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

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:
[0:23] Hi, everybody.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[0:48] Every episode.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Intro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Intro

Isi:

[0:22] Hello.

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

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

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Intro

Mitch:

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

Isi:

[0:26] Hello!

Mitch:

[0:26] Today...

Isi:

[0:28] I chose the topic again.

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

[1:15] Co-living.

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

Isi:

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

Mitch:

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

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

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Intro

Mitch & Isi:

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

Mitch & Isi:

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

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

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Intro

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

Isi:
[0:26] Good morning.

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

Justin:
[0:44] Hello, hello.

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[1:26] Beyonce!

Justin:
[1:27] Yeah, Beyonce.

Isi:
[1:28] And the heat.

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

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

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

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

Justin:
[1:49] Yeah, howdy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[2:08] Wow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Transcript

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

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

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

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Transcript

Intro

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

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

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

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Show Notes

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Transcript

Intro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Transcript

Intro

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[0:45] Fun fact.

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

Mitch:
[0:48] Fun fact.

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

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

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

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Show Notes

• Register your interest in our Asia-Friendly conversation call here: Click Here

Transcript

Intro

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

Isi:
[0:25] Hello.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[2:26] What?

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

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

Isi:
[2:48] Probably.

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

Isi:
[3:00] Are you alright.

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

Isi:
[3:03] No.

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

Isi:
[3:07] All right.

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

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

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

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

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

Isi:
[3:21] Tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isi:
[4:05] For today.

Mitch:
[4:06] Wanna.

Isi:
[4:08] I want to.

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

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

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

Isi:
[4:20] Like, gotcha?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isi:
[4:43] Let me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isi:
[5:43] Sort of?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isi:
[9:48] Yep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[14:52] Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mitch:
[16:55] Right.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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