Better at English - Intermediate

Hello my lovely English learners! Lori here, your teacher from BetterAtEnglish.com. I love technology, so we’re talking about robots today, but not in the way you might expect. A lot of conversations about robots have to do with whether or not a robot or machine could ever develop genuine feelings or emotions. But today we’re going to be thinking about our own emotions and feelings toward robots, particularly empathy. Can we feel empathy toward robots? And if so, why? Links to pre-listening background — to get the most out of this podcast: Short video of someone “torturing” a robot dinosaur (part of a research experiment). Make sure you watch it with sound. What do you feel as you watch this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVtkh0mL20 Kate Darling: Why we have an emotional connection to robots (TED talk) https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_darling_why_we_have_an_emotional_connection_to_robots?language=en Yasmin’s profile on italki Full transcript of this episode Allow me to introduce you to Kate Darling. She is a super cool researcher who is looking into this very question. I’m going to play you a little bit from the beginning of her TED talk, where she explains how she got into this line of research. The link to the full presentation is in the show notes. It’s as entertaining as it is interesting and thought provoking, so I can wholeheartedly recommend you check out the whole thing. OK, here comes Kate: Kate Darling: “There was a day, about 10 years ago, when I asked a friend to hold a baby dinosaur robot upside down. It was this toy called a Pleo that I had ordered, and I was really excited about it because I’ve always loved robots. And this one has really cool technical features. It had motors and touch sensors and it had an infrared camera. And one of the things it had was a tilt sensor, so it knew what direction it was facing. And when you held it upside down, it would start to cry. And I thought this was super cool, so I was showing it off to my friend, and I said, “Oh, hold it up by the tail. See what it does.” So we’re watching the theatrics of this robot struggle and cry out. And after a few seconds, it starts to bother me a little, and I said, “OK, that’s enough now. Let’s put him back down.” And then I pet the robot to make it stop crying. And that was kind of a weird experience for me. For one thing, I wasn’t the most maternal person at the time. Although since then I’ve become a mother, nine months ago, and I’ve learned that babies also squirm when you hold them upside down. (Laughter) But my response to this robot was also interesting because I knew exactly how this machine worked, and yet I still felt compelled to be kind to it. And that observation sparked a curiosity that I’ve spent the past decade pursuing. Why did I comfort this robot? And one of the things I discovered was that my treatment of this machine was more than just an awkward moment in my living room, that in a world where we’re increasingly integrating robots into our lives, an instinct like that might actually have consequences, because the first thing that I discovered is that it’s not just me.” She’s right, it’s not just her. I found a short video on Youtube that shows somebody being really mean to the same type of robot dinosaur that Kate uses in her research. It’s only one minute long, so if you want to pause the podcast and go watch it, feel free. The link is in the show notes. Anyway, when I watched this video myself I felt really uncomfortable, even though I knew it was just a toy robot. I’m not alone; here are some of the Youtube comments. “Why would you do this!!!! It looks so scared, please stop and let me hug it.” “The last part when he was hitting him to the table I heard it crying; that’s so sad.” “I feel bad for him, although I know it’s just a pile of plastic and metal that can’t even think.” Of course, Youtube comments being what they are, there were also people saying things like “This made me laugh so hard,” and “How do I get this job,” but I’m fairly sure those people were just trying to be funny. At least I hope so. We humans have evolved to have empathy for our fellow human beings and for most of us this also extends to animals. Well, cute animals at least. But why in the world would we feel empathy or any kind of emotional connection to a robot, or a machine? I mean, they don’t have emotions or feel pain. They can’t actually have any feelings toward us. Why do we still want to be kind to them? This is what we discuss in the following conversation. You’ll hear me talking to Yasmin, who by the way is an active teacher on italki — there is a link to her profile in the show notes if you would like to get to know her better. She’s from the UK but lives in Canada now, and we got over Zoom to talk about Kate Darling’s presentation, and our own emotional connections to inanimate objects. You’ll hear us starting out with some small talk about podcasts, which leads us naturally into the main topic of our conversation. The small talk is not relevant to our topic, but I’m leaving it in as an example of the natural flow of informal conversations from one topic to another. As always, you can find the transcript and links to supplementary material on my website, betteratenglish.com. The links and a preview of the transcript should also be right in your podcast player. Don’t worry, everything on my website is free for you to download and use for your English learning. All right…are you ready? Here comes the conversation. Conversation transcript Lori: Do you have any, just for yourself, favorite podcasts that you like to listen to? Yasmin: Um… Lori: …if you don’t mind saying? Yasmin: My favorite one, my favorite one is…oh, what’s it called? Into the…Into the Wild, I think it’s called… Lori: Okay. Yasmin: …or something like this. And it’s basically a lot of different people who have adventured all over the world. And they talk about loads of different things. Like my favorite one was with this man called Levison Wood. And he was talking about his trip to Botswana, and dealing with the elephants or learning about elephant behavior and working with the conservation team out there. And so that was really interesting. So things like that I really liked listening to Lori: Okay, interesting. Yeah, I think I have seen that one in either in iTunes or in the podcast app somewhere into the wild. Sounds familiar, but I haven’t actually listened to that. Yasmin: But yeah, it’s worth listening to. They have many different, totally different topics, which all are quite interesting. Lori: Yeah. And you being a traveler, I can, I can imagine that that’s extra interesting. Yasmin: Yeah, absolutely. I want to go to Africa and see the elephants. That’s probably the main reason. Lori: I love elephants. I love elephants. You know, I don’t know. Have you ever seen I think it’s one of the David Attenborough nature shows where there’s these elephants walking across the desert. And it’s like an aerial view, and it’s all…they’re in a drought. And it’s really, really dry and horrible. And then at some point, you see this little baby elephant walking all by itself. And he’s gotten lost, and he’s walking the wrong way. It’s like the saddest thing I think I’ve ever seen. I cried when I saw that poor baby elephant. Yasmin: Oh, my God. So sad, isn’t it? Lori: Yeah. So sad. I…that’s…if my, my partner, we almost use that as a benchmark. When I see something sad about animals, I’m like, “Yeah, it was really sad, but still not as bad as that baby elephant going the wrong way.” Yasmin: Aww. I mean, these elephants as so smart, they have like, you know, their internal compass, which is why it’s like surprising when you have such young elephants who go the wrong way. And I suppose they have such strong family connections almost, you know, stronger than human connection. Lori: Yeah. Yasmin: Which is quite, quite amazing. Lori: It’s incredible. I would give anything to be able to actually get inside the mind of an animal and be able to understand what they’re thinking. Yasmin: It’d be amazing, wouldn’t it? It’s very sad, though, you know, all the hunting in the poaching which goes on and the human animal conflict out in Africa when these sorts of countries it’s, it’s quite sad. Lori: Yeah. Yeah, it is really sad. And I know that it must be a really complex issue. I mean, I can look at it and just totally condemn them for doing that. But then, you know, everyone always has their reasons. I think it’s a horrible, horrible thing. And it’s just sad that some people are, you know, they feel that that’s the only way, the only thing that they can do… Yasmin: Absolutely Lori: …is terrible. But yeah, it’s it’s funny, we’re talking about this because, you know, I had wanted to talk to you about that video, about… Yasmin: Yeah! Lori: …we have so much empathy for real real animals and people, but we can actually have empathy for robots. Yasmin: Isn’t it crazy? And you know what though, is it’s funny because we look at animals and we think they’re so cute. We see a little puppy and we just want to go and cuddle it. It’s so sweet. And I think that people do create attachments to robots because often they they look kind of sweet they look they don’t look like something scary they look like something which we could actually have a connection to. Lori: Yeah. Yasmin: And so super soft people are too, too kind and caring, they just want…anything that they feel like they can protect I suppose they want to. Lori: Yeah, I thought…what was really kind of blew me away about that video was the way that the military guys would actually develop these attachments to the landmine robots, the bomb disposal robots.. Yasmin: Absolutely. It’s, I mean, I think though, that robots who perform, like, services to help people, I think maybe, maybe it’s possible that humans create a stronger connection to those robots because they feel bad for them. They feel like empathy towards them, because this robot is doing what technically the maybe the people should be doing. And so, you know, like it says, in the video, you do see so many of these robots who work in the in the army, or the military, having funerals. and people really taking care of them, which is insane. Lori: Yeah, amazing. And and it does bring up that issue that maybe it’s not so good that a soldier is, like, feeling sorry for his bomb disposal robot. I mean… END TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW – read the rest here. Videos mentioned in the introduction Short video of someone “torturing” a robot dinosaur (part of a research experiment). Make sure you watch it with sound. What do you feel as you watch this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVtkh0mL20 Kate Darling: Why we have an emotional connection to robots (TED talk) https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_darling_why_we_have_an_emotional_connection_to_robots?language=en Connect with Yasmin on italki (she would be a great tutor!) https://www.italki.com/teacher/6933264?ref=affbetteraten Full disclosure: I make a tiny commission if you sign up for paid lessons on italki via my links. It is the only online teaching platform that I really feel good about recommending, because I use and benefit from it myself. Italki is not a sponsor. Other things mentioned in the Conversation Short video of the baby elephant going the wrong way (this will make you cry). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ok_6QIbpE Into the Wilderness podcast episode with Levison Wood (the podcast the Yasmin mentions) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/137-levison-wood-last-giants-isolation-elephants-poaching/id1037718896?i=1000470334115 Lori’s ridiculously cute rice cooker https://www.yumasiaworld.com/panda/ PARO therapy robot (the cute seal robot used with Alzheimer’s patients) Google image search for Paro seal https://www.paroseal.co.uk/ Military robots get awards, nicknames and funerals https://www.nbcnews.com/technolog/soldiers-3-robots-military-bots-get-awards-nicknames-funerals-4B11215746< Supplementary material Short video about “emotional support” robots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4GvXmkyKV8 Kate Darling’s website You can find links to all her great videos from the page below, including the talk that Yasmin and Lori discuss “Why We Have an Emotional Connection to Robots” http://www.katedarling.org/speakingpress The post 055 – Could you kick a robot puppy? appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Episode summary Autumn is in full swing here in the northern hemisphere, so this Real English Conversations episode is full of vocabulary related to the colors, weather, moods and feelings associated with this time of year. Lori and her friend Eliza talk about exercising outdoors, the health benefits of spending time out in nature, and whether or not it’s a good idea to pick and eat wild mushrooms. Are you feeling tired and drained? Grab your audio player and some headphones, get yourself to a park or forest, and have a nice walk while practicing your English listening! I guarantee you’ll feel better after you do this than you did when you started. :-) Get in touch with Eliza Eliza on Udemy Eliza’s instagram Eliza’s teacher profile on italki Supplementary material for further study How nature affects our health and well-being https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing What is leaf peeping? Read this article in The Guardian and find out. Includes a wealth of adjectives related to being outdoors in the autumn. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/09/autumn-colour-brings-joy-to-uks-growing-band-of-leaf-peepers This article explains how you can boost your mood by spending time in nature https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/sour-mood-getting-you-down-get-back-to-nature TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. Wherever and whenever you happen to be listening to this I hope you’re doing great. I’m recording this in early November 2020, and if you aren’t living out in the bush somewhere with no connection to the outside world, you’re probably aware that it’s a pretty stressful time. So because the past few episodes I’ve given you have been about rather heavy topics, I thought I’d give you something lighter for a change. A couple of weeks ago I recorded a fun conversation with another English teacher. Her name is Eliza and she is from Belarus. She’s not a native speaker of English, but her English is fantastic. I really enjoyed talking to Eliza, and I think you’ll agree that her infectious enthusiasm and positivity really shine in this conversation. And I also think that teachers who are not native speakers of the language they teach have a deep understanding of what it’s actually like to learn that language, and that this can really benefit their students. I often wish that I could somehow experience learning English like a non-native speaker, just so I would have insight into what it’s really like. Eliza teaches online at italki, so if you feel like your personalities would click and you want to get in touch with her about lessons, you’ll find her italki profile linked the show notes. All right, the conversation you’ll hear is actually the very first time Eliza and I ever spoke. So I start off by asking her about how she learned English, because I was really curious about that. What follows is a great example of a typical informal conversation in English between two people who don’t know each other, but who at least have some things in common. Becoming conversational in a foreign language is really difficult because conversations are completely unpredictable. There’s no way that you can prepare in advance for everything that might happen in a conversation. As you’ll hear, Eliza and I cover quite a range of topics. We talk about how Eliza learned English as a child, then move on to the health benefits of spending time outside, our favorite seasons, and even whether or not it’s a good idea to pick and eat wild mushrooms. Here in the northern hemisphere it’s autumn, or fall, right now, so there is a lot of vocabulary related to the colors, the weather and the feelings and moods of autumn. And hey, I even learned a new English expression from this conversation…listen and see if you can hear what that was. And if you’re interested in grammar there is a great example of the use of the modal verb would to talk about activities that you typically used to do in the past. There are also lots different types of conditional sentences in this conversation. So those are some things you can listen for if you are interested in picking out specific grammar points from this episode. As always, you can find the transcript of this episode linked in the show notes. Or you can go to my website, betteratenglish.com, and find this transcript and many more all waiting there for you to download for your personal language study. My website also has all the different ways you can get in touch with me to let me know how you respond to these podcasts. What do you like? What don’t you like? What do you want more of? Less of? I make these podcasts for you, so if you have something to share with me, please do. OK, let’s get started with the conversation. Are you ready? Here we go! Conversation transcript Lori: Oh, great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know how old you were when you started learning English, but your English is… Eliza: Ooh….I started learning English when I was a kid. I was seven years old at that time, or six, maybe six and a half at school. But you know, I took an interest in English in high school because I participated in Olympiads competitions. And I studied on my own for six hours per day. I bought books. My parents helped me a lot at that time, because we went to the capital of Belarus, Minsk, to buy British books, because the, the shop of British books was only in Minsk at that time. And I had no, the internet was not so widespread at that time. And I didn’t have any resources. So thanks to my parents, and they’re support I was able to buy a lot of books, and I just studied, studied and studied and crammed for hours on end. I participated in Olympiads and won, actually. Lori: Oh, wow. Eliza: Yeah, it’s a long story. Lori: I think so cool to hear that the, the motivation and the interest came from within you. Because I mean, wouldn’t you agree that if you really want to learn and become super proficient at a language, you really do need that motivation? Eliza: Exactly. Yeah. It’s not possible without it. Actually, maybe it’s not a good idea for a teacher to say so but I believe that being self taught, is sometimes more efficient, more effective, more productive than being taught by somebody else. Lori: Yeah. Eliza: Yeah. But not, but not everybody can be self taught…equally well, I mean. It takes a lot of self discipline, motivation. Lori: Yeah. Eliza: Yeah. It’s hard. Lori: And I think most important is that you have a genuine need or that there’s something that you want to do with the language. That you really feel motivated, like, “I really want to be able to do this thing and I can’t do it now. So what do I need to do to be able to teach myself—or have a teacher help me be able—to do this thing that I want to do?” If you don’t have that, it’s, I don’t know…unless you have, like, more of an an interest just in language in general and find it fun to look at as more of, like, an object of study, then for me it seems like it’s hard to really make progress. But I digress, I digress. Have you been able…? Eliza: Okay. Lori: One thing about teaching online, I can imagine that you have to spend a lot of time inside at the computer is that…? Eliza: It’s true. It’s true. Yeah. I’ve been searching for different materials for a long time before I stumbled upon something worthwhile to include into lessons. But actually, I’ve been teaching for many years. So that’s why for me now, it’s not that hard as it was, for example, nine years ago. No, it’s kind of just a walk in the park. If I may say so. Lori: Yeah, a metaphorical walk in the park! But you are still…when you’re teaching and doing these things…you’re still inside, right? You don’t take your laptop outside and do lessons? Eliza: Oh, you know, the weather now doesn’t enable me to do this. Of course, I would do this with pleasure, and I did it in the summer. Last summer. But now it’s not possible. Actually. I’m looking out of the window right now and I can see a drizzle…it’s drizzling… the sun… the sky’s overcast and, yeah, it’s not inviting. So no, I don’t want to go out, no. Lori: I feel the same way…when I look outside and see it’s raining I’m not so motivated to get outside. But I will say as long as you have proper clothing and it’s not like just too terrible, you know, just totally pouring down [rain], with heavy winds or something. For me, the hardest part is just getting out the door. Once I’m out the door, then I find that it’s really, it’s not that bad, you know? Eliza: Yeah, I agree. Especially, you can go leaf peeping. Yeah, not just going for a walk but leaf peeping. If you know what I mean? Lori: Actually, I didn’t, you, we had talked earlier and you had mentioned this idea about leaf peeping. And I had no idea what it was. Eliza: Yeah, it’s it’s a funny sounding term. Which means just obviously, what can you do with leaves? Yeah, when you are walking on a brisk, autumn morning, you can just pick leaves, red, yellow, russet, different colored leaves and just enjoy the views. Yeah, sort of this thing, yeah. Lori: And apparently it’s actually a term, that is, an American term for basically going sightseeing with the goal of looking at beautiful autumn foliage, if I understand correctly, but I had never heard it heard it before. And at first I thought, “Ooh, that sounds a bit dodgy…leaf peeping!” Eliza: It does! Lori: …hiding in the bushes…hiding in the bushes and peeping out through the leaves! Eliza: Oh, that’s what one of my students told me, yeah, when I asked him what he thinks it might mean. But yeah, it’s not that dodgy as it sounds. Actually it’s very beneficial if you go for a stroll in an autumn park and collect some leaves. It’s not just the idea of cleaning the leaves from the earth, from the ground, yeah, but enjoying the different colors and soaking up the atmosphere. Because according to some psychologists, it can boost your mood. Yeah, it can keep at bay some viruses and strengthen your immune system. So lots and lots of different benefits. Lori: Yeah. And I would say that that probably generalizes to just being outdoors in general in pleasant surroundings, that it’s not specifically related to leaf peeping, or, you know, autumn foliage, but just in general, being outdoors, in pleasant surroundings, experiencing the wind on your face and the sun shining and seeing the plants and the trees, and if you’re lucky, maybe animals, that…that there’s something in us that just, it really makes us feel good. Eliza: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Maybe can be explained by the fact that we, as a human race, yeah, we’ve all lived close to nature more than we’ve lived in concrete jungles. Yeah, in cities in big cities. So yeah, actually, how long have been have we been living in cities? Yeah, in terms of history, yeah, for two centuries? Lori: Yeah, something like that, I would say, it probably started… Eliza: It’s a drop in the ocean. Lori: …around the Industrial Revolution? But history is really not not at all…my expertise at all. But compared to our…the the course of human evolution, the time we lived in cities is…is just a tiny little blip, really. END TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW Get the full transcript for free here: https://www.betteratenglish.com/054-leaf-peeping-transcript The post 054 – What in the world is leaf peeping? appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Talking about fat and fat bodies is a tricky area to navigate in English because the word FAT is so laden with meaning, associations, emotions, and feelings — and these are different for everyone. In this episode, you’ll hear a wide variety of people who self-identify as fat talking about their experiences. You’ll hear how they think, feel and talk about their own bodies and how they experience things as a person of size. There are many registers (styles) of English represented here, as well as many different regional dialects. Links to all sources are provided, and most of these are videos. I encourage you to watch the videos to see the language being used in context. A transcript preview is below. You can find a pdf of the full transcript here: https://www.betteratenglish.com/052-the-other-f-word-talking-about-fat-transcript I hope you find this episode thought provoking and useful. TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW Hi English learners, Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. In today’s episode you are going to hear various people’s thoughts, opinions and feelings related to the f-word. No, not the swear word you hear all the time in movies and TV. I’m talking about the other F-word: fat. Yes, fat. Madison A Krall Let’s talk about fat bias and thin privilege | Madison A. Krall | TEDxMileHigh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gak58BcuPh0 Madison: When you hear the word fat what thoughts and images come to mind? Some of you might think of fat as the extra 10 pounds you’re currently trying to lose. Others might be thinking, “Hmm, I wonder what the fat content was in the bag of potato chips I had for lunch?” And some of you when you hear the word fat, might think back to that time in middle school when someone called you fat, and how it has affected the rest of your life. Let’s just admit it. Fat can be a pretty loaded word, no matter who you are. Kelli Jean Drinkwater Enough with the fear of fat | Kelli Jean Drinkwater https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzlYyhh3X0w Kelli: I’m here today to talk to you about a very powerful little word, one that people will do almost anything to avoid becoming. Billion-dollar industries thrive because of the fear of it, and those of us who undeniably are it are left to navigate a relentless storm surrounding it. I’m not sure if any of you have noticed, but I’m fat. Not the lowercase, muttered-behind-my-back kind, or the seemingly harmless chubby or cuddly. I’m not even the more sophisticated voluptuous or curvaceous kind. Let’s not sugarcoat it. I am the capital F-A-T kind of fat. I am the elephant in the room. Fat | Eating Disorders | One Word | Cut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWXwIPs-xWg Speaker 1: There are lots of good fats, and I don’t think fat on your body is a bad thing. And I don’t think fat in your food means fat on your body but it’s been used as hate speech. Speaker 2: Fat can be a hateful word. It can destroy some people. But in some ways fat can be good. And depending on how you image yourself, your fat can actually be great. Speaker 3: I see a lot of mothers with their daughters say, don’t eat that or else you’re gonna get fat. It’s like, is that really the one thing that you don’t want your daughter to be? ********* Yes, a fat is a loaded word that raises a lot of feelings, emotions, and associations. I’m taking a risk with this episode, because, as you’ll hear, conversations around fat and body size can quickly lead you into precarious territory, even if you have the best of intentions. It’s a highly charged topic. But I think that’s all the more reason to understand different people’s perspectives on fat and being fat, and to have language to talk about it sensitively. Apart from vocabulary related to the topic, in this episode you’ll hear many registers or styles of English: conversations, extracts from prepared talks like TED talks, segments from interviews, and even monologues from people on Youtube. You’ll also hear many regional varieties of English, as well as at least one non-native speaker of English. All in all, you will hear a wide variety of authentic English, illustrating many of the ways people talk, think and feel about fat bodies. You’ll also be hearing people describe concepts such as body positivity, body shaming, concern trolling, and lots general vocabulary related to the overall topic. I have put links to all the sources you are going to hear in the transcript for this episode, which you can find at betteratenglish.com/transcripts . They all come from videos, so I encourage you to follow the links so you can see as well as hear the language in context. So let’s get started. We’ll begin with a question. Is it appropriate to tell someone, “You look great! Have you lost weight?” At first glance, it seems like it could be a compliment. But is it really? I’m going to play an extract from the podcast “Inappropriate questions.” Listening to this podcast is what sent me down the rabbit hole of inquiry that led to this episode. In this podcast, the two hosts, Elena and Harv, talk to people who identify as fat or plus size to find out what they think about this question. Elena is from the U.S.A., and Harv is from India. They start off by talking about people’s general attitudes toward weight in their different home countries. ******** Inappropriate Questions podcast https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/414-inappropriate-questions Elena Harv, when you were growing up in India, what were people’s attitudes about weight like? Harv Oh, India had different beauty standard, at least at that time… Elena Right. Harv So if somebody was a little, what is considered an overweight here [it] was considered good. Because that person had enough money to eat food. Elena Right. Harv So so they used to use the word healthy. Then again, things have changed there as well, because again, obesity have, has become a problem in India. So again, the attitudes have changed. But at that time, it was very, very different. Elena Huh! That’s interesting. Do you think right now India’s beauty standards are kind of, like, the way they are here? [In the U.S.A.] Harv Pretty much, pretty much. Elena So thinness is really valued. Elena Now, yes. Elena And thinness is kind of associated with beauty and health. Harv Yeah, all those good things you, you know, even if you don’t go to the gym, it’s assumed that… Elena Yes! Harv …you work out. Elena Yes. You get the automatic Harv Yes. Elena benefit of the doubt. Elena Absolutely. Absolutely. Elena I love seeing more body positive stuff on the internet these days. I love seeing people who are trying to encourage more self love and self care. But sometimes I can’t put that into practice. I go home and I look at Instagram. And then I look at myself in the mirror. And I’m like, I know in my head that every body is beautiful. But then I look at my body. I’m like, no, I still feel bad about it. Harv So sometimes they say ignorance is bliss. Elena Yes. Harv Where I am, millennials have a whole lot of tools. The social media tools. Elena Yes. Harv All I have is a mirror. Elena Right. Harv That helps me tie my turban. Harv Yeah, so I don’t even look at my body. [laughter] Next you’ll hear Elena and Harv talking to a woman of size for her perspective on the question “Have you lost weight?” Her name is Steph Conover, but she likes to go by her state name, Ivory. Here is how Ivory describes herself: Ivory I am a mixed-race, six-foot, dragon lady. I’m a fire breather, stage performer, and a whole lot of woman. Ivory is also an athlete, a plus size model, and is an active promoter of self love and body positivity. You’ll hear more about body positivity later. In the following extract, you’ll hear what Ivory thinks about the question “Have you lost weight?” You’ll also hear her talk about what it was like growing up and living in a larger body, and how the way she describes her own body has evolved over time. Elena Can you tell us about a time someone asked you, “Have you lost weight?” Ivory Oh boy. It happens all the time. It happens so often that I actually don’t take it in anymore. Elena Right Ivory You know, I’ll style my hair differently. I’ll wear a different article of clothing. And people think that it’s complimentary to say Wow, you look great! Have you lost weight? And it’s weird because as somebody who’s recovered from eating disorders, as somebody who still battles depression, there’s part of me that actually has that instant boost of serotonin where I go, “Ah! I look great! I’m skinny” Group [Sounds of sympathy] Ivory I’m like, “Bitch, you are a plus sized lady, you have not lost any weight and if you have it will probably find you and that’s okay. You can exist at whatever size you exist at and be happy there.” END TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT on YOUGLISH.com Fat shaming https://youglish.com/pronounce/fat%20shaming/english? Body positivity https://youglish.com/pronounce/body%20positivity/english? Body positive https://youglish.com/pronounce/body%20positive/english? Fat acceptance https://youglish.com/pronounce/fat%20acceptance/english? Concern trolling https://youglish.com/pronounce/concern%20trolling/english? Body shaming https://youglish.com/pronounce/body%20shaming/english? Fat https://youglish.com/pronounce/fat/english? The post 052 – The Other F-word: talking about fat appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Did you know that you can get FREE transcriptions of any podcast in English, and that it’s fast and easy to do? That’s right, ANY PODCAST! And did I say FREE? If you are serious about your English learning, you will love Otter.ai — a FREE online service that transcribes audio files. This means podcasts, audio taken from videos, anything at all where the language is fairly clear. All you do is upload the file to otter.ai, and then let the A.I do the rest. It’s unbelievably awesome. You can watch my little YouTube demo video demo here: You can find Otter.ai here: https://otter.ai Note: This is not a sales pitch, I don’t have any involvement with Otter.ai other than being a very satisfied customer (I use their paid plan because I need the extra features. You won’t need extra features unless you want to transcribe more than 10 hours of audio per month, or if you need to transcribe files that are longer than 40 minutes each.) The transcript of this audio podcast is below. If you get value from my podcasts, please leave a rating or review. It really helps me a lot! Cheers, Lori TRANSCRIPT Hi, English learners, Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. Today, I don’t have a conversation for you, I’m actually working on the next conversational episode. And that should be up in the next couple of days. But as I was working on it, I realized that the online service, the tool that I use to transcribe the conversations would be super, super useful for your English learning. So I just wanted to share that with you today, and let you know about it so you can try it yourself. First of all, let’s get this out of the way. It’s completely free. And I don’t make any money for recommending it to you. No one is asking me to tell you this. It’s simply something that I use myself and that I think, is really awesome. And I think it would almost be a crime for me to not let you know about it. “Okay, okay, Lori. All right, fine, get on with it, let us know what it is.” Okay, the tool is called Otter.ai. That’s O T T E R dot A I. And what it is, is an online service where you can upload audio files, and it, the artificial intelligence will create a transcript of the audio. But that’s not even the best part. For me, I think the most useful thing, the thing that makes it so awesome for learning English, is that once the AI is finished with your transcript, you can listen to the audio as you’re reading the transcript, and then you can click anywhere in the transcript, and the audio will jump to that section. So just imagine the implications of this. Now you can take any audio file with spoken English, and you can upload it, have it transcribed for free, and then listen to it, click anywhere in the transcript, and listen to just that part. So if you find a section that you want to do some kind of listen-and-repeat practice for your pronunciation or your intonation, or just to kind of “wrap your mouth around” a new piece of language, it’s super, super easy to do now. I think it’s just so great that you can go and find any podcast in English, anything that you want to listen to anything that you want to learn from, and it doesn’t matter if they have already given you a transcript or not. You can just upload the file and make your own which is super, super awesome. The free plan on otter.ai does have some limitations. And one of those is that you can only transcribe 10 hours’ worth of audio per month. So every month it resets and you get another 10 hours. And the files that you upload can only be up to 40 minutes long. So if you have a super long, say, an epic Joe Rogan podcast that’s three hours long, you’re going to have to –before you upload it for transcription — you are going to have to cut that up into 40 minute segments if you want to transcribe the whole thing. kind of difficult to explain these things in an audio podcast. So I have made a YouTube video where I just do a quick little demo to show you what it is and how you can use it and I’ve put the link to that in the show notes. So I hope I’ve managed to get you excited about the idea of giving Otter.ai try. all I had for this time. I’m going to get back to work now and try to finish up that new episode for you, so you can look for that in the next couple of days. Until then, this is Lori signing off from Better at English headquarters, wishing you and inspired and productive day. Bye for now! The post Get FREE podcast transcriptions with Otter.ai (it’s super cool, I promise). appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Neighbors can be great friends, but let’s face it: sometimes they can be absolutely horrible. But what do you do when you’re stuck living next to a neighbor who you just can’t get along with, no matter what you try? In this episode of Better at English, Lori introduces you to the “How To” podcast with Charles Duhigg. It’s a conversational podcast that covers ways to deal with all kinds of life problems, and does so in an entertaining and fun way. And best of all, it has free transcripts that you can use for your English learning. Lori plays some extracts from the conversation, and looks at some of the interesting language. The full transcript of this episode is here: TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. So nice that you’re here! Come on in, kick off your shoes, sit back and get ready for some English listening practice. Today I’m going to play you some bits of conversation from one of my current favorite podcasts. It’s not a special English learning podcast; it’s a podcast for native speakers of English. But if you can follow along with the conversations in my own podcast, you should be able to follow this one as well. Just like I do, they have free transcripts available on their website, so you can use them to support your English learning. I’ve put links to everything in the show notes. The name of the podcast is “How to with Charles Duhigg”. If the name Charles Duhigg is familiar to you, it could be that you’ve heard of his book “T he Power of Habit.” If you’re an upper-intermediate or advanced learner and you’re interested in psychology, I can highly recommend it. The Power of Habit is one of those books that teaches you something useful and just makes your life better. Charles’s podcast is the same: it’s entertaining, of course, but it also teaches you useful strategies that you can apply in your own life. “How to” is an interview show, so it’s very conversational. Charles helps people figure out how to deal with difficult or awkward problems. He usually has a co-host who is either a celebrity or some kind of expert. In the episode called “How to confront a crazy neighbor,” Charles’s co-host is comedian and actor Tig Notaro. Their guest is a woman named Sarah. Sarah is in the middle of a very unpleasant and stressful conflict with her neighbor. Charles and Tig are going to help her figure out what to do. First let’s listen to Sarah giving some background information about her living situation: “My name is Sarah and I’m a college counselor. I work with high school students who are low income, and I just bought a condo this year. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a house or anything. So that was pretty exciting. It’s a small building, there are just three units in it. So it’s me living on the first floor and then a guy who lives behind me and then a family who lives upstairs.” Sara mentions that she lives in a condo. Condo is short for condominium. In the US, a condo is like an apartment or flat, but with one big difference. Do you know what it is? Can you guess from what you heard? Listen again: “I just bought a condo this year. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a house or anything. So that was pretty exciting.“ The key word is bought. Sarah said she bought the condo, not that she rents it. So the difference between a condo and an apartment or flat is that in a condo, you own the space that you live in – the unit. You actually buy it, and you can sell it. But in an apartment you just pay rent every month. You don’t actually own an apartment unit. So buying a condo is a much bigger deal than just renting an apartment because it’s such a big financial investment. In Sarah’s condo building, there are three living units – it sounds like they are all attached. She shares a common front porch area with the other people who live there. So you’re probably wondering, “What’s the problem?” Sarah had bought a plant – a fern – to hang on the front porch, but she didn’t ask the other neighbors if it was OK. That was the start of the whole trouble. Let’s listen to what happened. You’ll hear Tig, Sarah and Charles in this little extract. TIG: …what happened? SARAH: So one day I got this note in my mailbox from the wife who lives upstairs and it said, “I am done trying to communicate with you. It is clear that you, um, are just going to, like, disregard my feelings and you don’t care about anybody but yourself. So from now on, I am only going to communicate with you through condo meetings.” Charles: Whoa! Did you have any idea what she was talking…like, this is literally the first…? Sarah: No.No. So this is what was so wild about it, was that I just got this letter and I had no idea what it was about. And it just said, “I’m anti power trips. Don’t involve my family in this. If you have any frustrations, you need to bring it up in the condo meeting.” Tig: First of all, when somebody says “I’m anti power trips,” the translation is “I am all about power trips.” Wow, I don’t know about you, but I would feel pretty upset if I got a note like that from a neighbor. The language is just so confrontational. Did you notice Sarah’s tone of voice as she read the note? She used a very angry tone of voice. She probably imagines that her neighbor felt very angry when she wrote the note. And what about this: Tig: First of all, when somebody says “I’m anti power trips,” the translation is “I am all about power trips.” Power trip. If somebody enjoys controlling other people, or showing that they have power over them, you can say that they’re on a power trip. Or that they’re power tripping. The feeling of having the power to control other people makes them feel good somehow. They often exert their power in inappropriate ways that make other people feel bad. Let’s go on and see how Sarah feels about this note. END TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW LINKS TO SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL The How to with Charles Duhigg podcast How To is a conversational podcast that features smart people talking about interesting things and tackling tricky problems. Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and the author one of my favorite books, a bestseller titles The Power of Habit (Try the audio book summary of The Power of Habit on Blinkist) The episode featured in this episode, “How to deal with a Crazy Neighbor,” is here: You can find the episode transcript here: How to deal with neighbor harassment This is an interesting article about how to deal with a neighbor who is harassing you https://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/how-to-deal-with-neighbor-harassment.html The post 050 – Help! I have a horrible neighbor (fixed) appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Here comes part 2 of Lori and Will’s discussion about A.I. and automation. If you enjoy these podcasts, please take a moment and rate or review. You can find the full transcript at https://www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts. TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW Lori: I heard that…I think it’s Pizza Hut already has… or no… Domino’s is already experimenting with robot pizza delivery vehicles. Yeah. I mean, this this is happening now. Will: Well, you know, a main…I’ve been talking about this whole automation thing….oh, by the way, jot this down. If you’ve never seen it. There’s a, there’s a short 15-minute video on YouTube called Humans Need not Apply. And it puts the entire conversation and frames it into a perfect, digestible, understandable video that explains automation for anybody who’s interested and doesn’t have, you know, hours of time to spend on the topic. Lori: Oh yeah, great, thanks! Will: So jot that down. Yep, no problem. Lori: Done. Will: But Amazon, which everybody knows who Amazon is, the company, they did, they did something about maybe six months ago or so. They implemented a grocery store that had no cashiers, it was set up with turnstiles that using your mobile device, you would log in before you entered the store. You would get whatever you needed at the market, groceries, whatever you needed, and you would leave, you wouldn’t stand in a line you would just walk through the turnstile and be automatically charged to your account. And I remember when Amazon did this I kind of freaked out a little bit because I, I said, you know, I sounded like the crazy preacher man running down the hill, I said to anybody I’d ever spoken to the topic about, they’re testing a patent for this type of framework to be rolled out on a larger scale to the supermarket industry. And in the past week, Amazon has purchased Whole Foods and I am positive that it is connected to their concept of implementing this…you know, cashierless…you know, turnstile, just walk in and walk out, fully automated, market shopping experience. Lori: Wow, I ….Oh, my goodness. I didn’t know that they had bought Whole Foods. Will: Yep. In the past week. I lost my mind when I read it. Lori: Wow. Wow. I mean, it’s something like that, I mean, a lot of people would lose their jobs or you know, the the poor cashiers. But at the same time, it sounds like a nice shopping experience, that you just walk in, get your things and walk out and everything is taken care of…I …provided that it’s all accurately…that you’re accurately charged for your items. Will: Yes. Of course, and it’s a perfect…it’s a perfect example of “If it works for the consumer…” which it sounds like that’s a no brainer. And there…if the quarterly numbers come out for Whole Foods, and they see massive profits as a result of not having to carry those salaries and that that level of overhead as a result of employing humans, then it’ll also make sense from a business perspective. And we will inevitably start to see the shift into the direction of automation. When it works for people and it works for businesses and the governments are scrambling around trying to figure out what to do with all of these, you know, unemployed unemployable people. It almost like a dirty word, unemployable. You’re unemployable. Lori: Yeah. But it really depends on how, you know, what is going to happen with society as this, you know, as these changes start taking place, because the point that that…remind me of what his name was. Do you remember the name of the guy who made this this video about the rise of AI? Will: Aaaah…. Lori: I can’t remember his name. Well, in any case, the point he made was that if these things do happen, we could if things go well, and if we plan properly, we could end up with a society where all we humans are doing is developing ourselves, learning new things. Will: Exactly. Lori: You know, just basically living a life of…that… where we can follow our interests and our passions. And… Will: Yeah. Lori: …and then the machines, the AI is taking care of all the drudgery and all the things that that we used to have to do just to put food on the table. END TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW LINKS TO SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL If you use Blinkist, here are some links to read short summaries of books on the topic of A.I. and autimation. Blinkist is great for English learners. You can read along as you listen, plus look up words you don’t know all from the app! The Future of Work, by Darrell M. West https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/zLbBe The Robots are Coming, by Andres Oppenheimer https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/RvnWa The A.I. Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare by Roger Bootle https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/ydbBv Video about delivery robots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujzjZuhE92g Humans need not apply Video about how automation and A.I. will affect the job market for humans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU Robots will beat humans at every task https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/this-is-when-robots-will-start-beating-humans-at-every-task-ae5ecd71-5e8e-44ba-87cd-a962c2aa99c2 Dirty, Dirty robots Funny (but still disturbing) video about A.I. from comedian Lee Camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfxP6ZyNtw Link to original Yale / Oxford study about A.I. This is for learners of academic English. People in the videos about A.I. summarize findings from this study. This is the actual academic study for comparison. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf Elon musk on the Joe Rogan podcast, talking about A.I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3fv8gl6NE Elon Musk’s talk at SXSW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Osn1gMNtw Ted talk with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nt3edWLgIg Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BChxQHyFIOI&t=1487s TED talk by Peter Haas A robot designer who is afraid of robots The Real Reason to be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRzBk_KuIaM How frightened should be be of A.I.? Article in the New Yorker, free, with full text and audio so you can read along as you listen. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-frightened-should-we-be-of-ai A Conversation with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. & Founder of SpaceX moderated by H.E. Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs & The Future, UAE. Chairman of the World Government Summit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCoFKUJ_8Yo Oxford word lists You can look up words and hear American and British English pronunciation at https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/wordlists/oxford3000-5000 The post 048 – The Robots are Coming – part 2 appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

A study predicts that all human tasks could be automated in the next 30 years. And that all human jobs might be replaced within the next 100 years or so. Holy crap! What will we do when the robots take over? A.I. is coming. The robots are coming. But are we ready? In this Real English conversations podcast from Better at English, Lori and her American friend Will talk about their questions and concerns about the rise of A.I. (Artificial intelligence) and the automation of human labor. You can find the full transcript in my archive of English conversation transcripts for language learners. Additional resources and supplementary material Humans need not apply Video about how automation and A.I. will affect the job market for humans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU Robots will beat humans at every task https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/this-is-when-robots-will-start-beating-humans-at-every-task-ae5ecd71-5e8e-44ba-87cd-a962c2aa99c2 Traffic death statistics https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html Dirty, Dirty robots. Funny (but still disturbing) video about A.I. from comedian Lee Camp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfxP6ZyNtw Link to original Yale / Oxford study about A.I. This is for learners of academic English. People in the videos about A.I. summarize findings from this study. This is the actual academic study for comparison. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf Elon musk on the Joe Rogan podcast, talking about A.I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3fv8gl6NE Elon Musk’s talk at SXSW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Osn1gMNtw Ted talk with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nt3edWLgIg Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BChxQHyFIOI&t=1487s TED talk by Peter Haas A robot designer who is afraid of robots The Real Reason to be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRzBk_KuIaM How frightened should be be of A.I.? Article in the New Yorker, free, with full text and audio so you can read along as you listen. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-frightened-should-we-be-of-ai Video about delivery robots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujzjZuhE92g The post 047 – The robots are coming. Are you ready? appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from better at English dot com. This little update is just to let you know that new Real English Conversations are coming. I know you love the conversations, and I do love making them for you, but they are quite a lot of work, let me tell you! In fact, I just invested in some fancy new recording equipment that’s going to make it much easier for me to record and transcribe the conversations in the future. Because hey, let’s face it, what good is a conversation episode with out a transcript that you can use to learn from? The first new conversation is coming in the next couple of days, and I’m letting you know in advance because I think you’ll get more benefit from the conversation if you can familiarize yourself with the general topic before you listen. “Hey Lori, what’s the topic?” Oh yeah, what’s the topic? You’ll be hearing me and an American friend talk about AI, or artificial intelligence, and the automation of human labor. Yes, the robots are coming and – whether we like it or not – a lot of the work that humans are doing now, a lot of our jobs, our skills, will be replaced by machines and artificial intelligence. How are we going to deal with that as a society? Where will we find our sense of value and purpose when we don’t have to work anymore? And how will we make a living in the first place? How will we put a roof over our heads and put food on the table? These are some of the things you’ll hear us discuss. You won’t think I’m so cute when I take your job. And in the conversation we mention some videos and other things that we’ve seen online. And that’s not so fun for you if you haven’t seen the video yourself and have no idea what we’re talking about. So I’ve put the links to these in the show notes for this episode, and if you check out the background material in advance, you’ll be on the same page with us as you listen to the conversation. You won’t be left in the dark, scratching your head, when you hear us mention the videos. So I highly encourage you to take the next couple of days and get familiar with some of these materials so you’ll get more out of the conversation when I post it next time. That’s all for this time…I’ll see you soon with a brand new, fresh, juicy, delightful and delicious real English conversation. Unless I’m replaced by a robot before then. Oh, wait. How do you know I’m not already a robot now…seriously, how would you know? Woo! Scary question. Anyway, as always, you can find me at www.betteratenglish.com if you want to leave a comment, send an email, or leave me a voice message. I love getting voice messages from you so I can hear you show off your beautiful English. You can do all of that from my website. Until next time, here’s wishing you an inspired and productive day. Bye for now. SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR PRE-LISTENING Funny (but still disturbing) video about AI by a comedian Dirty Dirty Robots Facts, figures and big questions about what will happen when machines and AI take over our jobs Humans need not apply Article and short video about some predictions related to Artificial Intelligence and automation This is when robots will start beating humans at every task For learners of academic English – here is the original study by researchers at Oxford and Yale. This is the study that the people in the videos talk about. When will AI exceed human performance? The post The robots are coming – pre-listening task appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Hey there English learners, Lori here, your teacher from BetterAtEnglish.com. I’ve got a different type of episode here for you today. I’m gonna go through some American English slang expressions, some really common ones that you hear all the time if you’re watching American English sitcoms or dramas on TV or Netflix. They’re ones that have been in use for quite a few years, and that you hear people in a wide range of ages using. So it’s not just super new ones that are just used by teenagers and younger people. They’re a lot more, I think, general and for me that means there are a lot more useful. So I hope that you will enjoy this episode. It’s a bit scary for me because it’s different from what I normally give you. But, you know, when I think about it, I’m always encouraging you to try new things with your English learning and to risk embarrassment, to risk failure. So all I can do is try to lead by example and hope that you enjoy this episode. The expressions we’re going to look at are: – Oh my god – that sucks – tell me about it – to bomb, and = bummer / bummed / to bum someone out You can find the full transcript for this episode at https://www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts If you benefit from this episode, please consider leaving a review (or at least some stars) :-) The post 046 – Five American English slang expressions appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

The data is clear: some English grammar rules are stupid. Is it ever OK to make a grammar “mistake” on purpose? Is it ever OK to know a grammar rule and break it anyway, even when you know that some people will strongly disapprove? In this episode I talk about English grammar rules that (I and many people think) are stupid, and discuss whether or not it’s OK to break them. You’ll also hear a short extract from a podcast by Scott Adams, a well known cartoonist and professional writer, talking about breaking a grammar rule on purpose. His opinion might surprise you! And you’ll also learn the (somewhat vulgar and offensive) slang term douchebag, and hear a really great example of how it’s used in context. “Hey Lori, what’s a douchebag?” I hear you asking. Listen to the episode and find out! If you enjoy the show it would totally make my day if you could leave a review or at least some stars on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or basically, anywhere you can leave a review. I’m not picky! It’s an easy thing you can do that would mean the world to me. You can find the full transcript of this episode online and as a downloadable PDF at https://www.betteratenglish.com/045-stupid-english-grammar-rules-transcript The post 045 – Stupid English grammar rules – is it OK to break them? appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Better at English dot com. It’s story time here today, something I don’t think I’ve done here on the podcast before. I’m going to use natural English, but will try to speak just a little more carefully than I normally would, so that more people can follow along. You can find the full transcript of everything I say on my website: www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts Today I’ve been thinking about mistakes, mainly how the fear of making mistakes in English really holds some learners back. Believe me, I know how this feels. I’ve made plenty of embarrassing mistakes myself in my target languages. Luckily, most of the time I’m able to just laugh them off, and they don’t really get me into trouble. But sometimes mistakes lead to a total breakdown of communication. And that’s no fun at all. I thought you might like to hear about one of my more memorable mistakes, a mistake that actually caused a real problem and made me feel super embarrassed. It happened over 30 years ago, (yes, I’m that old) but it taught me such an important lesson about language learning that I still remember it to this day. So let me take you back over thirty years, to my first year living in Sweden. I think I’d been living there for about nine months when this happened. I’d been trying to learn Swedish since I arrived, and by then I was able to understand a fair amount. I think I could speak without too much difficulty about general, everyday things. I still made tons of mistakes, for sure, but they didn’t really cause problems. That is, until this one particular day. Here’s the situation: I needed to make a doctor’s appointment for some kind of check-up. I can’t remember what it was for; I just remember that it wasn’t for anything urgent. It was early in April, maybe April third or fourth. I picked up the phone and called the doctor’s office to make an appointment. It was scary. I’d never made a phone call like that in Swedish before. I was worried that I would embarrass myself by making terrible mistakes or just not understanding, and that I would end up having to try to do it in English. Most people in Sweden speak English, which is one of the reasons I wasn’t learning faster. But I was determined to make this appointment in Swedish, gosh darn it! Despite my worries, it seemed to go well. The doctors’ assistant answered, and I was able to explain what I needed and make an appointment for April 18th at 9 a.m., that’s nine o’clock in the morning. I hung up feeling pretty proud of myself: this was the first time I’d ever made a phone call like this in Swedish — calling a total stranger to make an appointment — and I didn’t have to use any English at all. It felt like a real sign of progress! I got out my calendar, found April 18th and wrote: Dr’s appointment, 9 am. I was a bit annoyed that I would have to wait two weeks for my appointment, but like I said, it wasn’t urgent. I closed my calendar and went on with my day, feeling very pleased with myself about my successful phone call in Swedish. Now….Fast forward to 3 or 4 days later, April 8th just after 9 am. I was at home in my little apartment, drinking coffee and getting ready to go to the gym when the phone rang. I picked up the phone, hoping that it would be something nice — maybe a friend calling to find out if we could do something fun that day, I don’t know. But it wasn’t. It was someone from the doctor’s office, a woman who sounded mildly annoyed, calling to find out why I hadn’t shown up for my appointment. That was a shock to me, because I thought my appointment was not for another 10 days, on the 18th. I couldn’t imagine that I’d written down the wrong day by mistake. “Are you sure?” I asked her. “I thought it was on the 18th…that’s almost two weeks from now.” And then it hit me: today was the 8th. The words for eighth and eighteenth sound quite similar in Swedish if, like me at the time, you haven’t developed your ear so well. So the person who I had spoken to before had said the eighth, but I had understood — and written down — the eighteenth. It was a stupid, basic mistake on my part. It was so embarrassing. I was mortified. Swedes are very punctual, and it’s really bad form to be late to appointments, and even worse to just not show up. Thankfully, the secretary was very kind about it. When she realized how embarrassed I was about my stupid mistake, her annoyance vanished. We made a new appointment, checking very carefully that I really understood the time and date. We did this by saying not only the date, but the name of the day. For example, “Thursday April 20th” instead of just “the 20th.” She also said that she wouldn’t charge me the normal fee they charge when people don’t show up, because she could tell that it had been an honest mistake. That was a relief, because I was living on a student loan at the time and really needed every bit of money just to get by. So, why am I telling you this story? Because it taught me a really important lesson about mistakes in language learning. We all hate making mistakes. We fear making mistakes, and I am no exception. But this experience taught me that not all mistakes are equal. Not all mistakes cause a total breakdown of communication. Not all mistakes have real-world consequences. People can overlook all kinds of mistakes. Grammar mistakes, odd choices of vocabulary, having to invent your own vocabulary or put words together in strange ways because that’s all the language you have, that’s all fine. You can still communicate and connect with people even when you make loads of mistakes. But then there are mistakes that can cause trouble. In my experience, some of the most serious mistakes are when you mix up numbers, letters, dates and times. These are mistakes that can really cause problems. Some classic examples in English are mixing up Tuesday and Thursday, mixing up teens and tens, for example thirteen and thirty, ninety and nineteen. And then there’s other time expressions like next Wednesday vs. this Wednesday. And don’t even get me started on one of the most confusing ones: saying “half seven” or “half four” in English for times of the day. In British English, “half seven” is short for “half past seven” or 7.30. But in Swedish and I believe German and Dutch as well, “half seven” means 6.30, not 7.30. That’s grounds for some real confusion if, say, a Brit and a Swede are arranging to meet at “half seven” in English. And let’s not forget the basic alphabet. Sometimes we need to spell out important things like email addresses. For instance, my email address is lori@betteratenglish.com . There are many ways to spell Lori. I can spell out my name for you, but if I say L O R I and you write L O R Y, I’ll never get your email. And yes, this has happened to me many times and caused a lot of frustration when I’ve had to call people back and give them my email address again. It’s also happened that people have spelled their own email address wrong in English when they’ve been saying it to me. So to sum up, mistakes are an unavoidable part of language learning, and it’s important that you don’t let the fear of making mistakes silence you and keep you from speaking. And most of the time, despite less-than-perfect English, you’re still able to connect with people and communicate. But having said that, it’s still a good idea to make sure that you have the basics covered, things like of numbers, dates, times and spelling. That will help you avoid embarrassing situations like missing appointments, ordering the wrong quantities of things, getting people’s email addresses wrong, etc. Basics are boring, I know, but they’re actually pretty important. Are there any English basics that you think you might need to practice? I wouldn’t be surprised, because I’ve had plenty of students who could speak quite fluently but still made simple mistakes with spelling and numbers. That’s all for this time…here’s wishing you an inspired and productive day, wherever and whenever you happen to be listening to this. Bye for now! The post 044 – A very embarrassing mistake appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

Introduction Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. Last week I shared the first part of a cool conversation I had with Dr. BJ Fogg, all about making the most of your motivation. Today you’ll be hearing part two, the final part of this conversation. If you missed the first part, make sure […] The post 042 – Make the Most of your Motivation part 2 of 2 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2017 Lori Linstruth

Introduction Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. Last week I shared the first part of a cool conversation I had with Dr. BJ Fogg, all about making the most of your motivation. Today you’ll be hearing part two, the final part of this conversation. If you missed the first part, make sure to go back and listen to part one before you listen to part two. At the end of part one, BJ was telling me about his goal to get better at writing neatly on a whiteboard. He knew that he needed to practice a lot if he wanted to improve, so he wanted to make it as easy as possible to practice every day. In this part of the conversation, you’ll hear what he did to change his environment to make practicing easy, even on days when his motivation is low. You’ll also hear about how his practice routine is working for him. As always, you can find the full transcript of this conversation, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts. Are you ready for the conversation? Let’s go! Conversation transcript BJ: One of the habits I’m doing right now is, I’m practicing whiteboarding. I’m practicing with markers writing on a whiteboard. You know, like teachers do. Lori: Right. BJ: And I want my handwriting to get much, much better and so, I’m practicing every day. But anyway, what I did was I went out and I got some marker paper, I got a bunch of markers, I got different whiteboards so I have whiteboards in different parts of my house. I have the marker paper, I have markers, I have a marker in my bathroom, one in my sun room, I have a whole set in my office, I have a whole set in my other office. In other words, I made it really, really easy to practice writing with markers by getting all the materials and getting everything set up. And I did that when I was in a period of high motivation. So now, it’s really easy just to pick up a marker and practice. I don’t have to be super motivated. Lori: Right. And– and you can tell yourself that, you know, “You have all your materials. It’s all easy right at hand.” You could even tell yourself, “I’m just going to write one sentence. That’s all I feel like doing right now and — BJ: Yeah. In fact, just before your call, that’s what I did. I was sitting down and I was going to read but I was like, “No, no. I’m just going to, like, get out the marker board and write one sentence.” And I ended up filling up the entire marker board because I thought, “Oh, this is kind of fun. I’m going to keep going.” Lori: Yeah — BJ: And then, you called. Lori: Have– have you — oh, I’m sorry to interrupt your practice… [laughs] BJ: [crosstalk] No, I was expecting your call. Lori: …while you were on a roll. But yeah, and I guess…how’s your writing? Has it been improving? It must be improving. BJ: Oh my gosh, it’s so much better. Lori: And that — BJ: Yeah. Lori: Because I can imagine when you start seeing that your efforts are paying off, that that makes it more likely that you’re going to pick up those pens and do your practicing. BJ: Yeah, and I– I think there are some behaviors or skills where it becomes clear pretty quickly — your progress. And then there are some, at least outcomes, where it’s harder to measure like, “Wow, am I really reducing my stress? Am I really getting healthier? Am I really…,” you know, whereas the whiteboarding — and then, I practice guitar every day… Lori: Oh! Cool. BJ: …and– and other things. Yeah, but in those two cases, it’s very clear that you’re getting better. It’s just obvious that you’re getting better. And the writing is one that I may have other people join me in because…and then take pictures before and after because it’s– it’s quite dramatic. Lori: I…yeah, I can imagine if you practice. I mean, I haven’t practiced writing really since I was a kid; and learning to write and then, you know, you get your hand style and you think that that’s sort of what you’re stuck with for the rest of your life. [laughs] BJ: And part of it is changing; changing like what your style is. You know, because my normal style doesn’t work very well on a whiteboard so I have, sort of…it’s almost like having, well, in some ways, speaking a different language because you shift into a different gear. So, I speak Spanish and French, and I know when I speak those languages, I go into a different gear. It’s just different. And when I’m writing on a whiteboard, it’s not like I’m writing in a notebook. It’s just…I’m drawing in a different– different movements and different ways of thinking, well, about the letters and the spacing of the letters. And on the whiteboard, I’m trying to get things very straight, up and down just like you might try to get an accent, like, you know, an accent right and you’re really focusing. I think there’s probably a lot in common about learning languages and practicing other skills. Lori: There really is. I notice when I hear people talking about health and fitness, you could almost substitute…you know, just substitute some of the nouns and verbs and it would all…like the principles are all– all the same or often quite the same. Yeah, time is almost up. I only have one final thing I would like to ask you and… BJ: Okay. Lori: …that is — sometimes I notice when I’m working with learners, they tend to beat themselves up when they feel like they’re not motivated or they’re not able to do hard things and I want…you know, ever since I saw or learned about the motivation wave, I thought, “Oh, that’s one thing I really want people to know, that it’s normal that your motivation is going to fluctuate.” And could you just confirm that for me? [laughs] BJ: Yeah, you know, there are times…there might be a day when all I do is write one word with my marker. But that’s okay because I’m still keeping the practice alive. So I think about it, I learned this a long time ago as a student…is I’m working on a very big paper that really is intimidating and it’s hard that I worked on it every day — I write at least one sentence. And I…the next day I can go back and erase the sentence if I want to. But I always write at least one sentence. And if that’s all I get done, it’s like, “Great! I did my sentence for the day.” And what happens is a lot like what we talked about, I write a sentence like, “Oh! I might as well write the next one…Oh! The next one…the next one.” Now later, you’ve got all of the paper done. But the key is, you cannot — on those days when you’re stressed or busy with other things or just somehow not motivated to do that behavior, just do a little, tiny bit and congratulate yourself for doing that little, tiny bit and move on. Lori: Right, right. Oh, that is– that is such great advice. BJ: As long as you keep taking those small steps, you’ll get there. Once you stop taking the steps, you don’t only just stop, you slide backwards. There’s no way to stay still. You’re either moving forward or you’re sliding backward. Lori: Right, exactly. Well, BJ, thank you so much. And I know you’ve got another interview scheduled in the next minute but I just really…I’m so, so, so happy that you– that you took.. and wanted to take the time and let me… BJ: Well… Lori: …pick your brain a little bit. BJ: Well, you are welcome. And helping people learn languages is really important work. I mean, when you learn a language, you’re able to connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise, you’re able to do things you couldn’t otherwise, travel, experience — it just opens up a different world. And so I think it’s a wonderful thing to be helping people do. Lori: Yeah. Oh, thank you so much. Final words That brings us to the end of this two part conversation with Dr. BJ Fogg. I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I did recording it! You’ve learned about the motivation wave, that it’s totally normal for motivation to go up and down over time. You’ve also learned that when motivation is low, we can only do easy things. When motivation is high, that’s when we can do hard things. To find out more, I encourage you to watch the video of BJ’s talk that I’ve linked to in the transcript. To get the most English learning benefit from this conversation, make sure to download the transcript for this episode so you can read along to check your understanding. The transcript also has notes about the language we use in the conversation, including vocabulary explanations and example sentences. You can find the transcript at betteratenglish.com/transcripts. Until next time, have fun practicing your English! If you have questions or suggestions about what you would like to hear in these podcasts, I’d love to hear them. You can find all the ways to get in touch with me at Betteratenglish.com/contact. Bye for now! Download the transcript for the bonus vocabulary lesson. The post 042 – Make the Most of your Motivation part 2 of 2 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth

What can you do when you're not feeling motivated? What is the best way to use your motivation when you ARE motivated? Find out in this episode of Real English Conversations from Better at English. Lori talks to Dr. BJ Fogg about how to make the most of the motivation that you have, no matter if it's high or low. The post 041 – Make the most of your motivation – a conversation with BJ Fogg (part 1 of 2) appeared first on Better at English. © 2017 Lori Linstruth

Introduction\r\n\nHi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. You are in for a treat with this episode of Real English Conversations. It’s a really special episode, and I’m so happy to be sharing it with you.\r\n\nA while back I had the huge honor of having a conversation with one of my own personal heroes, Dr. BJ Fogg. BJ is the director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University. Put simply, he’s a scientist who spends a lot of time studying how to help people create desirable habits and getting those habits to stick. The concept of motivation plays an important role in BJ’s work. I think most people would agree that motivation is incredibly important for successful language learning, maybe even the most important thing. When you’re highly motivated, it’s easy. But when your motivation is low, it’s not so easy. \r\n\nBJ has lots of practical advice about how you can make most of your motivation, no matter if it’s high or low. His way of thinking about motivation as a wave blew my mind when I first came across it. The motivation wave can easily be applied to language learning, so I am super excited to share it with you.\r\n\nAs always, you can find the full transcript of this conversation, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.\r\n\nOK, you’re about to hear part one of the conversation. I’ll pop in again at the end to give you four things you can do to get the most benefit from this episode.\r\n\nAre you ready? Let’s go!\r\n\nConversation transcript\r\n\nLori: Can– can people depend on motivation when they’re trying to learn things and do things that are difficult?\r\n\nBJ: Well, in order to do anything difficult, you have to have motivation or you won’t do them. So either, if it’s…if the behavior or task is difficult, you’ve got to find some way to summon up some motivation; or if you make the task simpler, you won’t need so much motivation. So you basically have two options: boost your motivation or make the task easier to do.\r\n\nLori: Okay yeah, that– that makes a lot of sense. And I— I noticed in your video, you said that…people often, like teachers or people trying to initiate behavior change or help people change their behavior, that, you don’t like to hear them talking about, “motivating behavior change,” you prefer the term “facilitating” behavior change. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.\r\n\nBJ: Yeah. In English, there’s a common phrase that people use when they talk about behavior change, “We need to motivate behavior change.” And yes, you could motivate behavior change but there’s other ways to get behavior to happen. And if you’re looking at long-term behaviors or getting people to create habits, focusing on motivation is the wrong focus. You really need to look at, how do we make the behavior easy to do? And also, it’s related to the habits — how do we make the behavior rewarding or emotionally satisfying? And so, the thing that I’m worried about is by using that phrase, “motivate behavior change,” people are really limiting themselves in how they think about the different ways to design for behavior change.\r\n\nLori: It’s interesting to me, coming from, you know, having a background as a teacher. I can remember from my initial teacher training, we were often…it was either implied or— or sometimes even overtly stated that the idea was, “You have to motivate your students. You have to do things to keep their motivation up.” And— and of course, you know, [as a teacher] you want to be motivating and inspiring to people. But when I saw your video, your presentation about the motivation wave, it’s kind of like, a little bell went off that– you know, that it makes so much sense. Could you just explain just the basic, basic idea about the motivation wave — talking about the peaks and valleys, and difficult and hard?\r\n\nPractice your listening with CC subtitles\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9enAEDNVpdY\r\n\nBJ: Everyone, I think, has experienced this phenomenon in their life where they get excited about doing some behavior or some set of behaviors like, getting healthier or reducing stress. Now that excitement, as it goes up, I decided to call that, a “motivation wave” because it will go up but it will also come back down. So, it’s not a constant thing. And what the motivation wave allows you to do, when the motivation wave is high — you can do hard things, you can spend lots of time, you can put in a lot of effort, you can persist through hardship if your motivation is high. And as your motivation comes down, you can’t do the hard things anymore, you only can do simple things. And so the key to understand…there’s a few keys: Number one, that motivation won’t always be high. That goes up and down. And then two, when motivation is high, that’s the right time to get yourself or other people to do hard things. And when motivation is low, you can’t do hard things; what you can do are simple things. And so designing — if you’re trying to get yourself to study more or exercise more or what have you and your motivation’s really low, then you should take, let’s say, the study task, and break it down to just three minutes and say, “Okay, I’m only going to study for three minutes. And within three minutes, I’m done.” Instead of forcing yourself or saying, “Oh, I have to study for an hour,” and then your brain finds excuses not to do it at all. Like, zero.\r\n\nLori: Oh yeah.\r\n\nMotivation naturally goes up and down over time, like a wave.\r\n\nBJ: And so what happens in a lot of people that say “Great! I’m just going to do three minutes,” once they get started, they’re like, “Oh! I’ll do another three minutes…oh! I’ll do another three minutes.” So there’s a momentum they build up by doing the small steps. And the motivation actually goes up and they may end up studying an entire hour or longer because that’s how their motivation and their interests changed as they were doing it.\r\n\nLori: Yeah, I know. I have noticed that myself, many, many times when I have some kind of task that I’m putting off because it seems like it’s too difficult or I’m just not motivated. But if you can just force yourself to, to sit down and say, “Okay, I’m just going to at least get started; do one tiny little thing,” it’s so true, that often does happen, that once you get going, you sort of build a momentum and you end up doing a lot more than you planned in the beginning.\r\n\nBJ: Yeah, so that’s what you do when motivation’s low. When motivation’s high, when you’re in high motivation, that’s the time to change your environment, get the materials you need, get the…let me give you an example.\r\n\nLori: Sure.\r\n\nBJ: One of the habits I’m doing right now is, I’m practicing whiteboarding. I’m practicing with markers writing on a whiteboard. You know, like teachers do.\r\n\nLori: Right.\r\n\nBJ: And I want my handwriting to get much, much better and so, I’m practicing every day. And in fact, I’m doing it right now.\r\n\nLori: Yeah?\r\n\nBJ: Just— yeah, because this is how I practice. But anyway, what I did was… \r\n\nThis conversation continues in part 2 next week!\r\n\nFinal words\r\n\nThat’s the end of part one of this conversation with Dr. BJ Fogg. Did you notice how nervous I sounded? That’s because BJ is one of my heroes, and I kind of felt like a little fangirl talking to one of my favorite rockstars.\r\n\nUntil next time, here are four ideas for things you can do to get the most benefit from this conversation.\r\n\n1. If listening to this episode was challenging for you, you can prepare for part two by studying the transcript and listening repeatedly to the conversation. If any words are really causing trouble for your understanding, make sure to look them up. If you do this over the next few days, the second part of the conversation should be easier because more of the language will be familiar. \r\n\n2. Make a prediction! Based on what you heard in this conversation so far, what do you think BJ did to make it easier to practice his whiteboarding every day? There is a big clue toward the end of the conversation. Then next week, listen to see if you were right.\r\n\n3. If you need to talk about charts and graphs to pass an exam, here’s a great chance to practice. Think about your own motivation to learn English, and how it changes over time. Is it steady, or does it fluctuate? If it fluctuates, how dramatic are the changes? How often? Draw a simple graph of your English learning motivation and practice explaining it to a friend. Or post it on my Facebook page and explain it there!\r\n\n4. In the transcript and on the website I’ve put a link to a Youtube video where BJ explains the motivation wave. BJ is a great speaker, and if your listening is intermediate or above, I encourage you to watch the video so you can learn more about how to make the most of your motivation. This will also help you prepare for part two of our conversation.\r\n\nThat brings us to the end of this episode of Real English Conversations. Make sure to download the transcript for this episode so you can read along to check your understanding. The transcript also has notes about the language we use in the conversation, and explains a lot of the vocabulary. \r\n\nYou can find the transcript at betteratenglish.com/transcripts. \r\n\nUntil next time, have fun practicing your English! If you have questions or suggestions about what you would like to hear in these podcasts, I’d love to hear them. You can find all the ways to get in touch with me Betteratenglish.com/contact. Bye for now!\r\n\nDownload the transcript for access to the bonus vocabulary lesson.\r\n\nThe post 041 – Make the most of your motivation – a conversation with BJ Fogg (part 1 of 2) appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth\r\n

Introduction Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you’ll hear part 4 of my conversation with Kyla. Up until now we’ve been talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. But in this part of the conversation we digress [go off topic] and talk about […] The post 039 – Daily Rituals part 4 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2017 Lori Linstruth

Introduction Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you’ll hear part 3 of my conversation with Kyla. We are talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In this part we talk about the routines and practices that many creative people have in common. Now […] The post 038 – Daily rituals part 3 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2017 Lori Linstruth

Introduction\r\n\nHi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you’ll hear part 3 of my conversation with Kyla. We are talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In this part we talk about the routines and practices that many creative people have in common.\r\n\nNow before you listen I have to warn you: this is a particularly challenging conversation. Here is why: because both Kyla and I read the book, we have a lot of shared information in our heads. When speakers have a lot of shared information, they often leave out details. They know that the other person already knows the information, so they don’t have to say it.\r\n\nIf only one of us had read the book, this conversation would have been very different. We would have had to do a lot more explaining, and mention a lot more specific details. \r\n\nWhat does all that mean for you? As you are listening, don’t worry too much if some things are unclear, or if you feel that you are missing information. To help you out, I have marked the particularly challenging parts in colored text in the transcript. And at the end of the transcript, I’ve included a short quote from the book so you can read the part we are talking about.\r\n\nIf you want to read along as you listen, you can download the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts. \r\n\nAfter the conversation I’ll be back with five questions you can use for speaking practice.\r\n\nOK, let’s get on with the conversation!\r\n\nConversation transcript\r\n\nKyla: That’s right, exactly. And the amount…it seems a real recurring theme in the book is three hours. The amount of people that did, that worked for three hours a day that got all their…even – even the ones that didn’t have jobs that had their time completely open, a lot of them seemed to work for three hours. And the rest of the time would be, you know, visiting and going for long walks and…\r\n\nLori: Yeah, that was –\r\n\nKyla: …having luxurious dinners.\r\n\nLori: That was another really striking one – the role of walking.\r\n\nKyla: Yes.\r\n\nBeethoven was one of the many creative people whose daily routine involved strong coffee.Lori: Because you had these people, like you say, they would work their stretch of – of three or four hours. I think– I think Beethoven is an example of this. He would– he would work, get up in the morning, drink his coffee. I think he was the one who counted the [coffee] beans. [laughs]\r\n\nKyla: He counted the beans! Yeah. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: How many was it in each cup?\r\n\nKyla: 60 or something?\r\n\nLori: Yeah.\r\n\nKyla: Was it 60? [laughs]\r\n\nLori: That sounds right. Yeah, he measured up precisely 60 beans for his coffee and would work. And then he would take these long, vigorous walks armed with note paper to jot down ideas, I guess. And I think it was also Beethoven who would, during his work periods when he would feel stuck, he would get up and go walk outside for a little bit and found that , kind of, unlocked his creativity.\r\n\nDownload the transcript for the rest of this Real English conversation, the vocabulary lesson and bonus discussion questions for speaking practice.\r\n\nThe post 038 – Daily rituals part 3 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth\r\n

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you’ll hear part 2 of my conversation with Kyla. We’re discussing a book that we both really liked. It’s called Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey. The book describes the daily routines and habits of 161 creative people, people like […] The post 037 – Daily Rituals 2 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2017 Lori Linstruth

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you’ll hear part 2 of my conversation with Kyla. We’re discussing a book that we both really liked. It’s called Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey. \r\n\nThe book describes the daily routines and habits of 161 creative people, people like writers, painters, musicians, philosophers, and scientists. Now, while I love the book, I don’t recommend it for English learners at lower levels. This is because it has a lot of quotations from sources that are very old, and some of that language is very difficult. But if you are an upper-intermediate to advanced learner of English who needs to read English literature from different periods, it might be a great place to start. The chapters are very short — sometimes only a half a page. That means you can have the satisfaction of finishing a chapter without having to spend too much time. And it’s easier to do deep language analysis and study if the text is not too long.\r\n\nRight then…in this conversation you’ll hear a lot of American English idiomatic expressions and a bit of slang. There are also many examples of a politeness strategy called “hedging.” Remember, this was the first time Kyla and I ever spoke, so we were being careful not to be too direct. Listen particularly for language like “kind of,” “sort of,” and “I think.” Hedges like these keep us from sounding to direct or firm in our opinions. \r\n\nAs always, you can find the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.\r\n\nOK, here comes the conversation!\r\n\nCONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT\r\n\nKyla: Well, I was just going to say, that book came out of blog posts, didn’t it? Like, was he blogging? [note: you can find the original blog here]\r\n\nLori: I believe the story is, he’s – he’s a…he’s actually a published author; quite a prolific author, I think, in– in, like, magazines and things like that. And he did have this blog that, I guess, started out just as some kind of personal interest.\r\n\nKyla: Right.\r\n\nLori: And then someone got in touch with him saying, “Hey, do you…this would make a really cool book,” and so he did the extra work too to turn it into a book. And I’m glad he did because it’s really fascinating.\r\n\nKyla: Yeah. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: [laughs] Really interesting.\r\n\nKyla: It is —\r\n\nLori: Um…\r\n\nKyla: Well, it’s — oh, you go ahead.\r\n\nLori: No, no. Go ahead.\r\n\nKyla: I was– I was just going to say, it actually kind of makes me really…”Why wasn’t I a writer?! It seems like they have it so easy!” [laughs]\r\n\nLori: [laughs] Is that based on– on reading about the habits of writers in the books or the book, I’m —\r\n\nKyla: Yes. Yeah, exactly. That was…by – by the end of it, it was just like, yeah.\r\n\nLori: That’s funny you had that reaction because I actually thought that writing seemed really, really freaking hard.\r\n\nKyla: Oh, yeah. [laughs]\r\n\n\r\n\nLori: [laughs] Like, really hard. I guess, some of the things that– that struck me that all the things that the writers do to try to make it easier on themselves, like, I really [laughs] — one thing, I can’t remember which person it was, but there was someone who was, like, totally taking Benzedrine which is, I guess, apparently, Adderall.\r\n\nKyla: Right. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: And after reading that passage, I was like, “Hey man! I want to get me some of that stuff! [laughs] How can I…that’s my problem too! I can’t focus. I can’t concentrate. Like, sign me up!” [laughs] And coffee, as well. I was surprised at how many people really depended on stimulants like coffee.\r\n\nKyla: Yeah. And it seems like, every, like, pretty much every ritual was like, “Well, I have my coffee,” and then, like — Oh, who is that? Like, the guy that would have…maybe it was, who would have, like, I don’t know. His butler had to choose the coffee each day and then justify his choice. Like, “This is —\r\n\nLori: Oh, I think it was the cup.\r\n\nKyla: Oh, it was the cup! He had to…that’s right. It was the cup. He had to justify why that cup was chosen. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: Yeah. Can you imagine working for a dude like that? Like, that’s part of your job, is to choose the cup and then explain to his satisfaction, “Why?”\r\n\nKyla: …why you chose it. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: That was the cup of the day. Yeah, I can’t…I remember the – the passage but I can’t remember who it was, actually.\r\n\nKyla: That was exactly that but…\r\n\nLori: But yeah, hilarious. But what was it that you think…I mean, you’re obviously a creative person; you play guitar, you mentioned you’re– you’re creating an app and learning coding.\r\n\nKyla: Yup.\r\n\nLori: What it is that you think drives people to want to read a book…like this?\r\n\nKyla: [laughs] Well, definitely you want to know what other people like. “What other people are doing? What’s working for other people?” Maybe someone else has…you know, other creative people have clearly dealt with the same problems I’m dealing with, so “What– what is that other person’s solution?” I think that’s a big drive. \r\n\nAnd one thing that I didn’t…I wasn’t expecting to get out of the book but that I really…something that I really appreciate about this book is, you sort of feel a connection to other people. You really realize, “Oh yeah. These, like, creative people all go through the same problems and have the same, sort of, obstacles they need to get through; they need to defeat.” But then also I was really…I guess, someone who’s always had a job or various jobs to keep the bills going, it was really inspiring to read about how many…like Mussorgsky, he was a pharmacist. He had a family and a 9-to-5, and he managed to, you know, compose a huge body of work that’s still listened to and enjoyed today. And it kind of really made me feel better about how my life is going, I guess. And the amount of…yeah, the amount of creative people who are like, “No, we just need to find a little bit of time every day and we are able to create and still, sort of, go about keeping a regular life.”\r\n\nLori: Yeah, I thought that was really striking in the book as well. That the idea that even if you do have to work a regular job, you know, just to pay the bills and, you know, we all have to, to pay our bills and earn a living. And then maybe it’s nothing to do with the thing that– that you burn for, you know, with your– your creative passion. That even if you can just find the little time you can every day, or maybe not even every day, maybe a few times a week — that those hours add up…\r\n\nKyla: That’s right.\r\n\n\r\n\nLori: …over time. And like, even, I think it was…I think that’s how Agatha Christie worked as well. I mean, who – who is like super, super, super prolific and successful by any measure. She was basically just this married woman who was even kind of embarrassed about being thought of as a writer, or just found the idea of writing embarrassing. And she would sort of sneak away whenever she could to some quiet, undisturbed place. And I guess it even frustrated journalists because – later on when she was successful – because they would want to take a picture of her at her writing desk and she didn’t actually have one. [laughs] But it was surprising how just that, that little bit every day and people who stick with it; they eventually are able to create these great things.\r\n\nKyla: That’s right, yeah.\r\n\nLori: It’s inspiring for those of us…\r\n\nKyla: Yes, yeah. [laughs]\r\n\nLori: …who don’t have the luxury of just devoting every day to the things that interest us.\r\n\nDownload the PDF transcript for the vocabulary lesson and language usage notes!\r\n\nThe post 037 – Daily Rituals 2 – Real English Conversations appeared first on Better at English. © 2020 Lori Linstruth\r\n