Podcasts about British English

An interview podcast giving the inside scoop of what happens in comedy scenes across the globe and dedicated to speaking to the mavericks in the comedy world. In this episode we speak to Touring comedian from Beijing, co-host of award-winning Chinese late night talk show,comedy club owner, Tony Chou. Here is an overview of what we discussed:[[01:44]] Des Bishop starting a comedy club and doing English comedy in Beijing [[03:05]][[04:32]] The mandarin speaking scene is taking off [[09:29]][[09:29]] Why is NYC better than the UK and my experience in Killtony [[19:06]][[24:15]] British English and American English [[28:48]][[30:30]] Work culture in china and you get reported by your audience in China [[37:07]][[37:07]] Doing something good for China but being cancelled [[40:36]][[41:01]] When you do badly in Asia and the west [[47:52]]If you would like to know more on the podcast, you can reach us on our linktree https://linktr.ee/thecomediansparadise and if you want to know more on Tony, you can reach him on Instagram at tonychoucomedy.You can follow this podcast on Youtube at https://bit.ly/41LWDAq, Spotify at https://spoti.fi/3oLrmyU and Apple podcasts at https://apple.co/3LEkr3E.

Fun fact: the only countries that own more bitcoin than the UK are the US (which own 207,000) and China (194,000). The UK has 61,000 bitcoin - worth almost $6 billion.They are mostly seized bitcoin, a lucky legacy from the early days when the UK was at the heart of bitcoin's evolution. (Remember Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in British English, the Times was referenced in the Genesis block, and many of the early conferences and meet-ups happened here). The FCA, in its wisdom, put a stop to all that, and so we fell behind.The stupidest thing our Chancellor can do, even with the parlous state of the national finances, is to sell those bitcoin. History would look back on her as an even greater fool than Gordon Brown for selling the national gold.This legacy has given the UK an extraordinary advantage in the global arms race that is bitcoin adoption. We would be mad to spurn it.Meanwhile, something extraordinary is taking place in the corporate world of bitcoin adoption, and I think it is going to accelerate rapidly very soon.It is being spearheaded by Michael Saylor, Chairman and Founder of Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR).I recommended MicroStrategy, as it used to be called, to readers back in August 2023, largely because it was a means to get bitcoin exposure via your broker. You wouldn't have to jump through all the hoops of buying bitcoin through exchanges, which the FCA has made so difficult.It has been a big win for readers, having more than 12x'd since we tipped it, outperforming bitcoin by a considerable margin. (Bear in mind it has undergone a 10-for-1 stock split since that article.)You really should upgrade your subscription :)Strategy now has some 555,450 bitcoin, meaning it has more bitcoin than any other publicly traded company in the world (excluding the ETFs, which now hold 1.35 million). Note again: there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins - rather less if you discount the 2.5 million that have likely been lost, and the 1.3 million that Satoshi never touched and probably never will).Saylor is also the world's most articulate and charismatic proponent of bitcoin. The man is a genius, and I do not use that word lightly. He has turned Strategy from a quiet, business intelligence software firm, which traded sideways for 20 years with a market cap less than $2 billion, into one of the most talked-about and traded stocks in North America with a market cap north of $100 billion. Options traders love it.His method for doing so - extraordinarily bold at the time, though now it looks easy - was brilliantly simple. He bought bitcoin. He was worried about the erosion of the value of the corporate treasury due to inflation and currency debasement. he started slowly. Then, in buying bitcoin and using it, as tends to happen, he caught the bitcoin bug. He started issuing paper - stock, debt, convertible notes - and bought more bitcoin. Just last week he bought another 1,895 bitcoin, funding the purchase with sales of common and preferred stock.In effect, he is creating money out of (almost) nothing and using it to buy the hardest money in the history of mankind. (Sorry, goldbugs - and you know I'm on your team - but bitcoin is harder money, because the supply is more finite).In doing so, he has enabled many of his investors to retire early.But he has also set in motion something quite extraordinary.Other companies are starting to follow his model. I'm surprised more haven't, but it takes extraordinary courage and vision to do what he did, as demonstrated by the fact that more companies haven't copied him. They're too cautious. Even with him having blazed the trail and shown the way.I think there's a very good chance Strategy becomes a trillion dollar company, while Michael Saylor becomes the world's richest man.To call the pre-bitcoin Strategy a zombie company is harsh, but it was not really going anywhere. Interestingly, it is zombie or near-zombie companies with large treasuries that are most likely to follow the Saylor model. Their need for a new direction is greater.Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently gave Saylor 5 minutes - 5 minutes! - to pitch his model to them, and duly ignored it. It is their loss. But Microsoft is Microsoft. At the moment, it doesn't need bitcoin, and it doesn't need to take the risk.GameStop (NYSE: GME), on the other hand, is a different matter. Remember GameStop from 2021 and all those memes during lockdown? The video game retailer had more than 3,000 outlets, and its business model was considered defunct. People buy games online now. But some private investors noted that the short position exceeded 100% of the issued shares of the company, and started buying. The ensuing short squeeze sent the stock from $17 to north of $500, and, it is said, almost broke Wall Street. (Not quite, but you get the point).The problem is GameStop's business model is somewhat defunct. This year, it closed over 400 stores. This week, it sold its Canadian outlets.But the company has about $4.7 billion in cash, low debt, and just raised another $1.5 billion, it announced.What does it do now?Bitcoin is the answer.We don't yet know how much it has bought, but its earnings call is on June 6, so perhaps we can expect an announcement then.The Japanese company Metaplanet (3350:TYO) is doing something similar. Formerly a zombie hotel company, now known as the “Asian MicroStrategy,” it has bought some 5,555 bitcoin. It bought another 555 this week after it issued its 13th set of bonds. The stock rose 40% on the news. Since spring 2024, when the company began its strategy, the stock has gone from below ¥20 to north of ¥600.The same thing is happening as happened to Saylor. Initially, the company bought it as a hedge against currency debasement. It discovered it was onto something. Now it is doing all it can to issue paper - bonds, warrants, stock, you name it - and use the proceeds to buy bitcoin.Perhaps GameStop will make a similar discovery.A year ago, Semler Scientific (NYSE: SMLR), which provides technology products and services for healthcare providers, made its first purchase of bitcoin: 581. It couldn't stop accumulating. Now it has 3,467 bitcoin.Sol Strategies (CA:HODL), my old company, is doing something similar for Solana, having just announced a $500 million convertible note. This company had a market cap of barely C$20 million a few months ago.What started as a trickle is starting to flow. The more companies that do this, the bigger the rush is going to get. Corporations are changing they way they store capital. They are changing the capital they store.The implications for how corporates hold their treasuries are one thing. The implications for fiat money are extraordinary. Issue debt - ie create money - and buy hard digital assets with it. This is going to be a big, big theme in the next few years.If you enjoyed this article, please like it, share it, all that stuff :) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

We are hard-wired and sweating profusely this week YFT fam. Wells is in Costa Rica bartending for the stars while also worrying about unstable internet and the lack of streaming options. How do you say Game of Thrones en espanol?? So…your hosts take the extra time this week to dive deeper into the goss from the last week on planet earth. Brandi joins post-wedding and post-hangover, having crushed an unprepared Maid of Honor speech—proof you never let the truth get in the way of a good story. They dive into Ozempic rumors, horse genetics, whether we need another pope (can we get a millennial one?), and debate the worthiness of a genie wish—$50 trillion vs. a good sandwich. British English is bollocks, Ozzy Osborne is retiring (and apparently still alive), and Wells' Spanish just might just be improving… adios, amigos! Favorite things mentioned: Walton Goggins Freaks Out Mobland Game of Thrones (but in Spanish!) Under the Sea by Wells Adams Thanks to our awesome sponsors for supporting this episode!  Mood: Get 20% off your first order at Mood.com/YFT with promo code YFT. Hungryroot: For a limited time get 40% off your first box PLUS get a free item in every box for life. Go to Hungryroot.com/yft and use code yft. Happy Mammoth: For a limited time get 15% off on your entire first order at happymammoth.com and use the code YFT. Prolon: Visit ProlonLife.com/YFT to claim your 15% discount sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Quince: Treat your closet to a little summer glow-up with Quince. Go to Quince.com/yft for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Article: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Visit Article.com/yft and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.  Skims: Shop the SKIMS Ultimate Bra Collection and more at SKIMS.com. Apostrophe: Apostrophe: Get your first visit for only $5 at Apostrophe.com/YFT when you use our code: YFT. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Your Favorite Podcast! Plus, keep up with us between episodes on our Instagram pages, @yftpodcast @wellsadams and @brandicyrus and be sure to leave us a voicemail with your fave things at 858-630-1856!  This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Nation.

In today's British English listening https://adeptenglish.com/english/listening/ practice: Did you know that nearly half of Gen Z workers in the UK would rather travel the world than work a traditional 9-to-5 job? Or that London commuters have invented a new word 'bare backers' to shame people who dare to look around on the Tube? Welcome to Adept English, the podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw where you learn real, modern English through fascinating stories about culture, work, and life in the UK.

Protesters across the US have taken to the streets in a show of defiance against Donald Trump's policies. Also: what's so compelling about jazz, and is British English slang being adopted across the Atlantic?

Sarah Donnelly comes back onto LEP to catch up and to tell us about her stand-up special, now available to watch on YouTube, and to do a British English vs American English pronunciation quiz.Sarah's show is called The Only American in Paris and we discuss some of the themes of the show - the real experience of being a US citizen living in Paris, the Netflix show Emily in Paris, cultural differences, learning French, plus a pronunciation quiz to help you compare UK and US English.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 19, 2025 is: juggernaut • JUG-er-nawt • noun A juggernaut is something (such as a force, campaign, or movement) that is extremely large and powerful and cannot be stopped. // The team is a juggernaut this year, winning more games than any team before it has. See the entry > Examples: "[Judd] Apatow talked about the box office success of 'Wicked,' the Universal musical that became a juggernaut over the holiday season and has been an awards darling ..." — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 8 Feb. 2025 Did you know? In the early 14th century, Franciscan missionary Friar Odoric brought to Europe the story of an enormous carriage that carried an image of the Hindu god Vishnu (whose title was Jagannāth, literally, "lord of the world") through the streets of India in religious processions. Odoric reported that some worshippers deliberately allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the vehicle's wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu. That story was likely an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events, but it spread throughout Europe. The tale caught the imagination of English listeners, and they began using juggernaut to refer to any massive vehicle (such as a steam locomotive) and to any other enormous entity with powerful crushing capabilities. While the word is still used sometimes in British English to refer to a very large, heavy truck (also called a "juggernaut lorry"), juggernaut is more commonly used figuratively for a relentless force, entity, campaign, or movement, as in "a political/economic/cultural juggernaut."

The way you think about language fluency might not actually be the truth and worse still, it might be holding you back from building your confidence when speaking in English. In this episode, we'll explore: ✔️ Why traditional learning methods aren't enough ✔️ The power of real-world practice ✔️ How to immerse in English, even when you are not in the UK Get the speaking practice planner: https://www.britspeak.co/speaking-practice-planner Join the Britspeak Hub: https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Listen to More BritSpeakPod Episodes: Check out past episodes here: https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Thanks for checking out BritSpeakPod! If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favorite podcast platform! Who Am I? I'm Dan, a British English language coach from Sheffield, UK. I help non-native English speakers who have moved (or are planning to move) to the UK improve their communication skills so they can: ✅ Build a better life in the UK ✅ Advance their careers ✅ Feel more confident in everyday conversations Learn from Me for Free: ✅ Instagram reels and stories → https://www.instagram.com/britspeak ✅ Weekly BritSpeakPodepisodes → https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod ✅ Full-length videos on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@brit-speak Want to Take It Further? BritSpeak Success – My 1:1 coaching program to help you gain confidence and improve your English in the UK. BritSpeak Mates – My living course and community membership for structured speaking practice.

When in Connecticut, you gotta get the Connecticut-born podcasters on the show! Emily and Phoebe from Monster Donut return to cover some more chapters from The Son of Neptune! ALSO THERE IS A SPECIAL GUEST FOR THE Q&A!Topics include: Amazon's disruption, Inter-CT rivalries, Dark Connecticut, Claire's, Jane Austen (North Anger Abby?), corny jokes, Charon's range, Jason Stratham, British English, Cerberos, Team Hazel's Mom, Bushnell, high school crushes, Detective Nico di Angelo, Supernatural, The Mirror of the Erised, Seattle, Ship of Theseus, sample sales, self-help books, Hylla, prepositions, The Dark Knight Rises, Room on the Broom, Batman vs. Superman, Dunkin', Connecticut stereotypes, UCONN, Poo Poo Point, pizza, The Speaker Prophecy, and more! NEW MERCH! "I took Latin in high school" notebooks and "My very legal PDF" pins! www.thenewestolympian.com/merchTNO TOUR: www.thenewestolympian.com/live  — Find The Newest Olympian Online —• Website: www.thenewestolympian.com• Patreon: www.thenewestolympian.com/patreon• Instagram: www.instagram.com/newestolympian• Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/newestolympian.bsky.social• Facebook: www.facebook.com/newestolympian• Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/thenewestolympian• Twitter: www.twitter.com/newestolympian• Merch: www.thenewestolympian.com/merch — Production —• Creator, Host, Producer, Social Media, Web Design: Mike Schubert• Editor: Sherry Guo• Music: Bettina Campomanes and Brandon Grugle• Art: Jessica E. Boyd — About The Show —Has the Percy Jackson series been slept on by society? Join Mike Schubert as he journeys through the Riordanverse for the first time with the help of longtime PJO fans to cover the plot, take stabs at what happens next, and nerd out over the Greek mythology throughout. Whether you're looking for an excuse to finally read these books, or want to re-read an old favorite with a digital book club, grab your blue chocolate chip cookies and listen along. New episodes release on Mondays wherever you get your podcasts!

In this episode, Charlie focuses on how to talk about travel in British English to improve your general fluency but more specifically your IELTS speaking score in part 3 of the speaking exam. Download - How to use idioms in IELTS FREE ebook/audiobook Learn about Charlie's IELTS Speaking Course Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SummaryIn this episode of the Expat Pod, host James Doran engages in a lively conversation with Dominic about his experiences living abroad. They explore favorite places, cultural traditions, and the unique challenges of homesickness and technology. The discussion also delves into the importance of language in making friends and understanding culture, as well as the enriching experiences found in museums. Dominic shares valuable life hacks for expats, emphasizing the significance of language learning in adapting to new environments.Takeaways Living in beautiful places creates unforgettable experiences. Christmas markets evoke a sense of nostalgia and magic. Every day abroad can feel like a holiday. Food is a powerful connector in new cultures. Technology can complicate the expat experience. Language is essential for cultural understanding. Finding a local community is crucial for making friends. Museums provide deep insights into cultural history. Expat life hacks can ease the transition to a new country. British English has diverse accents and phrases across regions.Chapters00:00 Introduction to the Quickfire Questions02:48 Living Abroad: Experiences and Insights05:29 Cultural Nuances and Homesickness Remedies08:08 Technology Challenges for Expats10:48 Language and Making Friends Abroad13:39 Exploring Museums and Cultural Heritage16:16 Final Thoughts and Expat Life Hacks

I get asked a lot about my natural accent and the dialect I use when I am talking to friends and family back home in Yorkshire. The time has finally come to talk about the Sheffield accent and dialect that I grew up with! In this episode, we'll explore:✔️ Why learning the local accent can be really good✔️ How the Sheffield accent is different to RP✔️ Sheffield words that you need to know Come and join us in the BritSpeak Hub Community: https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Get the accent guide - https://www.britspeak.co/navigating-british-accents Get the slang guide - https://www.britspeak.co/made-easy Listen to More BritSpeakPod Episodes: Check out past episodes here: https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Thanks for checking out BritSpeakPod! If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favorite podcast platform! Who Am I? I'm Dan, a British English language coach from Sheffield, UK. I help non-native English speakers who have moved (or are planning to move) to the UK improve their communication skills so they can:✅ Build a better life in the UK✅ Advance their careers✅ Feel more confident in everyday conversations Learn from Me for Free:✅ Instagram reels and stories → https://www.instagram.com/britspeak✅ Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes → https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod✅ Full-length videos on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@brit-speak Want to Take It Further? BritSpeak Success – My 1:1 coaching program to help you gain confidence and improve your English in the UK. BritSpeak Mates – My living course and community membership for structured speaking practice.

This episode will help you sound more fluent and confident in conversations. Most English learners say the same thing when they need food, but native speakers have many natural ways to express hunger. This English lesson is great for students who already know some English and want to improve their vocabulary.You'll learn practical phrases used in British English, including polite alternatives and common slang. These expressions will also help with IELTS, TOEFL, and CAE exam preparation. Improve your vocabulary and make your English sound more natural.Share Your ThoughtsSupport the showAdvanced English lessons on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/learnenglishwithharry Learn English with HarryOnline courses start from only €7.99. Click to enrol today https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/online-learning-courses/ and improve your English speaking skills, grammar and vocabulary.

Ever been in a conversation that just… dies? You don't know what to say next, and suddenly, silence. It feels awkward, and you start overthinking. ▸ Maybe you're worried about your English. ▸ Maybe you're scared of making mistakes. ▸ Maybe you just have no idea how to keep the conversation going. The truth is, this is a skill…one you can practice and improve. Today, I'll give you three strategies to stop conversations from dying out and keep them flowing naturally. In this episode, we'll explore: ✔️ Why Conversations die out and how you can stop it from happening ✔️ How to keep conversations going by asking better questions ✔️ Small talk strategies that help you connect with new people

Loads of learners believe they need to change their accent to be understood in English, but that's not true. Your accent is part of your identity. Instead of trying to sound like a native speaker, focus on clear pronunciation, stress, and rhythm... the real keys to effective communication. In this episode, we'll explore:✔️ Why changing your accent isn't necessary and what to focus on instead.✔️ How English rhythm and stress affect your speech.✔️ The five hardest-to-understand UK accents and how to navigate them.

Download ELSA for free + get 7 days membership for free: https://bit.ly/ELSAxTHINKINGINENGLISH Get exclusive ELSA discounts: https://elsaspeak.com/inf/promo-code-thinking-in-english/?promocode=THINK85 Today I want to discuss Noah Webster, the man who played a major role in creating American English. We'll talk about his life and motivations, his famous dictionary, and some of the words and spellings he changed. I'll end by discussing whether there is a correct form of “English.” TRANSCRIPT - https://thinkinginenglish.blog/2025/02/17/329-why-is-american-english-different-to-british-english-english-vocabulary-lesson/ My Links AD Free Main Episodes - https://open.spotify.com/show/6gSPOxNCijMq2hTJW8tyx4?si=e7e195bbfae84b6b ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/thinkinginenglish⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thinking in English Bonus Podcast - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/collection/10513⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NEW YOUTUBE Channel!!! - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@thinkinginenglishpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM - thinkinginenglishpodcast (⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/thinkinginenglishpodcast/⁠⁠⁠⁠) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Blog - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.thinkinginenglish.blog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Vocabulary Standardisation (Noun): The process of making things conform to a standard. Identity (Noun): The qualities and beliefs that make a person or group different from others. Adopt (Verb): To start using a particular method or idea. Reflect (Verb): To show or represent something. Simplify (Verb): To make something easier to understand. Convention (Noun): A traditional or widely accepted way of doing something. ⁠ Borough by Blue Dot Sessions Contact advertising@airwavemedia.com to advertise on Thinking in English. Thinking in English is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the BritSpeakPod, I talk about: ⏵ The reasons that British people are hard to understand⏵ Why learning British slang and expressions is difficult⏵ The most used British slang words and what they mean Join the BritSpeakMates community: https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Get the British English Made Easy guide: https://www.britspeak.co/made-easy Try the British Slang Challenge Course: https://www.britspeak.co/british-slang-challenge Check out the show notes for this episode, and loads more here: https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode of the BritSpeakPod, I talk about: ⏵ Why do you freeze up when speaking in English (and what to do about it) ⏵ How to keep the conversation flowing (even when you forget a word) ⏵ What confident speakers do (and how you should copy them) Join the BritSpeakMates community: https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Get the Speaking Practice Planner: https://www.britspeak.co/speaking-practice-planner Try the 30-Day Speaking Practice Course: https://www.britspeak.co/speaking-practice-pack Check out the show notes for this episode, and loads more here: https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

We've tackled the differences between American and British English, but let's not forget Canadians also have a language of their own.

We all know that British and American English have their differences, but where do you stand? Do you say film or movie? Got or gotten? Autumn or fall?In the latest episode of English & Beyond, I explore how US culture shaped my language growing up and why my parents (big fans of the USA) absolutely hate certain Americanisms. Plus, did you know that some of these so-called "American" words actually originated in Britain centuries ago?I also put César to the test in a fun British vs. American English quiz—see if you can get them right too!

In this episode of the BritSpeakPod, I talk about: ⏵ How moving to Japan changed how I think about languages ⏵ The 5 things you need to work on to improve your communication ⏵ Why more English won't fix your problems Join the BritSpeakMates community:https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Get the British English Made Easy Guide:https://www.britspeak.co/made-easy Check out the show notes for this episode, and loads more here:https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode, Charlie focuses on how to talk about a childhood memory of yours in British English to improve your general fluency but more specifically your IELTS speaking score. Download - How to use idioms in IELTS FREE ebook/audiobook Learn about Charlie's IELTS Speaking Course Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Agile still relevant in today’s fast-paced world? Brian and Joshua Kerievsky reveal the four game-changing principles of Modern Agile that prioritize safety, empowerment, and continuous value delivery. Overview In this episode, Brian Milner sits down with Joshua Kerievsky, a pioneer in the Agile community and the creator of Modern Agile. They discuss how Agile practices have evolved, the critical role of safety and empowerment, and how to deliver value continuously in today’s fast-paced world. Don’t miss these insights into creating better teams, products, and results through simplicity and experimentation. References and resources mentioned in the show: Joshua Kerievsky Industrial Logic Joy of Agility by Joshua Kerievsky Modern Agile #33 Mob Programming with Woody Zuill #51: The Secrets of Team Safety with Julie Chickering Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Experimentation Matter: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation by Stefan H. Thomke Agile For Leaders Mike Cohn’s Better User Stories Course Accurate Agile Planning Course Join the Agile Mentors Community Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Joshua Kerievsky is the founder and CEO of Industrial Logic and author of Joy of Agility. An early pioneer of Extreme Programming, Lean Software Development, and Lean Startup, Joshua is passionate about helping people achieve genuine agility through principle-based approaches like Modern Agile. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome in Agile Mentors. We're back. And this is another episode of the Agile Mentors podcast. I'm here as I always am. I am Brian Milner and today I am joined by Joshua Kerievsky and really excited to have Joshua here with us. Welcome in Joshua. Joshua Kerievsky (00:16) Thank you so much, Brian. Happy to be here. Brian (00:19) Very excited for Joshua to be here. Joshua's been around for a while. He's been doing this for a long time. He said, you know, when we were talking before, and he's been involved with Agile before, it was called Agile. And, you know, that probably tells you all you need to know there. But a couple other things here about him, just so that you kind of can place him a little bit. His company is Industrial Logic, Inc. and he's the CEO and founder of that company. He has a book called Joy of Agility that's out there that I highly recommend. It's a really great book. And he's also closely associated with something that maybe you've been aware of, maybe you've heard of, maybe you haven't, but something called Modern Agile. And that's what I thought we'd focus on here for our discussion is really to try to understand a little bit about it. especially for those of you, maybe you haven't heard of it, haven't been around it before. So... Why don't we start there, Joshua? Tell us a little bit about what was the need that was trying to be filled with something like modern Agile. Joshua Kerievsky (01:19) Well, it goes back to a conference I attended in Prague back in around 2015. And I was giving a speech, a keynote speech there, and that ended. And then I went and said, well, I'm going to go join the OpenSpace. And I was just looking at what people were talking about at the OpenSpace. And at that point in time, I had already been experimenting with a ton of stuff that just kind of different from what we had been doing 10 years earlier or even later than that. I mean, just this was new things that we were doing, whether it was continuous deployment or ideas from lean startup or ideas from the pop and dykes and lean concepts applied to agility or just a lot of things that were just different. And none of the sessions I was seeing in the open space seemed to be talking about any of that stuff, like giving up story points or moving away from sprints until continuous flow. just nothing was being talked about. So I just said, well, I'm going to host a session, and I'll call it, I don't know, a modern Agile. And so that's as far as I got in terms of thinking about the name. I just wanted to run a session where we could talk about, there's a lot of new things we're doing that kind of display some of the older ideas. And they're very useful, I found. So the session ended up getting a lot of attention. 60, 70 people showed up there. So we had a big group. And it was well received. People were fascinated by the stuff that they weren't aware of. And so I then repeated this open space event in Berkeley. Like a month later, was Agile Open Door Cal in Berkeley was running and did it again. And again, there was tremendous interest. in this, so much so that I decided to write a blog and wrote the blog and started getting more conversations happening. And that sort of began the movement of describing this thing called Modern Agile. And it took a few twists and turns in the beginning, but it wasn't sort of, I guess, if anything, I felt like Agile needed to be a little more simple. in terms of what we were explaining, because it was starting to get very complex with frameworks, enterprise frameworks coming along like safe and just too many moving parts. And so what ended up happening is I wrote some things and people started to notice, there's kind of like four things there that are really valuable. One of them was The names changed a little bit over time. But anyway, what ended up was four principles emerged. And that really became modern Agile. Brian (03:58) That's awesome. just for listeners here, I've pitched attending conferences in the past. If you've listened to this podcast, you've heard me say that, and I'll create things come out of that. And here's an example, right? This is something that was open space discussion. Open space, if you're not familiar with that, at conferences, can, if there's an open space day or a couple of days, then anyone can present any topic they want. And whoever shows up is who shows up. And this one got a lot of attention. And a movement grew from this open space topic, which is awesome. So let's talk. You mentioned there's four principles here. And I like the distinction here we're making also between the frameworks and the practices versus the cultural aspects or the philosophy behind it. And returning to those roots a little bit more from what Agile originally was. So you mentioned there's kind of four areas of this. Let's walk our way through those. I know the first one, or one of the first ones here is make people awesome. So help us understand, what do you mean by make people awesome? Joshua Kerievsky (04:59) Probably the most controversial of principles, because you'll get people coming along saying, wait a minute, people are already awesome. What are you talking about? And it comes from my, I'm a big fan of Kathy Sierra. And her blog was incredible. And her book, she wrote a book called Badass, Making Users Awesome. And in her book, she was really wonderfully clear about Brian (05:07) You Joshua Kerievsky (05:24) that teams that build products ought to focus on the user of the products more than the product itself. In other words, she would say, don't try to create the world's best camera. Try to create the world's best photographers. Big subtle difference there. Like that is focusing so much on empowering the users, making them awesome at their work or whatever they're doing, whether it's art or accounting or whatever, whatever your product does, how can you give them something that elevates their skills, that gets them to a point of awesomeness faster? And that's what she was talking about. So I thought, what a wonderful message. And initially, I used language like make users awesome. you know, having been an entrepreneur myself and created products and sold them and You learn a heck of a lot when you make your own product. And we've made several products over the years at Industrial Logic, probably the most successful of which was our e-learning software. And that has taught me so many, so many lessons. One of them is you have to serve an ecosystem of people. You can't just make your main user awesome. What about the person who's buying the software? How do you make them awesome in terms of helping them buy something that's going to get used? If they buy your e-learning and they never use it, they've wasted a lot of money. So we've got to make sure that their reputation is intact because they made an excellent investment and it got used and it got into valuable, it created value in the company. So how do I make the buyer awesome? How do I make the person that like rolls out the licenses to people awesome? How do I make their experience awesome? How do I make my colleagues awesome so that we love what we're doing and really enjoy working together? So it kind of morphed from make users awesome to make people awesome. And it's so expanded. If anything, we set the bar higher. And all of the principles of modern agile are like unachievable. They're all kind of high bars, right? But they're the goal that we go towards. So that really is it. It's about creating Brian (07:23) Ha Joshua Kerievsky (07:35) you know, wonderful, you know, the in Great Britain, they use awesome kind of sarcastically sometimes, right? They'll say, well, that's awesome. You know, and so for them, it would be brilliant. You know, I thought of making an English version. We have many translations of modern agile, and I thought of making an English version, which would be a proper British English version, make people brilliant. But it's meant to be to empower folks to give them something. And it's so it is. Brian (07:43) Ha You Joshua Kerievsky (08:04) It does have a product focus in the sense of we're typically building a system or a product that someone's going to use and it's going to give them skills they didn't have before or abilities they didn't have before that are going to be very valuable. Brian (08:18) Yeah, I love that. And there's a sort of a servant nature to that servant leaders, not servant leadership as much, but servant nature of I'm serving these people and how do I, how do I serve them in a way that really empowers them? Kind of reminds me of like, you know, the, the great principle with, with dev ops of just, know, if I can, if I can empower the developers to be able to do these things on their own. And so they don't need someone else to come and check the box and do everything for them. You're making them awesome. You're empowering them to be more than they were otherwise. Joshua Kerievsky (08:54) Yes, yes, absolutely. I I think we've seen a history in the software field of a lot of tools coming along and helping. It's not just tools, it's also methods as well. I mean, I'm entirely grateful to the Agile software development movement because it helped nudge everything towards a far better way of working and to make us more awesome at our craft. yeah, you have to have a North Star though. If you're going to build something, You have to know, what are we going for here? What are we shooting for? And with Cathy's influence, again, it's not so much make the greatest product in the world. It's, that focus on the users, the people who are going to be using the work, using the product. Brian (09:34) That's really good. Let's talk about the second one then on my list here, the make safety a prerequisite. What was the point here behind this principle? Joshua Kerievsky (09:40) Yes. So starting probably around 2011 or so, I could not stand going to the Agile Conference anymore. It had just become too commercial and too filled with just people hocking stuff. And it just was bothering me too much. I couldn't go. So I ended up going to South by Southwest, which is an Brian (09:54) You Joshua Kerievsky (10:09) Enormous conference tens of thousands of people show up So it'd be 20,000 30,000 40,000 people showing up for these for this event, which is musical film technology just it's just wild and I came across this book by Charles Duhigg called the power of habit. He was there that year and In that book. Well, first of all that particular year was 2012 that I went my first year there it poured The rain, it was every day, it was unusual for that time, but it was just like pouring rain. So what could you do? I bought some books and I was sitting there in my room reading them. And I'm reading this book, The Power of Habit, and I come across this chapter called The Ballad of Paul O'Neill. Now who the heck's Paul O'Neill? Well, it turns out Paul O'Neill is this incredible guy, a complete business maverick. He ended up becoming the treasury secretary under Bush and not. in 2000 for a short period of time, but that's another story. And he ran Alcoa for about 13 or 14 years. And so the Ballot of Paul O'Neill is very much about what he did at Alcoa to turn the company around. And in essence, you could say he made safety a prerequisite. That safety was his guiding light in turning that company around, which meant left people empowered to do all kinds of things. So it went way beyond safety, but started there. And it's an incredible story. I've written about it in Joy of Agility. I got so into Paul O'Neill that I ended up interviewing his main lieutenant. And then I got a chance to interview him a couple of times. the man's a genius. He passed away a few years back. Absolute genius. this concept of safety started to really pull at me in the sense that I felt, first of all, extreme programming, and I'm a big practitioner of extreme programming, brings a tremendous amount of safety to software development. It may not be as explicit in saying safety, safety, safety. When you look at extreme programming, doesn't really talk about safety, but it's implicit. And these days, Kent Beck's much more vocal about, you One of his missions is to make software development safer for geeks. But safety to me is almost like I found my home. Like safety was something that, what I learned through Paul O'Neill was that it's a doorway to excellence. And he transformed a hundred year old company with safety. I would complain about companies we were working with that were 25 years old and had an embedded culture. Like, how are we gonna change this company? But safety started to be this thing that I hadn't really thought enough about, and making it explicit opened up a lot of doors, right? And I became very interested in the work of Amy Edmondson, who's extremely famous today, but back then she was not so famous. And huge fan of hers. I, you know, I can email her and she'll email me back and she wrote a nice thing about my book. So. She has done some incredible work there. And so when we talk about safety in modern agile, it's psychological safety. It's financial safety. It's any of the safeties. There are many safeties that we could talk about. And it looks at all of them, right? It's brand safety, software safety in terms of security. you know, of the software and on and on and on. So make safety prerequisite is vast and big in terms of what we're trying to do there. Making it a prerequisite means it's not an afterthought and it's not a priority that shifts with the winds. It is permanent. It is something that we know we have to have in place. And it's very, very hard to achieve. Just like make people awesome is hard to achieve. Boy, is make safety a prerequisite difficult. Brian (13:43) Hmm. Yeah, I love Amy Edmondson's work as well. I'm just kind of curious. does the safety kind of inclusive of things like quality as well? Do you intend that to be part of what you mean by safety? Joshua Kerievsky (14:11) Well, mean, to the extent that it makes it safer to do good software development. So if bugs are happening all the time, you can't make people awesome, typically if you don't have quality. If you have really poor quality, nobody's being made awesome. They're experiencing all kinds of problems with your product. So make people awesome and make safety a prerequisite are very much tied together. That is, there is no real excellence without safety. You could think you're having an excellent experience, so that all of a sudden there's a major problem, and boy, are you unhappy. So they really go hand in hand. You could have the most incredible restaurant, and then one day you've got food poisoning happening. Great, no one's come to your restaurant. So you will not make anyone awesome if you don't make safety a prerequisite, and quality is part of that. Brian (14:57) Awesome. Well, let's move on to the next one then, because the next category is one that just resonates with me a lot. Experiment and learn rapidly. What was kind of the thought behind this one? Joshua Kerievsky (15:06) Yeah, and this is one where it that's shorthand, if you will, because you can only fit so many words on a wheel there. But it's important to know that that really means experiment rapidly and learn rapidly. And that comes a lot out of it in the influences of something like Lean Startup. I'm a huge fan of that book and of Eric's work, Eric Reese's work. Brian (15:13) Ha Joshua Kerievsky (15:29) And the fact that we can experiment rapidly and learn rapidly rather than just building everything and then learning slowly. Right? How can we do cheap experiments quickly to decide what's important to work on and what isn't? Let's not build stuff nobody wants. Let's find more time with our customers and understand their needs better so we can build the right things that make them awesome. In other words, and a lot of these are interconnected. In many respects, modern Agile is a Venn diagram. ideally want all four principles to be overlapping. And right there in that middle is where you really want to be. Not easy. But experimenting, learning rapidly, yeah. So challenge yourself to find ways to do quick, cheap, useful experiments. You can do lot of unuseful experiments. Amazon experienced that. There's a story in my book about how Amazon had to start just shepherding the experiments a little more and having some better criteria. Because you could do an endless array of experiments and not get anywhere. There's a wonderful book called Experimentation Matters by a Harvard business professor. Wonderful book as well. But I love experimentation and learning. And I see it as critical to building great products. So that's that principle there. Brian (16:46) Yeah, there's a real difference, I think, in organizations that put value on that learning process. if you see it as a valuable thing, that we invest time to gain knowledge, then that really can truly make an impact when you go forward. I know I've talked about this in classes sometimes where people will say, isn't it a little bit selfish from the organization to try to always just figure out what's going to sell the best? or what's going to work the best in advance of putting something out. My response is always, well, yes, there is a benefit to the business, but there's a benefit to the customer as well because they would rather you work on things that they care more about. Joshua Kerievsky (17:24) That's right. Yeah. I mean, we once put out an experimental product to a large automotive company. And we were really excited about it. We had a whole list of features we wanted to add to it. But we were like, you know what? Let's just get this primitive version kind of in their hands just to see what happens. it turned out that we learned very rapidly that they couldn't run the software at all. There was some proxy. that was preventing communication with our servers from their environment. So it was like, excellent. We learned really quickly that instead of those fancy new features we want to add to this thing, we're going to fix the proxy problem. And to me, that's the nature of evolutionary design is that we create something, get it out there quickly, and learn from it rapidly and evolve it. So it goes hand in hand with that as well. Brian (18:11) That's awesome. Well, there's one category left then, and that is deliver value continuously. So what was the genesis of that? Thinking about delivering value continuously. Joshua Kerievsky (18:19) So that was heavily influenced by my own journey into continuous delivery and continuous deployment and that whole world. We got into that very early. I was lucky enough to catch a video by Timothy Fritz, who he worked with Eric at IMBU. And he coined the term continuous deployment. And that video is actually no longer on the Brian (18:43) Ha Joshua Kerievsky (18:44) But this was something that I became enamored of was doing continuous deployment. And we started doing it at Industrial Logic with our own e-learning software back in about 2010. And by the time you get to like 2015, it's like, hey folks, there's this thing where you can do a little bit of work and ship it immediately to production in a very safe way, a safe deployment pipeline. It's friggin' awesome. But the principle doesn't just apply to that because this modern agile is not just about software development. It's how can I work in a way that gets value in front of people as fast as possible? So for example, if I'm working on a proposal, great, I'm not going to work for two weeks and then show you something. I'm going to put something together, a skeleton, I'm going to show it to you and say, what do you think? Does this add value? Where would we improve this? Blah, blah, Again, going hand in hand with evolutionary design. continuous delivery of value is something that is a way of working. With artists that I work with, they'll do a quick sketch or two or three sketches of something first before we start settling in on which one do we like the best and how do we want to craft and refine that. So there's a way of working in which you're delivering value much more finely grained and approaching continuously instead of in bigger batches. Brian (20:05) Yeah. I love the connection there between artists as well, because I've got a background in music, and I'm thinking about how when you go to write a song or create a new work like that, you start off with the roughest of demo tapes, and you move from there to increasingly more sophisticated versions of it until you finally have the finished product. But no one thinks that's strange or thinks that's weird in any way. But you're right. Sometimes there's this attitude or kind of I think in some organizations of, we can't let anyone see that until it's absolutely finished, until it's done. Joshua Kerievsky (20:39) Yeah, yeah, and that maybe that's that there's some fear there, you know, because they don't want to be thought of as, you know, being lesser because they put something rough in front of someone. Whereas I view it as a, you know, to me, it's a sign of weakness when you when you only send something polished because you haven't had the courage or the sense of safety to put something rough where we can make better decisions together early on. So. There's a lot of learning, I think, around that. But it's a challenging principle of its own, deliver value continuously. And people would say, well, what does value mean? Value is one of those words where it's unclear, because you could improve the internal design of a software system. Is that value? It probably is. But you've got to be able to quantify it or prove that it's going to help make things more graceful in terms of flowing features out. yeah, quantifying, communicating what the value is. is important. I'm also a big fan of maximizing the amount of work not done, as it says in the manifesto. So how can we do less and deliver more sooner? Our motto in industrial logic now is better software sooner. And a lot of these principles go straight into that. that drives it. Brian (21:38) Yeah. That's really great. Yeah, I love these four principles and I think that they really represent a lot. There's a lot that's baked into each one of these things. And I'm sure as you kind of put this together with the community and started to talk more about it, I'm sure there were some challenges. I'm sure people came up to you and said, well, what about and how about this? Is there anything now looking back on this that you'd say, gosh, we really... really didn't quite cover this or, know, this is maybe I could fudge it and squeeze it in this area, but you know, there's this other thing that I really think would be important to kind of mention here as well. Joshua Kerievsky (22:28) Well, you know, it's funny, because I thought I was going to write a book. I started collecting stories. I love telling stories, and I find stories to be a great way to help educate people. Not the only way, right? But as part of some of the workshops I give, you tell a story. Hopefully it's a story that's sticky, that sticks in the person's brain. And over the years, I collected stories like that, stories of agility. I thought I'd be writing a book about modern agile when I started writing Joy of Agility. Gradually, as I wrote more and more stories, they didn't quite fit into all those four principles. And I think the lesson I learned there was that I was starting to talk about what pure Agile means, the word Agile. What does it really mean to be Agile? Whereas modern Agile is really almost in the context of product development, of building services or products for people. Whereas Agile itself is even more pure. And so the... the book itself got into the difference between quickness and hurrying, which you can relate to this. You could say experiment and learn rapidly. Well, OK, maybe we shouldn't rush it. Don't rush. Be quick, but don't hurry is one of the mantras in Joy of Agility. So adapting, right? Adapting, we talk about adapting all the time. So to be agile, you need to be able to adapt quickly. These four principles in modern agile don't say anything about adapting. Brian (23:46) Ha Joshua Kerievsky (23:48) So that's kind of implied, but it's not there. So it's a different lens on agility. If anything, I'd say the make people awesome principles are not meant to. It created some dislike, I'd say, from some people. It could have been called empower people, potentially, although a lot of people really love make people awesome. I don't know so much what I'd change there. I'd say we have a .org. So it's a modernagile.org is a website. There's a pretty large Slack community, which, know, four or 5,000 people on that. We don't certify anyone in modern agile, so there's no certifications, but it's something that is neutral in the sense that whether you practice Scrum or Kanban or Safe or whatever, these principles can influence you. And, you know, but again, this all came out of like, when I went to that open space conference in Prague, I had no idea I was going to talk about modern agile. You know, it was not like a predetermined thing. It was just like, my God, they're not talking about the modern ways we're doing stuff. So, and I always encourage people to, you know, keep pushing the limits and keep modernizing. I said to my own company the other day, our wonderful ways of working that we've been doing now for years that have evolved, they're probably antiquated as of today. You know, with generative AI, what would we do differently? Let's have a perspective on our own work as it needs to be modernized constantly. So the term modern in modern agile means always be modernizing, always be looking. Okay, I've had people say, well, Josh, some things don't need to be modernized. There's things that are just evergreen. They're classic. I'm like, absolutely. I'm not changing evolutionary design anytime soon. I find it to be quite useful in so many contexts. So yes, there's the evergreen stuff. And then there's the stuff where you can, indeed, discover a better way. The manifesto itself says, we are discovering better ways of working. Great. Keep that going. Keep modernizing and looking for easier, simpler, quick, easy grace. as the dictionary definition of Agile says, how can we work with quick, easy grace? That's always going to be improving, hopefully. Brian (26:12) Love that, yeah. And you're right, I mean, think there's some, to some people I think that there's, I guess at times an attitude of, you this is all new stuff or this is a brand new concept and something they don't really see the connection backwards in time to how these things are all built on other ideas that have been progressive over the years. So the idea of, yeah, this is, you know, we're, we're not saying that certain ideas are bad because now we're trying to modernize them. We're just saying we're trying to apply that same principle forward into kind of the context of today, which I don't see anyone should have a problem with that. Joshua Kerievsky (26:48) That's right. That's right. Well, and if you are experimenting and learning rapidly with your own process, which I highly encourage, chances are the way you work today will be different than it was yesterday. You will be exploring, like we use discovery trees today. We didn't use them before. Years ago, no one knew what a story map was. There wasn't such a thing as a story map. Now we have story maps. There's constant improvement happening. And you've got to be open-minded and willing to try new things and drop old stuff. We thought sprints and iterations and extreme programming was absolutely fundamentally part of the way to work. Then we started experimenting with dropping them and turned out, wow, this is pretty cool. We like this. It works pretty darn well for our purposes. That came through experimentation. some of our experiments were terrible, just terrible. It's not an experiment if you already know the outcome. keep pushing the limits of what can make you happier and more joyful at work in terms of producing great stuff. Brian (27:46) Awesome. That's great stuff. Well, I can't thank you enough for coming on, Joshua. This is great stuff. just, you know, we'll put all the links to the books mentioned and everything else in our show notes for everybody. But as Joshua said, you can go to modernagile.org and find out more about this if you'd like to. You'll find information there about Joshua himself or his company again is Industrial Logic, Inc. And, you know, his book again, just to mention that, Joy of Agility. We were talking how some people get that title a little mixed up or whatever, but it's just the three words, joy of agility. So just look out for that book. I think you'll find it a rich resource for you. Joshua, thanks so much for coming on. Joshua Kerievsky (28:25) Thank you, Brian. Thanks to you. Thanks to Mountain Goat and the folks there. And I really appreciate chatting with you. It was really wonderful.

In this episode of the BritSpeakPod, I talk about: ⏵ A funny viral video about English spelling⏵ Why English spelling and pronunciation are so weird⏵ How To improve your pronunciation Join the BritSpeakMates community:https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-mates Download my free Navigating British Accents guidehttps://www.britspeak.co/navigating-british-accents Check out the Pronunciation Power Packhttps://britspeak.co/pronunciation-power-pack Check out the show notes for this episode, and loads more here:https://www.britspeak.co/podcasts/britspeakpod Watch The Original Silent Letter Day Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJv_wUEKko Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode, Dan talks about using British TV shows to improve your english skills including: The benefits of using TV shows TV shows you should check out How to use TV shows for shadowing Get the FREE 7-day Speaking Practice Plan:https://www.britspeak.co/7-day-speaking-pratice-plan Get daily practice emails with the 30 Day Speaking Practice Pack:https://www.britspeak.co/speaking-practice-pack Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

An informal British English word that means to wander or stroll around casually.TRANSCRIPT Find a full transcript for this episode ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak_2025/ep-250113FIND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE: Visit our website ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/followusSUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/newslettersLIKE PODCASTS? Try some of our other popular podcasts including: ✔️ Learning English for Work ✔️ Learning English from the News ✔️ Learning English StoriesThey're all available by searching in your podcast app.

In this episode of IEA Briefing, we explore why a 37-year-old paper on UK housing remains shockingly relevant today. Dr. Kristian Niemietz joins us to discuss the republishing of "No Room! No Room!" - Professor Alan Evans' 1988 analysis of Britain's housing crisis. Despite being written when multiplex cinemas were new and the Berlin Wall still stood, the paper's diagnosis of the UK's housing problems feels like it could have been written last week. The discussion dives into Evans' key insights about land prices, planning permission, and local authority incentives - issues that have only gotten worse since the 1980s. Dr. Niemietz explains how the paper identified core problems like NIMBYism (before the term even existed in British English) and the green belt's impact on housing development. They also explore how the planning system's effect on land costs leads to compromises in building quality and design. The conversation concludes by examining how the housing crisis has intensified, with current UK housing affordability ratios over 8 times median income in England and over 12 in some areas. While new factors like immigration now affect housing demand, the fundamental problems Evans identified in 1988 remain at the root of today's crisis. The discussion ends with a look at the growing YIMBY movement and whether there's hope for meaningful change in housing policy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe

In this episode, Dan talks about the secrets to improving your speaking skills as well as The biggest mistake non-natives make The reasons why speaking practice is so important The top 3 exercises for improving your speaking skills Get the FREE 7-day Speaking Practice Plan:https://www.britspeak.co/7-day-speaking-pratice-plan Get daily practice emails with the 30 Day Speaking Practice Pack:https://www.britspeak.co/speaking-practice-pack Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode, Dan talks about why English speakers don't use correct English as well as Why it is not as incorrect as you might think The historical reason for a lot of the "mistakes" How to deal with these issues when they happen Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs Get my free British English Starter Kit I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Check out the BritSpeak Chinwag Club - Weekly group speaking sessions to build your skills Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode, Dan talks about one of the myth of the British Accent and tells you: Why people have it all wrong The reason you shouldn't try to change your accent The way British people feel about our accents Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs Get my free British English Starter Kit I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Check out the BritSpeak Chinwag Club - Weekly group speaking sessions to build your skills Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

Join The Academy waiting list today at thebritishenglishpodcast.com/academy. Welcome to a brand-new type of episode where we dive into the exciting learning moments happening inside The Academy! This week, we're revisiting a phrase from Season 3, Episode 8 with Luke from Luke's English Podcast: “swings and roundabouts.” We explore how Luke used it to describe generational differences, the pros and cons of progress, and how this phrase is often used to sum up a balanced perspective. You'll also learn how to use it naturally in everyday English. Plus, we shine the spotlight on Academy member Gosia, whose incredible homework dialogue perfectly used the expressions “feel like a fish out of water” and “it's hard to put my finger on it.” Her example shows just how to bring advanced vocabulary into real-life situations.

What makes someone your best friend? Is it time, shared experiences, or just the luck of meeting the right person at the right moment?In this special episode of English and Beyond, Oliver explores the meaning of friendship. With help from his old university friend Chris, who dials in from the USA, they explore everything from the odd rituals of childhood best friends to the transactional nature of party buddies.Why do some relationships stay in the “friendly acquaintance” zone while others become lifelong bonds? And how do friendships compare to romantic relationships or sibling dynamics? With wit, warmth, and a touch of dry humour, Oliver and Chris unpack the messy, wonderful world of human connection.Whether you're a lifelong casual friend-maker or a proud introvert of the 'best friend' variety, this episode may make you think about the people in your life in a new way.

In this episode, Dan talks about one of the biggest misconceptions people have about their English abilities and tells you: Why you are stuck in a cycle The reason you are not able to break that cycle The mindshift you need to make if you want to make progress If you are interested in 1:1 coaching, check the link here for the details: https://www.britspeak.co/britspeak-success Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs Get my free British English Starter Kit I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Check out the BritSpeak Chinwag Club - Weekly group speaking sessions to build your skills Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

In this episode, Dan talks about some simple ways you can improve your English pronunciation skills and tells you: Why pronunciation is so important The tools you are going to need for your practice Why your mistakes are not holding you back Get my free British English Starter Kit here and get access to the Pronunciation Practice Power Pack for the one time price of $7 Thanks for checking out the BritSpeakPod. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favour and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review on your favourite podcast platform! My name is Dan and I am a British English language coach from Sheffield in the UK. I help people who want to, or who already, live in the UK with their communication skills so that they can build a better life, a fulfilling career, and stronger relationships in their new environment. You can learn from me for free: Instagram reels and stories Weekly BritSpeakPod episodes My articles and blogs Get my free British English Starter Kit I also offer paid services to help you build your communication skills: Join BritSpeak Success - My 1:1 coaching programme to help you succeed in the UK Check out the BritSpeak Chinwag Club - Weekly group speaking sessions to build your skills Take the British Slang Challenge - Learn and master over 150 British expressions

This is an episode of The British English Podcast, on which Stephen was a guest. Charlie Baxter (The British English Podcast) talks to Stephen Devincenzi (SEND7) about good news and funny things that have happened in 2024.www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 23, 2024 is: palaver • puh-LAV-er • noun Palaver is an informal word that usually refers to unimportant or meaningless talk. It can also refer to misleading or deceptive speech, or to a conference or discussion. In British English the word is sometimes used as a synonym of fuss to refer to unnecessary excitement about something. // Enough of this palaver. We have more important things to discuss. See the entry > Examples: "Henry [Thoreau] was working at his journal, as he usually did for a part of each day. He was reading Chaucer and liking it. A couple of days later, on Monday, January 3, he made popcorn, which he playfully called 'cerealious blossoms' because they were 'only a more rapid blossoming of the seed under a greater than July heat.' On Wednesday, January 5, as early clouds gave way to midday sun, he praised manual labor as 'the best method to remove palaver from one's style.' Maybe he took his own advice about palaver. We hear no more from him about cerealious blossoms." — Robert D. Richardson, Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives, 2023 Did you know? Let's talk about palaver. Though the word comes from Portuguese, it likely entered English by way of the West African coast in the 18th century. Portuguese sailors there used their word palavra, which in general use means "speech" or "word," as a term for discussions with the native people they encountered. English sailors applied palaver for the same, and then brought the word back to their own shores. The Portuguese word comes ultimately from the Late Latin noun parabola, meaning "speech" or "parable." If Portuguese isn't in your wheelhouse, perhaps you'll recognize the influence of Latin parabola on other tongues: the Spanish palabra, for instance, means "word," and the French parler means "to speak."

Hello Wonderful Readers,Late last Thursday evening, I felt terrible. As I walked with my two friends through the dark, tree-lined streets of Mexico City to a cocktail bar, a giant, hollow pit was growing inside me. Not because I was hungry. I had just eaten two slices of my favorite pizza in the whole world: the Picante Pep from Hanks. But not even that salami, basil, and sweet, spicy honey could comfort me. Arturo, my new love interest, had promised to meet up at Casa Franca. And I still hadn't heard from him.My phone lay message-less in my purse. I ground my teeth in this godawful purgatory. My heart had sunk somewhere between my knees and my feet. Part of my disappointment and hurt was oozing with my anxiety into a mixture as toxic as nuclear waste in my mind.Maybe I won't meet with him for jazz music and dancing like we planned? Arturo isn't interested in me, is he? Why can't I date a nice guy like him without scaring him away? What's wrong with me?I felt like a fool for dressing up, looking hotter than I had looked in weeks. I wore a crimped red dress and dark purple turtleneck top, black tights, and big, clompy black boots. My dark, purply red lipstick matched my dress, which was the same length as my black blazer with gold buttons. Whatever, I huffed to myself. None of this mattered if I wasn't going to see Arturo.But what do they say? When God closes a door, he opens a window. Well, don't even start me on the concept of God being a male. At least Ariana Grande was right about something.My friends and I arrived at the cocktail bar, Salón Palomilla. I kept trying to focus on what they were saying, but I still felt too distracted. It was hard to divert the course of my thoughts when the destination of Arturo was seared into my brain. We walked down the mirrored corridor, passed gold bottles of expensive alcohol, and climbed the back stairs to the rooftop.Our surroundings transformed. Serpent-green walls were interrupted by low-lit, quirky paintings of women's bodies, something between Picasso and Miro. The starry sky stretched overhead like we were in the top capsule of a spaceship filled with Mexico City's hottest and coolest bright young things. Just arriving there, I felt slightly elevated. Do I sound entitled for feeling self-important when I walk into a room of exclusivity, pomp, and snobbery? Probably. I gazed at couples whispering to each other and groups of friends sitting on velvet couches around black onyx coffee tables. They talked and checked us out as we passed. But much like the stars in the night sky overhead and the bubbles in some clientele's cocktails, I too, felt like I had risen.On the way to our table, I suddenly caught sight of someone strangely familiar. He was sitting in a high-backed armchair with a female friend at his side. I believe they were friends because they seemed utterly uninterested in each other, at least compared to the other couples in the room who were sitting much closer together and seemed more enraptured in each other's physical and personal business. But as you know, I have been very wrong about this in the past.I only caught sight of this man for a split second. I couldn't be sure. Was it him, though? If it was who I thought it was, well, then it was Guillermo García Garrido, one of the hottest and most successful internet chefs of my generation. His initials should not be confused with GGG, a tagline some men use on dating apps to proclaim themselves as “good, giving and game” (good in bed, willing to give equally to their partner and game for anything). Perhaps Guillermo, if that's who he was, was GGG. A conversation about Guillermo's supposed sex life, for me, would be a whole other situation.Now, I'm not one for cooking shows. I don't give a s**t about cooking recipes at home, and I have never used my oven in the two years I've lived in this apartment. But the truth is that Guillermo could feed me s**t-stew, and I'd eat it. The man is like a small walking god. He had a beautiful, rounded nose and luscious locks of brown hair. And when I say luscious, I mean a little long in places, but the kind that he would curl down in front of his face when he made his cooking videos. I don't remember how I had come across him on the internet. But this beautiful man, born in Chicago to Mexican parents, had achieved something that I thought was impossible. Guillermo is so attractive that for a brief moment in time, he convinced me that vegan food is sexy. Known as “That Vegan Guy” (this is not his real handle, of course, I have anonymized him), since he moved to Manhattan, his career had exploded, and he'd soared to more than 400,000 followers on Instagram.  Of course, once I stumbled across his work, I began to salivate over the vegan things he was cooking. Well, not for the food. I was there for the videos of him being hot and cute, biting into a deep, juicy mushroom burger, and rolling his eyes back in his head because he was enjoying his own food so much. The pleasure of it all, just watching him chop, stir, and devour, was enough to keep me on my toes as I looked into his equally dashing dark brown eyes through my screen. What else can I say about him, except that he was so hot? And just like any fangirl on the internet, I quickly developed a crush on him the size of Mount Everest. I formed a strange, para-social relationship with him, wanting to touch and lick this man who was touching and licking so many delicious things in his videos. Well, that's the weirdness of the internet for you.Yet, in 2021, I soon became very disinterested in his vegan cooking. And so, in an act of stupidity or genius (I'm not sure which), I decided to troll him on Twitter. Now, I know I'm being a complete hypocrite here because I believe trolling is bad and it's not a nice thing to do in general. What I did was wrong, I admit it. But at the time, it was the pandemic, and I didn't give enough of a f**k about anything. And I honestly didn't think he would reply. So, here is the interaction that we had on Twitter:If you can't speak Spanish I flit from trying to sound cool to the immediately desperate reaction of:“Seriously, tell me when you don't have a girlfriend. Maybe we'll meet someday. Who knows.”And who knows, indeed? Had I just finally met That Vegan Guy in real life? Had I prophesized this meeting three years earlier? Or was I just fangirling and salivating over nothing and no one?My friends and I indulged in rounds of cocktails and passion-fruit kombucha with a salt rim, which I quite liked. Despite the chance of seeing Guillermo, I still felt down about Arturo, and I turned to my friends for consolation. But when I mentioned to them who he might be, of course, we erupted in giggles and quickly came up with a new challenge:I had to determine whether this man was indeed Guillermo García Garrido, and then I had to do whatever was in my power to talk to him.Rather than being normal and mature adults, my friends quickly dared me to walk back to the entrance to try to catch his eye. I got up and dawdled back to where I had seen him, pretending to look at the art. But based on where this guy's chair was sitting and facing, it was impossible to look properly. He also now seemed even less interested in talking to his female friend, and he was on his phone, which meant it was even harder to look directly at his face. I returned to the table with my friends, unsuccessful.But then, about 20 minutes later, this Guillermo-lookalike got up from his chair and walked beside us to the bar at the back of the room. He disappeared behind some curtains into a cornered-off section. I whispered to my friends,“Okay. What should I do?”“Go for it!” my female friend said, “I mean, you miss all the shots you don't take.” She winked at me with undeniable excitement and cheekiness. So I took a deep breath and stood up. Yes, I thought to myself. I had nothing to lose again.I tried to walk as normally and coolly as I could. Soon, I disappeared behind the curtains. I found him there next to the bar.“Excuse me,” I said in my most confident and British English, “Are you Guillermo, That Vegan Guy?”Guillermo gazed at me, and as if he was posing for a TV camera, he twirled the lock of luscious brown hair dangling over his forehead.“I am,” he said. Was that a smirk? A smile? Was Guillermo García Garrido flirting with me?“Oh, great,” I said, again trying to play it the coolest of cool. Guillermo's beauty was a little more understated in person. Still, I liked his rolled-up corduroy trousers. “I don't know if you remember me. I trolled you on Twitter once. I'm Tash—”“Tash Doherty,” he said.I almost choked on my tongue. I was clueless as to what to do, so I kept talking, pretending not to hear but also very, very aware that this walking human male god knew who I was. (If you think I'm an egotist for writing this story, you are completely right. I checked after and somehow we follow each other's personal Instagram accounts. Lol.)“Yes, that's me. I'm sorry I said that about you. Quite the back-handed compliment. Ha. Ha. Well, what are you doing in Mexico City?” I asked him. I was grateful to be wearing my blazer so that he couldn't see the probably enormous sweat patches forming at my armpits.“I'm checking some places out and visiting my family in Queretaro. What are you doing here?”“I live here. I used to live in New York, but now I live here.” I bombarded him with nervous repetitions to try to save myself.“Oh, cool,” he said.“How long are you in town for?” I asked. And before he had the chance to answer, I added, “I'd be happy to show you around if you need. Here. Let's exchange numbers.”“For sure—”I thrust my phone into his hands and beckoned for his. I was surprised that he had an older, smaller model of the iPhone. I guess I had incorrectly judged him as someone who might have all the latest gadgets. But Guillermo was either down-to-earth, uninterested in the high-flying lifestyle, or he was so successful in his TV and food film career that he never shot videos for himself on his own phone, and only had others do it for him.Putting my number in this man's phone, I could tell that he was very important indeed. Just from the red icons on his home screen alone, I saw that he had like 560 missed calls, 810 messages that he hadn't read, and some ungodly numbers of Instagram and TikTok notifications. I now had low expectations that this man would ever message me (spoiler alert, he eventually did, which I may tell you about another time). Yet with a couple more pleasantries and a quick goodbye, I headed back to my table with Guillermo García Garrido's phone number in my phone and a one-in-a-lifetime story for my friends.As I told them what had happened, I noticed that my feelings of low self-worth from Arturo's radio silence had evaporated. When Guillermo left the bar some 15 minutes later, I even gave him a quick wave as he stood at the top of the staircase. How did he signal back to me? He nodded at me, the most incredible, smooth, subtly sexy nod I had ever received in my life. A smirk, a thin lift of his eyebrows, and a small swoosh of his hair all in one. It was scorching hot enough to make my insides melt on the spot.So, what is the moral of this twist of fate, of the universe lending me a step up and a reason to remember for a moment that, yes, I truly am hot as f**k? It's one of the five cliched principles I live my life by:You never know.This is an angle of optimism. Things can accidentally work out far better than you could have ever imagined. My experience with Guillermo García Garrido at Salón Palomilla is proof of that, and let me tell you: there's nothing quite like exchanging numbers and flirting with one of the objectively hottest guys on this planet as a way to forget about a pleasant but inattentive man.Of course, you know from last week's post that Arturo did eventually message me, and we did eventually dance to jazz music at Casa Franca. But I can tell you that I was a lot more fun to be around once Guillermo had given me the ego stroke of a lifetime.As promised, I'll have even more details of where that came from for you next week, because I ran into one of my exes from On Dating Mexican Men at Casa Franca. Stay tuned, as I'll be back with the gory, juicy details of that encounter next week.Much love to you, wherever you are out there in the ether.Love,Tash

Did you know that nearly half of all marriages in the West end in divorce? Ouch! This is a startling statistic and reflects how common divorce is in Western countries like the UK. Understanding this reality will help you navigate discussions about relationships, making your British English skills even more relevant and practical. If your thinking about subscribing to our premium podcasts, we have lots of information on how to sign-up for 8 new & exclusive subscription episodes every month here: https://adeptenglish.com/faq/subscription-faq/ ✔️ Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-listening-practice-divorce-regret-relationships-english-vocabulary/ Today's lesson https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/ will take an interesting look at relationships in the UK with lots of examples to help you learn https://adeptenglish.com/company/learning-system/ words like 'divorce,' 'reconcile,' and 'regret', words you'll hear in everyday English conversations. You'll not only expand your English vocabulary around relationships, but also discover why people want to reconcile after breaking up. Near the end of the lesson I share a powerful tip to help you use this new English vocabulary fluently, giving you the confidence to talk about relationships in any context! "Marriage is not just spiritual communion; it is also remembering to take out the trash." Joyce Brothers Follow and subscribe to our English language podcast, wherever you listen or watch your podcasts: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adeptenglish/

Southern biscuits are the fluffly, flaky stuff of dreams, but they're a fairly new invention. Anney and Lauren explore how these biscuits came to be, how to make them at home, and why ‘biscuit' in British English is a different baked good entirely.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen with FREE Interactive Transcript only on the RealLife App.   If British accents leave you puzzled, you're not alone! In this episode, we explore the reasons behind the challenge of understanding British English and reveal the key differences from American English. We analyze the speech of British stars like Dua Lipa, Adele, Emma Watson, and Cillian Murphy, breaking down 5 essential elements to help you tune your ears and boost your comprehension. Don't miss this guide to mastering British accents!   Show notes here. .......... Follow us on: RealLife English (YouTube) Learn English with TV Series (YouTube)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 2, 2024 is: incandescent • in-kun-DESS-unt • adjective Incandescent has literal and figurative meanings. Its literal meanings relate to heat and light; it describes something that is white or glowing because of great heat, and also something (like a light bulb) that produces bright light when heated. In figurative use, incandescent relates to several kinds of brilliance. Something or someone described as incandescent can be very impressive, successful, or intelligent, or simply happy and lively. In British English, incandescent can also describe someone or something feeling or showing great anger. // The invention of the incandescent bulb in the 19th century ushered in the age of electric lighting. // However much we were inclined to dislike her, it was hard not to be charmed by her incandescent smile and wit. See the entry > Examples: “Chang was 31 years old in 1998 when she debuted with Hunger. The reviews were raves, the praise, incandescent. The New York Times profiled her two years after publication as if to observe just how extraordinary the collection and the reviews had been. The critics said often that Chang was writing about lost homelands but you will see that these are stories mostly about the new homeland, not lost at all. These are mostly stories about America, about people who gave up everything to move here only to learn they would need to give up even more.” — Alexander Chee, foreword to Hunger (25th Anniversary Edition) by Lan Samantha Chang, 2023 Did you know? Incandescent first came to light in the English language toward the end of the 1700s, at a time when scientific experiments involving heat and light were being conducted on an increasingly frequent basis. An object that glowed at a high temperature (such as a piece of coal) was deemed incandescent. By the mid-1800s, the incandescent lamp—aka the lightbulb—had been invented; it contains a filament which gives off light when heated by an electric current. Figurative uses of incandescent soon followed, and today someone with a brilliant way with words may be said to have an “incandescent wit,” while someone positively beaming with joy may possess an “incandescent smile.”

Fran from Step Up Japanese and I discuss a few different topics in today's episode, including:The Shikoku 88 Pilgrimage (walking around the Japanese island of Shikoku)The Tadoku reading method for languagesAn embarrassing language mistake on TVAnd more!If you're a fan of hearing casual British English conversations, and also finding out something new about language learning, then this should be a good episode for you.Show notes page - https://levelupenglish.school/podcast286Sign Up for Free Lessons - https://www.levelupenglish.school/#freelessonsJoin Level Up English - https://courses.levelupenglish.schoolBy becoming a member, you can access all podcast transcripts, listen to the private podcast and join live lessons and courses on the website.

By now, you probably know how much I love connecting language and culture. To me, they go hand in hand! And that's why in today's episode, I've invited Charlie Baxter from The British English Podcast on the show to talk about Harry Potter. Together, we'll dive into the magical world of Harry Potter, but not simply the fictional side of it. Harry Potter, in many ways, was inspired by real places in the United Kingdom and aspects of British culture, from the school system to social structure and class. If I'm honest with you, even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, this episode might be eye opening. We not only compare British English with American English, we compare life! Premium Content:  Season 4 (Episodes 150 - 200) = Each episode includes a quiz, the PDF transcript (the text of the audio) with definitions of challenging words and the mp3 file. All Premium Content for Seasons 1, 2 and 3 (Episodes 001 - 150) My Favorite English Resources Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices