Hello, everybody, and welcome back to a brand new QLips episode.
This is our update for July, our community update.
And joining me as my co -host is our amazing study guide writer and Discord moderator extraordinaire.
I think that's how I introduce you every time, Alina.
Discord moderator extraordinaire.
It's Alina. Alina, how's it going?
I think this intro will never get old.
Yeah, it's fun. I like it.
I'm doing good. Thank you.
How are you? I'm doing awesome.
Actually, my wife and I just finished eating some watermelon.
It was our first watermelon of the summer and it was delicious and really sweet and just awesome.
So I'm in a good mood because of the watermelon.
And yeah, Alina, I know you are not at home in Ireland right now.
Now, where are you actually?
So, yeah, I am in Hungary, of all places.
Hungary. Okay. Why are you there?
What are you doing?
Well, I mean, I've been getting kind of itchy feet, I guess.
And I think I mentioned some visa issues.
You know, if somebody is using the Discord server, they might have seen it.
And finally, as soon as I was able to, you know, travel, I couldn't wait.
You know, I got the ticket.
I hopped on the plane.
and I'm here to see Edith K.
Okay, awesome. And I love that idiom that you just used a second ago, itchy feet.
Maybe some of our listeners don't know that one, but it would be a great one to add to their vocabularies.
And it's actually rather easy to imagine if you think about it.
Could you break it down?
Could you tell us what that means?
sure thing yeah i mean i guess it's like obviously it's in a dramatic expression so it's not like i was actually sitting there scratching my feet but right the feeling you get you know when you really want to travel you really want to go somewhere you just like you know i stayed in ireland for such a long time my visa expired in january actually and you know having to like hear all these stories from people on discord about their trips So all of this kind of makes you feel like, oh, I want to do that, too.
It's almost like, you know, yeah, some kind of a delirious feeling.
Right. You really want to go somewhere.
You know, you need this change of scenery.
You want to see new places.
So, yeah, that's basically just this desire to travel, if you were to describe it.
Yeah. You know, I'm just thinking now, I wonder if because so many people like learning English because they want to travel, right?
They need their English for doing an international trip to a different country.
I wonder if that means that like the percentage of travel lovers who are also English learners is higher than like the general population.
So as a result, we talk a lot about traveling.
You know, maybe if Alina, our Discord was not centered around English learning, but it was centered around like studying math, then we probably wouldn't talk about traveling at all right because people like to learn English for traveling then we end up talking a lot about travel and then maybe that's why you got the itchy feet hearing about other people's travel stories I mean you talk a lot about that too like you know the podcast I know yeah I travel a lot too yeah it's true yeah okay well anyways I hope you enjoy enjoy your trip there your time on the continent as we say in the uk or do they
say that in ireland as well on the continent i mean i think so because like you know living on an island yeah you would probably want to make this yes distinction it's not just europe it's the continent yeah right continental europe as opposed to like the uk or ireland which are on islands right so yeah enjoy Enjoy your time on the continent.
And you said you were staying with Aditka, who is one of our QLips members and also a fantastic participant on our Discord server as well.
She's pretty active on there and always sharing funny stories.
I feel like she's one of the funniest members of our community.
Always makes me laugh in person when I talk to her during our classes and then also when I see her comments.
They're always really funny.
so how did it end up that you're staying with her did you guys first meet on the discord server is that how that happened oh yeah for sure i think i remember she joined oh gosh maybe the okay the discord server exists for two years i think has you know been um yeah about that yeah and i think she joined me like half a year later after we you know uh launched the server and ever since then we just kind of started chatting i don't know how it even happened you know you never you look back you're like hmm i don't know how it all started just you know one thing led to another and yeah we just kind
of chatted so much you know on the server because she's as you said you know extremely active maybe one of our most active members for sure and like ever since you know she joined she never really took any breaks you know so that's impressive but um yeah we just kind of uh spent a lot of time chatting and then she actually visited me in ireland last year so she was uh right in In Ireland in June.
So she was first to kind of, you know, see me in person, come all the way to Ireland.
And then I was like, okay, I have to do the same, you know, eventually.
And yeah, she's been kind of, you know, being like, yeah, you should come over.
You know, you're invited.
The invitation was there for a while.
So I was like, okay, I gotta, you know, take her up on that and finally accept that invitation.
And, you know, she doesn't live in Budapest. I guess when you think of Hungary, you think of Budapest, right?
it's like that famous place i never really even you know looked anywhere beyond the capital but she lives in the city called seged and she's talked a lot about it on the server it's no secret i guess she is very proud of it she tried to i guess promote it which worked since i'm here ambassador yeah yeah but it's a lovely place it's really like honestly if you know i have been to budapest before many many years ago i went to budapest seven years ago i think and it's like it's lovely it's beautiful you know the architecture is just amazing but it's very like it's hectic it's noisy you know of course
touristy and I feel like Szeged you know here is just like it's just as beautiful you know there's also beautiful buildings architecture all of that but it's so much more quiet you know calm and like I didn't really see a lot of tourists around here so it feels like more I don't know laid -back kind of I think it's also cheaper so So that's a bonus as well.
So I feel like if somebody, you know, wants to go to Hungary, but then, you know, Budapest is a bit too much, I would definitely recommend Szeged because it's like a, I don't know, like a mini version of Budapest, maybe.
But just as nice, just as good.
How big of a place is it?
Is it like quite a big city or a smaller village?
That's a good question.
I think it is actually officially a city.
And don't quote me on that.
I think it's about 200 ,000 people, like population.
I'm not sure. I think I remembered something vaguely because my hometown has more or less the same population I could be wrong though so okay but it feels bigger than I expected for sure for some reason I expected some kind of like more village -like place but it's quite big yeah if you just walk around and the center is just gorgeous it's like just you know any European city um you know that like has all these like restaurants cozy cafes kind of like a bit of a holiday vibe you know With all the people just sipping on their Aperol Spritz.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enjoying the summer weather.
Ice cream everywhere.
Because, you know, the weather has been actually insane.
It got close to 40 degrees on one day.
We were just melting.
We were just like, we couldn't move.
It's incredibly, yeah, unbearable heat.
I'll be honest with you.
I'm not used to it.
I'm not designed for it.
I don't really know how people handle it here.
But, you know, at the same time, Edith Kinnick and I were talking about it.
We said, it's better than the rain.
It's fine. It's all good.
You were enjoying the sun, getting some nice tan, and, you know, good vibes.
Holiday feel. Good.
Well, I'm glad to hear that.
And Alina, I think this perfectly transitions to the next part of the episode, because you just mentioned hanging out and spending time in the summer there with Aditya.
And she's one of our fabulous Qloops members and a great part of our Discord community as well.
and guys this is going to sound like it was pre -planned but this is not pre -planned actually I wanted to give a shout out to Aditka because she sent me an audio review to share with our listeners, she said Andrew can you share this audio message with all of the QLips listeners out there so I'm going to do that but I had no idea that Alina you guys were hanging out this week so that's kind of like very strange and and coincidental.
But yeah, Aditka works with audiobook recording and editing.
So she's got this really great audio recording setup, like this mic setup, almost a studio.
If you're watching the YouTube version of this video, or this episode right now, guys, you can see Alina's sweet microphone.
That's actually Aditka's.
So she's got a great recording setup.
And she recorded started a review for us to share with everyone.
We're going to do that now.
We'll listen to it and yeah, shout out to you Aditka.
Thank you so much. So let's listen to the review right now.
I thought I'm not going to write a review, but send a voice message to tell all of you guys how grateful I am for the Q -Lips team's work.
I've been listening to episodes and thereby by following Andrew's life from the very beginning I started to listen to stories through Google Podcast during my cooking time you know, killing two birds with one stone then two years ago I joined a Qlips server which is free for everyone and the next month I bought a membership for myself as a Christmas present it's crazy, right?
but I did it just because I wanted to show my appreciation association, and at that time I didn't even care about the benefits.
But that was my best decision.
I noticed that becoming a Q -Lips member and joining the weekly speaking sessions helped me more.
Everyone on these Zoom lessons are so nice, and we always have so much fun.
Of course, for this, just for the first time, we need to step out of our comfort zones but there is no progression without doing that, right?
And the groups are so receptive and we can practice and speak about the episodes and about our lives using the new expressions we have learned.
It helped me to improve my speaking and listening skills and it builds confidence.
I'm not so shy anymore when it comes to speak English.
Honestly, it's very beneficial official to all English learners to join and it is on an affordable price.
And something else, I cannot imagine my days anymore without having conversation on the server.
It has truly helped me improve my English.
The environment is friendly, supportive and full of people who are eager to learn and we help each other.
I've learned so much not just grammar but also from the real conversation with people around the world I feel these groups are my second family I love you all thank you for Yoshi Andrew, Alina Cassie, Indian Ana and the whole community for making learning English feel exciting and achievable thank you very much bye for now very very kind amazing I love that thank you so much Aditka for that just very very heartwarming review and Alina I love to hear that people are not just learning English with Qlibs but also being able to use English in their daily lives right now they have an opportunity to
speak and to make friends and new relationships and be social with their English as well and so yeah Yeah, that's what I really, really loved about hearing that review is to hear how Aditka is not just building her English fluency, but how she's also able to use it as like a tool to communicate with others in her life.
So, yeah, amazing. Thank you so much, Aditka.
Yeah, the best part.
All right, Alina, why don't we move on to the next item of business here, which is talking about the meetup that will be happening at the end of July.
i believe july 26th in prague that's correct czechia is the new name of the country how we see it now czechia and um you've got a venue sorted out so maybe you could share the details with everybody that the new updates yes we do have a venue finally and shout out to marky who helped us arrange everything because you know she is there in czechia and it's definitely so much much easier for her, you know, because she knows places and stuff.
So she did book a pub, restaurant slash pub, called Praha, actually.
So sounds like a good name for a place.
That's what they call Prague, the capital.
And yeah, we have it booked for six o 'clock.
So it's definitely happening.
And I can't wait to see as many of you there as possible.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So amazing.
I, unfortunately I would love to go, but it's just a little bit too far for me to go this time, but Alina will be there.
Marky will be there.
And hopefully many others will be there as well, just to hang out and chat and socialize.
And again, you'll be able to use English as a tool for communication, right?
This is one of the ways that you could practice your English speaking in just a really fun way in a social event.
So I'll be there in spirit, Alina, And I think we're actually going to make a Google form, right?
So that if you are interested in going, then you can sign up and we'll put the link to the Google form in the description for this episode.
So guys, if you want to attend and it's free to attend, then just click the link and fill in your name and your email address, and then we can send you the specific details that way.
And I think that's the best way to go about doing that.
So yeah, check out the link in the description.
I feel like it's actually very important, something we didn't mention last time.
Perhaps people weren't sure, but it is a free event.
You don't have to do anything.
Just get there, of course.
Just bring yourself.
You don't need, there's no ticket or anything like this.
The entry is free. In case somebody wasn't sure.
Yeah, we're not at that level where we're charging a ticket price.
anything like that no not rock stars no okay alina let's go on to our next and final item of business which is talking about the july challenge so in june we had this awesome challenge where we practiced using different phrasal verbs throughout the month and then in july we're doing something totally different we're kind of stepping away from the grammar and vocabulary challenges that we've done so far and in a way putting it all together do you want to explain what's going to be happening for july for the july challenge sure yeah i'm actually very excited for this one and i don't know like i
just got the idea kind of out of nowhere and i was so pleased when i thought of it so we are going to focus on controversial statements this time which means you know that we're gonna share our opinions on some statements which people often disagree on like you know something like um should uh you know social media be banned or should school uniforms be you know what's the word andrew please help me with mandatory i don't know required mandatory something like that yeah or you know should you just wear whatever you like in schools or something like that so it is going to be you will have 14 statements
you will need to discuss and the most important thing here is to be able to introduce your opinion and especially if you disagree with somebody to be able to you know introduce it politely in a way that doesn't offend anybody so we are going to help you with that as well um you know in english it's very important to be like polite and not too direct maybe in some other languages it's totally different which makes it so much more complicated you know and I've had situations for sure in life you know maybe when I was just starting to communicate in English when I was a little bit too direct and the reaction I
saw wasn't exactly you know something I expected and I definitely came across as rude and now I'm aware of it you know I look back and I'm so ashamed yes and look that's just the way things are sometimes so yes it's extremely important that you know especially if it's something you don't want to come across as negative you don't want to come across as you know um somebody who thinks they know you know they know better than someone else so we're just going to learn how to introduce our opinion how to structure maybe you know if you have like a few arguments and yeah i really do hope by the way
that you will be able to disagree agree with some things.
Cause you know, that's the whole idea behind this challenge.
If you just agree with everything, I guess we, you will miss out on, you know, being able to practice how to disagree politely.
So yeah, it's all going to be about, yeah, trying to express your opinion, agree, disagree in a polite and the best way possible, you know, so that nobody feels uncomfortable.
And hey, you could always play devil's advocate and argue for a position that that you don't agree with, right?
Like maybe, maybe, yeah.
You're like, Oh, I agree with this, but I just want to practice disagreeing.
So I'm going to say that I disagree with it.
Yeah. So guys, if you want to lie and share an opinion that you don't actually hold just for practicing, like feel free to do that.
That's okay as well.
Of course, we're here just to practice and yeah.
Alina, you, you are correct that there it is like a skill, learning how to share your opinion in a way that's not offensive.
And it is like one of those other things that maybe you don't really think about when learning languages, but learning language is more about just vocabulary and grammar. There's also how to do something like this, how to express yourself in a way that is inoffensive and polite.
And we actually call this pragmatics.
because that's like the linguistic -y term.
But yeah, this will be a great opportunity to practice how to do that, right?
And so we'll be there to help you guys out, of course.
And Alina, you also wanted to mention that there was a document, right, to go along with this month's challenge.
Is that true? Oh, yes.
I just wanted to make sure that, yes, if I could just ask you guys kindly to read the instructions, you know, everything that is attached to the post about the challenge.
I know you're very excited.
You just want to start, you know, doing it and you don't really care about, you know, exactly how you might think you already know what to do.
But the important thing there is that I will attach the, you know, helpful file with the resources, you know, all these phrases that you might want to, you know, incorporate and use to introduce your opinion and stuff like that.
so please make sure if you know you definitely take a good look and read everything carefully and if there is a file it's probably something you you know you're going to want to open and use in this challenge because we did have a helpful file for the last one as well and unfortunately i guess i didn't emphasize the importance of it enough and it turned out that a lot of people just like kind of didn't really notice that file even though it was you know very helpful since it had add all the detailed explanations for all the phrasal verbs which of course you know you want to see if you want to
learn how to use them correctly so there were dialogues and there were explanations so it's better late than never look it's fine now everybody knows about them because i reminded them of i reminded the participants of that file but for this one i will try to make it more obvious maybe as well maybe attach it as a picture so you know um yeah it's more noticeable okay okay so guys don't ignore the detailed uh file the attachment file for this month's challenge as well it's there as an extra helper to to guide you through this challenge so definitely check that out and we'll we'll add it into maybe
the pinned post the pinned post that will be at the top yeah perfect all right well i'm very excited july is going to be a big month here at QLips.
A great challenge, the European meetup, and lots of summer fun.
So, Alina, I think this is probably where we're going to wrap up for today.
So thank you so much again for your help and for taking some time out of your vacation to join us for this episode.
I hope you have an amazing rest of your trip.
And yeah, we'll see you next month for, I guess, the August update.
date. So talk to you then.
And goodbye, everybody.
Thank you. Bye.
