Real English Conversations Podcast

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Everybody loves long weekends! It's a chance to get away for a few days or just have an extra day to relax. Find out Amy & Curtis typically spend a long weekend compared to other people that they know and learn real English from a real life conversation.

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Learn Real English From A Real Life Conversation
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/a9gfb6/Long_Weekends_Podcast8u2cy.mp3

Transcription:

Amy: Hi, everybody, my name is Amy, and I'm from Real English Conversations, and I'm here with Curtis. And today we're going to be having a conversation talking about long weekends. So, Curtis, what exactly is a long weekend?

Curtis: A long weekend is usually a weekend where there's an extra day off and that day off is either going to be before the weekend, on a Friday or after, on a Monday. It could be a national holiday. It can be just an extra day off your boss might give you to make it a three-day weekend or a long weekend.

Amy: Yeah, exactly, and I think that we have one long weekend that's actually four days, and that's the Easter long weekend. So, we have the Good Friday on the Friday and Saturday and then Easter Sunday. But that's a normal Sunday. We normally have that day off. And then Easter Monday is another national holiday. So, what about we have some holidays that are actually specific to the day. Like we have some holidays that fall on a Monday. It's like the first Monday of the month, for example.

Amy: But we have other holidays like Canada Day, for example, which is on July 1st. That one can fall on any day of the week, right? It depends on the day of the calendar. So how would we talk about that day, for example, if Canada was on a Wednesday, like how would you talk about it or describe that day to somebody?

Curtis: It would be Canada day Wednesday or holiday Wednesday. It would be your ...

Amy: Yeah, it's a holiday on Wednesday.

Curtis: It's a holiday.

Amy: Yeah, it's a day off. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And at least in Canada, again, we have provincial holidays, we have national holidays.

Read and Listen to the Full Podcast Lesson: Get the Latest Podcast Lesson Here

Other English Podcast Conversation Lessons:

Snowboarding & Filming - Advanced English Podcast Lesson
Mother Nature- Advanced English Podcast Lesson
Carry On, Wander Around - Everyday English with Stories
Job Interviews - English Conversation Practice Podcast

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In this everyday English about Technology podcast, where Amy & Curtis share their experience that they had with cell phones.

In only 20 years, cell phones have gone from being an item only a few 'cool people' had to an item that nearly everyone has (and can't imagine leaving the house without it)!
In this fun conversation lesson, Curtis and Amy talk about their first cell phones and also share some funny stories to show how important cell phones are and how cell phones can save the day!

Everyday English Conversation about Technology
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/yvx6ei/66_Cell_phones_Podcastaiiz2.mp3

Transcription:

Amy: Hi, everybody, this is Amy, and I'm here with Curtis from Real English Conversations, and today we're going to be talking all about cell phones.

So, Curtis, why don't you get us started? Can you tell us a little bit about your very first cell phone and whether or not you were excited to have something like that?

Curtis: My very first cell phone, wow, this is going back quite a ways. It was a flip phone, they called it, so it had a flipped lid, and that's how you would power it on to make a phone call, and it had an antenna on it as well. So you had to pull out this antenna to get a clearer kind of call quality, and it wasn't really that great, it wasn't the best. And then, of course, to end your call, you flip the lid closed, push down the antenna, and that was about it. I don't think I even had text messaging on it. I just made phone calls.

But I was super excited because it was cutting edge technology and it was something new and exciting, like you started to see people having them in their hands and talking. And I thought, I need one of those. I got to have one of those. So what I did was I went out and bought one and I thought, yeah, my life is more modern now.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 60+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here.

Get Podcast Transcriptions, Online Courses, and Have Live Conversations with Us!
Real English Conversations is a website for students that want to start USING their English skills! We offer a mix of real conversations you can join to practice speaking and excellent online lessons that can be studied anytime.

Members of our website get immediate access to:

Join conversations with Curtis and Amy to discuss interesting topics
All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening and increase vocabulary
All the transcripts and exercises related to each podcast lesson!

Learn More about the membership options here

Other English Podcast Conversation Lessons:

Snowboarding & Filming - Advanced English Podcast Lesson
Mother Nature- Advanced English Podcast Lesson
Carry On, Wander Around - Everyday English with Stories
Job Interviews - English Conversation Practice Podcast

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Want to improve your English?

With so many words to learn, it can be difficult to know which words you need to learn to 'speak fluently'. In this lesson, I'll explain an easy way to identify which words are worth the effort to learn first AND will also help you to speak English with more fluency faster!

How to Speak English Better and Improve Your English
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/cu64ib/65_Learning_Useful_Vocabulary_Podcastbhf93.mp3

Transcription:
Amy: Hi, everybody, this is Amy from realenglishconversations.com, and today I have another one of these advice podcasts where I'm going to give you some advice about how to learn English in a more efficient way and to make sure that you're focusing on the right things, so that you can start making progress forward faster with your English and working toward fluency.

So today I'm going to talk about something that's related to learning the right type of vocabulary to help you become fluent and really talking about the most common error that I see students making over and over and over again that I'm working with.

To get started I just need to explain how students generally at an intermediate or an advanced level or any level really think about vocabulary and how they're studying English.

And generally, with most people, if you're reading a newspaper or maybe a novel or you're watching a TV series, if you hear a brand-new word, you're probably going to write it down or look it up in a dictionary and try to learn it. And that's sort of our strategy for learning new vocabulary, and that's why it's called new vocabulary.

But what happens is when we reach this intermediate to advanced level of the language, we have this gigantic pile of new vocabulary that we've taken the time to learn, but then we're not really able to use any of it, and we realize that a lot of the vocabulary that we learned and use that precious brain space and that memory power isn't exactly useful either.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 60+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here.

Do you Want to Improve Your English?
Amy and Curtis are experts in helping our students to improve their speaking and listening skills, improve confidence and reach their goals faster. Learn more about Private Lessons with us here

Get ALL the English Lessons & Online Courses
Real English Conversations is a website for students that want to start USING their English skills! Join our WhatsApp group to practice speaking and get excellent online lessons that can be studied anytime.

Members of our website get immediate access to:

All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening, and increase vocabulary
All the transcripts and exercises related to each podcast lesson!
Our Member-Only WhatsApp Speaking Practice Group

Learn More about the membership options here

Other English Podcast Conversation Lessons:

Delivery Service - Intermediate/Advanced English Podcast Lesson
Mother Nature- Advanced English Podcast Lesson

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In this Canadian English Conversations podcast, Amy and Curtis share what it's like riding the ferries in Canada ... And that is ferry boat rides, not the magical little creatures that fly through the air with their cute flapping wings.

** Transcription:
Curtis: Hi, everybody, it's Curtis and Amy from realenglishconversations.com.

For today's podcast conversation, we're going to talk about ferries. Now, it's not about those magical, mystical little princesses that fly through the air with the magic wand and that little girls want to dress up and be for Halloween, for example. This is transportation boats basically, to get from one side to the other, and you have to cross a body of water like a lake or an ocean. And why did we come up with this topic to discuss today Amy?

Amy: Well, I think we were talking about it this morning in the kitchen for some reason, I'm not entirely sure why, but I thought, you know what we should talk about? We should talk about ferries.

And this is because, in our area where we lived in Canada previously, we have a ton of ferries around, not a ton, but it's very common to have to take one. And we thought it would just be interesting to talk about what their purpose is, what they're like, and just some of the places that we've been on these ferries. I'm sure that there are going to be some interesting expressions and vocabulary and whatever else that comes up.

So, Curtis, what is the, I suppose the ferry that we frequent the most? OK, what is the one that we were constantly taking?

Curtis: When we go on those road trips every summer in Canada, we usually go to your parents' place. So in the Kootenays, we usually take this Kootenay Lake Ferry. And I think it's the free ferry, it's a free ferry, longest distance.

Amy: It's the longest free ferry ride in Canada.

Curtis: Right.

Amy: And I'll explain why after.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 63+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here: https://realenglishconversations.com/courses/memberships/

** Get Podcast Transcriptions, Online Courses, and Have Live Conversations with Us!

Real English Conversations is a website for students that want to start USING their English skills! We offer a mix of real conversations you can join to practice speaking and excellent online lessons that can be studied anytime.

** Members of our website get immediate access to:
Join conversations with Curtis and Amy to discuss interesting topics
All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening and increase vocabulary
All the transcripts and exercises related to each podcast lesson!

Learn More about the membership options here: https://realenglishconversations.com/courses/memberships/

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Feeling excited and motivated to learn is a key part of maintaining your energy to be consistent! In this episode, I'm going to give you a 7-day action plan to get your motivation back (even if you've completely lost it at this point...) and also to finish the week excited to continue working on your English.

Note: For one of the 'example activiites' that I mention in this lesson to help with speaking fluency, I recommended contacting someone to have a conversation with them. If you need someone to practice with, why not book a lesson with us? I'll even give you 50% off coupon to book a trial lesson! Send me an email and ask me for a special coupon code for podcast listeners. Send an email to: contact@realenglishconversations.com (valid until Jan 31, 2021)

Each of these podcasts will have the transcription available so that you can listen and read along.

Listen to Part 1: Kickstarting Your English - Identify your reason to speak English well, the first steps to take, and setting a clear focus for the next 90 days.

Part 2: Navigating the Path to Fluency - From intermediate to advanced and beyond to fluency is a very complicated and confusing part of language learning. I'll explain how to handle this and keep you focused on the most important things.

Part 3: Be More Consistent with this Powerful Trick - I'll talk about a powerful idea that will help you to be consistent to reach your goals without disappointing yourself or other people.

Part 4: Breaking out of Low-Motivation - - This episode you are listening to!
Important Links:

Check out my New Year's Special Offer [Limited Space Available].
Get awesome lessons to reach fluency faster here by joining our email list

Transcription (Read and Listen to this Podcast)
This is the Real English Conversations podcast where you'll find the lessons and advice you need to be able to confidently use your English in the real world. Hi, everybody, this is Amy Whitney from realenglishconversations.com, and this episode is our fourth and final episode where I'm doing a lesson series that's really based around motivation being consistent and really understanding how to get to that next level with your English learning. So if you haven't yet listened to the first three lessons, I strongly recommend going back and starting from the first lesson because I have some really great tips and everything is going to make a lot more sense when you're doing it in order together.
[00:55.775]
Today, we're going to be dealing with a very, very common problem that language learners face at one time or another, or probably several times. And this is related to having low motivation. The times where I have seen low motivation in myself are generally when I've taken a bit of a break or I haven't been very consistent with my studying. Or sometimes when you're stuck on one of those horrible language plateaus where you're just trying to do everything you can and it doesn't seem like anything you're doing is really making any progress, that can be really frustrating.
[01:34.625]
And after a while, it kind of leaves you unmotivated to try to continue moving forward. For me in general, when I'm not very motivated to learn a language, I usually focus on things that don't really help me very much. I tell myself that I need to practice, I need to learn, I need to do something.

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I have a very special lessons series that I put together to get motivated and excited to make HUGE progress with your English in 2021!

This year, 2020, has been a very challenging year for many of us including me. Personally, I had very little time to work on my language (Spanish)... And unfortunately, I lost some of my progress and my level has decrease A LOT :(

I know many of you are in the same situation and I wanted to create this 4 lessons series to talk about my strategy to get back on track and make quick progress to regain what I have lost of my language skills. These are the 4 topics I'll be focusing on:

Episode 1: Restarting Your English - Identify your reason to speak English well, the first steps to take, and setting a clear focus for the next 90 days.

Episode 2: Navigating the Path to Fluency - From intermediate to advanced and beyond to fluency is a very complicated and confusing part of language learning. I'll explain how to handle this and keep you focused on the most important things.

Episode 3: Getting in the Habit of Being Consistent - In this episode, I'll talk about a powerful idea that will help you to be consistent to reach your goals without disappointing yourself or other people.

Episode 4: Breaking out of Low-Motivation - The trick to quickly restoring your motivation and making quick progress that you can feel.

Each of these podcasts will have the transcription available so that you can listen and read along.
Important Links:

Check out my New Year's Special Offer [Only 20 spaces available].
Get awesome lessons to reach fluency faster here by joining our email list

Transcription (Read and Listen to this Podcast)
This is the Real English Conversations podcast where you'll find the lessons and advice you need to be able to confidently use your English in the real world. Hey, everybody, this is Amy from RealEnglishConversations.com, and I'm really excited because I'm going to be sharing with you a series of lessons over the next few days that are really going to help you to get motivated and really clear on what your goals will be related to English for the upcoming year. I don't know about you guys, but for me, during the last couple of weeks of December, I always take some time to think about what I want to improve.
[00:48.945]
How did the year before go and where do I want to go in the future, not only with my language learning, but all aspects of my life. But, you know, as I was thinking about what happened in this year, very, very challenging year of 2020, I realized that my goal at the beginning of the year to really actually reach fluency in the language that I'm learning, which is Spanish, really didn't happen. And in fact, I actually lost probably an entire level.
[01:23.655]
And that's something that I wasn't expecting. But right now, I need to look at what I want to do moving forward and how I'm going to do that. And in that process, there are some great pieces of information and strategies that I think you guys can learn from as well. And also to recognize that even people like me, people that know how to learn languages, how to reach fluency, what you need to do to reach that goal sooner by doing efficient activities and all of this stuff.
[01:59.025]
I know all of this information, but at the same time, I'm still a human. I'm just like you. I only have 24 hours in the day. And there's a certain limited amount of focus that I have to work on my language skills at the end of the day. So just to give you a quick preview of what's coming up today, we're going to be talking about this problem with getting stuck ...

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In this English Conversations podcast, Amy & Curtis share how they have been managing household chores. This podcast is perfect to learn real English from stories

** Transcription

Curtis: Hi, everybody, it's Curtis Davies and Amy: Whitney from realenglishconversations.com. Today, we're going to talk about something called chores.

Curtis: And this is a word that I teach almost every single student of mine. And what is a chore?

Curtis: A chore is the odd job or little tasks that you do usually around the house.

Curtis: We're going to talk about some of the things that, that we do in our house, who has the responsibility or makes the decisions on which chores to do.

Amy: I think this is something that every couple or every family has to go through. Honestly, I remember when I was growing up, I don't think I really had a choice. My parents told me to do something and I had to do it. Whether it be washing the dishes or taking out the trash, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, whatever that task may be.

Amy: And occasionally my dad would need a hand with something and it would always be this horrible task. Like he would say, oh, I'm going to trim the hedges outside, Amy:, come outside and help me.

Amy: And I'm like. And that meant that I had to pick up all the trimmings from the trees and get like a rash on my arm. And it was awful. So I yeah. I think one of the main reasons why parents have kids is to maybe have some help around the house. But for us, Curtis:, we don't have any kids, so we have to handle our own house cleaning and especially when we were living in Canada.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 61+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here: https://realenglishconversations.com/courses/memberships/

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What is a Flipped Classroom and can you use it for online English Lessons?

In a nutshell, a flipped classroom is a style of teaching that is MUCH more efficient and effective than a traditional classroom and can be easily applied when studying English online.

To start, let’s review how a regular classroom works.

Students arrive to a class where they are taught new information. Then they go home to do some exercises to try to learn, use and understand on their own. You are given a test to evaluate your understanding. Then the cycle starts again where you are taught new information.

Flipped Classroom

Students learn on their own BEFORE the class. In the class, you ask any questions about things you didn’t understand and do activities in the class to USE what you learned and to get corrections on anything you are not using correctly. During the class you receive additional information because the teacher has time to teach EXTRA information, instead of just teaching the basic information.

What is the biggest difference?

In the first approach, the student leaves the class with new information.

In the flipped classroom, the student leaves the class being able to use what they have learned.

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Listen to this podcast episode that will help you with our English confidence.

Let me introduce Hadar Shemesh. Hadar is an accent coach specializing in American English.

She has helped thousands of students to reduce their accent, speak with better fluency, And most importantly, to build confidence to speak in English.

In this episode, we discuss the obsession that students with 'sounding like a native' and the mindset changes that need to happen to protect your confidence.

English Confidence And Pronunciation Tips with Hadar Shemesh
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/84ywq3/IELTS_Tips_with_Jessica_Beck_Pt_2_PODCAST9ke5r.mp3

Transcription
Amy: How are you doing today?

Hadar: Hi, Amy. How are you doing?

Amy: I'm really great, thanks. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm really excited to talk to you.

Hadar: Me too. It's such an honor to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Amy: Great. So today we were going to be discussing a little bit about pronunciation, but I think one of the first things that we should talk about is really dealing with this belief that so many students have where they feel that they need to speak and sound exactly like a native speaker. Is this something that you have in your students where they're always mentioning this? Do you hear it a lot?

Hadar: Well, absolutely, I think it's a big part of the conversation and a bit a big part of the journey where people believe that if they work on their pronunciation or their accent, then the end goal is to sound like a native.

Hadar: And I find it not only very problematic socially and politically, I also think it's detrimental to fluency. I think it's not serving the learner, but instead is just getting in the way. And I'll explain because this idea of sounding like a native means that they really need to work on the nuances of speech. Right, to get to a level.

Hadar: So there is the basic level where you may sound unclear because you're bringing patterns from your native language into English, which prevents you from having that clarity that you need to communicate and to create trust and to basically deliver your message and get what you want from the other person, right.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 60+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here.

Mentioned Links and Resources

YouTube Channel: Accent's Way English with Hadar
Influency Podcast
The Accent's Way Magazine
Website: The Accent's Way

Members of our website get immediate access to:

Join conversations with Curtis and Amy to discuss interesting topics
All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening and increase vocabulary
All the transcripts and exercises related to each podcast lesson!

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This English fluency podcast is for you if you feel like you do not know how to make smaller commitments when it comes to improving your English fluency!

In this English fluency podcast episode Amy shares a learning hack on how to make smaller commitments when it comes to learning English.

Learning Hack Make Smaller Commitments | English Fluency Podcast

Transcription

Amy: Hi, everybody, this is Amy from realenglishconversations.com.

And today we have the first episode of hopefully many, where I'm going to be doing a solo podcast rather than having a conversation or an interview, I am going to be the only person speaking in this podcast. And that's because I really want to share with you some of the language learning advice that I have, a lot of the methods and techniques and concepts that I teach in our courses. It's really important for you to realize that although our conversations with Curtis and I and the interesting topics that we speak about, these are great and they're fun to listen to.

Really, the core of what we do at Real English Conversations is we help people to become confident communicators in English and beyond that, at the same time that we help develop your skills, we're actually teaching you how to learn a language in a more efficient way, a more effective way by teaching you different things that not every course is going to show you.

So, for example, in today's podcast, I'm going to be talking about how we can make smaller commitments to make sure that every single day you make some time or some effort with your English. Unless you're in an absolute crisis situation, you should be able to find a few minutes a day to work on your English skills. And in this podcast specifically, I'm going to help you to develop the mindset that you need to be more consistent and readjust the tasks in your mind to make it something that you can do rather than something that you can't do.

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 60+ conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here.

We Can Help You Get Focused!

Curtis and Amy help students every day to focus on the right activities and overcome barriers faster. If you feel like you need a push (and a bit of experienced guidance) to get to the next level, send us a message to get started with private lessons. You can get more information about how to take private lessons with us by sending an email to: amy@realenglishconversations.com

Language Learning Advice for Our Members

By joining us as a member of our website, you will get access to full lessons with the top learning advice to become an efficient and independent learner. Beyond the advice, we have the lessons you need to improve your speaking fluency, listening comprehension and practice speaking with real people (including us!)

Join conversations with Curtis and Amy to discuss interesting topics
All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening and increase vocabulary
All the transcripts and exercises related to each podcast lesson!

Learn More about the membership options here: https://realenglishconversations.com/courses/memberships/

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Hey REC Subscribers! The full transcription for this audio is below to make sure that you hear every word and understand us perfectly.

To register for early access to try the new courses as a FREE member AND to get access to the most recent podcast transcript for every episode, sign up at this link: https://realenglishconversations.com/earlyaccess/

Audio Transcription:

Hey, everybody, this is Amy from Realenglishconversations.com. And today I'm just releasing this quick audio message for you because you are a podcast subscriber. You're somebody who has taken the time to sign up and follow our podcast so that you can get every single episode. But a lot of you are not email subscribers at our website. Many of you are just listeners of the podcast. And I know that you enjoy listening to these podcasts, but the only way that I can communicate with you is through this podcast.

OK, so what could possibly be so exciting that I'm willing to record a podcast episode just to tell you about it? And here's what it is. I've been working on something for the past three months and I wanted to make sure that the people that have been following us subscribe to us on YouTube, through the email, through our podcast, that you guys had early access to try it, because we know that our supporters are the ones that really help us to do what we're doing.

So I want to give you the opportunity to be the first ones to try this brand new awesome thing that we've just created. And don't worry, it's completely free. So you just need to follow a few specific steps. Number 1. This offer is only going to be available for three days. And what you need to do is to go to our website at https://realenglishconversations.com/earlyaccess/ , all one word, early access. And there you're going to have the opportunity to register for our waiting list.

And this is because what I'm building right now is so new, I still have a few final touches that need to be done before it's ready for you to try it. If you take the time to register, I'm going to have your email address and be able to send you an official notification with the specific instructions of what you need to do to register your free account and to get access to try some of the lessons from each of our courses. Additionally, when you create this free account, you're always going to have access to the latest podcast episode and the full transcription.

If that's not incentive enough for you to get your butt over to our website, I don't know what it is. You're already a loyal listener. You enjoy our podcast. You're going to get free access to the most recent episode of our podcast every time we release one. OK, so let me try to explain what these courses are and why they're so awesome. First of all, what are the levels we have? The Brave Beginner, the Inspired Intermediate and the Confident Communicator.

Obviously becoming a Confident Communicator in English is your final goal, and it's our goal to help you to get there. We've created the courses and the levels that are going to take you step by step from one level to the next to reach that goal. And as you guys already know, absolutely everything that we do focuses on helping you to develop your communication skills for real world communication. We want you to feel confident and comfortable speaking in English in any situation.

So it's not just the online courses that we're giving you. We're also creating tons and tons of opportunities for you guys to practice speaking. Let me explain one of the newest features that we're actually adding to the member area. And this is the REC Member Cafe. And what we're doing is setting up a virtual online meeting through Zoom for our members to be able to get together at a specific time to have informal conversations. And if you've ever been to the United States or Canada or somewhere in Europe...

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An English interview with special guest Luke Thompson from Luke's English Podcast and Amy share their thoughts on whether or not it's important to focus on grammar or if it’s possible to learn a language without looking at any grammar at all.
A great English lesson and discussion for our intermediate to advanced learners that aren't sure how much time or attention to put into grammar studies versus learning in more organic ways or practicing what you already know!

Follow Luke Thompson Here:

Luke's Website
YouTube
Twitter

Interview with Luke's English Podcast: Can You Learn English Without Studying Grammar?
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/72tm3y/55_Real_English_Luke_Podcast.mp3

Transcription Preview:
Amy: Hi, everybody. This is Amy from Real English Conversations, and I have a very interesting episode for you today. I have invited a special guest to join us to share his experience and knowledge about a topic that we’re going to be discussing. His name is Luke Thompson and he’s from Luke's ENGLISH Podcast.

If you haven’t heard of Luke before, let me just tell you a little bit about him. He has been teaching English for over 18 years. He spent two years teaching English in Japan. He’s originally from England and currently he’s living in France. Luke’s ENGLISH Podcast has received over 60 million downloads since it first started and beyond the impressive number of downloads, his podcast has been nominated for an ELTon Award, which is the English Language Teaching Innovation Award. And his podcast was voted #3 out of all British podcasts in the Listeners’ Choice Award, not just ESL podcast but all podcasts. Needless to say, Luke is a very popular teacher and we are fortunate to have him with us here today. How are you doing, Luke?

Luke: Hello there. I’m very well. Thank you. Thanks for that nice introduction.

Amy: You're very welcome and you absolutely deserve it. Today Luke and I are going to be discussing whether or not we think you need to focus on grammar or if it’s possible to learn a language without looking at any grammar at all. This is just going to be a casual, relaxed conversation where we share our opinion based on our experience, both as students and teachers. So before we get started, would you be able to introduce yourself to our listeners?

Luke: Yes. So my name is Luke Thompson and I’m an English teacher from England and a podcaster as well. I’ve been doing my podcast – Luke’s ENGLISH Podcast – for over 11 years now. And so, yes, I often talk about English. I talk about learning and teaching English. I talk about anything, really. What have you got, I’ll talk about it. But I like teaching, you know, and I like breaking down the language and stuff like that. And this question of, is it possible or should you learn English or any language without studying the grammar? This is the question, isn’t it?

End of Transcription Sample. To get access to the full transcription for this lesson and the other 49 conversation lessons currently available, register as a Real English Conversations member here.

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An American English Conversation about The 'New Normal' Life. As things start to open slowly after a long quarantine period, Amy and Curtis share some of their ideas and concerns about the simple things they used to enjoy without a second thought... Eating at a restaurant, traveling by airplane, or even watching a sunset. They also discuss the new strategies and the new way that they plan to do these activities in the future.

American English Conversation about The 'New Normal' Life

Audio Transcription:

Amy: Hi, everybody. My name is Amy Whitney and I’m here with Curtis Davies from Real English Conversations. Today we’re going to be having an interesting conversation talking about what the “new normal” is, or what we think is probably going to be happening over the next year as we get out of our houses and start to move around a little bit despite the fact that the coronavirus is still present in our lives.

I think one of the first places that we can start to talk about is something that we completely took for granted before is a safe, normal everyday activity and that was eating out at restaurants. So, Curtis, can you tell us a little bit about how we used to think about restaurants?

Curtis: Well, we used to really like going outside. We work from home and it was a chance two days or three days a week to go to some of our favorite restaurants. The restaurants here are really, really, good. So, we would just go out, enjoy the evening and it would feel very, very good because we were out of the house.

Amy: Exactly. We work at home all day so for us going out to have something to eat is a little bit of an escape from the workplace. Otherwise, as you can imagine, working from home all day, hanging around the house all night gets a little bit boring, and it’s nice to have a change of environment. So now we are not going out to restaurants. Do you remember the last time that we went out to a restaurant?

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Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to learn and remember new vocabulary? In this English podcast lesson, Amy and Curtis will explain how building vocabulary can be easier if you apply a few simple strategies. This is a great episode to get some language learning advice to help you learn faster!

English Lesson about Vocabulary Building
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/fl59zt/53_Building_Vocabulary_Podcast_Version.mp3

Audio Transcription:

Curtis: Hi, everybody. It’s Curtis and Amy from RealEnglishConversations.com. Today we’re going to be talking about building vocabulary and one critical step that you might be missing that could be making this much more difficult for you.

Amy: Exactly. A lot of the students, what they do is they have a list of words, for example, maybe use flash cards, but there’s something that’s missing. Even though you're reviewing those words every single day in that moment when you're speaking. For example, or you're trying to remember a word and you know that you're supposed to know it but you can’t recall it. This is the critical step and what we’re going to be helping you with today.

Curtis: Okay. Let’s get right into the core concept behind this technique. It’s really to give yourself enough exposure to the language through repetition or use to help you to understand it through that context and remember it easier.

Amy: And when Curtis is explaining this, he’s not talking about exposure like immigrating to an English-speaking country or just watching TV shows, for example, or listening to podcasts. There’s actually a little bit more to this and it’s being more specific with a deeper studying or revision of the content that you're being exposed to.

So we’re going to start by giving you some pro tips here. And don’t worry. We’re going to give some examples of different activities that we do and point out how each of these activities relates back to this technique. So what’s the first pro tip that you have, Curtis?

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Other Conversation Lessons & Articles:

[Audio] Job Interviews
[Audio] Living Abroad In Mexico
[Audio] Phrasal Verb Podcast: Show Up, Check Over
[Article] Become a Proactive Learner and Get Results

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In this English podcast, Amy and Curtis share their experience of what it's like immigrating to and living in another country. You can listen to the podcast, moving to another country, that is related to this podcast here: https://realenglishconversations.com/36-english-podcast-moving/

Transcription:

Curtis: Yeah. Different types of wildlife, for sure.

Amy: Out of the trips that we have done, the few trips that we have done around Mexico, what would you say was probably one of the most surprising or spectacular parts for you?

Curtis: For me, we went to this town called San Sebastián del Oeste. It’s an old mining town and they have this mountain peak that has high elevation as well.

Amy: Yeah. La Bufa is the name of it.

Curtis: So what we did was, we rented quads, four-wheel motorcycles, basically, is what they are, and I had never been on one before but you have to take this all the way to the top. And what was really spectacular for me, to answer your question, was the view and you could see the whole bay of Banderas, the bay of flags which we live in from up top. So you could get this bird’s eye view of pretty much the whole bay from up there. So that just blew me away. It was beautiful.

Amy: Exactly. And they had very big mountains as well. It actually reminded me a lot of British Columbia from up there.

Curtis: Yeah.

Amy: I would say for me probably two of the coolest things and most memorable I experienced back in December last year and it was when we went to Tolantongo, which is an area of Mexico. It was just like as if it was in a completely different world. I couldn’t believe it.

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My interview guest Moreno is back to for part 2 of this interview for an advanced English conversation about snowboarding, hockey, and other Canadian culture. Snowsport enthusiasts will love this discussion!

Follow Moreno Here:
- Website: https://www.curiousuniverse.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curiousuniverse.podcast/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Curiouspodcast

Transcription:

Amy: The way that we actually met is through a mutual passion that we have for snowboarding. I remember when I met you, I was absolutely crazy for the sport and I was really, really excited to hang out and have an opportunity to snowboard with you. I know, in my opinion, I think that you are quite an athlete, very talented, and the things that you do are great. And you actually inspired me to become a much better snowboarder. If you remember, you introduced me to snowboarding in trees and much more extreme snowboarding.

Moreno: I do remember. A lot of fun, a lot of fun.

Amy: And I was a complete chicken but you helped me to get over that.

Moreno: Well, that’s what friends are for. You needed a little push, a little guidance, right?

Amy: That’s right. You know, learning from somebody who is very good at it was a big inspiration. So, how did you get into snowboarding?

Moreno: Well, I probably started when I was like five years old and I stole my brother’s skateboard, and I didn’t give it back to him.

Amy: Okay.

Moreno: So I kept it from him and started skateboarding just as a regular kid. And I used to ski with my family in the ‘80s at a small ski hill outside of Ottawa.

Amy: I guess skiing was the thing at that time.

Moreno: Yeah, it sure was. It still is. Skiing is never going to disappear. Skiing is always going to be popular, but it was mainly just skiing. I guess when I was around 14 when snowboarding slowly became more popular. I guess it was the early ‘90s maybe. Snowboarding was getting more popular but also a little cheaper to buy the gear and things like that. I finally bought a new snowboard. It was the surf style, the skateboarding style. It was the sideways, surf-style that really was familiar with my skateboarding, and I thought it was cool. It was a cool thing. It was, like I said, lay back surf style was what I was looking for and that’s how I started.

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Get ALL the English Conversation Lessons & Online Courses

Members of our website get immediate access to:
- All the online courses to quickly improve speaking, listening and increase vocabulary
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In this advanced English conversation, a special guest, Moreno Scatozza, joins us to talk about space exploration and some really interesting facts about outer space!

Follow Moreno Here:
- Website: https://www.curiousuniverse.net/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curiousuniverse.podcast
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curiousuniverse.podcast/

Transcription:
Amy: Let’s get started with the interview. How are you doing today, Moreno?

Moreno: Good. How are you?

Amy: I’m doing great. Thanks. Let’s get started with a little bit of an introduction about you, if you could.

Moreno: Absolutely. So, hi, everyone. My name is Moreno Scatozza. I am a big fan of astronomy. I have a podcast which I speak about the facts of space and planets, stars, anything really to do with astronomy. And I have episodes on this podcast and I’d like to simplify things for the general public, let’s say. Because let’s face it: space, astronomy can be very confusing and also there’s just so much to talk about. So, in my podcast I’d like to kind of simplify things and also put things into category so you could really see things a little more clear.

Amy: Yes. So it’s basically trying to take the scientific version, which is a little bit boring and overwhelming for the typical person and put it into a term that makes it interesting and understandable.

Moreno: That’s what I’m aiming for.

Amy: Nice. That’s cool. Well, I’m sure that some of our listeners that are interested in space exploration and just things that are going on in our universe and planet are going to be interested to check out some of your episodes. How did you get started into this? Where did it come from, this inspiration?

Moreno: Well, I’ve always just loved space since I was a kid. I also wanted to learn more. Once you learned something that you're interested in, you wanted to just keep learning like a snowball effect. You want to progress and want to know why, and after you know why, you want to know why why. And when it comes to space, it’s infinity so there’s always the unknown and it’s always a mystery. So it’s almost like solving things and understanding things. Once you understand things about space, you also understand about things in your normal day-to-day lives, and I find that connection really important and I think a lot of people should know about.

Amy: Okay. Now I want to know exactly what you're referring to. So, how have you found that connection between what you've learned about space to how it relates to your real life?

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