Zeitgeist Banana

Welcome to Zeitgeist banana. Sign up for the LetThemTalkTV newsletter here. It's full of interesting insights and stories about the English language and it's free! http://eepurl.com/izRKww In this video I'm joined by Jon from the Monty English Podcast https://montyenglish.podbean.com/ There are a lot of elections coming up around the world so we thought we'd make a video about election vocabulary so that next time you're following the news of an election in English you'll understand it better. Some of the expressions you might hear.  Polling station Voting booth Ballot paper Ballot box The poll  An opinion poll The count A recount A run-off The vote An MP (Member of Parliament) A postal vote A proxy vote A spoilt ballot paper.   

About 1% of the English language is Dutch including some very common words. In this episode Jon and Gideon delve into the history of the Dutch in English. You'll also learn some idioms with "Dutch" in them. 

Humour is arguably the most difficult thing for a non-native speaker to understand. There is so much word play and cultural references. In this episode we look at a few jokes and dissect them explaining why they are funny (or not)

In this podcast Jon and Gideon discuss expressions and vocabulary you will need to understand detective series and fiction whether it be Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie or Columbo. This episode will reveal all

Sometimes in life you have to criticize someone you know. However, you want to do this in a friendly, diplomatic way that doesn't cause offence and results in the behavioral change you desire. In this video we discuss the ways to do this and you'll learn lots of vocabulary and expressions too.

It's not easy being polite in a language with only one word for YOU. In this podcast Jon and Gideon will show you how it's done.

In this episode Gideon and Jon discuss London. The city, The City and the London accents including Cockney. If you're planning to visit London you'll get some tips on places to go, a little bit of history and how to speak like a Londoner.

Today Jon and Gideon discuss the RP accent. That's the standard British accent and probably the one you're learning if you're studying British English. What does it mean? Who speaks it? And what's the difference between this and Oxford English or The Queens' English or BBC English. All will be revealed.

2020 was a difficult year due to the pandemic. However, linguistically it was quite rich giving us a large number of interesting new words. It doesn't stop with Covid though, social media and technology also provided us with many new ways of expression.

In Part 2 Jon and Gideon look at some the strangest menu translations where you ask yourself either 'no way would I eat that' or 'what the hell does that mean?' Calling your restaurant something in a foreign language is also a risky strategy.

I spend my holidays finding badly written English signs from across the world. Yes, I know I'm weird. This is part one of a two-part special. This is a collaboration the Zeitgeist Banana podcast and Jon from the English with Monty podcast. https://montyenglish.co.uk/english-language-podcast

Effect vs affect, lay vs lie, raise vs rise, disinterested vs uninterested.....if you have doubts about confusing words in English then all will be explained in this podast with Gideon and John.

It always rains in England, the food is bad, the coffee is bad, we love the Royal Family and we have a good sense of humour. How true is all this. In today's podcast I'm joined by Jon to discuss these matters.

What do Ernest Hemmingway, Jane Austen, Tony Blair and Einstein have in common? They were all bad spellers. Why can't English spelling be phonetic like other languages? Why are words spelt as they are? Is anybody a good speller? Am I a good speller? In this episode I'm joined once again by Jon to discuss the intricacies of English and American spelling.

In this episode we discuss English plurals. It can get pretty complicated. There are words with 2,3 or even 4 plurals. We will delve into some of the most interesting stories with Gideon and Jon (from English with Monty).    Check out Jon's podcast here  https://montyenglish.podbean.com/

Booze is an informal word for alcoholic drinks. In this podcast we look at the history some of the most popular drinks and how they relate to the English language. I'm joined in this podcast by Jack Treacher (a wrecker of mead benches), an English teacher (from Scotland) currently teaching in Paris.

Everything you wanted to know about British cuisine its dishes their origins and, most importantly what they taste like. A culinary journey that includes marmite, chicken tikka masala, Christmas pudding, haggis and more...

The history of tea, tea idioms, how to make a good cup of tea, what did George Orwell say, The opium wars and going under cover in China. All this in the latest podcast with John

All about (mostly) English proverbs with a smattering or of sayings from far flung places such as Russia, China and Japan. 

Why do almost all coffee terms in English come from Italian? We discuss some English equivalents. We take a look at the history of coffee, colloquial words and coffee idioms.

Me and Jon (or is it Jon and I?) look at 'grammatical mistakes' made by native English speakers but are they really grammatical mistakes? We also catch up with language news with a discussion about Johnny Depp's tattoo. 

In this podcast we talk about the unusual origin of some English words plus you'll learn all about "cellar door" and "zeitgeist banana" Thank you to Jon for joining me in this podcast. Here's the link to his podcast https://www.montyenglish.co.uk/english-language-podcast I'll be joining Jon as a guest on his podcast soon.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to teach English as a foreign language? Are you considering this as a career yourself In this lesson Gideon and Jon talk about the good the bad and the ugly of English language teaching.