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604. London Native Speaker Interviews REVISITED Part 2
Listening to the audio from another old YouTube video of mine, and then exploring it for new vocabulary and English learning opportunities.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/teacherluke/604._London_Native_Speaker_Interviews_REVISITED_Part_2.mp3
Hello folks, welcome to a new episode. In this one I'm going to go through some more audio of interviews I did with native speakers of English in London 10 years ago and will mine if for any nice bits of English vocabulary that we find.
Before we begin this episode properly I just want to say a couple of things about the last episode – the one about Queen & Freddy Mercury and also to let you know about my plans for the summer and how that might affect the podcast.
We'll start with summer plans.
First of all, I'm going away on holiday during the 2nd week of July, so no podcasts will go up during that time. Then when we get back I'm teaching intensive summer courses at the British Council, which means teaching all day every day. I still have the evenings, but having a lot less time probably means I won't be able to produce podcasts at the usual rate. So, things might go quiet for the rest of the month. Also, in August we have several holiday plans which are currently coming together and that will mean being away for at least half of the month. So things might go quiet during July and August, only to return at the normal rate in September. I'll also prioritise premium content, because that is stuff I I feel I have a duty to publish.
Right, so that's the summer plans and how they will affect the podcast. Things might be a bit quiet as usual at this time of year, but there's the whole episode archive to explore, all the app-only episodes you might not have heard and all the premium content too.
Audio Quality – Queen Episode
Next let me say a couple of things about the last episode, which was all about Queen, before starting this episode properly in a few minutes.
First of all, I received some nice, enthusiastic responses from people who were very pleased that I was finally talking about Queen on the podcast.
For example, Francisca Lopez Aperador on YouTube wrote:
Hi, Luke, I was waiting for this episode. You really made my day. How could express how thrilled I am. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Cheers from Spain, teacher.
However, some people are saying that Alex is unintelligible in the Queen episode. There weren't many comments, but I reckon if I just get one or two comments about something, it's probably representative of what a lot of other people (ninjas) are thinking too.
For example, Arsiney wrote on the website:
I don't understand any words in this conversation.
Luk`s speech is clear but this guy speaks like alien.
So, is Alex unintelligible? Does he speak like (an) alien?
Personally I understand every single word Alex says and said in the episode and also I noticed that YouTube's automatic subtitles understood most of what he said (my episodes go up on YouTube now too, so you can see the automatic subtitles, which are 90% correct, going up to 95% correct when I'm on my own).
But there were definitely moments when it was difficult to understand everything he said – largely due to the audio quality during the call and partly due to Alex's speech, and that probably made it a less satisfying listening experience for you.
Apologies for that. The audio quality wasn't up to the normal high standard that you have become used to.
Also, Alex doesn't enunciate as clearly as I do, but then again most people don't.
This brings us back to this perpetual question of the way I speak on the podcast.
"Luke, do you speak normally or do you slow down because I understand everything you say but I don't understand other native speakers."
I do try to be normal and natural but I'm also trying to speak clearly. This is actually how I speak. I always make an effort to speak clearly. That's who I am – partly as a result of being an English teacher, but also it's just the way I was brought up to speak.
However, in the real world you're going to hear people who don't speak as clearly as me, and you need to prepare for that. I think that most people don't speak as clearly as I do and it's not just about speed, it's about diction. Diction is the manner in which words are pronounced. To an extent you've been spoiled by my clear diction. You also have to listen to people who are harder to understand. It trains you to do things like use the context, and other words you can hear to piece together the bits you don't understand. It's not always going to be laid out on a plate for you, and you can't always blame the speaker for not being clear enough for you. As I said, I always understand everything Alex says, so as far as we are concerned, he doesn't have a problem with his speech. He goes through his life fine, communicating without issues, doing comedy on stage and making people laugh. So, Alex's pronunciation isn't a problem in his life. He doesn't speak as clearly as me, but not many people do.
So, listening to someone like Alex is actually good training.
The Pros and Cons of Audio Quality & Learning English
It's important to listen to subprime audio.
But I know that some of you will be frustrated that you couldn't understand or hear everything, and I'm sorry about that. I thought it would be alright. I think the main thing was the audio quality actually.
Understanding what you hear is an important part of the learning process, but be careful of getting used to understanding everything. Sometimes you have to learn to fill in the gaps yourself.
I want you to understand everything you hear. Understanding what you're hearing is an important part of the enjoyment of this podcast. It's also an important part of how this works. I've talked about the role of comprehensible input. Basically, this is the theory that you learn language when you understand it, and so finding compelling material to listen to that you understand is vital.
So, naturally, clear audio is a part of that and that's why I spend a lot of time attempting to make sure the audio is of good quality on this podcast. Where possible I even send microphones to guests I'm interviewing by Skype. I've sent mics to my dad, my brother, Raphael in Liverpool. I sent a mic to Andy Johnson. I couldn't send a mic to Alex because he was using his phone, making a whatsapp call over a cellular connection. I expect this meant that the bandwidth of the audio was very narrow, or something like that. Perhaps the audio was compressed so much that there was not much range in the frequency, making it sound squashed or small. I'm not an expert in audio broadcasting so I'm not sure, but it's probably something like that. Alex doesn't have wifi at home – believe it or not, and so our only option was to do a voice call. No way for him to plug in a USB microphone. So, that's one of the reasons for the difficult audio.
I'm probably going too far here and people are going to write to me saying "It's ok Luke, don't apologise too much!" etc. I usually go a bit over the top if I'm apologising for something on the podcast – usually because I've mispronounced a place name, I've made some factual error about your country, like saying your country is part of another country when in fact they're separate independent nations. You know, stuff like that. Even apologising for uploading too much content. And now, apologising for less-than-perfect audio in one episode. I am probably going too far.
But it's still worth taking this moment to talk about the pros and cons of good and bad audio, when learning English.
There are good and bad things about having super clear audio and English you can understand easily.
The pros are that you can learn a lot from it (comprehensible input) and you get the satisfaction of understanding it all.
The disadvantage is that you get used to it and then struggle to understand fast native speech.
There are also pros and cons of having audio that's harder to understand.
Difficult audio trains you to listen more actively and intelligently.
But sometimes it's frustrating when you don't understand.
It's about striking the right balance. Hopefully on my podcast I mix it up and have some audio which is not too difficult to follow, that you can learn from and enjoy, while also presenting you with more difficult things that you have to really focus on.
Now, about this episode you're listening to right now.
This is London Native Speaker Interviews Revisited part 2.
Recently I uploaded part 1 of this series. That was episode 591.
If you remember, what I'm doing is revisiting some videos I made 10 years ago, when I went into central London with my video camera in order to do quick interviews with people about life in London. My question was "What is London really like?" I got loads of little responses from people talking about the good and bad points of life in our capital city and the videos were pretty successful. Two of them now have over a million views. Not bad.
So in these audio episodes what I'm doing is revisiting those videos. We're going to listen to the audio from the video – see how much you can understand, and then I'm going to break it down in the usual way, clarifying bits of language and helping you to expand your vocabulary.
Also this gives me a chance to be like a film director doing my own DVD commentary track, which is always fun.
How does this relate to the topic of audio quality?
Well, I recorded these video interviews on a basic handheld camera just using the inbuilt microphone. There's a bit of wind and loads of atmospheric noise (because central London is a very noisy place) and so yes, the audio isn't as crystal clear as you might expect, but as I've said – it's good practice. This is where we strike that balance between challenging listening and comprehensible listening.
Right, so let's go! Let's listen to the audio – we'll do each mini interview one by one, and then I'll break them down for language one by one.
We'll listen to each clip twice. The first time I'll just ask you the question "What are the good and bad things about living in London?". Then listen and try to understand. Then we'll listen again and I'll break it all down bit by bit, and there's quite a lot of nice, natural vocabulary to learn from this video.
On the page for this episode on the website you'll see:
A transcript for most of this, especially the first part
Transcripts for each part of the video
Vocabulary notes with definitions, for the bits of vocabulary I explain during the episode
Right, so let's get started!
Student / Justin Bieber / Ed Sheeran
Graphic design student: Hello
Luke: So, how long have you been in London?
Graphic design student: Two weeks
Luke: Really? What do you do?
Graphic design student: Err, graphic design. Camberwell, School of the Arts.
Luke: Ok. So, your first two weeks.
Graphic design student: First two weeks. It's quite a big impact. Very big, lots of people, and it's quite expensive as well.
Luke: Ok. What's the best thing about it?
Graphic design student: Err, night life. Very good night life. It's got, you know, erm… If you go to the right places… A lot of action, erm, you know, a lot of friendly people as well.
Luke: Excellent. What about the worst thing?
Graphic design student: Depends on where you go. I mean, there's quite a lot of, err, muggers about, dodgy people looking at you weirdly. You want to just, turn, turn away from them
Luke: Ok yeah
Graphic design student: Apart from that, generally a lot of people are quite nice. I mean, there's some people that shove about, but, you know, you've just got to deal with it.
Luke: Ok, thank you very much
Graphic design student: That's ok
Luke: Cheers.
how long have you been in London?
A lot of action
Muggers
dodgy people
looking at you weirdly
Apart from that, generally a lot of people are quite nice
there's some people that shove about
you've just got to deal with it.
Girl in the red scarf
Luke: So, hello
Girl in red scarf: Hello
Luke: Where are you from?
Girl in red scarf: I live in Redhill, which is about half an hour away from London
Luke: Ok, erm, how long have you lived there?
Girl in red scarf: Two weeks!
Luke: Ok. Everyone's been living in London for two weeks for some reason. So, what's London really like then?
Girl in red scarf: London, well, London's a really really massive place which can be quite overwhelming, but it's not that scary after you've, you know, got stuck in there. Erm, London has everything you'd ever want, if you're into theatres, art, education, night clubs, anything. Erm, I would say, just get stuck in there and go for it!
Luke: Ok, great, and what's the worst thing about London?
Girl in red scarf: The worst thing… oooh the worst thing… err, I think the worst thing would have to be the pollution. It's probably not as bad as some countries, but you always feel like you've got black fingernails.
Luke: Ok. Thank you very much.
Girl in red scarf: Thank you
but it's not that scary after you've, you know, got stuck in there
if you're into theatres, art, education, night clubs, anything
just get stuck in there and go for it!
Real Londoner
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Hi!
Luke: So, are you from London too?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Yes, I am
Luke: Ok, so how long have you lived here?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Err, my whole life. Luke: Ok, so you're a real Londoner
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Yes, a real Londoner
Luke: Ok, what's it really like then, living here?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): What's it really like? Erm, well I think it's fantastic. It's nice to live in such a cosmopolitan place with lots of things to do. You can never say that you're bored or have nothing to do because then that's all down to you, so…
Luke: What's the best thing about it?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Erm…
Luke: You might have just answered that
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Yes I think I have. Just the variety and everything you want to do. Lots of things for different age groups, there's always something for someone to do. I would say the best thing is, like, the cultural little occasions that we have, like Chinese New Year and things like that, where you have big street parties. I would say that's the best thing.
Luke: Ok, what about the worst thing?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Oh… I don't like to answer that question
The girl with the red scarf (off screen): Pigeons!
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Oh yeah! I hate pigeons! I hate pigeons! They're just…
Luke: What's wrong with them?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): They're diseased!
Luke: They're diseased. Flying rats.
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Yes
Luke: Right?
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): Yeah. That's the worst thing, I don't dislike anything else.
Real Londoner girl (who hates pigeons): You're welcome
Luke: Cheers
It's nice to live in such a cosmopolitan place
that's all down to you
I hate pigeons! They're diseased. Flying rats.
Young Business Couple
Smartly dressed couple: Hi
Luke: So, are you from London
Smartly dressed girl: Err, we've just moved here, yeah.
Luke: Just moved here, right, so err… How long have you been here?
Smartly dressed girl: Err… We've been here for a couple of weeks.
Luke: Ok. Everyone I've interviewed today has been in London for, like, two weeks. I don't know why… So, what's London really like then? What do you think?
Smartly dressed guy: Err, it's a huge place. There must be about 10 million people living here. It's got a lot of good things, bad things. It's vibrant, it's multicultural. It's got fantastic places to eat, fantastic places to go out in the evening.
Smartly dressed girl: Fantastic theatre, fantastic restaurants. Fantastic museums, art galleries. Absolutely loads of stuff.
Luke: Ok
Smartly dressed guy: It's a fast paced place. People seem to be moving around a lot faster than in the rest of the country
Smartly dressed girl: Sometimes that can get quite a bit much, you know. People sort of rushing everywhere all the time
Smartly dressed guy: But it's interesting, but there's also negatives to living here
Smartly dressed girl: It's very congested, it's very expensive. Err, extremely expensive, public transport is expensive. It's hard… it can take a long time to get anywhere
Smartly dressed guy: And there's also a lot of pollution, and crime as well. So, if you come to live here I think it's about finding the right enclave…
Smartly dressed girl: Yeah, the right neighbourhood to live in, definitely…
Smartly dressed guy: And having friends. Set up your own community of friends, rather than knowing your next door neighbour.
Luke: Yeah. Ok, thank you very much
Smartly dressed guy: No worries
Luke: Cheers, bye bye
Smartly dressed girl: Cheers, bye
we've just moved here
How long have you been here?
We've been here for a couple of weeks.
There must be about 10 million people living here.
It's vibrant
It's a fast paced place.
Sometimes that can get quite a bit much, you know
People sort of rushing everywhere all the time
It's very congested
I think it's about finding the right enclave
Vocabulary with definitions
Here are some definitions of some of the vocabulary in the video.
night life – social life at night, for example clubs and bars
a lot of action – lots of exciting things happening, and lots of nice girls to meet
muggers – criminals who might steal things from you in public (e.g. attack you and steal your bag)
dodgy people – people who are strange and can't be trusted
looking at you weirdly – looking at you in a strange way
turn away from them – look/turn in the other direction
shove about – push people when in a large crowd (e.g. pushing people when getting on or off a crowded train)
you've just got to deal with it – you have to just learn to live with it. You can't let it make you unhappy.
overwhelming – having such a great effect on you that you feel confused and do not know how to react
if you're into theatres, art, education, night clubs, anything – 'to be into something' means to be interested in it, or to enjoy it
just get stuck in there – get involved without hesitation or fear
and go for it – just do it!
pollution – dirty air caused by cars, bad air conditioners etc
a cosmopolitan place – a place with lots of people from all over the world (positive adjective)
Pigeons – very common birds which you find in the city (see the video at about 3:33)
vibrant – full of energy and activity in an exciting way
multicultural – involving people from many different cultures
fast paced – with a quick lifestyle (e.g. people rushing about everywhere, walking very quickly, in a hurry)
get quite a bit (too) much – be stressful and annoying
congested – full of traffic, lots of traffic jams
the right enclave – a small area within the city in which you live and feel comfortable
neighbourhood – part of town in which you live
This entry was posted in Accents, Interview, language, Learning, Messages from Listeners, Native Speaker, Social English, Travel, Video, Vocabulary and tagged english, learn, podcast on July 5, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
601. British Comedy: The Day Today (Part 1)
Let's investigate a brilliant British comedy TV show and use it to learn English. The Day Today was originally broadcast on the BBC in the mid-90s and is now considered a groundbreaking parody of news programmes and launched the careers of various comedians, including Steve Coogan.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/teacherluke/601._British_Comedy__The_Day_Today_Part_1.mp3
Introduction Transcript, Notes & Videos
Hello folks, this episode is called British Comedy: The Day Today and in this one we'll be looking at another classic bit of British TV Comedy.
First I'll tell you everything you need to know about the show and then we'll listen to some clips and I'll explain the language for you.
This time, it's The Day Today which was originally broadcast on TV in the 1990s, 1994 to be exact – yes, that's probably before some of you were even born. But we don't care about whether this is old or brand new, it doesn't matter. I think good comedy always stands the test of time, and The Day Today is no exception. It's still relevant and funny now just like it was before. And in any case, I think it's part of the fabric of British culture now, just like many other classic bits of British TV comedy that we all grew up watching on TV.
What kind of programme is it?
It's a surreal parody of news and current affairs TV programmes. It's a comedy version of the news.
Imagine the news, like the BBC 10 o'clock news, but with everything turned up to 11, everything exaggerated. It's more dramatic, more pompous, more self-important and much more ridiculous than the real news.
But The Day Today isn't just an impressions show of people copying news readers, it had this amazing surreal twist to it, which made it so much more subversive.
The show made fun specifically of the self-important nature of TV news and used surrealism and absurdity under the guise of a news broadcast.
The news always presents itself as being very important, very serious, very heavy, completely trustworthy, stern, authoritarian even. These days TV news has softened a bit, but not much. It still has this air of superiority, which I suppose is a necessary part of attempting to convey information in a factual, serious and balanced way. But TV news language – both oral and visual has become a cliché (had become a cliché back in the 90s) which makes it very ripe for making parody comedy.
An example of real TV news headlines
Here's an example of the opening of the BBC 9 o'clock news, which was and still is the flagship news programme for the BBC.
Listen out for the serious tone of the newsreader Michael Beurk, the important and significant sounding music and also Michael Beurk's slightly old school pronunciation in places. All of these things went into The Day Today. (News begins at 00:50)
The difference between the Day Today and other shows which have parodied the news was the surrealism. Basically this meant taking a silly story and dealing with it in the most serious way possible, but there was more to it than that. The phrases used, the images created and the slight sense of twisted insanity create this version of the news that's part Monty Python, part Peter Cook and part some kind of high tech dystopian vision of the future.
This is absolutely a show that inspired Charlie Brooker to do work like Black Mirror. In fact, the creator of Black Mirror worked with Chris Morris – the main guy behind The Day Today. So, for me, they come from the same creative community. Clever, satirical, twisted, dark and very funny comedy writing in the UK.
The Day Today was broadcast at 9pm on BBC2 – the same time as the national news on BBC1. Apparently some people mistakenly watched The Day Today, thinking it was the real news, and believed the stories.
The parody of news tropes was spot on. It looked, sounded and smelt like news. The opening titles of the show captured that sense of drama, pomposity and urgency that you get from news programmes. The set looked just right. The different characters were weird and bizarre but perfectly captured the sorts of journalists or presenters that you could find on TV.
Alan Partridge made his first TV appearance on this show as the sports reporter with a chip on his shoulder who was always getting things wrong.
The language is a big part of it. The news readers speak in this kind of news dialect, with a certain kind of intonation, complex sentences that go on too long and mixed metaphors, as we will hear.
Who wrote it and all that stuff?
Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_Today
Excellent performances by the cast, all of whom have gone on to do other great things.
Chris Morris is a talent that people often forget about, but he was fearless, original, very clever, quite ruthless and a bit sick – the perfect recipe for great British comedy. He went on to do another show called Brass Eye, which was similar to The Day Today but more extreme and controversial (and is a potential other episode for LEP), then various weird comedy projects like BlueJam, an ambient mix album with subliminal sketch comedy going on at the same time. Then he became a film director and did the film Four Lions which is about inept terrorists planning an attack in London. The film won various awards, as did The Day Today.
Armando Iannucci went on to make The Thick of It and In The Loop – political satires about life on Whitehall, and then Veep which is the American equivalent following the vice president. He also directed Death of Stalin and has been involved in writing for Alan Partridge and other big projects.
Other notable cast members are Steve Coogan of course who went on to become successful as Alan Partridge but has also starred in a few Hollywood movies and things.
All the other comedians on the show went on to do more great work.
Rebecca Front, Doon Mackichan, Patrick Marber, David Schneider.
Other writers on the show were Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews who went on to create Father Ted and later The IT Crowd and Black Books (just Graham Linehan).
LET'S LISTEN TO SOME CLIPS AND USE THEM TO LEARN ENGLISH
Alright, enough already. Let's listen to some clips which you can find on YouTube, and which I have posted on the page for this episode, with time codes to help you find the clips.
There are only 6 episodes of The Day Today but they're pretty packed with classic stuff.
I've been through all 6 episodes and picked out some of my favourite moments to share with you.
The plan is to play them, then break them down sentence by sentence to make sure you understand them 100% and hopefully, get the jokes, although this show doesn't really use jokes per se, but in any case the aim is to help you understand and appreciate the humour and learn plenty of English in the process.
All the episodes are on YouTube so you could check them all out later if you like, or buy the excellent DVD box set from the BBC, which I own and recommend to you. It's only £5 on Amazon. Other bookshops are available.
www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Today-Complete-BBC-Disc/dp/B000171RU4/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+day+today&qid=1560774228&s=gateway&sr=8-1
I have played some clips of this show before, and explained them for language. You might remember Alan Partridge's World Cup Countdown or his Sports Roundup, there was Peter O'Hanrahahanrahan interviewing the minister for ships, and I think also we had the interview with the woman raising money by selling jam.
Anyway, let's get into it.
First I want to play you the opening titles of an episode, just for the music really, because it sets the tone. There are a few ridiculous headlines too.
CLIP 1: THE DAY TODAY – OPENING TITLES
What are the three stories exactly?
Luke describes the opening titles
Those headlines again
Remember the way grammar changes in headlines.
FIST HEADED MAN DESTROYS CHURCH
Presumably a man with a fist for a head has destroyed a church. You can imagine him headbutting the walls or something. Don't think about it too much, it's supposed to be funny to hear such ridiculous things spoken in that voice using that register.
CAR DRIVES PAST WINDOW IN TOWN
The most boring story. A car drove past a window in a town. It's accompanied by a video of a car driving past a building.
LEICESTER MAN WINS RIGHT TO EAT SISTER
Presumably a man from Leicester has taken court action to allow him to eat his sister. You could imagine this was a real story if he wanted to 'wed' his sister, or cousin, especially if he's from Leicester, but this is to 'eat' his sister.
"Those are the headlines, now fact me till I fart."
CLIP 2: WAR
Australia and Hong Kong have signed a treaty to create an amazing free trade agreement which will be very beneficial for both places and marks a new beginning of peace and cooperation between them.
Chris Morris interviews the British Minister with special responsibility for the commonwealth (this is the days when HK was still a British dependent territory) and the Australian Foreign Secretary – both men who are responsible for the deal.
The interview seems to start as a celebration of the new deal, but the newsreader Chris Morris manages to manipulate the two of them into a diplomatic fight which ends in a declaration of war.
This is a great sketch. The newsreader causes a war in order to be able to cover it in dramatic fashion on his news show. For me it's about how the media can sometimes drive the agenda through their reporting. The BBC isn't officially biased. In fact I think most journalists have an honest intention to report on what's happening, but they're always going to impose some of their world view on the way they explain stories. But also you get the sense sometimes that some TV producers and presenters are a bit seduced by their own power and end up pushing things in a certain direction under the guise of critical thinking.
Also, perhaps news programmes thrive on creating drama and reporting on a war is somehow the dream of many broadcast journalists, or at least seems like that because war correspondents have this air of action and adventure which borders on being romantic, and the efficient and lively way that broadcasters deal with stories of war makes it seem like they're enjoying it somehow. There's precise technical information, reporters in the middle of the action and loads of dramatic music, graphics and images.
Let's listen to this sketch, which is about 4mins long.
Here are some things to listen out for
How Chris Morris stokes up tensions and pushes the two diplomats towards war
Chris Morris's confrontational interview style, typical of BBC presenters like Jeremy Paxman, notorious for bullying politicians on TV
The mixed metaphors and clichés like, "The stretched twig of peace is at melting point" and
"People here are literally bursting with war."
The glee with which Chris says "YES, IT'S WAR!"
The OTT way that the show snaps into action once war has been declared, like they were ready and prepared for this, and as journalists this is what they live for
The name of the Day Today smart bomb (which I think is an actual bomb fired by The Day
Today, with a camera on it, so they can report from the middle of the fight. The news station have launched their own bombs in this war)
The clunky way the show goes to the weather, after all that war
I will be going through all of this again after we've heard it and I will break it down to the bare bones and will explain language and all that
CLIP 3: Peter O'hanrahahanrahan – Ich Nichten Lichten (Episode 2)
Ministers in Europe have been involved in difficult discussions about quota rates for trade with the US. I expect they've been debating what the rates should be, with some ministers disagreeing about the final decision.
Economics correspondent Peter O'Hanrahahanrahan is in Brussels because he says he's spoken to the German minister and knows how he feels about the decision.
Peter O Hanrahahanrahan's name is a joke on a real correspondent called Brian Hanrahan (an irish name I think) who actually used to call our house sometimes to speak to my dad (who used to be a BBC news man). Michael Beurk also came round sometimes. He was one of the presenters of the 9 o'clock news who is parodied by Chris Morris on The Day Today. In fact, I feel like I grew up in a news household because my dad often reviewed videos of presenters, we always watched the news, there were BBC pens and mugs all around the house and we sometimes met BBC TV presenters and news readers. I never met Alan Partridge though.
Peter O'Hanrahahanrahan is incompetent, stupid and also petulant (disobeys orders and lies, childishly). It turns out that Peter hasn't spoken to the German minister and just stayed in his hotel room the whole time. He's making up the information and can't even speak German.
Listen out for
The way Chris Morris is sceptical about what Peter is saying, and starts to question his story subtly, before full-on bullying him and telling him off like a naughty schoolboy
Peter's pathetic attempt to speak German, clearly pretending that he knows the language and actually spoke to the German minister, when he doesn't and didn't
How Peter finally admits that he doesn't actually know what happened and didn't speak to the minister at all, like a teenager admitting that he's lying
Peter O Hanrahahanrahan – Ich nichten lichten (starts at 19m40sec)
CLIP 4: SOME KIND OF DRUBBING INCIDENT (Episode 3
In this one we start with a sports report from Alan Partridge but it gets interrupted with the news that The Queen and the Prime Minister have had a fight. We then follow the story and learn that during their weekly meeting, the PM (John Major) punched The Queen. This sounds shocking of course, especially now that The Queen is elderly, but that's not the point.
Instead the show is mocking the way the news would deal with a constitutional crisis, springing into action in order to cover the crisis in full detail. It's also just ridiculous to imagine The Queen having a brawl with anyone.
The report from Jennifer Gumpets in front of Buckingham Palace. This report is so realistic.
There isn't much comedy in it beyond the bizarreness of the story. It's just a perfect little parody of a report from a correspondent.
"And as a result of that broadcast the crisis has deepened dramatically" The news actually makes the situation worse by broadcasting footage of the fight, and then starts reporting on that too.
Spartacus Mills (history expert) – "Can you sum it up in a word? No. A sound?" What sound does Spartacus use to sum up the situation?
The special broadcast which was pre-recorded and designed to be played at times of crisis. It's basically a way to say "This is Britain, and everything is all right. It's ok. It's fine." and it's filled with proud patriotic sentiments. The irony is that this kind of thing is either a) needed now in order to make British people feel that everything's fine or b) the sort of thing used by the Leave campaign to convince people to vote Brexit.
What's the solution to the crisis which has been agreed by both sides?
Clips start at 5:38 & 19:40/21:10
The PM was seen to leave hurriedly after half and hour
The Currency Kidney
This entry was posted in Comedy, Entertainment, Humour, News, Politics, TV series, Video, Vocabulary and tagged armando iannucci, british, chris morris, comedy, english, learn, steve coogan, the day today, TV on June 24, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
599. Oliver Gee Returns with Stories to Tell
Australian journalist and podcaster Oliver Gee returns to LEP to tell us some stories about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, meeting famous comedians as a journalist, learning Swedish and French and his honeymoon tour of France on a 50cc Vespa scooter.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/teacherluke/599._Oliver_Gee_Returns_with_Stories_to_Tell.mp3
Introduction Transcript
Welcome to episode 599 of Luke's English Podcast, a podcast for learners of English presented by me, Luke Thompson an English teacher and comedian from England now living in Paris.
In this episode you're going to hear a conversation I recorded last week here in my flat. The conversation is with my friend Oliver Gee who is a journalist and podcaster, from Australia now also living in Paris.
As some of you will remember, Oliver has been on the podcast before, in episode 495, over 100 episodes ago. Can you believe it!? In that episode we talked all about Australian things, including Australian English, so while you're listening to Oli's voice and you're wondering about his accent and other Australian things, check out episode 495.
Oliver is a podcaster and YouTuber who makes content about Paris and France, in English. Recently I joined Oliver on one of his live YouTube video walking tours in Paris, which you can find on the page for this episode and it was a lot of fun talking to him and I thought it was high time I invited him back on the podcast for a chat and to tell us some stories.
And, as a journalist, Oliver is very interested in stories. That's what journalism is about a lot of the time – finding stories, covering stories, reporting stories and generally reporting events in the form of stories. So, that's what I wanted from this conversation. I wanted Oliver to tell us some stories – not bedtime stories or fairy tales. I'm talking more about true stories of people's lives, moments that people experience, big events that happen in the world, etc.
We communicate so much of what we do and see via stories – either in the media, or in the way we just talk to each other and describe things. Stories are central to the way we communicate with each other.
So, the focus for me in this conversation was to let Oliver tell us some of his stories, and I wanted to hear him speak about these things in particular:
The Notre Dame Cathedral fire
When the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught fire recently (you must have seen it in the news) Oliver went down to the cathedral with his camera in order to see and record what was happening and to capture the moment. He also interviewed to a tour guide all about it for his podcast in which they described it in full detail. So, Oliver can tell us about what he saw that evening, generally what happened at the cathedral and what's happening next and there are some pretty weird coincidences in his story too. In fact there are quite a of weird coincidences and special moments described during this episode.
Meeting famous comedians
I also wanted stories about Oliver's time working as a journalist, how he started and particularly moments when he ended up meeting some famous people – especially comedians that we're big fans of.
So listen on to find out who Oliver has met, how he met them and what they were really like in person. There's one comedian who is particularly famous at the moment. Oliver got to meet him in really quite an intimate situation, and I love the story.
Learning Swedish & French
Oliver has lived in Sweden and now lives in France, so I wanted him to tell me about his experiences of learning languages, particularly moments when he felt challenged and when he'd made significant progress.
The honeymoon tour of France on a scooter
And finally, there's the story of Oliver's honeymoon road trip around France on the back of a scooter. Imagine two newly married people travelling all around France, even crossing over the alps, all on a small 50cc Vespa scooter. Listen on to find out what happened.
So those are the main topics – Notre Dame Cathedral, meeting famous people, learning languages and a honeymoon road trip. There's also some chat at the start about my podcast as Oliver noticed that LEP has had over 50 million downloads in total and I'm approaching episode 600. So we talk a bit about podcasting vs using YouTube as different platforms for what we do.
We're about to jump into the conversation now, just before we do let me prepare you a little bit because the conversation starts quite quickly.
In episode 495, if you remember, we said that the better people know Oliver, the shorter his name becomes. This is normal. It's like nicknames. So, acquaintances probably call him Oliver, then friends call him Oli, then close friends might call him Ol, then really close friends might just call him O.
I just wanted to remind you of that, because it's the first thing you'll hear, so you might immediately get lost and go "Wait, what? I'm lost already!"
The better people know you, the shorter your name becomes. That's how this begins.
Alright, so now you're ready, let's go!
So that was Oliver Gee on the podcast again. I really hope you enjoyed that conversation full of stories. If you struggled to understand everything that was said I just want to say congratulations and well done for listening all the way through to this point. I know sometimes it is difficult to follow these long, fast conversations on my podcast but I truly believe that you can make progress if you manage to just keep listening. Sometimes you'll get lost and not understand, but try to tolerate the bits that you can't understand and use the bits that you do understand to help you guess the rest and keep going. The best language learners persevere even when things aren't completely clear.
Stay positive, keep it up.
As ever I look forward to reading your comments in the comment section if you have anything to share or any thoughts regarding any of the things that came up in this episode.
On the episode page you will find loads of links and videos relating to the things we talked about in this conversation, including… (links all listed below)
So this is the end of episode 599. Episode 600 will be the next one.
I hope you can join me for the YouTube live stream when I will be recording episode 600.
That is going to happen at 3PM (CET) on Friday 7 June on my YouTube channel. You'll find the link to that on the front page of my website in the comment section.
If you can't attend the live stream, then I am sorry! You will be able to watch the video later and obviously listen to the audio in episode 600.
The theme of the live stream is "Ask me anything" (although I do reserve the right not to answer questions if I don't fancy it, like "what colour is your underwear?" "Mind your own business!" or "What are your credit card details?" etc. You can ask me questions about English or whatever comes to you and I will try to answer the questions as best I can, and as briefly as I can in the time we have available.
Also, premium subscribers – premium episodes are coming! I'm working on several premium series at the moment, and so June will see more premium stuff and less free stuff.
OK then, that's it! Until episode 600 I will now say, good bye bye bye bye bye…
Oliver's episode about Notre Dame Cathedral (The Earful Tower Podcast)
theearfultower.com/2019/04/22/notre-dame-fire-what-happened-and-what-next/
Oliver's tour of Notre Dame when it's empty – before the fire (The Earful Tower)
When Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire (France 24 News)
Oliver's video of Parisians singing hymns while Notre Dame burns (The Earful Tower)
My walking tour with Oliver in the Square des Batignolles (5 minute version)
Bill Bailey does comedy about minor and major keys in music
LEP #462 British Comedy: Bill Bailey
462. British Comedy: Bill Bailey
A clip from Russel Brand's Netflix Special (I think this is the one that Oliver & his wife attended)
Oliver's live walking tour / interview with French model/author/music producer Caroline de Maigret (The Earful Tower)
Exciting times ahead for The Earful Tower podcast. Nice to meet you, @rustyrockets! pic.twitter.com/LDIRSl3smh
— Oliver Gee (@olivergee23) April 21, 2018
Le Moron. Population one. pic.twitter.com/nePFdqqMdr
— Oliver Gee (@olivergee23) September 18, 2018
This entry was posted in Culture, Entertainment, History, Interview, language, Learning, Native Speaker, Personal, Podcast Information, Social English, Story, Travel, Video and tagged bill bailey, english, learn, notre dame, paris, podcast, russel brand, stories on June 3, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
591. London Native Speaker Interviews REVISITED (Part 1)
Revisiting a video I made for YouTube in 2009 and teaching you some descriptive and idiomatic vocabulary in the process. Transcripts and video available.
[DOWNLOAD] [CAMBLY OFFER]
Hello, you're listening to episode 591, which is called London Native Speaker Interviews Revisited Part 1.
The plan in this episode is to revisit some videos I recorded 10 years ago…
We're going to listen to the audio from one of those videos and break it all down in order to help you understand everything word for word, teaching you some lovely, descriptive and idiomatic vocabulary in the process.
This episode is a bit of a flashback to 10 years ago when I first started doing the podcast.
What happened 10 years ago Luke, in 2009?
Ooh, all sorts of things happened, but one of them was that I went into central London armed with my video camera, an Oyster card and a question to ask some members of the public: What is London really like?
What is London like? = tell me about London, describe London
I interviewed people in the street and edited the footage into a series of 5 videos which I published on YouTube, and the videos actually did very well! Part 1 now has 1.6 million views. Part 2 has 1 million.
You might be thinking – are you rich because of those videos? Nope. Not at all. I didn't monetise them until after they'd got most of their views, or I couldn't monetise them because of some background music. Anyway, that's another story for another time – how YouTubers make or don't make money from their videos.
I also published the videos and their audio tracks as episodes of this podcast in 2009. Some of you will have heard them and seen those videos.
I thought that this time it would be interesting to revisit those videos on the podcast because there's loads of English to learn from them. When I published them on the podcast in 2009 I just published them with no commentary from me. It was just the video/audio with transcripts on the website.
But this time I'm not just going to play them again. Instead I'm going to go through the audio from the first video and kind of break it down bit by bit, explaining bits of vocabulary and generally commenting on things as we go. This is going to be a bit like one of those director's commentary tracks that you get on DVDs, but the focus is mainly going to be on highlighting certain items of vocabulary and bits of pronunciation/accent that come up in the videos.
*Luke mentions his Avengers Endgame Spoiler Review, which you can listen to in the LEP App (in the App-only episodes category).*
If you want to watch the original video that I'm talking about here, you'll find it embedded on the page for this episode on my website (A script is also available), it's also in the LEP App (with a script in the notes) which you can download free from the app store on your phone – just search for Luke's English Podcast App and you can just find it on my YouTube channel, which is Luke's English Podcast on YouTube. The video is called London Native Speaker Interviews Part 1, or maybe London Video Interviews Part 1 (website), London Interviews Part 1 in the app.
So, let's now travel back in time to 2009 and revisit Native English Speaker Interviews Part 1.
The theme of the videos is London – what's it really like to live there? What are the good and bad things about living there?
So there's a lot of descriptive vocabulary for describing cities and life in cities.
Video script available here teacherluke.co.uk/2010/03/25/london-video-interviews-pt-1/
Definitions of some vocabulary and expressions
What's London really like?
This question: "What is it like?" means "tell me about it" or "how is it?". It does not mean: "What do you like about London?"
e.g. What is London like? – it's busy
What do you like about it? – I like the theatres
It's gone to the dogs = everything is much worse now than it was before
grimy = dirty
to recharge your batteries = to give yourself some energy, by doing something pleasant and stimulating
to shout someone down = to disagree with someone loudly in order to stop them talking
to take advantage of something = to use something good which is available to you
commuting = travelling from home to work every day
This entry was posted in Accents, American & British English, Cross Cultural Understanding, Culture, language, Learning, Native Speaker, Pronunciation, Transcripts, Travel, Video, Vocabulary and tagged english, interviews, learn, london, native, speaker, video on April 29, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
584. Posh or not posh? (Part 3) with Amber & Paul
Amber & Paul join me to talk again about poshness, posh accents and posh celebrities. This episode is full of different British accents – posh, RP and regional differences. It's also full of comedy and I found myself laughing out loud while editing this, especially the interview with the football player that Paul tells us about. I hope you enjoy it.
Are these celebrities posh or not? What are the features of posh accents, RP and regional accents in the UK?
Stephen K Amos
Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling
Jacob Rees Mogg (again)
Keep adding your videos of British celebrities in the comment section. Are they posh or not posh?
This entry was posted in Accents, Comedy, Cross Cultural Understanding, Culture, Entertainment, Family, History, Humour, Native Speaker, Politics, Pronunciation, Slang, Social English, Travel, Video and tagged accents, english, learn, podcast, posh, pronunciation, vocabulary on March 25, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
583. British Comedy: The Dirty Fork / Restaurant Sketch (Monty Python)
Analysing the English in a sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus, and considering British communication style relating to apologising, making complaints and minimising language.
Luke rambles about folding seats on public transport, the spring equinox, saying goodbye to winter and the recent posh or not posh episodes.
Here's another British comedy episode.
We're going to listen to a comedy sketch by Monty Python.
This time we're looking at British manners, politeness, communication style and just some madcap comedy too.
Similar episodes in the past have been things like my episode about British communication style (What Brits Say vs What They Mean), What is this British comedy? How to learn English with comedy TV series, and the episodes I've done about Monty Python's Flying Circus.
We're going to listen to a clip from Monty Python's Flying Circus, and also consider the cultural values behind the sketch, and how that relates to things like making complaints, saying sorry and making requests.
So, cultural stuff and also linguistic stuff too.
Buy the DVD Box Set for Monty Python
Check out the Monty Python YouTube channel where a lot of their content is available free
Intro to the sketch
There's quite a well-known series of postcards called the How to be British Collection. You might have seen them. They contain little cartoons illustrating life in England from the point of view of learners of English. There are some classic sketches in that collection.
The "How to be British collection" #8 – Being Polite (c) IGP Cards – Buy the books on Amazon here.
One of them is called "Lesson 16 – How to complain".
It shows a couple in a restaurant, in England we imagine. They don't look happy with the food. The man says "This meat is as tough as old boots" and the woman says "It tastes off. And these vegetables are cold." (some nice vocab in there already)
In the next frame the man says "this wine is awful – I asked for dry and they've given us sweet." and she says "and look, there's a worm in my side salad…"
Ah, a typical English restaurant.
Then the waiter comes over and says "How is your meal? Is everything all right?"
Now, what would you say in that situation? How would you respond? Would you complain? How would you do it?
Well, in the sketch, after the waiter says "Is everything all right?" the man says "Oh yes. It's all lovely!" and the woman says "Excellent, thank you!"
www.lgpcards.com/index.html
The point here is that British or English people avoid saying the bad thing, making the complaint, because they're too polite and don't like to cause a problem, so they say it's all fine.
Is this a stereotype of English communication style? Partly. As we've seen before.
What would I say?
I would say that the food was no good, especially the part about the worm. Obviously those extreme details are added for comic effect, like a worm in the salad. But if my food was just not up to scratch, would I complain? I probably wouldn't complain if it was something minor, but a big thing would be an issue, but what's definitely true is that I don't like getting into a situation of conflict or confrontation and so I would probably be very reasonable about my complaint. My wife is more direct about these things. She's French. We often notice a big difference in the way we deal with things like this. She's much more direct about making a complaint and getting what she feels she is entitled to. For some reason it's more difficult for me. I don't like getting into those confrontations. Is this just me, or is this British people in general? I think it's a bit of both. I'm perhaps not the confrontational kind, but also Brits are like that too, more than other nations, as far as I can tell.
Of course there are plenty of British people who complain vociferously if there's a problem, a lot of Brits (certainly English people) will avoid an awkward situation if they feel that nothing can be done about it.
Why do people want to avoid confrontation? What's the worst that could happen?
Let's find out in this sketch.
The Dirty Fork Sketch
Listen to the sketch – just try to understand what's going on. It'll help if you watch the video because there are a couple of visual elements, but if you don't watch it – just try to work out the details. Essentially, you'll hear a couple in a French restaurant. They have a problem, and then they are visited at the table by various members of the restaurant staff including the waiter, the head waiter, the manager and finally the chef from the kitchen.
Let's listen to it and see if you can work out what's going on. Then I'll break it down for you so you understand it just like a native speaker.
Bonus: Watch out for the punchline at the end.
A man and woman are in a fancy restaurant. The French waiter is very keen to make their stay satisfying. The man asks for another fork because his is a little bit dirty. The reaction of the waiter is extreme. he apologises profusely. He fetches the head waiter who comes to apologise. He makes over the top apologies. The restaurant manager comes out and his apology is serious and dramatic. Finally the chef comes out. He's a huge angry man with a meat cleaver. He's furious with the customers because they made a complaint which has caused so much sorrow to the staff of the restaurant. He shouts revenge as he tries to kill them.
The punchline?
"Lucky I didn't tell them about the dirty knife!"
The main point is
I think this sketch is making fun of people who keep quiet about little complaints or use language to minimise problems, because they're scared about making a fuss. This seems to be what they imagine could happen if they point out a problem. This is the worst nightmare of every British person who awkwardly makes a complaint. They're terrified of making a fuss or causing a scene.
Minimising language
It's not "I've got a dirty fork", it's "I've got a bit of a dirty fork".
It's ridiculous really – either you've got a fork or not. You can't have a bit of a fork. Your fork can be a bit dirty, but it's a bit silly to say "I've got a bit of a dirty fork". However, this kind of minimising language is very common when people want to make something sound less serious than it is.
E.g. 1 "We've got a bit of a dirty table. Could you give it a bit of a wipe for us please?"
E.g. 2 Imagine someone announcing to someone that there's been an accident, but they're trying to minimise the seriousness of it because for some reason they're embarrassed about it or they want to reduce the shock.
"Can I have a bit of a chat with you. Just a bit of a chat. It's no big deal, it'll just take a second.
It's just that we might have had a little bit of a problem downstairs. There's just sort of been a little bit of an explosion in the kitchen. Just tiny little bang really – more of a pop really, just a tiny little pop – you'd hardly notice it really. I heard it though and thought "Did I imagine that? Did someone just pop a balloon, or fart or something?" and then I picked myself off the ground and had a look downstairs and, yeah, the restaurant is a bit err, it's a bit scratched and there's a slight hole in the wall, and in the ceiling and a few puffs of smoke. At first I thought – "oh is that the chef having a cigarette out the back? I thought he'd given up!" But no it wasn't him – I guess he won't be smoking again in a hurry! Can you speak to him? Well, he's a bit tied up at the moment, no he can't come to the phone he's… just resting. I think he fainted or just fell over after the thing, the thing that happened in the kitchen, and his head might have fallen off slightly and he might have lost a couple of other limbs in the confusion but anyway, no need to worry too much, it's basically under control more or less, I just thought you might , want to pop down to the kitchen to have a look and maybe call an ambulance. Yeah, I would but I've lost my legs and I'm feeling a bit sleepy so I'm going to have a bit of a lie down, but I thought you might like to know… OK?
So, it's always "A slight problem" or "A bit of a problem".
Go through the paragraph again and highlight the minimising language.
Back to the comedy sketch…
This sketch is making fun of our culture I think – the way we are afraid of causing a fuss. Also it makes fun of the over-the-top way that fancy restaurants might apologise for small problems. They're so keen to welcome and satisfy their customers. The sketch also gets completely carried away, especially when John Cleese's "Mungo" comes out.
To an extent it's a little bit pointless analysing Monty Python's comedy because they make fun of absolutely everything, but I feel that they're definitely poking fun at stuffy, polite culture.
Why do people minimise negative things? They want it to sound less serious. They don't want to make someone feel they're complaining. They want to show that it's no problem – but why would it be a problem?
If you had a dirty fork you'd just say – "Excuse me, can I have another fork please? This one's a bit dirty" the waiter is not going to be mortified. He'll just get you another fork. This sketch represent's the customer's worst fear – that there will be a problem or a fuss.
"We don't want to cause a fuss! Don't make a scene!"
Now let's go through the sketch again and understand it in detail.
RESTAURANT SKETCH: COMPLETE SCRIPT
Lady It's nice here, isn't it?
Man Oh, (It's a) very good restaurant, three stars you know.
Lady Really?
Man Mmm…
Waiter Good evening, sir! Good evening, madam! And may I say what a pleasure it is to see you here again, sir!
Man Oh thank you. Well there you are dear. Have a look there, anything you like. The boeuf en croute is fantastic.
Waiter Oh if I may suggest, sir … the pheasant à la reine, the sauce is one of the chef's most famous creations.
Man Em… that sounds good. Anyway just have a look… take your time. Oh, er by the way – I've got a bit of a dirty fork, could you … er.. get me another one?
Waiter I beg your pardon.
Man Oh it's nothing … er, I've got a fork, (it's) a little bit dirty. Could you get me another one? Thank you.
Waiter Oh … sir, I do apologize.
Man Oh, no need to apologize, it doesn't worry me.
Waiter Oh no, no, no, I do apologize. I will fetch the head waiter immediatement. (immediately – in French)
Man Oh, there's no need to do that!
Waiter Oh, no no… I'm sure the head waiter, he will want to apologize to you himself. I will fetch him at once.
Lady Well, you certainly get good service here.
Man They really look after you… yes.
Head Waiter Excuse me monsieur and madame. (examines the fork) It's filthy, Gaston … find out who washed this up, and give them their cards immediately.
Man Oh, no, no.
Head Waiter Better still, we can't afford to take any chances, sack the entire washing-up staff.
Man No, look I don't want to make any trouble.
Head Waiter Oh, no please, no trouble. It's quite right that you should point these kind of things out. Gaston, tell the manager what has happened immediately! (The Waiter runs off)
Man Oh, no I don't want to cause any fuss.
Head Waiter Please, it's no fuss. I quite simply wish to ensure that nothing interferes with your complete enjoyment of the meal.
Man Oh I'm sure it won't, it was only a dirty fork.
Head Waiter I know. And I'm sorry, bitterly sorry, but I know that… no apology I can make can alter the fact that in our restaurant you have been given a dirty, filthy, smelly piece of cutlery…
Man It wasn't smelly.
Head Waiter It was smelly, and obscene and disgusting and I hate it, I hate it ,.. nasty, grubby, dirty, mangy, scrubby little fork. Oh … oh . . . oh . . . (runs off in a passion as the manager comes to the table)
Manager Good evening, sir, good evening, madam. I am the manager. I've only just heard . .. may I sit down?
Man Yes, of course.
Manager I want to apologize, humbly, deeply, and sincerely about the fork.
Man Oh please, it's only a tiny bit… I couldn't see it.
Manager Ah you're good kind fine people, for saying that, but I can see it.., to me it's like a mountain, a vast bowl of pus.
Man It's not as bad as that.
Manager It gets me here. I can't give you any excuses for it – there are no excuses. I've been meaning to spend more time in the restaurant recently, but I haven't been too well… (emotionally) things aren't going very well back there. The poor cook's son has been put away again, and poor old Mrs Dalrymple who does the washing up can hardly move her poor fingers, and then there's Gilberto's war wound – but they're good people, and they're kind people, and together we were beginning to get over this dark patch … there was light at the end of the tunnel . .. now this . .. now this…
Man Can I get you some water?
Manager (in tears) It's the end of the road!!
The cook comes in; he is very big and has a meat cleaver.
Cook (shouting) You bastards! You vicious, heartless bastards! Look what you've done to him! He's worked his fingers to the bone to make this place what it is, and you come in with your petty feeble quibbling and you grind him into the dirt, this fine, honourable man, whose boots you are not worthy to kiss. Oh… it makes me mad… mad! (slams cleaver into the table)
The head waiter comes in and tries to restrain him.
Head Waiter Easy, Mungo, easy… Mungo… (clutches his head in agony) the war wound!… the wound… the wound…
Manager This is the end! The end! Aaargh!! (stabs himself with the fork)
Cook They've destroyed him! He's dead!! They killed him!!! (goes completely mad)
Head Waiter (trying to restrain him) No Mungo… never kill a customer. (in pain) Oh . .. the wound! The wound! (he and the cook fight furiously and fall over the table)
CAPTION: 'AND NOW THE PUNCH-LINE'
Man Lucky we didn't say anything about the dirty knife.
Boos of disgust from off-screen.
This entry was posted in Comedy, Cross Cultural Understanding, Culture, Humour, language, Learning, Transcripts, Video, Vocabulary and tagged english, learn, monty python on March 20, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
582. Posh or not posh? (Part 2) Guess the Posh British Celebrities
Can you identify which UK celebrities are posh and which are not? Let's listen to some British celebrities speaking, check their Wikipedia pages and work out of these people are truly posh or not. You'll hear samples of lots of spoken English in this episode and we'll focus on accent and pronunciation.
Introduction Transcript (Videos below)
This is episode 582 and it's called "Posh or not posh? (Part 2) Guess the Posh British Celebrities" and in this one we're going to listen to a lot of famous British people and work out if they are posh or not.
This follows on from the last episode in which I talked about what makes a person posh and what posh people sound like when they speak.
You should listen to episode 581 before listening to this I reckon.
In the last episode you heard me say that a really important thing is to listen to people speaking and to hear lots of examples of posh speech. In this episode you're going to hear loads of different people speaking. Some of them sound posh and others don't. So you're going to hear a mix of different accents. I could probably break it down like this – posh RP, standard RP and regional accents.
We're going to go through a list of British celebrities. Can you identify if these people are posh?
I'll name the person. We'll listen to some audio of them speaking and see if their accent is posh. We'll look out for some little clues that kind of give it away. Then I'll have a look at their Wikipedia pages to get some more info and find out if they really are posh.
Remember the 7 types of poshness we talked about before.
poshness of birth
poshness of wealth
poshness of accent
poshness of education
poshness of excellent taste – the fine arts, fine wine, fine food – anything with 'fine' before it
poshness of exuberant vulgarity (e.g. over-the-top excessive and showy expressions of bad taste – bling)
poshness of assumed superiority
The key things in the Wikipedia biography are: educational background (private schools, boarding schools, single-sex schools, prep schools) and family background (any connections to nobility). Also we'll pay attention to the way they speak.
So it's basically – poshness of birth, poshness of education and poshness of accent that we're looking at here.
Remember that hardly anyone has all the traits of being posh. For example, I expect that most of the people in my list don't score very highly in the "poshness of assumed superiority" because most of them are humble actors but maybe some of them actually are arrogant enough to assume that they're better than everyone else. Anyway, the main things we're looking at are birth (family connections) education (which school) and accent.
Again, it's not very fair to judge people, and I'm just trying to help learners of English to be able to identify certain things about people from England.
As we go through these video clips which are on YouTube, the focus for me is on just the way the people speak. We might have to skip past some of the language (vocabulary) while doing this. Normally when I use audio like this on the podcast I break it down word by word so you can understand everything. There might not be time for in-depth analysis like that. We'll focus on the accent, I might explain what's being said a bit, and then we'll check the Wikipedia page for that person and move on.
So, are these people posh or not? Let's go.
Videos & Speech Samples
Prince Harry (duh)
Jack Whitehall (and his Dad)
Brian Sewell
Any other UK celebrities you can think of? Add a video in the comment section.
This entry was posted in Accents, Culture, Entertainment, language, Learning, Native Speaker, Pronunciation, Video and tagged accent, english, learn, posh on March 15, 2019 by Luke Thompson.
557. I'm a Rambling Guy (Monologue – Autumn 2018)
A rambling monologue about my recent French test, a duck-related error, responses to the Alan Partridge episodes and the Russian comedy club video, moving out of the sky-pod, and life with my wife and daughter. A video version of this episode is available for Premium subscribers in the LEP app and online. www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium
Yes, this episode is long… but you don't have to listen to it in one sitting. Listen to a bit, then stop and go to work/college, then listen to the rest later. This is much more convenient if you are using a podcast app, like the LEP app (available in the app store on your phone of course!) because it will remember where you stopped listening.
Video Version (only available for Premium subscribers)
Unlock the video by becoming an LEP Premium subscriber here www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium
Notes, Transcripts & More – A Rambling Monologue (October 2018)
I'm going to just talk in this episode without much preparation. It's so tempting to prepare all of this in advance and I've been sitting here going – "OK let's record this episode without preparation this time" and I keep adding more stuff to my notes here but it's time to stop writing and start talking!
Like everyone I suppose, I have to plan my speeches quite carefully or they will go off on weird tangents and get a bit out of control. Imagine talking to an audience and making it all up as you go. You'll end up talking too much or not getting to the point. It's the same for my podcast. If I have an episode that needs some careful preparation, I will write a lot of stuff down in advance, but then sometimes it's fun to speak without much preparation, like in these rambling episodes. It's fun and it's also more authentic because I'm just making up my sentences on the spot.
I've got some notes here. Some things are written down but I've decided to stop writing now and just start talking.
So my challenges in this episode are…
To talk without preparing most of it in advance
To just keep going even if I feel like I've made a mistake and I'd like to start again. Just keep going Luke!
I'm videoing this too. The video version will be available for Premium subscribers. If you're a subscriber you'll find the video in the app (either in the Videos category or Premium category) and online at www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium which is also where you can go if you want to sign up and become a premium subscriber to get bonus stuff like this as well as regular premium episodes that focus on teaching you grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
Rambling = talking in an unplanned and slightly unorganised way, probably for too long.
I have been accused of rambling in the past. "Luke, you're rambling!" Yes, yes I am!
It's sometimes a weakness of mine, that I struggle to be brief when I talk, but I like think that like Batman I can turn my weakness into my greatest strength.
Batman is actually afraid of bats (or he was when he was a kid), so he becomes a bat in order to conquer his fear. Bats were his weakness, so he became a bat, well, a man dressed as a bat. By doing that he becomes fear itself and then he uses this power to fight crime and all that stuff.
Similarly, my weakness is that I can talk and talk without really getting to the point – I ramble and so I can become RambleMan and I can use rambling to my advantage to become some sort of super hero, although I have no idea how I can fight crime with this skill, except perhaps to give would-be criminals something else to do – just distract them with talking so they don't commit any crimes.
OK the analogy doesn't work, but it was worth a try!
Here's a run-down of the stuff I'm going to ramble about in this episode.
French test
My recent duck-related error
Responses to the Alan Partridge episodes
Responses to me talking with Amber and Paul about the Russian comedy club video
Moving out of the sky-pod
How's your daughter?
How's your wife?
But first, I have a shoutout to the Orion Team – everyone involved in that, and in particular a listener in the comment section called Syntropy.
Message from Jack
Dear teacher, I'm writing to you to let you know that my acquaintance from the transcription team "Syntropy" has single-handedly transcribed two long episodes of the podcast. I just thought that it would be nice of you to thank him in the next episode of the podcast.
Syntropy has single-handedly transcribed two long episodes of the podcast. That's amazing.
Normally you just do a few minutes, and everyone works together to finish episodes. Doing a whole episode is long. Thank you Syntropy and thank you to all the members of the Orion Transcription Team. Listeners, you can check out their work and get involved too by visiting the website and clicking transcripts in the menu.
Thank you Syntropy.
In fact, here is a comment from Syntropy that I got the other day and which I thought was worth sharing.
Comment from Syntropy
Hi Luke, and Hello LEPsters :)
Luke, I just wanted to say thank you so much. I'm a long-term listener, although I haven't been able to catch up with all episodes. Luke's English Podcast has been my main resource for learning English, and thanks to you I've managed to score C1 level in a placement test.
I travelled to Manchester  in order to study English for a couple of months. Before the trip, I had listened to your Alan Partridge episodes. When the teacher asked me about my method for learning English, you were the first person that crossed my mind. She got really surprised, since few learners of English really listen to podcasts. Then, I mentioned Alan Partridge, and we even had a small talk about comedy. If it wasn't for LEP, I wouldn't have such knowledge on British culture, for example (not to mention other things, like pronunciation and vocabulary). You definitely helped me to achieve a high level in this crazy language.
In the end, she told me that my level was actually higher than advanced. You have no idea of how happy I got after what she said. And I must say that it was pretty much all due to you, and your podcast.
I remembered that rambling chat with Moz in which you talked about a similar experience you had with a student who also listened to your podcast haha.
I can't thank you enough, Luke . Also, a special thanks to the brilliant Orion Team for transcribing the episodes.
Keep it up. There's definitely method to the madness.
Syntropy
French test and citizenship
I had to take a French level test as part of my application for French citizenship. "But Luke, why are you becoming French?" One word: Brexit.
My Duck-related error
In episode 555 I talked to Raphael and we ended up talking about Disneyland and how there are weird illogical mistakes in Disney cartoons. It sounded like this (26:05). Can you spot the duck-related error I made?
Donald duck not daffy duck! (Episode 555) I hate to get my duck names wrong. Impressions? It's funny when you spot these inconsistencies in cartoons. Obviously, that's the joy of cartoons, and you're not supposed to think about it too much, but I like to do that! Another listener pointed out another scene in which Donald and his 3 kids are sitting down for dinner and there's a big roast bird on the table. Is it a chicken? Turkey? It could be a duck. They're cannibals, basically.
I feel like I've made a breakthrough because I've had so many positive comments about these episodes. There was one person who wrote a comment saying that the comedy episodes weren't for him because he just didn't get the jokes and this made him feel stupid, but on the whole the response was very positive which is great for me because it makes up for those painful moments in the past when I've failed to help my students to enjoy comedy. I think the key is to pre-teach a lot of details before even listening to the clip and then to go through it all very carefully afterwards.
…and the Russian Comedy Club video from episode 552
I've had messages with various opinions. Most of the comments are from Russian listeners, as you would expect. Most people were happy to hear us talking about the sketch. Some people say they this is a pretty crappy sketch and an example of mainstream entertainment (we also have mainstream stuff in the UK too which is basically shit – although that makes me sound a bit snobbish) and that these guys used to be better but now they've kind of lost it. Other people say I still don't really get the joke and that it's about how non-native speakers understand each other but non-natives don't understand them (but that's not really true) Apparently there is underground comedy which is much more nuanced and good. In fact I know for certain that there is stand up in Russia, in the main cities, including stand up in English. I was going to interview some people involved in that at some point but it never happened.
It's the end of an era
How are your wife and daughter?
They're great thanks! There's a premium episode with my wife coming soon (because she's a premium person – yes, and so are my family and friends, ok ok)
What George Harrison said about becoming a dad (paraphrased).
You get tons of perspective. You can become a child again, but you also become your father too. So you live 3 generations at the same time.
Steve Martin – I'm a Rambling Guy (on Spotify)
This entry was posted in Exams, Family, Hello, language, Learning, Love, Messages from Listeners, Native Speaker, News, Personal, Podcast Information, Ramble, Transcripts, Video and tagged english, learn, podcast, ramble, rambling, video on October 29, 2018 by Luke Thompson.
552. Discussing Comedy & Culture (with Amber & Paul)
Amber, Paul and I listen to a comedy video which is often sent to me by listeners to this podcast. The video is about the experience of trying to understand people when they speak English. Let's see what the pod-pals think of this comedy from another country. The conversation then turns to comedy, culture, language and some more Alan Partridge. I read out some listener comments at the end of the episode. Notes, transcripts and links available.
Transcripts & Notes
Welcome back to another episode featuring the PODPALS Amber & Paul.
In this episode we discuss comedy in different countries, including what makes comedy funny, what can make comedy culturally inappropriate, whether Brits have a different view of comedy to other cultures, and whether understanding comedy is just about understanding the language or if there's more to it than that.
This is clearly the topic which I'm a bit obsessed with: How comedy or humour can reveal our cultural differences in the most striking ways. Perhaps comedy is the key to truly understanding our cultural values somehow.
I often talk about how learners of English often don't find British comedy funny, and that this is a pity for me. One of the worst things I can hear is someone dismissing British humour or comedy as simply "not funny". I don't really mind if people say our food or weather is bad, but don't touch the comedy, I think. But honestly, when I see comedy from other countries – like TV comedy in France where I live, I have to admit that I often don't find it funny and I do find myself saying things like "oh, this is French comedy…" meaning – French comedy simply isn't funny or only works on one level. Is that true or am I being hypocritical? I don't really know.
Anyway, these questions are at the heart of the discussion in this episode, which also involves the three of us listening to and discussing a video – a video that I have been sent many times by listeners. Listeners have sent this video to me more than any other. I wonder if you know what that video could be.
Unfortunately Paul had to leave halfway through this episode because he had a live radio interview scheduled. He's a busy man who is in demand all over the place. But after he leaves, Amber & I continue the discussion which goes on to discuss my recent episodes about British comedy and we revisit the subject of Alan Partridge.
So without any further ado, let's get back to my coworking space and jump into the conversation once more.
The video that people have sent me more than any other
I get sent things like videos and memes and stuff. Sometimes it's the same thing, like the "Eleven" video and also "What British People Say vs What They Mean".
But this one more than any other.
I'm not going to tell you what it is yet. We're just going to listen to it and I want you to tell me what you think is going on, and what you think of it.
Outtro Transcript
So there you are folks. Quite a lot packed into that episode. Lots of questions and points about comedy in different cultures and that video from Russia too. About that video, on balance I'd say that I personally didn't find it funny when I first saw it. I found it a little odd. It's like a big family entertainment show with a lot of attention being paid to what I expect are (or at least look like) celebrities in Russia in the audience. The comedians are just sitting on the stage, which is fine I think because you don't always need lots of stage movement and stuff as long as the material is good.
I got the joke, which is that this is how it feels when you listen to people speaking English, but I found it really quite weird the interpretation of the British guy, but also fascinating.
He basically does this … [Luke copies the impression]
…and is stuttery, hesitant and incoherent.
It's interesting to sort of look at British people through the eyes of Russians.
I guess this means that Brits must seem hesitant when they speak and I expect this also comes from hearing Brits with accents like perhaps the cockney or northern accents, but the result sounds nothing like any of those accents really. It's a sort of garbled, lost in translation version of a British person with certain traits highlighted and emphasised perhaps because they don't quite match the Russian way, or something.
I found the impression of the English guy more weird than funny. It felt like, "Is that what they think we sound like?"
The Indian guy is sort of a funny impression in that he's got the tone and rhythm right but it's a pretty broad impression and in fact more of a caricature than a full impression. Also there's just the issue that copying an Indian accent if you're not Indian is somehow considered a bit inappropriate in the UK.
I talked about this with Sugar Sammy in a recent episode.
534. Sugar Sammy Interview (Part 2) Language & Comedy
I still don't know where the comedian in the Russian video is from but he could be Indian maybe.
But I get the joke. This is how it sounds for you when you hear these people.
I didn't find it funny at first but actually I'm finding it more and more funny as I watch it again and again.
It's also funny to me that I often talk about the challenge of showing UK comedy to learners of English and how they don't get it, and then someone sends me a comedy video from another country and I have the same reaction, more or less!
I expect there are people in the audience who know more about this (video) than us so leave comments telling me more about this Russian TV Comedy Club video.
Also, I'm heartened to read some of your comments relating to the recent episodes about comedy.
Right now: I've just uploaded the 2nd Alan Partridge episode. There haven't been many comments yet. Slightly disturbing silence. Have I confused everyone?
**TIMESHIFT**
It's now a week later.
I've received more messages than I did last week when I recorded this part of this episode.
Thanks for sending your comments. I'll go through those messages in a moment.
But first, here are the messages I had received at the time I recorded this outtro last week, which was just after I'd released the Edinburgh Fringe Jokes episode and the first two Alan episodes.
*TIMESHIFT back to the present*
Here's a selection of comments
Salwa • Alan Partridge Part 1
Oh that was really funny and enjoyable. Thank you very much for introducing Alan Partridge to us. I did not find the comedy difficult to understand at all. In fact, some of the jokes made me laugh out loud.
Mariangel García • Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe
Hi Luke, I hope you're doing alright
I'd like to tell you that you should continue making these podcasts about comedy, they're quite enjoyable and help us improve our English, as you just said, understanding jokes in our second language can be the hardest thing.
By the way, please don't forget my proposal of making an episode about British pop music. I'm definitely looking forward to listening to it.
Lots of hugs from Venezuela.
Anastasia Pogorevich • Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe
Thank you, Luke! I'm really keen on your excellent Joke explanations. I think English humour is fabulous and would like to know more about that stuff. You make all things absolutely clear and I like your positive attitude to your work and to life! Cheers!
Tania •Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe
That's a pleasure! Thank you, Luke! I've got nearly all of the jokes but some after you read them several times. So It's fun, of course. I know what learners usually say about English humor:)) I myself thought about it that way from the start, but you know, the humor is not just lying on the surface and turns out to be intellectual. Gives work to your brain. And finally you get it! Cool! This is the first audio i've listened on your site, downloaded the app and enjoy! English is becoming closer to me!
Vladimir Yermolenko • Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe
Hi Luke! I really enjoyed this new episode on Edinburgh Festival Fringe, thank you so much. The jokes got all clear when you explained some of them. My favorite one was "watch and a log" :)
I also recall some funny jokes in my country, but I don't know what the style of joke that is. I've just translated one from my language.
Dr.Watson asks Sherlock "Can you hear this sinister howl, Mr.Holmes?"
Holmes says "Yes, that's probably the hound of the Baskervilles"
Then, on another day:
"But what is this sinister silence around us?"
"It's the fish of Baskervilles, Doctor"
Anya Chu •Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Fringe
Hi Luke,
A little ninja from Taiwan here! I've been listening to your podcast for just over 1 year and have been enjoying it sooo much. Really appreciate your work on all the great content!
I've just finished the new episode of jokes from Edinburgh Fringe, and I loved it! I was on a bus when I listened to this episode and I kept getting giggles, which I tried very hard to disguise as coughs. British humor is just always on point.
Anyway, thank you again for all the effort on such excellent episodes. Please keep up the great work! :)
Svetlana Mukhamejanova • LEP Premium 06 Part 3
Hi Luke! Re P06[3] please don't stop making fun, I love your sense of humor)
***TIMESHIFT!***
It's now the future again. I'm recording this a week after recording the rest of this outtro and there are now more comments on the Alan Partridge episodes, which I'd like to share with you.
Alan (Part 1)
Hiro • 6 days ago
Hello Luke,
I really enjoyed the Knowing Me, Knowing You (aha)show with the child genius. It was so funny I listened to it 3 times! Without your precise explanations, though, I wouldn't have been able to get all the jokes. Thank you!
Viktoria Luchina • 7 days ago
I adore listening to your episodes about British Comedy! And the way you explain to us some bits of language is perfect. I've listened to "Alan Partridge Interviews Child Prodigy Simon Fisher" at least 5 times and I liked it more than the first clip. It's really interesting that in this case we laugh with Alan and at him. I'm looking forward to next episodes like this one! World needs to explore British Comedy in depth with you!
Hello Luke!
This second episode is a little more challenging for me than the previous one because the jokes are more subtle. However, the more I listened to your explanatiosn, the clearer the humorous points became to me! Yes, Alan Partridge is an absolute walking disaster! He makes me cringe so much I cannot listen to each one of his episodes in one go.
Again, without your excellent guide, I wouldn't be able to understand all the nuances and layers of this comedy. Thank you very much, Luke!
Marat • 7 days ago
Hello, Luke! My name is Marat, I am from Russia. I really enjoy listening to your podcast in general and these Alan Partridge episodes in particular! In the first part you have mentioned The Office series as being full of cringey situations. I haven't seen the British one, but have seen the American one (with Steve Carell). And that was really all about cringey moments). Have you seen the American one? Which one is more cringey in your opinion? ('cringey' is a new word to me, so I use it everywhere now :) ).
Zdenek Lukas • a day ago
Hi Luke, I just want to let you know that I have been thoroughly enjoying the episodes about Alan Partridge (currently in the middle of the 3rd one). I love this character and I actually played the clip from the first episode (the one with the child prodigy) to teach types of questions and the pronoun "whom". I am a big fan of these episodes and I think you clearly managed to do justice to this character. Thank you for your podcast!
peppe124 • 2 days ago
After you spent several hours on 3 episodes, I think we all should spend a couple of minutes writing a comment. We own [owe] that to you.
You are THE teacher every school of English should have! The method you used on this series was just brilliant.
Giving the introduction and background (with cultural references as well), letting us listen and guess and then going back over the clips was really helpful to test and improves my listening skill!
I also liked the content itself,that is the comedy, although I must say I liked the first 2 more; but that's because there were more, kind of, jokes.
Thank you very much Luke for all this. Keep up the great job!
Tatiana • 2 days ago
Hi Luke, it's the first time I've come out of the woodwork, really. Just to say a few words about the Alan Partridge episodes. I have enjoyed all of them. They give a little insight into real English, the genuine one, that is what British people really laugh at! That's amazing. Thank you for that! They are right, the people who say, 'If you understand comedy, you understand the language'.
Your explanations before listening are so detailed that I find almost no difficulties to understand most of Alan's words. And it is valuable! I tried to find those clips on YouTube (they're all embedded on the page), and they are even better with video, I would say, (because) you can watch the facial expressions and body gestures.
But then I watched some more – those that were not scrutinised on the podcast. It was a nightmare – I could understand hardly half of it, and most jokes just flew over my head. I felt so disappointed, I see now that proficiency level is as far from me as the Moon.
Thank you for doing your job for us: your podcast is, at this point, one of the major ways of improving my English. I listen and re-listen, take notes, revise them from time to time and so on.
Please keep going with your comedy episodes, they are great!
Damian • 3 days ago
[The] Episodes about Alan Partridge (generally, all episodes about British comedians) are brilliant! Many thanks!
Nikolay Polanski • 5 days ago
All three episodes are very nice, even though it is sometimes hard to get, why it is funny, to be desperate, stupid, mean and lonely. )))
I mean – you said before "try to watch it as a drama, and you'll appreciate the comedy" – it seems like drama to me )
It is funny, but also sad.
But the episodes are top notch, thanks for the great work you've done
Ilya • 4 days ago
I love it! I want more episodes about British comedy! One of my favourite topics.
Francesca Benzi • 3 days ago
Just a few comments, but all of them are a big thumbs up!
I'd never heard of Alan Partrige before listening to your podcast, so thank you: I had a very good time with each of the three episodes.
Brits behavior can often be weird, from an Italian point of view, and listening to your podcast builds up my knowledge of how different we are.
Yaron • 3 days ago
Coming out of the shadows for a moment to say that I like the Alan Partridge episodes. In a way, it reminds me of the brilliant episode about Ali G that you did few years ago (which I recommend to anyone who hasn't listened to it yet)
Thank you Luke.
I find your comments very reassuring and I'm very glad to read them. I'll do more episodes about comedy in the future. In the meantime, check the episode archive for other British Comedy episodes.
In fact, here are the links (11 episodes)
Previous episodes about British Comedy
156. British Comedy: Ali G
172. British Comedy: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
195. British Comedy: Monty Python's Flying Circus
202. British Comedy: Monty Python & The Holy Grail
313. British Comedy: Tim Vine
316. British Comedy: Tim Vine (Part 2)
427. British Comedy: Limmy's Show
428. British Comedy: Limmy's Show (Part 2)
469. British Comedy: John Bishop
507. Learning English with UK Comedy TV Shows
I also have episodes about telling jokes and explaining humour in social situations. Get into the archive and find out for yourself.
In the meantime, you should sign up for LEP Premium. Get the episodes on the LEP App, sign up at teacherluke.co.uk/premium for hot English action, helping you deal with vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and have a bit of fun in the process. :)
This entry was posted in Accents, American & British English, Comedy, conclusions, Cross Cultural Understanding, Culture, edinburgh fringe, Entertainment, Humour, Messages from Listeners, Native Speaker, Personal, Ramble, Social English, Video and tagged accent, british, comedy, english, learn on October 5, 2018 by Luke Thompson.
550. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 3)
Here's the final part of this trilogy of British Comedy episodes about Alan Partridge. This time we're analysing some of the quieter and darker moments in Alan's life as he rambles about flasks, cars, seat belts, badges and having an air bag go off in your face, and avoids the problems in his life. Expect analysis of both the comedy and the language. Vocabulary lists and transcript available.
So here we are with part 3 of this British Comedy episode, hot on the heels of part 2. This series is all about this famous British comedy character called Alan Partridge.
If you haven't heard parts 1 and 2 yet I recommend that you go and listen to those first.
The plan again is to listen to some clips on YouTube and then analyse them for language. Hopefully you'll get the jokes and will pick up some nice vocabulary on the way.
3 episodes is quite a lot to devote to one thing like this, but I really like Alan Partridge and introducing this comedy to you successfully (so that you enjoy it) is a sort of personal challenge for me and also there's so much Partridge content that I feel just one episode or maybe just two would only really scratch the surface. To give this a proper chance we need to spend a bit of time on it.
Listener Emails
Hopefully you're enjoying these episodes. Actually, I don't really know what most of you think. I've had a few messages from people saying they are looking forward to part 3 of this – emails mostly.
For example, here's part of a message from a listener called Hanna in Germany.
Dear Luke, I just wanted to get in touch to tell you how much i like your podcast. I've listened to the newest Partridge episode today and loved it. I think you've done a brilliant job in getting across what's so funny and weirdly likeable about him. I'm really looking forward to a third episode about him. And in fact to all the upcoming episodes. In the meantime I scroll through your fantastic archive and pick out my favourite topics to enjoy in my everyday life.
Thank you Hannah.
But on the website I have had hardly any comments on these episodes, which is making me wonder what you're all thinking. I have no idea really… So please let me know in the comment section. Are you like Hanna, who thinks I've managed to do a good job of getting across to you the ins and outs of Alan Partridge, or does it all seem hard to understand and totally unfunny? Let me know.
I did get an email from a teacher in Japan. I think he's a native English speaker. I have to share it with you.
Message: Hello Luke,
I teach English in Japan. My students often listen to your podcast. In a recent episode you had a TV show host interviewing a child genius. My students are split on whether this really happened, or whether this was staged. I think it is pretty clear that a real TV show host would not actually physically abuse a child on TV, but my students are not convinced. They think this (smacking children upside the head in public and making them cry) is an example of British humour. (notice I spelt that with a 'u'). I noted that you said it was 'a spoof, a parody" at the beginning of the segment, but they are not convinced. Please clarify and explain the meaning of 'spoof'. Love your show.
This is the sort of thing I'm talking about. There's always someone who gets the completely wrong end of the stick and misunderstands something quite essential about the comedy, like for example what is the target of the joke and what are the underlying meanings or assumptions.
I actually can't believe there's anyone out there who would think that Alan is a real person and that he actually slapped a child, and that's where the comedy comes from. Slapping a child is an absolutely terrible thing to do and it's certainly not funny. No, the sketch in part 1 where Alan appears to slap a child, is obviously not real.
It seems I might need to clarify something. I thought it was obvious, but you should remember that Alan is not a real person. He's a character made up by comedians. The scene in part 1 when he interviews a child genius, the child is not a real child. He's played by an actress called Doon Mackichan who is changing her voice to sound like a child. And anyway, Alan doesn't actually slap anyone. It's just a sound effect for the radio. Nobody got slapped in real life.
And in the sketch, we're not really laughing at a child being slapped. That's not the joke. Just slapping a child is clearly not funny. It's awful. So we're not laughing at a child being slapped, we're laughing at the fact that Alan is a fatally flawed character who is so pathetic that he will slap a child in order to come out on top or to save face. It's ridiculous.
I understand that in Japan social conventions are so different in some cases that it might be hard to notice where the comedy is in slapping a child, but it's really about the character of Alan and how he reacts to being wrong in a situation.
Anyway, slapping a child isn't really British humour, but featuring a character who would slap a child is more typical of British comedy. We often feature characters in our sitcoms who will do terrible things in order to get what they want and they often fail. We laugh at these people, not with them. They are the target of the humour. Alan is not a hero who we support, quite the opposite, we observe him doing all sorts of terrible and pathetic things. Another example… Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers springs to mind. He does lots of terrible things to make sure his hotel business doesn't get closed down. We cringe at the things he does, but also are amused by what happens to this person who is essentially not very nice when he is put under tremendous pressure that he's probably responsible for in the first place.
Anyway, for most of you I probably didn't need to give that clarification but for the students at school (however old you are, I'm not sure) let me assure you – Alan Partridge is not real and none of it is real. He is a character played by an actor called Steve Coogan. Alan Partridge is a parody or a spoof.
Parody, Spoof & Satire
A parody is a humorous piece of writing, drama, or music which imitates the style of a well-known person or represents a familiar situation in an exaggerated way.
When someone parodies a particular work, thing, or person, they imitate it in an amusing or exaggerated way.
So a parody is an imitation of something, in order to make fun of it. Alan is a parody of TV presenters.
A Spoof is a show or piece of writing that appears to be serious but is actually a joke. It's also like a "fake" show. The Day Today is a spoof of the news.
We often use spoof and parody in the same or similar ways.
A satire is a piece of comedy designed to criticise something by making fun of it. Satire is like spoof or parody but doesn't always involve imitations and often has serious targets like politics.
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a satire of communism. It criticises and makes fun of communism with this fictional story about pigs running a farm.
So Alan Partridge is certainly a spoof or parody of television and radio presenters. Perhaps at it's best it's some kind of satire about television and culture in general. In fact he's become more of a parody of a kind of small-minded English man.
Alan Clips
Let's listen to some more clips. This is going to be good listening practice and there will be loads of vocab, but also let's see this as a kind of little adventure where I take you into something new and you have to try and work out what's going on.
I've chosen two more clips, and I've chosen these ones because they are slightly quieter moments for Alan, not the big moments with all the catchphrases, but moments when Alan is perhaps at a weak point, which reveal how restless he is and how flawed he is on a basic social level.
We get a bit deeper into his psyche in this episode.
So in these clips I'm asking you not to look out for jokes like in the Edinburgh episode. Alan doesn't really do jokes although there are very funny lines. So, don't look for jokes. Instead look for the way this character expresses himself, how he chooses his words, how he can't really connect with people around him, how he's isolated, how he's actually not a very good person.
There's a bit of tragedy to Alan. It's just there, under the surface. You have to read between the lines.
8. Alan calls his son and then Curry's to ask about getting a surround sound speaker system
This is a glimpse into Alan's family life and his relationship with his son. You could say it is strained. Imagine having Partridge as your father. It would be awful.
It's a Saturday afternoon and Alan decides to call his son Fernando, who is 22 years old – around the same age I was when I first watched this. Fernando is named after the Abba song of the same name.
Alan calls Fernando to see if he wants to go for a pint. He catches Fernando in bed with his girlfriend and ends up lecturing him about how he's wasting his time when the weather is so good outside. The key line is "It's a Saturday afternoon and you're in bed with a girl, you're wasting your life!" Alan couldn't be more wrong of course.
Instead, Alan suggests that Fernando take her out to a local tourist spot, like a local fort or a Victorian folly. These are like the bog-standard local tourist attractions in the UK. You find things like this everywhere and they're mostly boring. The fort is probably some local old remains of a castle. A Victorian folly is basically a fake medieval building made during the Victorian era to resemble something from the medieval times. In both cases they are very boring and no doubt populated by other such middle-English middle-Educated weekenders with their anoraks and cameras. For Alan this is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Of course, staying in bed with a girl is a far better way to spend your time.
Alan can't relate to Fernando and patronises him (talks down to him and lectures him), while also rambling on like a broadcaster.
His rambling goes too far and he ends up talking about how he used to make love to Fernando's mother Carol in various places, even telling the story of how Fernando was conceived, making it sound like Fernando might have been a mistake, or that perhaps Alan wasn't happy when Fernando was born.
We never hear Fernando's voice. It's just Alan's half of the conversation, leaving us to work out the other side for ourselves, which is a good comedy technique.
We can see there are serious issues in their relationship. It sounds like Alan was probably a terrible father, making his son feel unloved and unvalued, and just lecturing him rather than relating to him on a normal level. Alan tries to be friends with Fernando, but he's completely unaware of how much he mistreats Fernando.
Alan then calls Curry's the electronics store to find out about buying some speakers and typically ends up either arguing with the sales assistant, lecturing him, or letting him into close personal details. Alan also talks about the speaker system in a weird, formal way, perhaps using the technical language you might read in the product manual, and even using some latin words. For some reason he feels this technical and formal register is appropriate when asking about buying some speakers from a hardware shop. You can imagine that there is a generation of people who are old-fashioned enough to do that too. At the end he even attempts to invite the guy from Curry's to go for a pint with him, because he's bored. The guy says no.
In the end Alan decides to walk up the motorway to visit the local garage to buy some windscreen washer fluid. It's funny to see these utterly mundane moments in Alan's life. He's a bit lost and is living in isolation and obscurity. Nobody else in the Travel Tavern is there, so he just leaves, shouting slightly desperately in case anyone wants to join him.
What to watch out for
How Alan makes his son feel unloved
How Alan describes how Fernando was conceived and it sounds like he wasn't happy when
Fernando was born
How Alan starts going on about flasks and Fernando just hangs up
How Alan talks to the sales assistant at Curry's and expects him to know latin
How he fails to invite the guy for a pint of beer
You both sound exhausted, have you been running?
We did it everywhere. Behind a large boulder on Helvellyn for my birthday.
Actually, that is where you were conceived.
We just didn't take precautions (so Fernando wasn't planned, maybe an accident)
No we were delighted! Well, at first I was mortified but then you were born and we grew to like you.
I left a tartan flask up there. One of those very fragile ones with a screw on cup/cap.
These days they're much more resilient. They took the technology from NASA. Modern flasks today are directly linked to the Apollo space mission. Hello?
I'd like to make an enquiry about two supplementary auxiliary speakers to go with my MIDI hi-fi system apropos (with reference to) achieving surround sound.
What time do you knock off? Do you fancy going for a drink?
Breath of fresh air?
9. Extended Car Sequence (no laughter track)
It's interesting how a laughter track totally changes the tone of what you're listening to.
Friends with no laughter track makes Ross sound like a psycho.
In this case having no laughter track makes Alan better and it sounds a lot more authentic.
Alan & Lynn in the car
I've chosen this because I want to play a clip with no laughter and in which Steve Coogan and Felicity Montagu (Lynn) are clearly improvising a lot of the dialogue. There are no big laughs in there, but instead this is just Alan at a bored moment. It's also perhaps one of my favourite Alan moments because of the improvisation. The characters are totally believable. It's like we're just observing them in a quiet moment during the day. As we listen to their naturalistic dialogue it's possible to notice that Alan is slowly becoming a bit unhinged – I mean, the doors are starting to fall off. He's bored. He's isolated. He's probably quite sad and perhaps desperate underneath it.
Alan is "at a loose end" and so he's requested that Lynn come and meet him so he can ask her something that's been bothering him. It's a small thing really, but Alan makes Lynn travel quite a long and complicated journey to come out and see him.
They just sit in the car and Alan rambles about nothing in particular. The main thing bothering him is that his car is making a weird beeping noise and he doesn't know why. But it seems he just needs Lynn to be there so he can lecture her, patronise her, belittle her etc as a way of escaping the dark feelings that are probably gnawing away at him. Lynn is very faithful to Alan, and has strong Baptist religious beliefs, but Alan is very mean to Lynn, making her take a taxi and to walk a long way just so Alan can have someone to talk to.
Alan doesn't even believe Lynn when she gives her excuse for being late, which shows that she's clearly had a long journey to get there. He's very ungrateful towards her.
Lynn knows that Alan might be at a very vulnerable point here – he's been thrown out by his wife, living in a travel tavern and he punched the BBC director general in the face with a piece of cheese, and it's not having a good effect on his mental state. So she's supportive.
Lynn is clearly concerned about Alan and offers to talk to him about his problems.
Instead of talking about his problems, Alan just goes on in great detail about the features of the car, clearly in denial about his situation and his depressed state.
By the way I think Lynn was the one who actually bought the car for Alan. Him criticising parts of it is also a way for him to criticise her. He's subtly telling her that he's not happy with the car she bought.
Obviously Alan is unhappy about more than the car, but he never talks about that. The only thing he can do is comment on minor details in the car. The more specific he gets about these trivial details, like the design of the badge on the steering wheel, the more he is essentially trying to escape the reality of his situation, which is that his life and career are a mess.
Alan's weird broadcasting sensibility comes in as he starts reviewing the car, commenting on the way seat belts work and generally patronising Lynn.
The tension is palpable.
It's hilarious comedy and is improvised.
But it's 100% not obvious.
So I would say, don't imagine this is comedy. Imagine you're just listening in on someone's conversation. Let's imagine we're spying on them, just overhearing two people chatting aimlessly.
Coogan's ability to stay in character is incredible.
The absence of laughter track makes it 100x better.
I wonder what you will think but this is one of my favourite Alan moments. It's so natural and the character's avoidance of talking about his problems while focusing on meaningless details of the car, is very interesting from a character point of view, and shows there is real depth and pathos to the character.
How difficult it was for Lynn to come and meet him, and how Alan suspects this is a lie
The reason Alan asked Lynn to come out
Lynn's suggestion about why the car is making a noise (the clock is wrong)
Alan's reaction to Lynn's suggestion that it's because the clock is wrong
What Alan thinks of the car, particularly his disappointment about the badge on the steering wheel.
Listen to how Alan loves the sound of the electric sun roof
What Alan says about the seat belts
I got caught in a taxi that broke down
Do you know what that noise is?
It wouldn't be "engine faulty" would it?
It's been irritating me all morning
Is it the handbrake?
Don't touch the handbrake. We'll roll back.
Just make sure it's in neutral there.
If you ever learn to drive Lynn, when you stop the car, just give it a bit of a wiggle. Make sure it's in neutral.
My mum always puts it in first (gear)
Some people do that to stop it rolling back when you park on a hill but it's unorthodox. It's a stop gap for a faulty handbrake, but I personally frown on it.
I've locked the doors there. That's a design fault. Design flaw. Just pop your elbow on there, you've locked the doors. Sometimes you don't want to.
I thought you'd like this.
It's wood laminate.
Pop your seatbelt on.
These are inertia real seatbelts.
Suddenly a lorry rears in front of you. Impact! LOCK!
I'd rather have a few superficial bruises than a massively lacerated face. Ooh, awful.
I'd love to feel an airbag go off in my face.
What I like about this material is, just to get a little bit of extra purchase, it's pricked vinyl.
Pricked vinyl will allow a certain amount of drainage of hand sweat.
The Rover badge on the old car was a lovely enamel beautiful crested thing on the steering wheel boss, whereas this one is just moulded into the vinyl.
All I do is sit here looking at this moulded badge where once there was an enamel one and I can't pretend that doesn't hurt.
The sun roof is a wonderful feat of engineering. Just listen to all these servo motors.
Precision engineering.
Whirring away.
And of course you've got the manual flap.
You go through a bad patch and you can smile at the end of it, probably.
I didn't say I was going through a bad patch, I said I was at a loose end.
[Lynn suggests that Alan takes the car for a drive, but Alan beeps the horn while she's talking, interrupting her. She tries to continue, talking about how there's an arcade – games centre – up the road where there's a fun camel race]
Do you want to know the quickest way to drain a battery?
[Alan tries to open the glove compartment and accidentally touches Lynn's leg – plenty of apologising and it's awkward. There's no affection in the relationship, from Alan anyway]
Alan says the best way to drain a car battery is to leave the glove compartment open.
Lynn says you shouldn't leave your sweeties in there on long journeys because it might pop open and you wouldn't notice and the battery would get drained. [Alan has no idea what she's talking about.]
You've lost me. Boiled sweets, you sound like a lunatic.
It isn't the inticator is it?
Inticator? Indicator.
Actually, I am low on windscreen washer fluid.
They wouldn't set off an alarm if you're low on windscreen washer fluid. It's far too alarmist.
Just a light would come on to say, you know, you're a bit low. But not a big alarm like that, it's just a panic measure, you know like someone going "Oh my god you're low on windscreen washer fluid!" You don't need to say that. Just say, you need a nudge. The car needs to effectively say, "excuse me, I don't want to distract you from your driving, but you might like to know the windscreen washer fluid is getting low" and they do that with a little light, which has come on – you can see it there.
Well the clock's not right is it. That's a possible.
I'm sorry Lynn. I'm normally patient but the idea that an alarm would be triggered because the clock isn't right is cloud cuckoo land. Alice in Wonderland.
Could you cool me down with the hand fan.
[Lynn holds the hand fan too close and Alan turns and hurts his lip on it]
Come on I'll drop you at a cab rank.
There is a massive amount more of Partridge and almost all if it is excellent – great performance, great writing, great characters. Perhaps I'll revisit Alan one day on the podcast.
I wonder how you feel about this. My aim has been just to introduce you to some stuff you didn't know about before, and teach you some English in the process. If you've enjoyed it and want to check out more Alan stuff, great. If you didn't really get it, well – so be it. At least I tried.
Some Alan recommendations.
TV series: I'm Alan Partridge Series 1 & 2
TV specials: Welcome to the places of my life, Scissored Isle.
Web-series: Mid-Morning Matters with Alan Partridge
Audiobooks: I, Partridge, Nomad
Film: Alpha Papa (not exactly the same as normal Partridge, but still good)
Do let me know everything you think in the comment section. It's impossible for me to predict how episodes like this will be received by my audience – I really do scratch my head and wonder what the hell people in China, Russia, Japan or closer to home in France or any other place will think about some of the content I share with you. The only way I can know is if you write to me and tell me what you think. I'm certain some of you completely won't get it, but some of you might get it and for me it's worth doing these episodes even if only some of you get it.
At the least, if you didn't get into the comedy, I think we can agree that there's been a lot of language to be learned in these episodes. Check the page for this episode to see all the notes and transcripts. I should do a premium episode covering it all, just to make sure it really goes into your head properly! For example, what's the phrase Alan uses to describe how he's bored and has nothing to do?
He's at a loose end, right?
That's the sort of stuff I do in the Premium episodes. To sign up for the price of 1 coffee per month, go to www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium
BONUS CONTENT: Talking to Raph about Partridge (Part 1)
Alan Partridge's Scissored Isle (one of the most recent TV specials)
Alan Partridge: Nomad (Audiobook)
This entry was posted in Comedy, Cross Cultural Understanding, Culture, Entertainment, Humour, Movies, Native Speaker, Transcripts, Video, Vocabulary and tagged alan partridge, british, comedy, english, free, learn, podcast on September 28, 2018 by Luke Thompson.
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