Pratique du Shadowing: Day at the Beach | Learn Australian English with a Short Story - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
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G'day, mate.
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Have you ever wondered how Australians talk about going to the beach in English?
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By the end of this episode, you are going to know a whole bunch of slang and expressions that Aussies use every day when talking about the beach.
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So, the plan is that we're going to dive into a fun little short story about going to the beach.
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Three mates that go to the beach on a scorcher of a day.
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I'm going to play this story for you to begin with.
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I'm then going to break down the vocab, the interesting vocab that's used in the story, including slang and idioms
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and then at the end i'm going to play the story for you one more time
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so you can check your comprehension now before we get started
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i recommend grabbing a drink grabbing something to nibble on
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and grabbing a notepad so
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that you can obviously take notes there's a free worksheet today you'll be able to see
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that on screen here it is linked in the description below
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you can get this now pause the video print it out
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and take notes on this worksheet
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if you want it'll have the transcript of the video it'll have the glossary for the vocab
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and it'll also have a bonus 20 -question quiz that you can do in your own time after the lesson as well.
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All right, so hopefully you got your drink and you got some snacks.
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Let's get into the story the first time.
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It was a scorching day, Saturday morning, and Jamie and his friends Lily and Mark were itching to get outside.
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It's too nice to stay home.
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Let's hit the beach, Jamie called to his friends.
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They packed their bathers, towels and loaded the esky with food and drinks before driving off to the beach.
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By noon, they arrived at the coast.
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The sun was blazing and the beach was chockers with people, but they managed to find a spot near the water and parked the car on the sand.
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Blimey, it's packed, Jamie said, looking around.
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Everyone's out to catch some Ray's today.
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Lily, already wearing her sunnies, grinned as she took them off.
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You can catch Ray's later, she said.
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Let's go for a dip first.
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It's way too hot to just sit here.
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As they stripped down to their bathers, Jamie suddenly realised he'd forgotten his.
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Damn it, I've only got my jocks.
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Mark chuckled.
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Well, they'll have to do.
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Just make sure you don't lose them in the surf, or you're on your own.
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Lily laughed as she ran down to the water.
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If that happens, at least it'll scare the sharks away, Jamie.
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The water was perfect, but the surf wasn't doing much.
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Looks like the water's flat as a tack, Jamie commented, watching a few surfers floating around aimlessly.
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Not much action today.
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Mark, who had brought his surfboard, sighed in disappointment.
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I was hoping to catch some waves, but it's not happening.
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Look at all the shark biscuits out there with nothing to do.
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He decided to leave the surfboard on the sand and join them for a swim instead.
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After cooling off in the water, they returned to their towels and cracked open the esky to grab some cold drinks.
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Jamie stretched out and sighed contentedly.
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Ugh, I could do this all day.
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Guess I'm turning into a beach bum.
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Mark laughed.
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Mate, you already are.
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He lay back and added, Still, I'm stoked we made it out here.
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Nothing beats a sunny day at the beach.
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Just then, a gust of wind blew through and Lily, who had been trying to balance on the edge of a small wave took a tumble right into the water.
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She quickly popped up laughing.
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Well, that wasn't graceful, but no worries, she said, flicking the water from her hair.
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After a while, they decided to head back to the car, but when they reached it, they realised they were stuck.
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We're bogged, Jamie groaned, shaking his head.
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Knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
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With some help from a friendly passerby, they finally managed to get the car free.
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As they packed up their gear and prepared to leave, Jamie took one last look at the ocean and smiled.
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You know what, he said, grinning.
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Despite getting bogged and missing the waves, that was a great day.
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Fair dinkum.
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I wouldn't trade it for anything.
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His friends nodded in agreement.
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Same time next weekend, Mark asked.
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Absolutely, Lily replied.
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And Jamie, don't forget your budgie smugglers next time.
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They all laughed as they drove off, ready to plan their next beach adventure.
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Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the story.
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I now have the PDF up on screen in front of me
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and we'll go through it line by line
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and we'll also talk about the vocab that is used in the story as we reach it.
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Okay, it was a scorching day, Saturday morning.
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And Jamie and his friends, Lily and Mark, were itching to get outside.
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So, it was a scorching day.
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In Australia, we often say scorching as an adjective to describe a very hot day.
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Oh, man, today was scorching.
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We can also use this as a noun, a scorcher, a scorcher of a day.
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How was yesterday?
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It was pretty hot, right?
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It was a scorcher, a scorcher.
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So, we use that quite a lot.
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The other interesting vocab in the first sentence here is itching to do something, right?
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They said, Lily and Mark were itching to get outside.
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If you are itching to do something, it means you really want to do that thing.
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It's like gagging to do something.
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You're keen to do something.
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You are itching to do that thing.
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I'm itching to see my friends.
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I'm itching to go to the beach, okay?
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Itching to do something.
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All right, the next sentence.
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It's too nice to stay home.
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Let's hit the beach which Jamie called to his friends.
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So, this is the first piece of vocab that I've got here.
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This is an expression to hit the beach.
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Aussies use this all the time and I'm sure you can work out what it means.
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It means to go to the beach.
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I guess the idea is like your bodies are going to get to the beach and go onto the beach.
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You're like metaphorically hitting the beach, not literally.
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I guess you could trip over and your body could hit the beach.
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But metaphorically here or figuratively, we're saying hit the beach as in to go to the beach.
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So, I love hitting the beach with my friends in summer.
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My kids and I, we might hit the beach this weekend.
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Let's keep going.
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So, they packed their bathers, towels and loaded the esky with food and drinks before driving off to the beach.
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They packed their bathers.
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Bathers is one of the several slang terms we use in Australia for swimwear.
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So, I think this is typically Victoria, South Australia.
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It might be Perth, Western Australia as well, and Tasmania.
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It's that southern part of Australia.
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We use bathers.
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I then think that people from New South Wales will say things like togs and maybe cosy as well.
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I think Queensland too.
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It's up north in New South Wales and Queensland, they'll use togs and cosy a little more frequently than bathers.
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I think bathers is definitely a very south part of Australia slang term.
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And then we have the word esky here.
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Esky.
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And esky, that is a cooler, right, where you put food to keep it cool.
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It's like an insulated box where you can put ice and then you can put your drinks in there.
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You can put your food in there and you usually take it to a party.
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You might take it to the beach.
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Funnily enough, you can take it to many different places.
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Next sentence.
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By noon, they arrived at the coast.
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The sun was blazing and the beach was chockers with people.
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But they managed to find a spot near the water and parked the car on the sand.
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So, most of this is going to be pretty easy, I think, for you guys.
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The sun was blazing. That would...
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It's sort of like scorching.
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I guess the idea is it's very bright, right?
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The sun was blazing.
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It was very bright, hot sun.
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and the beach was chockers.
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Chockers here is short for chocker block and these are both slang terms
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that just mean very full and you can use this about items, you know, your esky might be chocker block, it might be chockers full of food and drinks,
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but you could also use it when talking about people.
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The beach is absolutely chockers and the rest of the, I guess, insinuation there is that it's chockers with people.
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It's chockers, it's chock a block full of other human beings, right?
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So, it's interesting how we shorten it there.
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Well, actually, we didn't shorten it here, but you could just say the beach is chockers.
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Here, we did say the beach was chockers with people.
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So, that's a really cool phrase that you'll hear all the time in Australian English.
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Blimey, it's packed, Jamie said, looking around.
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Everyone's out to catch some rays today.
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So, there's some interesting vocabulary.
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Firstly, blimey.
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This is an interesting word.
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We use this sort of like to show shock, surprise that you're impressed by something.
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Blimey.
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It's similar to crikey or if you wanted to get religious, you could say Jesus, you know.
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Well, you don't have to be religious to say Jesus, but we often use that.
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Bloody hell, you could use that too.
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And you could use a number of other rude words to show that you're shocked or surprised.
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Blimey is not rude.
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We don't really see that as rude.
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It probably was once upon a time.
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Nowadays, you can say it and it's kind of like, it's informal, but it's not going to turn heads like, whoa, what did he say?
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You know, oh my God, he said blimey.
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It's packed.
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Pact is similar to chockers, right?
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So, these things are echoing one another.
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Chockers, the narrator was using this to say that the beach was full of people.
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And then Jamie here is saying, blimey, it's packed.
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Packed.
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It's packed full of people.
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It's packed with people.
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And you could also say it's packed to the rafters.
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This is another expression that I guess means...
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There are a lot of people in a single house.
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I think that would be the idea.
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It's a TV show as well that was on TV, I think, probably over a decade ago.
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The idea being there were lots of people living in a single house packed to the rafters.
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But yes, packed, chockers, very full.
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Jamie said, looking around, everyone's out to catch some rays today.
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So, if you catch some rays, these are rays from the sun, right?
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The sun is shining rays down on the earth.
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That is the light and the UV, which I guess is a form of light and you are catching it with your body, right?
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So, if you're catching rays, you're sunbathing, you're sunbaking, you're out there trying to get a tan
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or you could use this just meaning you're outside wanting to enjoy the sun, right?
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Catching some rays.
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So, this is another good expression.
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I don't think this is unique to Australia.
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You can probably use this all over the world.
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You know, you can catch some rays in the UK, you can do it in America and people would get the idea.
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here.
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Lily, already wearing her sunnies, grinned as she took them off.
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You can catchphrase later, she said.
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Let's go for a dip first.
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It's way too hot to just sit here.
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So, sunnies, the first phrase here.
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Lily, already wearing her sunnies.
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So, she's obviously pulled out her sunglasses and she's put her sunnies, as we call them in Australia, her sunglasses on, right?
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She's wearing her sunnies.
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Grinned as she took them off.
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I guess she took them off as soon as you put them on.
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You can catch some rays later.
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Now, we have catch some rays later.
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You can sit on the beach.
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You can suntan.
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You can sunbathe.
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You can do that later on.
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Let's go for a dip first.
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So, to go for a dip.
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A dip here means a swim.
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And if you go for a dip, which is a common expression we use in Australia, this is to go for a swim.
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You can go for a dip at the beach.
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You can go for a dip at the pool.
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If you go to a farm that has a huge dam, you might go for a dip in the dam.
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You could go to a river and go for a dip.
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So, it is to go for a swim.
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Let's continue on.
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As they stripped down to their bathers, Jamie suddenly realised he'd forgotten his.
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Damn it.
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I've only got my jocks.
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So, firstly, I'll probably go through the phrasal verb, stripped down to something.
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If you're wearing clothes and you stripped down to something, the idea is that you've taken off a certain amount of that clothing and that you probably still have your underwear on.
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I don't know if you would say you stripped down to nudity, being naked.
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You would say you just stripped down if you got completely naked, right?
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So, if you stripped down to something, you can strip down to your underwear, you could strip down to your socks, you could strip down to your bathers.
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It's usually that you've taken off most of your clothes
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and you only have one or two items left on your body to strip down to something.
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And I guess that's the reason we're using down, right?
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We're reducing the amount of clothing we're wearing.
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Damn it!
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Another good little expression here to show frustration or anger.
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Sort of like blimey, I guess, but it's more frustration and anger.
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You wouldn't see an amazing sunset and say, damn it, you know?
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I mean, I guess you could, but it would be like, why is the sunset making you angry, man?
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It's a beautiful thing.
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Whereas here, he's realized he's only got his underwear, he's only got his jocks, and so, he said in frustration and anger, damn it, right?
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Damn it.
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And yes, jocks, jocks means underwear, right, you're jocks, you're underwear.
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And we can also call these undies in Australian English, undies.
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Mark chuckled.
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Well, they'll have to do.
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Just make sure you don't lose them in the surf or you're on your own.
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So, there wasn't any vocab I highlighted in this phrase, but there is some interesting stuff that we can talk about.
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They'll have to do.
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So, if something has to do or you have to make do with something, the idea here is that it will need to suffice.
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That's going to have to be enough.
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They'll have to do.
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Look, mate, you're coming for a swim.
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I don't care if you've got your jocks or you got nothing.
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You're coming for a swim, mate.
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Whatever you've got will have to do.
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You'll have to make do.
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It'll have to suffice.
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It'll have to be enough.
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Okay?
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Just make sure you don't lose them in the surf.
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So, the idea here would be in the surf, in the waves, in the surf, and losing your jocks, like you were swimming around and they'd come off when you catch a wave or something,
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you lose them in the surf, or you're on your own.
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And this is one of those phrases that when you say it, it sounds really funny.
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You're on your own.
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You're on your own.
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You're on your own.
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You're on your own.
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I guess it rhymes, right?
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It's got the your, your, your.
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So, you're on your own this would be like, we're going to abandon you.
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You are by yourself.
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We're not helping.
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You know, if you lose your jocks, it's not my problem, buddy.
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You are by yourself.
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You're going to be in the beach or in the surf naked.
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We're going to be on the beach and you can deal with the repercussions.
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I don't want to deal with that, right?
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I'm not taking off my bathers to give to you, then I'll be naked.
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So, yes, you're on your own.
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You are all by yourself.
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I'm not helping.
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That's a good phrase to learn.
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You're on your own.
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Lily laughed as she ran down to the water.
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We often use down and up when talking about...
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the beach.
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So, you run up the beach, the idea here being that it's away from the water.
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Although, I guess you could use this to mean away from someone if you're running along a beach, especially if it was like going north -south, you could probably use up and down in that way too,
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like he ran up the beach.
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It would be like, yeah, he ran along the beach but up away from me, or he ran down the beach to someone.
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But here the idea is down the beach would be towards the water, up the beach would be away from the water towards the sand.
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So, it's an interesting thing to think about when you break it down.
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Lily laughed as she ran down to the water.
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If that happens, at least it'll scare the sharks away, Jamie.
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So, to scare something away, to cause something to be afraid to go away from you, right?
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And she's making the joke that obviously if Jamie's naked, it's going to freak the sharks out.
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Hey, mate, do you want to speak Australian English just like a fair dinkum Aussie?
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If you do, then check out my English expressions 30 -day challenge.
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Every single day for a month, you will get a new lesson that is going to teach you dozens of new expressions,
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idioms, and advanced collocations in Australian English and English more generally.
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Every single lesson includes a short story based in Australia, which is chock -a -block full of English expressions, idioms, and advanced collocations.
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At the end of this, you will have a short quiz
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that you can do to test your listening comprehension too
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And you only need to study about 10 to 15 minutes a day
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So if you want to check this out
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and you want to get 50 % off Check out the link in the description
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or go to aussieenglish .com .au forward slash expressions And use the coupon code 50 % off Okay,
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so once again, go to aussieenglish .com .au forward slash expressions And use the coupon code 50 % off off.
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To save, you guessed it, 50 % off.
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Anyway, back to the lesson.
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The water was perfect, but the surf wasn't doing much.
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Looks like the water's flat as a tack, Jamie commented, watching a few surfers floating around aimlessly.
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Not much action today.
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So, flat as a tack.
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We can use this to mean very flat, obviously, in terms of the water and the waves and the surf at the beach today.
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So, if it was, if you had really large surf, if you had huge waves, I don't know what would be the opposite of flat here.
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You wouldn't really, I don't know if you would really use another phrase in the case of the ocean, you know, saying it's very pointy today.
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It's not flat.
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It's very, I guess you could use rough, but rough would describe kind of waves everywhere, not very clean waves at the beach, if you understand what I mean.
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So, flat as a tack here.
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We could use this to mean other things, which I'll probably won't cover in this episode because it'll get banned from YouTube.
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No, it probably won't, but it's probably inappropriate.
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But you can use this, yeah, in the other senses as well to mean just very, very flat.
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I don't know what the deal is with tack being used here.
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There's probably a reason.
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I probably should have looked this up ahead of time, but flat as a tack.
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I think it's mainly used because it rhymes.
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Tacks don't tend to be flat.
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Maybe it's talking about the top of a tack, which is like a nail, kind of like a sharp nail with a flat top that you can push into something or you can hammer into something.
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It's probably talking about the top as opposed to the sharp point on it.
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Jamie commented, watching a few surfers floating around aimlessly.
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So, this would be like they're floating in the water and they don't have a purpose.
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There's no waves to come, so it's aimless.
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There's no aim for them, right?
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They're doing that aimlessly.
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Not much action today.
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Action here would mean like a lot of things going on.
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There's not much surf in this case there's not much action.
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You could go to the city hoping that a lot of stuff is going on.
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And if you went out, you know, you got off the tram or a train and you saw that it was dead, you might be like, well, there's not much action today either.
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So, there's not much going on, right?
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There's not much happening.
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Mark, who had brought his surfboard, sighed in disappointment.
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I was hoping to catch some waves, but it's not happening.
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So, we'll break down the first bit there.
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So, Mark, He brought his surfboard along to the beach.
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He sighed in disappointment like, oh, this is, you know, this sucks.
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This is lame.
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There's no waves.
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I was hoping to catch some waves.
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Another really cool expression we use to mean use a surfboard, to go body surfing, to use a bodyboard,
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whatever it is, to interact with surf waves, catch them, as in get on them and ride those waves, right?
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So, catch some waves, to surf some waves.
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But it's not happening.
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Look at all the shark biscuits out there with nothing to do.
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He decided to leave the surfboard on the sand and join them for a swim instead.
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So, shark biscuits I wanted to include here.
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This is an interesting Aussie slang term
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that can be used to mean a beginner who is surfing and I think it's probably fine to use it for surfers,
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people bodyboarding, body surfing, people interacting with surf, with waves, right?
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They're shark biscuits.
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But I've also heard it used about bodyboards or probably surfboards too, the idea being like it's sort of like a biscuit, right, that a shark could bite onto.
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But in the case of people and going out and surfing, I guess the broader idea is that sharks could just come along and be like, yum, you know, take a bite of that person,
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that surfboard, and that's the biscuit, the shark biscuit. So, it's just a bit of colourful Australian slang that you can use down under when talking about people surfing in the waves.
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After cooling off in the water, they returned to their towels and cracked open the esky to grab some cold drinks.
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So, they cooled off in the water.
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We've used another phrasal verb here as opposed to warm up.
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Those are the sort of two opposites or heat up.
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So, cool down, warm up, heat up, down and up.
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You'll notice those being used there.
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They returned to their towels and cracked open the esky to grab some cold drinks.
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Crack.
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We can use this as sort of like informal Australian slang to mean to open something, to crack something open.
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It's similar to things like to grab something, to chuck something, to crack something open.
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We use that quite a lot.
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So, learn those types of phrases.
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It's informal, but it sounds a lot more natural as opposed to saying something like, they opened up the esky, you know.
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You could do that, but crack something open is pretty good.
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You can use it for drinks too.
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You might grab a beer and crack it open.
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What else could could you crack open?
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There's a lot of things you could crack open, I think.
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You know, a container.
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Yeah.
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Well, I guess an Esky is a container.
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So, Jamie stretched out and sighed contentedly.
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He sighed contentedly.
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Don't forget that adverb.
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You know, he's feeling good.
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He's sighing, but he's feeling good.
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Sort of like relaxation.
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I could do this all day.
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Guess I'm turning into a beach bum.
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So, a beach bum here.
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Bum can be used many different ways.
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Obviously, you've got your bum on your body.
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You know, I'm sitting on my bum at the moment.
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But a beach bum would usually be someone who just hangs around the beach all the time, right?
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A beach bum.
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We use that a lot.
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Mark laughed.
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Mate, you already are.
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You know, you're already a beach bum.
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He lay back, again, probably sighing, and added, still, I'm stoked we made it here.
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Nothing beats a sunny day at the beach." So, there's a few things here.
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Still, I'm stoked.
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I'm excited.
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I'm really happy.
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I'm chuffed.
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You know, these are slang terms.
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I think they're used by Americans as well, but Australians definitely use things like stoked, probably because we learn it from them,
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assuming it's not ours, and chuffed to mean very happy, you know, excited.
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I'm stoked.
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I'm chuffed.
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I'm stoked.
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We made it here.
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If you make it somewhere, it's that you successfully got to that place.
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You successfully arrived.
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So, someone might make it to your party.
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Oh, we made it on time.
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I thought we were going to be late, but we made it to the party and we made it on time.
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So, it's sort of a synonym for arrive somewhere.
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Just then, a gust of wind blew through and Lily, who had been trying to balance on the edge of a small wave, took a tumble right into the water.
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So, to take a tumble, another good expression here, to take a tumble.
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It sounds weird, right?
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It's sort of like you just took it and then what?
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You just ran off with it?
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No. To take a tumble is to fall over.
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The idea being you tumble over, right?
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You fall and I guess you've taken yourself and thrown yourself into a tumble, but yes.
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I don't know why we use take here as opposed to like go on a tumble, do a tumble.
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It's just the expression to take a tumble.
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Oh man, he took a tumble.
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Fell down the stairs and took a tumble.
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So, it's kind of like fall down, but sort of rolling and probably worse than just fall over or trip over, right?
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To take a tumble.
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You could also use to wipe out, especially when talking about catching waves.
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So, in the case here, Lily was surfing on a small wave.
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When you fall off a surfboard or you effectively crash while surfing a wave, that is to wipe out, right?
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To wipe out.
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She quickly popped up laughing.
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So, to pop up would be like to quickly come up, right, so she could pop up.
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She could pop up out of the water.
437
She quickly popped up laughing.
438
Well, that wasn't graceful, but no worries, she said, flicking the water from her hair.
439
Yeah, I can't really do that on camera.
440
It's a very quick flick if I have water in my hair.
441
My hair doesn't hold much water, to be honest. So, no worries.
442
We can use this in Australian English to mean, ah, it's not a problem, right?
443
Ah, don't stress.
444
Ah, well, you know, no worries, no dramas.
445
You can use both of those.
446
No worries, no dramas, you know.
447
So, she's saying, ah, it's not a big deal, you know.
448
Okay.
449
After a while, they decided to head back to the car.
450
So, to head somewhere, this is to go somewhere, to go in a certain direction, to head back to the car.
451
They came from the car.
452
Now, they're heading back to the car.
453
But when they reached it, so the idea here being they arrived at the car, they reached the car, they arrived at it, they realised they were stuck.
454
We're bogged, Jamie groaned, shaking his head.
455
Knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
456
Bogged.
457
If you get bogged, this is for your wheels to effectively dig a hole in sand, mud, dirt, and the car can't move, right?
458
Or the vehicle can't move.
459
It can be a truck, can be whatever you want.
460
If it's got wheels, typically it's not going to be something like a bike
461
or a scooter because you can probably just pull that out of the mud.
462
I guess, you know, if it did get stuck, you could say it's bogged.
463
But usually it's going to be some kind of motorized vehicle like a car.
464
So, a four -wheel drive might be driving up a four -wheel drive track.
465
It's black, it's muddy, it's wet, it's raining and all of a sudden it gets bogged, it gets stuck and it has to be helped out.
466
Maybe you've got to push it, you've got to put sticks under the tires and lever it up.
467
Maybe you've got to use a winch
468
or a strap on someone else's car to get you out of your situation being bogged.
469
And then something interesting to mention here, knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
470
What's happened there at the start of this phrase?
471
We've got some, I think it's elision, elision or ellipsis.
472
It's one of those two where the pronoun is missing.
473
I knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
474
Now, when learning English, you're probably taught quite often that you need to always be using pronouns.
475
You can't like Spanish and Portuguese, just drop the pronoun and use the verb
476
because conjugation allows you to know which pronoun should have been in front of that verb.
477
That was something that was a pain in the ass to get my head around when I was learning French.
478
Not French, but Portuguese, Portuguese and Spanish.
479
But funnily enough, in spoken English, we do this all the time when it's obvious, especially when you're speaking to someone, right?
480
So, yeah, spoken English, when you are having a conversation with someone, quite often you can just drop these pronouns, whether it's you, you know,
481
you could just say, going to go to the shops later if you were talking to someone, as opposed to saying, are you going to go to the shops later?
482
Because it's obvious, you know, and in this case, knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
483
It's obvious he's talking about himself, you know, he's not saying you knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand or he knew or they knew.
484
It's obvious that he's talking about himself.
485
So, we do drop pronouns and auxiliary verbs, you know, like in that case of are you going to the shops, going to the shops.
486
So, it happens quite a lot.
487
With some help from a friendly passerby, they finally managed to get the car free.
488
Let's do that first.
489
So, a friendly passerby, a passerby is someone who is passing by.
490
So, we've turned, I guess, a phrasal verb to pass by.
491
We've turned that into a noun, a passerby.
492
I wonder why we didn't call it a passbyer, right, or a passerbyer.
493
It's interesting how they end up deciding to turn phrasal verbs into nouns.
494
A passerby by.
495
So, a passerby, a friendly passerby is someone passing by who is friendly, obviously.
496
Then they finally managed to get the car free.
497
So, they got the car free of its trap, right, of the thing that had it caught.
498
It was freed.
499
They got it free.
500
As they packed their gear and prepared to leave, Jamie took one last look at the ocean and smiled.
501
So, you take a look, don't forget, you take a look.
502
You can also have a look, you can use both.
503
He had a look at the beach.
504
He took a look at the beach.
505
You know what, he said grinning.
506
Despite getting bogged and missing the waves, that was a great day.
507
Fair dinkum.
508
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
509
So, fair dinkum.
510
This can be used in a few different ways in Australian English.
511
You could use it when talking about someone being authentic.
512
He's fair dinkum.
513
He's authentic.
514
He's serious.
515
He's being truthful.
516
You can use it when checking if someone is being truthful.
517
Fair dinkum?
518
Like, are you serious?
519
Are you telling me the truth?
520
Is that true?
521
Fair dinkum?
522
And here, it's kind of like he's, it's kind of like an exclamation, I guess.
523
He's kind of like, you know, it's sort of like, wow, you know, wow, I wouldn't trade this for the world.
524
Like, fair dinkum, like in all seriousness, like truthfully, I wouldn't trade this for the world.
525
Fair dinkum.
526
So, he's using it in that sense.
527
His friends nodded in agreement.
528
Same time next weekend?
529
Mark asked.
530
So, here, again, we've kind of shortened the sentence a great deal because context is obvious.
531
Do you want to do this the same time next weekend?
532
Shall we do this the same time next weekend?
533
So, we quite often do that in English.
534
We just shorten everything down in spoken English to make it as fast as possible.
535
Same time next weekend?
536
So, do you want to do this again next weekend at the same time.
537
Absolutely, Lily replied.
538
And Jamie, don't forget your budgie smugglers next time.
539
So, budgie smugglers.
540
I wonder if you guys have heard this colourful Australian slang term.
541
It is your bathers, your togs, your cozies, your speedos, your swimmers that are like underwear for men, budgie smugglers.
542
And the tongue in cheek joke here is that it's as if you are trying to smuggle small budgies, which are small parrots in your pants,
543
because that's what things look like.
544
Okay.
545
I'm not going to get too descriptive.
546
we'll keep it g -rated but that's the joke right budgie smugglers
547
and this it's one of those things where it is kind of grotesque in how it's describing something you know
548
when you really think about it
549
but it's used all the time it's used in the media
550
it's used you know i could talk to my kids bring
551
your budgie smuggler they would have no idea in terms of
552
what i was actually alluding to they would know what i meant get your swimmers
553
but they wouldn't you'd have to yeah i I don't know, you get to teenage years and then you're like, oh, that's what it means.
554
They all laughed as they drove off, ready to plan their next beach adventure.
555
All right, guys.
556
So, I'm going to play the story for you one more time.
557
Hopefully, this time now you have better listening comprehension.
558
You will understand a lot more of the vocab that's used here.
559
So, listen out for that.
560
Keep an eye out for it.
561
And don't forget to grab the free worksheet today as well.
562
If you haven't done that already, it's linked in the description below you will get the full transcript of the video with the highlighted vocab.
563
You will get the glossary with all of the vocabulary, a definition, and an example phrase of it being used.
564
And then right at the bottom, you will also have a quiz
565
that will obviously quiz you on the 20 different pieces of vocab and expressions that are in today's story.
566
So, again, the link is in the description.
567
It was a scorching day, Saturday morning, and Jamie and his friends, Lily and Mark, were itching to get outside.
568
It's too nice to stay home.
569
Let's hit the beach, Jamie called to his friends.
570
They packed their bathers, towels, and loaded the esky with food and drinks before driving off to the beach.
571
By noon, they arrived at the coast.
572
The sun was blazing, and the beach was chockers with people.
573
but they managed to find a spot near the water and parked the car on the sand.
574
Blimey, it's packed, Jamie said, looking around.
575
Everyone's out to catch some rays today.
576
Lily, already wearing her sunnies, grinned as she took them off.
577
You can catch rays later, she said.
578
Let's go for a dip first.
579
It's way too hot to just sit here.
580
As they stripped down to their bathers, Jamie suddenly realised he'd forgotten his.
581
Damn it, I've only got my jocks.
582
Mark chuckled.
583
Well, that'll have to do.
584
Just make sure you don't lose them in the surf or you're on your own.
585
Lily laughed as she ran down to the water.
586
If that happens, at least it'll scare the sharks away, Jamie.
587
The water was perfect, but the surf wasn't doing much.
588
Looks like the water's flat as a tack, Jamie commented, watching a few surfers floating around aimlessly.
589
Not much action today.
590
Mark, who had brought his surfboard, sighed in disappointment.
591
I was hoping to catch some waves, but it's not happening.
592
Look at all the shark biscuits out there with nothing to do.
593
He decided to leave the surfboard on the sand and join them for a swim instead.
594
After cooling off in the water, they returned to their towels and cracked open the esky to grab some cold drinks.
595
Jamie stretched out and sighed contentedly.
596
I could do this all day.
597
Guess I'm turning into a beach bum.
598
Mark laughed.
599
Mate, you already are.
600
He lay back and added, Still, I'm stoked we made it out here.
601
Nothing beats a sunny day at the beach.
602
Just then, a gust of wind blew through, and Lily, who had been trying to balance on the edge of a small wave, took a tumble right into the water.
603
She quickly popped up laughing.
604
Well, that wasn't graceful, but no worries, she said, flicking the water from her hair.
605
After a while, they decided to head back to the car, but when they reached it, they realised they were stuck.
606
We're bogged, Jamie groaned, shaking his head.
607
Knew I shouldn't have parked on the sand.
608
With some help from a friendly passerby, they finally managed to get the car free.
609
As they packed up their gear and prepared to leave, Jamie took one last look at the ocean and smiled.
610
"'You know what?' he said, grinning.
611
Despite getting bogged and missing the waves, that was a great day.
612
Fair dinkum.
613
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
614
His friends nodded in agreement.
615
Same time next weekend?
616
Mark asked.
617
Absolutely, Lily replied.
618
And Jamie, don't forget your budgie smugglers next time.
619
They all laughed as they drove off, ready to plan their next beach adventure.
620
Okay, so that's it for today, guys.
621
I really hope you enjoyed this episode.
622
Thank you so much for joining me.
623
Let me know if you have a suggestion for a future episode, so leave it as a comment below and I will see what I can do.
624
You guys seem to always have really good ideas.
625
And besides that, I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll see you next time.
626
Ta -rao!
Why Practice Speaking with This Beach Story Video?
Learning Australian English through a day-at-the-beach story gives you real-world speaking context—perfect for mastering casual conversations. The dialogue is packed with everyday slang and expressions, making it ideal for shadowing technique practice. By mimicking the rhythm and tone, you’ll learn to sound natural when talking about weekend plans, weather, or beach activities. Plus, the relatable scenario helps you remember new words faster, turning passive vocabulary into active speech.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The video uses practical structures that Aussies use daily. Here are key ones to focus on:
- “It’s a scorcher of a day”: This phrase uses “of a” to emphasize intensity, common in informal speech. Practice saying it to describe hot weather.
- “Chockers with people”: “Chockers” means crowded, and the preposition “with” connects it to the noun. Use this to talk about busy places (e.g., “The café was chockers”).
- “Flat as a tack”: This simile describes calm water. Similes like this add color to speech—try “as dry as a bone” for thirst or “as quiet as a mouse” for silence.
Common Pronunciation Traps
Australian English has unique sounds that can trip up learners. Watch for these:
- “G’day”: The “g” is soft, and “day” shortens to “die” (but not as sharp). Use shadow speak to copy the relaxed tone.
- “Esky”: Pronounced “es-kee,” not “ee-sky.” Listen closely to the short “e” sound.
- “Surf”: Aussies often drop the “r” sound, making it “suf.” Mimic this to avoid sounding too formal.
Practice shadowing the story repeatedly—pause, repeat, and focus on matching the speed and accent. You’ll soon notice your speaking flow and confidence improve!
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.