Shadowing Practice: Can you understand this British English Conversation? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello everybody

and welcome back to another British English conversation with a new

guest who's going to be back on the podcast maybe once a month, maybe once every six months.

We will cross that bridge when we get to it.

But Hannah, hello, how are you?

Hello, I'm well, thank you.

How are you?

I can't complain.

I've taught my morning classes for the day.

The sun is just trying to come out it's a really cloudy day

but every now and again I see ah a ray of sunlight so yeah I'm in a good mood.

Good, good, brilliant.

Yes no the sun is trying to get through here as well but it's hit and miss.

Now let's begin with a bit of an introduction

because I'm sure most of my viewers and subscribers

and people who tune in to watch these conversations will already be familiar with you.

But for those of you who are not familiar with Hannah and her content, this is your moment.

You are in the spotlight.

Introduce yourself.

Who are you, Hannah?

Pressure.

Okay.

Hello.

Nice to meet you all.

I'm Hannah and I am an English teacher, obviously, and run Unlock English with Hannah,

which focuses on helping students speak everyday British English and hopefully build their confidence at the same time.

I've been teaching English since 2012, which makes me feel very old.

But I've been teaching it for a long time and I also taught in different contexts.

So not just English as a foreign language, but literature and those sorts of things, too.

but yes these days I make YouTube videos, teach online and make resources for students to learn English

and I currently live in the Cotswolds with my husband and two little children so life is a little bit chaotic.

Wonderful but chaotic.

It sounds great.

I guess you don't get bores do you?

No I mean to be honest time just seems to disappear I'll blink

and it will be two weeks because it's just it's always quite hectic

but excellent now you mentioned the Cotswolds I have to admit

that I've never been

and I've got students who've been telling me like oh I just went for Cotswolds

and it was beautiful it was so quaint and scenic

and picturesque but I must admit I've never been so what's the Cotswolds like how would you describe it to people

the Cotswolds are beautiful if anyone is a Lord of the Rings fan are you a Lord of the Rings fan

yes okay it's like the Shire I feel is the best way to describe the Cotswolds it's the Shire um

and no it's definitely worth a visit I will say there are some areas

that have become have been almost discovered but too much

so the typical ones like Borton on the water Bybury

if you ever do visit those go on a weekday never go at the weekend ever

because it's just it's now so full of people but no it's they're just beautiful green rolling hills the beautiful

golden stone it's it's just idyllic is the best kind of word

and um no i'm really i'm really happy we moved here

we i grew up in this area we then i've lived

in different places we lived in london for the best part of 10 years

and part of me does miss the busyness of a big city but now with this phase of life,

having just how quiet it is and peaceful.

It's wonderful.

Yeah.

I suppose if you've got two young children and you are living in the capital in London,

which is a bustling metropolis and there's people all over the place all the time, it's a lot for your senses,

for an adult, but for young children, it's absolute chaos.

So did that play a part in the decision to move from London out to the sticks, to the countryside?

Yes, a huge, a huge part, you know, thinking about raising them.

I mean, we'd already moved from central, we had been living in zone two for, you know, seven, eight years before we had the children.

And then we moved a bit further out into kind of the suburbs.

But even then, being on that kind of, we call it the commuter belts, which is the fringe of London, where you can still commute in.

It still was so busy.

And I think anyone, any viewers with small children, will know how useful it is to have family close by.

And the trouble was whenever I needed help, you know, it was quite a few hours driving from my mom.

So one day I was on maternity leave, actually, and I was not wanting to return to the secondary school where I taught.

And my husband just said, we've always talked about moving more towards your parents.

It's a beautiful part of the world why don't we just do it

and so it was very much

that moment was yes why don't we just do it

and then and then it all just happened and

that was about a year ago yeah

and the rest is history now you're settled down closer to family

and if you do have young kids you can see from my background here

that I'm still at my parents house

and I'm still in my sister's old room

so you've got my nephew's bed behind me

and my mum is an absolute saint because she looks after my nephew every Tuesday, Wednesday, sometimes Fridays as well.

So if my parents didn't live so close to my sister and my brother-in-law I don't know what they'd do.

Like it'd be so much harder to be able to take care of everything and look after the kids.

Yeah no well first of all though lucky

and maybe I should show this to my mother like look how much

but no as you say it's having family close by is invalid I mean there's

that famous phrase we say or it takes a village to raise children

and I think often with the modern world there is such an emphasis now on the nuclear family

so just the parents and the children

but actually you know throughout history there was always lots of help

because it's you know a very difficult a wonderful time

but a quite challenging time

so no lucky your your sister was it lucky lucky as well to have

that have that support as well she is so so lucky so

if you're listening to this you know make sure you know

it now uh this summer in the uk i haven't been in the uk the majority of the summer

But I always check BBC News every day, maybe when I'm kind of kill a bit of time between different classes, I'll read the news.

And I kept reading that we had a heat wave in the UK, a drought, all the grass was turning a bit brown and yellow,

and people were starting to worry that like reservoirs were getting a little bit empty.

so Hannah how's your summer been

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and have you been a little bit concerned about the recent

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heat wave in the UK yes I mean it has been very hot

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and I think one of the problems with the UK is

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that we don't have the our buildings weren't built for intensity they weren't built for intense heat

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or intense cold so you know it places become too hot

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and we don't have air conditioning and that sort of thing

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so yes from that perspective water I was quite lucky

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because our area to go into the water companies in the UK is a can of worms

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but our water company was quite has quite a lot of reservoirs

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and because we had it was a very strange start to the year because from January to March, it rained almost every day.

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So at the beginning of the year, it was so wet at the beginning of the year, I think that meant that for us, the drought wasn't such a worry,

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even though it is very much so for other parts of the country.

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So no, that aside, we had a lovely summer.

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I was working for most of it, but we did manage to get away on holiday.

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So we went to Corfu and Devon at the very beginning with my whole big family.

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So that was six children under five.

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So you can imagine, no, sorry, other way around, five children under six, but still a lot of chaos.

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And then Corfu is wonderful.

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I think we've just embraced

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that holidays are not quite what they used to be it's

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not about relaxing it's about making magical memories with the family

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and that is what it was um so no

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but the weather i think

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if it keeps getting hotter each summer i think the uk will have to do some serious structural changes

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or something um it's the same with

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when we get snow my my husband laughs

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because he was raised in Canada

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and obviously for them I mean they get feet of snow

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and when we first met he said oh

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but you never get snow in the UK

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and I was like yes we do actually we get six inches sometimes

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and he just laughed he was like six inches

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but he always finds it hilarious that when it does snow in this country everything just shuts down and

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And I think it's the same with England is used and the UK, a lot of the UK is used to mild weather.

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And so when we have intense summers or intense winters, we don't know how to handle it.

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No, I agree 100 percent.

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And I say the UK and it's common, especially when you're an English teacher online to just say the UK.

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but I remember seeing a few weeks ago it popped up on my Instagram

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that there was a Scottish guy posting a video of the weather in Aberdeen

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or something like that and the caption was the worst heat wave in the UK forever

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and he was showing

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that it was pissing it down it was absolutely lashing it

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down it was bucketing down it was raining really really heavily

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and it looked really quite cool as well

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so we say the uk to generalize i suppose

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but it feels like this heat wave

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and the drought has really only affected england and parts of wales

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but in scotland it didn't really affect people that much

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so i'm sure they wish it had been a little bit hotter up there

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but of course it's further up north

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so they still have their lush green forests and the high So maybe it doesn't affect the whole island of Great Britain.

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Yes.

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Funny you say that.

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I think I'm the same as you.

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I've got used to saying the UK just because of having taught abroad and just teaching in general.

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And also a part to be a bit more inclusive.

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But I think there is sometimes a bit of an issue.

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And I can understand that when people from either Scotland

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or Wales or Northern Ireland feel like actually we use the term British when really we mean English.

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And I never thought about it that way.

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You know, a recent video, which I talked about things that British people tend to judge others for.

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It's meant to be quite lighthearted, things like cue jumping and that sort of thing.

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And quite a few comments were, oh, you say this is British.

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It's mainly English.

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And actually, those comments did make me think there in some respects

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that you do have to be mindful of that

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that each within the UK each country does have its own individual identity

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and people tend to think of England only

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because you know there's lots of films associated with there

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and things like that

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but actually Wales has a very separate identity Scotland has a

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very separate identity Northern Ireland has a very separate identity

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and you have to be mindful that British can't always be

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or the UK can't always be used to generalize about everywhere

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yeah okay there's always a bit of a friendly rivalry let's say

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and when it comes to the world cup or football they will let us know about this rivalry for sure

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because any scot irish person

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or welsh person will be a little bit nervous whenever a major tournament comes around

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because realistically they don't really have a chance of winning

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that tournament but england despite never being that good we're always a candidate

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so then they'll be looking forward to the world cup of course but secretly maybe biting their nails and thinking

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fingers crossed England don't win I'll never hear the end of it

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if England win so then when inevitably England lose

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which we always seem to do

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which is a little bit depressing then they're like yes come on let's go Argentina

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so yeah it's a friendly rivalry

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and of course there is a difference between British English and other nations within the United Kingdom Yes, oh that's funny.

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I think yeah you're right and often they tend to support as you say whoever the other side is.

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They don't care who, just not England.

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Don't let England win.

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Yeah Exactly, it's always touch wood or as I'd say in the United States, knock on wood.

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And well now's probably a good moment to just remind you

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that at the end of this conversation I'm going to be recapping some of the difficult words

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and phrases that have come up in the class well i say a class

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but the conversation like hannah was just mentioning it's quite light-hearted

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you have to be mindful of it she also used open a can of worms earlier

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so don't worry i'm taking notes

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and at the end of this little chit chat i'm going to try to recap some of these words

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and phrases but given

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that it's our first one of these chats let's go over some more questions now

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that I think you've probably got to know Hannah more than enough

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but let's focus now on teaching and teaching English it's what both of us do

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so hypothetically speaking second conditional Hannah if you didn't teach English what do you think you'd do Oh, interesting one.

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I would probably actually be, I'm also a writer anyway, so I'd probably be focusing more on that.

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Or I really wanted to go into the world of academia.

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So my background is in literature.

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And I very nearly applied to do a PhD after my master's,

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because I just genuinely am fascinated and have a real passion for

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and love of literature and then I ended up for various reasons teaching

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and doing my teacher qualification for secondary school in the UK

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so what we call the QTS and PGCE

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and then fell in love with classroom teaching and just loved it

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so then that PhD that I always wanted to do got left on the back burner

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and I never applied

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but I still have it there teasing me one day maybe in the future

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so I think either in the world of academia

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or as I said I'm literature

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and language have always been a recurrent thread through my life

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because I've either taught English as a foreign language or taught English at secondary school

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or um or written and um and then the other thing

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when i was very young i had that classic

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that i think everyone wants to do is to become an actress

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so in a parallel universe maybe i would have become an actress

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but again life happens and

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that dream didn't come true it's never too late you know

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never say never don't give up on your dream yeah maybe maybe we'll see

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and if anybody wants to access some of the books

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that you might have written I'm not sure

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if you have written any books can we find anything

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that you've written yourself you can I'm hesitant to share it only

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because it has my surname and I haven't yet shared my surname online you can keep it to yourself

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maybe yeah maybe one day when i'm brave enough i'll show

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that other identity but at the moment my unlock english with hannah

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and that are separate for now

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so in the future watch this space as they say watch this space a nice expression

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which comes to mind here is that we'll keep it under wraps

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so we'll keep that under wraps we'll keep it secret top secret maybe in the future it will

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see the light of day who knows we will see we will see

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and well if I were to answer this question as well

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if I wasn't an English teacher

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if I didn't teach English at the moment I've mentioned on the podcast before

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that I had a bit of a sliding doors moment

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when I was 18 where I was like okay should I study languages

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or should I go into physiotherapy because I've always been into

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the human body health but sport as well

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so then I was thinking ah I could become a physiotherapist

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and that way I could work for a football team

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and then I could try to help footballers who were coming back from an injury

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so I was maybe romanticizing the idea of being a physiotherapist

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when more often than not physiotherapists are helping people who are slightly elderly

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with mobility issues which is equally important but it's not something

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that I would be very passionate about so I'm glad that

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when I had these two options of languages

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or physiotherapy I think I made the right choice maybe

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if I could go back in time I wouldn't actually go to uni

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and I just study languages by living abroad who knows

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but I think I made the right choice by studying languages

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because even if I'm busy nowadays with classes content etc I'm still fascinated by languages themselves

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and seeing videos online of somebody who is a polyglot

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and can speak a hundred languages it's just like wow it's jaw-dropping I'm like I wish I was him

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or I wish I was her yes uh yeah

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so that's a good point because I in fact I have a follow-up question

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because I imagine when you mentioned you learned Spanish,

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did you learn a lot more Spanish actually living and working in the country than at university, I imagine?

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Yeah, 100%.

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Partly because when I was at uni and when I made the decision to go to uni, it was just to be independent, to leave my parents' house,

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to go out partying and living on my own.

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So I didn't actually study that much

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and I didn't immerse myself in the languages that I was studying until I did my Erasmus and lived abroad.

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And then I met my current fiance.

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So all of that helped me to really strengthen my Spanish skills.

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And, you know, I can get by in French.

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I can get by more or less in Italian and Portuguese.

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I don't feel confident speaking any of these languages because it's just been so long.

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I'm so rusty now

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and yes i've got a follow-up question back to you you mentioned i don't know

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if it was before we started recording or not

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that you used to live in italy so how did

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that come about yes we i i did and

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and miss it um so uh we when i first i similar similar to you had

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this dilemma of what do I do

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and I had done my trinity cert tessel in Barcelona

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and I had two options I had my university place

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which was waiting for me doing literature

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or I had a job offer in Florence teaching English as a foreign language um

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so you can imagine

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which one my parents wanted me to choose yeah I chose

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the other one I ended up rebelling to Florence of rebelling um Well,

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no, we'd visited Italy often as when I was young and I'd always just loved it,

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loved the culture, la dolce vita, you know, the language, the atmosphere.

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And so the thought of having the opportunity to live there, I just I jumped at that opportunity.

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And I'm so glad I did because it's where I met my husband.

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I learned Italian.

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I made really close, lifelong friends.

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it's one of the best periods of my life

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and I often miss it but then I eventually came back

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and did study I just studied later but actually it's funny

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because you mentioned about going to university and having that university experience

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that we typically associate so in the UK it's very sociable

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and and university is known for for

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that I think though personally I took a lot more out of university waiting

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and starting my studies when I was I would have been 21 22

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when I started my undergraduate and I got I think

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so although I was a bit older I got

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so much more out of the actual subject

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because I knew myself a bit better I knew what I was really fascinated by I think

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if I had gone let me go past um third conditional there

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if i had gone straight to university i wouldn't have got as much out of the experience

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because studying maybe more the social side

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but in terms of the my passion for the subjects itself i don't think it would have been as enriching

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if i'd done it at 18

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yeah that's a good point because of course i got a lot out of the experience

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but i got a lot out of the experience from uh having fun

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and making friends point of view rather than an actual learning point of view

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and now i'm so into learning of course i'm a teacher i love learning

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and i love the idea that every day is a school day

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and every day you learn something new

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and i'm constantly watching different youtube videos about different things that I'm getting into and becoming interested in.

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But back then I didn't really care.

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I think it took me a while to mature enough to realize

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that my time is limited and maybe I should use that time to study, to work, to do all sorts of things.

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But I guess you can't control at what age you start to develop

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and at what age you start to become yourself, really.

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Yeah.

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No, to be honest, that is a point I often would make to my secondary school students I taught English to

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because similarly they had that sort of attitude like, oh, miss, it doesn't matter.

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Why do we need to learn Shakespeare? you know and um

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and i would say to them and it's funny

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because at the time of saying it i remember

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and i'm sure you remember being at school or being young

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and having some adult say to you just listen i i

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understand i have lived life longer than you take what i'm saying

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so i knew it would fall on deaf ears they wouldn't take it in

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but i would make that point that you know you need to prepare for life later.

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Life is so interesting and fascinating and there are so many, there's so much you take from studying if you apply yourself,

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but often with them, of course, no. It goes in one ear and out the other for sure.

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Okay, perfect.

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Now let's move on to another question, you see.

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The next question is continuing with what we do teaching English online in both of our cases,

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but what do we like most about what we currently do?

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So I'll kick off by saying that the things that I like the most is, well, working remotely.

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I love it.

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Being able to travel around.

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I love that as well.

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But of course, that's not necessarily related to teaching itself, but these are perks of the job for sure.

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But then I love the fact that I'm learning

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so much about different cultures every single day because I've got students from all around the world.

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Before when I only taught Spanish students, I learned so much about Spanish culture, but now I'm doing the same thing,

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but with Polish people, Turkish people, French, Italian, Brazilian, Argentinian, you name it.

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So that's another thing I love.

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And let me pick one more.

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Well, I love the feeling, maybe from a selfish point of view, of a student like thanking me.

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And whenever a student will say like, oh, Lewis, yesterday I came across this really cool expression And I realized,

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ah, we studied that expression with Lewis just a week ago.

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So then I understood in that moment that expression so I could respond to the person who was asking me.

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So then I just wanted to say, thanks a lot.

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It really, really helped me.

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So maybe it's a bit selfish, but hey, we're all a little bit selfish after all.

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So those are the things that I'd say that I like most about what I currently do.

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Hannah, what would you say?

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Yes, no, to be honest, I agree with pretty much every point you made and have similar responses.

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That point you made about the exposure to other cultures, definitely that window.

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I remember during COVID or during the pandemic, I don't even know if I can say,

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but during the pandemic, I was doing lots of one-to-one tutoring and online,

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obviously, and seeing just this window into how every single country was handling the same problem

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and and the different attitudes it was fascinating but

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that aside learning about other cultures generally is fascinating I think everyone sometimes has a tendency to

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and it's we we are ourselves and we live with our own experiences

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and it's so easy to forget that our experience is a tiny bubble

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compared to the rest of the world and what everyone else experiences.

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And I think teaching language and being exposed to those other cultures is a very important

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and frequent reminder that there are so many wonderful experiences out there

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that everyone has and different cultures that it's easy to get caught up in our own world.

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But I love that aspect, that insight into other cultures.

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um i also love um i've completely forgotten what i was

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about to say there this happens a lot with me at

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the moment um like you said it's a busy time in

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life you know people are going back to school there's lots of things going on yeah yeah yeah um no

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but like you i love the flexibility as well um you

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know being able i i always slightly hate not hated it's

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a strong word one of it wasn't my favorite thing

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when either I was a teacher employed by a school

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or I had a brief period working in London for places like a management consultancy firm

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and I hated

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when I did hate I'm gonna say I hated feeling like someone else owned my time

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and told me oh no you need to be here from 9am to 5pm

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and you can only take one hour for lunch and I just it made me feel so claustrophobic

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and even when then teaching in secondary school

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which I loved I loved teaching I still hated

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that sort of feeling of being constantly watched and surveyed

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and told what I needed to do

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so I love the freedom of not have it being your own boss

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but as you know there are pros and cons to that

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and like you though the third thing is I love it when a student again maybe selfishly

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But when it says something like, oh, thank you, you've really, you know, I've learned something entirely new or I've become so much more confident.

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That's the reason that we became teachers.

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And so when that's validated, it makes you feel very warm.

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It's very rewarding.

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Absolutely.

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People say like that teaching is a very rewarding job.

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And I absolutely agree with it.

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Of course, if you work in medicine as well, then that's going to be really rewarding as well.

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But the stakes are much higher.

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So you have people's lives on the line.

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So of course you can save their life.

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So it must be so stressful.

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If you're a teacher, and I guess being a teacher in a primary school or secondary school, maybe more so in a secondary school, it can be quite stressful as well,

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because you'll have teenagers running around like absolute headless chicken all of the time.

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which is why maybe I'm not cut out for teaching in a secondary school never say never

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but I don't think it is where I would have the highest quality of life

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and I think it would drive me a little bit mad uh I don't know

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if you can relate to any of the things

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that I'm saying at the moment that's a fair point it's

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a genuinely fair point no it's one of those the best way to describe secondary school teaching is

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that the best days are the very best

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and the worst days are the very worst

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and it's not ever a steady constant it's honestly like that

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and you know on the days where the class is on fire you don't have

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that much that many behavioral problems so the children are being well behaved

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and they're really getting passionate about what you're doing

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and there are sparks flying and and you know the whole class there's a real

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there's a real chemistry in the whole classroom and moments like

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that and moments when you think yes this is why I do it

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but then the next day you can have the whole class decide no I don't want to learn today

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and I hate miss today miss is not being very nice

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today we're all going to make mrs life hell um

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and then it's just flipped

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and you know i've had moments i mean one of the schools i taught at was an outer london school

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so behavior could be very challenging and on the days

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when you're not feeling 100 yourself having to put out fires constantly in the classroom

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and having you know students talk back to you with such attitude

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and so much rudeness and sometimes you would want to burst into tears to cry

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but you can't obviously because then that shows such weakness um

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so yes no it's um it was uh there are aspects i miss

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and aspects i don't the wonderful thing lewis

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which i'm sure you agree about teaching adults is

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that one they actually want to learn that's why they're learning

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and two you don't get that rudeness that you get from teenagers

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I agree 100% and related to what you were saying you were mentioning

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that you know you've got to put out fires to extinguish fires

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but used in a metaphoric way so it's like solving problems essentially

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and we're all humans I think it's normal to think like well we can be forgiven for thinking

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when you are a teenager that teachers aren't real humans they're just the people who teachers,

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you know, they don't have a life or a family or feelings.

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No, but teachers can burst into tears as well.

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You can end up crying a lot.

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So I guess when you have a bad day, you've just got to put on a brave face.

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You've got to try to be brave and just keep going with it.

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But now let's keep going and maybe we'll just do one more question, one or two, and we can leave the rest for our next chit chat

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but I want to talk a little bit about routine.

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My routine is all over the place we can get into

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that in a bit but Hannah I'm curious to know about your routine.

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What is a normal weekday like and what is a normal weekend like?

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Obviously again very different post children to pre-children.

454

Also sorry I'm coughing because I have actually got a cough

455

and a cold from my children

456

which again at nursery is a very common thing to get from them

457

but no. So our days you know we wake up in the morning it's always a rush

458

and a bit of chaos getting the children out were dressed

459

teeth brushed out the door they on on some days a week we'll go to nursery.

460

So I take them to nursery, drop them off, come back, have my coffee and try to orientate myself.

461

And then I tend to, the days are probably similar to yours, work from home.

462

So they include online teaching, filming, editing.

463

I go a bit crazy if I'm inside for too long.

464

So I tend to always, every day, get out at least once for a walk.

465

And that's lovely now, living in the countryside, because on our doorstep, there are beautiful walks.

466

And then there's a bit of a calm before the storm at about 4 p.m before the children come back.

467

And then, again, it's all about, you know, tea and bath and bed.

468

and again, magical, but just, you know, exhausting.

469

And so it means by the time they're in bed, that's the time I just sort of completely,

470

yeah, prepare for the next day to reset.

471

Yeah.

472

And weekends, you know, we tend to do quite a lot of outings.

473

So we go out for the day.

474

I find with, sorry, excuse me, little children so a four-year-old and a two-year-old, you need activities.

475

So you can't just stay in the house all day

476

so we'll do things you know like go to the local feeding zoo where you can feed animals

477

or a picnic or something

478

and then obviously it's seeing friends who have children as well

479

and you can meet up so yeah weekends tend to be a combination of those things

480

what about you though what's your everyday I mean other than the the chaos of the mornings

481

and it was the things from working from home the same

482

yeah I mean uh well I'm in charge of my own

483

time completely obviously I've got to work around students schedules as well

484

so if I know

485

that I've got potential students interested in having evening classes then I adapt a little bit according to their needs.

486

So my mornings and up until about five o'clock, I have on and off classes.

487

So maybe I'll have a couple of classes in the morning, a little break between classes.

488

I'll often have something very light for lunch.

489

So I don't eat that much during the day.

490

And then I have a lot of evening classes because that's what I focus on mainly.

491

And whenever I have these little breaks, I'm recording videos, editing videos, going for a walk, trying to stay active as much as possible.

492

I'm very kind of zoned in and focused during this time.

493

But every day is slightly different.

494

So sometimes students will ask me like, oh, have you had lunch yet?

495

Or when are you going to eat?

496

And sometimes I'll have brunch at 10 o'clock because I then have three hours in a row.

497

And then other times I'll have lunch at two o'clock.

498

So I'm quite adaptable when it comes to these things.

499

And then I try to make sure that my final classes of the day are about eight, which is relatively late.

500

But having lived in Spain, I'm used to it because the Spanish way of life is sometimes to finish work quite late

501

and then have dinner at 10-ish, which I try to avoid.

502

but I adapt around my students needs and their timetables

503

so this is one of my strengths I suppose

504

that I'm quite an adaptable person but I always make sure

505

that my week starts quite busy

506

and it almost goes little bit little by little downhill

507

and it gets more and more relaxing

508

so we're recording this on a Thursday my Thursday is relatively chilled then my Friday

509

is relatively chilled as well

510

and then at the weekend well it depends i'm open to

511

different things i like kind of daytime plans nowadays that's a sign of me getting on a bit

512

and getting older where previously i'd meet up with my friends quite late at night

513

and now there is nothing better than meeting up on a

514

saturday having the rest of your day to do lots

515

and lots of things to go for a drink go somewhere else have a great time

516

and then my sundays always a day of rest yeah as

517

it's meant to be yeah exactly traditionally it is yes um

518

oh no i um no that's a sounds like you've got

519

certain things solved in a yeah it's good to be adaptable definitely um

520

and i i envy you you're being able to work in the evening

521

because I'd love to be able to teach after the kids are in bed

522

and before then when I was tutoring online I often the same

523

because I know around the world the evening well our evening time is often a very popular time

524

but I just nowadays I don't have the mental capacity

525

which means I'm not I'm not capable my brain is not capable by eight or nine p.m of teaching.

526

But no, do you miss eating?

527

Did you ever, when you lived in Spain, did you tend to eat at 10 p.m when you lived there

528

or did you always stick to eating earlier in the day?

529

I think because of work timetables, I'd end up eating late, but I try not to eat as late as Spaniards.

530

So instead of being 10, I try and make it like nine-ish.

531

And nowadays, I probably still have dinner at eight or nine ish

532

but it depends a lot on the day and

533

if I'm hungry I'm gonna eat for sure but at the weekend that's

534

when I'm quite open to you know putting off dinner

535

and leaving it for later and later and later

536

because you've got more time and

537

if you're eating out in a restaurant then I quite like having dinner late

538

because if I'm out having a drink with my friends

539

there is a phrase that is used by people who go partying quite a lot which is eating is cheating

540

which i don't agree with necessarily but it's true that

541

if i'm out having a good time

542

and having some drinks with my mates maybe on a pub

543

crawl then i see having dinner as like the end of the night so

544

when i have dinner then it's like all right an unnecessary

545

yeah an unnecessary obstacle in the yeah no in fact I

546

feel like the drinking culture in the UK could have a whole discussion on its own

547

because you mentioned you have a lot of European friends

548

and it's funny because same when we were living in London

549

and obviously in Italy our group of friends there were lots of people from different you know all different nationalities

550

and I was one of the only

551

Brits

552

and I had this reputation of being even though by British

553

standards I would say I'm fairly normal I don't I wouldn't describe myself as a particularly heavy drinker

554

but my reputation in our group was as the drinker because it's

555

so I was always the one saying oh let's go for

556

a drink oh no come on not just one let's have another one um

557

and it was for their for my friends sometimes

558

they found it very different but here in the uk drinking is

559

so much part of our culture with pubs

560

and having a drink after work it's funny no absolutely and uh

561

that gives me an idea i think maybe the next time

562

we get together we can have a chat about eating

563

and drinking two things that everybody needs to do 100

564

so we've already got a topic in mind for our next chit chat

565

so that's probably a good moment for me to just go over some of the words

566

and phrases before we call it a day.

567

So I'm going to try and blast through them.

568

And Hannah, if you need to cough or anything like that, now is your time.

569

So at the beginning, there was a phrase which was hit and miss.

570

If something is hit and miss, sometimes it's a success.

571

Other times it is a failure.

572

If you are in the spotlight, you are kind of the center of attention.

573

All eyes are on you.

574

And I use the phrase in the sticks, just say in the countryside.

575

And around London, you have a computer,

576

a commuter belt, which is small neighborhoods and towns where people will commute into the city to work.

577

So they will travel into the city and then return to their houses after.

578

That would be the commuter belt.

579

And your nuclear family is parents and children.

580

Then you have your extended family after that.

581

And if you open a can of worms, it means you cause a bit of a problem.

582

So opening a can of worms is provoking, causing an issue.

583

If someone or something is lighthearted, it's quite chilled, it's not very serious.

584

And you have to be mindful means you have to be aware.

585

You have to be conscious of something.

586

If something is left on the back burner, it's like you don't worry about something for now to then focus on it in the future.

587

And it comes from a stove, a hob, where if you stop cooking something, you put it on the back burner.

588

And then I said, we'll keep it under wraps, which means we'll keep it secret.

589

We're not going to review anything yet or keep it under wraps.

590

And I said I had a sliding doors moment when I could have chosen to study physiotherapy,

591

but I chose to study languages, which is like a moment that could have changed the whole scenario, the whole situation.

592

And Hannah jumped at an opportunity.

593

She said, yeah, let's do it.

594

I'm going to go and teach English in Florence.

595

She jumped at it.

596

And if something falls on deaf ears, it means other people are not listening.

597

So you're saying something and then it falls on deaf ears.

598

And the next phrase was to get caught up in something.

599

If you get caught up in something, you're like obsessed about it.

600

You can't think about other things because you're caught up in one thing.

601

And I said, I'm not cut out for secondary school teaching, meaning I don't have the profile.

602

I wouldn't be able to do it.

603

I'm not cut out for it.

604

And the final phrases, which I already mentioned, were putting out fires, extinguishing them,

605

and teachers can burst into tears and start crying.

606

So what you have to do often is put on a brave face.

607

But there we go.

608

That is the recap.

609

and Hannah you're still here I am oh sorry was I allowed to I'm joking I'm joking I'm kidding

610

but yeah during that moment that is

611

when the camera will only be focused on me um

612

but of course I didn't expect you to leave Hannah

613

because you know I want to ask you a final question

614

which is what's the plan for the rest of the day what are you going to do yeah

615

that is the question um so

616

I mean to be honest very boringly probably just more work

617

and then I do want to get out for my walk

618

if anyone heard I think the doorbell went

619

and a trampoline has been delivered

620

so probably trying to assemble a trampoline at some point maybe not today but tomorrow

621

or over the weekend will be in the in the what's the word near future there we go the near future

622

what about you is your thursday chills rest of your chilled thursday

623

and then you have your chilled friday well yeah i mean

624

for the rest of the day it looks like it's not raining yet

625

so i'm also going to go out for a walk

626

when i can and i also told my mom that

627

if she's got time i'd like to record a video with her

628

so i think in about an hour's time after i grab a bite to eat i was thinking

629

that i'd record a video explaining different gadgets and things around the kitchen

630

so if she's up for it we're gonna do

631

that before i go for my walk

632

and then i can listen to podcasts whilst i'm going for a walk along the canal

633

and of course i recommend everybody listens to english podcasts to

634

keep immersing yourself in English for the rest of the day and the weekend.

635

So yeah, Hannah, thank you so much and I look forward to our next chit chat.

636

Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me.

637

It's been a pleasure chatting with you and I look forward to the next one and nice to meet everyone virtually over,

638

well either if you can see me or you listening to me, it's nice to meet you so thank you everybody for watching or listening and we'll see you next time

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What You'll Practice in This British English Conversation

Ever wondered if you can follow a casual chat between native British speakers? This video lets you test your listening and speaking skills with a natural dialogue about daily life, teaching, and living in the Cotswolds. You’ll pick up on real-world pronunciation, intonation, and conversational flow—perfect for IELTS speaking practice or just sounding more like a local. Plus, it’s a great way to learn English with videos that feel like a chat with friends.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases to Notice

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it: Deal with a problem later, not now.
Hit and miss: Unpredictable, sometimes working, sometimes not (like the sun in the conversation).
Quaint: Charming in an old-fashioned way (used to describe the Cotswolds).
Idyllic: Perfectly peaceful and beautiful.
Hectic: Busy and chaotic (like Hannah’s life with two kids).

Practice Tips for Shadowing This Dialogue

Shadowing (repeating speech immediately after the speaker) is a fantastic way to improve your fluency. This video’s pace is relaxed but natural—great for beginners. Here’s how to try it:

Watch once to understand the gist. Then, play short 5-10 second clips.
Pause and repeat, focusing on copying the rhythm (how fast/slow they speak) and stress (which words they emphasize). Notice how "I can’t complain" sounds casual, not forced.
Use a shadowing app (like shadowspeak or shadow speech tools) to record yourself and compare. Did you catch the soft "t" in "little" or the rising tone in questions?

Don’t worry if you miss a word—native speakers often "swallow" sounds in fast speech. The goal is to feel comfortable with the flow, not perfection. Keep practicing, and you’ll soon find this kind of conversation feels easy!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if she's got time i'd like
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been teaching · who've been telling
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to be · used to live
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've taught · I've never been · have become

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Can you understand this British English Conversation? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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