Shadowing Practice: 872. The Birthday Party (Learn English with a Short Story) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello, welcome back to Luke's English Podcast.

In this episode, I'm going to tell you a story and then use it to help you learn English, okay?

And I'm going to do this in three sections.

First, I'll just tell the story to you, and you can use that as a sort of little listening exercise or listening test.

See if you understand everything in the story, and especially things like how the characters feel and exactly what happened.

It's a fairly short story, this one.

I mean it's a very short story really it's 300 words about 300 words long

so it'll just take a couple of minutes for me to read the story to you

and then after that I will just explain what happened in the story in my own words

and then I'll go through the story again line by line

and I'll explain vocabulary for you so you can learn various little phrases words

and other descriptive language from this story okay so the story

that we're looking at here is called the birthday party

and it was written by katherine brush who was an american

newspaper columnist a short story writer a novelist this particular story was published in 1946

but like all good writing it still remains fresh today it feels like it could have been written yesterday really

so although it was written a few decades ago it still feels really sort of fresh

and new so i'm going to start in just a second

but first of all just one question for you to consider

before you listen to this okay my question is about people

watching do you know what people watching is this is

when you're in a public place for example in a restaurant

and you kind of watch the other people around you

and sort of i don't know imagine what their lives are

like observing other people i mean it's a bit nosy right to do this to look at other people

and sort of spy on them but i think we all do this

so do you ever people watch okay um

when you're in a public place like a restaurant

or in a queue for something

so observing people watching their behavior watching their interactions with each other

and then imagining what kinds of people they are what their

lives are like what their relationships are like it might also include eavesdropping

which means actually listening to other people's conversations but not necessarily

so people watching just watching people watching strangers

that you might see in public places do you ever do this

if you're out in public do you ever discreetly watch the other people around you

and try to imagine what their lives are like for example

if you're in a restaurant do you subtly

while you're eating your food do you subtly without being noticed

have a look at the other people on the other tables

try to imagine who they are what's going on in their lives

and have you ever observed something amusing or something

that made you feel a little uncomfortable

or embarrassed like maybe you got an insight into someone's personal relationship

or family life and it actually made you feel even a little bit uncomfortable

or embarrassed or awkward or even sad so do you ever people watch

and have you ever noticed anything sort of interesting when doing

that that's just something to think about before we start the story

and in fact let's now start the story all you need to do here is just listen first just listen and try

and follow the main events how do the characters feel okay i'll explain in my own words in a moment

and then we'll go through all the vocabulary and stuff and see what we can learn okay so here we go

this is The Birthday Party by Catherine Brush they were a couple in their late 30s and they looked unmistakably married

they sat on the bonquette opposite us in a little narrow restaurant having dinner

the man had a round self -satisfied face with glasses on

it the woman was fadingly pretty in a big hat there was nothing conspicuous about them nothing particularly noticeable

until the end of their meal when it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion In fact,

it was the husband's birthday, and the wife had planned a little surprise for him.

It arrived in the form of a small but glossy birthday cake, with one pink candle burning in the centre.

The head waiter brought it in and placed it before the husband, and meanwhile the violin and piano orchestra played Happy Birthday to You.

And the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise,

and such few people as there were in the restaurant tried to help out with a pattering of applause.

It became clear at once that help was needed, because the husband was not pleased.

Instead, he was hotly embarrassed and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him.

You looked at him and you saw this and you thought, oh, now, don't be like that.

But he was like that.

And as soon as the little cake had been deposited on the table

and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece and the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman.

I saw him say something to her under his breath, some punishing thing, quick and curt and unkind.

I couldn't bear to look at the woman then, so I stared at my plate and waited for quite a long time.

not long enough though she was still crying when i finally glanced over there again

crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly all to herself under the gay big brim of her best hat

so that's the story i think i think that's very good

writing i think that's really really well written little story a perfect little portrait of these two people

and a little interaction which seems to tell you

so much about what's going on between them

and it's sad it's definitely sad it's it's almost heartbreaking really really good writing though um but what happened

okay so the story begins um it's in a restaurant okay um the the writer

says that she saw this couple they were probably in their late 30s um

and they were definitely married she could tell just by looking at them

and they were sitting on the they were sitting just on

the other side of the restaurant just opposite them at a

table having dinner she described the two of them she said that the man

had a round face glasses and he had a sort of self -satisfied look on his face the woman

was was fadingly pretty like she kind of used to be pretty

or she's sort of her her beauty is fading or maybe getting less you know as she gets older maybe

and they just look like an ordinary couple really they weren't

bringing too much attention to them to themselves except for the fact

that the woman was wearing a nice big hat with a wide brim

and the the narrator of the story realizes

that this is not just an ordinary dinner

but in fact it's a special occasion in fact it's the husband's birthday

and the wife has planned a special little surprise for him

and she she seems to be kind of a bit shy about it

and quite proud of the fact

that she's organized this little special thing for his birthday

and what is the special thing it's a little birthday cake

a cute little birthday cake a red glossy cake with a single pink candle in the middle of it

and she's obviously asked uh the head waiter of the restaurant to bring the cake over

and the orchestra uh just like a couple of instruments playing

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in the corner of the restaurant they start playing happy birthday the staff come over they're probably singing happy birthday

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and the cake is brought down the wife seems very sort of um proud of this moment

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and the people in the restaurants all give a little clap they all applaud

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and it seems like a very sweet moment

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but what the narrator notices is that when all the people have gone away

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and the no one when no one's looking at them she notices

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that the husband is not happy with this at all now why why would you not be happy with

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that situation it's not really clear i don't know either really

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because I'd be delighted if you know my wife had organized a sweet little thing like

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that in a nice little restaurant but this man is not happy about it in fact he's very embarrassed

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which seems to tell you something about him like he's probably

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got quite a high opinion of himself he probably takes himself very seriously

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and the idea that like a little cake

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and people in the restaurant singing happy birthday to him and everyone looking at him is actually very

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something that he's ashamed of and something that made him feel very embarrassed.

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and he's unhappy and in fact he's angry about it

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and he tried you know they're trying not to show this to everyone in the restaurant

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but he's really unhappy with her and when no one's looking

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except for the the narrator of the story who notices this the husband said something to his wife

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and it's really something very nasty he says it quietly

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so other people can't hear it but he says a nasty comment to her

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which is really sad and she's obviously very very upset

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um and she's heart she's heartbroken the the writer of the story can't really bear to watch

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so she looks at her plate and stuff for quite a long time

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but when she does have a little look again she sees

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that the the woman is still crying

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and you know under the under the brim of her lovely happy big hat uh she's still crying

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so this it's a really sad little story and a story about observing a relationship observing a marriage which

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perhaps is not that happy not the happiest marriage

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or at least i don't know it's a sensitive situation

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or at least the woman what you know it she's obviously crying

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because uh her husband's unhappy but also probably i imagine in a situation like

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that when you've planned something and it goes

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so wrong it probably makes not only makes you feel happy in

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that unhappy in that moment but i imagine she's feeling very sad

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and depressed and it makes you wonder about the state of their marriage

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and whether this woman is you know trapped in a in a sort of a loveless marriage despite the fact

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that she's trying her best you know she's she's making efforts

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and it's also quite heartbreaking because it makes you realize

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that you know a broken heart

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or unhappiness loneliness sometimes these things can be hidden you know they're not obvious they can be hidden behind appearances

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which could otherwise be very glamorous or very sort of smart.

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In this case, a lovely hat and a nice special occasion in a nice restaurant.

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But behind this facade, there's a sort of a deep loneliness and the sense that people in marriages

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can actually be very lonely.

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It can be one of the loneliest things.

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Not always, of course often marriage is a beautiful and happy situation

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but you know in some cases it can be actually a very sad situation

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and loneliness is something that is often most deeply felt

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when you're in the company of other people especially

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when you feel trapped in that situation and

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when you're having to hide your feelings because other people can see you

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and this story like perfectly captures all of those things in

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a in a in an efficient way only in about 300 words

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so it's really really well written now let's go through the story again

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and this time I'm going to look at specific words

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and phrases right this is where I'm going to teach you some some vocabulary by using the story

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so here we go again the birthday party by Catherine Brush vocabulary

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and I've highlighted some vocab here for us to look at okay

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if you're listening to the audio version of this episode you

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can find um you can find the script for this i'll put a link to it on the episode page

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so you can actually check the text and stuff like that

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if you're looking at the video version you'll be able to

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see the text on the screen another thing actually to mention is pronunciation

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so just earlier there in this episode i read through the story line by line now what you could do

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if you want to practice your pronunciation you could actually try

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to repeat those lines after me okay try to repeat the story after me with exactly the same delivery

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so just try and copy the way i do it

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and then maybe practice it again on your own practice trying

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to deliver the story with the right pausing the right emphasis

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and so on okay

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and another exercise you could do would be to try to

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retell the story in your own words right try to um try to you know tell the story again

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but sort of spontaneously in your own words without actually reading it uh from the uh from the text

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so all all of those things can be good uh ways to practice

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but anyway let's have a look now at some vocabulary

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so the first line they were a couple in their late 30s

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and they looked unmistakably married

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so the first thing is just this phrase in their late 30s

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so you know you can be in your you're in your 30s which means you're either 30

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you're between the ages of 30 and 39

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so you can be in your in your teens that's

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when you're a teenager you can be in your 20s in your 30s in your 40s in your 50s

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and so on but also you can say you could be in your early 30s

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or your mid 30s

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or your late 30s okay in this case the couple were in their late 30s okay

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and they looked unmistakably married

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so it's fairly easy to understand they looked married it looked like they were married

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so they looked married

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but they looked unmistakably married okay they they were obviously married you couldn't mistake them for anything else right um

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so if something is unmistakable it just means it's it's really not easily confused for something else like

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when you see it you immediately identify it as

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that thing there's no mistaking the fact

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that these people were married they were unmistakably married right

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so unmistakable is the adjective unmistakably in this case is the adverb

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so unmistakably married um you know we we use you know you can use

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that for other things as well if

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if something's obvious for example um you smell as you walk

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past the bakery you you can smell the unmistakable smell of fresh bread right that's using the word as an adjective

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unmistakable um other things instead of saying they looked unmistakably married

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it could be other things right for example they they looked

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unmistakably english right i don't know what what would they look like

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if they looked unmistakably english just like typical english people

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or they looked unmistakably french okay um handwriting handwriting you know

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um stuff that's written by hand handwriting you could say for example this is unmistakably his handwriting okay

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so unmistakably in this case unmistakably married um

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so a question about the writing

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or just the thought why are they unmistakably married what does

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the writer mean here i think she's probably alluding to subtle behavior right

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which it's interesting that she chose this phrase

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because it it does tell us something about this couple

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so what did she mean

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when she said they were unmistakably married she's probably referring to certain behavior now

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when a couple are are new when they've just got together right

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when they're in the early stages of a relationship often you can tell

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that they're a brand new couple

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because they sort of their body language tells you everything you

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need to know like they can't stop looking at each other

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they can't stop touching each other they're still enjoying sort of

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exploring each other exploring each other's personal space they get lost

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in a love bubble you know the rest of the world disappears

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but when a couple has been together for a long time

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if they're married they're in their late 30s they've been married for 10 15 years

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or something like that um their body language might show this

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and maybe they we also know

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that they were sitting on the on the bench right

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so they're not sitting opposite each other they're sitting next to each other

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and well what kind of body language do you imagine it

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could be seen here maybe they just weren't really there wasn't

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a lot of interaction going on maybe maybe little moments of interaction show

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that they were very close and they obviously spent a lot of time together

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but maybe it was obvious

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that there wasn't maybe there wasn't a lot of love between them right

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and you know that sense of mystery or attraction maybe wasn't there

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or maybe there was a sense of familiarity and closeness i don't know

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but it's good writing because it does sort of it does tell you

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so much next line they sat on the bonquette opposite us in a little narrow restaurant having dinner

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so a bonquette is just a long like a long seat

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which could be fitted uh to the wall for example typical in restaurants

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so a long kind of bench that's probably attached to the

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wall in some way that's the bonkette they sat opposite us in a little narrow restaurant having dinner

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so narrow is just the it's the opposite of wide so

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that this tells us that the restaurant was quite long

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but narrow so you imagine a long restaurant

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but where the walls on either side are actually very close

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because the restaurant is narrow a bit like a corridor

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or something and this is interesting because we get

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that sense of intimate space right the the writer

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and this married couple are actually probably quite close to each other everyone's probably fairly close in this restaurant

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which for me emphasizes the the kind of the humiliation

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which happens later the the man's humiliation

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but also the wife's sadness is emphasised by the intimacy of this restaurant that they're sitting in this narrow place.

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um with probably tables quite close together right um okay

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so next the man had a round self -satisfied face with

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glasses on it the woman was fadingly pretty in a big hat

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so the man had a round face i mean just round sort of circular self -satisfied is interesting now generally

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if you describe someone as being self -satisfied it's a negative phrase

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so if someone is self -satisfied it means they're rather satisfied with themselves you know someone who thinks

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that they're someone who has a high opinion of themselves someone who's rather satisfied with them with themselves

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so you can imagine he's got a sort of a rather a sort of a smug look on his face

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or an arrogant look on his face you know a self

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-important self -satisfied look on his face in any case it's

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not very charming um she does the writer doesn't paint a

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very charming attractive picture of this man um right he seems smug

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and not that attractive whereas the woman was fadingly pretty in a big hat

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so fading fadingly pretty fadingly is the adverb fading would be the adjective

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and if something is fading it means it's gradually becoming less clear less bright less colorful

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so her prettiness her attractiveness was fading as she was getting older

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which um you know is often a kind of a sad thing for many people it doesn't have to be

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but it can be and it also tells you something as well doesn't it that's you know there's a

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just a certain sadness here okay fadingly pretty so she's still pretty

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but the her prettiness is fading now

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that doesn't happen to everyone some people are pretty when they're young

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and they stay pretty when they're old they grow old gracefully

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but i don't know again i'm speculating about this relationship

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but maybe there's something not quite right in the relationship

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and the sadness that she feels is starting to show you know on her face

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and it's actually affecting her beauty in a way so she was fadingly pretty her her prettiness was fading

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there was nothing conspicuous about them nothing particularly noticeable

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so those two lines they basically mean the same thing

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because uh conspicuous

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if something is conspicuous it means it's noticeable easy to notice eye -catching okay i mean the the fact

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that she was she was wearing a big hat is fairly noticeable

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but maybe in those days in what i assume is like

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new york in a nice restaurant in new york in the in the 1940s a woman dressed nicely

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and wearing a big hat was probably not uncommon right

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but other than that it seems

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that there wasn't anything particularly noticeable about these this couple there was nothing conspicuous

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so conspicuous noticeable easy to notice eye -catching right those are all synonyms um nothing particularly noticeable

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so they were just a fairly ordinary couple i suppose for this kind of restaurant

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and nothing obvious about them nothing noticeable until the end of their meal

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when it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion

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so an occasion could be a special occasion like a particular event a birthday an anniversary a reason to celebrate

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so that was that's an occasion so it became obvious

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that this was an occasion it was actually a special moment in fact it was the husband's birthday

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and the wife had planned a little surprise for him

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so i just wanted to highlight the use of past perfect

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here the wife had planned a little surprise for him

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so past past perfect had planned that's used because it shows

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that the wife planned this before the other events of the story right okay it just shows us

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that the planning part happened before all the rest of the events

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so past perfect is there to you is used there to just to show us

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that the planning happened before um now if we didn't if

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if the writer hadn't used past perfect

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if she'd said it was the husband's birthday

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and the wife planned a little surprise for him now

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that could mean

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that she planned the surprise right there at the table right it was the husband's birthday

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and the wife planned a surprise that could mean

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that she planned it there you see but uh we want to show

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that the the planning happened before those events in the restaurant

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so that's why past perfect is used and um

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so the surprise it arrived in the form of a small

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but glossy birthday cake with one pink candle burning in the center so this it arrived

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in this case the surprise arrived in the form of a cake

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so in the form of here this means

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that this is how the surprise was actually this is how

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the surprise happened this is how the surprise manifested i mean

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what was the surprise how did the surprise take shape it it arrived in the form of this birthday cake

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so the birthday cake was the surprise right um quite a nice nice phrase like you know you could use

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that in different situations the gift came in the form of a beautifully wrapped package for example their support

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that the support from my friends came in the form of

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encouraging words the solution to the problem arrived in the form

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of innovative new technology help arrived in the form of my wife who came to rescue me from an awkward conversation

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okay in this case the surprise arrived in the form of a birthday cake a small

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but glossy birthday cake so the birthday cake is small but glossy so glossy this adjective just means shiny and smooth

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so that for example the light reflects off the top of it

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so this means it's one of those quite smart quite fancy cakes

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that you see in sort of good quality cake shops

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so it's got a a kind of cover of i don't

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know what the cover would be like a glazed cover on the top of the cake

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which means it's shiny right a glossy cake

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so it's a fairly fancy cake even though it's small

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and it's got one pink candle i mean the pink candle is a detail an interesting detail

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um is this part of the reason why the the husband seems to be embarrassed is it

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because of the the way the cake looks it's a little bit ridiculous

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or a little bit funny

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or even a little bit sad just one single birthday one single candle in the middle of this small cake

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i mean the little pink candle might make him feel a bit ridiculous especially

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if he is full of himself and self -satisfied and smug and arrogant i mean he thinks he's very important person

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you know and then i'm an important person in in you know in society

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and then the this cake arrives this little cake with one pink candle i mean it's a lovely sweet gesture

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and you know um we just want him to be touched by this

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but in fact no he's that's not the way he this

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guy works instead he's embarrassed by this what we want is

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for him to i mean he could feel embarrassed like that's okay

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but you'd want him to feel embarrassed

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and then to kind of blush you know to go red in the face

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and then maybe to to kiss his wife

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and say thank you to her

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and tell her how much he loves her you know

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because she made the effort to get this cake for him

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but he doesn't do that he doesn't instead he's just angry and embarrassed by it which is just really sad

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the head waiter brought it in and placed it before the husband

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and meanwhile the violin and piano orchestra played happy birthday to you

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so the head waiter this is like the the most important

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waiter in the restaurant the person who's in charge of all the other waiters

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so this probably this means

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that the wife probably asked the restaurant to make a special effort here

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which again shows us how much care she put into this

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that she actually spoke to the head waiter and everything

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and uh it was the head waiter who brought the cake

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so they're taking it you know fairly seriously he placed it before the husband he placed it

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so this is the sort of thing a good waiter would

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do waiters don't just put the plates on the table they

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place it meaning they put it down very carefully exactly in the right spot

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so the waiter the head waiter came in

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and he placed the cake down in front of him

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and meanwhile the the orchestra played happy birthday right

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so meanwhile just means at the same time okay you could

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replace the word meanwhile with the phrase at the same time

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so the head waiter brought the cake

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and at the same time the orchestra played happy birthday happy birthday to you oh god

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and the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise she beamed with pride

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so to beam in this case this means

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that her face glowed her face sort of glowed with pride right now to beam means

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that light comes out for example a torch

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if you've got a torch

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which you use to you know to see it in the

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dark you turn the torch on a flashlight they call it in american english a torch that

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when the light comes out the end of the torch it

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beams out similarly the headlights of your car the light beams

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out of your headlights a lighthouse the light beams out

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so in this case her face beamed with pride right with shy pride

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okay pride to feel proud she's happy she's satisfied with what

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she's done she's put a lot of effort into this she's

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hoping this is going to go well uh she's really trying hard

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and when the cake comes in her face beamed with shy pride i mentioned a torch

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and a flashlight torch in british english

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and flashlight in american english there is a there's only a

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couple of moments in this story where it's obviously american english for example the spelling of the word center

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the birthday cake with one pink candle burning in the center

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c -e -n -t -e -r in american english c -e -n -t -r -e in british english

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but it's otherwise it's this is just an example of how

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for the most part this story just shows how american english

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and british english are just like identical because there aren't really many other differences that i can notice

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so the the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise

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and such few people as there were in the restaurant meaning

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you know the the even the small number of people in

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the restaurant tried to help out with a pattering of applause so applause is

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when people clap right at the end of a theater play

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or at the end of a music concert people applaud

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and there is applause right a pattering of applause means like

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a little bit of applause like just a few people kind

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of clapping a little bit in the background okay right the

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sound of a few people clapping it became clear at once

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that help was needed because the husband was not pleased

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so it became clear meaning it became obvious it became clear at once at once meaning immediately

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so it became obvious immediately it became clear at once

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that help was needed it's interesting that the writer has used was needed

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which is passive voice because needed by who right she doesn't actually say it directly

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but we know that we're talking about the wife

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that the wife needed help and you know the the writer is the narrator obviously sees

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that the woman is helpless in this situation she's in trouble

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but nobody can help her without making it worse it became clear

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that help was needed by not mentioning by not saying it

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directly it somehow makes it a bit more powerful it became clear at once

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that the wife needed help is a bit too direct but saying it became clear at once that help was needed

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somehow is a bit more discreet by not putting the wife right into the middle of the sentence

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you know it makes it a little bit more impersonal anyway it became clear at once

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that help was needed by the wife

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because the husband was not pleased instead he was hotly embarrassed

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so we know embarrassed

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but hotly embarrassed now that's not a very common collocation we don't often say hotly embarrassed

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but it's good use of language

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because it does tell us about how the husband felt

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and he wasn't just embarrassed but he was angry and embarrassed right

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and embarrassed and angry and you can imagine

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that his face was bright red

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and uh you know we associate heat in emotion we associate heat

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and being hot with anger and strong emotions

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so he was hotly embarrassed suggests that he was like really embarrassed

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and also angry and he was indignant so indignant means angry annoyed frustrated

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which is a pity that that was his reaction um you looked at him

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and you saw this and you thought oh now don't be like

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that don't be like that don't be

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that way okay don't be don't be angry don't be like

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that but he was like that and as soon as the little cake had been deposited on the table

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and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece

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and the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman

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so as soon as the birthday cake had been deposited so deposited it's fairly it just means put on the table.

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It's slightly formal, slightly impersonal language, right, just deposited on the table.

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It sounds...

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I don't know it just sounds slightly transactional language like you

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know normally we'd say money is deposited into a bank account right

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so it's kind of slightly cold transactional language as soon as

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the cake had been deposited on the table we start to get a sort of sense of an emotional detachment

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or something maybe I'm reading too much into it

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but it was interesting the the use of the word deposited just means put on the table delivered

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and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece

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and the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman

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so attention shifted it had shifted as soon as right as soon as

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and then past perfect meaning as soon as

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when all these things had been completed the man said something

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so once all that he waited for all those things to be done right

455

so once they were done and finished that's

456

when he chose to say what he said

457

so the general attention had shifted from the man

458

and the woman shifted just means moved right moved away

459

so everyone was looking at the couple when the cake arrived

460

but then people's attention shifted away from them it moved away from them and

461

when all of those things had happened i saw him say

462

something to her under his breath some punishing thing quick and curt and unkind

463

so i saw him say something to her under his breath

464

so under to say something under your breath means to say something in a very quiet voice in a whisper

465

so that other people can't hear like

466

you say something under your breath if you're trying to whisper uh

467

so other people can't hear you right

468

so to whisper to say something under your breath um some punishing thing punishing

469

so a comment that was designed to punish her to make her feel bad

470

because in his mind the thing that she'd done was not good and

471

so he says something nasty to her as a sort of

472

punishment a punishing comment a comment that's going to make her feel bad

473

we don't know what it is right we don't know what

474

he said to her we can only imagine what he said to her right

475

but i mean it's probably something like you know how dare

476

you embarrass me like this in public you know some stupid cake

477

or something that's you know going to really hurt some punishing thing quick

478

and curt and unkind

479

so quick meaning just a few words curt curt this adjective

480

means this adjective means brief right with a few only like a short thing to say

481

but rudely brief right rude because it's so short

482

and unkind unkind meaning cruel so it would be something like how dare you

483

or how stupid of you something like that

484

and then the writer continues i couldn't bear to look at the woman then

485

so i stared at my plate

486

and waited for quite a long time i couldn't bear to look right can't bear couldn't bear now

487

if you can't bear to do something it just means you

488

you can't stand doing it you just can't it's too painful too uncomfortable to do it for example

489

looking at the the couple because the this poor woman is

490

so upset and the man is so angry and so unreasonable

491

and mean and it's just she couldn't bear to look so we say can't bear to do something

492

we say can't stand doing something

493

and we also can say can't bring myself to do something

494

i just couldn't i couldn't bear to look i couldn't bring myself to look i can't stand seeing things like

495

that um and the story continues not long enough though so she because she looked at her plate

496

and waited for quite a long time

497

but not long enough though notice the the use of the word though at the end i've mentioned this before

498

but um though at the end like that it's like saying

499

but right but we normally put but in between two contrasting things

500

so i i looked at my plate for a long time

501

but not long enough

502

but we can use though at the end right i looked

503

at my plate for a long time not long enough though

504

so it does the same job as saying but in the middle

505

but we just put it at the end it's very common in spoken english

506

so not long enough though because she was still crying

507

when i finally glanced over there again so

508

when i glanced uh to glance is just to look quickly

509

so she was looking at her plate and she had a quick look so just glanced looked quickly

510

because she was still crying

511

when she glanced over at them crying quietly and heartbrokenly

512

and hopelessly all to herself under the gay big brim of her best hat

513

so this is really heartbreaking like the really heartbreaking part right it does tell you the way in

514

which she's crying that she's just feels so sad

515

and lonely at this point

516

and it's from a language point of view there's adverbs here

517

right how was she crying she was crying quietly she was

518

crying heartbrokenly she was crying hopelessly she was crying all to herself

519

and she was crying under the gay big brim of her best hat

520

so crying quietly i think we understand that crying heartbrokenly because she felt heartbroken because of the

521

behavior the actions the the the reaction of this husband this horrible husband

522

quiet crying hopelessly where yeah i suppose even

523

when she's tried really hard to do something cute

524

and special on his birthday the way he reacted was just like

525

so far away from what she hoped that that kind of couldn't break someone's hope right so she's

526

crying with a deep sense of hopelessness all to herself

527

so she was doing it all by herself meaning on her own

528

but also crying to herself not crying to anyone else

529

so you've got crying all by herself

530

which means she was crying on her own

531

but crying all to herself means

532

that she was the only audience of her crying like the husband didn't even really care

533

or wasn't even giving her attention to the fact giving attention to the fact

534

that she was crying

535

so she was just all on her own crying to herself

536

she was the only witness the only audience to her crying right the husband apparently doesn't care

537

and doing this under the gay big brim of her best hat

538

so this is a particularly sad image because of the contrast between this lovely otherwise exuberant hat

539

and the actual feeling of the woman underneath it it should have been a happy carefree occasion

540

but she's just heartbroken so that emphasizes the sadness the the contrast between the two things

541

but the gay big brim of her hat

542

so the brim the brim is the part the route the bit

543

that goes around the edge of the hat the widest part

544

that's the edge of the hat the brim of the hat okay

545

if it's a baseball cap the baseball cap has a brim at the front

546

and you can slide it around the back

547

if you want you can bend the brim of the hat

548

if it's a you know another type of hat the brim

549

goes all the way around in this case it was a big brim

550

and the gay big brim of her hat

551

so i mean this this shows i guess the age of the story

552

because we don't normally use the word gay like that these days

553

because it used to just mean happy carefree happy uh these days obviously it means something else

554

but in those days it just meant carefree and happy

555

so that's why that's why the word gay is being used here her her happy uh carefree um exuberant hat

556

that she was wearing uh she was crying all by herself

557

uh all to herself underneath the the brim of this of this of this hat um

558

and that's the end of the story okay hmm what do you think of

559

that i'd like to know your comments uh feel free to

560

leave your comments in the comment section what do you think of the situation

561

um so you know what do you think the husband said any idea what he might have said

562

how do you think the woman uh felt in that moment the wife have you ever witnessed

563

something you know when when people watching um what did you think of the story

564

um other things remember you could practice repeating

565

that story after me just go back to the beginning of

566

the episode to the moment where i told the story line

567

by line you could just practice reading through it again

568

and again um

569

and as i said before you should try perhaps retelling the story in your own words too

570

and another exercise you could do another little speaking challenge

571

that you could do would be to remember a time

572

when you saw some people doing something when you people watched

573

and you saw something happen could you describe

574

that do you think you could make

575

that into a story it would be a good exercise for

576

your english practice practice practice practice practice practice the five p's okay that's the end of this episode

577

if you like uh my story episodes obviously i've done a few of these now

578

which you can find in my episode archive um learn english with a short story

579

but i've got others as well i've done about 10 story episodes in my premium podcast and

580

so you can subscribe to the premium podcast you can add

581

all the premium episodes to a podcast app on your phone

582

and when you do

583

that you can listen to the episodes you can also access

584

links in the show notes for each episode links for pdfs

585

and video versions

586

and i've done yeah about 10 story episodes most of those

587

stories in the premium section are true stories about my own life

588

that i've written myself including stories of my childhood like stuff that's sort of funny stuff that happened to me.

589

And I do a similar thing to what I do in these Learn English with a Short Story episodes.

590

Tell you the story, and then break it down for vocabulary, and then give you various grammar,

591

vocabulary, practice exercises, memory exercises to help you remember the vocabulary,

592

and then dedicated pronunciation episodes to help you practice repeating after me.

593

That's what you can find in those storytime episodes in my premium subscription.

594

yeah okay the way it works is you sign up and

595

when you've signed up you can just really easily add your premium subscription to a podcast app on your phone

596

and then it gives you the full list of all of

597

my episodes all of my free episodes with no advertising

598

and also all my premium episodes in there too

599

and then you can just listen to the normal episodes listen to the premium episodes

600

and then find the notes uh in the show notes that's where you find links for video versions

601

and pdfs okay so if you want to do

602

that you can just you know be my guest of course teacherluke .co .uk slash premium info

603

or just click the link in the description to find out

604

about luke's english podcast premium okay great have a lovely day

605

afternoon morning evening night wherever you are in the world whatever you're doing i hope

606

that you are having a nice time out there in podcast

607

land thank you for listening to this episode i will speak to you again soon uh in the next one

608

but for now it's just time to say goodbye bye bye bye bye bye

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Shadowing Practice: 872. The Birthday Party (Learn English with a Short Story) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?