hello welcome back to Luke's English podcast how are you doing you're doing all right yeah I hope so it's nice to be uh talking to you again on the podcast this is going to be episode number what 892 indeed I think so episode 892 how nice to be able to talk to you like this uh from the comfort of my own podcast room talking to all my listeners around the world completely free for you um how nice hello episode 892 right I think so I think it is 8892 episode 900 is coming isn't it it's not going to be long a couple of months maybe and then it'll be episode 900 I have absolutely no specific plans for that no idea what I'm going to do um we'll see I'll probably just I'll deal with that when when that comes up um let's not get let's not get ahead of ourselves right no let's focus now instead on this episode right here right now um all right I'm going to I've got a sort of a yeah I've got a PDF for this one which you can download from my website you'll find a link in the description I'll be reading from the PDF during the episode this is just like some notes some of this stuff is scripted some of it's spontaneous uh but I'll be using the PDF as my kind of uh my notes basically um bits of script bits of um spontaneous speaking right so I'm going to start reading from that PDF in 5 4 3 2 1 here we go right now okay so this is this is where I start the PDF uh July 2024 ramble working title working title that means that you know when you haven't decided what the actual title of of a thing will be like in this case a podcast episode but it could be something else like a a film or you know a documentary or a song or something you haven't decided what the title will be we use a working title and uh that in this this case that's July 2024 ramble which is just very descriptive anyway um so hello this is a podcast for Learners of English around the world hello are you a learner of English are you around the world yes then this podcast is for you now if you've been listening to this show for ages and you're a certified lebster you've actually got a certificate I've never actually issued any certificates uh to prove that you're a lebster maybe that's something I can do maybe I need to start issuing special lebster certificates but anyway if you are a sort of unofficial if you're a lebster basically then hi it's nice to be talking to you again and some people are thinking what what's a lebster what's that is that what's a lebster so a lebster is a citizen of LEP and you're thinking what leand like is that is that not where Santa Claus comes from no it's not that's lap l a l a n d and we're not talking about lap here it's LEP leand Le that's l p that means Luke's English podcast I'm typing while I'm talking here which is high level multitasking not really not really high level multitasking it's not exactly like being a fighter pilot anyway uh Le that's Luke's English podcast leand that is the kind of metaphysical world or space in which um it's the metaphysical place where all my listeners are are from so uh fans of this podcast all come from the same uh imaginary place which is called leand so if you if you're a Leapster from LEP land then hello um if you're a ninja who just listens and never comes out of the Shadows to leave a comment or get in touch perhaps I can coax you out of the Shadows kind of like try and persuade you to come out right to coax someone is to kind of try and gently persuade someone to do something like for example come out uh and say hello um if if you if you are a ninja and this is a a kind of a a predefined term by the way on this podcast a ninja is exactly that someone some who listens to the show but never actually comes out of the Shadows to leave a comment or to get in touch in any way if that is you maybe I can coax you out of the Shadows just to come here come out into the Limelight sort of thing and write a little comment on this episode either on the website page or on Spotify where you can leave comments or on YouTube um write a little comment to say hello and if you feel like it to answer any of the questions so this is just a little call to action for you to stop being a ninja and actually sort of write some something in the comment section so write an answer to any of these questions in the comments section so here are a few questions so where are you from how long have you been listening to my podcast oh there's a bit of grammar how long have you been listening to my podcast this is not a grammar test uh but there's a bit of present perfect continuous why not why not um use this moment to just quickly uh review this particular bit of grammar so how long have you been listening to my podcast so this this bit of grammar right present perfect continuous we use this to talk about like how long to to say how long for a for a present action but the how long refers to the time when the time between when it started and now does that make sense for example what are you doing oh I'm listening to Luke's English podcast oh that's interesting how long have you been doing that oh for about about 5 minutes now I've been listening to this particular episode for about 5 minutes so you could be funny and say uh about 5 minutes Luke uh but what I meant was how long have you been listening to the podcast sort of regularly in your life you might say I've been listening to LEP for about I don't know 6 months or I've been listening to LEP for about uh you know a week maybe youve just discovered the podcast or maybe you're a super long-term listener and you can say I've been listening to LEP for 16 years and if that is the case then I don't know how you've done that because I've only been doing the podcast for 15 years so if if you've been listening to this podcast for 16 years then congratulations you have found a way to travel uh through time uh good for you um could you please kind of go back into the past and correct certain things in history just be careful though actually don't do that don't go back into the past to correct to correct the course of history because that would probably lead to some sort of terrible uh outcome which would be even worse than what you expected okay that's a bit of a random tangent there while I was trying to explain present perfect continuous basically for a thing you're doing now if you want to say sort of how long you've been doing it I mean if you want to talk about uh how long for a present thing we often use present perfect continuous right that's often the way it's used you know I've been living in France for over 10 years now I've been doing this podcast for over 15 years I've been working as an English teacher for about 23 years now um M you see so what about you how long have you been listening to my podcast you could be funny and say about five minutes in fact it's more like eight minutes now uh or you could just be straight about it and so I've been listening to your podcast for or since as well right I've been listening to this podcast since it started Luke I've been with you from the very beginning or I've been listening to this podcast since I discovered the show during the covid lockdown and I was looking for things to help me improve my English online or I've been listening to this podcast since my friend introduced it to me through three and a half weeks ago exactly okay so how did you discover Luke's English podcast H how would you describe your level of English all right why do you want to learn or improve your English um do you listen to any other podcasts to improve your English which ones do you listen to uh what for you is the best way to improve your English what works for you now you might not think wait a minute Luke I'm no expert yeah but still I want to know I want to know uh what works for you what have you found to be a good way to do this if you want to know my thoughts you can go back into my episode archive and look at the old episodes I've done about how to learn English with Luke's English podcast there's even an episode called how to learn English you could check that one out just go into my episode archive teacher luke. co.uk episodes you know what because I'm because I'm nice I'm going to find that episode for you right now how to learn English there's I've done a few in the past about you know techniques methods ways to improve your English but we can just go with that one so I'm looking at my episode archive I'm going to do because I use an Apple Mac laptop I'm going to press command F and I'm going to be able to find this episode how to learn English command F opens a little search bar on my browser I use uh Google Chrome when you when I press command hold command and tap F the search bar opens and I search I can then search for keywords on that particular website and it just takes me straight there did you know about that on a on a Windows computer you can do contrl F and you can do the same thing a very kind of convenient way to for example search my episode archive which you can find at teacher luke. co.uk episodes so I've done that and I found the episode it's number 669 and it's called how to learn English giving you as much advice as possible about learning English across the four skills of reading listening writing and speaking full transcript available so you could check that one out right if you wanted to know some of my thoughts but anyway what about your thoughts what do you think are the best ways to improve your English in your uh personal uh experience I'd like to know please so so share your thoughts uh next question are you an audio listener or a video viewer because there are audio listeners who are listening to the audio version of this podcast using a podcast app on their phone no doubt maybe on my website or are you a video viewer watching this on YouTube which one are you and are you are you both in which case you know in which conditions do you listen to the audio version and when do you watch the video version I suppose most people listen to the audio version when they're doing something else like for example when they're driving a car uh or maybe driving something else driving a uh a horsedrawn carriage um through the streets of Victorian London that's that person who's managed to travel back in time um yeah or or you know maybe you listen to the audio version when you are yeah walking or on public transport or something let us know um next question are you a premium subscriber um in which case which po which podcast app do you use uh to get all your premium episodes so you're using Apple podcasts pocketcasts something else no I'm not going to now go into excessive levels of detail about how to add LEP premium to a podcast app on your phone not this time folks uh next question which episode do you remember as one of your favorites do you have a particular favorite that you remember anything sticky in your memory in terms of an episode that you've enjoyed uh let us know what that is what kind of episodes do you like cuz I do different types of episode on this show I'm curious to know what kinds of episodes are your favorites stories jokes conversations certain guests Rambles like this one um can you think of any moments from this podcast like specific moments um that that um that stick in your mind right any particular little moments on the podcast that stick in your mind what kind of moments do you enjoy in these episodes is it moments where bits of language come up and I explain them for you or are there moments where just like little bits of random humor arrive or something like that what what are your what moments do you like um do you usually manage to listen all the way to the end of each episode and if you do do you do that in one single listening session or do you break it up into sections which I should remind you is possible you don't have to listen to the whole thing in one single go if you're using a podcast app you listen to a bit stop go off do something else close your phone you could even turn your phone off and turn it back on again the next day is there anyone who does this in the world I don't think so is there anyone out there on Earth who actually switches off their phone at the end of the day well that's the end of the day I'm going to switch off my phone po PE power it down and in the morning oh brand new day let's see have a bit of breakfast shower get dressed and everything get all ready and then oh I suppose I better turn on my phone then no one does that right there just your phone is just on all the time and if your phone is off it's you know something's wrong something's oh no my phone's offline anyway um you could even turn off your phone and your podcast app will remember where you stopped and on YouTube if you're signed in with your Google account it should also remember where you stopped watching the video and when you come back to it it'll Carry On from that point but anyway do you listen in one single go or do you break it up into sections um what what's your favorite color this is irrelevant of course but I'm curious what's your favorite color and what is the average Wing speed of a fully laden African swallow just a kind of a bit of trivia there at the end I don't know the answer I just got thrown into the into the uh Chasm of Doom from that film montypython and the Holy Grail okay that's a that's a question from montypython fans uh which will probably leave many of you scratching your heads at this point um okay all right anyway let's carry on so my main aim with these episodes is to help you get more listening practice into your life in order to help you learn English as it is spoken by a human in this case that human is me hello so I'm Luke I'm an English teacher podcaster and standup comedian from England currently living in France M bag and Quant and stuff y I've been teaching English for 23 years this summer does that make sense that that sounds like just this summer I've been teaching for 23 years which is not possible again unless you have a time machine enough about time machines anyway this summer meaning like 23 summers ago I was just doing my first English teaching um in a classroom getting very stressed out uh trying to learn how to be an English teacher and having my first teaching experiences that was 23 years ago before some of you were even born before some of you were even a little you know Sparkle in your mother's eye you know I was there kind of trying to teach English uh feeling very uncomfortable it's a different story now I'm much more relaxed about it and and as a result enjoy it a lot more than I did it in the beginning anyway there's another story for another time so I've been teaching for 23 years this summer and I've been podcasting for over 15 years there's that present perfect continuous again um the podcast has built up a big following around the world over those 15 years uh my listeners are know as are known as lepers I have awesome listeners and this becomes obvious to me when I sometimes meet them at standup shows or other events or I get recognized in an airport or something like that and people are nice or also when I just see the comments that come in and the majority of the comments are absolutely lovely and it's great to have such nice people listening to my podcast and it's the sort of thing like guests who come on this show will remark they'll say l your audience are all so nice aren't they and I'll say yes they are except for some people who are dicks in the comments section but you know what can you do um so with these that I mean that's just that's just YouTube isn't it or that's just that just goes with the territory but it's a Pity so you know try not to try to be nice in the comments section I'm just speaking to the you know the 1% of of people there um anyway so with these podcast episodes I just want to give you something authentic personal entertaining um informative and enjoyable to listen to in English on a regular the basis for longer periods long term because I think that can really help with your English I always try to give you a variety of different things in my episodes stories conversations specific subjects language lessons and teaching uh tips for learning English motivation comedy sketches music and sometimes I'll just ramble about lots of different things in English sharing my thoughts with you using a variety of vocabulary and grammar while doing it and sharing moments from my life I also want to help you connect to English in a more personal way so this uh episode number 892 is one of those rambling episodes which I do quite frequently and I'm aiming to cover a few different things here okay in fact here's an overview of the episode so I'm going to give you an update on what's been going on and what to expect over the next few weeks on Luke's English podcast and Luke's English podcast premium um I'll tell you I'll give you a little report about the comedy show and live podcast recording which actually happened last Friday you've you probably heard me um promoting it on the podcast recently well it happened and uh I'll tell you about that uh in this episode um it was really great by the way um I'm going to be teaching a language point about hedging expressions for polite and indirect questions with some added action and comedy thrown in so yes some teaching about hedging language basically how to make your questions uh and statements uh more polite um and more indirect so looking at the ways that we can manipulate our sentences to have a certain effect the effect being to um give a good impression to be respectful and polite uh when we are asking questions and things that's in response to a question from a listener recently um I'll be giving some comments about the UK general election results after the Rick Thompson report that um I published on the subject so I talked to my dad about um the UK general election which happened a couple of weeks ago now so I'll just kind of like talk a little bit about that uh bit of politics but not too much I'll talk a bit about Euro 2024 okay that's the football tournament UAA the UEFA European football championship 2024 that's now ancient history of course cuz that's more than one week old so now that everyone's just that's just gone out of your mind completely I must remember also to mention the Olympics cuz the the City of Paris is gearing up for the Olympics in less than a week and generally let's relax and enjoy a stress-free ramble here in my pod room so it's Monday the 22nd of July as I record this okay um England lost the European uh football championships as I said said the England lost Euro 20 the Euro 2024 final England lost the Euro 2024 final against Spain about a week ago congrats Spain congratulations to Spain uh a bit more on that later in this episode also check out my recent appearance on the foot glish podcast that's a podcast in which you can learn English with football and I was on there and talked about England and the euro for about half an hour talking about England's performance what went wrong what went right uh the players Gareth Southgate and all the rest of it so you can check that out on the foot glitch podcast and you can find a link to that in the description okay uh labor the labor party that's a a political party in the UK labor won the UK general election by a landslide that means that they won by a very large majority a couple of weeks ago just as my dad predicted again a bit more on that later Donald Trump nearly got shot and ended up looking like some kind of action movie hero you must have seen that unbelievable and Joe Biden has stepped down as the presidential candidate for the Democrats having looked worryingly shaky and Confused in the most recent presidential debate there had been a lot of calls for him to step down finally he did it a little bit more on that later too but not too much politics it's been boiling hot in Paris it's been roasting here in Paris boiling hot luckily we had some thunderstorms and it's cooled down a little bit but it's still boiling as far as I'm concerned um on Friday last Friday I did the standup show with Charles pelgrin that I've been promoting on the podcast recently and it was a great success I also managed to record a live podcast in the room with some lepers in the audience a little bit more on that later too yes um I finished my teaching at the British Council for the summer last week um does that make sense so uh I I won't be back in the classroom until September now so uh all my teaching uh was uh all wrapped up and finished more or less at the end of last week so I'm now I'm officially on holiday even though I'm still doing podcast work but I'm on holiday from the class room so I'm kind of like half the way halfway there halfway on holiday from the from the bottom half down I'm on holiday and you're thinking what does that actually mean Luke from the from the waist down you're on holiday what's going on uh down there well I'm wearing shorts I mean that's cuz it's cuz it's hot anyway I'm I'm sort of like almost complet almost on holiday now and so I'm in a slightly more relaxed uh mood having um completed my obligations in terms of my uh teaching uh work so that's nice and uh also I should say at this point hello to any of my British Council students that I've taught over the last Academic Year I've had lovely students this year some of them became lepers uh during the year and I do so you know people sometimes ask me do you kind of do you use your podcast in the classroom I don't actually use my podcast that much in the classroom every now and then we might listen to like a little anecdote from one of my friends or something that who've been on the podcast but I don't really but what I will do sometimes is I'll say oh by the way you know you could listen to this episode of my podcast that I did like for example if we've been talking about a specific subject uh in the lesson I might say here's some optional homework you could listen to this podcast episode about the same subject you know um so every now and then I kind of like um uh mention the show to people but I don't I'm not I try not to be too heavy handed about it um and then also there are some moments when I have students in the classroom who already know about the podcast before I've even mentioned it and sometimes they they know who I am sometimes they know in advance that they're going to be in my classroom um for example I had a a student called Zep who listened to the podcast heard that I taught at the British Council in Paris she signed up to courses and she was in my class uh for uh you know a couple of months uh so that was that was nice cuz you know zet was well great a person to have in the class as well but it was just kind of like funny to know that she was a podcast listener and then other people um they come to my class they take they spend some time uh in my lessons and then it's only until sometime after they've started the classes that they realize that they actually also listen to my podcast so that's a bit of a weird moment and then there are other students who kind of like um um start listening to the the show and maybe after the first couple of lessons with me they they after that they say oh I've been listening to your podcast and then and that's great you know because we get into the same kind of we get on the same wavelength um I think it's a good compliment you know I mean a good compliment I mean it's a good thing to do uh alongside uh the lessons of course listening to the podcast anyway uh a question that you might have in your mind which is this Luke why do you still teach in classes in a language school with 1 million plus uh Subs uh subscribers on YouTube and a wellestablished audience for your podcast surely you don't need to do that anymore why don't you just buy a yacht and live in Monaco uh and then I've written Luke answers his own question here so the reason one of the reasons why um I continue to teach is like well first of all I actually enjoy it most of the time I enjoy teaching and um in fact it can be great you know I just especially now I said before at the beginning of my teaching career I was less sure of myself these days I am much more self- assured as a teacher and as a result I think I enjoy it a lot more uh so there's that I enjoy it also the social contact that I get not just in the classroom but um in the teachers room with my colleagues is really important for me because if I didn't have that then I I would live a fairly solitary life yeah sad isn't it this is where you can have sad music if you wanted you can imagine some sad music so yeah one of the reasons why uh I still teach uh is because um you know if I didn't have that social Conta act i' I'd start to get lonely you know and now you can just imagine me working on my own in my pod room just every day never really seeing anyone and then just going out maybe at lunchtime and just walking down the street on my own while French people in Paris past me on the left and on the right giggling together laughing um enjoying their lunch break with their friends and colleagues meanwhile I'm walking the other direction it's all in black and white just feeling sad maybe getting a very plain sandwich eating a Quant with a tear coming down my cheek but no that doesn't happen because um you know I get the social contact of of regularly going to the British Council just twice a week um two mornings a week so that's another reason and also I teach at the British Council because um I feel like it makes sure that I don't forget how to be an English teacher I think it's a kind of it feels really important for me to keep my teaching skills alive so that's another reason why um yeah I think it's probably good for me as well makes me a bit more mobile I move around a lot more in the classroom often stand up squatting down in front of the the my my students desks listening to them talk um I think it's probably good for my brain good for quite good for my body makes me go out move around walk a lot so there you go um I usually teach just twice a week but in the summer I usually have to do some intensive holiday courses which is about 30 hours a week that's right 30 hours the students do 30 hours of English classes in one week six hours a day and obviously I have to teach for 6 hours a day so I did two of those this summer and finished the second one last Friday the Intensive courses are good for giving the students a boost in their English in just one week but they are tiring for everyone and they're intense so they can be quite exhausting there's a it can be a little bit stressful as well when you consider the amount of preparation time you have and for example you know when it's hot in the city and in the morning um I have to take either my daughter to school or my son to his crash and then I it's like racing through the city trying to get to um the British Council um and I'm all hot and sweaty and and then you I've got a limited amount of time to prepare for a lesson um so it's all it's it can be very intense week and quite tiring so it's I have to say it's a a tremendous relief to know that I finished the courses and they all went fine and now I've just got a bit more breathing space it's great tomorrow I'm going to London by the way I'm going to London tomorrow um and uh anyway it's another story for another time hopefully I'm going to record something while I'm there with my camera you know a walk and talk um I have various episodes in the pipeline free and premium ones I'm trying to keep things varied now a little bit of about my calendar over the next um few weeks so I'm trying to get everything done before August arrives and we go away on holiday for most of the month and I won't be doing any podcasting right so I need to make enough episodes so I can publish one per week during the holiday but also for a couple of weeks when we get back because that can be a busy time and I won't be able to prepare episodes in August so I might not have things ready for September huh I just my my Spider Sense tells me that I've confused you a little bit there so uh I've got to work quite hard uh between now and the beginning of August when we go on holiday uh because I've got to prepare episodes that will automatically publish uh while I'm away and also I'll need episodes to be automatically published um for the first couple of weeks in September while I'm settling back down and so on so I need about a month and a half of content to be prepared now before the August holidays okay um so this is all the stuff you're going to get over the next month and a half that I'm talking about now so I need six or seven free episodes and at least two premium episodes at least two episodes right um I have about five free episodes in various states of preparation now which I'm working on and I'm planning to record a couple of Premium episodes too over the next week or so and that will be p62 more on that in a minute so the episodes I have lined up are pretty good ones um in my own humble opinion and I think you'll like them and I'm really looking forward to publishing them for you I won't tell you what they all are in a lot of detail because I like a certain element of surprise but I can say that there is a true crime episode coming a sort of yeah a sort of True Crime that LEP is going to turn into a true crime podcast for one episode and it's a conversation uh with a fellow podcaster fellow um English language teaching podcaster about a famous British True Crime Story a sort of UN solved mystery from recent British history let's say modern British history okay so a true crime episode coming soon that's going to be the next episode in fact uh there's the live podcast recording uh which I did uh in front of an audience last Friday more on that later there's a fairly disgusting conversation with a returning guest in which we cover a topic that I'm pretty sure is never discussed in English lessons certainly not in the course books I'm sure that there are teachers who will do those things sort of unofficially but certainly the course books probably don't cover the topic that is going to be in this upcoming episode and also in that episode some creepy true stories which will send a shiver down your spine ghosts coming soon uh there's a story episode involving some more interactive fiction think the Victorian detective series but without the detective elements or the lemon Adventure but without the lemons right so an interactive story um interactive fiction that's where I do one of those sort of online text Adventure Games uh a funny and revealing conversation with an old friend and fellow English teacher that I haven't seen for years that I hadn't seen for years I should say um because I spoke to him a few weeks ago and recorded that podcast and there's the trip to the medieval museum with Amber and Paul which you might have forgotten about um I went to a medieval Museum on the same day I recorded the recent walk and talk episode with uh health and diet phrasal verbs um on that same day I went to the mediev a medieval museum with Amber and Paul and Paul's brother Kyle who is a professional footballer by the way I don't know if you knew that so anyway that's coming up too although I have to say that one is an absolute nightmare to edit because I've got there's I've got five files to deal with all at the same time there's the video footage right shot with my my action cam and then there's four audio files me Amber Paul and Kyle and so I'm editing all I'm synchronizing them all together and editing them all at the same same time and basically in order to avoid a horrible sort of phasing effect I have to cut out so when one person is speaking I have to cut out the audio from all the other people so it's just isolating each person each person's audio file when they speak anyway it's a nightmare so it's taking me a long time to put that together plus there was an issue with the uh with the recording it's a bit annoying it's I was quite um upset when I discovered this that two of the audio files cut off after an hour so that's like 30 minutes the whole last section of the episode has been lost partially lost I've still got the video but the audio is not very good so any I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm working on it also I need to publish the the vocabulary workshop I did in the spring do you remember that do you remember when I was um um talking about this this vocab workshop on Zoom I need to publish that you know it was recorded uh but I need to re-record the audio version because the workshop relied on visual slides too much and won't work as an audio episode so I'll publish the original Workshop recording on YouTube I think and we'll record a new audio version that will work without the uh the slides you know the one that you could just listen to I think I think it's a really important episode in terms of giving you advice about learning vocabulary and it fits in well with my approach to doing premium episodes so I will be publishing that um at some point fairly soon um other content is still to be confirmed but I'll see what I can do right as I said I need quite a lot of content to to um time me over until the middle of September uh premium subscribers hello here is a heads up meaning a sort of um something to make you aware of something right here's a a heads up about the most recent premium episodes so p61 Parts 1 to 7 are available now so I recorded and published those over the last few weeks uh they went up in mid July p61 Parts 1 to 7 so it's like the the first two weeks of July you got this pre this latest premium series it's an overview of phrasal verbs right so in fact it's in seven Parts it's based on the uh walk and talk health and diet episode that I did if you remember that one I walked around next to the river uh and um um answered some questions about health and diet and there were about 28 phrasal verbs in there that I used so I've made an episode series about this with uh uh yeah loads of stuff in it so it includes first of all an overview of phrasal verbs telling you sort of important information about phrasal verbs separable and non-separable phrasal verbs idiomatic and literal phrasal verbs and you know lots of information which hopefully will help you to understand phrasal verbs and how they work and how you can learn them and I also taught 18 phrasal verbs in that first part then there's the review of nearly 30 phrasal verbs which I used in episode 887 there's pronunciation practice with sentences containing the phrasal verbs from part two of the series so pronunciation practice sentences with the phrasal verbs there's an article about health and diet so a bit of reading listening and more vocabulary then some more pronunciation practice using the article reading it out loud and using your voice to interpret the text to make it clear to pause in the right places and to use the right kind of intonation so there's that and then even more vocabulary from episode 887 so other vocab not phrasal verbs just like idioms and fixed Expressions right plus pronunciation practice for all that language in sentences and dramatic moments in Parts six and seven when the French Air Force flew loads of planes and helicopters low over the podcastle during the recordings of part six and 7 um yeah I was just just recording uh those episodes and suddenly a massive war plane just flew over the top of the building like really low and then that whole day there just these helicopters and fighter jets and things kept flying over the top of my head while I was recording and I managed to actually record some some footage of it including some sound effects in fact I want to um what have I got in fact I've made a little Montage which I'm going to play for you now here's a montage of those moments I don't know how heavy he is these days but um maybe 10 kg would that make sense oh wow my goodness that's there's like a war plane flying across the sky it looked like a propeller driven fighter plane just flew in front of my window that was exciting and it was in strange col it was like blue and white stripes that was an odd moment that one seemed to be pretty close very exciting sorry you couldn't see that I've got some things at the post post office there are a few things waiting for me at the post office do you think you could pick them up just don't go out of your way though okay oh my [Music] God Jesus Co blim me did you you hear that can you still hear that my God helicopters three what looked like three attack helicopters flying overhead what an impressive sight and and another three and another one my God Seven like military helicopters flying over the podcastle and another little one oh and a and a couple of light aircraft like a couple of Cessna light aircraft the reason that this was happening is because on the 14th of July every year in Paris they do a big military procession so like you know you got all the Army and everyone sort of marches um down uh the uh um shaniz and through plast La Concord right this big military procession for the 14th of July which is a big public holiday in France and also the the French Air Force do these flyovers where they fly various military aircraft over the city and it culminates with a fly over by these uh acrobatic uh display planes which Trail colored smoke behind them and they they sort of create a big French flag in the sky the uh blue white and red uh colors the tror French flag these these display planes fly over and leave this big trail of smoke in the air and so before the 14th of July there's always a day day maybe a week before where they do a practice run and the planes go over a few times and the they even fly over with the with the the smoke trails and everything uh so that's what happened and they completely interrupted my episode in fact they're doing it again I mean on purpose this time anyway where was I I was saying yeah my wife would say I've got some some packages at the post office do you reckon you could pick them up today just but don't go out of your way see okay what about you do you have to go out of your way to get more exercise into your day maybe oh I can hear another thing coming oh helicopters four little Choppers flying overhead another little one these are very boring like they look like sort of helicopters that you just see every day boring little helicopters come on we want big helicopters with guns on them but don't actually use those guns if you're very lazy and you've had a you've had a busy day um and you really need to get off your bum and go to the gym so number one I'll say the whole thing first and then I'll break it into chunks you repeat the chunks twice and then I'll do the whole thing try and repeat that okay so the whole thing is this I get lost so easily it's not that I lose my sense of direction it's just that I assume that one thing is next to another thing and then I take a wrong turn okay this is ridiculous it's ridiculous the number of uh planes and stuff there's just fighter jets flying over my building all the time I'm videoing right now I'm just videoing the sky in front of the Pod room here are we going to get any more fighter jets I'm probably going to end up standing here for like 15 minutes aren't I just in this position is anything going to come all right back to the podcast then right oh here comes another one oh my goodness oh my God I'm so sorry you can't see this right I've got to take uh got to take some video evidence of this I don't know what you call them but in English that's the Red Arrows so those that was a set of about I guess five um what do they call those planes that are for display purposes and they they uh had Trails of smoke coming off the back of them there was a French flag in smoke so blue white and red smoke trailing behind them right I got that one I managed to catch that that was a a a configuration of about five jets flying over five six or seven maybe but they were further away they were a lot further away than the others have been the others have been like almost right over the top of my my flat here but I'm I'm chuffed I managed to get that one okay I'll keep my phone on the Shelf in case I need to do that again I'm sorry for the interruptions I really am but I feel like I want to share that with you cuz it's exciting okay anyway that was quite exciting Right Moving On p62 is coming soon and that's going to be the aonis island Mega vocabulary Express episode uh which has been requested by at least ooh five people wow um right so with that level of popular demand how could I refuse I'm definitely going to do the AP on his Island Mega vocabulary uh recap um on LEP premium and that will be published soon so p62 coming soon but anyway p61 Parts 1 to 7 available now with a plethora of uh vocabulary learning opportunities for you check your podcast app uh if you don't know how it all works and you're a premium subscriber just sign into your account at teacher. co.uk account and then just follow the steps to do what you need to do okay right next thing is this Luke how was the standup show what about the live podcast recording so you remember that uh I was talking about this right over the last few weeks and it says on this PDF Luke Rambles a bit about the standup show on Friday the 19th of July in Paris right okay so yes you heard me talking about it right uh that I did this standup show with my friend Charles Pelin who was in the last episode of the podcast he was there doing standup as well so I did 30 minutes and Charles did 30 minutes well actually Charles some the the initial plan was that uh Charles would do 30 minutes first and then I would do 30 minutes uh but there was a little bit of miscommunication between Charles and me uh in the moments before uh the show started and so um we were a little bit stressed maybe a little bit of nerves and Charles said to me okay can you give me a light at 15 minutes because that's what you do in standup you know you have to do a certain amount of time so normally there's someone at the back of the room who shows you a light could be a little torch or maybe a light on your phone and the light can mean different things it often means you've got one minute left so you get a little flash of light from the back of the room means you've got one minute left you get another one it means it's time to to leave the stage now so Charles said to me me um can you give me a light at 15 minutes right cuz he wanted to know when he was basically half halfway through he said can you give me a light at 15 minutes I was like yeah sure okay yeah light at 15 minutes okay you know feeling a bit nervous before the show began yeah okay light light at 15 minutes and he said and then um give me another one at like 2 minutes before the end when I got 2 minutes left I was like 2 minutes he said no no no actually um make it one minute one minute one one minute before I said okay I'll give you light one minute before right so then the show started and the rest of it and we got a really good audience I was a bit concerned and so was Charles because the weather was really hot on Friday there was a heat wave uh and it was very hot and I thought oh people are people are not going to come they're going to stay at home because it's too hot and uncomfortable I with the room in terms of reservations was completely fully booked but I know from experience that even when you've got a fully booked room people drop out and they don't come you know um so I I thought ah people people are not going to bother so I was concerned that we wouldn't get a full room but we did uh there was a queue outside and everything and the room was full I think uh we must have got about 60 people maybe 50 to 60 people something like that um which is great you know I mean it's not Paul Taylor filling out the Zenith with 4,200 people but it's pretty good and um you know that's often what you need you know just that right number of people and it was a really good audience they laughed people had good good fun um and uh they cheered and laughed and stuff and just great really really enjoyable so after this exchange with uh Charles where initially we said 15 minutes light okay and then 2 minutes one minute okay one minute I'll give you a l at one minute Charles went up he was doing his stuff he was in a good Rhythm right he was kind of building momentum getting a nice rhythm going with the audience and I checked my watch I was like okay 15 minutes is coming up I better give him a light of 15 minutes and the thought flashed through my head which was oh uh he's not going to think this is it right he's not going to think this is one minute is he cuz we said he said to me give me a light at 15 minutes and I said okay he surely he knows what 15 minutes feels like on stage so I was like okay I'll give him the 15minute warning like he said you know so he knows he's halfway through so I went to the back of the room sha my my turned the torch on my phone sha the light at him made sure he could see that and then went went back to the back of the room and uh and then a minute later Charles said to the audience well that's all my time ladies and gents thanks very much I've been Charles Pelin and they all applauded and then he left the stage and Charles what are you doing I I I wasn't bothered by it at all you know it was it was fine but I was just more concerned for him that he didn't get to do the full 30 minutes so afterwards I went up and did my 30 minutes and then I introduced Charles back on the stage and he finished uh the the show with you know the rest of his material and it worked out actually really well because in a way Charles ended up headlining the show which was really great you know it was nice for the audience to to have him back again and he finished his set and it all went well so it's interesting way of doing it actually that you kind of split it up like that we might we might do the show again we're planning to do another one like that in October um okay so I'll probably talk about that uh closer to the time when we've sorted out the details um but it was great I I had a fantastic time it was nice to do a longer set and it was really nice to have a lot of lepers in the audience I've said before that I don't have that many lepers in France really compared to other countries but you know I had people who came and people were lovely and enthusiastic and it was just really good fun and um nice to entertain and to do standup you know ah it was great um now I recorded that but I'm I'm not going to publish it because and I've explained the reasons for this before with which is that um you know once I publish standup material then it's kind of out and we'll see I haven't got plans to publish the standup stuff because I keep that for the stage let's say okay uh but then afterwards after the show um we had to send everyone back upstairs and then um I said right I'm going to do a podcast recording in the room now a lot of people had to go and stuff but and I again I was I I thought to myself people aren't going to stay for the podcast you know people are going to just be like all right I'm going to go now it's quite late I want to go and get my train or I'm going to get some food but we got about nearly 20 people stuck around for the podcast so we all went back down into the room and I recorded a live podcast in the room in front of about 20 people and that was fantastic that was kind of um really great to do I've done live podcast recordings a couple of times before and it is a great thing to do and I always want to do that it's just a question of finding the right conditions finding the right room finding the right way to make it work I think this is a good way to do it that we do standup and then I can do a podcast in the room because that way the people in the audience for the podcast are in the right mental space the right Vibe is created it's a kind of Comedy atmosphere in the past I've done live podcast recordings where there was no comedy first and the atmosphere is a lot more sober let let's say I mean I don't just mean that people have had a drink or not but just that the mood is a bit more sensible it's even maybe a little bit more academic or something for example if I've done podcast recordings in the big room at the British Council the I I want more of a comedy atmosphere where the audience feel more comfortable uh responding and laughing you know I want there to be laughter I want it to be closer to Comedy than to an English lesson or at least a bit of both you know um and so doing doing the podcast recording after having done standup is a good way of doing that because it sets the tone for the podcast recording so it was great I had a really good time uh really nice group of people in the audience and uh we had lots of fun and that episode will be published very soon not the next one maybe the one after that I'm just working on it right now so that will be coming soon to uh uh some headphones or a speaker near you okay right now moving on let's have a grammar question about polite language now this is going to be grammar but we're going to have a bit of fun with it as well so let's get Back to Basics with a good old grammar question from a listener so here is a grammar question from haid the email that haid sent to me went like this hi Luke how are you today I'm fine thanks haid thanks for asking uh can you by any chance help me with this sentence very nice nicely put very nicely put especially with by any chance in there can you by any chance help me with this sentence the sentence is this did you happen to hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson earlier did you happen to hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson earlier so clearly haid has been listening to something or reading something in English and he's come across this sentence and something has confused him about it and he like me to help him understand it and since he asked so nicely with especially with that by any chance can you by any chance help me with this sentence I'm happy to respond and in fact I'm doing it on the podcast I hope that's okay with you haid I'm doing it on the podcast because it gives me a chance to kind of do a bit of language teaching uh in this rambling episode okay so did you happen to hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson earlier so now I understand what it means said haid and what this means is this it means did you hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson right that's what it means um and haid continues but I never saw in fact haid I would say I have never seen I I think it should be I have never seen I've never seen uh but I've never seen a sentence Built This Way um haid continues you already may have talked about this specific topic so I'm sorry to bring it back uh might have done but not not particularly recently haid happy continues it comes from a film based on a stepen king story uh The Langoliers or langers so apparently it's from a film based on a story by Stephen King thanks said haid take care haid okay so here is my answer all right so haid sentence appears to be about grammar sorry his question haid's question appears to be about grammar as he talks about how the sentence was built right he talks about the structure of that sentence uh did you happen to hear what the little girl said so this might also be considered a vocabulary question as we'll see certainly it is about pragmatics okay certainly it is about pragmatics in English this means how the words and structures we use have different effects on the people we're communicating with supp everything is pragmatics to an extent but you can see a lot of the time certain things about English are PR are pragmatic concerns for example especially when we are dealing with the language of politeness or how we build charm politeness respect into the things we say and how that how the the the the choice of words the structure of those sentences can have certain impacts in in that regard so did you happen to hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson earlier so haid says I understand what it means did you hear what the little girl said right so here we go first the line means this right did you hear what the little girl said to miss Stevenson or more simply what did the little girl say to miss Stevenson that's basically what it means I expect the confusing part of this is the did you happen to hear part so the question used the structure or the uses the structure happen plus infinitive happen to hear and this is a common way to form indirect questions first of all let's consider happen plus infinitive did you happen to hear in this case which is used to express something that happens by chance for example I happened to meet James the other day at the bus stop so I just met met James without intending to I was at the bus stop he was at the bus stop too hi James oh it's nice to see you here I happened to meet James the other day or oh uh dear dear Steve I happened to be coming to your town later this month maybe we can meet for a coffee right so I just you know like something's caused me to BEC coming to your town maybe a client works there and so I'm going to go and visit the client so I happened to be coming to your town later this month so just sort of stuff that happens by chance it's for everyday things rather than expressing big moments of luck or chance so for example we wouldn't say this I happened to win the lottery the other day so we we wouldn't say that because it sounds far too casual so we use this happened to do something in more casual everyday moments for example I happened to I happened to see our old boss the other day I happen to see our old boss difficult pronunciation to understand there because of the our old boss right the the words all combined together to see our old boss to see our old boss I happened to see our old boss the other day he told me to say hi right so just stuff that happens by chance I happen to do it now we most often use this happen to as a hedging expression to make polite indirect questions you're thinking what what's hedging I'll tell you in a moment so we use happen to as a hedging expression to make polite indirect questions it makes the questions softer which makes it more polite it makes the question softer which makes it more polite it's a way of gently asking a question okay for example do you happen to know where the meeting is taking place um sorry do you happen to know know where the meeting is taking place which is another version of saying where is the meeting taking place okay you can hear the difference between those two questions right the first one where's the meeting taking place and do you happen to know where the meeting is taking place so do you happen to know now you could equally say do you know do you know where the meeting is taking place which is also better well I say I say better I mean more polite let's say where's the meeting taking place you sound like a police officer you know where's the meeting taking place tell me now uh I don't know officer AR just where is it h it's um in room B you know but more politely um excuse me do you know where the meeting is taking place yeah it's in room B why did you tell him well he he was so polite I didn't I didn't know or another one um sorry do you have happen to know where the meeting is taking place in fact that starts with sorry as well uh sorry do you happen to know where the meeting is taking place uh yeah it's in room B don't tell him where the meeting I mean he was just he was so polite don't know why there's this drama but you know I'm just trying to keep it entertaining so hedging is when we add things at the beginning and end or end of our statements to make them more polite so changing the structure of what we say or changing the things we say to make them more polite typically adding something at the beginning or adding something at the end right so this is done by making our statements Less Direct or less imposing if something is imposing it means it sort of imposes an obligation on someone right so to make our statements less imposing meaning less forceful meaning allowing the responder the choice to say no more easily okay ultimately that's what it comes down to when we're talking about this kind of polite pragmatic language instead of saying where's the meeting room that's a very imposing question because it's harder for the person responding to say to to to not answer the question you know it's imposing because you're really forcing the person to give you specific information and therefore that's quite rude you're asking quite a lot you're putting someone on the spot whereas if you say do you know where the meeting is taking place the answer to that is technically yes I do or no I don't and so you're kind of giving the responder more options in terms of what how they can respond okay putting less pressure on them and do you happen to know uh when the game starts meaning you know is there any chance or I don't suppose there's any possibility in which you know this so again adds that layer of indirectness so do you happen to know when the game starts or did you happen to catch what time the game starts and did you happen to hear what she said about the game all examples of making questions with happen to okay do you know or do you happen to know M did you catch and did you happen to catch so going from direct to polite let just look at this again let's just illustrate this so what time does the game start that's direct and Less Direct do you know what time the game starts and you should notice in these indirect questions we've got do you know um there's an inversion right do you know what time the game starts what time does the game start do you know what time the game starts so in this indirect version the game starts that's normal sentence structure verb uh sorry subject verb the game starts right in normal questions it's the other way around what time does you use that auxiliary verb okay um do you happen to know what time the game starts do yeah do you happen to know what time the game starts and this as well check this one out you don't happen to know what time the game starts do you so this is a negative ative statement with a positive tag question which is another common way to do it even less direct even more indirect you don't happen to know what time the game starts do you mhm so when do we often use happen to if we go back to that happen to so here are verbs which are commonly used with did you or do you happen to so we got no as we said Do you happen to know what time it is C did you happen to see my keys anywhere where are my keys have do you happen to have a pen uh do you happen to have a why can't I say that do you happen to have a pen I can borrow right uh sorry mate do you happen to have a pen I can borrow uh Sandra I don't know why I'm speaking like that uh Sandra yes yeah Sandra do you happen to have a pen I can borrow very sort of a posh person for some reason um uh yeah hey Steve do you happen to have you don't happen to have a pen I can borrow do you and remember do you happen to remember where we parked the car and here did you happen to hear the news about the meeting I just don't I don't know which room it is find did you happen to find my glasses so I'm looking for my glasses you didn't find them did you did you happen to find my glasses B do you happen to be free this weekend come across meaning sort of finded by chance did you happen to come across that book I mentioned I mentioned a book to you two weeks ago I want to know if you found it or if you saw it anywhere did you happen to come across that book I mentioned you should really read it it's brilliant and notice did you happen to notice if the lights were on right did you walk past Simon 's office uh yeah I did did you happen to notice if the lights were on um yeah come to think of it yeah they were on I should honestly what's he doing he's staying in the office late at night with the lights on did you see anything else well I did see Two Silhouettes in the window Two Silhouettes in the window eh yeah they were what were they what were they doing I don't know they see they were I'm not sure they seem to be doing I I think they were kissing Simon um anyway other common hedging language so we've had happen to we had a little bit of negative statement with a positive tag you don't know where the toilets are do you right here are some other things so we got yes or no questions yes or no questions are more polite than direct W questions for example where did James go and do you know where James went and using negative statements plus a positive tag which I mentioned just a moment ago for example do you know where James went becomes you don't know where James went do you and do you happen to know where James went and you don't happen to know where James went do you very common that and James didn't come through here earlier did he um you didn't get an email about James didn't come through here earlier did he would become oh that's it James didn't come through here earlier did he which is did James come through here earlier yeah so making these changes can be useful for making your questions less forceful now to illustrate this this might be a strange example but to to illustrate this consider a psychic talking to a room of people during a psychic show now this is just something I've noticed having been slightly curious about psychics and mind readers right mediums um and noticing the way that they do things and reading about it um one of the tricks I think that psychics have right so a psychic by the way is someone who claims to be able to read people's minds or to communicate with the dead and they often do these things in front of an audience where they appear to be sort of picking people out of the audience and then like finding uh a dead relative and communicating with them through the spirit world and then sharing the information with them and then getting paid at the end to do it which you know everyone's got to make a living somehow but you know um so what I've noticed is that psychics often use this structure negative sentence plus positive tag which is one of the bits of hedging language I've just talked about a tag question by the way is what is something that's added on the end right for example you don't um know someone called Simon do you so the do you is the tag question and it's normally the tag question is um is sort of opposite in form to the uh verb in the previous uh clause for example you don't know so don't know is uh negative so the tag question would be positive right they're not always opposite but often so you don't know someone called Simon do you and uh and another version of that would be you know you know Simon don't you you know Simon yeah you know him don't you and you don't know someone called Simon do you which basically means do you know someone called Simon you don't know someone called Simon do you uh Simon yeah I do actually yeah I work with a guy called Simon you don't know someone called Simon do you uh Simon no I don't know I don't know anyone un called Simon Okay so psychics often use this structure in their mind reading or their their medium sessions now I think the reason for this is that it allows yes or no to both be equally valid responses allowing the psychic to avoid getting their prediction or psychic reading wrong now again this this is a fairly strange example I suppose to be using and maybe it just reveals my preoccupation with the with the work of psychics and the fact that I'm skeptical about it right so I'm I'm coming from the position of a skeptic I don't believe that it's real um um you know I don't believe it myself and I I I believe that psychics either they they're faking it and it's a trick it's a scam they know they're faking it or they don't they believe it too but in fact they're still using certain little tricks but they just believe their own they believe their own um sort of what's the word I can use no I shouldn't use that word they believe their own um tricks anyway so psychics use this kind of structure so compare this here are two versions so first the psychic says so um I'm getting the name John I'm getting the name John he says to the audience I'm getting the name John does anyone have a connection with the name John and the audience member says uh um uh yes me says someone and the psychic says um so he wasn't he wasn't a family member was he he wasn't a family member was he and the audience member says uh yes he was my father and the psychic goes right he's with me now and the psychic then says did he drive a fast car and the audience member says uh no he didn't drive he didn't drive at all and the psychic goes ah okay and at this point it looks like the psychic was wrong here right you know what I mean it looks like the psychic got something wrong he said fast car but the person said no this is a very long- winded example but still so compare that to this so first the psychic says I'm getting the name John does anyone have a connection with the name John in the room and the audience member says um yes me and the psychic says he wasn't a family member was he so of again you see there's that structure allowing the options to stay open yes and no could be a could be an answer to that I mean both yes and no are they're both equally expected answers right if it's he was a family member wasn't he we expect the person to say yes and if they say no it looks like you've got it wrong was he a family member we expect the person to say yes it's a leading question but he wasn't a family member was he this is a much more tentative question where no could also be the right answer do you know I mean it's difficult to explain this so he wasn't a family member was he the audience goes yes he was my father or hold on let's change that no he was my brother and the psychic goes right you see what I mean he wasn't a family hold on a minute he was my neighbor let's have that he wasn't a family member was he no he was my neighbor so no still sounds like it's the answer the psychic expected because of the structure of he was was n a family member was he no he was my neighbor right he's with me now he didn't drive a fast car did he the audience member goes no he didn't drive and the psychic says right that's what I thought you see what I mean not that's what I thought just that's what that's what the spirit is telling me that's what the spirits are telling me which whenever I get these whenever I see psychics in action I always kind of like wonder what is it the psychic is hearing CU psychics are always like this um does anyone in the room uh have an association with John John John John and no one is saying yes John it might just be a j is it is it Jean it might be Jean as well J G Gan or or a j certainly I getting A J it's a J at the beginning does anyone have an association with someone beginning with a J could be a John could be a g and one person goes um um I know a I knew a George and right George I knew it was a j now what's going on there what is the psychic hearing the psychic is is talking to the audience meanwhile the spirits in the psychic's ear are going uh John John John John John John no no no jean jean jean je je uh you know and the the psychic is going John John or is it Jean or was it Jean it's definitely sure just nonsense isn't it I think so um so anyway no he didn't drive this looks like he didn't drive a fast car did he no he didn't drive right so this looks like the psychic was right even though the answer was no so psychics often use this structure uh because it kind of it's a trick that they use to be to always be right even if the answer is yes or no okay that's perhaps a weird example but it just demonstrates the way that changing the structure of the language can change the effect it has even though the central message is basically the same psychics use this structure to keep things open allowing yes or no to both be acceptable answers in our everyday lives we can use this structure to be more polite by allowing the other person the freedom to give whatever answer they like making it a bit easier for them to contradict you you don't have the time do you uh no I don't oh okay sorry you have the time do you uh yes I do it's 3:00 thanks very much somehow you don't have the time do you makes it easier for the person to say no if if they don't you know maybe in English we're just too polite we don't like saying no and so we make these complicated convoluted question forms to just make sure we're not imposing on the other person too much now these are quite subtle little differences but they have the effect of making you more polite less imposing a bit Kinder maybe more Charming right another one do you uh by any chance which is what haid used in his question for example do you know what time the game starts by any chance do you happen to know what time the game starts by any chance you don't know what time the game starts by any chance do you and you don't happen to know what time the game starts by any chance do you wonderful isn't it yes Luke of course other things now these are not necessarily questions but these are little things we can add to make our statements less strong which again can be useful if we don't want to be too imposing in our statements so we can use modal verbs like might could would May for example she might come to the party she should he should be here at any time now he he should be here anytime now so this is just you know some more examples of other forms of language that we can use to just make our statements a little bit more what's the word for it flexible indirect maybe hypothetical language like using would or past forms for example if you were able to come that would be great let's say there's a meeting at work but the meeting is not it's not compulsory so staff members don't have to come so we need to just be we don't want to make it feel like an imposition I'm having a meeting tomorrow uh it's about um it's about quality control measures um we need as many people as possible it's not an obligation but we need as many people as possible so if you were able to come that would be great MH U another example can you come to a meeting tomorrow and the and the person says uh maybe what time would it be the person says would because they're they're operating in the hypothetical area right I I I you know what time would it be I would have to leave early meaning if I came I would have to leave early if they if I say I will have to leave early makes it sound like I'm coming to the meeting well I would have to leave early it makes it sound a little bit less like I've decided to come because it's hypothetical with W uh another example in a negotiation maybe so if we offered you a discount perhaps would that help instead of if we offer you a discount will that help which sounds more fixed more certain more like it's a real offer whereas we're just exploring ideas here if we offered you a discount would that help it's less firm it's because it's more hypothetical uh qualifiers for adjectives right to make our statement slightly less strong for example somewhat rather quite slightly for example the the results are somewhat surprising instead of saying the results are surprising the results are rather surprising quite surprising slightly surprising somewhat surprising we were slightly disappointed with the service to be honest instead of so what did you think of the hotel we were disappointed with the service sounds very direct and we were slightly disappointed with the service to be honest makes you sound a bit less rude while still saying essentially the same thing uh adverbs are frequency like often usually sometimes like he usually arrives on time or British people can sometimes sound a little bit vague in the way they communicate especially when they're being polite which is another way of saying British people sound vague British people or British people are vague when I vague I mean not clear which is a a complaint that people have about the Brits sometimes in their communication it's like what do you really think be clear be specific British people are vague British people are so vague which makes you sound really angry and possibly a little bit racist um it's more reasonable to say British people can sometimes sound a little bit vague in the way they communicate especially when they're being polite longer more complex but more diplomatic uh phrases like I think I believe it seems it appears in my opinion for example I think we should consider other options it seems that our room has not been cleaned excuse me room service yes how can I help you um it seems that our room has not been cleaned would it be possible for someone to come up and clean it softening expressions like kind of sort of maybe perhaps it's kind of difficult to explain yes is the example and then right so I want more examples of hedging language okay in action and this is this should also be a little bit of fun too so here are some examples of hedging let's see some real examples of this kind of thing so let's imagine let's just imagine that there's a bank robbery happening so the big Bank in the center of town um is under attack and robbers like in some sort of action movie like some Hollywood action movie guys with masks and big guns and bags have entered the bank and they're trying to steal all the money and um they've taken loads of people hostage so there's uh staff from the bank and there are also customers in the bank and they're all like being held hostage it's really hot everyone's stressed out the the bank robbers are kind of um very tense they've got their guns these all the hostages are like sitting down on the floor and the bank robbers just want their money and they want to be able to escape from the bank the bank is now surrounded by police so hostages have been taken the police have sent in their negotiator could be played by like a Hollywood actor who would be the negotiator who would it be I don't know um maybe it would be one of those Hollywood movies where the the the actor playing The Negotiator is an actor who's playing like a different kind of character that they normally would play like uh uh maybe this is like Owen Wilson no it's just some generic American actor who it's like John actor plays The Negotiator in this film okay so the police have sent in their negotiator to talk to the robbers and persuade them to release the hostages there are two versions of this dialogue which I'm going to show to you now the first version is direct and the second version uses hedging language and is more successful in my version of events now to be honest I'm not an expert hostage negotiator surprise surprise so I'm not sure which version would work best either the direct an aggressive version or the indirect and more reasonable version but I think the second one the Less Direct one is probably more likely to work and surely that would involve some hedging language or at least more complex and pragmatic language let's see okay so with these dialogues I'm trying to show you examples of hedging language in practice and how this can have an impact on community ation so dialogue one no hedging and um uh the negotiation fails here we go so we start with a police negotiator listen you're not going to get away with this release the hostages right now and the bank robber says how are they communicating maybe they're communicating by like CB radios the the the cop has thrown a CB radio across the hallway to the bank robber who took it and they're communicating by CB radio and there's like you know Robbers with guns police with guns listen you're not going to get away with this release the hostages right now and the bank robber says I'm not releasing anyone until I get what I want police negotiator you don't have a choice we have the building surrounded and you can't escape surrender immediately the bank robber says I don't care I'll do whatever it takes to get out of here police negotiator if you harm anyone you'll face serious ious consequences now drop your weapon and come out with your hands up bank robber says no way I'm not giving up police negotiator this is your last warning end this now or we'll come in and the bank robber says I'd rather die than go to prison now you get me my helicopter or one of these hostages is going to get it right now he his shotgun and screams so okay that didn't go very well obviously because the language was too direct um let's hear version two so here's dialogue 2 with hedging language this time and the negotiation succeeds so here we go police negotiator hi there I'm officer Miller it seems like things have gotten pretty intense in there how are you holding up the bank robber says not great I need these demands met or this will end badly I want my helicopter and no funny stuff police negotiator says I understand you're in a tough spot damn it's hot today huh it's hot today 100 100° out there I know how you feel my wife gets awful irritable in this weather it's damn it's a damn nightmare let me tell you you got a wife kids sometimes I think about robbing a bank and taking a bunch of hostages myself especially when I don't get my coffee in the morning I know you feeling how you feeling bank robber listen we're all feeling the heat maybe we can talk about what you need and see if we can find a way to help you out meanwhile there are snipers setting up on the opposite rooftop reinforcements are arriving the bank robber says look I want a safe exit and no police following me and I want a coffee the police police negotiator says okay that sounds reasonable from your perspective Ive what kind of coffee the bank robber says look I want a double Chalker mock let me say that again it's all right we're still listening don't worry take a breather okay cop I want a double Chalker mocker Frappuccino with whipped cream on top police negotiator says sure thing venty Grande or trenter the bank robber says what what the hell sorry um small medium or large large right you got it shouting down to another officer Steve hey Steve listen I want a double chocka mocka Frappuccino up here now trenter trenter I said trener what nobody actually uses those names for different sizes of coffee okay sorry large okay and yeah and whipped cream on the top whipped cream name uh hey sorry what's your name I'm not going to give I'm not going to fall for that trick cop I'm not going to give you my name now where's my damn coffee uh sorry shouting down to Steve just just put bank robber okay talking to the robber again look let's just be cool here now okay your double Chu rer coffee Frappuccino is on its way and I didn't forget the whipped cream now let's just take it easy okay now we might be able to work something out but I need to ensure that everyone's safe first okay now how about releasing a few hostages as a sign of good faith a little quidd proquo here what do you say we give you coffee you give us hostages the bank robber says I don't know cop what guarantees do I have the police negotiator says look call me Brian I understand your concern perhaps if you release one or two two hostages it would show us you're serious and then we can discuss the next steps more comfortably how does that sound the bank robber says okay cop maybe I can let a couple go but you you better keep your word The Negotiator says that's a good start now we appreciate your cooperation now let's keep talking here and we'll do our best to meet your needs while ensuring everyone stays safe your coffe is nearly here I like those Frappuccinos too yes yum yum yum I I can't have the whipped cream though I got to watch my cholesterol you know what I mean and the bank robber says yeah I know what you mean all right cop listen I'll release two hostages now how about that the police negotiator says thank you this is a positive step let's keep this dialogue going we'll work towards a peaceful resolution together the bank robber goes all right Brian you're not so bad I don't know what should we talk about you're watching the game this evening suddenly RoboCop from the well-known movie and game franchise RoboCop bursts through the wall grabs the bank robber and throws him out of the window success the more diplomatic approach gave RoboCop enough time to enter the next door building climb the stairs locate the robber with his infrared sensors Justice is restored to to Detroit City okay that was a silly ending but uh the idea was that uh the more diplomatic approach from the police negotiator uh ended in a more amicable and um successful negotiation and then RoboCop came in smashed through the wall and threw him out of the window here's another example of hedging language in action now let's look at a more conversational situation now with someone asking lots of questions first in a direct way and then in an indirect way okay so here a hostage in this situation a hostage is making small talk with one of the bank robbers while the police negotiation is going on in another in another room okay so this is still in the bank robbery situation in another room hostages are there there's a bank robber with a gun who's trying to like he's he's he's making sure the host ages don't try and Escape he's holding them holding them hostage yeah meanwhile the police negotiation is going on with the leader of the bank robbers over there okay so let's hear one version with direct questions and a slightly rude tone which is understandable considering the situation so dialogue one here's the direct approach and an unfriendly robber so the hostage to to the robber says hey hey how long is this going to take and the bank robber says I'm not sure could be ours look just stay quiet and wait hostage I was hoping to watch the game tonight hey what time does it start the bank robber what the game tonight what what time does it start uh Bank Robert uh 8:00 look it doesn't matter you won't be seeing it um where are the toilets in this building look down the hall to the left you can go later uh is there any coffee around here kitchen's in the back but no you're not going to get any hostage hey uh do you know the name of the bank Clark in the pencil skirt over there no and I don't care now stop talking shut up okay now let's hear the same conversation but with more hedging language on display so this is the more successful and polite uh version so hostage sorry do you happen to know how long this is going to take the bank robber I'm not entirely sure it might take a while but hopefully not too long let's just see how things go suddenly everyone's so polite hostage the thing is um I was hoping to catch the game tonight you don't know what time it starts by any chance do you what the game um I think it starts around 8 we might be able to see it if we're lucky but let's see hostage sorry uh do you know where the toilets are in this building by any chance bank robber uh yes I believe they're just down the hall to the left if you really need to go let me know and I'll see what I can do oh okay thanks um you happen to know if there's any coffee around here bank robber uh there might be some in the kitchen at the back uh I think I saw an espresso machine look if we get a chance maybe we can work something out hostage a I can't stand espresso I was hoping for some proper coffee you know bank robber yeah I know a little bit of time passes hostage hey uh you don't happen to know the name of the cute Bank clerk over there in the pencil skirt by any chance do you bank robber uh I'm not sure why uh fancy your chances look maybe we can find out later let's just stay calm for now okay hostage well I thought I might just uh strike up a conversation with her you never know you only live once right YOLO they both laugh bank robber he pretends to shoot the hostage they laugh again meanwhile RoboCop from the movie in game franchise RoboCop has been climbing the stairs in the next [Music] building and suddenly smashes through the wall and grabs the bank robber throwing him out of the window again success thanks to indirect polite language and hedging Expressions now I've been enjoying this so much that I think it's time to enjoy a movie screenplay of this situation why not let's IM let's reimagine this as a dramatic Hollywood uh screenplay okay so here's our screenplay extract RoboCop in action internal Bank daytime the atmosphere inside the bank is tense hostages sit huddled together glancing nervously at the bank robers the lead robber holding a gun Paces back and forth he's walking up and down hostage one whispering to hostage 2 hey uh do you have any idea how long this is going to take hostage 2 no I was hoping to catch the game tonight you don't know what time it starts do you the bank robber overhears and shoots them a glare so he he gives them a nasty look the bank robber says quiet and down both of you suddenly the walls tremble the hostages gasp and the robbers look round in confusion what's going on bank robber what the hell is that external Bank daytime a massive figure stands outside the bank its silhouette casting an imposing Shadow it's RoboCop he sizes up the building meaning he has a look at the building he scans the building his scanners locking onto the bank robber inside RoboCop through through his internal coms engaging target with a powerful thrust RoboCop smashes through the wall debris flying everywhere the hostages scream and duck for cover internal Bank daytime the lead robber whips around eyes wide in shock just as RoboCop emerges through the dust and Rubble bank robber what the before the robber can react RoboCop lunges forward with mechanical Precision grabbing him by the collar and lifting him off the ground effortlessly RoboCop Dead or Alive you're coming with me which is one of his catchphrases just in case you didn't know the robber's gun clatters to the floor as he struggles in RoboCop's iron grip the hostages watch in awe and relief bank robber struggling no you you can't do this RoboCop calmly tightens his grip his expression unchanging RoboCop crushing the robers resistance says one of his other catchphrases you're move creep the police storm in weapons drawn as RoboCop suddenly throws the robber out of the window the hostages cheer yay their nightmare finally over police negotiator to RoboCop thanks officer you saved a lot of lives today except for the robber who you obviously just threw out of the window RoboCop just doing my job RoboCop turns to leave the hostages and police watching him with admiration RoboCop stay out of trouble RoboCop turns and walks back through the hole in the wall ready for his next mission here's the next scene as well the next scene in the film because why not screenplay extract hostage and the girl in the pencil skirt a pencil skirt by by the way is like a a a a a skirt that's probably about knee length kind of a a slim skirt that's about knee length you can imagine maybe a girl who works in a bank might wear that with like a white blouse or something like that internal Bank daytime the hostages have been freed and the bank is now back under control amidst the commotion meaning amidst the kind of um the the uh the situation the chaotic situation amidst the commotion in the middle of this situation hostage one notices the girl in the pencil skirt CLA standing by herself looking relieved but tired hostage one approaching CLA trying to be Charming hey uh I'm glad we're safe my name's hostage one by the way didn't catch your name St CLA sigh she's polite but she's distant uh I'm CLA is your name really hostage one she rolls her eyes hostage one SL smiling warmly um I couldn't help noticing you earlier you seem so calm through all of this madness it's impressive what's the secret meditation yoga CBD kale chips CLA not interested but polite she stifles a yawn I just try to stay healthy hostage one trying to be smooth well whatever you're doing is working hey maybe we could uh grab a coffee sometime unless you've uh got something better to do Claire size looking away yeah that's that's kind of you but I'm actually not interested I appreciate the offer though hostage one faking surprise oh come on what is this someone else you're interested in who is it someone from work here in this Bank CLA smiling slightly not from work no hostage one playful oh what is it your manager come on give me a hint who's the lucky guy before CLA can respond RoboCop walks by his imposing figure catching everyone's attention cla's eyes light up and she watches him without admiration hostage one laughing incredulously wait it's him RoboCop but he's not even a real man CLA disagreeing firmly gazing at RoboCop's metal legs and square human chin with admiration he's more than a real man he's a hero he saved us today it's not about being flesh and blood it's about what he stands for hostage one chuckling sh Shing his head well I guess I can't compete with that CLA smiling gently it's not about competing it's just he he represents something greater RoboCop overhearing turning to CLA ma'am are you okay CLA blushing slightly nodding yes I'm I'm fine thank you RoboCop nodding then addressing both stay out of trouble RoboCop walks away leaving CLA with a look of admiration in her eyes hostage one shrugs accepting defeat with a good-natured smile hostage one says well all right take care CLA stay out of trouble right CLA sarcastically yeah sure okay have a good day bye-bye now see you wouldn't want to be here don't forget to close the door on your way out loser turning to a colleague hey you don't happen to have his number do you colleague one what hostage one that creep Claire no RoboCop he's kind of cute oh really I never knew you had a thing for cyborgs his number well come on dummy it's obviously 911 they both laugh well why don't you call him up say it's an emergency they both laugh a little bit too much the end okay well that's the that was the Hollywood screenplay version of the power of hedging language featuring RoboCop yes okay look uh we're nearly finished but I did say earlier on that I would say a few more things right about some recent stuff like the Rick Thompson report so a few episodes ago so back to back to serious things again ladies and gents all right how are you doing let me just take a little water break little mouthful of water to keep myself hydrated here okay so let's let me just say some final things here so a few episodes ago uh it was the Rick Thompson report conversation with my dad just before the um UK's general election um and a few people sort of commented suggesting that they'd quite like to hear my dad talk about the results um well there won't be a post elction episode um right there there isn't going to be another Rick Thompson report where we talk about the election results mainly because there's really not that much to say uh my dad was right in his predictions so there's you know there's not much more to add really also he's retired now you know remember and he's still quite busy anyway so um it's not like I can get him on the podcast all the time you know I don't want to ask too much of him um but in any case here's a brief overview of the election results if you're interested so Labor led by KIA starma achieved a landslide victory in the 2024 UK general election securing 412 seats an increase of 214 that is huge right that's really significant it's almost as big as when Tony Blair won a landslide victory in 1997 just to be clear there are 650 seats in the House of Commons uh representing 650 constituencies around the whole country uh the conservatives who were previously in government that's the party of David Cameron Teresa may Boris Johnson um and so on and latterly rishy sunak uh the conservatives suffered a major defeat dropping to 112 121 seats that was a loss of 252 so not only did labor gain um 214 the conservatives lost 252 seats wow they absolutely got pounded the liberal Democrats which is probably the third most popular party in the country uh they are a Centrist party the liberal Democrats gained 64 seats reaching a total of 72 other notable results include the SNP the Scottish National party with nine seats not that many to be honest they they kind of um lost support because of some uh scandals basically in Scotland with the Scottish national party which allowed labor to gain more seats in Scotland uh reform UK that's the right-wing party associated with Nigel sorry um Nigel farage and F they got five uh seats which actually um it makes it seem that reform don't have as much support as they actually do because of the uh the voting system in the UK actually reform got a lot more votes than it seems but they they got five seats and the green party that's a left-wing party focusing on environmental issues uh got four seats so this election significantly reshaped the political landscape with labor gaining a commanding majority basically my dad was right but it was pretty clear what he was it was pretty clear what was going to happen to be fair so um you know to be fair everyone predicted this um but you know just shows my dad sort of keeps up with um all the commentary and and stuff about politics so this was a significant shift in British politics Labor led by k starma w a substantial majority Karma's labor is distinctly more Centrist than it was under the previous leader Jeremy Corbin who was more strongly leftwing so this is part of what starma has done to kind of get back into Power it's a bit of a Tony Blair move he made the labor party more electable by moving to the center left Wingers traditional left Wingers in the UK don't like starma too much but he's certainly better than the awful t who were you know in the end just full of uh corruption and all sorts of other terrible terrible scandals uh which really just demonstrated their almost complete lack of civic duty so at least with the labor party now in control there's a sense that there is you know certain amount of civic duty at work that they are trying to serve the country uh rather than just themselves um it's a step back towards more reasonable measured civic-minded policies although it's not a radical change to be fair I mean that would be a a radical change would be a shift all the way through to more socialist ideas on the sort of far left of the labor party this is more Centrist center-left politics um as much as this was a labor win it was a Tory loss a conservative loss the results reflect a dee rooted dissatisfaction with the conservative party and rishy sunak Leadership while Labor's Victory is partly due to anti-tory sentiment it also signals a broader liberal centerr moderation so a challenging time for labor ahead uh labor and K starma faced several challenges despite their election Victory the large majority covers diverse constituencies with competing interests making it hard to satisfy all demands right so a variety of like people voted for labor but to an extent they voted uh against the conservatives and so there's a wide variety of of interests uh from the people who voted labor so it's going to be hard to make everyone happy um I could go on with this um I could go on but I won't I'm I'm going to leave it there um I could also mention the French uh the chaos in French politics at the moment um but there isn't time also I wanted to mention Trump getting shot in the ear and uh Biden uh stepping down um yeah I mean you must have seen the um the assassination attempt on Donald Trump I mean it's just crazy here's a summary of what happened on July the 13th 2024 former president Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during a campaign rally near Butler P Pennsylvania and this is going to be one of those moments that goes down in history uh as a significant shift it's like one of the symbolic moments I think the attacker 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire with an AR-15 style rifle from a rooftop approximately 400 ft from the stage Trump was shot in the right ear so um you can see that just as the shot was taken Trump took it turned his head it's just a complete coincidence he turned his head at that moment if he hadn't turned his head he definitely would have been shot in the head but he turned his head just at the last second and the bullet clipped his ear uh and uh and Trump survived with a minor injury however the attack resulted in the death of one rally attendee which is very sad and critically injured two others before Crooks was killed by Secret Service snipers so that's from Wikipedia and from am New York those are the sources following the incident Trump was taken to to a hospital and released in in stable condition a few hours later he quickly resumed his campaign activities making a public appearance at the con Republican National Convention in Milwaukee uh two days later where he spoke about unity and resilience the motive behind the attack remains unclear the FBI is investigating krook's background including his social media and personal history but has found no clear political motives or affiliations so we still don't know why exactly it happened President Joe Biden and other leaders condemned the violence calling for calm and urging the public to avoid speculation about the shooters motives while the investigation is ongoing so this was a horrible moment of course now I'm not a fan of trump but obviously there's there's no excuse for murder right um so it must have been awful like like all the shootings that happened in the USA I mean to have been there I can't imagine the sense of fear and panic that would grip the crowd in a moment like that Trump perhaps foolishly and I say that because it's obviously very dangerous to to stand up in the middle of an assassination attempt but Trump managed to get back to his feet and he gestured to the crowd right um you know he put his fist up and he had blood on his face with his fist up in the air and a photo was taken by a photographer uh the photo which you've probably seen is one of those instantly iconic pictures Trump stands surrounded by security guards a streak of blood across his face with his fist raised defiantly an American flag in the background against a blue sky backdrop backdrop so I mean it's just unbelievable isn't it really just insane like how did he first of all obviously it's a terrible moment and in he was lucky to only be injured a little bit but also how did he manage to to get a cool looking injury I mean it was one of those cool looking injuries that happens to um Hollywood movie stars in movies like you know when Bruce Willis gets shot or when he gets covered in blood he always manages to look cool or when the heroes in a in a Jurassic Park film kind of get injured the the blood on their faces like in places where it makes them look cool it's like these scratches or marks on their face that kind of make them look really cool he got one of those cool looking injuries that normally only happens in films and this is bound to be great publicity for him I think in so many people's minds now he's probably an All-American hero because he got grazed by a bullet I mean American voters will will no doubt see him as an awesome hero who got grazed by a bullet and Americans love that don't they every film every American film The Hero gets grazed by a bullet every Bruce Willis film ever he gets shot in the arm and and it makes virtually no difference right everyone there's always a cool injury the the hero gets shot in the arm it makes no difference to them it just makes them cooler except when maybe the bad guy punches them in the in the in the in the bullet wound it just makes him more of an All-American hero the righteous Underdog hero and I think some of the more Evangelical fans of trump now think he's Invincible it's like a you know like Gods Jesus stepped in and stopped the bullet that kind of thing uh in Joe Biden news Joe Biden was terrible in the televised presidential debate which also uh is good for Trump uh Biden showed um clear signs of mental deterioration unfortunately and he should probably step down in fact he has stepped down um he stepped down meaning he's he's resigned he uh in terms of uh his candidature for the presidential election and is it Kamala Harris who's who's stepped up and is now the presidential candidate it's a it's a very complicated tricky time in American politics um yeah um but so he made a Biden made a series of clear gaffs like mistakes in his speeches and uh in in the uh president presidential uh debate he stumbled over his words he looked confused he got various key facts and figures wrong before correcting himself in another event he introduced president zelinski as President Putin which is such a terrible Gaff he referred to his vice president as vice president Trump he said that they'd killed Medicare which is like the um National Health Care System he actually meant that they'd killed covid he said that the Democrats had created a thousand million jobs when there are only 300 million US citizens and other things so uh the whole thing's a show and is playing into the hands of Donald Trump I think that's enough politics I talked about it there just because the US election is hugely important in global Affairs because a trump presidency would definitely have significant knock-on effects in in in events in other parts of the world because of the approach he would take to foreign policy with things like support for Ukraine and so on so it's you know VI L it's it's kind of a critical thing for the whole world but yes that's enough politics for now let's move on um we're in the last closing minutes of the episode uh Euro 2024 and England uh some people maybe expected me to talk about England and Euro 2024 because England got to the final they were beaten by Spain who are you know definitely the better team U I talked about this I talked about it in uh at length um on the foot glit podcast I was on the foot glish podcast twice one before the beginning of the tournament and one at the end talking about England uh at the beginning and talking about England at the end and I talked about all of the things uh I thought uh all my thoughts and feelings and you know bits of analysis about England's performance and all that stuff so uh you can check out the foot glitch podcast which is run by zck from Zik's English podcast he's he's doing a podcast all about learning English with football so if you're a football fan check it out you'll find a link in the description um that's all there is time for I think it's time to stop this has become another fairly epic uh rambling episode listeners hello you're still listening well done I hope you haven't turned into a skeleton sitting there uh with you know just a skeleton sitting there with headphones on well done for surviving all the way through to this part of the episode I hope that there are there's still living flesh attached to your bones and blood running through your body and all the rest of it hopefully this has been an exhilarating um exciting episode of Luke's English podcast how's it been for you uh don't forget to uh come out of the shadows and leave us a couple of comments in the comment section I asked you some questions right at the top of the episode let me fly through them again very quickly okay so uh where are you from how long have you been listening to this podcast how did you discover the podcast what how how would you describe your level of English what do you why do you want to learn English or improve your English how does this podcast help I'm now improvising the questions um what moments do you remember from this particular episode if there was one moment that you uh particularly remember which one was it let us know what that was in the uh comment section of this episode thank you so much for listening all the way up until this point uh premium subscribers don't forget to check out p61 Parts 1 to 7 okay and I will speak to you again on the podcast soon okay that's it for me I'm going to have to wrap up now and go off and pick up my son from daycare and go back to normal life and tomorrow I'm getting up first thing in the morning and getting on the Eurostar to London and I'm going to spend a few days in England I'm going to go and see my parents and help them out in their garden and um have a bit of time in England it's just me it's just me on my own I'm going on my own um I'll try and record a walkand talk episode on the Streets of London tomorrow if possible okay good thanks for listening thanks for watching speak to you next time don't forget to like And subscribe of course okay but until next time I will now just say goodbye bye bye bye Bo Bo