.

Isi:
[0:12] Mate.

Mitch:
[0:13] Mate. Alright, mate. Hello, mate. What's up, mate? Hiya, mate!

Isi:
[0:17] Then we got love and lovely again. And how is the use in the north? What you would say to someone?

Mitch:
[0:24] Hiya love.

Isi:
[0:24] No.

Mitch:
[0:25] Oh, sorry. Y'alright, love?

Isi:
[0:27] No. Ta love.

Mitch:
[0:30] Ta love.

Isi:
[0:31] Soft and lovin',

Mitch:
[0:33] Soft and lovin'. Mate is a good thing to go in with, for anyone.

Isi:
[0:38] Angel. - Angel! - Oh I don't like angel, nah.

Mitch:
[0:43] I feel a bit sick.

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A noisy neighbour, an awkward stand-off, an ironic compliment and a round at the bar... 4 difficult scenarios for Isi to deal with in the UK.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Isi, how's it going?

Isi:
[0:28] It's going.

Mitch:
[0:29] It's going. Very good. That's a very British response. So today, I wanted to, like in the last video episode, test you on your British cultural knowledge.

Isi:
[0:42] Oh dear.

Mitch:
[0:45] So for those of you who are listening, you can also, if you'd like, watch this podcast on YouTube, on our YouTube channel. So head over there to watch us debate some British culture topics. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to propose a scenario to you and maybe give you some options, about what you could possibly do. Or you can...

Isi:
[1:06] You can only go wrong.

Mitch:
[1:08] Yeah, exactly. You can volunteer your own response if you like as well.

Isi:
[1:12] We'll see. That was last time already really good.

Mitch:
[1:15] Yeah. Yeah, because the answers are maybe not what you might expect.

Isi:
[1:19] Okay.

Mitch:
[1:20] Okay.

Isi:
[1:21] I'm ready.

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Today's episode is all about love; the reality TV show Love is Blind; how the concept works, if it is successful and how it is good for learning English. Isi also has three phrases all about love from the medieval ages and from French nobility. Lastly, Samuel asks us a question about improving their English and we announce our NEW Wednesday afternoon conversation classes.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello welcome to Easy English episode 64? It is episode 64, just to clarify.

Isi:
[0:34] clarify. And I will again, cough around. People only know me with an ill voice. I saw it on our recent video about being on the island Sylt for a month.

Mitch:
[0:44] Yeah we've been away on a German island? There's an island in Germany? What? We made a video about it, you can watch it on YouTube. Yeah we spent four weeks, off-season on this island. It was very relaxing, but as there is not so much to do, because in the off-season, a lot of places are closed or closing early. To fill the time, we were watching some series and to cosy up in our airbnbs. We'd like to speak about one of them, which we really like. - Yep. - And one that gets a bad reputation, I think, because it fits into the category of reality TV. - And Nola just came in. - That was well synchronised, let's do it again, three two one reality three two one reality TV,
Unhelpful Advice

Mitch:
[1:52] Before we talk about the series Love is Blind, we actually have a voice message from a listener.

Isi:
[2:01] Okay.

Samuel:
[2:02] Good morning, Easy. I'm Samuel St Fort. I want to speak English.

Mitch:
[2:08] Ah, thanks for sending in your message, Samuel. They want to speak English.

Isi:
[2:13] Yeah, I think they want to speak English. So, yeah.

Mitch:
[2:17] So if you're also like Samuel listening to this podcast and wanting to improve your English and you've, maybe hit a wall and you're really struggling to take your English to that next level, then why don't you try learning and improving your English with us? There are many ways you can improve your English with us at Easy English. We offer material for our YouTube videos. For example, you can get worksheets for our videos, which takes from the vocabulary used in the episode, and we give you a little quiz that you have to complete. Or, if you listen to the podcast, and this is what you'd like to improve on, your listening skills, then you can get an interactive transcript for each and every podcast we record, which helps to translate the podcast in live-time as you're listening to it on your phone, or on your laptop. You can download a interactive translator tool, which allows you to click on each and every word we are saying and then it translates it in live-time, into your language of choice. Or if you're an advanced speaker, then you can improve your English speaking, pronunciation, your vocabulary by joining our conversation classes. Now these are group conversation classes that we hold on Zoom. We now have two, every week. We have one on Tuesday evenings at 18.15 in British time and on Wednesday lunchtimes at 12:00. So maybe you want to, in your lunch break, quickly jump onto a call and meet other members and meet myself, and Isi and try to improve your English speaking skills. And we have a last minute or maybe even second offer for you if you're listening to this podcast today.

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Why do Brits celebrate November 5th? What time should you arrive to a party? Should you go to the pub with your boss? All these questions... and more, will be answered in this episode's British culture quiz.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:22] Okay, so welcome to episode 63 of the Easy English Podcast.

Mitch:
[0:28] Today, our main topic will be testing not only Isi, but also myself, quite nervously, on a British culture quiz. But, before we go into the quiz, we have a really exciting announcement, that we've been waiting to announce for ages. We will be starting another additional, conversation call. - Pub call. - We have one already, which is on Tuesday evenings, GMT at 18:15. Our new date will be every Wednesday at 12pm GMT. So maybe you're someone who you're quite good at speaking English, or you think you are, but you don't really have a way to practice your conversational English, speaking and listening. And let's say you've got to a certain level and you've hit a wall, this is the place where you should come, to really get to that next level and level-up your English. We will meet every week, twice a week now, and we will just talk about regular topics that you'll be speaking about, when you come to England, when you're working for an English company, or working in England, when you're visiting the UK, because it's all well and good reading a book and understanding the grammar and vocabulary, but when, we British people speak, as Isi can probably testify. - Yeah. - We're using grammatical errors, we're speaking very quickly, we're lazy, we're sloppy.

Mitch:
[1:56] Sorry Brits. - And so, the Easy English call is the best way to really put yourself on the ground and improve your English and really feel comfortable and confident, when you're going to come to the UK, work in the UK, and be able to interact with native speakers.

Isi:
[2:13] And even if you don't come to the UK, but just want to get better with your English, if you live in another English-speaking country, move to another English-speaking country, or just really are interested in the English language, or need it for your job, or because you have friends, partners, from English-speaking countries, whatever your reason is, you might want to improve and level-up your English.

Mitch:
[2:36] So if you are interested in becoming confident and levelling up your English speaking and listening skills, then join our Conversation Membership at easyenglish.video/membership.

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After discussing the phrase 'mad as a hatter', Isi and Mitch discuss the British etiquette of interacting with strangers in private, in public and in pubs and restaurants.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode 62.

Isi:
[0:28] Hello, good morning.

Mitch:
[0:29] Good morning.

Isi:
[0:30] From Germany.

Mitch:
[0:31] From Germany. I'm living the German dream.

Isi:
[0:35] Mitch is just eating a pretzel with butter. Just had coffee and a pretzel, very German. We arrived, already over the weekend. It was the first thing in the supermarket that we got.

Mitch:
[0:46] What is the... this has now become a small topic, but how would you rank German supermarkets?

Isi:
[0:55] What does that mean?

Mitch:
[0:56] From top to bottom, which is considered the most premium, to the most scabby.

Isi:
[1:00] I don't even know all the supermarkets any more.

Mitch:
[1:04] In England?

Isi:
[1:05] I would say the best is, well, the best, the most expensive is, is it Marks and Spencers?

Mitch:
[1:14] Yep, I'd say so, Marks and Spencers.

Isi:
[1:16] You know that you eat, should our listeners hear you eating? Marks and Spencers and then...

Mitch:
[1:23] Morrison's.

Isi:
[1:24] Morrison's. Is that actually, even more premium?

Mitch:
[1:27] No, Morrison's is a more premium supermarket. M&S, which is actually a clothing store, has like, a small sort of, supermarket section.

Isi:
[1:38] Yeah, M&S. Then not Morrison's, next one. And Tesco's?

Mitch:
[1:45] I think Tesco's and Sainsbury's are kind of locked.

Isi:
[1:49] Sainsbury's and Co-op is also somewhere around them, I'd say. Or is Co-op actually better than Sainsbury's?

Mitch:
[1:55] Co-op is actually probably better than Sainsbury's and Tesco's.

Isi:
[1:57] Saino's, as we call it.

Mitch:
[1:59] Saino's.

Isi:
[2:00] And then probably ASDA, which is a discounter.

Mitch:
[2:05] Yeah.

Isi:
[2:05] And then the German ones.

Mitch:
[2:07] Then the German ones.

Isi:
[2:08] Lidl and Aldi. Where Lidl is better in England and Aldi is not... or?

Mitch:
[2:14] I'd say that Lidl could be above ASDA. ASDA also goes by the other name of ASBOs, which stands for Antisocial Behaviour Order.

Isi:
[2:23] Oh, God. I think ASDA has a lot more to offer, at least.

Mitch:
[2:27] It's usually massive, because it's owned by Walmart.

Isi:
[2:29] Yeah, and they have a lot of, if you like to cook from different cuisines, they have like World's Food Isles and all that. Lidl doesn't have that.

Mitch:
[2:37] Okay, so we're saying Marks & Spencer's M&S, Morrison's Co-op, Sainsbury's and Tesco's, then Asda, Lidl, Aldi. Okay, shall we move on to our actual program?

Isi:
[2:53] I would like to, yes, can I start?

Mitch:
[2:56] Please.

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Isi and Mitch discuss the final courses of a pub menu; unhealthy halloumi sticks, slimy onion rings, French/Belgian fries vs English/Dutch chips, jacket potatoes, Mary Rose sauce, sticky toffee pudding and... spotted dick?

Before all of this, let Mitch and Isi treat you to an uplifting, school assembly song...

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:23] Hiya, welcome to the Easy English Podcast episode 61.

Isi:
[0:28] Wow. Do we always want to say welcome?

Mitch:
[0:31] Well, until we reach 100, I always consider that people are still stumbling onto us.

Isi:
[0:37] God, and everyone now, 39 more episodes. I would like to know if there's a Monday morning song that you can sing for us? It's Monday morning, we have a coffee, our second actually, and I want you to sing a typical song, that you would sing to kids going to school like, yay! Monday morning!

Mitch:
[0:54] hat's exact... I wasn't thinking exactly that, but I was thinking... the first thing I thought was this one song; morning has broken... very sad. And then I thought what's actually more uplifting and upbeat? And I thought what are the songs we sang at school assembly? Did you have an assembly before school started

Isi:
[1:16] No, not every day, with special occasions, yes. I think I only did it in primary school, those assemblies. But do you sing a song, then? I don't think so, no. And your song was quite depressive I have to say.

Mitch:
[1:27] Yeah yeah, but we we didn't sing that song at school assembly, that's why I thought, what did we sing at school assembly? Because it was always a way to get the kids up and running, early in the morning, because I mean early in the morning, we started at nine. (That's holidays.) And so, the only songs can really remember us singing, are... before I get into the one I was thinking of, we had this bizarre one called '20th century highway man', which was an eco-song we'd sing. And it was like about a guy, who's like, working for a big business destroying the Amazon. (Okay.) And it's like; 20th century highway man... he's the 20th century something something man. And then the chorus goes; stand and deliver, he's heading for the Amazon River. He'll steal from the forest, he'll steal from the trees, He gets what he wants and he wants what he see. (Why?) I don't know Okay, but forget that It just came in my head.

Isi:
[2:25] That's what you sang. In the assembly room?

Mitch:
[2:27] Yeah, yeah. (What?!) 20th century highwayman. It's like a Bob Dylan song.

Isi:
[2:33] Wait... is that to educate children about colonialism?

Mitch:
[2:37] I think it's more about eco...

Isi:
[2:39] Not that Britain was in the Amazon.

Mitch:
[2:42] No, the empire never quite reached that part of the world.

Isi:
[2:46] Would have been better to have a song about...

Mitch:
[2:50] About what? Bringing slaves over?

Isi:
[2:52] No. Well, if you want to do the make... The next generation feel the guilt thing, which is good, I think. at least do it properly, with a region that you did colonise. Colonise?

Mitch:
[3:09] Colonise, yeah?

Isi:
[3:10] Colonise. But now... well, anyway.

Mitch:
[3:13] Anyway, you want to wake up the kids. So the song we actually sung, which I remember, and you probably also did it, because I think... it's almost a hymn, but it's not religious or anything. And it was; If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning, I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land. I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning, I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land... la la la la, la la la la, la la la la, second verse, la la la, If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning, (Ding ding ding ding.) I'd ring it in the evening, (Ding ding ding ding.) all over this land, I'd ring out a danger, I'd ring out a warning, I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters, all... and I'm just... I'm doing like a globe, I'm doing jazz-hands while sort of doing a. .. (Yeah, Mitch is dancing.) I'm doing a jazz-hands while sort of like drawing the outline of the world, with my hands. I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.

Isi:
[4:22] Okay, third one, come on.

Mitch:
[4:24] I don't know what that instrument is.

Isi:
[4:26] If I had a song.

Mitch:
[4:27] Oh, yeah?

Isi:
[4:28] I'd sing it in the morning, I'd sing it in the evening, all over this land, I don't know... how's that melody? I'd sing out danger.

Mitch:
[4:37] Danger, yeah. I'd sing it out of warning.

Isi:
[4:41] I'd sing out of... What? I'd song off out of warning.

Mitch:
[4:44] I'd song off out of warning. That's a tongue twister.

Isi:
[4:48] I'd sing out love between...

Mitch:
[4:50] Birds and my sisters, all... jazz-hands over this land.

Isi:
[4:54] Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Ah, well that is a morning song.

Mitch:
[5:07] Don't you feel awake now?

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This week, Mitch announces the 7-day free trial of Easy English's new earner Membership, before giving you his monthly recap; he discusses the phrase 'sports washing' as Saudi Arabia get the rights to host FIFA World Cup 2034, analyses Mark Zuckerberg new 'Meta' look, reviews the Netflix produced movie 'I Came By' and re-imagines beloved zoologist Sir David Attenborough as a killer in the new sub-genre of middle class man horror.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:24] Hi everybody, welcome to a new episode of the Easy English Podcast. For those of you who are listening, you can actually find this video on YouTube. And for those of you on YouTube, hello! This week I wanted to bring you a new episode of Mitch's Monthly Recap. And I'm going to go over through some of the things that have happened in January and maybe a bit of December. Because we've all gone a bit doolally with "where the hell am I at the moment?" So right now, I'm recording this from the French countryside, which seems like a good idea. It might start raining at some point. This seemed like a good idea to bring all of my stuff into the middle of nowhere behind this like, rustic barn.

Mitch:
[1:11] Before we get on to our monthly recap for the rest of the world events that interest me, We have just announced our new Learner Membership, which allows you to get a seven-day free trial of some of our membership perks. If you go to easyenglish.video/membership then you'll be able to get worksheets, vocabulary lists and transcripts for all of our YouTube episodes, for seven days on a free trial. You'll also get access into our Discord server, so you can introduce yourself and get to meet other members and myself and Isi. If you enjoy your perks after the seven free days, maybe you're thinking of upgrading to a Video Membership, Podcast Membership, or the Conversation Membership to improve your speaking and listening skills. Maybe this is part of your new year's resolution, to improve your English. If so , then choose us and we'll help you along your way

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Mitch and Isi talk about their favourite pub food, how pubs "fancify" their ingredients, and how everything is basically fish & chips.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:24] Hiya!

Isi:
[0:24] How are you this morning? Let's start with that.

Mitch:
[0:27] Me or the listeners?

Isi:
[0:29] Well, I don't think they will answer now.

Mitch:
[0:32] I thought you were being like an agony aunt. Do you have agony aunts in Germany? Where you can write in your problems and then someone reads them out. Hello, how are you all? Today we have a letter from Marjorie. She says that the pigeons are banging on her window.

Isi:
[0:46] I would love a podcast like that. I could actually do that. I would happily write with people. (It could be a topic.) Yeah, I mean, Unhelpful Advice is basically that.

Mitch:
[0:57] It is actually, yeah. That's a good reminder. We have a topic called Unhelpful Advice and we haven't advertised it a lot recently. If you have a question for us about learning English, or just a random question you'd like us to answer, I'm still wanting to name someone's pet.

Isi:
[1:12] People love to do that on their own, you know.

Mitch:
[1:14] Yeah, but I'm good at it.

Isi:
[1:16] Okay.

Mitch:
[1:18] You'd like to help people with moral problems, maybe. but we'd also (Relationship advice.) relationship advice. we can tell you (Friendship advice.) friendship advice. We could tell you what house... what house? What colour to paint your bedroom. (Interior stuff.) interior design we like a bit of that.

Isi:
[1:35] If you have like, two/three big invitations for the weekend, we tell you where to go.

Mitch:
[1:39] Oh that's that's a good one.

Isi:
[1:41] We tell you what... what you can cook tonight.

Mitch:
[1:42] We can tell you... (your new favourite meal.) Yeah and that's a good segue, because today, our topic is speaking about pub grub.

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Happy New Year from Easy English! As a way to celebrate, Mitch quizzes Isi (...with the help of Buzzfeed) to find her New Year's resolution, play along with the link in the show notes. Later, Raz has a question about improving his speaking skills in our section of Unhelpful Advice.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Hello. I'm back.

Mitch:
[0:28] Full of energy.

Isi:
[0:29] I'm back. It's a new year. I'm back.

Mitch:
[0:32] Happy New Year!

Isi:
[0:33] Happy New Year! I'm back.

Mitch:
[0:37] You say that like you're surprised.

Isi:
[0:39] I'm back. Yeah, I haven't been in the podcast for. .. (Two episodes. ) I mean, I did the Aftershow. Did anyone hear it? Dear members, did you hear the Aftershow? I did the full Aftershow. I hope people listened to that. And did, also, that I did also do the Christmas icebreakers, in my isolated COVID room. Yeah, I had COVID, it took a long time it's still not completely gone. (But now?) Do you still hear my nose? And my... what do you mean now a new year? COVID doesn't care about years change.

Mitch:
[1:16] Yeah, exactly. Everyone's like, new year, new me.

Isi:
[1:19] New me... well, new me, at least, feels a bit better.

Mitch:
[1:22] A bit more nasally.

Isi:
[1:23] A bit more nasally. I think we're now coming. Yeah, it's now four weeks. Ah.

Mitch:
[1:30] Okay.

Isi:
[1:30] That was longer than expected, but, I'm on the mend.

Mitch:
[1:34] On the mend.

Isi:
[1:35] That's a good...

Mitch:
[1:36] I'm on the mend. Yeah, you mend the car. You mend your broken rollerblades that you broke, directly after you got it as a Christmas present from your grandmother.

Isi:
[1:43] And my broken body.

Mitch:
[1:45] And you've mended your broken body.

Isi:
[1:48] Yeah.

Mitch:
[1:48] To cheer you up, and to make you feel a bit better and to welcome you into the new year we have a new year's, themed, episode. And plus, we have some messages from fellow listeners, they could be pranks, they could be butt-calls, but we will play them.

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Mitch revives his version of the 12 Days of Christmas, before answering 25 icebreaker questions, all around Christmas! Find out his favourite Christmas film, candy, memory, present, beverage, flavour and more...

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] Before we start this week's episode of Easy English, I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and rehash an old song I wrote. On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Bluetooth earphones, Ikea voucher, an ill-fitted t-shirt, tenner in a card, second-hand bike, multi-pack of condoms, stationery set, Sports Direct socks, Bottle of Baileys, six pack of Carling, two spa days And a Blu-Ray of Die Hard II.

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This week, Mitch talks about loosing a tooth & more car troubles. In Topic of the Week, Mitch talks about the UK's fear of bad weather and Trump's competitive handshake with Macron... with added Trump impression. In Mitch's Movie Club he reviews the ridiculous new Michael Bay movie and generic soundtrack and gives his take on the new Alien movie.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today we're flying solo, again. Isi is ill. Yeah, she doesn't feel so good, but the worst thing is her voice. It sounds like she's suddenly decided to start smoking 50 cigarettes a day. So I'm gonna fly solo. Yeah, we've both actually been in the wars, a little bit. Which isn't literal, don't worry. But it just means you've been sort of, fighting disease, I guess that's what it means, you versus germs. I haven't had a disease or anything, I actually had my tooth pulled out. When was that? Almost a week ago, I actually was supposed to have my tooth pulled on Monday, last Monday, we were driving to the dentist, and then, the car broke down, in the middle of the road, on the... in the third lane. Like, not just in the middle of the road, but in the middle of the lane, in the middle of the road. We were just sort of, stranded in the middle, calling our insurance to come pick us up, because we didn't really know what to do. As we were calling our insurance, the police turned up, at the side of the road and were like; "hey, you can't be here".

Mitch:
[1:49] And I said; "yeah, no sh*t. Help us!" And so they pushed us to the side of the road and I missed my appointment. I luckily, had an appointment on Tuesday and my tooth was pulled. Oh, is there anything worse than five people staring into your mouth. Someone reaching into your mouth and you have no idea what they're doing, you can only sort of, hear horrific noises. My appointment was late in the day, so... and they were kind of, I think, getting in the mood for going... going out. I don't know, maybe not, do dentists always play music? I don't know. Anyway, if you thought it couldn't be more horrific than having people reaching inside your mouth with tools you would use on your car, which is kind of ironic, just to make matters even worse, whilst he was pulling my tooth out, he was listening to Robbie Williams and whistling to it, at the same time.

Mitch:
[2:58] It was the song Angels. "And through it all, she offers me protection..." and at the same time, he was... I don't know, there was all kinds of noises happening inside my mouth and I had my eyes closed, because I just didn't want to see what instruments were going in, but I could just hear. And sometimes that's worse, because you're thinking what what kind of tool makes that noise!? And every so often you'd hear this like, crack... I'd hear this cracking noise, whilst whistling to angels, he'd say; "don't be concerned". "Don't be concerned".

Mitch:
[3:41] "Don't be concerned". But you know, we keep calm, we carry on, that's the motto of this story. I'm very British. Let's talk about things that have happened over the past month as a Topic of the Week.

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This week, with Christmas on the horizon, Mitch and Isi discuss gifts. They talk about the joy of giving gifts, Isi's thoughtful gifing vs Mitch's practical gifting. Mitch reveals the worst gift that Isi ever got him and are surprise gifts better than expected gifts for Isi? Even if it's a splintery, handmade spoon?

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Show Notes

*Gift our membership perks for Christmas this year: Choose a membership tier to gift

Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello. Oh God. Hi.

Mitch:
[0:28] All of our podcasts always begin with you like hello oh god.

Isi:
[0:31] Oh god.

Mitch:
[0:32] My voice is gone. Illness update.

Isi:
[0:36] I'm back.

Mitch:
[0:38] I'm back. Oh yeah!

Isi:
[0:39] From the ill bed

Mitch:
[0:41] Did you hear the last podcast we... I recorded?

Isi:
[0:44] I didn't actually. Oh my god people will hate medidn't record uh didn't listen to it yet, no. But I want to listen to what you talked about. Oh god, yeah I didn't. I didn't have the headspace in my two-week illness to listen to it.

Mitch:
[0:58] Some could say I took one for the team. Some could say I took advantage of the fact you weren't here.

Isi:
[1:04] eah I'm back, had a nasty virus. Still am a bit... my voice is still not coming yeah it's kind of back now. Still have a bit of a, in the back.

Mitch:
[1:18] We're back in our usual position.

Isi:
[1:19] And it's not the morning, it's Sunday evening. (It is.) It is, I think the first time that we are having a little drinky. (We are, yeah.) With our podcast, since I don't know a year? We always did a morning podcast.

Mitch:
[1:37] And we're joined by a guest; Bert.

Isi:
[1:40] Yeah storm Bert.

Mitch:
[1:43] Storm Bert in the background just whistling away.

Isi:
[1:45] So we're two weeks, just home, two weekends two weeks and two weekends , just home, doing nothing. And now I was like, the weekend, I'm back.

Mitch:
[1:56] The last weekend before we go to visit our parents for Christmas.

Isi:
[2:01] Back to the mainland of Europe. So I was like, we do everything, we go to all the places, all the pubs, we meet friends.

Mitch:
[2:09] And what did we do?

Isi:
[2:10] We did not... well we did nearly nothing, because um, storm Bert came and... it's actually really really stormy and people... well, it was kind of like a weather warning to not leave too much and we obviously went for walks, because we got Nola, and it did feel not so good to do long drives, or go anywhere with a bus or so, because it's really stormy.

Mitch:
[2:38] Yeah, it's like the Michael Jackson 'Earth Song' music video out there.

Isi:
[2:41] So here we are, Sunday night episode, because tomorrow, actually, we will do an early, end of the workday. Because storm Bert will disappear tonight, they say. And then we will do, tomorrow afternoon, our Sunday. So hopefully a lot of Christmas deco, a nice Christmassy, pre-Christmassy dinner.

Mitch:
[3:03] We're in that early Christmas spirit, because, yeah, why the hell not?

Isi:
[3:09] Christmas is already full-on.

Mitch:
[3:10] And as I look at you, you are sort of engulfed in Christmas presents. They're on the table where we usually put the microphone. It's just a stash, a stack.

Isi:
[3:23] It's a lot of gifts, yeah. We have every gift we wanted for our families. We are absolutely ready for Christmas. And that's our topic today, gifts and gifting.

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Whilst Isi is recovering from he illness, Mitch takes advantage to bring you his guide to horror films. This podcast is for both the horror lovers and horror haters, as Mitch poders what makes a great horror film. He lets you in on his favourite genre, how Arnold Schwarzenegger paved the way for his horror fascination and why a wardrobe is his Halloween costume of choice. He also gives his recommendations for people who love the things that go bump in the night, but also for people who prefer to sleep peacefully.

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Intro

Mitch:
[0:00] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode number, tap, tap, tap, computing 54.

Mitch:
[0:12] I'm on my own. I've gone solo. I'm Sonny without Cher. I'm Jay-Z without Beyonce. I'm Will Smith without Jada, Barak without Michelle, etc, etc.

Mitch:
[0:30] Isi's ill, so she's spluttering in the background whilst I record the first ever Easy English solo podcast. But not to make it a negative, turn that frown upside down today. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that Isi's not with us to give you a podcast about one of my favourite hobbies. As a couple, it's nice to have shared hobbies, but it's also nice to have your own individual things and one of my individual things, which understandably, Isi doesn't want to partake in, is watching horror movies. I consider myself a horror movie aficionado. I'd like to think. There are some caveats to that, but today, I thought, I would try to make an inclusive podcast about horror movies, why you should be excited about horror movies, good horror movies to watch, horror movies to watch if you hate horror movies, if you're scared of horror movies. Okay, let's give it a go.

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In a regular segment of Unhelpful Advice, Isi and Mitch give their unqualified opinion on rapping in English. They later talk about their presumptions and assumptions of the French people, culture and lifestyle after spending a few weeks in the south-west of France.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hiya!

Isi:
[0:23] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:24] Hello. Welcome to episode number...

Isi:
[0:27] 53.

Mitch:
[0:28] 53, well done.

Isi:
[0:30] Thank you.

Mitch:
[0:31] Of the Easy English Podcast. We are back in Brighton. Were we ever saying where we were before? When we made our Relationship Goals Podcast last time?

Isi:
[0:45] I'm not sure. Maybe we did. Maybe only in the Aftershow for the members. because our podcast always goes on a little bit for our members. If you want to join that and also listen to that and get a lot of other perks go to easyenglish.video/membership and join us that would be great but I think yeah we have only talked about it in the Aftershow so we have been to France.

Mitch:
[1:11] Yeah, and we thought today we could make an episode about our expectations and then the realities of France, from things we've heard, things we've kind of, presumed, and if we were right and wrong with our presumptions.

Isi:
[1:28] Okay, I have two things to say first. I say France and you say France.

Mitch:
[1:34] Oh, yeah.

Isi:
[1:34] What is right?

Mitch:
[1:36] You are doing a southern British English pronunciation of France.

Isi:
[1:44] France.

Mitch:
[1:45] Which sounds nice though.

Isi:
[1:46] It's more sophisticated.

Mitch:
[1:47] It does sound a lot smoother and a lot more, I don't know. It has a joie de vivre about it.

Isi:
[1:55] D'accord. God. And you say France, which is Northern English.

Mitch:
[2:02] France. And there's also, funnily enough, not funnily enough, by coincidence how American.

Isi:
[2:08] Northern British English, sorry.

Mitch:
[2:09] Yeah.

Isi:
[2:10] I said that.

Mitch:
[2:10] It's also how I think American English people would say it; France.

Isi:
[2:14] France.

Mitch:
[2:15] Not France.

Isi:
[2:16] France. And the second thing I wanted to say is it hasn't been our first time in in France we both have been... in the past years we've been, five times I think. Before that I have been a few times maybe but you have been a lot of times for holidays right?

Mitch:
[2:37] I've been very often but mostly was a holiday and was camping and it was not really feeling like you're settled into French life because those camping places are a bit, a culture mix and they're kind of, I don't think they represent French life, but this time we were in French towns, French villages.

Isi:
[2:58] And yeah, your parents live there, we have to say.

Mitch:
[3:00] And my parents are now living there.

Isi:
[3:02] It's more integrating in French lifestyle.

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Mitch and Isi discuss the secret to their successful relationship in a question Mitch left behind in their 150,000 subscriber special on YouTube. As a way to say thank you for your support you can get the learning material for that episode FREE by becoming a 'Free Member' of their membership with the link here - https://bit.ly/FreeEasyEnglishMembership

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:24] Hiya. Good start.

Isi:
[0:27] Yeah. Hello. Hello. I just make my voice a bit higher.

Mitch:
[0:32] You had a frog in your throat.

Isi:
[0:34] Well, it's early in the morning. We are in south-west France, but in the middle of the countryside, I look on a foggy field. Does that sound romantic?

Mitch:
[0:44] There are literal frogs

Isi:
[0:46] Literal frogs and we have a coffee podcast. So my voice was still a bit trying to get into the day.

Mitch:
[0:54] It's a regular theme in our podcast, your voice being dodgy.

Isi:
[0:58] Oh man, that was very German. Oh dear. Oh dear.

Mitch:
[1:02] Oh dear. So before we get started with our Topic of the Week, which is a special members question topic, because we had a 150,000 subscriber special video on YouTube where we answered your questions, which you'll be able to watch if you check out our YouTube channel. Unfortunately, because I had a massive mind fart, I forgot to check the Instagram post for questions. And there was one question left over that we didn't answer from one of our dearest, longest standing members. So we will dedicate this episode to answering his question.

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Easy English just hit 150,000 subscribers on YouTube! To say thank you we're hosting a Q&A (question and answer) for our next video. If you have any questions for them, write to them at mitch@easyenglish.video or on any of their socials.

Join Isi and Mitch for a chat about all things breakfast! Bread rolls, DIY ramen, goldfish food, fruits and nuts, yoghurts, fry-ups, English breakfasts, bloody Marys and more...

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello welcome to the Easy English Podcast episode 51. We made it.

Isi:
[0:31] We made it you sounded very much like it's an official and annoying thing.

Mitch:
[0:36] Yeah 50 doesn't really mean much to most people to be honest.

Isi:
[0:39] But to us it does.

Mitch:
[0:40] Yeah it does it does and if you uh haven't listened then you don't need to listen you can watch episode 50 which we recorded on YouTube. so go give that a go and we also so offered, as a milestone the podcast perks to all Video Members and more for episode 50 so go get that if you are a Video Member or Podcast Member or Conversation Member or Donor Member um we actually before we get into this week's topic we hit another milestone, right Isi?

Isi:
[1:11] Yes, we did, it also has a 50 in it.

Mitch:
[1:13] We love the number 50.

Isi:
[1:16] We got 150... 150... 150,000 subscribers on YouTube, wow.

Mitch:
[1:24] That's crazy, when you think of the... (It's a crazy amount of people.) as individual people what an amazing, amazing community. 150,000 people are all helping to support us

Isi:
[1:35] It's not... you cannot really grasp it, the number. Thank you so much.

Mitch:
[1:39] Yeah there's half the city of Brighton.

Isi:
[1:42] Maybe it is half the city of Brighton.

Mitch:
[1:45] Plus my mum and your mum.

Isi:
[1:50] It's really nice, thank you so much.

Mitch:
[1:51] Yeah if you are a subscriber then thank you and if you're not then go subscribe and help us to reach 200,000. My god. (Yes, yes, yes.) So, as a way to say thank you we'd like to do two things the first is we are going to bring out an episode, a video episode on YouTube which will be out uh next week and we would like to host a Q&A for you guys so if you have a question about learning English or a question about us and want to ask it if you have something that you've been pondering for a long time anything to do with our membership to do with our YouTube channel to do with myself and Isi to do with Nola, ask us anything.

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We did it!
50 episodes of the Easy English Podcast! Watch us react to some (in)famous British memes.
To celebrate, we recorded our first video episode that you can watch on our YouTube channel. We are also offering the Podcast Membership to ALL Video Members. To upgrade your membership, or to become a member, go to www.easyenglish.video/membership

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] Welcome to the big day. Easy English Podcast episode 50. High-five.

Isi:
[0:08] Ow.

Mitch:
[0:10] Okay, so for those of you who are actually listening, you should head over to YouTube because this episode is a special episode of it being our 50th podcast episode and we're filming it live. Not live, but it feels live right now. Isi's currently making... A mess, possibly. Woo! Okay, so we're currently making Aperol Spritz to celebrate, or Isi's making it. That's not enough.

Isi:
[0:44] Calm down. Oh, I did it also the wrong way around.

Mitch:
[0:51] Disaster. Okay, so as I said, whilst Isi makes Aperol Spritz, this episode as well as being on our podcast is also... the video is on YouTube so go and watch it. If you become an Easy English member by going to easyenglish.video/membership you can, by becoming a video member for this episode get all the perks of the Podcast Membership which will be the Interactive Transcript and Aftershow of this episode. So yeah, if you become a Video Member, then you'll be able to get the podcast perks for this episode which will be the Interactive Transcript, which will be translating this live time on your laptop, on your mobile phone, on the go, or at home. You'll also be able to get The Aftershow, which is the bit that happens after this public episode, which will probably include more drinking of nondescript alcoholic beverages. So today...

Isi:
[1:43] They beeped for us to start.

Mitch:
[1:45] Wow. Beep. Let's go.

Isi:
[1:46] No, first we have to cheer on 50 episodes of us talking...

Mitch:
[1:54] Rubbish.

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To Mitch's surprise, it actually happened... Oasis are back! The duo discuss the news and overwhelming demand for Oasis tickets. They discuss the cultural relevance of their music; being the soundtrack to nineties, naughties, politics, football, cultural events and unfortunately, tragedy. Join them for a chat about a band that defined a generation.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:00] It's a party! Mitch, you now have to give me that scream that never came.

Mitch:
[0:05] Yeah! Oasis are back! Sorry, Nola.
Intro

Mitch:
[0:28] he unthinkable thing happened which I think one time I said it will never happen.

Isi:
[0:33] I know in the years together how often you talked about this the unimaginable happened

Mitch:
[0:40] The unimaginable happened. My favourite band ever Oasis decided to make a reunion.

Isi:
[0:50] You are freaking happy and I'm freaking happy for you I'm also happy I mean it's not that I'm not also an Oasis fan in a way I wouldn't say I'm a fan fan like you are but I'm a fan of the music for sure I love their music a lot I wanted to see them years ago before they broke up, I had tickets.

Mitch:
[1:10] 11 dates and if you divide that by how many people are excited it's it's going to be difficult to get tickets.

Isi:
[1:19] Yeah people will come from other countries to the UK, 100%. I mean, we know one, Manuel from Easy German is also a huge fan. He will for sure try to, he will go to the UK because it's the only European date. So that's what they said, which I can't believe really. I see them already playing in France, Germany or wherever.

Mitch:
[1:36] Yeah, but they've not announced that. So at the moment on Saturday, they've only got 11 gigs available. I'm happy, but they are the kind of band where you kind of want to get insurance on your ticket.

Isi:
[1:50] Well you get your money back if they have a big fight over five pints and...

Mitch:
[1:55] I hope so how did it work for the people who

Isi:
[1:58] Just imagine they would get all those tickets tickets now to make uh make some more money and then they say it's off.

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This week Isi deciphers the typical stereotypes about Brits and reveals whether or not they are true. They also answer YOUR questions in another section of Unhelpful Advice

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] Are you ready?

Isi:
[0:00] I'm ready.

Mitch:
[0:01] Wonderful.

INTRO

Mitch:
[0:22] Welcome to episode 48 of the Easy English Podcast. We're creeping into the 50 zone.

Isi:
[0:30] What do you have for us today, Mitch?

Mitch:
[0:32] Okay, so in the past, you've read out some articles or found articles to question me about my UK culture and my dialect. So now I thought I would point the finger back at you. As someone who has spent a lot of time in Britain, I thought that I would find an article about typical stereotypes, that foreigners have about British people and British culture, and ask you for your opinion now, are these stereotypes fact or fiction?

TOPIC OF THE WEEK

Isi:
[1:18] Fact or fiction?

Mitch:
[1:19] Firstly, I read you out the stereotype and you stamp it with a metaphorical fiction or fact.

Isi:
[1:28] Do I have to do? Or do you do that later editing?

Mitch:
[1:33] Oh, yeah. Oh.

Isi:
[1:36] Fiction. Fact. Fiction. Fact.

Mitch:
[1:41] Stereotype number one. Brits love talking about the weather.

Isi:
[1:49] Fact.

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After episode 45 where we discussed good animals with bad PR, we discussed the animals with good PR; how dolphins are sea-bullies, how owls are stupid and we body-shame hippos.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:24] We're in summer mood.

Mitch:
[0:25] I've shorts on at nine o'clock. And we're also drinking coffee. Forgive us if we're a bit tired and say some odd stuff.

Isi:
[0:32] You do sound tired. More than me, I would say.

Mitch:
[0:35] My voice is very, very low.

Isi:
[0:38] You're very tired.

Mitch:
[0:39] Yeah.

Isi:
[0:40] Anyways, Topic of the Week.

Unknown:
[0:43] TOPIC OF THE WEEK

Mitch:
[0:49] Okay so um if you listened to not last week last time not the last podcast but the podcast before that... well I'm struggling.

Isi:
[1:00] What is with you?

Mitch:
[1:02] I had a margarita, I had...

Isi:
[1:05] Wait, you are hung over?

Mitch:
[1:06] Aperol Spritz. (Are you hung over?) Beer and red wine. (Are you hung over?) Yes.

Isi:
[1:12] I don't feel hung over at all.

Mitch:
[1:13] Not in a bad way quite it feels quite good.

Isi:
[1:15] No, but your voice really is hung over. And I mean maybe mine too but you know you hear yourself really differently um do I sound tired or hangover? I feel top-fit the weather is giving me a boost.

Mitch:
[1:29] Alright, show-off.

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Mitch and Isi have some exciting news, they will be hosting their first ever meet-up in Brighton this August 9th with Easy German! Get your FREE tickets at - https://www.easygerman.org/meetups They also do a recap of the most recent UK news and then dissect and review each month of the year.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Welcome to episode number... loading, loading...

Isi:
[0:29] You don't know.

Mitch:
[0:31] 46.

Isi:
[0:33] We're 50 soon.

Mitch:
[0:35] We'll be 50 soon.

Isi:
[0:36] That's good.

Mitch:
[0:38] What should we do for our 50th?

Isi:
[0:39] I don't know.

Mitch:
[0:41] Maybe listeners have an idea of something we can do that's more special for our 50th episode. Maybe we get a guest?

Isi:
[0:49] When is our 50th? Is that in...

Mitch:
[0:51] End of September.

Isi:
[0:53] Can we not record it in Berlin with some special guests?

Mitch:
[0:57] True, we'll be in Berlin.

Isi:
[0:58] In the big Easy German podcast studio.

Mitch:
[1:01] Oh, fancy sound and a fancy guest. Who could we get? Maybe people who are listening want to vote. Who should we try to get? Manuel, Cari or Janusz?

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Today, Isi and Mitch explore the animal kingdom in the first of two episodes; discussing animals with bad PR (public relations). We talk about the movies and other media that has influenced our opinions on some of the most fascinating and often friendly animals.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] Okay, one, two.

Isi:
[0:01] One, two.

Mitch:
[0:02] Buckle my shoe.

Isi:
[0:03] Three, four.

Mitch:
[0:04] Knock at the door.

Isi:
[0:05] Five, six.

Mitch:
[0:07] Pick up sticks.

Isi:
[0:09] Seven, eight. Are you just Googling what rhymes on eight?

Mitch:
[0:14] No, but there's like a song.

Isi:
[0:16] Don't be late.

Mitch:
[0:17] It might be.

Isi:
[0:18] Nine, ten.

Mitch:
[0:19] Wait, wait, wait. Again.

Isi:
[0:23] One, two.

Mitch:
[0:23] Buckle my shoe.

Isi:
[0:25] Three, four.

Mitch:
[0:26] Shut the door.

Isi:
[0:27] Five, six.

Mitch:
[0:28] Pick up sticks.

Isi:
[0:29] Seven, eight.

Mitch:
[0:30] Lay them straight.

Isi:
[0:32] Nine, ten.

Mitch:
[0:33] Begin again.

Isi:
[0:34] Okay, let's begin again.

Unknown:
[0:35] INTRO

Isi:
[0:54] Mitch what's our do we only do a mega topic of the week because i love it and we have no time for anything else yeah.

Mitch:
[1:01] I don't know how we.

Isi:
[1:02] I know why why we watched something where a cockroach appeared and we discussed why the cockroaches actually have such a bad reputation because they don't do anything really they don't bite you they don't sting you they don't do anything bad to you just living in they just prefer dirty places I think that's why people just eat bin-juice don't they? I don't even know what they eat, but (Bin-juice.) What do you think?

Mitch:
[1:30] Yeah, we came up with an idea to do an episode about good and bad animal PR. Okay, should we get started?

Isi:
[1:42] Yeah.

Mitch:
[1:43] Wait, first of all, we haven't said it, but welcome to the Easy English Podcast. (10 minutes later.) I um have written down some of my own feelings towards animals in the animal kingdom that have bad and good PR. Now just in case you don't know PR do you know what PR stands for? (Public relations.) So in the theory we're sort of making out like each of these animals has a media team which they kind of do for me it's mainly Disney movies that's gonna be the reason why I've given them good or bad PR. So I'm just gonna read out some to you do you want to start with bad PR or good PR? Bad PR would be animals which we perceive to be bad from media, whatever but actually really good

Isi:
[2:31] All animals are good there's no animal that has bad PR that is not good.

Mitch:
[2:35] I have I have a good one that I would like for you to tell me that has bad PR and is a bad animal.

Isi:
[2:41] There is no bad animals.

Mitch:
[2:42] Are you sure?

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This week, Mitch and Isi go discuss boob-tubes and milk-juice; the strange slang of Boomers. They also share stories from the progressing stages of EURO 2024... is football coming home?

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello.

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:25] Welcome to episode 44 of the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:31] You sound like a wizard.

Mitch:
[0:33] A wizard? You're a wizard, Harry. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Harry Potter. Oh, Harry Potter. Anyway, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Isi, how are you?

Isi:
[0:48] Very well, thank you. And you?

Mitch:
[0:51] Not bad, thank you. We're both lying, I think, doing the very British thing.

Isi:
[0:56] Why? I'm good. Why are you not good?

Mitch:
[0:58] Small talk. I have hay fever incoming. I can feel it.

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With a surprise UK general election on the horizon, Isi and Mitch want to bring you a brief overview of the political goings-on in the UK; how the election works, the past 14 years of conservative rule and what the two main parties have promised the people of the UK for the next four years. afterwards, they answer YOUR questions in their regular segment of Unhelpful Advise where they answer a question from Easy German host, Manuel.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] So, my friends, let's get going with my best German accent.

Mitch:
[0:28] See if you can keep up that level of energy the whole way through.

Isi:
[0:31] Why? You have s*t topics or what?

Mitch:
[0:34] Um, no. I actually thought Easy English could do this week. It's Guide to the UK General Election.

Isi:
[0:46] Okay, guide us.

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This week, to everyone's surprise, including Isi, the duo talk about sports. They recap last weekend's events including back-to-back promotions for Isi's hometown, Münster, the rise of glory hunting Man City fans from Brighton. They details the drama of the Tyson Fury, Olexander Usyk fight in Saudi Arabia and talk about the huge influence Jürgen Klopp had on British culture as he ended his tenure as Liverpool FC manager this weekend after 9 years in charge.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Irish travelers dialect - Bartley Gorman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvybZLKH7Zk&t=88s

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Hello.

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:25] Uh-oh. Welcome to episode 42 of the Easy English Podcast. Isi, are you okay?

Isi:
[0:32] Yes, I am okay. Oh, God.

Mitch:
[0:34] Trying not to cough and splutter?

Isi:
[0:37] Again, I have a bad voice.

Mitch:
[0:39] It's very bluesy.

Isi:
[0:41] Yeah, I could be a good singer now.

Mitch:
[0:43] Da-da-da-da-da-da.

Isi:
[0:45] Na-na-na-na-na-na.

Mitch:
[0:47] No, you're supposed to say, woke up this morning.

Isi:
[0:51] Woke up this morning. That doesn't work.

Mitch:
[0:57] Too tired and ill to even contemplate those lyrics.

Isi:
[1:00] Oh yeah.

Mitch:
[1:02] Okay, so today we're gonna do an episode which Isi never thought she'd ever do probably. But I'd always dreamed of doing, we're gonna talk about sports.

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Mitch and Isi recap their past weeks as Easy English had their first ever meetup, Mitch got nervous, Isi brought the whole family and Nola became the selfie-queen. They then discuss last weekends Eurovision results as Switzerland cleaned up, the UK felt zero (points) love and Germany finally did quite well. They then also describe their excitement at seeing the Northern Lights for the first time, but at the seaside in Brighton... WTF!?

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Okay, welcome to episode 41 of the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:28] Do you have a sweet in your mouth during a podcast? That's not cool.

Mitch:
[0:33] No.

Isi:
[0:35] People will hate this. Okay, he puts it out. Don't worry. Now it's on your laptop.

Mitch:
[0:42] Save it for later. We're back in Britain.

Isi:
[0:46] We're back in Britain.

Mitch:
[0:47] How are you all? yet again more grinding of building materials .

Isi:
[0:53] Yeah, do you remember when we told you our building work is coming to an end our building work started again.

Mitch:
[0:58] They've started again from day one they do it all over again.

Isi:
[1:03] Wait, we already said they started again didn't we and now they started again again.

Mitch:
[1:06] Again again they're working backwards. They're gonna take it back to how it was and then do it all over again but a bit better.

Isi:
[1:12] There's drilling in the background now yay.

Mitch:
[1:14] Um today we have three topics for you. Let's do topic number one.

Isi:
[1:21] Topic number one.

Mitch:
[1:22] Easy English Updates.

Unknown:
[1:28] Easy English Updates.

Mitch:
[1:30] When was it? Last week? Yeah, last week.

Isi:
[1:34] Yeah, it was, it's only a week ago. Well, a week and two days. (We had) our first ever Easy English meetup together with Easy German so we did an Easy German and Easy English meetup to meet viewers listeners maybe some some people of you that are listening now. (Oh yeah, can you write if you were there.) Yeah write us a message. (It was in Münster so it was more German-based,obviously.) In my home-town and we met for like three hours i think it's in the end it was much longer than three hours.

Mitch:
[2:12] cool venue right called Gasolin. An old gas station or petrol station sorry.

Isi:
[2:17] A bar that I've known for many many years in my life and we met there it was much fun um... (I was nervous.) yeah?

Mitch:
[2:28] Yeah, I didn't want to tell you because I don't want to give empathy nerves. I had to drink maybe two beers to feel a bit more like I drank Radler which is like a shandy in English. (Yeah.) Which is a mixture of lemonade and beer and the sugar just made me feel more nervous.

Isi:
[2:46] Oh yeah it's a bit nerve-wracking isn't it because we are just always behind our microphones behind the camera or in front of the camera but on our own doing our stuff.

Mitch:
[2:57] Yeah, we're kind of faceless in a way.

Isi:
[2:59] Yeah, and it's really nice to get direct feedback. But we are lacking this really in like our...job. I know you you give sometimes comments on YouTube or here on the podcast or as a member on Patreon. But it would be great to actually have more of a feedback even so actually now I can directly tell you it would be great if you on your podcast app where you're listening um give us a feedback um on most apps you can give rating or even a comment with it um like on Spotify for example you can give a rating and you can also ask questions or give us comments on specific episodes and we would be really really happy to get that because you know when you're doing something and you don't really know what people think of it so it does help us a lot if you give us a feedback so if you could now now now quickly quickly it takes a second go on I mean you are on the app now but see on the app that you can um whatever app you're using, um that you can review and rate our podcast that would really mean a lot a lot thank you very much so now going on with the meetup. Mitch in the meantime had his sweet again in his mouth and again out of it you're like a kid. But it was it was much um it was much fun to meet people. (Yeah, it was. Everyone was so nice.) Yeah everyone was so nice and we had a lot of fun the weather was in the end really good it was not too hot not too cold sun was shining we could sit outside as well it's a good mix wasn't it we had an outside terrace an indoor room that was really cool.

Mitch:
[4:37] Yeah, there were there are photos from it as well on uh both our Instagram and Easy German's Instagram if you want to see what a meetup looks like because I would be inclined to do it again.

Isi:
[4:46] Yeah.

Mitch:
[4:47] Was quite... was quite nice is the weird thing is is people were there for Easy German mainly. And the thing I felt nervous about was I didn't know who was there for us.

Isi:
[4:58] Yeah we didn't ask that in the registry process So we didn't really know I think a lot of people know us from both because we both I mean I obviously I'm part of the Easy German team as well um but we also both together produce episodes for Easy German sometimes so even Mitch is in the videos of Easy German so I guess people came maybe for both as well.

Mitch:
[5:21] Yeah, you should go and watch them because we we sometimes make the videos for the Slow Easy German.

Isi:
[5:26] Or Super Easy German as well yeah.

Mitch:
[5:29] Oh, Super Easy German, sorry. Not Slow, Easy German.

Isi:
[5:31] Hasn't been now for a longer time. I think autumn, last autumn was our last episode. But the script for the next one is ready. So also there. But anyway, you might not learn German, but people actually maybe knew us from Both. Did you just put the sweet back in your mouth? Can you not just leave it outside?

Mitch:
[5:50] It's made like a weird stain on my laptop. To be honest, actually, people... What was quite nice is Nola was our buffer and people actually... were more interested in meeting Nola from my point of view to be honest. I think Nola had multiple selfies taken with her.

Isi:
[6:06] For her it was actually quite fun as well wasn't it? It was not too loud she could chill outside we had also my dad, I mean both my parents were there um my mum also is part of the Easy German team.

Mitch:
[6:22] It was a real family event.

Isi:
[6:23] My dad came well he is also in some videos of Easy German. So we are basically all part of it.

Mitch:
[6:30] We've all been dragged in.

Isi:
[6:31] My dad's major role at the meetup was dog sitting. He just walked around with Nola.

Mitch:
[6:36] The dog handler. (Yeah.) It was really nice. And actually, I find these things often quite awkward because I hate icebreakers and I hate organised fun. But that people were there for one purpose and were discussing their level, because I'm also learning German. It was quite nice to get inspiration and also find out what people are looking for. I was surprised. A lot of the Germans that were there, their level of English...

Isi:
[7:03] The German learners, you mean?

Mitch:
[7:04] There were Germans there who watch Easy German. And they're just like fans of watching it. (Yeah, yeah.) From what I saw. But their level of English surprised me because I always consider that Germans don't need English really. But they were like, it was good to pick up on certain things that I realised that Germans sort of maybe make mistakes on quite commonly. Or, you know, there was a lot of like people saying that their writing skills aren't very good which is something.

Isi:
[7:27] saying Germans can't speak English? (Oh God.) No think every native speaker of a certain language for if you're a German native speaker does specific mistakes in a specific language that you learn that sounds very complicated what I mean is German native speakers make different mistakes in English than Spanish native speakers for example so I think that is actually actually we began a list about that months ago um with the mistakes that I still do and things that I notice or that you notice on how I speak. So um we definitely want to do a video about this like mistakes that German, native speakers do in English.

Mitch:
[8:12] Yeah, to be fair... oh actually just remembered Manuel asked... has a question for us.

Isi:
[8:18] Oh yeah.

Mitch:
[8:20] That he sent to us at the meetup but we'll do it next next time.

Isi:
[8:22] Okay, Manuel, next time.

Mitch:
[8:23] Next time, you'll have to wait. (You'll have to wait.) And to be fair, English speakers also make so many mistakes. And in a fun way, this is what our project is all about because they're not going to change for you, to be honest. So you have to sort of figure out, the common mistakes English people make in order to understand them which is where we come in and if you're not aware we run a membership for Easy English not only for our videos where you can get transcripts and worksheets but also for the podcast, we offer something called an Interactive Transcript and the way it's interactive is; you will press the play button on your phone, on your laptop whether you're at home, or on the train or wherever you are wherever you listen to the podcast and it will follow along with what we're saying on the transcript with this little yellow highlighter box... what are you smiling about?

Isi:
[9:18] You do a lot of gestures that people can't see you know?

Mitch:
[9:22] I know but it's helping me actually now I sort of understand why politicians use their hands a lot, and as it's following along with our what we're saying on the trend on the Interactive Transcript you can press a button... oh God. I'm dying slowly... and you can press a button and it will ask you if you'd like to have the transcript translated into, hopefully your native language there's a whole array of languages offered now and so not only are you following along on the Interactive Transcript you're also having it translated next to each paragraph that we're talking about and if you still have no idea what I'm describing even with my invisible hand gestures you can go to easyenglish.fm and on our trailer; episode zero there is a free example of that transcript working so go give it a go and if you like it and if it's helping you or will help you to improve your English then become an Easy English member by going to easyenglish.video/membership sweetie going back in.

Mitch:
[10:33] There was a big event.

Isi:
[10:35] Cultural event.

Mitch:
[10:36] A big cultural event on the weekend that we watched, right? Or we watched a bit of. We missed a few.

Isi:
[10:43] We missed the beginning because of time zones, which shouldn't be a problem for us any more, but it sometimes is when we travel very spontaneously to places. So we missed the beginning...

Mitch:
[10:54] Sorry. (Of the Eurovision.) Song Contest in.

Isi:
[11:00] We said it like we were advertising it.

Mitch:
[11:02] It was a very bad advertisement. Yeah, it was the Eurovision in Sweden this time.

Isi:
[11:07] In Malmö.

Mitch:
[11:08] In Malmö. And it had a big cultural relevance to where we are because Brighton was the birthplace of ABBA, basically. ABBA got big from winning the Eurovision and they won it in Brighton in the Dome.

Isi:
[11:25] Why was this year such a big topic anyway? It was 50 years of ABBA also?

Mitch:
[11:30] It was 50 years since ABBA won it.

Isi:
[11:31] And then ABBA got big.

Mitch:
[11:33] I think they got big through Eurovision. Most Eurovision bands don't tend to get very big. (No, no.) They're the biggest of the bunch, you'd think, no? And then this Maneskin, money skin. But even they're not big in England. ABBA, huge. Oh, my God. So it was not only the 50th anniversary, it was also in Sweden. Did Sweden win it last year?

Isi:
[11:59] I guess so. (In Liverpool.) don't normally the winner then also.

Mitch:
[12:05] Then host it.

Isi:
[12:06] No not host it but like have a gig.

Mitch:
[12:10] It'll be in... so Switzerland won it this year and actually wasn't that bad not something I would listen to.

Isi:
[12:16] No but, he will probably next year then when it's in Switzerland present the song again no? is that not a thing? God we missed everything, we were also not prepared at all I think it was very well earned they had definitely, the best biggest talent I would say maybe not the biggest but um well maybe the biggest I mean the French guy was also really, really talented but Nemo they were good in singing rapping and like opera singing even like so talented and then also great obviously that's the first non-binary winner ever of the Eurovision Song Contest so that's amazing. The song was cool um probably not something I... I would have caught on the radio to listen at home myself. But I think it was really one of the best songs, yeah. So amazing, yeah. Congratulations.

Mitch:
[13:08] Yeah, the French one was actually like a normal song. Do you know what I mean? That's when you...

Isi:
[13:13] Yeah, like a ballad. Quite, yeah, quite big though. Quite a big like... how do you call those ballads that are like, yeah, but like, mega ballad or so whatever. I think it was actually actually really good.

Mitch:
[13:26] Yeah but to win Eurovision you have to do something a bit special don't you?

Isi:
[13:31] Bit like, unique

Mitch:
[13:32] Yeah. They were doing Matrix moves while spinning on this disc.

Isi:
[13:36] yeah, and then singing that amazingly with it. (Yeah.) While really like bending over it's good.

Mitch:
[13:42] Sometimes I watch it generally because it's always a bit of a fun joke like it's always fun to have a drink because it's all a bit silly and a bit over the top and a bit extravagant a bit eccentric.

Isi:
[13:55] Yeah, very much theatre.

Mitch:
[13:57] And it goes on for ever.

Isi:
[14:01] Oh my god and again it was like 1am to go to bed and for people in like europe mainland it was like 2 or 2:30 it's not my time... (People in Switzerland!) I don't like to go to bed that late.

Mitch:
[14:17] The performance bit is actually quite well done. As I used to work in technical theatre, you see how quick they're able to change between acts, right? Like the person finishes singing, they cut to the announcers, and they only speak for about 30 seconds. And in that time, the act's off, new act's on, prop on, props off, lights off, new lights on, and everything's rearranged. back to zero and they do that like 30 odd times throughout the whole day but then the ironically the longest thing is that when they're just counting numbers when they're going okay and now we're going over to Moldova hello Moldova big break because there's a gap in audio hello Eurovision and then they always do something quirky to stand out.

Isi:
[15:06] God yeah. Anyway it was a really, interesting night good entertainment I was actually into this time into it more than other times I've watched it. I haven't watched it that often as a kid more than last year we watched it together and now it's the second time in a long long long time but this year was actually a lot more exciting than last year for sure so yeah thanks Eurovision.

Mitch:
[15:32] And Germany did quite well.

Isi:
[15:34] Oh yeah, they... I'm sorry I just wanted to end the topic without telling that you got zero

Mitch:
[15:41] Zero from the public.

Isi:
[15:42] Zero point

Mitch:
[15:45] Not one member of the public enjoyed our performance.

Isi:
[15:48] Yeah zero and Germany did not so bad yeah 12th place I think but.

Mitch:
[15:54] We never heard the song.

Isi:
[15:55] We never heard the song not even later every time that they showed the recap or how do you call that of like all the songs, every time I did something else, looked somewhere else, and then only switched in with my brain, like looking at it, when it was anyway at the point where we started late watching the show. So I did not once hear the German song, really. (And what was your favourite of all of them?) I liked...

Mitch:
[16:25] Ireland's was just a spectacle, right?

Isi:
[16:29] My favourite... hmm... (Switzerland!) Maybe Switzerland I liked a few of them though I must say like it wasn't as like there were some some shows when I watched it and there wasn't really like no song that I liked. There were a few that were quite good.I

Mitch:
[16:45] I always... I always look out for Finland are always the one to look out for in my opinion they always do the maddest stuff like just bonkers s*t last time they had the guy in the green um shoulder pad like luminous green outfit and uh he had this like bowl haircut but then this year they had a guy with a mullet and a trucker hat and he was running around pretending to be naked his penis out and then finally some hot pants were delivered from up in the gantries and once he put them on sparklers came out or from his hot pants, just bananas yeah I'm looking forward to next year already.

Isi:
[17:24] And then we have one more third topic, which is a little topic just to tell you how lucky we were We saw the northern lights in Brighton. (In Brighton!) By the sea in south England and um.

Mitch:
[17:42] That wasn't during Eurovision was it?

Isi:
[17:45] No it was the night before. (The night before, wow!) The night before. (Two spectacles.) I, by accident saw it somewhere that um that northern lights that the possibility is there to see them and we went on the balcony and we saw it and we were like what the f*k! What the beep and then what the f (At first thought it was light pollution.) WTF. we were (WTF.) And it was the first what? We thought it was light from the city first it was really really dark and then yeah it got green and pink and then we made photos obviously through photos it even looked better and it was very very exciting.

Mitch:
[18:26] Yeah, and it was like slightly pulsing which was like the most exciting thing for me. Because I always, have in my mind how it would look and it kind of was exactly like this sort of like wavy pulsing...

Isi:
[18:39] It wasn't moving so much.

Mitch:
[18:40] It was very vague yeah it's very subtle but you could if once you're outside for a bit you could really pick it out right?

Isi:
[18:47] Yeah, it was really really nice so maybe you saw it too it was visible over a lot of European places.

Mitch:
[18:53] I wanna know if any of our listeners are more north than we were and if... (That must have looked amazing.) If you were in In Finland or somewhere, it must have been crazy.

Isi:
[19:04] Even in Scotland.

Mitch:
[19:05] I saw it had 100% visibility in some places. If you have a good picture of it, that's hashtag no filter and not a long exposure, which is how your naked eye saw it. I want to see it because it must have looked mad.

Isi:
[19:21] Mad.

Mitch:
[19:23] Wow. Once in a lifetime, we can cross Finland off our to-do list, our bucket list. Been there, done that. don't have to stay in an igloo in an ice hotel to do it. Okay!

Isi:
[19:37] Coolio. I would say te-ra te-ra.

Mitch:
[19:40] Te-ra, te-ra. See you next time.

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Isi brings a new section to the podcast, asking Mitch about cultural seaside traditions. All with a slightly cheap but iconic postcard theme they discuss the food, people, entertainment and wildlife of the British coastline. Afterwards, Mitch recommends one of his top five favourite films 'No Country for Old Men'.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Are you ready?

Isi:
[0:26] I am ready. I have the feeling we only record tired podcasts now. We change from having a cocktail sometimes with our podcast to coffee and tiredness.

Mitch:
[0:40] Have we begun? (Yes.) Okay.

Isi:
[0:42] But I'm super motivated because of a great topic.

Mitch:
[0:45] Oh yeah?

Isi:
[0:46] Yes.

Mitch:
[0:46] Okay, firstly, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:48] Welcome.

Mitch:
[0:50] We hope you're all well and not as sleepy as us but also as motivated as us.

Isi:
[0:56] I'm not even sleepy the coffee does help. Okay...

Mitch:
[1:00] I think it's because the shutter that sort of works for the... on the window that for the room that we're in is broken. I broke that and we seem to be breaking a lot of things at the moment where... you said it last night we're a bad omen, at the moment.

Isi:
[1:16] I think so.

Mitch:
[1:17] We also... don't tell your parents broke their fridge

Isi:
[1:21] We didn't. (Someone did.) Well I think the fridge was broken we were just being the unlucky ones to be there when the last hit.

Mitch:
[1:33] Here's a good idiom for you.

Isi:
[1:34] Yes?

Mitch:
[1:35] We have been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Isi:
[1:39] I know that one, I don't have to use my buzzer. I know it.

Mitch:
[1:45] Okay good, what is it that you want to bring to the Easy English Podcast today? Is it a new section?

Isi:
[1:50] Yes it is. So I know we discuss culture a lot of times and we have the Culture Club where we recommend British things or British series or anything cultural but last time we spoke about Brits on Germans and obviously we want to talk here about um Brits and the British way of life and I thought we could have a new section which is called Very British where we talk about anything that is actually considered to be British which could be like characteristics or like how people behave cultural behaviour but also the way that Brits or people in Britain do things.

Mitch:
[2:41] Okay, and what's the name of this called? Very British?

Isi:
[2:43] Very British.

Mitch:
[2:44] Okay, we... I make a...

Isi:
[2:45] We can also call it So Very British.

Mitch:
[2:50] Okay, I make a section which is coming in now!

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This week, Mitch and Isi discuss Brits' perception of Germans. They discuss typical stereotypes, true or false. The difference between Bavaria and the rest of Germany. Germany's current culture and history. Their obsession with coastal England and of course, Germany's current representative in the UK; Jürgen Klopp.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Good morning.

Mitch:
[0:24] Good morning from... (Morning.) ...overcast Germany.

Isi:
[0:30] It's actually sunny at the moment.

Mitch:
[0:31] Is it?

Isi:
[0:32] Yes. I get neck problems again if I always turn around to you like this now.

Mitch:
[0:37] Just face...

Isi:
[0:37] I will not face...

Mitch:
[0:38] Just don't look at me.

Isi:
[0:39] I will not look at you.

Mitch:
[0:40] I can't take the pressure.

Isi:
[0:42] It's sunny right now. We had a really sunny weekend. I mean, we only arrived Saturday. But we had a really sunny weekend in Germany.Very much summer feeling. And now it's going back to winter. You hear my voice my voice is still bad.

Mitch:
[0:56] I can't tell if you're speaking to the listeners or me now. Because you're just facing the wall .

Isi:
[1:01] Do you see my eye always trying to get over to you.

Mitch:
[1:04] you look like Nola when she thinks we're talking about her.

Isi:
[1:08] And she's naughty. so yeah we are in Germany. How fitting because I have a little topic for you for today Mitch .

Mitch:
[1:15] Is it our topic of the week?

Isi:
[1:17] It is the topic of the week.So what i would like to know, well I have my own experiences with this topic but I would like to know from you growing up in the UK how do British people perceive Germans and German culture and the the German language?

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This week's episode is a flu-based survival guide, Mitch and Isi cover lemon & ginger tea, spicy soups, fruit salads, vapour inhalation, reality TV, fishing shows, bed rest and tissue-plugs. Mitch also reviews the British, metaphorical horror/thriller movie 'Men' in his new section 'Mitch's Movie Club'.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:24] Hiya, welcome to episode 38 of the Easy English Podcast. Isi, how are you?

Isi:
[0:30] I'm okay. I am a bit congested, still.

Mitch:
[0:33] Well, that's good. Not good, but good for the podcast because...

Isi:
[0:38] Good for the podcast?

Mitch:
[0:39] Yeah, because I wanted to do an episode about getting over illnesses. Tips and tricks from Mitch and Isi. (What a great episode.) Let's go.

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After a question last time round from listener Georgia, Mitch and Isi discuss the influence of modern day influencers; the Royal Family. From backing British made products, influencing the EU referendum and championing mental health and environmental awareness. They also discuss the controversial topics surrounding the armed forces and the love/hate relationship they have with tabloid media.

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Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:23] Hello, welcome to episode... what is it? Oh God.

Isi:
[0:27] 30...

Mitch:
[0:29] 30, what would you think? 31? No, don't be silly.

Isi:
[0:34] Oh God.

Mitch:
[0:36] Episode 37. (Wow!) Of the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:41] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:41] I planned for us to do an episode about Georgia's question from the last episode, asking; how much the royal family affects our day-to-day life, in the UK.

Isi:
[0:52] Didn't we talk about the royals before? We did a video episode about the queen's jubilee with Cari from Easy German who's a big 'Crown' 'The Crown' fan and Netflix series.

Mitch:
[1:04] Yeah I mean that is already one way in which the royal family affects, their part of (The world.) Yeah, they're like... they're back they're back again into common culture. There was a period I think between Diana and now, where they're kind of had a bit of a dip. But now they're kind of like, influencers. They live a life of influencers, in a way, don't they?

Isi:
[1:26] I guess they're representatives of the monarchy. But in a way, I think they see themselves also as representatives of Britain, of the Commonwealth.

Mitch:
[1:37] They have some power, in the sense of they don't have any...

Isi:
[1:41] They're influential.

Mitch:
[1:42] Yeah, exactly.

Isi:
[1:42] To a lot of people still.

Mitch:
[1:44] If they mention a brand or something, then they can have... or talk badly about a brand.

Isi:
[1:49] But they don't do that, on purpose, they don't they don't want to be political and they are actually they shouldn't be, right? From the legal stand.

Mitch:
[1:59] They shouldn't be, but obviously like, if you think of Harry and Meghan they had a Spotify and did Kate and William also have a Spotify. (No, I don't think so.) Harry and Meghan had a Spotify podcast right, exclusive.

Isi:
[2:09] Do they still have that.

Mitch:
[2:10] No. (I've never listened to it.) It got dropped. (Okay.) Because they're so boring. (Are they?) But Spotify obviously has like...

Isi:
[2:18] I actually like their Netflix series. I found it quite entertaining.

Mitch:
[2:22] That was good. (Yeah.) But if you think they have these brands... that they promote, they put their stamp on things that they agree with, principally, things that are British-made.

Isi:
[2:33] Ah, true, yeah. Like very old, traditional products, like brown sauce.

Mitch:
[2:39] Twining's tea?

Isi:
[2:40] I love Twining's tea.

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Mitch and Isi discuss a topic recommended by Easy English Member, Marketa; childhood. Isi explains how her street was a construction area for skate parks, igloos and prison cells. Whilst Mitch tells of crossbows, conker fights and... offensive language. Did any of it happen, or are these just tall tales, recollected from hear-say and distant memories? They also answer Georgia's question about the Royals, in their regular section of Unhelpful Advice.

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Show Notes

Opinions on the Royal Family: What Do English People Think of the Royal Family? (Easy English 98)

Reacting to the Queens Jubilee: The Queen's Platinum Jubilee (Easy English 123)

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today, we are doing, we're sort of catching up with some requests of things that you've sent us in. We wanted to cover a topic, which one of our members of Easy English; Marketa, one of our longest standing, dearest members, requested us to do a topic, comparing our childhoods from the perspective of growing up in the UK to growing up in Germany.

Isi:
[0:51] That's a good topic.

Mitch:
[0:51] Which is interesting. And they mentioned school and birthday parties, specifically.

Isi:
[0:58] Perfect. I mean, obviously, the kindergarten school system is different. I think that should not be part of it, though. That could be an own topic. What is the difference? I would say in general, the upbringing in both our countries are similar. There's definitely countries where we would find bigger differences.

Mitch:
[1:18] It's hard to compare a little bit, because you grew up in a a 300,000 city and I grew up in a 30,000 town.

Isi:
[1:24] Yeah you're the village boy

Mitch:
[1:27] I'm the cauliflower-eared, village boy.

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This week, Mitch and Isi bring you the podcast from the Easy English-mobile. Mitch is drving whilst Isi navigates the infamous Antwerp bottle-neck into the JFK tunnel. And what better situation than to discuss driving in the UK. The duo discuss, roundabouts, service station, exploding tyres, car fridges, speed limits and drunk French drivers.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch & Isi:
[0:27] So, welcome to the Easy English Podcast from the streets, just entering Belgium. From the A67 in Belgium. Today is a special episode. - It's a special episode. - Is this even legal, what we're doing? - Why? - Are you allowed to podcast while driving? -

We're not watching anything or listening to anything, we're just talking. - I know, but multitasking is hard. - We normally talk in the car. As we were talking about public transport, this is not public transport, I mean for Nola it is, kind of, but it is transport.

And we thought, as we, so many times go back and forth between Germany, and England and France also, sometimes, around Europe, that we will do an episode from the car.

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Today, the duo talk about the strange cultural rhetorical greeting "y'alright?" How to be the giver... and receiver of it, before going into the Topic of the Week, discussing typical British etiquette around queuing for buses, cashier desks and buying rounds of drinks. Long-time member James also asks us a question about teaching English in our regular segment of Unhelpful Advice. If you would also like to ask us a question, go to easyenglish.fm.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Good evening.

Isi:
[0:23] Good evening Mitch, how are you doing?

Mitch:
[0:27] Very well, thank you. Yeah, how would it be done... I'm thinking of 1930s/40s Britain. Hello welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:35] Alright. (Alright?) Alright (Are you alright?) Are you alright?

Mitch:
[0:40] And always the answer; yeah you? But never really meaning it.

Isi:
[0:43] Yeah me to, thanks, thanks, bye. Such a stupid conversation, really.

Mitch:
[0:52] Yeah you? Welcome to the Easy English Podcast... I said that already.

Isi:
[0:55] By the way, I always walk on when people ask me that, I always say like; yeah... and then I just go and I make the 'yeah' so long that I don't have to ask 'and you', because then I think in my German manners, that I have to wait for the answer that nobody wants to give me anyway, so always I'm like; oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, yeah. And then I just make a chewing gum and I'm already around the corner. (Oh really?) I did it yesterday, in the hallway, with one of the builders.

Mitch:
[1:22] Oh yeah, he said; "hey, yeah, you alright?"

Isi:
[1:24] Yeah, and I was just like; oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. And I just went on.

Mitch:
[1:29] You don't even need to respond.

Isi:
[1:31] Yeah, you should say; yeah, how are you? But then nothing comes back. And that is for me, a weird end of a conversation, right?

Mitch:
[1:39] Yeah, I find it weird. It happened also to me we were in the park and two school girls got jumped on by Nola, in a loving way.

Isi:
[1:46] Well, they provoked her to jump on her. They were running at her like... While running at her they were like; is she friendly? And we were like; yeah. So basically, they jumped on her.

Mitch:
[1:57] And then I said... because I was actually asking; are they all right? I was like; are you all right? And she went; "yeah you?" And then I realised; oh she thinks I'm asking like; are you alright? Like, how are you?

Isi:
[2:12] That is really... we had another podcast I think in the very beginning where we talked about this and it's still a big topic for me. I find it weird, because it's also about the intonation.

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This week, we answer Arthur's question on improving one's English when nervous to speak. But the main topic is about Britain's transport network, notably it's iconic buses. We talk double-deckers, Megabuses, thanking the driver, tapping on, cashless buses, USB buses, plus dog, bikes, prams drinking on buses.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] (Hey!) Hello Easy English peeps, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, how are you doing?

Isi
[0:30] That sounds so radio show-ish. Are you not into our podcast Mitch? My voice is a bit weird today isn't it?

Mitch:
[0:37] It's the second coffee podcast we've ever done. It's always a bit of a weird feeling. Uh, before we start with today's topic, I want to do a quick Unhelpful Advice / Your Messages section. Sound good? (Go for it.)

Unhelpful Advice

Mitch:
[0:59] We have, yeah this isn't a question, it's just a statement; "Easy English Podcast". There you go. (That was it?) Yeah that was it.

Isi
[1:09] Oh hello, then. That was hello wasn't it?

Mitch:
[1:12] Yeah.

Isi
[1:12] That was a greeting, maybe.

Mitch:
[1:14] Thank you for calling in. Uh yeah, that's us, that's our name, don't wear it out. Thank you for calling in. Our next one is um actually a question from uh someone who left us an audio message, who goes by the name of Arthur? I'd say Arthur, but i don't... that's very um... it's a very British sort of pronunciation.

Isi
[1:40] Think it's a name that is used in a lot of different languages. But maybe in a different way. Arthur, Arthur.

Mitch:
[1:46] Did you have a cartoon show called Arthur. And it's called yeah 'Hey Arthur'? (Yeah, yeah, yeah.) Did you? (I think I know that yeah, is that Nickelodeon?) Yeah! (Yeah, I know it yeah.) What a wonderful time to play, hey! And he had a sister called DW. (That is weird.) and his Neighbors were rhinoceroses and he was like a weird...

Isi
[2:06] His name was rhinoceros

Mitch:
[2:07] The neighbours were rhinoceroses and he had a crush on an elephant and he... but he was like a weasel or something. (Cute.) With glasses on. This isn't from a weasel with glasses on. This is from a normal person called Arthur. Here we go; "Hi, everyone. I am Arthur. I want to learn English, because I think, when I try to talk, to speak, it's very basic, because my vocabulary is minimal than the others. When I try to talk, with other person, maybe the other person might understand me, but I think so, that I need to speak very well, to have more vocabulary, I try to express it, maybe it sometimes it's very difficult to me, but I never... I think so that I'm nervous about speaking English. Thank you very much".

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Mitch and Isi start their first episode in a series about dogs. They want to give you their experience... and lack of when it comes to being a dog-parent. In this episode, Mitch and Isi talk adoption; finding your new furry friend, how to prepare, the practical and emotional elements you'll need to survive and the nerves and excitement you'll go through when adding a four-legged friend into your family.

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Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:19] Three, two, one, happy new year.

Isi:
[0:23] Three, two, one, happy new year.

Mitch:
[0:28] Oh God.

Isi:
[0:32] Okay, chin, chin, ting, ting.

Mitch:
[0:35] How fitting that the dog is trying to get into the room, as we're today, going to speak about dogs.

Isi:
[0:42] Dogs.

Mitch:
[0:43] Dogs in the UK.

Isi:
[0:45] Dogs.

Mitch:
[0:45] But first, so today as we're speaking is the 2nd of January, which for those who don't know is the start of our 30 Day Challenge. (Will we always do this now?) It's like we're rehearsed. (Yeah.) Three, two, one, 30 Day Challenge. Like a game show; you've won the star prize! (Or a morning radio show.) Yeah. A speedboat, but you live in Birmingham, so you're never going to to get to use it.

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Mitch and Isi discuss the differences between a German and a British Christmas in their festive cabin. What do you eat? Who delivers your presents... and on what day? They discuss Mrs Claus, raclette, Zulu, zuzhing and of course... booze, booze, booze.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] For those who are listening and have children in earsight, we may approach subject of Santa, Weihnachtsmann, of the Christkind. So there might be some spoiler alerts for little ears.
Christmas song? Bing bong, bing bong, bing bong, bing bong.

Isi:
[0:23] Oh, my singing is fantastic. No one has Christmasy mood now.

Intro
Mitch:
[0:58] Okay no, let's have a relaxing one. Okay. Let's imagine we're in a little log cabin.

Isi:
[1:03] Ooh.

Mitch:
[1:04] It's snowing outside.

Isi:
[1:06] Mm-hmm.

Mitch:
[1:07] We've just opened a bottle of whiskey or red wine. What would you like?

Isi:
[1:11] Red wine. Bottle of whiskey!

Mitch:
[1:14] Or Prosecco.

Isi:
[1:16] Prosecco.

Mitch:
[1:17] Okay. And the fire's on. I'm just going to open up and throw a log on the fire. All the sparks go up in the fire and it's Christmas day for our listeners.

Isi:
[1:29] And we're alone in a cabin in the woods or what? (Yeah, this isn't another survival episode.( And we are live, let's be authentic here it's the 20th, not far away from the 25th. So we are recording this five days before for Christmas day. (But for you guys.) For you guys, it's a Christmas day today, if you listen on Christmas but it's the 25st of December and this podcast will be a short one, a short hello for Christmas because we didn't want to go on a break. We wanted to produce a little something, something podcast. (A snippet.) A snippet um... to talk about Christmas and say hello and wish you a merry Christmas obviously only if you celebrate and otherwise a good end of the year a good start out into 2024 because it will be our last podcast of the year.

Mitch:
[2:21] Isi, what does Christmas Day look like for you as a German? And then we can compare notes. (Yeah.)

Isi:
[2:28] So in Germany, we start celebrating Christmas on the 24th, on Christmas Eve. That is like the big day.

Mitch:
[2:36] We do 25th in England.

Isi:
[2:37] Yep. We celebrate in the night.

Mitch:
[2:41] Day.

Isi:
[2:42] And that's, yeah, Christmas Day is like morning through the whole day, isn't it?

Mitch:
[2:46] In England, the whole day is dedicated to...

Isi:
[2:49] In Germany, we have the 24th, 25th and 26th for Christmas.

Mitch:
[2:53] Hmm. We just have 25th.

Isi:
[2:55] No, you don't.

Mitch:
[2:56] Yeah.

Isi:
[2:57] Boxing Day.

Mitch:
[2:57] Oh, 25th and 26th. (Yeah.) Yeah, yeah. Sorry. But 24th, I even worked one day on the 24th.

Isi:
[3:04] Hmm.

Mitch:
[3:04] And I was driving home for Christmas.

Isi:
[3:09] What else? We do have gifts. (But are you open on the 24th?) On the 24th. I mean, not everybody does the same,we do it we we do gifts first and gifts and drinks and then dinner. (Gifts, drinks, dinner. And in England we go; drink, drink drinks, drinks, gifts, drinks, drinks, drinks, drinks, little sleep, then dinner, then another little sleep whilst watching the film Zulu, or the great escape and then...) What is Zulu?

Mitch:
[3:40] It's like an old Michael Caine movie. (Okay.) And then After Eight / Bailey's session and then pass out on the sofa again.

Isi:
[3:48] Okay. On the 25th, we usually in our family rest. Because our Christmases usually, are very long into the night.

Mitch:
[4:00] Hibernating like some grizzly bears.

Isi:
[4:03] And we also have like some good food or so. but it's like, it's a day of not doing much. We also have a small family so um there was no one else to visit on that day so we just chilled, long walks, good food. But um... (Is that normally the day you do a visit the old and wrinkly people?) Hey! (Sorry.) No, other families go either yeah, grandparents, aunts, uncles somewhere or you go visit your friends or so. But it's the day where you change places to celebrate with someone else. And then, Boxing Day for us, is not called Boxing Day, obviously.

Mitch:
[4:39] I don't know why it's called Boxing Day. I'd have to look that up.

Isi:
[4:42] Then people meet again. My parents always meet friends on that day. Have a little Christmas. We always, my sister and I, have been meeting friends for the past, nearly 20 years. And do like a Friendsmas, or however you call that. Friends Christmas. And in some countryside regions, people go to pubs and they keep a stone with them and if you forget a stone you have to buy a round or so, I never understood it, I don't know. (And who is Santa Claus for you? He has many names he goes by, like the devil.) we don't have Santa... well, it depends if you... if you celebrate Christmas, in the religious way, then it's the Christkind coming on the 24th, bringing the gifts, which is basically, I don't really know. It has the looks of an angel.

Mitch:
[5:31] The Christ child in English, I guess.

Isi:
[5:34] It's the Christ child. So basically it's Jesus. But it looks like an angel and it comes, I think, with a sledge as well. It's a bit, yeah, that's how I know the pictures. It sits in a sledge.

Mitch:
[5:47] Like a cherub? You know cherubs that fire little love arrows?

Isi:
[5:50] Yeah, it's like the typical angel thing. But yeah, I don't really know. It has like a white dress on.

Mitch:
[5:56] Floaty dress. And they bring the presents?

Isi:
[6:01] They bring the presents. Um... and then there's also Nicolaus who looks a bit like Santa Claus, but more religious. (Yeah.) And he comes on the 6th of December and brings gifts then already. (Ah, you have Nicolaus Day or something, no?) Well it really depends what you teach your children, really. So you can also obviously just have Christmas for the traditional way and not for the religious way and then you would maybe also say Santa Claus comes. But I don't know. Oh yeah, the Weihnachtsmann.

Mitch:
[6:35] Do you think?

Isi:
[6:36] Oh yeah, we actually do have Santa Claus.

Mitch:
[6:38] Okay. When he comes on the 5th.

Isi:
[6:40] The Weihnachtsmann. Christmas Man

Mitch:
[6:41] Christmas Man. (Weihnachtsmann.)

Isi:
[6:43] He comes also on the 24th.

Mitch:
[6:47] After or before the lady Jesus?

Isi:
[6:48] Either Christkind or Weihnachtsmann. Or baby. Baby? Did I say baby?

Mitch:
[6:52] The baby?

Isi:
[6:53] You said baby.

Mitch:
[6:54] I didn't.

Isi:
[6:55] Maybe Jesus, you said.

Mitch:
[6:56] I said after or before the lady Jesus.

Isi:
[6:57] Lady Jesus. I don't know if it's a lady. Let's say it's a baby.

Mitch:
[7:02] Baby Jesus. Who delivers the gifts? Weihnachtsmann or Baby Jesus lady?

Isi:
[7:07] I think they can both deliver the gifts. I'm not well prepared for this.

Mitch:
[7:10] Should we make a disclaimer at the beginning of this, warning parents that your children may lose all faith?

Isi:
[7:16] So, yeah, one of those come. Or maybe... maybe for some they come together. I guess it's like how you define your own Christmas story.

Mitch:
[7:25] It's very confusing. We just have one man and he comes through the chimney, through keyholes. He has a magic key. He has magic reindeers, that can fly. He has a sleigh and in that sleigh, holds enough presents for... how many people are there in the world? 6 billion people?

Isi:
[7:44] A lot more.

Mitch:
[7:45] But he has enough presents for everyone around the world. He has a naughty list. He has a wife. He lives in the North Pole. (He has a wife?) Mrs. Claus. She looks after the elves, who they make the presents. They make the fur...

Isi:
[7:57] She looks after them? What does that mean? She cooks for them? She gives them the salary? She does the accounting?

Mitch:
[8:03] I don't know the details. Yeah, maybe.

Isi:
[8:04] Company management? Is she an HR?

Mitch:
[8:07] HMRC should make sure she's, you know... the elves make the skateboards, the rollerblades, PlayStation 4s. They make all that stuff, that goes on the back of the sleigh. He comes, when he comes on the 24th night, you're supposed to be in bed and not see him. He has big black boots and you're supposed to leave out a mince pie for him to eat; a glass of sherry or whiskey depending on what he... your grandad likes to drink. And a carrot for his reindeer. One of the reindeers has a red nose called Rudolph. There's a weird song in British culture of a kid coming downstairs to see his mum making out with Santa Claus, yeah. I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe that night. (But it's not a real Christmas song, right?) And it's sung by Michael Jackson, so the morals are all over the place.

Isi:
[9:00] Let's stop it right here. Kids sing that?

Mitch:
[9:03] Yeah.

Isi:
[9:06] Isn't Christmas so confusing anyway? Such a confusing thing. And the elves, they make all the gifts.

Mitch:
[9:13] In the North Pole.

Isi:
[9:14] Whatever you want? They know how to do it all

Mitch:
[9:16] And he and you... sometimes... (If i want a new laptop, are they building it?) Yeah exactly, they make... they work with Apple to build laptops they work with Sony to make Playstations they work with Hitachi to make TVs. (We need to put a disclaimer in here as well, laptops you can also get by other companies.) Yeah, yeah, laptops available outside of the north pole.

Isi:
[9:42] So, what is the dinner? I think we've talked about this before on the podcast. So, what will you consume, eat, drink over the day? Give us a quick round up here.

Mitch:
[9:51] It's a roast dinner, but zhuzhed.

Isi:
[9:53] What?

Mitch:
[9:54] Zhuzh, is a really good kind of, phrase of the week to go into, but let's not do the theme tune. You can zhuzh something up. So, let's say…

Isi:
[10:04] Where does it come from, zhuzh?

Mitch:
[10:07] Zhuzh.
It could be like a... it sounds Yiddish doesn't it? Let's say, you have a Christmas tree, just a Christmas tree, like a pine tree on its own. You would zhuzh it up by adding lights and decorations, to make it look prettier. (Yeah. )You can zhuzh yourself up a little bit. Oh, I just need to zhuzh myself.

Isi:
[10:25] Lipstick?

Mitch:
[10:26] Lipstick, whatever. A bit of cologne. Yeah, but it's nice to say, isn't it? (Wait, let's look that up. How do you write that?) It's a verb. Zhuh. Uh. Zhuh.

Isi:
[10:39] UK informal. To make something more interesting, more attractive by changing it slightly or adding something into it. The stylist says he would zhoosh up the outfit with a hat. Zhoosh.

Mitch:
[10:50] Zhoosh.

Isi:
[10:50] Zhoosh. It's like that H, U, Z, H. Ah, and it's Yiddish.

Mitch:
[10:56] Is it?

Isi:
[10:57] Yeah. Interesting. That's a nice, nice phrase.

Mitch:
[11:00] And how... (Ah, zhoosh me up. )It's a zhooshed up roast dinner.

Isi:
[11:04] Give me a minute. I need to zhoosh me up.

Mitch:
[11:06] I need to zhuzh up my face, zhuzh my life up. And so, yeah, it's a zhuzhed up roast dinner, basically.

Isi:
[11:14] What does that mean? What is different?

Mitch:
[11:15] This is the time we'd crack out the turkey, because usually roast dinners you'd have either lamb, beef, pork or chicken. For Christmas dinner, it's usually turkey. Don't know why, because turkeys are Christmas animals, apparently. And you'd really just fill it with more stuff. These things called pigs in blankets, which is sausage, wrapped up in a bacon blanket and then, you know, fried or oven-baked. What else would you have?

Isi:
[11:41] Oh, yeah, I remember when we had English Christmas in your family, your mum did vegan or vegetarian picks and blankets. Do you remember?

Mitch:
[11:50] I do remember. Or as Boris Johnson says, vegan. (Yeah, does he?) Vegan. (Very German.)

Isi:
[11:57] Okay, go on.

Mitch:
[11:59] Yeah, yeah, that's kind of, to be simple, that's what it is. (What do you drink?) Yes. Uh... so but um... specifically, I mean this might not be every family but in the mornings it's nice to have something called a Buck's Fizz or in the U.S you'd say a Mimosa. Buck's Fizz is an orange juice mixed with a fizzy wine, and then you'd work your way up slowly throughout the day, until you basically cannot stand. You'd usually end with like a Baileys or an Amarula. Something creamy.

Isi:
[12:31] Mm-hmm. Very nice.

Mitch:
[12:32] I'm also someone who likes this thing called a Snowball, which is eggnog, basically. Vodka and egg. And then you make a shot of that and then you fill the rest of your glass with lemonade. It's like a good pick-me-up drink when you're hitting that kind of, slump hour. Just after you've watched Zulu and it's like a three and a half hour film and you're like, oh God, I'm dying here. Then you have a quick Snowball and you're back in the game, ready to play charades with the family. And what do you do in Germany?

Isi:
[13:08] Oh, everybody does it differently, really. Some people have...

Mitch:
[13:13] A zhuzhed up something.

Isi:
[13:15] We do raclettes often. um often some other people do fondue, which is putting meat into hot water basically, or into oil, or both, then... (You can have a cheese fondue.) That as well, some people do like a traditional thing more like, the English dinner like, duck with like a gravy and like potatoes and like red cabbages that kind of stuff, which is a bit like a roast. Um... some people and I don't really know where it's coming from, but there's something that it's traditional to have a potato salad and a Wiener sausage, Wiener Würstchen with it. (Really?) Which is like super, super, super easy, simple food. And I don't know where it comes from and probably has a, has a story. So some people even do that. And then on the 21st do like a big dinner. So it's very mixed up. Like it's in England it's always the same, right? (Yeah.)

Mitch:
[14:09] But I feel like there's something we have in common, which is typically for a typical Christmas dinner is mum just completely overworked, sweating, because she's having to cook for like 10 people. And then your dad, getting really annoyed because he has to find where the raclette is somewhere in the loft. And he's all covered in dust. And he's fallen over a couple of times, because he's had a few too many drinks beforehand. And then, not doing anything from about 4pm onwards, because he's too busy trying to fix the... DVD player or whatever, so everyone can watch Home Alone.

Isi:
[14:40] Yeah, that's true.

Mitch:
[14:43] I'd like to hear, well... we'd both like to hear how Christmas looks for you guys. So feel free to send us a message, write to us, speak to us, go to easyenglish.fm or write to us at podcast@easyenglish.video.

Isi:
[14:57] And if you don't celebrate Christmas and have another celebration, another holiday that you celebrate, please tell us about that too. That's it, we do a quick one this this year we would like to remind you of our 30 Day Challenge, our first ever 30 Day Challenge starting on January 2nd, 30 days until January 31st, you can practice your English with us, every day, for continuous 30 days we give you little challenges it will be fun it will be about different topics about speaking writing understanding English. And it's all happening on our Discord server, where we anyway are every day chatting with our members. And you only have to do one thing. Become a member, join our community, and go to easyenglish.video/membership And yeah, join us. We are so much looking forward to this. We hope you all come there and spend a month of learning English with us. Yeah. Please, please join. That will be fun.

Mitch:
[15:57] Yeah, we have a nice community on Discord, don't we? )Yeah.) you'll get to meet and chat with and yeah, we'll be there to chat with you as well and to get to know you. (Yes yes.) all right, that's it. (That's it, end of the year, we want to thank you all, thanks for listening, thanks for it's it's incredible still to me, to you probably too, that people actually listen to this. Yeah, have a good and... and hopeful end of the year. We hope you can all relax, you're healthy and next year will be a brilliant year. Te-ra!) Merry Christmas.

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Join Mitch and Isi as they explain how to use the word 'grim' whilst trying to survive a ChatGPT ispired survival challege, armed with only their wits and useless YouTuber gear. But before that, there is an exciting update for all Easy English members at the start of the new year, in the form of the 30 Day Challenge. Become a member now to take part and improve your English in 2024!

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:19] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode number... wait.

Isi:
[0:23] Are we on 30?

Mitch:
[0:24] Wait.

Isi:
[0:25] Are we 30?

Mitch:
[0:26] Wait, don't get so excited yet. (30!)
Episode number 30.

Isi:
[0:32] I mean, it does sound like nothing.

Mitch:
[0:34] The big three zero.

Isi:
[0:36] When will we be on 100?

Mitch:
[0:37] Dirty 30.

Isi:
[0:39] Wait.

Mitch:
[0:40] What?

Isi:
[0:40] We do, every two weeks a podcast?

Mitch:
[0:42] Yeah.
Yeah. 15 months, podcast, we missed our year anniversary.

Isi:
[0:50] I know, I know, we started on October, okay, I accept it.

Mitch:
[0:53] Okay, 30th birthday.

Isi:
[0:54] So 100 will still take.

Mitch:
[0:57] Yeah.

Isi:
[0:58] Three years.

Mitch:
[0:59] And when will we?

Isi:
[1:00] Well, who knows? Maybe one day we'll do, every week, a podcast.

Mitch:
[1:03] Yeah, and at what podcast number will we become professional and not speak over each other?

Isi:
[1:08] Hey, we don't.

Mitch:
[1:09] What?

Isi:
[1:10] You interrupt me. (What?) I don't, (What?) I don't, (What?) I don't. Okay, we have to start this episode with an Easy English update because we have a really good one.

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It's the end of November which can only mean one thing... Christmas is coming! Mitch and Isi have a gift for you in the form of the first episode from their new series 'Slow Easy English'; a way for beginners to intermediates to improve their everyday English. Later on, Mitch and Isi bring three films each to the table to decide which is the best Christmas film of all time!

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Slow Easy English Episode One! : RESTAURANT CONVERSATION in SLOW ENGLISH (Super Easy English 24)

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:01] Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah,

Intro

Mitch:
[0:50] We're there. We're trying to get in there before everyone else.

Isi:
[0:54] We are in Christmas mood!

Mitch:
[0:56] We are in Christmas mood. (Wait.)

Isi:
[0:59] This is Amarula on ice, which is very much, probably only for us, I don't know if other people also do that for Christmas. It's a Christmassy drink for us. I think other people, for that, choose Baileys, but Baileys for me is too creamy.

Mitch:
[1:16] What is Amarula?

Isi:
[1:18] Amarula is a liquor made out of the marula fruit. I know it from Namibia, but I think it's originally from South Africa and it's a fruit that elephants eat from the trees. That's why there's a big elephant on it. Did you know it before me?

Mitch:
[1:34] I'd always seen it. I'd always seen it. I always thought, oh, that looks a bit like Baileys. But whereas Baileys... Baileys is kind of... it's almost a dessert rather than a liqueur.

Isi:
[1:46] Amarula is also creamy.

Mitch:
[1:48] Yeah, it looks almost identical to Baileys, right? What is the alcohol? Because Baileys is whiskey.

Isi:
[1:53] Ah, good... I don't know. Maybe it's just the fruit, maybe it's like fermented fruit or something.

Mitch:
[2:01] Oh maybe, Amarula alcohol.

Isi:
[2:04] It's a bit more boozy than Bailey's.

Mitch:
[2:07] Ah, yeah it is actually the marula fruit, which has started to ferment. (Ha!) So it's almost like a vodka of... where is marula fruit like native to?

Isi:
[2:19] Well, definitely the southern part of the African continent.

Mitch:
[2:26] South Africa and also in parts of West Africa.

Isi:
[2:30] Yeah.

Mitch:
[2:31] It's nice though, and it is Christmasy, which is... the theme of this week's podcast, hate us or not, you're going to have to listen.

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Isi and Mitch recount their trip up north to The Peak District National Park. They talk about the friendliness of the people, precarious drone flying, mountains, caves and ginger shots. Easy English member James leaves us a belated Halloween tale of terror and we answer YOUR questions in our Unhelpful Advice section.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:23] Good morning, Isi!

Isi:
[0:25] Good morning! So here we are.

Mitch:
[0:27] We're back.

Isi:
[0:28] A bit tired.

Mitch:
[0:30] What did you pick up, from our trip from the north? Have you brought anything back?

Isi:
[0:35] It rains a lot.

Mitch:
[0:36] No, I meant have you brought back any characteristics or personality traits from the north?

Isi:
[0:43] They're very friendly.

Mitch:
[0:44] And you've adopted that now? You've become more friendly yourself?

Isi:
[0:47] I hope I was already. They call you love even more than down here.

Mitch:
[0:53] Tell me the times you were called love and who called you love.

Isi:
[0:57] How many times I was called love? I don't know, not so many times.

Mitch:
[1:01] Supermarket?

Isi:
[1:01] Yeah, mostly in supermarkets, little stores, little pubs, and from different people, all older than me, but not much older, some. But in a very loving, caring way, not in a weird way.

Mitch:
[1:17] So for people who don't know what's happened. We recently made a week-long trip, which ended up in us visiting the Peak District, which is an area, between Manchester and Sheffield. And it's a national park. If you're interested in seeing what the Peak District looks like, it's a really beautiful area, it's crazy dramatic; rocks and cliffs and fields and heaths and caves. We didn't go in any caves but we made a road trip video getting there and driving around some of like the best things to see in the Peak District. We didn't cover it all, but if you wanted to see a video where you can join someone on a road trip, getting there and speaking absolute nonsense for a while. But there's also some really beautiful things that you captured on your phone.

Isi:
[2:09] Yeah, I think it was like, well, first, I think the best thing about this is the drone footage. If you enjoy big pictures of great nature, then that's for you. But also, we did observe and comment on everything, I guess. And that, yeah, it's like you're with us in the car, basically, seeing the difference between the South and the North. Or, as someone wrote in our comments, it's not the North yet.

Mitch:
[2:38] But we were in Derbyshire, and Derbyshire is a Midlands county, but the peaks are so big, they span across into...

Isi:
[2:46] We were directly next to Manchester. So I would say we were in the North.

Mitch:
[2:51] Yeah, we're not going to be too specific about it. We are coming from Brighton, which is the absolute South.

Isi:
[2:59] Yeah, more South, you fall in the sea.

Mitch:
[3:03] We definitely... going back to the whole lovely people thing, we definitely witnessed some Northern character traits, right?

Isi:
[3:13] Yeah, the general thing was really just that people just approached me and I didn't even have a talk with them. That was really nice. So there was a lady that just basically just said hello to me, just because we met at the bananas and then the fruit section. And she was like smiling at me, like she knew me. So it was a bit like, I was like, that's nice. So I said, hello. We said, hello. But that was it.

Mitch:
[3:40] Wow. She'd have hated me if she saw the banana choice I would have gone for, they're so green! What are you doing?

Isi:
[3:47] Yeah. It was really nice. I asked someone for, like someone working there for something and they were so determined to help me. It was really nice. Are people in the North friendlier and then in the South? I think down here in Brighton, but Brighton might be a little bubble itself. People are super friendly, but that person was really determined to help me. I think she was really happy that I approached her actually. I asked actually, for ginger shots, because at home we, every day, prepare turmeric ginger shots for ourselves, for health, which it's not alcohol. It's a shot of a lot of healthy things. And because we couldn't do that on tour, I asked, because in supermarkets sometimes they sell those super overpriced, little shots. But as I was getting ill, I was like, we need those. I think for a long time while she was discussing it with me where to find it, she thought it's alcohol. I think she presumed, because I asked for it that it's something really cool that you have to have. Like everybody knows it, because I so normally ask for it. And so she was like, yeah, yeah, ginger shots. Mm, where could we have them? Yeah, and then she was like, oh, you know what? I don't think we have them. And then, wait, she then said, do you mean? She said a random alcohol, like completely something weird, like rum or so. I mean, ginger, rum works. And then I was like, oh no, it's not alcohol. She was like, oh, you said shot. That was really nice. So nice encounters, yeah.

Mitch:
[5:21] Oh, cute.

Isi:
[5:22] She heard my German accent and was like, of course they want their schnapps, their shots.

Mitch:
[5:27] Oh, yeah. The German is here. I was trying to think if I had an encounter, but...

Isi:
[5:32] You didn't talk to people, did you?

Mitch:
[5:34] I didn't, I avoided people, there was actually one time when we bumped into this woman and we basically just asked her where the dog park is. And she... she did that thing that people do who forget that Google Maps exists, so was like; right what you do, right, is you go straight up this road and you look for the left, you come to a roundabout There's five exits, take the third one, third exit past the church on your right and when you come to an old dustbin, make sure you go before the dustbin, not after.

Isi:
[6:01] She even, already told us everything we could see which would be the wrong way. It's like, you cannot even remember that. If you see the field with the five horses... she actually said something, this is no joke, on the right, then you did, you did take the wrong turn and then it's wrong. (If you see an old willow tree, you're f**ked.) Then she said... she asked, if we are from there, is that a compliment?

Mitch:
[6:26] Are you local?

Isi:
[6:27] Why would we then ask? Anyway, then she asked how long we stay. It's a lot of questions. And we had it also another time, we asked for, one morning, no coffee was open in that village. And she was like, yeah, Monday, Tuesday, everything is closed. And we're like, okay. But then she told us about all the cafes in the villages nearby. So, long talk about that as well. But it's actually, is that an English thing though? You had a very funny call at the weekend, trying to get our internet back. And the person on the phone, you were just telling your problem and she was searching for something and she was like; so any plans for the weekend? And you were so confused, I heard you from the other room. And you were like, what do you mean, you want to know my plans for the weekend? And she was like, yes. And you were like, fixing my internet. Very German, by the way.

Mitch:
[7:21] That's never happened before. She was, as I was trying to again fix the internet, while she's sort of waiting to find a result, yeah, she was like, so what are you up to this weekend, any nice plans? I was like, what?! I didn't know you, who are you?! Fixing my internet, it was quite a dry response. And then what was your favourite thing you saw from the Peak District? What was the best sight? What was your favourite thing that we did?

Isi:
[7:49] Snake Pass, for sure.

Mitch:
[7:51] Yeah.

Isi:
[7:52] Yeah. Although Winnat's Pass is also really impressive, but it's such a small area. Snake Pass, being up there, on that road, that takes quite some time. And it's just, I love those... I love nature that is a bit like a moon area. There's like no tree, no bushes, no nothing, just like vast land. It was high.

Mitch:
[8:15] Yeah, your ears are popping and the clouds are...

Isi:
[8:17] You're basically in the clouds. We had bad weather when we were filming up there, but it was in the end, I think, really good, because it was so atmospheric, so melancholic, really, really nice. For the drone, I mean, it wasn't easy to operate the drone, I guess? Because it was, I mean, you did it, but it was really, really windy and rain, but the pictures are gorgeous.

Mitch:
[8:39] Yeah, the drone was... I kept getting a message saying the wind is too high, and you could see the drone was struggling to...

Isi:
[8:49] Don't worry, there was no one, so it's not...

Mitch:
[8:52] Yeah, no sheep were harmed in the filming.

Isi:
[8:54] No, but it was not in that sense and we didn't go over streets or so, so in that sense it was not dangerous for anyone, it was just dangerous for our drone, to not come back, ever.

Mitch:
[9:05] You have to remember before you fly the drone you can set a 'home point' and I always forget to do it I would say automatically assigns one. (Oh god.) And so, every so often I'd lose connection to the drone, 'cos it was so windy and then the drone automatically goes to a homing point And a lot of the one of them was in the lake. (No.) yeah, that's when I started running away. I didn't want to say

Isi:
[9:31] Can I drone swim? (Can our drone swim?) Yeah. (It can only do breaststroke.) Can it get a little like swimming...

Mitch:
[9:38] Imagine, little flippers.

Isi:
[9:41] Flippers. Like, oh, now I'm swimming.

Mitch:
[9:43] That'd be cool actually, if it'd go underwater.

Isi:
[9:45] What was your favourite?

Mitch:
[9:47] To be honest, mine is a bit of a cheat, but kind of not, because I actually like Winnat's Pass. Winnat's Pass is this... you have to watch the video, which we'll tag in the description to this podcast. A pass is like, a way through a mountain, that people have sort of carved out, or it's a natural development where a river maybe was once running through it, and now they've run a road through this incredibly, cascading, mountainous area, and there's like, bare rocks that I think are just constantly falling, at points. And, this is beautiful, but then the amazing thing is, at one point in history, they built up a town called Castleton, Castle Town, I guess it used to be called. That's a really beautiful area and it sits at the base of Winnat's Pass.
In that one area there's loads to see like there's Winnat's Pass in the background you can drive up but then in Castleton there's like loads of old little pubs, we've been there once before and then also, near that there's a couple of caves you can go into. One of which I know is called the Devil's Arse, which I went in once and it's really cool. Also, right... just next to the Devil's Arse there's one called Speedwell Cavern, where you can actually get in a boat, in this old mining cave and you get taken along in this little boat and you have to wear a helmet, because you'll keep banging your head on the ceiling.

Isi:
[11:14] That sounds amazing.

Mitch:
[11:16] Yeah, it's not for the faint of hearted. You might need a Scottish whiskey before you attempt it. But yeah, definitely watch the video because, it's a bit of a different format that we're used to and that you're probably used to if you're an Easy English peep.

Isi:
[11:31] We really enjoyed filming it.

Mitch:
[11:33] Yeah.

Isi:
[11:33] We're very happy about it and we would love to know what you think about it.

Mitch:
[11:37] Yeah, there's something quite... if you're into it, please let us know in any comments you can leave, or give this podcast a review, to let us know that you like those kind of videos, because we'd like to make more of them because it's nice to kind of do a bit of... you know, we know you guys are coming to learn some English, but also you probably want to see some cultural things and that was I hope a good mixture of us chit -chatting in the car and then, you know, showing the sights of an amazing part of England. If you're looking to improve your English, then why don't you improve your English with us? If you're a podcast listener, you can get some extra bits for the podcast by becoming an Easy English member at easyenglish.video/membership. We offer a thing called the Interactive Transcript which is a clever bit of technology that we have, which allows you to listen like you are now to the podcast, but also, have in your hand, on your phone, on your laptop, a running live-time transcript of this podcast, which you're able to selectively choose a language of your choice, that you'd like to be translated into, the podcast will then track along, with every word we say in English and translate it into your common language. Another benefit of becoming an Easy English Podcast Member is you'll be able to get your hands on the Aftershow which is where the podcast for the public ends, the podcast for our members begins and you'll get to hear some Easy English insights, some gossip, latest news and some updates on what myself and Isi will be getting up to with Easy English in the future. If you want to become an Easy English member then go to easyenglish.video/membership and become either a podcast member or check out some of our other perks you can get your hands on. Back to the episode!

Unhelpful Advice
Isi:
[13:36] Now we actually have to go back a bit to Halloween, I think, because we got a message.

Mitch:
[13:42] We asked you on the last podcast if you have any tales of terror.

Isi:
[13:49] Scary stories.

Mitch:
[13:50] One of our members of Easy English; James, has left us an audio message. If you also want to leave us an audio message, we do a section called Unhelpful Advice, where people can just ask us a random question. I always say it, do you want us to name your pet? Do you have any DIY problems? Are you looking to move to England? Are you struggling with as part of the English language? Is there something in the podcast you're hearing which you'd like us to explain? Then you can just drop us a message by going to easyenglish.fm, and you can leave us a voice message there. Ask us anything, and we will be as unhelpful as possible. So anyway, here is an audio message from James; "Hey guys, I have a very scary true story for you. I don't know if you're already familiar with it, but it's about Elisa Lam, who was this Canadian-Chinese tourist who went missing back in 2013 in Los Angeles. She was in the Cecil Hotel, a hotel that was well known for very spooky going on, spooky goings-on and I believe Ricardo Ramirez, the night staff, is still there. But yeah, she went missing there. Nine days later, her body turned up, which is where things get really weird. There's CCTV footage you can watch of her in the lift, freaking out, gesticulating wildly at this unknown thing, unseen thing, because of the way camera is positioned, so she's really freaking out and you don't know what she's freaking out is, but she's getting very distressed, panicking loads. And like, nine days later and I think yeah I think that's the last time anybody ever saw her and nine days later, the residents of the hotel kept complaining that the water, was black and it tasted bad and the water pressure was funny. And, when they went to investigate, they found Elisa Lam's naked body in the water cooler, at the top of the hotel. She had drowned."

Isi:
[16:00] Ugh.

Mitch:
[16:02] Can we play that message?

Isi:
[16:04] Oh god, that's horrible.

Mitch:
[16:05] Is that real?

Isi:
[16:06] I hope no kids are listening to this.

Mitch:
[16:08] Jesus.

Isi:
[16:10] Oh wait, there was no one ever found, so she was just panicking, is that right what I understood there? She was panicking in the lift.

Mitch:
[16:16] In the lift. Should we watch the CCTV footage?

Isi:
[16:19] No.

Mitch:
[16:20] No?

Isi:
[16:21] No.

Mitch:
[16:21] Can I watch it? Should I describe what's going on?

Isi:
[16:25] Do you see it now?

Mitch:
[16:26] Oh, it's already creepy. It's grainy footage. She's pressing all the - she literally pressed all the buttons in the lift. Is this real? The lift isn't moving. She's now getting out of the lift.Oh, she's like looking at someone like - oh wow. She like, quickly jolted forward and looked left and right. Now she's hiding behind the door of the lift, like someone's coming. The lift door still hasn't closed because she's pressed all the buttons. Oh this is creepy. She keeps on sort of going backwards and forwards in and out of the lift door. She's sort of like strafed out of sight of the lift. Now she's going back in again. She's pressing all the buttons again. Now she's leaving and she's like stroking something, in the air and doing like, hand gestures. (Okay.) And that's it.

Isi:
[17:21] I guess it's a crime scene and not a Halloween story. Maybe she saw a murder happening in the hallway.

Mitch:
[17:30] Oh, maybe.

Isi:
[17:30] And she wanted to get back into it, and then she was killed because she saw it. That's my interpretation of the whole thing.

Mitch:
[17:38] Ever since Netflix started making these crime documentaries, all these things creep the hell out of me. People are a little bit too used to seeing these weird things.

Isi:
[17:47] This is my... I don't know how we edit this later, but this is my... this is my thing. If we, if we don't put your story in James, and I say it now, this was too much for the podcast. Thank you for the story, but we can't play this. We don't want to scare people, completely. Your piano story was definitely milder. Okay. Thank you, James, for sharing. So we asked on Instagram in the story for podcast questions and we got some and one would like us to answer today.

Mitch:
[18:18] We have one from someone called David, and David wanted to know; what do Brits know of neighbour languages, Welsh, Gaelic, Cornish, etc?

Isi:
[18:32] That's for you to answer.

Mitch:
[18:34] It's a simple answer. We know nothing about them.

Isi:
[18:40] That's not true. Well, I think it... I mean, I would say it depends on if you live in that region, right?

Mitch:
[18:47] Yeah, I mean, obviously Welsh people are British, Cornish people are also British, Gaelic; yeah, here and there.

Isi:
[18:59] Where's Gaelic? There's different Gaelic's, right?

Mitch:
[19:03] If you type in Gaelic, here we go, is Gaelic Scottish or Irish? The term Gaelic as a language applies only to the language of Scotland.

Isi:
[19:12] Oh, okay. Really?

Mitch:
[19:14] If you're not in Ireland, it's permissible to refer to the language as Irish Gaelic, to differentiate it from Scottish Gaelic.

Isi:
[19:23] So you can call it Irish Gaelic?

Mitch:
[19:25] Depending on where you are, I think. If you're in Scotland, you'd call it Irish Gaelic. If you're in Ireland, you'd call it Scottish Gaelic.

Isi:
[19:31] I once started learning Irish Gaelic.

Mitch:
[19:33] Okay, that's what I'm aware of more than Scottish Gaelic, I think.

Isi:
[19:38] And, what is Welsh then?

Mitch:
[19:40] Welsh is just craziness. It's just...

Isi:
[19:42] No, is it Gaelic though as well? No, then?

Mitch:
[19:45] Welsh is just consonants and no vowels. Do you want me to tell you how to say good morning in Scottish Gaelic?

Isi:
[19:51] Yes, please.

Mitch:
[19:53] Madyn maith. Madyn maith.

Isi:
[19:58] Sounds good, doesn't it?

Mitch:
[20:00] It does. Hello is hello in Welsh.

Isi:
[20:07] Is it in Wales as well? I haven't been to Wales. Are there street signs in Welsh? Probably.

Mitch:
[20:12] Yeah, yeah, in Wales also they do English and Welsh. Here's a nice one in Welsh. Yaki da.

Isi:
[20:18] What does that mean?

Mitch:
[20:20] It's like saying cheers. Yaki da. I'm sure if you go on YouTube you'll find ways to hear all these

Easy English has started a Discord channel for you to chat with the duo and all other Easy English members to help improve YOUR English. Mitch and Isi then talk about the upcoming Easy English tour up t'north! The two then move to spooky season and discuss how the Brits and US citizens celebrate Halloween. Isi becomes a trick'or'treat hostess while Mitch becomes a Jedi. He then brings you a spooky tale of a haunted piano in a Basement, ft. Sir Elton John.

Interactive Transcript

Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Show Notes

Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:46] Oh! IS there's a typical sentence a English witch would say?

Mitch:
[0:51] Fly, my pretties!

Isi:
[0:56] It's actually not yet Halloween. When this comes out, it's Halloween tomorrow. But maybe you listen to it on Halloween.

Mitch:
[1:02] Maybe. And you're having a spooky day. (Okay, enough of that.)

Isi:
[1:11] So here we are.

Mitch:
[1:12] Welcome. We do actually have a Halloween themed episode today, but...

Isi:
[1:18] But, we have an Easy English update before.
Easy English Updates
Mitch:
[1:27] Easy English is going on tour! Yeah? (Yeah.) Ah yeah. Easy English has a Discord channel!

Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Today, Mitch and Isi discuss all things fruit; the horrors of hairy fruits and mushy apples, Mitch's preference for a cold and crunchy banana, watermelon life-hacks, surviving on coconuts, the versatilities of apples and question; what the hell a lemon posset is and if Halle Berry is actually a fruit?

Interactive Transcript

Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] 12345678.

Isi:
[0:05] 12645678 What? 1264567.

Mitch:
[0:12] Easy English!

Intro

Mitch:
[0:34] (Hello!) Hiya, welcome to the new episode of the Easy English Podcast. That is so formal.

Isi:
[0:39] I don't like to look at you while we record it. I have to laugh.

Mitch:
[0:44] We're so far away again.

Isi:
[0:46] Hello, down there, in the hallway.

Mitch:
[0:49] Yeah, it feels like we're in a hallway.

Isi:
[0:51] I will just directly say it. Mitch, We had The Big Veg Show (The Veg Cast. ) The Veg Cast. I hope people enjoyed it because I said it already, what comes this week. And it's The Big, Big Fruit Show.

Mitch:
[1:05] The Fruit Show, The Veg Cast and The Fruit Show.

Isi:
[1:07] Yeah, we couldn't do it both last time, so we need to talk about fruits.

Mitch:
[1:11] It wouldn't have been fair, though, to have thrown fruits on the ends of veg, because fruits don't... shouldn't be disrespected like that.

Isi:
[1:17] But fruits have a better life. Most of them are very sugary, so people usually like them more than veg. I would say.

Mitch:
[1:25] But we're savoury people. No, that sounds like... (We are savoury people.) That's actually a compliment. Because you can be a very unsavoury.

Isi:
[1:33] Will you make us a drink? Because I wanna ask our listeners for something, in between.

Mitch:
[1:37] Okay, feels like you're booting me out of the room, to say something private.

Isi:
[1:41] No, I just want a drink.

Mitch:
[1:42] If you'd like to listen to this podcast, without Mitch, give us a thumbs up.

Isi:
[1:46] What I wanted to ask, today is a little bit of a favour. You might know that, in podcast apps, where you listen to us. Um, there are several of podcast apps. It does help, if you give us a review of our podcast, on some apps you can leave a comment about our podcast. And this interaction, if you give like, a response to our podcast, will help others to find our podcast. So, if you could just today, if you like our podcast, take a second out of your day and see in your app where you can leave us
a review, a comment, a rating That will be fantastic. It's weird to ask for things, but I think it would be really, really, really nice if you could help us with this. Anyway, and also, if you have questions for our podcast or for us, write us an email to podcast@english.video or on easyenglish.fm. You can also leave us an audio message. We have a section called 'Unhelpful Advice' and we are still waiting for your problems and issues to solve. Okay, now Mitch is back and we can go on with fruits. (Is margarita a fruit?)
Topic of the Week

Isi:
[3:09] I have a few questions first, and then I would guide you through the world of fruits. Um, what is... (Come with me.) What is your favourite fruit?

Mitch:
[3:14] Off the top of my head, I'm thinking strawberries, but it probably isn't. But strawberries are just like, a solid fruit.

Isi:
[3:21] So I wanted to say peach, I really like a really good peach, but peach can be really shit as well.

Mitch:
[3:32] I know what yours is and it's my like, curveball, because when you... when you think of fruits, you think of sweetness. But I think, actually, if we were to really go into it, what fruit we eat the most, especially you, It would be a sour fruit.

Isi:
[3:48] Lemon. Yeah, lemon is probably my favourite fruit because I eat it most.

Mitch:
[3:53] It's my favourite pudding. Anything with lemon?

Isi:
[3:54] I love citrus fruits. Anyway, I love lime, love oranges... favourite pudding.

Mitch:
[3:59] Yeah. Anything with a lemon on it. (Lemon cake.) Lemon drizzle, for shizzle, ma nizzle, Lemon cheesecake.

Isi:
[4:05] Lemon posset. (Lemon posset.) Posset. Posset. Such a thing I've learned in England. Um, with watching 'Come Dine With Me'. Everybody does a lemon posset. It sounds so posh.
I don't even know really what it is. It's a lemon cream or something. A lemon posset And they're always like; "for dessert, I have a lemon posset". And then you hear the other people talking in the off later in the car, and they're like; "a lemon posset, everybody's doing a lemon lemon posset and hers was not particularly good".

Mitch:
[4:38] I don't know what it is either. We should make one, just to sound fancy.

Isi:
[4:42] Lemon posset.

Mitch:
[4:43] Last night we had a lemon posset. Wasn't it just absolutely delightful, lemon posset.

Isi:
[4:47] I'll look it up now.

Mitch:
[4:48] I'm always very disappointed by nectarines.

Isi:
[4:53] Yeah! (Yeah.) Good nectarines are good.

Mitch:
[4:55] Yeah, but that's the... that's my I've never had a fully ripe one. I think ever.

Isi:
[5:01] I just looked up my least favourite fruit, and it's not in my list. So, we we have to do the list together. Um, a gooseberry

Mitch:
[5:10] You don't like gooseberries?

Isi:
[5:11] No, they're hairy. They're a weird mix of sweet and sour. And you know what they are... mushy.

Mitch:
[5:18] Er... mushy.

Isi:
[5:20] Don't like mushy foods at all. Mushy apples; urgh! Mushy bananas; urgh!

Mitch:
[5:26] Yeah. Oh, yeah! That That's my pet peeve. I love bananas, but they have to be kind of, not quite ripe.

Isi:
[5:37] No, yours are the least ripe I've ever seen.

Mitch:
[5:40] And in the fridge. Cold and crunchy. And probably my least favourite fruit is like a warm, mushy banana. Urgh! Urgh! Oh, I feel sick. Yours is gooseberry, because they're a bit hairy.

Isi:
[5:57] Yeah, gooseberry and my favourite. I don't know if my favourite would be lemon, but it has to be, because that's what I eat most.

Mitch:
[6:02] Uh, when you say a hairy fruit is a bit gross, isn't it? Like, have you ever eaten a kiwi? And you've forgotten to take off a little bit of the skin? And you're like, Ugh, what is that? And it's a bit of a hairy skin.

Isi:
[6:11] Actually, I recently learned that a lot of people eat it with the skin. You can eat the skin. You just eat it like that.

Mitch:
[6:16] That's disgusting.

Isi:
[6:17] OK, my favourites are strawberry, peach, mango, lemon.

Mitch:
[6:21] Yeah. Oh, I have one as well. Sorry. Do we have time for this last one? (No, we do.) I really want to use it more, but I don't know how to use it. And maybe, if anyone has a good recipe or a good way to like, cook it or prepare it. I really, really like rhubarb.

Isi:
[6:38] I love rhubarb. (I love the taste of rhubarb.) Rhubarb season is at the same time as strawberry.

Mitch:
[6:44] Oh, really? (I think so.) But I don't really know how to do it, but maybe someone who's listening can send us either a voice message to easyenglish.fm or write to us at podcast@easyenglish.video.

Isi:
[6:57] Yeah. Um... how do you? Yeah, how do you eat rhubarb in England? I've only seen it in cakes in... in Germany, I can just say we cook it, with a hell lot of sugar. (Where? In the oven or in a pan?) in a in a pot. (In a pot?) Yeah, you cook it and it kind of gets like this soupy, slimy mass. Sounds disgusting. It's quite good. And you can eat it with strawberries or with like, a vanilla sauce or something like this. Let's go now, through the berries. Strawberry, we already talked about. (Good berry.) Blueberry.

Mitch:
[7:28] I really like blueberries.

Isi:
[7:32] You like it more than me. We eat it basically every day. I still eat them. They're nice.

Mitch:
[7:36] Blueberry muffin.

Isi:
[7:38] Yeah, but you know what I don't like? And you often do it. Blueberry smoothies.

Mitch:
[7:43] Oh, I love the blueberry smoothy.

Isi:
[7:44] Too much blueberry. Then it is overbearing, isn't it? I like blueberries, I like them... I actually like both parts of them. Some are like, really big and not so sour, but really like, fresh. And then there're the little ones, that are super sour, both are good.

Mitch:
[7:58] Blueberries are... is a not safe for work fruit because, the skin always manages to sort of, somehow wrap itself around your teeth.

Isi:
[8:05] Mm, Yeah. And what is very English and maybe you can say how it's used here, is blackcurrant.

Mitch:
[8:15] Just someone saying blackcurrant makes you think of being like three years old with a glass of blackcurrant squash. I'm sure many other kids from the who grew up in the nineties, might think of that.

Isi:
[8:25] Which are the ones that we often see on our walks. Just recently, we saw a lot of them. They look like raspberries, but black.

Mitch:
[8:32] Oh, isn't that a gooseberry (No.) Blackberry? Yeah. Must be.

Isi:
[8:36] Like you don't know what a gooseberry is. Google Gooseberry now, so that you understand my.

Mitch:
[8:42] Goose... berry. They're not hairy.

Isi:
[8:47] They are hairy.

Mitch:
[8:49] Yeah? In this, they're not. Wait, it looks a bit like a grape. Which ones are hairy, though? Hairy fruits. Google is suggesting; "Are you thinking of Halle Berry?"

Isi:
[9:09] We stop with the berries, I'm not educated enough on berries. So citrus fruits, love citrus fruits.

Mitch:
[9:13] Yeah, absolutely. I have an issue, though. That I've never figured out, is that I don't know the difference between an orange, a tangerine and a clementine. I couldn't tell you what was what, or are they all types of oranges? Are clementines also oranges? And... is that what it is?

Isi:
[9:32] Clementines are the ones that you eat around like... (But is it an orange?) in winter and around Christmas and you peel them, right? That's clementines. Well yeah, I guess they're part of an orange. Then you have. Do you know kumquats?

Mitch:
[9:43] Yeah. Is that an orange? (Yeah. Blood oranges.) Oh, nice in a cocktail.

Isi:
[9:49] Valencia oranges. Best for juicing. Tangerines, juice for sweeter take on orange juice. Okay.

Mitch:
[9:56] Really, Tangerine?

Isi:
[9:58] Navel. Navel oranges, most common variety. And Seville/Seville Oranges. Perfect for marmalades. There you go. But these are the... that was the ultimate guide to winter oranges and tangerines. So there must be others as well.

Mitch:
[10:14] Right. Oranges is like the franchise. And then inside the franchise, there's different types. (Businesses of oranges.)

Isi:
[10:24] Ok, lime; amazing. (Love limes.) Ah, lime on... in drinks, on food. Basically, you can... you can put a bit of lime juice on nearly every food and it's good.

Mitch:
[10:35] Yeah. Really.

Isi:
[10:36] Melons. What's your favourite melon?

Mitch:
[10:41] Oh, I only know water and just like the yellow... what are the yellow melons called? (It says your honey dew.) Honey melon?

Isi:
[10:49] I like most, honey. (Really?) And then watermelon.

Mitch:
[10:51] More than... really.

Isi:
[10:54] Yeah, because I... I came to terms with watermelon, because you like it a lot. And we often have it in summer. And it's nice. It has to be good. We learnt how they have to look, but cannot explain it now, because I already forgot.

Mitch:
[11:06] Life hack. Not what you expect. It's the opposite of what you're expecting.

Isi:
[11:10] Yeah. Look it up. Google it. (The less round) How should the watermelon look?

Mitch:
[11:12] The less circular, the better, right? I think it was.

Isi:
[11:16] I think, yeah. And it should even be a bit yellow and weird.

Mitch:
[11:18] Yeah, circle and green is just not good. It has to be sort of like oblong and a bit brown and a bit yellow, I think.

Isi:
[11:25] Well, look it up yourself, please. I hope you don't have guarantees on that. So watermelon is nice. I like watermelon a lot, in a combination with, like, um, savoury, um, like feta, for example.

Mitch:
[11:36] Oh, yeah. Good shout

Isi:
[11:37] Um, feta cheese, watermelon, some balsamic... (Glaze.) glaze. And, um, some mint leafs. So, that's really good.

Mitch:
[11:50] I love the glaze. We should get that on Asda.

Isi:
[11:53] I'm getting hungry again. We always do this before food. Um, and but honey is also good. Also good with cheese. (Honey's not fruit!) Uh, honey melon, sorry. That also works very well. People that eat meat often eat it with, uh, in Germany, at least with ham. (Really?) That works very well, yeah.

Mitch:
[12:12] Oh yeah, we have ham and pineapple.

Isi:
[12:14] See. Stone fruits, Mitch. Cherries.

Mitch:
[12:19] I like cherries. (Like, or love?) Just like, 'cos you... It's a lot of. Is that when you're eating, there's a lot of this noise, like this. Not for say, for work, either. Just like the... blueberry.

Isi:
[12:41] Yeah, I'm not a big fan of cherries. I have to say I eat them, but I don't buy them, ever.

Mitch:
[12:47] I don't know what you do with it. They're selfish veg... like, fruits right? They don't really go with anything else, do they? What have you ever had a cherry with?

Isi:
[12:54] Yeah. And also like, cherry juice or so. It's too intense. Um, OK, we go in the world of tropical fruits. Bananas, we already talked about. (Yeah!) Coconuts, we had coconut yoghurt today.

Mitch:
[13:05] Coconut milk, I like. Coconut milk in any Asian dish.

Isi:
[13:11] Yeah, coconut milk is good. Do you like coconut meat or flesh? Or how do you call that?

Mitch:
[13:18] Doesn't it give you diarrhoea? (No! you've never eaten coconut?) I played a survival game once on the PlayStation. And if you... If you eat too many, you have diarrhoea for two days.

Isi:
[13:28] Oh dear, Oh! You know, Amarula is from the marula fruit.

Mitch:
[13:34] Oh, I love Amarula.

Isi:
[13:36] And I think the fruit is eaten by elephants. And that's why the big elephant is on it.

Mitch:
[13:40] Ah, that makes sense. Amarula fruit.

Isi:
[13:44] What do we forget? Oh, well, we forgot the big, I think the, the fruits of both our nations, probably. (Go on.) What is the... the fruit, that exactly now you get.

Mitch:
[14:00] Potatoes aren't fruit. The fruit of our nation? Both our nations?

Isi:
[14:08] Apples.

Mitch:
[14:09] Oh yeah, how did I not think about that.

Isi:
[14:12] Apples are eaten all day, every day. Apple juice, apple sauce. Apple sauce is a very English thing. Oh no, actually very German, too. With Reibekuchen.

Mitch:
[14:19] I tell you what is a very English thing with apples. (Apple mint sauce.) Cider.

Isi:
[14:26] Cider. Yeah, you see, it is a fruit of your nation.

Mitch:
[14:28] Have you ever had a proper cider?

Isi:
[14:32] Uh, I have... I have had cider... (Not Strongbow.) recently, at at our friends in London. I had cider.

Mitch:
[14:38] Did you? Oh, yeah, you did.

Isi:
[14:39] Yeah, a tiny glass, a cute little, tiny glass to try it. But it was too sweet for my liking.

Mitch:
[14:45] Oh God. Doesn't it make you realise that western... northwestern fruits are so boring, in comparison? Do you know what I mean? Do you think there are Mexican people saying; "Oh, do you know what I really love? Apples."

Isi:
[14:58] Maybe. Yeah, for sure. (No.) Yes.

Mitch:
[14:59] No. Not when you've got limes. I'm jealous. Let's go live in Mexico and just drink margaritas and mojitos all day. (Maybe we should do that. You know.) Caipirinhas.

Isi:
[15:10] We had apples today in our big yoghurt, with different fruits. Then it's OK. Um, the apples that I had were really small apples and like, red and green. And they were like, I only like apples when they are sour and hard. No mushy, no sweet, no nothing.

Mitch:
[15:25] Oh, really? Uh, we never talked about this. How have we never spoken about our favourite type of apple.

Isi:
[15:32] I know. I like Blackburn. (Blackburn?) Braeburn. Sorry. (Blackburn!) Blackburn is a place here. Bra. Braeburn, Braeburn, Braeburn.

Mitch:
[15:42] And what's your least favourite? Oh, there's actually way more than I ever heard.

Isi:
[15:45] I don't know what the mushy ones are called.

Mitch:
[15:48] I hate a pink lady.

Isi:
[15:50] Aren't they not mushy.

Mitch:
[15:52] They can get pretty mushy. That and a jazz. (Mashy, or mushy?) Mushy. That and a jazz apple. I like a Granny Smith.

Isi:
[16:01] Are those the green ones. (The green hard sour, more sour ones. ) Mm. Yeah, that's better. I also don't really like, uh, apple juice. Apple sauce, yes. Apple sauce was a good Reibekuchen. Which is like a... basically like a... hash browns. It's a bit like a big hash brown, isn't it? With apples.

Mitch:
[16:16] Yeah, that's right. Deep fried eggy, soaked, potato. (Grated potato.) Grated potato with egg and...

Isi:
[16:24] Made into like a dough with egg and...

Mitch:
[16:24] Did you know there's so many... one, two... there's Granny Smith, Fuji, Pink Lady, Honey Crisp, Envy, Gala, Pazazz, Jazz, Red Delicious, Braeburn, Cameo, Holston, Golden Delicious, Lady Alice, Hidden Rose Ambrosia... there's so many apples.

Isi:
[16:44] Oh, yeah. Jazz apple. I just see it here.

Mitch:
[16:45] 25 types of apples. Incredible.

Isi:
[16:48] Probably even more.

Mitch:
[16:49] Can I tell you one you've not mentioned yet, which I really like. I love plantain.

Isi:
[16:55] Ooh, I love plantain, too. Is that a fruit or a veg?

Mitch:
[16:58] Isn't it just a savoury banana?

Isi:
[17:01] Yeah, it is, but, uh, it's not the same as a... it's not... it's not the same as a banana.

Mitch:
[17:05] Mm. In, uh, England, because of Jamaican, uh, connections. Empiric connections, I might... might add. uh, it's quite often you can find plantain. And specifically, one thing I love. I'm not in ages. Plantain crisps. Salted plantain crisps.

Isi:
[17:22] Hm. So good. I love plantain. Absolutely love it. Plantain, you can also have sweet, by the way, if you wait long enough, you can also bake them.

Mitch:
[17:31] Oh right, maybe that's what I should get instead of bananas.

Isi:
[17:35] Hm... you cannot have them in your yoghurt. Um, do you... do you, uh, know a pomelo? I don't know if it if this is in English the same. It's written the same as I would say it in German. It's pomelo. (You know it?) Yeah. ( What is that?) Pomelo. Um, Google it.

Mitch:
[17:54] Po... pomelo, pomelo?

Isi:
[17:55] I mean, yeah, it looks a bit like a melon from outside. It is more like an orange. (Oh, yeah, it does.) Or like a grapefruit. Look from inside. It looks more.

Mitch:
[18:03] It has segments as well.

Isi:
[18:04] It has segments like oranges or grapefruits, and it is very dry. You can really break off the segments, sometimes. It's not that all the juice... like, it's not messy. Um, I like it, it's super, super healthy. I think.

Mitch:
[18:19] It has anti-aging properties. (You see!) Fights cancer.

Isi:
[18:22] Better get to know about it. Yeah. No, it's really healthy. It's really good. I mean, this list is long. I could now just, go up and down with it. Sweet Dakota rose watermelon.

Mitch:
[18:35] People gonna ask; what... what did you do on your Friday night?

Isi:
[18:38] Tawa tawa, tawa tawa. I don't know. Uh, what do we do?

Mitch:
[18:43] You'll never guess what. We had a wild night. (What is a Thornberry?) We spoke about fruit.

Isi:
[18:44] I've heard of a thornberry. I think we have to stop The Big Fruit Cast now.

Mitch:
[18:54] Fruit Show?

Isi:
[18:54] Um, OK, we have to stop this now. The fruits are taking over my mind. Um, it was nice to talk to you about fruits.

Mitch:
[19:04] Yeah, I feel like I know you better now that I know that you like a Granny Smith.

Isi:
[19:07] I... I don't even know a Granny Smith. (Oh, you said you like the green ones.) Ah so, yeah. Ah so.

Mitch:
[19:09] Ah so. Sour fruits, are the best kind of fruits.

Isi:
[19:16] Sour foods in general, yeah. Yeah, everything has to be sour, not bananas, though.

Mitch:
[19:21] Cheers to that, on

Stolen from an Easy German Podcast episode, Mitch and Isi talk vegetables. They decide what is an A-lister vegetable and an SAS vegetable. They ponder if can you do anything with sprouts and why celery taste between horseradish and toothpaste. They talk about the infamous seasonal greens, the best type of potatoes, how to cook without meat... and onions and Mitch reveals his deep, deep, resentful hatred for parsnips.

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Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:24] (Morning.) Good morning. Wow, it's the first Easy English podcast with a coffee.

Isi:
[0:29] Yeah, do you think our voice, my voice is weird?

Mitch:
[0:31] Yeah.

Isi:
[0:32] This is me, Isi. It's a bit harsh, isn't it? Okay, morning, morning podcast, with a coffee.

Mitch:
[0:42] And a blues, a blues voice.

Isi:
[0:44] A blues voice. I have a really good topic. Which I really wanted to do. And you maybe, don't believe that it's a good topic. It's actually stolen. I have heard it on the Easy German Podcast before. And I was a big fan of it, because I was so amazed of how much this topic gives you. I think it could even be two episodes, Mitch.

Mitch:
[1:09] Yeah, I'm a believer.

Isi:
[1:12] So this will be about veg and fruits. We are talking about different fruits and veg, we're obviously telling you how they're called in English, we will see if we like them, what we do with them, if we hate them. We're vegetarians, so we do eat a lot of veg and fruits, which doesn't mean that, if you're not a vegetarian you don't eat a lot of veg and fruits. But we love it, so we will go through all of them, not through all of them, there are lot of... I have some lists in front of me. There are a lot of veg and fruit that I've never heard of.

Mitch:
[1:50] There are fruits and veg from England and Germany that we wouldn't know?

Isi:
[1:54] Well, I just have lists that, I think, include everything, of the world. Should I do only fruits and veg of England? No.

Mitch:
[2:01] I think England and Germany probably have something similar. Before we start, can we play a game? How many vegetables do you think you can name in 30 seconds?

Isi:
[2:13] Vegetables?

Mitch:
[2:13] Just vegetables. (Six) i can name seven. (Eight.) You sure? (Yeah.) in 30 seconds? Nine.

Isi:
[2:26] Let me go through them again.

Mitch:
[2:28] No, that's not the point.

Isi:
[2:29] Of course we know much more.

Mitch:
[2:31] Yeah, but saying it, making it come to your mind in 30 seconds is stressful. (10.) Okay, bet. Liar. (Okay.) Are you ready? I get a timer. (Yeah.) Okay, lining up 30 seconds. Stop thinking of vegetables. Oh no, and fruits.

Isi:
[2:46] I'm a blackout. (Ready?) Fruits as well? That's too easy. We said veg.

Mitch:
[2:51] Okay, vegetables. Are you ready? (Oh yeah.) Three, two, one.

Isi:
[2:55] Tomato, pepper, courgette, aubergine, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, bean sprouts, rocket, carrots. Did I do carrots already? I did carrots already. (You've already done more than nine.) No, it wasn't. No, ten I have to say.

Mitch:
[3:09] Is it ten? One more vegetable. One more veg! Eight seconds, seven seconds. One more vegetable, there's so many! Five, four, three. (Beetroot.) Yeah! Oh, it's stressful, isn't it?

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We begin with a cocktail based ASMR session before Mitch and Isi discuss their love of charity shops... or, how Mitch "coined it" a chazza! They discuss Isi's mass donations, how you can't donate panties, what makes them different to vintage/thrift shops, militant chazza ideologists and how tender loving care has nothing to do with the 90's girl-power group, TLC. The duo then discuss their latest YouTube video on pub culture in the Past Week's Video section as Mitch gives tips on finding and drinking the best English ales... for FREE!?

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Show Notes

Transcript

Intro
Isi:
[0:24] Let's start. (ASMR) I do it wrong. My ice cubes are not really... They're just banging against each other. It should be... the glass is not so easy to swing though, like a wine, you know? Ah there, oh god. It's a shared, isn't it?

Mitch:
[0:56] It's supposed to be healing bowls from...

Isi:
[1:02] I have it better. Stop yours, mine is good. (Yeah?) It's like, how do they call it? Glass music or so. (No, there's like...) You use your fingers.

Mitch:
[1:13] There's monks...

Isi:
[1:15] Yeah.

Mitch:
[1:15] Healing bowls.

Isi:
[1:17] No, they do this with glasses too. Now my glass is super cold.

Mitch:
[1:26] And now you're asleep.

Isi:
[1:28] I feel a bit sleepy now. Okay, let's go.

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Isi tests Mitch's resolve as she puts the British politeness on trial. She tests him with some awkward real-world scenarios. Afterwards, the duo discuss words that don't translate into German and which language Isi, a German native feels more comfortable with, in this week's Unhelpful Advice... to improve your English, become a Podcast Member to get the Interactive Transcript and help support Mitch & Isi... ta.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:25] (Hello Mitch!) Hello! (Hello!) What did someone say to us recently? Oh no, we were watching Sex and City and they tried to make it out like, her and Samantha were friends. Ta! Ta!

Isi:
[0:38] Oh because she lives in London now, or so. She was in London. Ta's not American, is it?

Mitch:
[0:42] Yeah, it's English, but no one says ta to say goodbye. They were looking for te-ra!

Isi:
[0:46] It was really odd.

Mitch:
[0:47] They both said ta back to each other, both in a very bad, fake English way.

Isi:
[0:52] By the way, that was, And Just Like That, not Sex and the City. Did anyone watch this? What are your thoughts? So you got topics, I got a topic. What do we do first, Mitch?

Mitch:
[1:02] I think we should do your topic. (Yeah!?) Your Topic of the Week.

Isi:
[1:07] Mine is the main topic, yeah. (Okay.)

Topic of the Week
Isi:
[1:17] We have talked about this a few times, but we recently, also talked about it in our conversation call with our Conversation Members. We had a conversation call about do's and don'ts in British culture, but also in the culture of our members' home countries. So we talked about a lot of things that you should do or not do in daily life, in restaurants, in just like, social life, basically. And we came up again, with, I think, even my, because Germany and England are not so far away culturally, but there are some distinct differences. What? Why am I going to? And there's one that I have mentioned a few times, which is the only one I think that sometimes gets a bit on my nerves, is that people are so beating around the bush and so not...

Mitch:
[2:17] Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Beating around the bush.

Isi:
[2:20] Yeah, please explain.

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Isi and Mitch are sleepy. But using the power of a Madeira cake they just bought, the duo talk about the highlights from their most recent holiday, reflecting on the culture shocks their friends experienced whilst riding double-decker buses and shopping in the UK. For this week's Topic of the Week, they talk about the benefits and negatives of shopping in the real and digitalised world.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:28] Can I tell the... we're in a bit of a sleepy mood today, because we didn't sleep much last night and we're just in this like super stupid mood. So much so that, I don't know how it came about, but you... you... you wanted to go to a supermarket, we drove 15 minutes so you could buy black nail polish and when you... first of all... (We didn't go for that there, we wanted to go to a home store, like to a DIY store.) Yeah, also just to buy a light switch, a little pulley light switch.

Isi:
[0:55] I think we just needed to have like, a good job to do.

Mitch:
[0:57] Yeah, we needed some fresh air. And you, not only came out only with nail polish, but you actually when you left you went to take a picture of a seagull, which took forever, because you had to delete data off your phone. But when you came back with your nail polish, you'd randomly just bought a lemon Madeira cake. (I did. I saw it and I was thought this is what we need today.) Yeah but, you thought good to have today after we've eaten our dinner at home. But then what happened?

Isi:
[1:27] Then we decided... we went to a dog park then and parked our car there, which is also like a football park and to run Nola... to run Nola? To walk Nola or to let her run, and then we decided both, we want a bite of this cake, which is not so it's not a cake like like a round cake. It is a long cake.

Mitch:
[1:49] But it's massive, still.

Isi:
[1:51] Not so massive. It's easy to unpack. And we both tried to bite off that cake.

Mitch:
[1:58] In this grotty football pitch car park.

Isi:
[2:01] Like bloody idiots. And then we both were like; ah, this is... we cannot really do this. We were just so tired and I think we just needed sugar. We were both a bit like, shaky and like...

Mitch:
[2:12] I'm going back that way now, I feel it.

Isi:
[2:14] Yeah, and then I looked to the right and there was someone just sitting next to me, in the car watching us trying to eat that cake. And then we had a complete laugh, how do you call that in English? A complete laugh attack. (A fit. We were in fits of laughter.) Oh God, we couldn't stop it. We were just crying of laughter.

Mitch:
[2:32] We could just see it from his perspective. He was obviously just like, probably texting his wife like, oh, you know, just at the football practice with son, look over, and he's like, there's just two idiots, basically, just sat in a car, looking knackered and their dog's desperate for a pee and they're just stuffing their faces with Madeira cake.

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This week, Mitch can't control his joy at the thought of Hugh Grant playing Oompa Loompas in the new Willy Wonka "Chocoladen Kraftwerk" movie. Isi shows her extensive knowledge of English history and culture with a quiz designed by Mitch... do you know what birds are OWNED by the royal family?! And the duo discuss Indian culture and its place in British culture and history after publishing their latest episode asking what Brits think of Indians.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Hiya!

Isi:
[0:24] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:26] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:29] Will we always start like this now?

Mitch:
[0:31] And now I do it as a southerner. The podcast. Welcome. Let's start it.

Isi:
[0:36] Do you think people hear that Nola's at my mic?

Mitch:
[0:38] Maybe. Do you know who I just realised I sound a bit like?

Isi:
[0:41] You?

Mitch:
[0:42] Hugh.

Isi:
[0:44] You? You try to... yeah?

Mitch:
[0:46] You sound like Hugh.

Isi:
[0:48] Me? I'm very confused. I sound like Hugh Grant?

Mitch:
[0:51] No, the way I spoke like this, is like Hugh, Hugh Grant.

Isi:
[0:54] But what, you or me?

Mitch:
[0:57] No, Hugh.

Isi:
[0:58] Stop this! You're annoying.

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This week, Mitch and Isi detail their trip to the capital city, working their way around the various districts, debating the claustrophobia and feelings of being insignificant living amongst millions in the big city and generally discussing the pros and cons of metropolis life. Prior to this, Mitch tells a creepy fever-dream tale about his Croatian travel experience. Isa responds after the duo "helped" her figure out the difference between the pronunciation of 'can't' and the c-word in this week's Unhelpful Advice. And the duo then recommend Brighton as the best place in the UK to celebrate Pride.

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:23] Let's go!

Mitch:
[0:24] Let's go. Can I tell a story?

Isi:
[0:27] Did you want to say hello or so?

Mitch:
[0:28] Oh yeah, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode number 20. (Ooh!) Wow.

Isi:
[0:34] Wow.

Mitch:
[0:37] 20 episodes. Okay, my story...

Isi:
[0:43] I want to tell a story.

Mitch:
[0:44] You want to tell a story? I want to tell a story.

Isi:
[0:46] You have to... It's not to me. You want to tell a story?

Mitch:
[0:50] So professional, this podcast, isn't it? That's what everyone has been saying after 20 episodes; that we are professional, professional podcasters.
We refer to Nola as the baby. Sometimes we say, where's the baby?
And... or I say it, because it refers to a story I have.
And I just thought, oh, I have never told you this story, but it's a weird one.
Once I went on holiday to Croatia and went with some friends, and I got ill, quite soon into the holiday, like just flu symptoms, basically.
And they decided to go white water rafting and I couldn't go annoyingly... bugger, because I was so ill.
And we were staying in a B&B, but before Airbnb really existed.
And the B&B we stayed in had a cleaner. And, I can't remember her name for the life of me.
But, she would come in the daytime when we'd already gone out and done stuff, because I think they usually come at like 11, 12, we'd already be gone. And I remember, I was in bed, just like, the blanket curled up towards my face, just completely out of it.
And I heard like, the key going for the front door. I was like; oh, who the hell is this? And then I heard like; "hello? Hello?" I was like; "hi".
And; "hello, hello", I was like; "I'm in here".
And then I just heard like the sound of general cleaning noises.
(Ah so, she didn't know you were there.) She had no idea I was in, I think.
And then, she finally like got to like, the bedroom where I was, we were all staying in the same bedroom.
It was like six, five of us, six, five of us, all staying in one bedroom, like a bedsit.
And she came in, whoo, the hoover, whoop, and went; "oh!" And I was like: "hello".
And she went; "oh no". I was like, ah. And then she said, I was like really ill.
I was like; "I'm very sick". And she went; "oh, you look like a little baby".
And I was like; "yeah I'm really ill. I'm so sorry". And she's like; "it's no problem". So she left.
And yeah, I was ill again the next day. And, I was like asleep in a bit of like a fever dream. And then I heard again, the keys going to the front door and then the door shut and I heard; "where's the baby?"

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Maybz? Tomoz? Footy? Hottie-bottie? Mitch has prepared a little game about abbreviations for Isi this week as the couple discuss their most recent Conversation Membership pub call, the upcoming cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and answer a controversial question in this week's Unhelpful Advice section.

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:24] Hiya, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:28] Very official. (Very official today.) It's weird that we look at each other. Why do we look at each other? Do we normally look at each other?

Mitch:
[0:34] We do, but usually with about a meter separation. Now, how far away are we from each other?

Isi:
[0:39] Four meters. It's actually not that long, but far. And we are not in the darkness any more.

Mitch:
[0:45] Oh yeah, we're out of the cave.

Isi:
[0:47] We're out of the cave.

Mitch:
[0:49] Trying to understand what expressions you have, which is quite difficult from this far away. happiness. Oh no, that's like, craziness.

Isi:
[0:58] Well, well, well, I wanted to have a little meeting, before our podcast, to check what we talk about. But again, it will be a surprise to me. Do you do this on purpose?

Mitch:
[1:10] Yeah, I actually have a game for you.

Isi:
[1:12] Yeah. Is it about music?

Mitch:
[1:15] No, it's about English slang. (Oh, God.) Should we do it? Okay.

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It's Glastonbury week as Isi sums up the headliners in one word while Mitch details his raclette infused bath experience with ganja-wizards at the world famous festival. The two discuss their hatred for the term 'bucket list' and whilst Mitch stops the house from burning down, Isi auditions for the BBC as they answer your questions in an extended Unhelpful Advice section.

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Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:24] Welcome to another episode of the Easy English Cave Podcast. The last, the last of the podcast from the lonely cave.

Isi:
[0:34] Well you hope so. I will only believe it when I see it.

Mitch:
[0:37] Yeah, we will be given literal and metaphorical daylight.

Isi:
[0:42] We will live in daylight again.

Mitch:
[0:43] Wow.

Isi:
[0:44] Like those luxurious people do.

Mitch:
[0:47] Like the people from the outside. So today, we have kind of a, not purely unhelpful advice audience-based, podcast but we do have some unhelpful advice to bring you at the end. But first, I was just looking at topics of what we can speak about and there is a big elephant in the room... (Oh God.) in terms of British culture. The name of the elephant, this big elephant, it's name is Glastonbury.

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This week, a pub in Hove tries to dismantle British conduct by questioning the queue, whilst Isi feels the heat of queueing culture when asking for a doggy bowl and Mitch defines his own term doing a 'Londoner'. The duo talk about their first online conversation class in their online pub for Easy English members, and we answer YOUR questions in our Unhelpful Advice section.

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Show Notes

Transcript

Isi:
[0:24] do do do do da da da da da... Let's go. (It feels weird not to do it with a drink.) Yeah no drink today. (One o'clock podcast.) And i have bad mood. (Why'd you have bad mood?) Our construction works are... beep beep beep beep beep beep! (You know i can also beep it, you can say how you feel.) Ah, today was rough.

Mitch:
[0:57] Anyway, welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:59] Well, yeah, sorry for the bad mood, but it's probably quite... it's also okay that we share our real... you know, we cannot always pretend everything is perfect. Well anyway, let's say, besides that, I have actually very good mood this week. It's perfect weather for the past... has been for the past three weeks, I think. We've really enjoyed the outside. We were out a lot with friends and filming. Well yeah, wait, I'm coming to that. And we will this weekend enjoy outside. So we'll get out of the shithole.

Mitch:
[1:36] Yeah, we're recording this on Friday night, oh no that's 'Saturday Night'. (Friday, midday.) No, Rebecca Black did. Friday, Friday, it comes after Thursday. Getting ready to have a drink on the weekend.

Isi:
[1:50] That's not the song.

Mitch:
[1:51] It's something terrible like that.

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Mitch And Isi celebrate hitting 100,000 subscribers on YouTube with a recap of the past weeks. They debate bodily mishaps, Rammstein stereotypes and Edgar Allen Poe's Eurovision cameo. They then answer one of your questions on teaching and learning English in their online pub in this episode's Unhelpful Advice section.

Interactive Transcript

⭐️ FREE 100,000 SUBSCRIBER GIVEAWAY! ⭐️

⭐️ Get the Aftershow and all Video perks with this link - https://bit.ly/3IEM62n ⭐️

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:24] We have got 100,000 subs and we would like 100,000 more. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Hopefully by now we have the blue tick of confirmation. What does it mean, the blue tick? Do you know? Is there like a meaning behind it?

Isi:
[0:51] You are now considered (Responsible.) I mean, we didn't do anything. We didn't send them like a passport or so, to give us like an official thing. But I guess you're considered a bigger creator. (Wow.) I don't know.

Mitch:
[1:05] We did it.

Isi:
[1:08] We should know that. I Google it.

Mitch:
[1:09] We did it. And we wouldn't have done it without the help of our listeners and viewers and members, all of which are amazing people, who have helped us get to this milestone. And we would like to celebrate that in a few ways. I think one, we will do a video podcast, which you'll be able to listen and watch, and we'll put it on our YouTube. (Yep.) But also we will do a special YouTube episode, which will be the next one that comes out that you'll see. Yeah, we'll show you a bit of a behind the scenes thing / Brighton, why we love Brighton, and show you some people of Brighton, why they love Brighton, show you some of our favourite hangouts, but not all of them.

Isi:
[1:51] And an ode to Brighton.

Mitch:
[1:52] Yeah, an ode. Or an ode. (Ode.) An ode to Brighton. (Oh, God.) Is that German; ode?

Isi:
[1:59] Ode.

Mitch:
[2:00] Ode.

Isi:
[2:01] Eine Ode.

Mitch:
[2:01] An ode, ode.

Isi:
[2:04] Ode could have been right. (Could have been right.) Okay, I'm very sorry.

Mitch:
[2:07] It's not English anyway, it sounds too nice to be English. We wanted to start off by saying thank you to everyone, because we didn't invent those 100,000 subscribers. They are you. You are the 100,000.

Isi:
[2:22] Maybe they're not. Maybe they just listen to the podcast and they don't even... have ever seen a video of us.

Mitch:
[2:27] Oh my God.

Isi:
[2:27] So if you haven't, we have a YouTube channel, by the way.

Mitch:
[2:30] What are you doing?

Isi:
[2:31] No, but thank you so much. It is incredible. It seems a bit unreal, so I cannot really... it's like, not that you really think like, oh, we got 100,000. A bit unreal, isn't it?

Mitch:
[2:43] Yeah. And yeah, we're still working on things like, just because we have 100,000 doesn't mean that we're a set channel, like we're quite far from it. (Yeah.) Like, you know, we still have quite big ambitions of Easy English. You know, it's a lot of people do like a full-time job and then they're YouTube from the side, but Easy English is quite a demanding beast and does require a lot of... (A lovely beast.) It's a lovely beast that we enjoy doing, but yeah, it's something we'd like to do, both of us, full-time in the future. So this is what we're going to be building towards, and having 100,000 subscribers is definitely a big milestone for us, in getting there.

Isi:
[3:22] Yeah.

Mitch:
[3:22] We're still beginning, that's how it feels like. But this is confirmation that we've achieved our first big goal.

Isi:
[3:29] And we couldn't and can't do it without your support. So we want to thank the ones that that are already a member of Easy English, thank you for supporting us. And if we can once ask for support, it would be great, if you enjoy our content, our podcasts, our videos, if you would consider supporting us, so that we can keep doing this, that we can keep producing regularly, podcasts and videos. We obviously offer even more if you become a member. We've got worksheets for our videos, transcripts for our videos, vocab lists for our videos. We got, an interactive transcript for our podcast, where you can basically translate the transcript while listening into lots of different languages. And what else, Mitch?

Mitch:
[4:19] We also have a conversation membership where we host people in our online pub and we just get to talk about day-to-day English to help you improve your speaking and listening skills. And finally, we have our donor membership, which is for people who want to really help support us and have a little private Zoom with myself and Isi, right?

Isi:
[4:40] Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, first of all, thank you, if you support us already, and it would be really, really, really great to see more of you in our community. If you want to become part of it, go to easyenglish.video/membership. And, to show you a bit what we are offering and to say thank you for your support, for listening, for sending us questions and ideas and everything. We want to give you all our perks.

Mitch:
[5:09] A free giveaway, for this podcast and for our episode that came out on the 24th of May. We'll be giving links in this podcast, on the website, in our show notes. We'll also be posting it on our YouTube, on our community section and on our Instagram and on our Facebook. So, it should be quite easy to find. We'll probably have it in bold, caps lock, underlined, exclamation marked, there'll be a free giveaway link to not only our video perks which is our transcript, our vocabulary list, our worksheets and all of our audio and video downloads, but also for our podcast membership, which is our interactive transcript for the podcast and also the extra bit the aftershow. You'll be able to download all of those bits in our free giveaway to say thank you for helping us reach the 100,000 subscriber milestone. So if you didn't get that before, go to easyenglish.video/membership to get all of those goodies for free.

Isi:
[6:18] Okay, now to the real topics.

Topic of the Week

Mitch:
[6:32] Recap!

Isi:
[6:32] Okay, let's start with the coronation.

Mitch:
[6:34] Katy Perry was there.

Isi:
[6:37] But not how you said it would happen.

Mitch:
[6:40] She didn't sing at Westminster Abbey, no. That's what I thought was happening. But she did sing the day after.

Isi:
[6:46] And did she actually, I didn't see that. Did she actually perform the songs that I thought?

Mitch:
[6:50] Didn't her tit fall out or something? (What?) Something happened though. There was like controversy with her. I think like her tit fell out, or something happened when she was...

Isi:
[7:00] She couldn't find her place, or, in the church?

Mitch:
[7:02] Oh, that happened. Oh yeah, she had a massive hat on and couldn't find her seat.

Isi:
[7:06] It's not Britney Spears. That was a tit.

Mitch:
[7:08] No, Janet Jackson was the tit.

Isi:
[7:09] Oh, wait. That was like...

Mitch:
[7:11] She kissed Madonna and Janet Jackson's tit fell out.

Isi:
[7:14] So the coronation, we watched it. Not all of it.

Mitch:
[7:18] We watched it with your family.

Isi:
[7:20] With my family. (In the living room.) But no one... actually, none of them watched all of it. We all went in and out, the TV was just on.

Mitch:
[7:27] It went on for ages.

Isi:
[7:28] Yeah, it went on for ages, and it was a bit ridiculous. And I made the comparison very early onwards. If any one of you has ever been to Germany and knows German carnival, especially in Cologne and the surrounding, in Dusseldorf and the Rhineland area, I know that Creighton knows that, so this is for you, Creighton. If you look at pictures of... I just wanted to say Prince Charles, King Charles and Queen Camilla, especially him, it looks a bit like carnival. Really, it's all this red and white stuff as well. And you could put him on a carnival stage and he could give a... they do those funny speeches. That could have been happening. Although he didn't smile once. He didn't have fun, did he?

Mitch:
[8:15] No.

Isi:
[8:16] It's just really exhausting. I can understand that, actually. It's an exhausting thing. You were there, what, three hours or so? Four hours?

Mitch:
[8:23] He was basically just a coat rack. There's just lots of people coming to him, putting shit on him, taking it off. Hold this. Hold this, please. Here's a cape. Take that cape off. Put the crown on. Crown off.

Isi:
[8:34] It's such a huge protocol, which is obviously thousands of years old, but it's a weird thing. I'm sure they were all not really into it. It cannot be that much fun. The party afterwards, the dinner afterwards is probably more fun than just sitting there. And then all the guests, they also just have to sit there, straight and smile and don't move. And then you just sit there on those wooden benches forever, and half of the church didn't even see anything. Do they have monitors? Do they stream it?

Mitch:
[9:05] They have their phones on BBC News.

Isi:
[9:09] No, but it's just a long, long, long, long thing. It's kind of impressive too. It's something that you really never ever see. So it is, in a way, although I'm not a fan of the monarchy, it is quite interesting to witness, I would say.

Mitch:
[9:24] My favorite bit was they played the Champions League theme at one point.

Isi:
[9:27] You know, it's not the Champions League theme.

Mitch:
[9:31] And then I saw the meme of people interpreting the songs wrong, because they were all done in Latin or Welsh. And there's one about Camilla having a wide vagina.

Isi:
[9:42] Can we say vagina in this podcast?

Mitch:
[9:44] We said tit. (Mmm...) Tit and vagina.

Isi:
[9:48] What is a good word that like, teenagers would use instead of saying vagina?

Mitch:
[9:52] Fanny.

Isi:
[9:55] Is that bad or is it like, just to have a word for it?

Mitch:
[9:58] No, Fanny is... (Isn't Fanny a name?)

Isi:
[10:00] Oh, that's bad, isn't it?

Mitch:
[10:01] Also, yeah.

Isi:
[10:02] I mean, why wouldn't we be able to say vagina? Vagina's not a bad word.

Mitch:
[10:06] It's medical. Spending way too much time on fannies. Yeah, fanny...

Isi:
[10:09] But you see, cultural thing. I didn't know that.

Mitch:
[10:12] But bum bag, this is in the video I made with Justin, part two, American English versus British English. In British English, it's a bum bag, the little bag you wear down on your waist. And in America, it's called a fanny pack.

Isi:
[10:23] They're also have fanny?

Mitch:
[10:25] They don't know what fanny is. I told Justin that fanny means vagina and he freaked out, which is probably the best bit of that episode.

Isi:
[10:32] Because you normally have it in front of your V. (Eurgh.) Okay, let's stop now.

Mitch:
[10:38] How did we get on to vaginas from the coronation? We also, whilst in Germany, watched the Eurovision. Woo!

Isi:
[10:48] Yeah, for the first time in forever.

Mitch:
[10:52] Which was a delight. I was laughing my head off the whole way through.

Isi:
[10:56] Yeah, but we only watched it because two German entertainers, who also have a podcast that I listen to and Mitch kind of co-listens to when I listen to it, they did the commenting for Austria. So we watched it on Austrian TV, well, online, but that was just a funny thing. We just wanted to hear the commentating. But the whole show is just so ridiculous. It's such a long, boring thing. I don't know. I'm not a fan.

Mitch:
[11:23] I'd like to do it. I'd like to... I think it'd be really fun to get drunk and do like a live streaming of the Eurovision if it's possible, on YouTube next time.

Isi:
[11:33] We could do that next year, but not for four hours. Then let's only, I don't know, it just goes on forever and forever. I didn't even see the end, which you only watch it for. You want to see who wins. And then I slept.

Mitch:
[11:44] I don't want to see who wins. I don't care.

Isi:
[11:46] Yeah. But you want to see like who...

Mitch:
[11:47] And who won?

Isi:
[11:48] Sweden.

Mitch:
[11:50] Sweden won.

Isi:
[11:51] Have not until today. Have ever heard the song because when they did the song, I was washing up in the kitchen. We had dinner with it. Then, when they won, I haven't watched the winner's performance, so I actually have no clue what the winner's song is.

Mitch:
[12:08] It was scary Billie Eilish Lady with the long nails.

Isi:
[12:11] Can you sing it?

Mitch:
[12:13] The only one I can remember of all of them was the first one when I was not drunk, because after that, we'd already started drinking. And it was the Austrian... Austria went first and he did the song about the gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe and it was Edgar Allan Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe, Edgar Allan, Edgar Allan, Edgar Allan Poe.

Isi:
[12:34] Well, not bad.

Mitch:
[12:39] He'd be spinning in his grave, never mind turning, that people used his name for like, Euro pop. It was all terrible. But my favourite was the Boy George guy.

Isi:
[12:52] Yeah, I liked him too. From Belgium.

Mitch:
[12:54] Yeah, Belgium. (He was good. He was good.)

Isi:
[12:56] I liked the song.

Mitch:
[12:58] There was a Take That kind of, rip off somewhere in there, wasn't there?

Isi:
[13:02] There was one other, I think, female singer from, I don't know where, but the song was not for me at all. It was a bit ballad-ish, but she was a good singer, which is also not given, that you come that's a good singer there.

Mitch:
[13:16] Yeah, that's got nothing, singing has nothing to do with it.

Isi:
[13:19] But where was she from? Lithuania or so? Maybe not, I don't know, but she was good. Do you remember? She had like a pink/purple dress on or so. Maybe also not, maybe she had a blue dress on. I don't remember, but I know that I thought someone was good.

Mitch:
[13:35] We were just watching because there was basically, a battle as to who would finish last, Brexit Britain or... I don't know why Germany does so bad always.

Isi:
[13:44] It's always... well, we do send in quite weird things always, but I mean...

Mitch:
[13:50] Oh yeah, you had the Rammstein band.

Isi:
[13:52] Yeah, which people outside of Germany and in Germany, sorry for Rammstein fans, a lot of people love that kind of music. What is it actually?

Mitch:
[14:02] What Rammstein?

Isi:
[14:04] What metal, kind of metal is that? Entertainment metal? I don't know.

Mitch:
[14:09] It's not nu-metal, Rammstein, but maybe it is nu-metal.

Isi:
[14:13] Well, anyway, a lot of people love it. So I actually thought that song does fit what German music is to the outside world, outside of Germany. So actually, I thought people would be like, yay, someone like Rammstein coming from Germany. Let's actually vote for them. It didn't work.

Mitch:
[14:31] It didn't do German stereotypes any good.

Isi:
[14:33] I don't listen to too much German music or music coming from Germany. It doesn't have to be particularly German lyrics, but also, there is good music coming from Germany, I would say.

Mitch:
[14:47] Yeah, I like, who was that 90s band, that did like house music, Shaka Khan. Is Shaka Khan not German? No, no, not Shaka Khan.

Isi:
[14:56] You mean...

Mitch:
[14:57] What do I mean? From the 90s house scene.

Isi:
[15:01] Well, you know Alphaville.

Mitch:
[15:02] Haddaway?! Are German?

Isi:
[15:05] Are they?

Mitch:
[15:06] What is love? Baby don't hurt me no more.

Isi:
[15:11] Was ist liebe? (Was ist liebe?) Oh God, good that there was never, well there was probably, well Kraftwerk.

Mitch:
[15:19] Yeah but Kraftwerk made it very clear they were German. But I liked it, it suited it.

Isi:
[15:24] That's what I mean. (Oh it's nice?) And then, hmm.

Mitch:
[15:29] Haddaway were German, amazing.

Isi:
[15:31] Well we do have good music.

Mitch:
[15:32] H-Blockx.

Isi:
[15:34] Although I don't listen... do you know H-Blockx?

Mitch:
[15:37] Of course.

Isi:
[15:38] How? What? Where? Why?

Mitch:
[15:39] I had the Kerrang channel and they did the cover version of I Got The Power.

Isi:
[15:46] Really!? Do you know that they're from Münster?

Mitch:
[15:48] They're from Münster? Wow. This is gonna sound like a crazy, unbelievable story. It's gonna sound really stupid, but my parents had a back garden. Every summer we did two weeks camping with me and my friends in our back garden. And we'd cook our own food and it was sort of us learning how to look after each other and cope without parents.

Isi:
[16:09] But the parents were five meters inside and they would actually give you food later.

Mitch:
[16:13] And we went to the toilet inside as well.

Isi:
[16:15] Yeah. And then your mom actually gave you some real food later.

Mitch:
[16:18] Yeah, exactly. And we played like that... my parents had set up these little tasks so we could win nice prizes. (Oh, that's cute.) It was really fun. And we did it with four or five people in my mom and dad's trailer tent, when they didn't want to use it in the summer. And at that time, H-Blockx, I Got the Power was the biggest song on Kerrang! It was number one for ages and we got obsessed with it. We had a competition who could headbang the longest out of the whole song. Like, really headbanging, like, really throwing your head back. And we had a competition of it in the trailer tent. And the next day we all had like, minor whiplash and we all couldn't move our necks. We all pulled our neck muscles out. (Okay.) So H-Blockx lives in my cult memory.
Unhelpful Advice

Mitch:
[17:09] So we have a message that someone left for us um... through our website easyenglish.fm, where you can also if you want, leave us a message or ask us a question through our unhelpful advice section and so we uh... have a message today from James. Let's have a listen. "Hi Easy English my name is James,I'm a native English speaker who very much enjoys watching your videos, because you never really stop learning and it's always interesting learning more about my language. I wanted to ask, I know you've touched on this before, I wanted to ask more about how you became English teachers. Did you have to take the TEFL qualification to TELF or is it TELT qualification? And do you have any advice for anybody who might want to start teaching English as a foreign language? And also, I think I quite enjoy joining your pub, your online pub, to have a chat with others. But as I'm a native English speaker, I don't want to be taking the place of a learner who's trying to learn English. So I don't know if it's okay for me to join the pub? Thank you for all you do. Te-ra.

Isi:
[18:21] Aw, that's very nice. (Te-ra.) Hi, James.

Mitch:
[18:24] Hi, James.

Isi:
[18:25] Really, really nice message. Well, where do we begin? English teachers. Well, I'm certainly not an English teacher. I could be one, obviously, even though I'm German, but I'm not an English teacher.

Mitch:
[18:36] Yeah, and I'm also certainly not an English teacher.

Isi:
[18:40] Why certainly?

Mitch:
[18:41] Well, because there are, not because I can't do it, but it's because there are people who have, for sure trained and put a lot of work in curriculum-wise to become an English teacher. However... and by all means, I think it's good to look for those people. But, I think what's so great about what we do with Easy Languages, is that,this idea of learning from a book or this kind of, I would call it old-school methods, learning through reading or... but, there's nothing quite like being here and, well yeah, just listen to how much I'm mumbling, this is what real English people do. They can't even get their own English words out of their mouth.

Isi:
[19:27] The thing is you learn it in school or in a course and then you go to a country where that language is spoken. And mo

This week Mitch & Isi are joined by their first ever guest! The Easy German Podcast host Manuel! Mitch and Manuel share their mutual love for the iconic Britpop band Oasis. They talk about their passion in discovering and listening to Oasis, Manuel shares his experiences watching Oasis live, Mitch describes how Oasis inspired him to become a musician and Isi describes how she missed Oasis due to a Liam Gallagher altercation. Later, Mitch and Isi test Manuel's loyalty to the band as he takes on the 'Oasis; Would You Rather' quiz.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Mitch:
[0:00] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode 15.

Isi:
[0:04] Yee-hoo! That's my hello, for today.

Mitch:
[0:10] We're having to... I'm currently doing a thing where I'm sort of doing, finger pointing, because we are doing an impromptu podcast, in Germany and we forgot to bring all of our gear, so we're using one microphone. And in order for the Interactive Transcript to work, we have to take... (turns) to...

Isi:
[0:31] Record.

Mitch:
[0:34] Individually.

Isi:
[0:36] Yes. Yeah, so today is a bit different. We will talk after each other, very natural. And... but, it's a special one because we will have our very first guest.

Mitch:
[0:51] Yes, our very first guest. You probably already know who they are, because our first guest is... as I will already mention when we speak to them, is the Inceptor. He was the Leonardo DiCaprio character in 'Inception' when it comes to the Easy Languages podcast franchise/universe/thing.

Isi:
[1:16] It is Manuel, who is the host, one of the two hosts of the Easy German Podcast, together with Carina, who is... yeah, the founder, kind of, the helper, founder, birth helper.

Mitch:
[1:29] Midwife.

Isi:
[1:32] Midwife, of all the Easy Languages podcasts, so also this podcast. He helped us set it up.

Mitch:
[1:38] He delivered the Easy English baby.

Isi:
[1:40] He did. And, a coffee lover, Berlin lover.

Mitch:
[1:46] Cycle enthusiast.

Isi:
[1:47] Cycle enthusiast. Organizing lover, and...

Mitch:
[1:52] Tech wizard.

Isi:
[1:53] Tech wizard. Yeah, and the most important fact, which is important for today, as Mitch, a big, big Oasis fan. That's what it's all about today.

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This week, Mitch and Isi build up the incoming coronation of King Charles III. Will Prince Andrew come? Will Susan the Corgi rise from the grave? Will Archie postpone his LA bouncy castle party? Will Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg perform? And will Posh, Becks, Elton, Macca & Sir Attenborough make the final cut to attend the party?

All will be answered in this week's podcast as the duo also discuss Lily Allen's 'Dreamland' and the British desire to mumble about the weather.

Interactive Transcript

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Subscribe using your private RSS feed to listen to our bonus content and find the interactive transcript right in your podcast app.

Transcript

Isi:
[0:24] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:25] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast Dungeon. Here comes Nola.

Isi:
[0:29] Nola, you're also here. Then we can start.

Mitch:
[0:31] Let us begin.

Isi:
[0:32] Everyone is here. What are we talking about today?

Mitch:
[0:38] So we're recording this on the eve of our next visit over to Germany.

Isi:
[0:47] And today, we have a few days left until... the United Kingdom... will have... a new king.

Mitch:
[0:57] Built that up for a well long time.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: Easy English will be in Berlin for a meetup on the 27th April, alongside Easy German, Easy Polish & Easy Spanish. Go to https://www.easygerman.org/meetups to get your FREE ticket.

In this week's podcast, Mitch and Isi talk about the subject of hobbies. Did you know Isi used to be a synchronised swimmer? Or that Mitch was proficient in Taekwondo? Can you guess who of the two is a spreadsheet nerd? And who, embarrassingly admits to collecting sea glass?

We learn about dog friendly pubs in the UK, Isi's cycling related scars, Mitch's failed football career and the couples shared passion for music and sweaty gigs.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] We're back!

Isi:
[0:24] Why do you do a weird biceps move?

Mitch:
[0:27] I don't know, it felt like...

Isi:
[0:32] Stronger than ever!

Mitch:
[0:36] Like a WWE wrestler. We're back!

Isi:
[0:38] Yeah we're back! We had a little tiny break.

Mitch:
[0:41] Yeah.

Isi:
[0:42] No actually not. We already had another podcast out. But that one was pre-recorded.

Mitch:
[0:46] Yeah, we've not recorded a podcast in a long time, it feels like.

Isi:
[0:50] A few weeks, yeah. So, today I think we start with some updates.

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This week, in our special Unhelpful Advice themed episode. We answer questions from the self-proclaimed cocktail king on travel advice for couples; how we like to experience holidays together and how a couple who are both organised and spontaneous can enjoy travelling together. David asks why Mitch is a pathetic Brit and shares his empathy on his fear of complaining. And Marketa asks Isi for her advice on learning English, Isi shares her tips and experiences of learning English through school, work, friends and media. We also have an exciting NEW ANNOUNCEMENT for Easy English at the start!

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:24] Okay, what do we do today Mitch? Tell me.

Mitch:
[0:28] Today is a weird day. (Why?) Because we're recording this in the very, very distant past.

Isi:
[0:37] Are we telling this?

Mitch:
[0:39] We're recording this in the very distant future. No, for the future, 'Back to the Future'. (Okay.) Marty!

Isi:
[0:46] When you hear this it will be a bit, a bit... long ago.

Mitch:
[0:51] Yeah, we're recording this for the future, but, when you're listening, this would have been recorded in the past, like 'Back to the Future', where he went to cowboy days and had sex with his mum.

Isi:
[1:00] You're very confusing.

Isi:
[1:12] So the first thing we have is an...

Mitch:
[1:14] Exciting update! Easy English is now expanding its membership to now include conversational lessons? (No.) Conversational... (No.) Conversation...

Isi:
[1:30] It's called the conversation membership and it's not a lesson, but it's a conversation meeting, I would say. It's a meeting where we talk English. Yeah, we did this because we heard from a lot of you, what you really lack is English practice because, you don't live in an English-speaking country or you don't have friends to speak to, or colleagues to speak to and it's just not in your everyday life. And to learn a language, this is really important to just speak, to use the language and to make mistakes and to hear someone speaking and react on this. So we thought, it would be a lot of fun... sorry, I took over from you, is that okay? (Keep going.) To meet once a week, in a virtual online pub, so it's an online meeting. And, pub-style-ish, we'll come with our favourite drink and we talk about everything life.

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This week, Isi takes the test in our Last Week's Episode section to try and identify all 12 accents from the British Isles... can YOU beat her score? Later, Mitch and Isi talk about the success of hosting their first ever, members-only pub quiz and answer your questions about our language learning history and what we think is the most beautiful sounding language.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Watch the 12 accents challenge video: 12 BRITISH ACCENTS... 1 VIDEO (Easy English 149)

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:25] Hello and welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:28] Hello, hello, hello. Test, test, one, two.

Mitch:
[0:32] Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry.

Isi:
[0:36] Yed... already done. Red lorry, yellow lorry. Red lorry, yellow lorry. No, I can't.

Mitch:
[0:43] Peter Piper picked a pickled pepper.

Isi:
[0:45] Okay. Episode 11. Nice number, isn't it? In Germany, we say Schnapsal. (What, sorry?) Schnapsal.

Mitch:
[0:53] What's this?

Isi:
[0:54] Schnaps number.

Mitch:
[0:55] Eleven?

Isi:
[0:56] Yeah, everything with like, the same numbers. Eleven, three hundred and thirty three.

Mitch:
[0:59] It makes me think of number eleven from Stranger Things.

Isi:
[1:04] There we are again.

Mitch:
[1:05] Mike! Mike!

Isi:
[1:08] Okay, what's our topic, Mitch?

Mitch:
[1:10] Okay.

Isi:
[1:11] You said you prepared everything. I'm just here.

Mitch:
[1:13] This is good though. We can surprise each other with topics, maybe.

Isi:
[1:17] Nola's just sitting in front of me, waiting for me to give her F-O-O-D. We cannot say the word, because then she will get excited.

Mitch:
[1:25] The magic word. Feed me! (Okay.) First topic is related to one of our past week's episodes, in which, I went down onto the streets and I had some pre-recorded local British people, including British Isles, including Ireland, reading out a transcript and I made people from Britain, guess where they're from. And now I want to test you. You've been in Britain for some time now.

Isi:
[1:55] Oh God!

Mitch:
[1:57] How do you fancy your chances?

Isi:
[2:00] Not good. .

Mitch:
[2:11] Okay. (Let's go.) Let's try some. (Let's try, yeah.)

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The Easy English Podcast has made it to 10 episodes! Mitch and Isi discuss the pros and cons of the modern interpretation of the British motto 'Keep Calm And Carry On' in relation to ongoing building works in their block of flats. They debate if te-ra is even a Welsh farewell and Mitch tries to sell the biggest TV "horror-drama" to Isi.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:24] That's episode number 10.

Mitch:
[0:28] 10 is the magic number.

should we directly jump into the topic of the... day? Topic of the day? What is our category named? Topic of the... (Week.) Week.

Topic of the Week
Isi:
[0:50] Okay, Topic of the Week. (I've forgotten what it is.) I know what it is. (I've forgotten.) When English people are too polite.

Mitch:
[0:58] Ah yeah.

Isi:
[0:59] How would you call that? It's actually coming from my point of view.

Mitch:
[1:03] Well, I'd call it the... the lack of backbone. But, it has a name. Well, it's actually a phrase, which all Brits kind of, inadvertently stick to, which is 'keep calm and carry on'. Someone, somewhere, listening to this, probably has a tote bag, they bought, that one time they came to London, which has 'keep calm and carry on', with a crown behind it or something. You see it everywhere (Yeah?) in these souvenir shops.

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The duo over-enunciate into this week's episode, as Isi and Mitch rate themselves out of 10. Mitch reveals the correlation of skinny-jean tightness to his own self-worth. Isi chooses Disney fox over Keven Costner Robin Hood as The Easy English Tour takes shape. And they answer Your Questions about Brits lack of door security as Mitch reveals his previous career as a door-to-door, front door salesman.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Isi:
[0:24] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:24] Hi! (Hi!) Hi! (Hi!) New Year's energy... hi!

Isi:
[0:33] Hello. How are you?!

Mitch:
[0:35] We so sound like we're children's presenters. Hi! Do you like triangles?! I love triangles! Do you know how many corners they have?! Two?! Ha! You're stupid! They have three!

Isi:
[0:52] That's like morning show, radio host, from morning shows. (Oh yeah!) Good morning in the morning.

Mitch:
[0:59] Oh, yeah.

Isi:
[1:00] Where are you now? Are you in the car, on the way to work?

Mitch:
[1:04] Yeah. Good morning, you log-jammers on the M25.

Isi:
[1:07] Yeah. God... M25. The horror of my dad.

Mitch:
[1:12] Today is a great sunny day and if you're stuck in a traffic jam, this one's for you. It's 'Stuck in the Middle With You'. Shabba! I'm loving this radio voice, from last... the last episode we did, over enunciating voice.

Isi:
[1:27] That's probably because it's not my native language, but I can do a better radio host voice, in German.

Mitch:
[1:34] How do they... how do they do it, on German radio?

Isi:
[1:36] Should I do it now, in German? (Yeah.) Hello. No. Wait. I have to do it in... No... Uh, I have to go higher... wait, wait... not higher, but, more weird.... A bit like, always a bit like, haaaa...

Mitch:
[1:57] Yeah, it sounds like the microwave is on.

Isi:
[2:02] A bit like this high.

Mitch:
[2:05] I don't like that, creeps me out. (Hi.) Sounds like you're holding in a big poo. Hello!

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Godzilla / Building work causes havoc on the podcast as Mitch and Isi tell tales of ice throwing parties and cocktail dressed locals in Ireland. They answer David's advice after he's "taken aback" due to tea lacking facilities and update you on Easy English's first ever online pub quiz for the members.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

Transcript

Isi:
[0:23] Well, hello hello.

Mitch:
[0:27] Welcome to a time limited and critical episode of Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:31] Yeah. So the situation is, we are sitting here, having exactly 25 minutes or half an hour to record, because we have our construction work going on and they are on a lunch break, now.

Mitch:
[0:48] It has this sort of, sound of an earthquake, doesn't it?

Isi:
[0:52] But I don't think you can hear that. So let's go.
Past Week's Episode
Isi:
[1:04] The Irish.

Mitch:
[1:06] Yeah. Brits' perception of the Irish. And before we get into it, I'd actually like to know; maybe you could write in, or send us a voice message via our easyenglish.fm website. What are your thoughts on the Irish? What have you sort of, learnt through TV and media? And have you met any Irish people? Have you been to Ireland?

Isi:
[1:25] I have been to Ireland. (Where in Ireland did you go?) Uh, it's long ago. 13 years ago. Yeah, I've been... oh, the workers are back, guys. If you hear something in the background, we'll just keep on going now, because, it's real life guys. We don't have a recording studio, we're just at home.

Mitch:
[1:49] Just imagine, it's like a sci-fi movie and Godzilla is approaching.

Isi:
[1:53] Whaa... oh no, sorry. Does he do a sound? Whaa...

Mitch:
[1:59] That sounds like a cat. (Okay.) An annoyed cat.

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Today, Isi's helps Mitch remember New Years Eve's binge of eggnog and BBC's 'The Traitors'. Isi descibes her longing for Britains country lanes, tiny pubs and thatched cottages. The two reminice on the blossoming stages leading up to the beginning of the Easy English YouTube channel... Happy New Year!

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:26] Isi, Happy New Year.

Isi:
[0:28] Happy New Year! Ting... ting we are too far away from each other to bing.

Mitch:
[0:34] Make a toast, to the New Year. (To a better one.) No more shit things happening. Let's drink to no more... (Stop... stop the shit!) No more shit.

Isi:
[0:48] We actually, um, for everyone not seeing this, which is basically everyone, we actually, do drink sparkling wine. It is not New Year's Eve, we are, way into the year. But, we wanted to cheer with you on the New year 2023.

Mitch:
[1:04] So Isi, how... how was our new year?

Isi:
[1:07] Super exciting. It was actually really, really nice. Because, we decided to stay home. Um, which we actually really enjoy, anyway on New Year's Eves, because we're both not really into those New Year's Eves parties, where you have to have a ticket to go into a pub or club, oh God's that's horrible anyway. Um, home parties are good... are good, but yeah, we stayed home this year. And, we had... should I say... tell the whole story, yeah? Not much more to come anyway. We had good drinks, good cocktails. We had, um, like an Italian little buffet from our favourite Italian restaurant here, that was delivered to us. And we had good drinks and we talked to some friends. And yeah, it was a good night, wasn't it?

Mitch:
[2:00] I don't really remember much of it actually, but I'm not sure that's my bad memory or the cocktails.

Isi:
[2:04] Well, I will now do the super duper transition to our first category of today.

Mitch:
[2:10] Remind Mitch what happened on New Year's Eve.

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We begin with a dramatic tale of glass eating and evasive, spider driving before discussing the incredible, but dire state of the NHS. Isi describes horrific British wallpaper choices whilst Mitch opens up on his love and ignorance for mince pies. And finally... Germany has multi-pack crisps!

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. We have, yet again, changed erm... I was gonna say continents. But England has... the UK didn't quite leave all of Europe, just the European Union.

Isi:
[0:37] They are not yet a continent. We travelled yes... no, the day before yesterday. And, we are now in Germany, and I directly want to start with telling... (Revelations.) that I saw a multi-pack of crisps. But... (It wasn't a real multi-pack.) It was not. It was four little packs, stuck together as a four times four... why was it four times four?

Mitch:
[1:04] A "4er". It was so funny. They were just sellotaped together, back to back.

Isi:
[1:08] Yeah, so it wasn't a multi-pack in that sense, because, it did show what you get. The multi-packs that I mean, they trap you.

Mitch:
[1:16] The UK is having a big influence on the German crisp market.

Isi:
[1:22] Anyway.

Mitch:
[1:23] You can tell your story. (What story?) You have a bit of a story coming up, I think. Maybe you want to save it for a section. (Oh, yeah.) It's been an exciting couple of weeks.

Isi:
[1:35] People think always something is happening to me. Run over by car... nearly run over. Yeah. (This one was pretty...) but it has a reason, why we tell this story.

Mitch:
[1:45] Yeah. This one was like something out of a crime thriller.

Isi:
[1:48] What? For you, maybe. For what you saw.

Mitch:
[1:52] Okay. (Okay, yeah.) Let's go straight into our first segment then.

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Mitch adapts the '12 days of Christmas' carol to make it more "British", Isi re-tells her account of a near-miss and asks for your moral help, they talk about the British phenomenon of multi-packs, answer your questions on differences between Northern Europeans and South Americans and reveal plans for the Easy English Tour!!?

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Transcript

Intro
Mitch:
[0:00] On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love sent to me; Bluetooth earphones, IKEA vouchers, an ill-fitted T-shirt, tenner in a card, secondhand bike, multi-pack of condoms, stationary set, Sports Direct socks, bottle of Bailey's, six-pack of Carling, two spa days and a Blu-ray of Die Hard 2.

Isi:
[0:57] Welcome... to the Easy English Podcast. Nola is confused. (I worte that.) That is brilliant. (I'm the new John Lennon.) You are right after him. And my first question goes out to you; why am I always having a very uncomfy recording situation, and you sit there, like King Mitchy?

Mitch:
[1:20] Yeah, I feel a bit like... yeah, like a King. Or like, how the Godfather would sit.

Isi:
[1:22] I mean, it's obviously my decision to sit on this chair. At least I have a good drink in my hand, because we just prepared espresso martinis for the first time, this season, this Christmas season. But also for the first time for... uh, since last winter.

Mitch:
[1:42] It was a while ago. I forgot how to make them.

Isi:
[1:44] Did we even do it this year, yet? (Er... no.) Maybe not. Uh, and aren't they still the best?

Mitch:
[1:51] There's something... they're not very Christmassy, but...

Isi:
[1:54] It is Christmassy for me, though. (Why?) I think because I connected it to Christmas last year.

Mitch:
[2:00] Christmasy to me has to have cream in it. Cream and Christmas go together.

Isi:
[2:03] Yeah, but you know how much I (do) not adore cream in anything drinkable. So for me, the froth... or how you call that, on top is cream. That's cream for me, that's good cream. That's ice... icey cream and not milk, or...

Mitch:
[2:19] Yeah, it's the only frothy coffee that you can really have.

Isi:
[2:24] We can really do a whole episode (On frothy coffees?) about people putting cream or hot milk in their drinks.

Mitch:
[2:33] Even oat... flrothy oat... oak... oat milk.

Isi:
[2:36] That's a bit better than cow milk. I think hot cow milk smells like vomit.

Mitch:
[2:42] Oat milk, also, when you froth it, smells a bit like burnt porridge.

Isi:
[2:45] Yeah. (Excuse me.) Well anyway, this froth is good... froth!?

Mitch:
[2:50] Froth, (Froth.) Froth, frothy coffee.

Isi:
[2:53] Um... yeah, so here we are. We have some good topics today.

Mitch:
[3:00] We do. Should we do our first one?

Isi:
[3:022] Yep.

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Mitch and Isi exorcise their sobriety to debate their favourite style of potato, choose their favourite part of a Sunday roast dinner, discuss why Brits resort to shorts in Arctic conditions and consider why Brits make the best music when they have such rubbish weather.

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Show Notes

Cook a traditional Sunday roast dinner: Sunday Roast Dinner RECIPE (Easy English 140)

Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:23] Hello! Hello, hello. Welcome to episode number... what is it four? Three? Three. Four? (Four.) Four! (God.)

Mitch:
[0:36] Hiya! (Is it really number four?) We are on episode number four. And it's... well, when you're listening to this, it will be Monday. Unless you're a Podcast Member, then you'll be hearing it on Friday. But for us, it is, the Friday before the Friday that the Podcast Members listen to. (Yes.) It's Friday, Friday, Friday. We have reason to celebrate. (I guess.) We've been released from the sobriety demons.

Isi:
[1:04] Yeah, we had a... quite long detox. A bit over five weeks, I think. And all in all, it was seven. And it's good, isn't it? Seven weeks really does something. Why are you looking so weirdly at our dog? She just came in.

Mitch:
[1:17] Just like Darth Vader's come into the room, breathing so heavily. So the reason we're excited is because... she just threw up in her mouth. We've kind of, been looking forward to having like, a little cheers for the weekend and having our first little boozy drink in... yeah, nearly seven weeks. So now we're gonna do some ASMR of opening our drinks.

Isi:
[1:40] Yeah, unfortunately, I have a wine bottle with a screw-top. So it's not the nice plop. Should I do it first? (You do that one first.) Listen. Open. (Oh, head tingles everywhere.) Doesn't smell so good. Okay, should I should I pour it?

Mitch:
[1:57] Oh yeah. What are we doing? Right, and what is it you're drinking, Isi?

Isi:
[2:07] Um, a pinot grigio, ice cold.

Mitch:
[2:11] Lovely! Oh God. Nola's a big gross sound effects machine of burping, farting and throwing up noises. Okay, and now I'm gonna open German Krombacher pils. Ready? Here's the ASMR for me.

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Join Mitch & Isi as they attempt to stay warm in their cold flat, Isi prescribes lemon and ginger tea to the world. They curate their own one day music festival, Mitch gives up on queuing and Isi tries to become more British... D'you know what I mean!?

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Show Notes

The Easy English Festival: The BEST Music Festival (Easy English 139)

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] Hello. (Hello.) Hello. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. (Okay.) Episode number three.

Isi:
[0:32] Nobody knows who... who can talk now. (What do we say next?) I'm freezing.

Mitch:
[0:36] Yeah, okay. Describe the situation.

Isi:
[0:40] Should have... we should have made ourselves a tea before. (Very English.) Um... uh, basically, I'm so English now, I... the past two months... I mean, I've always been drinking tea, but now I drink seven or eight teas a day.

Mitch:
[0:55] But not builder's tea. (Not builder's tea.) Which, builders tea is a black tea with a splash of milk. Like a breakfast tea with milk.

Isi:
[1:02] I hate milk in tea. No, I only drink like... things like, lemon/orange/ginger/fennel. Uh... what else?

Mitch:
[1:11] It's your like, homoeopathic remedies, (Peppermint.) isn't it right? (Yeah, basically.) Your witchcraft.

Isi:
[1:15] Even... really, until... into the night, I always drink, only tea, tea, tea. And now we don't have a tea and we're freezing because our heating is broken, again.

Mitch:
[1:24] If you go... if you go to Isi with any illness should just prescribe lemon and ginger tea. I've got bronchitis - lemon and ginger. I've got tuberculosis - lemon and ginger. I've got eczema - lemon and ginger tea.

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