Easy English listener Paloma sends in a message and Isi and Mitch announce new call days and time for their group conversation calls before discussing 10 ways you can be indirect, when speaking in English.

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• Improve your confidence and fluency speaking English with us!: Join the Conversation Membership

Transcript

Mitch:
[0:23] Hiya, everybody. Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. We're just coming down...

Isi:
[0:30] I never know what my position is in this. Okay, let's go. Let's not do too long of babbling.

Mitch:
[0:35] Okay.

Isi:
[0:36] Blah-blah-ing. Do you say blah-blah?

Mitch:
[0:37] I just wanted to say that, you know, we're celebrating still because, one, we reached our 100th episode just recently, and what followed then was... - Podcast episode. - Podcast episode. What followed then, was we also hit 250,000 subscribers on YoTube. So I just want to say thank you if you're one of those subscribers and if not... - Thank you. - Why the hell not?

Isi:
[0:59] It's a good number isn't it? It's nice. I think we have a question or a message.

Mitch:
[1:03] Yeah so, we actually had someone send in a message some weeks ago, and I'm sorry for not playing it directly, because we had episode 100 and we played some messages and yours came in just a little bit too late, but not too late for us to play it now. So here is a message from Paloma

Isi:
[1:20] Paloma, what a beautiful name.

Mitch:
[1:21] Nice name. - Yeah.

Paloma:
[1:22] Hi guys, how are you today? I hope you're hving a great day. Well, my name is Paloma, I'm Argentinian and I am living in Italy, right now. And, Ijust wanted to say thank you, because I love your content, I am a... let's say a fan of languages, I am studying, also, Italian, because I am living here, in Italy. I also speak English, and I am initiating, lets say with French... yep. Because, I love languages, but I don't hhave much time to... to study, you know. But, I want to tell you that I am an English teacher... yeah, I am an English teacher. But I am teaching English to students who speak Spanish, because that's my mother tongue and... nothing. I use, a lot, you content to practise and to take expressions... British expressions, even though I don't speak in a British way... real British way, but anyway, I do my best. thank you so much and have a nice day again, bye!

Isi:
[2:38] Very nice. So, Paloma, I directly thought her English is so good.

Mitch:
[2:43] It's really good. I thought she sounded a bit Scottish at one point.

Isi:
[2:46] I thought at the very beginning that she was a native, yeah. That makes sense now. You're an English teacher. You know your stuff.

Mitch:
[2:54] You've got some influences in your accent there, some British influence.

Isi:
[3:01] Okay, so it wasn't even a question. Thank you so much for, first of all, letting us know that you like our content and that you use it in your teaching lessons. That's really, really cool. And it really helps us, just to receive those messages because it makes all our work worth it.

Mitch:
[3:19] Absolutely. It's amazing to get those little nuggets of joy that people get from using our resources, basically. Because, we have no way of knowing unless you tell us how you like it, if you even like it.

Isi:
[3:33] It would really help us... I know we have asked this at the very beginning of doing YouTube, of doing podcasts. And you probably are not used to people creating content, asking this anymore. But I recently thought about it, that it would be really, really important to us, if we have more interactivity on YouTube, through comments, likes, subscribes, for our podcast, for example, on Spotify. It really helps. And you can also review our podcast on Spotify, for example, and on other podcast apps as well. And, I would like to add another thing, because we have just recently, last week, changed our membership. You maybe know that we have a Conversation Membership where people, once a week, until now, in our online pub on 'Zoom' could speak to us, to each other, practise their conversation skills. And we really saw, during the past years, how we have some members that are there for years, they improved their english, massively! We had one call a week, a pub call, on 'Zoom'' our online "pub", and we were like; we have to do this more, we have to give more people the chance to join, from different locations in the world, so different times. And we have to make it possible that you can practise with us, several times a week, so that you, within weeks, can improve your conversation skills. So now, we have, instead of one, four calls a week, on Tuesdays and on Thursdays we have a morning call, British time and an evening call. You can all check it out on our website.

Mitch:
[5:13] Or, by clicking the link up here.

Isi:
[5:15] There. And yeah, join us if you wanna go next level with your English. If you say like; I have quite a good level of English, it's fine. I can communicate, but I want to understand my new boss, I want to land that job where you have to speak English. I want to move to an English-speaking country. I want to talk to my international friends. Or, I just love English. We have seen the success. We actually have done it ourselves. Like, I moved here to the UK and I had a good level of English, but the natural... I don't want to praise myself, but the natural comfort of speaking English, of understanding the dialects, and accents and to feel really comfortable, also to just go out, go to the supermarket, have small talk, have good conversation. That came here. And I know it only came from speaking. Getting outthere and speaking. You do the same with German right now.

Mitch:
[6:13] Yeah, I see it with learning German. That when I'm in Germany and I'm kind of in that, I have the opportunity to speak it and I'm listening to it on a very regular basis, that my German, my level increases, dramatically. And when I'm back home, I'm just like on apps. Whilst apps and watching videos online is very good, half of the battle is the confidence to really speak it and this is where our calls are so vital, because whether or not you're making mistakes, it doesn't matter because, making mistakes is part of learning anything and language and English is no different. And our calls are perfect for that, we welcome mistakes, we encourage learning by making mistakes. And if you are also feeling very nervous, there's no pressure like you have in these one-on-one conversations, to speak. You can listen and everyone's there trying to achieve the same goal.

Isi:
[7:05] And along the way, you meet amazing people, maybe make friends from around the world, if you want to.

Mitch:
[7:10] Really around the world

Isi:
[7:11] Yeah, it's amazing. So, take the chance, practise with us several times a week and level-up your English within the next weeks, months. Get better, reach your next goal.

Mitch:
[7:26] Exactly. If you're interested, then click the link that's on the screen right now, easyenglish.video/membership and we're even offering a seven-day free trial of our Conversation Membership. So in theory, that's four calls you can come to for free, to see how you like it, if you fit in, if you're confident enough and we're very welcoming. We're a very welcoming bunch; us and our conversation members.

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Making friends is hard, especially the older you get. So Isi guides you... and Mitch through the different ways, modern and old that you can make new friends.

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:26] Welcome to the Easy English Podcast, the hangover from episode 100. - 101. - 101, we're into the... into a new century of podcasting, but with the same ethos, to help you improve your conversational English.

Isi:
[0:50] You do sound very unmotivated. I have a good topic for us, though.

Mitch:
[0:55] Yeah, you're at the steering wheel today, right?

Isi:
[0:58] Yes. It's a topic that is interesting and important for everyone. Maybe only those people that hate humans a lot. They will not like it now.

Mitch:
[1:09] Good build-up.

Isi:
[1:11] It's important for everyone, because we're talking, today, about how to make friends.

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We did it... 100 episodes!
All thanks to your support, so what better way to celebrate than to answer some of your questions.

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Transcript

Intro

Isi:
[0:22] Hello!

Mitch:
[0:24] Hi everybody! Exciting times.

Isi:
[0:28] And why is it exciting? Because this is episode... podcast episode.

Mitch:
[0:34] Podcast episode.

Isi:
[0:35] Not video, podcast episode 100. And we didn't even train this. Rehearse this. 100, this is insane. It feels more and less, with so many things in life that's what it is right? It feels like, longer and shorter, more and less. But It's a nice number, 100.

Mitch:
[0:57] A great milestone to reach. - Not the last one. - Won't be the last 100 we reach. But um... as a way to celebrate it and also to say thank you, we reached out and asked you to send us some of your messages. So, that's why we're here today. You wrote in to... on our YouTube channel, you sent us emails and you also sent us voice messages. So we're gonna read them out. - Let's go. - Should I play an audio message? - Yes. - Okay, here is a message from Paskali Safari, for us.

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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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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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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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