Campcast with Mike Brennan

Welcome to the Campfire Poetry Course. This podcast is an introduction to the course and a brief explanation of what to expect. Before we get started, I ask the questions: what's the difference between poetry and prose? how is poetry similar to music? why should we care?

#Campcast with Antoine from Resource Education. Check out his page on VK - https://vk.com/resourceeducation 00:03:00 - Thunderstorms 00:05:59 - Comedy 00:11:33 - The never-ending nativespeakerism debate 00:24:28 - Comedy again 00:41:40 - British vs American comedy 00:54:30 - Puns 00:58:33 - Shows we like / recommend* *Blackadder (super advanced) Peep Show That Mitchell and Webb Look A Bit of Fry and Laurie The Thick of it (super advanced) Keeping up Appearances (a little dated) Monty Python, eg: The Life of Brian, Meaning of Life

Check out all of Julia's latest content on her VK page - https://vk.com/discoverenglishteaching 00:02:02 - All the preparation I've done for this podcast 00:04:51 - The "vocative case" (звательный падеж) in Russian 00:07:30 - Getting over lockdown 00:10:10 - The UEFA Championship 00:14:39 - Bad parenting 00:26:57 - How history is taught differently in different countries 00:38:54 - The history of the English language (briefly) 00:51:54 Linguistic doublets 01:01:40 - The Bouba-Kiki effect

SHOW LESSOn this episode of #Campcast, I speak to language teacher, coursebook writer, and city-centre bon vivant, Vladimir Pavlovich. Check him out on VK - https://vk.com/getreadyforexams 00:02:38 - Baba Vanga 00:05:02 - Vova's move to Tyumen 00:07:30 - How to get a diploma from Hogwarts 00:14:48 - Having a creative outlet 00:15:55 - Sometimes the old ways of teaching are the best, or are they? 00:20:49 - The lexical approach 00:31:07 - Subjunctives 00:32:28 - The Queen & the Royal Family 00:44:16 - Vova and Suzie's new course book

In this episode of #Campcast, I meet with Anton the Hedgehog for one of our classic bilingual conversations. 0:04:03 - Endonyms / exonyms 0:19:07 - Buying second hand cars in the UK and Russia 0:44:00 - Japanese anime 0:48:40 - Truth and lie

In this, the first episode of season 3 of #Campcast, I speak with Sergey, who I have worked with and lost the game with for several years now. Sergey has just started a new page Firehose of English (https://vk.com/firehose). So, if you want to be blasted with English right in the face, that's the place for you! 00:04:24 - Communicating over Zoom 00:05:22 - The Game 00:09:21 - Who is Sergey? 00:14:00 - CELTA 00:19:53 - Communication in podcasts is more natural 00:22:24 - Firehose of English 00:29:15 - Eggcorns 00:32:50 - Running a page as a hobby / as your main job 00:34:36 - Learning German vs learning English 00:46:47 - Skills you learn growing up in Russia / Britain 00:51:16 - Working as a Cambridge speaking examiner By will of the workers / listeners: Campcast will be released once every two weeks form now on.

In this episode of #Campcast, I speak with Maria Likhomanova, who runs the page Mary_pro_writing on VK. Check her out here - https://vk.com/mary_pro_writing Interested in joining the Campfire speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" when you enquire and get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. https://vk.com/public195014952 02:10 - Good idea for an April Fool's Day prank for teachers 04:16 - Spring is here! 08:43 - Who is Maria? 12:00 - Writing for writing's sake 17:08 - Is fiction completely separate form reality? 25:00 - Reading in English for pleasure / reading to get new vocabulary 28:51 - Weddings and funerals 33:19 - A hurtful comment from a former colleague 36:10 - The role of religion in helping us deal with death 39:04 - Yin Yang: order and chaos 45:00 - Getting close with your students 52:41 - Visiting Moscow during Putin's inauguration

On this episode of Campcast, I am joined by Hugh Dellar. You can find out more about Hugh's publications and online courses on -https://www.lexicallab.com/​ Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952​ Interested in joining the Campfire speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 09:10​ - Hugh's travels around Russia 10:31​ - Who is Hugh Dellar? 17:40​ - Planning your life 20:31​ - The lexical approach 40:06​ - Is prescriptivism dead? 48:28​ - Students who always ask "why?" 52:00​ - The intermediate plateau 55:18​ - Accent and grammar prejudice 59:24​ - Hugh's thoughts on accent prejudice in general and the Russian ESL community 1:04:28​ - Mike's slight disagreement 1:12:45​ - Regional accents

On this episode of #Campcast​, I speak with well known ESL professional, Paul Newson. You can check out all of Paul's content, upcoming courses and conferences on his school's VK page - https://vk.com/newsonsplace​ Visit the Campfire VK page here - https://vk.com/public195014952 Interested in joining the Campfire speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 02:12​ - Paul tells us about his life. I eat a banana. 0-6:31​ - Staff wellbeing and Paul's thoughts on the English education system 12:29​ - Why are more teachers going freelance? 21:00​ - Emotional intelligence 24:01​ - Parental pressure 26:04​ - The pros and cons of the Soviet education system 32:23​ - Curriculum management 38:39​ - Certificates vs real experience 40:11​ - Why Paul got banned from YouTube, political correctness, etc 52:32​ - Russian, European and American understandings of "conservatism" 01:02:38​ - Brexit

In this episode of #Campcast, I speak to the creator of the VK page Skills for Exams (https://vk.com/skills4exams), Susanna Safarova. Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Want to join the Campfire speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 02:05 - Questions students shouldn't ask in the classroom 11:22 - Universities are back open! 11:35 - Rogozin's social media 13:59 - Fake video from Mars 18:00 - Freedom of speech and the spread of fake news on social media 31:46 - Parsnips conference 35:13 - Recent protests 44:13 - Aleksey Navalniy 48:51 - Limitation creates meaning

In this episode of #Campcast I speak with Antoine Marcq. Antoine is a teacher, teacher trainer and his company Resource Education (https://vk.com/resourceeducation) provides CPD and training for English teachers. Visit the Campfire page - https://vk.com/public195014952 Want to join the Campfire speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" for a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 02:45 - Climate in SPB 04:49 - Who is Antoine? 10:10 - CPD 22:45 - My university studies in Russia 23:15 - My first ever job in the UK 23:58 - Antoine's life in SPB 25:25 - Big country syndrome (Russians' understanding of distance) 28:39 - Russian trains 33:14 - Deliberate practice for building fluency and reflexes 50:05 - Is drilling old-fashioned? 54:25 - A critique of the communicative method 58:40 - How do we fall back in love with education?

In this episode of #Campcast​ I speak with Steven Kaye. Steven is a teacher of English and founder of the Open2English Language Centre, Tyumen. Visit his website here - https://www.open2english.com/​ Visit the Campfire VK page - https://vk.com/public195014952​ Interested in joining the Campfire Speaking club? Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" for a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

In this episode of Campcast, I am delighted to welcome back Irina Lutsenko, who also made an appearance during Season 1. Irina tells me about some of her upcoming projects, which you can find out more about here - https://vk.com/iralutse Visit the Campfire Speaking Club page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 3:50 - Irina's new year run 5:00 - Drinking 7:09 - Irina's new writing course 12:10 - Irina's new IELTS Teaching course 16:20 - Training to become a Cambridge examiner 18:50 - Top tips for Cambridge speaking exams 26:50 - Is the teacher responsible for keeping adults interested in the lesson? 36:27 - Potential for ESL conferences 39:10 - Swearing

In this week's episode of Campcast, I speak to Юрий Некрасов. Yuri is a teacher and translator; he has written content for online publications such as Puzzle English. Check out his "левики" here! https://puzzle-english.com/vitamin​ Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952​ Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Nikita is a graduate of MGIMO and creator of the "Mr Sleepsloth's Lazy but Canny English" page. He is currently working on a new course for aspiring translators, the details of which he will share in the podcast. Check out Nikita's page for more information - https://vk.com/sleepslothenglish Visit the Campfire page - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" for a free lesson when you buy your first packet. 2:30​ - Who is Nikita? 5:45​ - MGIMO 13:30​ - South Africa 14:50​ - Visas 16:25​ - Yearly medical checks 18:30​ - Nikita's translation course 21:20​ - The communicative method 31:00​ - Types of translations 34:00​ - The translator's responsibility 36:00​ - Extra-linguistic aspects of translation 40:16​ - Translating grammar mistakes 46:00​ - Translating poetry 52:15​ - Speaking Russian in class

In this episode of the podcast I sit down with everyone's favourite hedgehog, Anton. We discuss, amongst other things, personal responsibility vs relying on the state, insurance, pensions and much more. As always, Anton and I speak in two different languages during one conversation, so if you don't like multilingual content, then go no further! Visit the Campfire Speaking Club page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Welcome to Season 2 of Campcast! In this episode I speak with Julia from "Discover English Teaching." We discuss pronunciation, regional accents, educational practice with regard to science vs language and many other topics. Visit Yulia's page here - https://vk.com/discoverenglishteaching​ Visit the Campfire Speaking Club on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952​ Use promocode "CAMPCAST21" and you'll get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Season 1 finale! For the end of season 1 I am joined by the one and only Vladimir Pavlovich, whose page you can check out here - https://vk.com/getreadyforexams Thank you for all your support, guys! It means a lot. See you in 2021. Happy new year to you all! Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952

Visit us on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use Promo code "CAMPCAST 20" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. In this episode I speak with Kate Sokolova. Check out her page here! - https://vk.com/ekatheteacher We discuss all manner of topic, from the linguistic and the poetic, to the mathematical and the technical.

In this episode Susan and I discuss: protests, planets, Pasternak, plutonium and other topics not even beginning with P! Visit her VK page here - https://vk.com/skills4exams

In this episode I speak with Yulia from Englishvam - checkout her page here - https://vk.com/englishvamru Yulia and I discussed bilingualism, metaphors, neo-Whorfianism and motorbike covers! In the spirit of bilingualism, I decided to record my introduction in Russian this time - вай нот?

Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST20" and get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. In this episode, I speak with writer, former journalist and fellow English-nut Olga Charkas, who runs the "INTER-ESSE" literary club. She specialises in teaching English through fiction, films and non-fiction. Visit her page to find out more! https://vk.com/interesse_club

Visit the Campfire page on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST20" and get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. In this episode, I speak with Irina Lutsenko, a well known figure in the English teaching community. If you haven't already, check out Irina's page and subscribe! https://vk.com/iralutse

Snezhana is the author of the VK group "Prepare for CAE & CPE". Check out her page here - https://vk.com/cae_cpe_group In today's podcast we discuss exams, teaching methodology and why Snezhana left her high-flying job as a corporate lawyer to become an English teacher. Visit us on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use the promocade "CAMPCAST20" for a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Double Mike episode! Mike Walker is a former colleague of mine from when I used to teach in Tyumen. In this episode Mike and I discuss: teaching and learning English and Russian, the Russian mentality, moral philosophy and more! Visit us on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST20" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

In this episode of Campcast I speak to Irina Kozolva, creator of the page Preparing for Cambridge CPE (https://vk.com/cpegroup). Irina shares her experience of preparing for the exam and gives advice about where to find helpful resources. We talk about the importance of production skills, how to have good conversations and about the perils of social media. Visit us on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST20" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Meet the man behind the hedgehog! Anton and I have a strange way of communicating: one of us speaks in English and one in Russian. In this episode Anton and I discuss learning English and Russian, comedy, KBH and more! Visit the Campfire speaking club on VK: https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promocode "CAMPCAST20" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet.

Check us out on VK - https://vk.com/public195014952 Use promo code "CAMPCAST20" to get a free lesson when you buy your first packet. Vladimir is a teacher of English and creator of the page "Advanced English for Exams". In this episode we talk about exam preparation, teaching and learning and everything in between.