This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 36 Spice Up Your English with Ron from English FunCast.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and and former IELTS examiner, Jessica Beck, coming to you from Portland and Boston, USA.
Do you want to get the joke in English?
Humor is the best way to learn.
Find out how you can understand more English jokes and laugh more often with your native friends.
Do you ever feel like your English is good but not quite where you want it to be?
Maybe you can have conversations, but you still hesitate when expressing complex ideas.
Maybe you know what you want to say. but you can't always say it naturally.
If that sounds familiar, our B2 English fluency course was designed for you.
You'll learn how to speak more naturally, express yourself with confidence and finally stop feeling stuck at the intermediate level.
This week, you can save $50 on our basic plan or save $100 on our personal coach plan.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash B2.
That's allearsenglish.com slash letter B number two.
Hey, Lindsay, have you heard any good jokes lately?
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh.
I nothing comes to mind.
Actually, I should have one ready because today we are talking about jokes.
But I love I like the dad jokes, right?
The cheesy, funny, silly dad jokes that are clean and just sort of fun and nerdy.
They're so nerdy dad jokes.
I love nerdy jokes.
I love – yeah, I love puns.
I love wordplay, right?
Me too.
And I think this is one reason why I can –
I legitimately enjoy hanging out with my 10-year-old son and his friends because we have a similar sense of humor.
I still find stuff funny that 10-year-old kids find funny.
I just find just everything funny.
Oh my gosh, that's so funny.
What kinds of things do 10 year old kids find funny?
Is it just things that are like silly?
Is it like silly humor?
Silliness for sure.
But wordplay because like they're proud when they understand these sorts of puns.
Yes.
And then any like, you know, body humor because they're just like silly.
They're still little kids, but they're like growing.
And so anything making fun of, you know, bodies and what we do is always funny.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I mean, I like puns.
I think they're fun.
I mean, here's an example of a pun.
After hours of waiting for the bowling alley to open, we finally got the ball rolling.
That's so great.
Those are so fun.
I think they're fun.
That's so awesome.
We do have a pun coming up for you towards the end of today's show as well, guys.
So stay tuned for another pun that'll get you laughing.
But the reason why we're talking about comedies is we actually spoke to –
A teacher from Canada who had a podcast for a while.
His name is Ron, and the podcast was The English Fun Cast.
And even though he does not publish these anymore guys, you can still go to his website, englishfuncastcom.
There are 146 episodes on there.
You can listen to, you could read the jokes, and you could hear them explained.
So it's a great resource.
Yes.
Why is this even important?
Why are we sharing this with our students?
Well, the whole idea here guys, is that learning with humor is such a good way to learn, because when we're enjoying something, we're laughing, we're actually learning more and learning faster.
Don't you think, Jessica?
Totally.
Yes.
And before we dive more into the benefits, guys and we will convince you to learn about jokes and humor in English let's go ahead and listen to Ron introduce himself.
Hi, so I'm originally an English teacher.
I taught in China for a few years.
And then I came back to Canada and I'm teaching here at a private high school.
And in my spare time, I like to do comedy.
I do a lot of stand-up comedy.
I go to different bars in Toronto and I tell jokes.
And what I did was I created the English Funcast podcast, where it's a method where I can like tell jokes and, at the same time, teach English.
Because, when you like, learn from jokes.
If you laugh at a joke in English, it means you actually understood the joke.
And as well as puns, you can learn like homonyms and like stuff like that.
Okay.
All right.
That's awesome.
So he actually does stand-up comedy, right?
Wow.
I would be terrified to do stand-up comedy.
Do you think you could do that?
Well, I know Michelle has done a little bit of stand up comedy in New York, so we have to ask her about that.
But no, I would never be able to do that.
I think what's really good about stand up comedians is that they identify what's kind of mundane.
They identify the funny in the mundane, the things that we all do that are kind of silly and funny.
They pull that out in a way that most people haven't thought about before.
So it's like everyone can relate to a stand-up comedian most of the time.
Totally.
And I love going to comedy shows.
Do you like to?
Yeah.
I love stand-up comedy.
Yeah, that's definitely the first.
That is... one way that stand-up can build community and connection, right?
Because you know that everyone watching this and hearing these jokes can identify.
Cat has a similar experience, right?
The other thing I really like about stand-up is that they can take difficult things and perhaps painful things and shine light on them in a way that makes you feel better about something that's difficult, you know, and that also, I think, creates.
Community is like, you know what we all struggle with a bunch of the same things, and if we can make light of it, we can, you know, take that power away from the pain, and so that's another way that That's kind of a heavy look at it, but that is something I really appreciate about stand-up.
Yeah, I mean, I've seen the proof that you know, physiologically speaking, laughing does reduce stress.
And we know it.
We know that feeling.
A really good belly laugh, which is a bonus phrase for today, right?
What is a belly laugh, Jessica?
Oh, my gosh.
And I have something else to say about laughter.
But a belly laugh, guys, that's just a phrase to describe a really deep, big laugh.
And I mean, like a real laugh, you know, not just like a polite like laugh.
Yeah, it's not forced, right?
It just booms out of you, right?
Like you can't hold it in.
But I want to share something real fast before Ron shares with us some of the benefits of humor and why he wants to teach us about that.
But just interestingly enough so in James' health unit in his class they are talking about how to relieve stress and anxiety.
And they talked about the science of laughter.
And they said even if you pretend to laugh, you make yourself laugh.
That will still have the same physiological benefits As a real laugh with, which I thought was interesting.
And they did something in class called laughing yoga.
Oh, I've tried that before.
Yeah, that is the coolest thing.
That is the coolest thing.
Oh, my gosh.
Definitely, guys.
Look this up.
I love this as a way to deal with anxiety.
But it was really funny because later on in that day James was upset about something and I was like, all right, let's do laughing yoga.
And he was like, oh, and then it totally worked.
It totally works, you guys.
All right.
So let's go back to our friend Ron and hear about why he is doing this podcast and why students need to learn English through humor.
I guess it's exciting.
It gets the listeners or the learners focused.
And when they start reading it.
If they read it over and over again, once they understand it they'll actually start laughing.
And this way they know that they understood what they just read.
All right, Lindsay.
So before we get back to Ron and a little bit more about why he made that show, I wanted to stop here and discuss this with you.
So this method of learning, right?
He wants people to get frustrated focused on the words, on the joke, right?
And allow people to understand it.
Do you think it's important to understand jokes in another language?
And why is that so hard?
Well, I do think it's super important.
And I think a lot of it is hard because of culture.
Right.
So for sure.
Well, first of all, there's the concept of what's funny in another culture may not be the same.
Right.
And then there's the concept of a lot of what we use, what stand up comedians use, or comedians or just everyday funny people.
They use cultural material.
Right.
Material or ways of live talk, things we do every day.
And that might be different across cultures, too.
So we have a couple of hurdles when it comes to understanding jokes in another language.
But that's why I think it's the ultimate goal.
To me, this is one of the highest signs of fluency when you can understand a joke and even when you can tell a joke.
And make other people laugh in a second language.
So that's why our students, our listeners should feel motivated to keep going with humor, because eventually you'll get there, guys.
Exactly.
And you know we talk a lot about how one of the best ways to learn a language guys, is to get into that target culture.
Like it's not just about... words that stand by themselves without context, right?
And so culture is the context for language, right?
And so yeah, it is super challenging, like Lindsay said, but it is such a Try to understand this humor guys, because you are not just learning words.
You are learning culture.
You are learning context.
And this is how you're going to connect with native speakers in the future.
Oh, my gosh.
If you're a small business the right hire can be make or break.
Hoping the right people see your job posting isn't the best growth strategy.
When the pressure's on and you need the right hire this is a job for sponsored jobs.
Indeed Sponsored Jobs is a boost whenever you need to find quality talent.
Indeed Sponsored Jobs gets you the quality candidates when you need them most.
People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now.
In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide.
Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.
Less stress, less time, more results.
When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is the job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
And listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeedcom slash podcast.
Just go to indeedcom slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast.
That's I-N-D-E-E-D dot com slash podcast.
Terms and conditions apply.
Hiring headache?
This is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs.
So good.
Let's listen to a little bit more about Ron telling us why he started this show in the first place and why you students will love it.
I just want them to, you know, improve their English and have a good time while doing it, right?
Like I think the most important thing when like studying a language, is to be able to motivate yourself, right.
Like there's many different methods out there and people have to find the best method for themselves.
And if they like to laugh and learn, then maybe that's a method that they'd enjoy.
Okay, so I love this so much.
This laughing method, right?
I love that that could be like a learning methodology.
Me too.
The laughing method.
I know.
No, because it's so different from anything that I think our listeners have ever seen, right?
The old way is the classroom, the textbook, the memorization.
This is the new way, guys.
This is fun.
Learning a language can actually be fun.
And that's why I'm so excited we've got Ron here to hear from him and to understand this.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
So Ron did share with us a joke to tell you guys.
Okay.
So we are going to tell you this joke.
And I want you guys to really think about this.
Why is this funny?
All right, Lindsay, I'm going to tell the joke.
Are you ready?
I'm ready.
I'm ready.
Go for it.
Last night, I went to a 24 hour grocery.
And when I got there, the guy was locking the front door.
So I was like, hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours.
And he goes, not in a row.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
I wonder if our listeners understood that joke.
What do you think?
I think some of you probably got it.
But this is an idiomatic punchline, right?
So the punchline is that very last line of a joke that makes it funny, right?
Yeah.
It's surprising, right?
And it's what makes you laugh.
And this one's an idiom so I could see why this would be difficult to get.
So in a row just means consecutive, right?
So here's the thing.
Usually when you see something is open 24 hours, then that means like all the time, right?
All the time.
All day, every day.
Yeah.
But here he's like, that's not what it means.
It doesn't mean 24 consecutive hours.
It could mean like 24 hours in a whole week and they're only open like three hours a day or whatever.
Right, right.
Or in a month, who knows?
Maybe they just have a very light workload.
And so they just, they're open at selective hours, very selected hours.
I love that.
And I'm glad Jessica, that you highlighted that term punchline because a lot of times people will say and here's the punchline right.
They deliver it in that way.
And that's kind of a fun way, thing to add to your language, guys.
So good.
I love it.
And another sort of idiomatic throwaway line that we use a lot when we're telling jokes to our friends.
Like, if you feel like your joke is taking a while or maybe you're just explaining too much, which I totally do sometimes.
Sometimes you could just stop and be like, wait for it.
We say this sometimes when we're like, no, come on, the funny part's coming.
Wait for it.
So instead of saying and the punchline is, you could say wait for it and then pause and then give the punchline, and it makes it even funnier.
Oh, this is so good.
And the intonation is so important to highlight for our listeners to wait for it.
You know, we know something else is coming, guys.
This is so good.
So, I mean, I really want to encourage our listeners to go over and check out Ron's podcast.
Right, Jessica?
Definitely.
Yeah.
And remember guys like I love that this is.
I love that this is a finite resource, because sometimes diving into a new podcast when you see there are 3000 episodes is kind of like oh my God, where do I start?
But the great thing here guys is, is that if you go to englishfuncastcom, you will see 146 episodes in all.
That's all of them, guys.
You could start from the beginning.
And each one... really cool.
You listen to the podcast and right underneath it, you can read the joke.
So read the joke first.
That's what I think.
And then listen to the podcast where he explains it and then go ahead and read it again out loud and practice telling the joke.
I love it.
So I want to say a big thank you to Ron for coming on, you know, for letting us know about his podcast.
This has been really fun.
It's always good to know about new resources to learn English.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh, for sure.
And we have many more fun guests coming up in the near future, guys.
So stay tuned.
All right.
Awesome.
Jessica, thanks for hanging out today.
My pleasure.
Super fun.
Talk soon.
Bye.
Bye Lindsay.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English and if you believe in connection, not perfection, follow our show wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
