Goodbye.
It's one of the first words we learn in English.
But did you know that it's much more complicated than you first might think?
Welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
I'm your host Oliver, and today, as always, we're going to be listening to some slow and clear English to practice your English listening skills and grow your vocabulary.
But we are going to look at one of the more socially difficult parts of any conversation.
And that is the saying goodbye.
In English the way that you end a conversation, the way you leave a situation, be it a party, a business meeting or even just a quick chat with a friend, it is an art form.
It is something that is quite complicated whenever we look at it a little bit deeper.
There's also a lot of cultural information behind it and different cultures handle this differently.
It's not just about saying goodbye.
It's about showing that the conversation is over and expressing some kind of appreciation, and also managing the time it takes to actually leave.
All of these within something that you might think should be as simple as saying one word.
So today...
You better get ready because we are going to master the art of the goodbye.
I'm going to give you some useful phrases to say goodbye or to end conversations, but we're also going to learn some of the cultural differences between the UK and US for saying goodbye in English.
So hopefully by the end of it, you will be saying goodbye like a pro.
As always, let's look first at our key vocabulary for today's lesson.
If you're new here, this is the section where I introduce five words or phrases that I want you to learn from this episode.
And if you know them already, you can just simply practice listening out for these words or phrases during the episode.
Don't worry if you don't understand them all from the first try.
You will hear them in context throughout the podcast episode.
But first before I read them, if you're new or you've been listening for a while, make sure you are subscribed or following the Easy English Podcast wherever you're listening.
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You're still listening.
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Okay, now that that's done, let's look at our five key phrases and words.
The first today is a phrase, and the phrase is actually a phrasal verb and it is the phrasal verb wrap up.
To wrap up.
This means to end or conclude a discussion or an activity.
For example, I need to wrap up this meeting soon.
Or we need to wrap up this game soon.
We need to finish or end this game soon.
It's a great phrasal verb.
Next, number two is also a phrasal verb.
And it is to take off.
To take off.
And this simply means a casual way to say I'm leaving.
I'm leaving.
For example, it's getting late.
I'm going to take off or I need to take off.
It means I need to go.
Our third one today is another phrasal verb and this is catch up.
To catch up.
And to catch up means to meet and talk about what has happened since the last time you saw each other.
For example...
It was lovely to see you.
Let's catch up next week.
So it was lovely to see you.
Let's meet next week and talk about what has happened since is basically what that means.
So you can see we've already had three phrasal verbs here.
And that's not by design.
It's because so many phrases in English are related to saying goodbye or meeting people are phrasal verbs.
And if you want to learn more of those, make sure you have got a copy of my e-book Phrasal Verbs Are Easy.
The link is in the description below.
A nice little sneaky advertisement there.
Our fourth phrase for today is to keep in touch.
To keep in touch.
This is an idiom A very useful idiom, which means to maintain contact, to maintain contact.
So we should keep in touch after the conference.
It means we should maintain contact or continue to communicate even after the conference.
And our final word is reluctant.
And this is an adjective.
Reluctant, reluctant, reluctant.
And it means unwilling and hesitant to do something.
So you don't want to do it.
Usually we use this when you don't want to do something, but you do it anyway.
So for example, I was reluctant to leave the party, but I had to get up early the next morning.
So I didn't want to, but I had to.
Okay.
Okay, so those are our words.
Remember, if you want the full vocabulary list and transcripts, those are all available on the Patreon, as well as bonus content every single week.
We now have full length bonus episode every week on Patreon.
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Okay, so the first rule of saying a fluent goodbye is that it is a process.
Saying goodbye is a process.
It's not a phrase and it's not a single event.
You need to also show someone that you are ready to leave the conversation.
And You know you're going to find some of this stuff probably a little bit strange, or think Oliver, this is too much.
But when you say goodbye in your language and culture, you don't realize.
But you are signaling the correct way, in a way that is appropriate for your language and culture, to let the other person know that you want to end the conversation.
This might be your body language, it could be the tone of your voice, so how your voice sounds, and it can be the words that you choose.
Some cultures as well, of course, are more direct in their approach, and others are even more indirect than English.
And some cultures, people won't really say goodbye at all.
But today, of course, we're talking specifically about English.
So let's have a look at some ways to signal so to show that we have reached the end of a conversation.
So before you even say goodbye, you're showing that we're towards the end of the conversation.
There is, and I will say first, of course, many conversations naturally come to an end.
So the conversation stops, it becomes more quiet, and then you have a moment to show that the conversation is ending.
And there are some phrases that you can use to show that we are at the end of a conversation.
One good one is a time check.
A time check. checking the time.
For example, you might say something like, oh, look at the time.
I really need to wrap up.
I really need to go.
You might also have a kind of topic transition.
So if the conversation naturally has a pause or starts to end, you might say that was a great topic and a good one to end on, or great point to end on.
Basically, you're saying it's the end.
Or you can simply say that was a great conversation.
So you're basically saying that the conversation is over with your choice of grammar.
Oh, sorry, I just hit my microphone.
Hopefully that didn't make too much of a noise.
And yeah, so you can simply say in the past tense, that was a great conversation.
And you're showing with the grammar that the conversation is now over.
You can also summarize your conversation, particularly if you're in a professional setting.
So work or something like that.
You can say, ah, to summarize, you know, I will do this and this and you will do this and this.
So you're really summarizing the main points.
And you can do that in quite a casual way.
You could say it like just to recap, so to summarize, to recap and then summarize the conversation.
It's not only a good way to end the conversation, but it's a great way to actually summarize the conversation and remember what you've talked about.
Once the topic and the conversation itself is finished, it's closed.
With one of those phrases or methods, you then will move on to the final exit stage, and this is just letting the person know that you're leaving the conversation, it's finished and you're going.
A formal way to do this would be saying, you know, for example, like ah, thank you for the conversation, or it has been a pleasure chatting with you, but i have to go, or i'm going to be, i'm going to go.
You simply just say that you're going really, or that you have to go.
In a more casual setting, you can use one of those more casual phrases that I introduced at the beginning of the episode.
So something like...
All right, it was nice to chat.
I'm going to take off now.
Or you might say something like, it's quite late.
I should probably leave.
With the casual method.
Don't worry too much about thanking the person for the chat or those types of formalities.
Of course, you can be honest if you enjoyed chatting to them.
You can say that if you didn't enjoy chatting with them.
Probably don't say that, but you don't have to say anything about your enjoyment.
An interesting point and I guess, when we talk about cultural differences, I can explain this now a little bit more.
But using the word should or have to or need to, this implies an obligation.
And it's quite common in the UK that people will use these phrases.
So I need to go or I should go or I have to go.
And it's telling the other person that you're enjoying the conversation and you don't want to leave, but you have to.
And people use this even if they don't need to.
If perhaps you know time is tight and or maybe they want to get home to see their family, but they have enjoyed the conversation.
It's a way, through language, of letting that person know that they've enjoyed it, but they need to go.
Something else is making them leave.
So that's a great point to remember.
Okay, so now is time for our listener spotlight.
And I have some great comments for you from our last episode.
And this episode, the previous episode, sorry, is about talking about AI in English.
And I asked you to tell me what you think the positives and the negatives are about AI.
And I said you can tell me only positives or only negatives or maybe some of each.
That's absolutely fine.
And I had some amazing comments, but I want to read two of these that I thought were very well written and from people who usually like don't leave comments as well.
One and one really great regular commenter too.
And the first is, says, hi, it's Adam from Poland.
I am a physiotherapist and I want to tell you about some weird pros of AI.
I'm a physio and a creator on YouTube.
I decided to create an English version of my YouTube channel to reach more people.
Thanks to AI tools, I can create content in multiple languages.
I'm using the English part of the channel for learning English, but if it weren't for AI tools, I wouldn't be able to create that content in Spanish or Czech.
Of course, I show the exercises personally.
Great comment.
And that is a fantastic example of a good use of AI how it can help us reach wider audiences or help us to be more productive, instead of you having to manually translate stuff or all of that type of thing.
Of course, AI has some really great uses there.
Even myself with this podcast, AI helps me to subtitle this podcast and make transcripts.
So we had another comment from Lou and she said, this podcast is so important.
It seems weird to feel lucky to have a real teacher and real content.
With time, it will become more and more precious.
I have a rather negative opinion about AI.
Firstly, the name AI is not correct for me.
It is misleading.
And above all, I think that each content with AI posted online should be noticed with an AI mention.
So like a notice saying that it's made by AI.
As an English learner.
There is a lot of content entirely created with AI story and voice, but no mention.
It's so unfair for real creators.
I think this technology has arrived quickly in our lives, but the laws on its application are late.
Same problem for the climate protection.
So yes for AI, but with laws and rules.
I agree.
So I think that it's becoming more and more difficult to basically avoid AI content.
It's really difficult, especially with language learning.
It's an area that has grown so much.
And AI can be so helpful in so many things with language learning.
But to be honest, it's hard to replace real content.
And I am worried about the quality of some of the AI stuff, at least at the present day.
And that learners like yourselves are consuming some of this AI content.
So do be careful with the content that you use for learning English, and be careful about AI content for learning.
So I have another question for the listener spotlight for next week.
I want you to answer whether you find it more difficult to meet new people online Or to say goodbye to people.
So which do you find more difficult and why?
This is a little bit more of an interesting question and I'm curious to see your answers.
But I can give you an example.
So, for example, if you're meeting a new person for the first time and you're having to get to know them,
Do you find that more difficult than saying goodbye to someone that you've known for a long time, for example?
Before a long trip or leaving home or any of those things.
So I'm curious to see how you interpret this question.
And as always, I will read a couple of these answers out in the next episode.
Okay, so...
Before we finish off the podcast, I think it's cool and important to look at some of the differences between the UK and the US goodbye.
So how maybe most Americans would say goodbye and how the UK says goodbye. say goodbye.
And this is more looking at the culture and the cultural elements.
This might be quite different from how people do it in your goodbye or in your goodbye in your culture, in your country and culture.
And the main thing that is different between the United States and the UK is the pace of the goodbye.
So how quick it occurs.
And when I'm talking about goodbye, I'm talking about the entire process of ending the conversation and saying goodbye.
So in America, it's usually quite fast and quite functional in most cases.
So in the US, efficiency is probably more important than in the UK.
And a goodbye can generally be more quick and direct.
An American goodbye will often be, you know, a more final goodbye, a promise to maybe catch up soon or see them soon, and then they will leave immediately, not really messing about or being slow.
It's quite fast, right?
It's most of the phrases that we learned today and just, I'm away, I'm leaving.
Some key phrases could be like, see ya, talk soon, have a good one, that type of thing.
Sounds a bit more American.
A little cultural note for Americans.
If they say something like oh, let's grab a coffee sometime or let's get lunch sometime, at the end usually it's a bit of a polite thing to say.
But if they don't actually say, let's get a coffee on Tuesday or let's meet on this day, they probably don't actually mean it, or at least they're not serious about organizing it.
Right then and there.
Now, if we go to the UK, we'll see that some things are quite different.
So the UK goodbye.
And in my opinion, especially in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where I live, the goodbye can be famously long.
And it's sometimes humorously referred to as the British exit or the long goodbye.
And I think this is more common the more north that you go in the UK.
When you're in a city, it is a bit more functional, like in the US, a bit more direct and fast.
But the more north you go, and particularly out of the city, The conversation can often repeat itself.
It can take a little bit longer to end.
And this can be quite frustrating for some non-native speakers as well.
And it's quite common for the conversation in its final stages to go through multiple cycles of the final phrases that we've been learning, with people moving physically closer to the door and leaving with each one.
For example, you might say, right, I have to go.
And then you continue talking and it could be 10 minutes before you actually leave.
And then you might say, oh, it's been lovely after five minutes.
Like, it's been lovely.
I've had a great time.
Oh, it's getting late.
And then you keep talking and you're moving a little bit closer to the door.
And then finally, after those 10 minutes, you might say, OK, right, I really need to go.
Goodbye.
And this is what we call the long goodbye or that British exit.
And it's so common.
And sometimes I do it myself and I annoy myself because I start doing it.
And it's also very common on the phone as well.
When you're on a phone call and the person keeps saying bye, but they keep talking after and it can take three or four times to actually end the conversation.
And this is cultural.
There is a sense of being reluctant to leave quickly.
As culturally, it might imply that you didn't enjoy the visit that you want to go.
So it's a way of showing social warmth as well.
So showing that you're enjoying the other person's company.
And usually when this happens, it's because you have enjoyed the other person's company.
And you don't really have to go immediately, like an emergency.
So I like this cultural tradition.
It's a case of, when it happens, showing your enjoyment of your time together.
And it's subconscious.
People aren't thinking or strategizing about this, saying, oh, I need to take a long time to leave.
It just happens naturally.
So if this happens to you when you visit the UK or you visit Ireland especially, don't be surprised.
Okay, so now it's time for me to wrap up this podcast episode.
And I hope it ended up being a little bit more interesting than you first expected.
Who could have thought that a simple topic like goodbye actually is quite a deep one and a little bit more complicated than it first may seem?
So we've learned a little bit about signaling that we want to leave, about wrapping up that conversation with some phrases about leaving.
And primarily the most important bit here is the cultural context with goodbye um english and with using it to say goodbye.
So i hope you have enjoyed this episode.
Um, as always, i always love to hear your thoughts and your comments.
I read every single comment that i get, and i make a special effort to do that because i enjoy reading each and every one of them.
Keep up your English learning.
So many of you make so much of an effort to comment and write to me.
And I'm always so impressed with the content that you create.
I'm also so impressed with how long some of you have been learning and how consistent as this podcast has been going now for many years.
It's amazing to see you grow with the podcast too.
So thank you so much for listening.
I appreciate your support.
It's the best thing that you can do to support me is, of course, to listen and enjoy the podcast.
Thank you again.
I've just realized I've started to do the British goodbye, the British exit, the long goodbye.
Do you see it in action?
I'm starting to close the podcast, but continue to talk.
So I'm going to say goodbye one last time.
And I hope you have a wonderful evening.
Goodbye.
