Shadowing Practice: 2397 - Experiences Part 1: How to Talk About Your Life - Learn English Speaking with Video

hey Michelle how are you today i'm good lindsay how are you fantastic fantastic what are we getting into in Allers's English today Michelle well Lindsay I I have a question um what would you

say is one of the top experiences you've had in the past year oh my gosh i It's hard to It's hard to say but probably hiking in Slovenia was amazing uh that altitude and just being in a new place was

was awesome it's usually a travel experience for me what about you Michelle oh yeah um for me I guess um I guess just it was a whirlwind of a year and um so I would just say moving in general

okay um I don't know if it was like the top experience like as if you would be traveling but it was pretty pretty awesome to move into a house and just kind of start building a new life so I

would say that yes yes i love that i love that so experience you asked me about my top experience of the year is that what we're talking about today on the show we are we are actually doing

a miniseries this is the first part um and guys stay tuned because the second part is going to be about a different way to use the word experience and we're going to do this over on the Business

English podcast so don't think if you're not you know looking to excel at work like if you're if you're just listening for fun you would like to do all English this is still going to be helpful

this is not just for business but um it's it's going to be really good for the Business English podcast uh to go ahead on over to that one and hit follow because that one is going to be coming

out very soon i love it i love it yeah go ahead and hit follow hit the follow button guys so you don't miss a single episode either here on Allers English or over on Business English but Michelle

we do have some poll results to share today we do we do all right so this is from episode 2371 was is this seat taken and Lindsay what was the poll question okay the poll question

was this is it acceptable to save seats in crowded places in your culture we had a whole interesting conversation around saving seats and we thought maybe it's kind of cultural this idea of saving

seats and especially saving more than one seat next to you right yes that was fun so yeah uh so is it acceptable to save seats in crowded places in your culture so Lindsay what were the results

all right so our listeners the verdict is yes it is acceptable for 68% of our listeners and no for 31% of people that are listening to the show very interesting breakdown here Michelle yeah I I would

definitely be curious to learn more about it's it's always those things that you don't think too much about right we don't think about oh saving seats around the world but it's it's always when you travel that's those are the things that you kind of pick up on how things are different but

you don't think about it ahead of time right it's true absolutely wow there are so many differences around the world but I think the thing that brings us together is the desire for connection I mean that's what we're coming together around here in the show so using the correct vocabulary words is

one way to do that right Michelle love it yeah exactly so talking about experience so we're going to talk about some really useful ways to refer to an important situation something you've

done something like that so this is you know when we talk about work experience that's a kind of a different way to use that word so we're going to talk about a slightly um a slightly special way to

use it so okay Lindsay what's the first one okay so the first one we're talking about today is a or an experience right so this could be anything right uh a way to describe something that you've

done again like you said so throwing out some common ones here we have a wonderful experience a terrible experience a learning experience what else Michelle might we say you could say

an unforgettable experience a unique experience a special experience sometimes might somebody might even say a once-in-a-lifetime experience right it's a cliche but it's a good one I think right

exactly exactly so let's do some examples here so um well this one is is for me it's uh I had a wonderful experience living in London i will never forget it oh for sure any kind of like we said at

the top of the show any kind of a chance to live abroad or travel is usually a wonderful experience sometimes it can be hard right um but wonderful yeah or here's another example i just had the best

experiences I've ever had at a nail salon best experience I've ever had at a nail salon you have to go there i actually went to get my nails done recently um yeah I I never do but I had a photo

shoot and I was like "Oh I have to do my nails right?" It was fun it was like pampering you put your nails in there and you know it's it was great did you get a color or were you like a more of a

neutral i just got the neutral just the gel and the neutral oh gel i know so fancy yes exactly all right here we go um you have to look at this as a learning experience you may not love every

minute of it but it will get you to the next level so yeah I think we do throw around this idea of experience and describing the experience a lot and it's part of kind of coming of age too in American

culture going to college is a learning experience separating from your parents when you're 18 19 years old is an experience right yep yep exactly i mean Lindsay what would you say you were talking

about Slovenia but any other experiences you want to share i mean what would you say has been your most unforgettable experience while traveling i know that's probably a tough question yeah they're

all pretty unforgettable i mean living in Japan was dramatically altered my life right i just had dinner with did I mention this on the show i just had dinner with someone I hadn't seen in 20 years

that I had lived not lived with in Japan but we were very close and we were trained together as a group and it changed me you know when you go do something like that when you're 24 years old

it changes how you envision the rest of your life what kind of work you're going to do and how your life is going to look right so that would be it for me yeah absolutely all right love it okay

so another thing you can just say is and this is I love this do you ever say it was an experience yeah and I love this because we could say an awful lot in not saying very much right um it's emphatic

it's generally used to say something was a little crazy maybe a little chaotic maybe there's a Yeah we're hinting at something maybe not that great right let's give an example Michelle all right little role play here hey I I heard you took your kids on the plane how was your flight with your

kids woo it was an experience so when you if you hear me say that what do like what do I possibly mean i gather that you you survived it right you came out of it um but it was not easy right that's

the key right right exactly exactly and maybe you don't want to go into all the details for me today but you're just I get it okay all right it was a little challenging what she did yeah right

right right something was a little wild it could I mean it it could be positive but it's mostly to say it was wild or chaotic i mean have you ever have you had any experiences like that recently

oh wild and chaotic experiences like that Michelle no not recently things have been relatively smooth I would say but although when I came back from California a few weeks ago I was carrying back

some heavy uh some heavy items and I had to like load up the suitcase and load it from you know from the ground to pull it up into the overhead bin that was kind of unwieldy and crazy so had

to use the leg muscles yeah yeah so you could say "Oh my gosh that was an experience." Yeah yeah for me it was going on the plane with both of my kids that's a true a true thing

i can't imagine i don't even know i I've seen it on TV but I just don't know how people do it all right Michelle we are back so is there another way that we use this term experience yeah so

this is one that comes about quite frequently I think do have you ever hear if somebody says you're paying for the experience yes you hear that yeah yeah yeah yeah totally um especially

when we're paying too much for something right exactly yep uh what kind of context would this Yeah so yeah this is an interesting one i I I I'm pretty sure this one was probably in this episode

was inspired by this expression because I feel like this comes up a lot so this is used when you want to say something maybe overpriced for the service provided or simply that the quality isn't

wonderful but there's something special or unique about it that makes it worth it so I to me I think like theme restaurant do you remember did did you have something called the Rainforest Cafe yeah it

sounds familiar sounds familiar yeah growing up you know we love to go the to the Rainforest Cafe and I'm I I actually don't know how much it was cuz I was a kid but I'm assuming it was expensive

um and like you know it's a it's a really cool atmosphere it's not that there's anything special about the food but you would say "Oh you're paying for the experience." Another one that I can think

of is do you ever go to the Stardust Diner in New York uh it sounds very familiar to I mean that one or what comes to mind for me is Benihana ah that's the ultimate right cuz you're paying to

watch people flip things in the air and you bring kids and they love it there's onions flying and there's fire going and uh a habachi yep and the food's maybe not outstanding you could get better

Japanese food somewhere else but you're paying for the experience right yes exactly um or let me think there was a Wait there was one I wanted to share um wait what's another Wait wait wait oh my

gosh i'll come back to it but so let's do a little role play okay here we go so how was the food uh the food was okay but really that's not what it's about you're paying for the experience of

course of course acrobats at your seat that's so much fun and sometimes it's okay yeah we have to decide when do we want to pay for the experience um maybe that's the event of the weekend right and

that's what we're paying for but sometimes you're thinking okay I just want good food right so I'm going to more low-key and unknown right right so that actually now I know what I was going to say i was going to go back to the Stardust Diner so the Stardust Diner is a restaurant in New York and

it's it's very popular and it's kind of aspiring um actors and actresses who sing at your seat they well they not at your seat but they kind of go all around the restaurant they take turns singing

and they are incredible i mean they are just incredible incredible singers and but I wouldn't like and the food is diner food and it's expensive diner food it's it's expensive food i mean it's

you know like I I took my son there and we got like a bagel and a tuna melt i mean this was uh probably a year ago and you know it's you know it's just overpriced the food is overpriced but

what you would say in that case is it's okay you're paying for the experience it's that there's something special that kind of warrants the extra money that you spend yes or we also

say paying for the convenience but that's another episode for another day right another episode for another day oh that's a good one yes yes bodega or something um totally different thing yeah for

sure totally different thing um but have you ever have you had any experiences recently that where you felt you were paying for the experience well like I said Benny Hana we went there i went with

my extended family on Christmas Eve or around the holidays and I was like are we really going here i don't because but I didn't pay so you know my family takes so I'm cool with it that's fine so

um All right so that is a really that's a really fun one i like that expression so Lindsay let's do a role play here um in this role play you just went to a new spa and I am asking you about it oh

yes okay here we go all right so how was it it was an experience really yeah i mean it was good there

were tons of people there super crowded i don't know maybe I'll go somewhere else next time oh well you could try my place it's pretty expensive but you're paying for the experience they have the

most beautiful rooms and play the best music and the staff is so nice i would say it's worth it okay maybe I'll call them i want to get the best experience possible definitely you deserve it

nice nice yeah it makes me think of Have you ever heard of a beer spa this is so no so bad so there is a beer spa in Denver and I've I've been to it a couple times where literally like they put beer

and hops in the water and it's supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties i'm not sure if I believe that um and then you can drink beer in the spa it's a whole thing so that is an experience

Michelle right that's definitely probably paying for the experience it's like something that's so unique or something something special about it that you bake that into the price of the actual

quality of something it's so crazy it's so crazy so that's that's the kind of thing you know a once in a lifetime exp i probably wouldn't go back there regularly i tried it once didn't knock my

socks off you know um bonus phrase for today knock my socks off knock socks off yeah I'm gonna put that one in there that's a great one well let's go through the roleplay Michelle so what did I say

mhm okay so I said "So how was it?" And you said "It was an experience." And when somebody says that you know there's more to the story um yes yeah it's there's a lot packed in there there's

a lot implied by saying that and you have to you have to use your intonation there you know it was and then you did a pause and an experience yeah it was an experience you definitely and we can feel

that there's a lot there a lot of thoughts there that that I have right I have a lot of thoughts here and then you said h it's pretty explan my spa um it's pretty expensive and what you mean by that

is the spa near your home in your neighborhood the one you go to regularly right Michelle right right and I said but you're paying for the experience and then I went on to say why so so I guess what

I'm saying is there's nothing out of the ordinary about the actual massages or whatever you get but it's so nice it's maybe it's pristine right everything is great so it's worth it i love

it and then I said "Okay maybe I'll call them i want to get the best experience possible." So I'm saying Yeah i'm just saying I want the best Yeah i want to go to the best place I can find

right exactly yeah i mean this is an interesting episode because you would think experience is such a is such a common word it's everywhere but we do use it in very specific chunks uh to mark the

moments of our lives right this is talking about the moments of our lives think about what we've talked about Michelle today our travel experiences times with our families at restaurants um relaxation this is what is going to come up in conversation for our listeners yeah exactly

this is really fun so guys head on over make sure that you hit the follow button well if you don't follow Allers's English yet make sure you do that first of all but also head on over to Business English and hit follow because you will be getting part two of this series over there soon all right

sounds great Michelle well I'll talk to you very soon take care all right bye Lindsay bye

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Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've had · I've ever had · has been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were trained · was inspired · is overpriced
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	were talking · was carrying · was going
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best · your most unforgettable

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