This is the Let's Master English podcast, and I'm your host, Goat Shane.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Let's Master English podcast number 136... publication date september 1st 2025 how you doing i hope you're doing great did you have a nice week Well, for many people around the world,
Can we call them people? I should say children, kids, youth, youngsters, rugrats.
They go back to school. Ha ha. Are you happy to be back in school?
Yeah. Mom and dad, at least mom for sure, if she's a stay-at-home mom.
Now it's mom's vacation. Mom has a couple hours to relax.
Nothing but quiet during the morning and afternoon.
It's a celebration for mothers and some fathers around the world.
So congratulations to all the moms and dads out there.
If your children are back in school, how great is that?
Yeah. I'm a little bit jealous because my wife and I, we are homeschooling my two boys.
So they are always home. And it is always crazy.
The plan is when Mikey and Jimmy are of middle school age, we'll send them to middle school.
But Mikey's only seven. Jimmy's only five.
So we're talking five, six, seven years.
We're talking many years. of chaos every day.
So I look forward to that day when my boys go to school.
And there's quiet in the house. Oh, that's going to be amazing.
Let's go to our community. We have Kayla.
Kayla is just a natural narrator, video creator too.
She shared a video of her walking around her city, and she just recently shared a video and narration. of her business trip that she took.
She's such a great narrator and videotaker.
So if you're in our community, check it out.
If you're not in the community, I have not put the price wall up yet.
In other words, it's still free. So this is the chance to join.
School.com slash LME. Super simple. S-K-O-O-L dot com slash L-M-E.
You just go there and join. Right now it's free.
I will be charging. OK, I will start charging, but I'm hoping to only charge a dollar a month and like ten dollars a year.
OK. Why am I charging? Believe me, not to make money.
It is to reduce spam. Yeah. When something's free, we get those weird people.
I don't like weird people. And we get the robots too.
But when you charge a little bit of money, then the weird people stay away, usually.
Not all of them. And the robots do too. So anyway, if you're in there, check out Kayla's videos.
And, you know, I got to look at the leaderboard right now.
Who is kicking butt in our community? Let's go to the leaderboard.
And all time record, of course, is Evelyn.
Evelyn is a rock star. Evelyn from France, everybody.
She's number one all time leader. So many points.
She has 3448 points in position. Number two is Alex Understated.
Alex is a professor. Teacher in Russia, 2,142 points.
And then number three is Jian. Jian Song in South Korea.
She has 1,799 points all time. In the past 30 days, Gian has been number one.
Khalil, a young man from Algeria, is number two.
Evelyn, of course, is number three. and the leaderboard from the past seven days.
Brown is number one. Congratulations, Brown.
169 points. Khalil coming in at number two.
148 points. Evelyn, number three, 119 points.
And following in the top 10, again, Jian Cheng.
Congratulations, Jian. Mox up at five. Kayla.
Skyler. Brand new, these two ladies. Alex.
Freya also knew Sarah. Oh, I'm so happy to see these new people so active.
It's fantastic. Congratulations. Keep rocking and rolling.
I want... to mention your name. If I didn't mention your name, come on, get in my community, be active.
How do you get points? Just leave a picture.
Take a picture of a sunset. or take a picture of your lunch or yourself.
That would be even better. And just say, hey, this is me.
I'm just saying hi. I'm in, you know, give the city name and whatever.
That's it. People will like your picture.
People will say hi. And that gives you points.
Every time somebody gives you a thumbs up, you get points.
So the more active you are, the more nice stuff you share, you can... skyrocket your points and become a leader.
So that's really cool. So anyway, congratulations again this week to Brown.
Outstanding job. I should also say Our new lessons for September are ready.
Yes. So if you're in September perf, or September DDM.
The new lessons are up and available. So I want you guys to get started on your lessons.
Remember, if you're a PERF student, that is our speaking class, you have about seven days to practice the assignment.
Practice it. Don't be reading the assignment.
Be speaking. Okay? Practice that. Then Coach Rochelle is going to upload lesson videos. after that i want you guys to join the live classes and start practicing with the coaches get that one-on-one training DDM, of course, the dictation is due on the 3rd.
The first dictation assignment is due on the 3rd.
And make sure you get your... answers up there you can upload to school or to box if you know about box and then the explanation video of course on the fifth whereupon I will give you the next DDM assignment.
We are on DDM 999. Can you believe that?
We have 999 DDM lessons. That is just incredible.
We've been doing DDM for over 10 years now.
And many of you... have been with me the entire time.
That's incredible. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
That makes me so happy, so proud. Okay, it's time for our opening song.
And by the way, we've got great music in this podcast.
We've got Pink Lady, Japanese band, BTS, Korean band.
Those are requests. Josh Turner, Randy Travis, some country music Lenka, another request Las Ketchup Delicious.
Another request. All requests today. The White Stripes.
That's perfect for high school. And we have these like going back to school songs, maybe when you were in school.
Savage Garden, Selena Gomez in the scene, and Our City and Adam Levine all coming up today.
I hope you enjoy the music. It's fantastic.
But, but, but, but. The Justin Bieber from Burma.
Oh, yeah. Ladies love this guy. Very wonderful, excellent, fantastic singer.
His name is Tu... me i hope my pronunciation is right that is this burmese name but if you're in our community We know him better as Brown.
That's right. Brown is a singer, an amazing singer, and we're opening With his song, We're Just Friends.
Make sure you give this song some love. Los Angeles' famous beaches like Malibu are shrinking fast.
Climate change, erosion, and dams block sand from reaching the shore.
Malibu loses 3.6 feet of beach yearly. Yikes.
San Clemente spends millions trucking in sand, but it's running out.
A new plan in LA County will reuse sand from construction.
To save beaches. Daniel Jackson, a 20-year-old from England, declared a new country called Verdes in 2019...
It's a tiny forest between Serbia and Croatia, unclaimed due to a border dispute.
He's issued 400 passports and 15,000 people want citizenship inspired by another micronation.
Jackson dreams of new governance and humanitarian aid.
Croatian police blocked his settlement, so he's protesting now in London.
And finally, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein premiered at the Venice Film Festival yesterday, August 30th, 2025, two days ago. earning a 13-minute standing ovation.
Stars Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi dazzled on the red carpet.
The film. A Netflix gem reimagines Mary Shelley's tale of creation and humanity.
It's a spooky, heartfelt, and a big awards contender.
The movie will hit theaters October 17th and will be streaming on Netflix on November 7th.
Frankenstein. Does everybody know Frankenstein?
Yeah, I'm sure Frankenstein is known around the world.
Very famous monster, right? They mate like...
I don't know the story, but basically it was like a dead guy or dead pieces of people, and they made a monster.
They put things together, and they... Made a monster.
Frankenstein. Scary. If you think about it, it's disgusting.
But it's a very famous story. Very, very, very famous story.
And there's a movie now. Another movie. There's been many movies.
But evidently, Guillermo del Toro, extremely famous movie director.
Evidently, this is his last film. So they're hoping that he's going to get lots of awards.
The Venice Film Festival. Have you been there?
Would you like to go? i have zero interest in going to the venice film festival however i would like to see the cars the sports cars and limousines and Bentleys and Rolls Royces.
I would like to see the nice cars. that these famous people show up in.
That would be kind of cool. I do like cool cars.
Alright, let's go back to the first story.
Los Angeles beaches are vanishing. They're disappearing.
This is not good. Los Angeles says, now when we write this, You can hear the extra S, right?
Los Angeles's... So we actually are supposed to write A-N-G-E-L-E-S apostrophe S, okay?
However, because the word Los Angeles ends in an S...
We actually only need a plural. I'm sorry, an apostrophe.
And that still signifies possession. And we are actually supposed to pronounce the S. So when I read it, I said, Los Angeles's famous beaches.
Now, you will definitely hear some people say, Los Angeles, famous beaches.
But that's actually wrong. It's a possession.
So even though we don't write the S, we're supposed to pronounce it.
Yeah. So if you're looking at the script, if you're in our community, you can read the script.
You will see that there's no second S. There's no S after the apostrophe.
However, when you say it, when you read it, you are supposed to pronounce it Los Angeles' famous beaches like, for example, Malibu.
Oh, very famous beach. These beaches are shrinking fast.
To shrink means to get small. That's scary.
Why? Why are they shrinking? Well, they say climate change, the global warming, right?
Erosion. Erosion, the power of the waves, right?
The ocean waves, they take some sand. They take more sand.
And dams, D-A-M-S, dams, you know, like they build a dam so that they can stop the water from moving and create electricity.
Well, they say climate change, erosion and dams block sand from reaching the shore.
Maybe. I'm sure that's true, right? Are you sure about climate change?
I understand climate change, but my only question about this climate change is...
A lot of people that say there's climate change, the oceans are shrinking or whatever, the beaches are getting smaller, the water is rising.
But all these people like Obama and who's that... What's his name?
Leonardo DiCappuccino. All these famous people...
They like buy really expensive oceanfront houses.
Aren't they scared? They say, you know, the oceans are rising, but why do they buy?
Anyway, I'm not a scientist. I don't know anything.
Climate change, erosion and dams blocking sand from reaching the shore.
That is why these beaches are shrinking.
Malibu. Malibu Beach loses water. 3.6 feet.
That's just over a meter. of beach yearly.
Every year, over a meter of beach disappears.
Yikes. Ooh, that's kind of scary. That's a lot.
Over a meter a year. San Clemente, which is a city in Los Angeles County. is the big city, but outside Los Angeles, there are many smaller cities.
San Clemente is one of them. San Clemente spends millions of dollars trucking in sand, bringing in sand by the truck, millions of dollars every year, but it's running out. but there's no more sand.
They don't have any more sand. They're almost empty.
So therefore, a new plan in LA County. will reuse sand from construction To save beaches.
Well, you need to have a plan. They got the desert.
What? If you've been to Los Angeles, if you drive a little bit outside of Los Angeles, there's the desert.
They have tons of sand. Endless sand. Why would you use construction sand, right?
Construction, like from making a building, the sand left over, isn't that dirty?
Sounds dirty. Anyway, beaches losing sand, that's no fun.
Second story, Daniel Jackson. A 20-year-old from England.
I think he's actually from Australia, but he lives in England.
Young guy. declared a new country called Verdes in 2019.
Oh, what? Yeah, you heard that right. Six years ago, when Daniel was 14 years old, he said, I have my own country.
What is he crazy? What is he talking about?
Really? Well, listen, It's a tiny forest between Serbia and Croatia.
The countries in Europe, Serbia and Croatia.
Now, there was a war many years ago. But there's a tiny forest.
It's not that tiny. It's about the size of the Vatican.
The Vatican, right, in Rome. So it's fairly big.
But relatively to the country, it's a tiny forest between Serbia and Croatia, unclaimed due to a border dispute.
So that this tiny forest is right between Serbia and Croatia.
Is it Serbia's? No. Is it Croatia's? No.
Nobody right now owns the land since the war.
So Daniel said, it's my land. Can you do that?
Think about that. That's kind of weird. Let's just imagine you're out in the ocean on a boat.
You're really rich, okay? And you're fine.
And then you see an island. And then you go to the island and...
No human has ever been to that island. Nobody knew about that island.
Can you just say it's my land? It's my island.
We'll make a new word. It's my land. My God.
Can you just do that? Create your own country?
Is that possible? If there's unclaimed land somewhere, can you just take it?
Wow. Cool. He did at 14. And this is crazy.
He has issued 400 passports. He actually has passports.
He's got a flag. 15,000 people want citizenship in his country, in Verdes.
They want to be Verdes citizens. inspired by another micronation.
So they call these micronations. Micro means tiny.
Microsoft. Tiny soft. Bill Gates. He's micro and soft.
If you know the joke. So we have these stories from time to time.
And he heard about somebody else doing a micronation.
So he said, yeah, me too. Jackson dreams of new governance.
He wants to create a new style of government and humanitarian aid.
He wants his country to be neutral. He wants his country to be able to help people around the world.
That's a nice idea. However, Croatian police blocked his settlement.
So my understanding is he cannot even go to Croatia.
He was kicked out of the country. They said, get out of here.
Go away. So I don't know about Serbia. Maybe he can go to Serbia.
I'm not sure. But so Daniel... created his own country, has passports.
People want to be citizens. He is the president of the country, but he cannot go to the country.
I guess he's in exile. So why is he in the news now?
He's protesting now in London. Aww. Daniel, good luck.
Yeah, it's a very cute, it's a 14-year-old idea.
I like it though. And it's fun to think about.
If you could start your own country, what would you do? alright our third story Guillermo del Toro I hope my pronunciation was okay Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.
So he's a famous director. And he has a new movie.
And the movie is called... premiered, was shown for the first time Where?
At a movie theater. Where? At the Venice Film Festival.
Ooh, very famous. I guess the world's most famous film festival. on August 30th, 2025, a couple days ago.
Actually, I'm recording this on August 31st, so it was yesterday.
But the release date of this podcast is September 1st.
So it was two days ago. Now, when he, after the movie, after the movie, what happened?
People were happy. They said, oh, very good.
Applause, right? A-P-P-L-A-U-S-E. Oh. And if you're in Italy, you should say bravo, bravo.
But wait, this movie received a 13-minute ovation. a 13-minute standing ovation, meaning after the movie ended, people stood up For 13 minutes, they were clapping.
Oh, bravo, bravissimo. For 13 minutes. for Frankenstein.
I don't know. I don't know about the movie.
I'm guessing, though, my understanding, this is Guillermo del Toro's last movie.
So he says. So I'm guessing the 13-minute standing ovation was not so much for the movie, but more for the director.
That's my guess. I don't know. Could Frankenstein the movie be that good?
I just don't think so. But I don't know.
Stars, who are the stars? Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi.
I have no idea who these guys are, do you?
Dazzled on the red carpet. You know, the red carpet where the movie stars walk and they stop and they pose, right, for pictures.
Dazzled means, oh, look at that. Oh, my God.
Wow. If somebody dazzles, they're really amazing to look at.
They look good. They look sharp. They dress sharp.
Everything's perfect. The film. A Netflix gem.
G-E-M. Gem means like a diamond or a ruby or a sapphire.
Something very valuable. A Netflix gem. Ooh, Netflix.
I think everybody knows Netflix, the basically online streaming company.
Reimagines, recreates Mary Shelley's tale.
The original Frankenstein was a book and it was written by Mary Shelley a long time ago.
I don't know, 100 years ago. But this movie reimagines the story.
They recreated the story. It's a story of creation.
They make a monster. And humanity. what it is to be a human.
Okay. It's spooky, scary, heartfelt, warm, And a big awards contender.
This movie might be huge in winning awards.
Right? Like the best... film at the venetian film festival maybe an oscar something like that oh my god academy award right all these different film festivals It's a contender, a very high chance of winning many awards.
The movie will hit theaters October 17th.
So if you're a big movie fan and you want to see this movie, if you're lucky...
The movie theater near you will have it as soon as October 17th and will be streaming on Netflix. november 7th so if you wait a couple weeks you can watch it on netflix So there you go.
Is this interesting to you, Frankenstein the movie?
For me, eh. No not really. I like Die Hard.
John Wick. I like those movies. I like funny comedies.
Frankenstein I don't know maybe I'm not saying no but I don't know All right, three stories, three great stories.
To match with these stories, we've got a request song, like I said.
This is a request song from Hajime. It is his theme song.
So when you hear this song, and the name of the song is Monster, so it's perfect for Frankenstein because Frankenstein's a monster.
But evidently, Hajime is also a monster.
It's sung by a group called Pink Lady from a long, long time ago.
Well, not that long ago. I mean, it's my generation back in the 1980s.
So I hope you enjoy the song. And since we're in Japan, we're going to jump over the sea there to Korea.
And we've got some BTS. Also request, it's Butter.
But before we get to those songs, let's listen to the news stories one more time.
Here we go. Los Angeles' famous beaches like Malibu are shrinking fast.
Climate change, erosion, and dams block sand from reaching the shore.
Malibu loses 3.6 feet of beach yearly. Yikes!
San Clemente spends millions trucking in sand, but it's running out.
A new plan in L.A. County will reuse sand from construction to save beaches.
Daniel Jackson, a 20-year-old from England, declared a new country called Virtus in 2019.
It's a tiny forest between Serbia and Croatia, unclaimed due to a border dispute.
He's issued 400 passports and 15,000 people want citizenship.
Inspired by another micronation, Jackson dreams of new governance and humanitarian aid.
Croatian police blocked his settlement, so he's protesting now in London.
And finally, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 30th, 2025. earning a 13-minute ovation.
Stars Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi dazzled on the red carpet.
The film, a Netflix gem, reimagines Mary Shelley's tale of creation and humanity.
It's spooky. Heartfelt. and a big awards contender.
The movie will hit theaters October 17th and will be streaming on Netflix November 7th. where education and entertainment come together.
Let's master English. Do it. How you doing, everybody?
This is Country Shane, and I'm bringing you facts how you doing everybody country shane here bringing you the facts and oh my god What did Coach Shane say?
He wanted to watch the movie stars in their expensive cars at the Venice Film Festival?
He's so dumb. Everybody knows. that at the Venice Film Festival, celebrities arrive by boat, by water taxi.
It's Venice, Coach Shane. Venice! All the boats!
The gondolas! Anyway, that's right. All the stars arrive by taxi.
Water taxi. Isn't that cool? The Venice Film Festival started in 1932.
It's the oldest film festival in the world, and the very first film festival? had another monster movie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Yeah! So it's kind of cool that Frankenstein is there this year.
So Coach Shane, remember... Ain't no nice cars at the actual Venice Film Festival.
Just boats, okay? Thanks a lot, Country Shane.
Thank you very much for embarrassing me.
I didn't know that, but yeah, duh, it makes sense.
Venice, Italy, it's the streets of water, right?
So, yeah. Sorry, that was not too smart on my move.
Well, thank you very much for those interesting facts.
I didn't know that. That's really cool. I do know that the number one prize, you know, we have the Academy Awards in the United States, the Oscar, that's the best prize.
But at the Venice Film Festival, the top prize is called the Golden Lion.
And by the way... that Guillermo del Toro, he won the Golden Line in 2017 for the movie The Shape of Water.
So he won an Oscar for that movie, too. So who knows what's going to happen with this movie?
He might win again. So anyway, Country Shane, thank you very much for embarrassing me.
Let's get into a music. This is for Country Shane. uh... he's a he's a good guy not that nice but he is a good guy josh turner and randy travis If you like the way you sing real low.
Sorry, this is called Your Man and It Goes Low.
Tips for mastering English. English? What kind of terrible pronunciation is that?
English, right. Phrasal verb of the week, everybody.
To wash away. Oh, this is a good one. Phrasal verb.
To wash. Wash. W-A-S-H. Wash your face. If you look at me, if you're watching the live stream and you look at me, I don't look good.
I do not look good. I haven't shaved in several days.
I took a shower, okay? My hair is clean, but it's just messy.
I don't look good. I work from home and it looks like I work from home.
Yeah. But I do wash my face. But this is not to wash, it is to wash away, A-W-A-Y.
This might sound pretty simple, but I'm gonna give you three different definitions for this phrasal verb.
Now the first definition, To erode, E-R-O-D-E, or disappear.
I'll say it simple. To remove... By water.
By force of water. So you got water. And it removes.
It cleans. So for example... The rain washed away the dirt on the road.
So there was some dirt on the road, and then we had a heavy rain, and then the dirt went off the road.
It was washed away. Now the road is clean.
The rain washed away the dirt on the road.
Another great example, waves, the ocean waves, The waves washed away the sandcastle.
Aw, my two little boys made a sandcastle at the beach.
But the waves came and they washed away the sandcastle.
Okay? Number two, to remove or forget emotionally.
In other words, to clear feelings or problems.
A vacation... can wash away your stress.
That sentence is true unless you have children.
I went on a vacation, my wife and I, with my two boys.
We had our first vacation, oh my God, I'm not joking, guys, in over 10 years.
My wife and I just never do it. So we had our first vacation in 10 years, three nights.
I think it was three nights, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Oh, no, it was four nights. Four nights.
In Las Vegas. Sounds great. Sounds like fun, right?
But I had my boys, five years old and seven years old.
And it was stressful. it was nice it was nice getting out of the house but it was stressful What about you?
Was your last vacation stress less? Did the vacation wash away your stress?
This is a great expression. Time Washed away her sadness.
This happens. Hopefully. We have this feeling of sadness when something terrible happens.
I'll just mention my mom. My mom's birthday was a couple days ago, August 27th.
And she's not with us. She died several years ago.
And if I think about it, I get sad. But back when she passed away, I was sad all the time.
I don't talk to my dad about it because I think he might get sad and I don't like to see him sad.
Should I talk to him about that? But now I can think about my mom and I'm happy.
Time washed away my sadness. That's a good thing.
It's fine. Another definition, to fail, F-A-I-L, or to be eliminated.
To not succeed or to not survive. For example, his dreams washed away after the setback.
So the idea is, you know, oh, my God, I have like $10 million.
Oh, this is new money, $10 million. Oh, my God, I'm going to buy a house. and it's going to be fantastic, and I'm going to start a business.
But then the economy... something, you know, I bought Bitcoin and then Bitcoin died and I lost all my money.
My dreams. were washed away after the setback.
The teams, the basketball team, for example, the basketball team's washed away in the final game.
The basketball team had hopes to be the champions.
They were in the final game. They needed to win.
But the other team was just killing them.
The other team washed away our team's hopes of winning the championship.
Do you understand? Yeah, it's a great expression, to wash away.
Phrasal verbs, like I always say, sometimes we hear them, you hear the word wash, you hear the word away, And many times our brain recognizes, oh, I know wash.
Oh, I know away. And our brain thinks we understand the sentence.
But so many times we actually don't understand the sentence.
That's why phrasal verbs are tricky. They sound easy, they look easy, but are they easy?
No, not always. The best way to learn phrasal verbs is not in the Let's Master English podcast.
It's not in a book. I've got a book of phrasal verbs, a dictionary of phrasal verbs.
The best way to learn phrasal verbs is to use them, to see them being used, and then to use them yourself in real situations.
That's the best way. This is DDM, our class DDM.
It gives you the chance to do that. It's very important.
All right, DDM is about listening. Speaking of listening, here's a listening tip.
Mimic native speakers. Pick a 30-second clip from an English movie or a podcast, and we do this in DDM.
It's called AWS, All the World's a Stage.
If you're in our community, check it out.
We have our students, our DDM students, mimicking characters from a TV show.
They are excellent. They're very, very good.
They've been studying for a long time, so they're kind of like professionals.
But if you do this, this is so powerful for your English.
Not only your English listening, but your English confidence, your English joy.
You're speaking too. So join DDM and do it.
If you don't want to join DDM, you can still do it by yourself.
How do you do it? This is how. Pick a 30-second clip from an English movie or a podcast or a TV show.
Listen and repeat each sentence, copying the speaker's tone and rhythm, their intonation, their rhythm, their pronunciation, their style, their body language, their eyes, everything.
Practice daily to improve pronunciation and sound natural in conversations.
It does work. Do it, guys. And finally, communication tip when you're speaking English.
So today, actually on Sunday, Sunday morning, I had a camp event. an English camp.
You guys should join my English camp. It's for adults.
It's an online live English class. And today was like two hours, two and a half hours.
It was a great time. Most of my students in that camp today were from China.
And the Chinese language and the American English are different, obviously.
But what was so important when I was listening to my Chinese students is to get that human quality So one of the sentences, we had a serious tone, and the other sentence, we had a happy tone.
And a lot of students were having a problem with that.
So learning how to have different tones is really important.
And you don't have to think about it. If this is difficult for you, I always recommend just choose one tone. sad or happy or angry or excited and just practice any sentence every sentence you practice be sad Oh, today is Monday.
Oh, I have to go to school today. oh it's lunch time even if it's good just practice being sad well I don't want you to be sad I want you to show enthusiasm to be happy and something that can help you be happy is a good phrase.
So I've got three phrases for you where if you say it like this, oh, that's so cool.
You sound horrible. That is so cool. Say it happy.
That's so cool. Repeat after me. That's so cool.
Here's another one. Oh, I love that. I'm totally into that.
Oh, Frankenstein. Oh, I want to watch that.
I'm totally into that. Oh, my God. Is that bachata music?
I'm totally into that. Or how about, wow, that's awesome.
You got a new haircut? Wow, that's awesome.
You're going to take me to lunch? Wow, that's awesome.
These are really common phrases, but you got to say them with enthusiasm.
Pick your tone. Pick your emotion and exaggerate and have fun.
Practice these to make your English sound energetic, engaging. and natural, okay?
All right, time for a sound break, a sound break, a song break.
This is Lenka with Trouble is a Friend. Weekly speaking challenge.
All right, everybody. Last week's theme was AI.
How do you use it? Do you like it? Do you use it?
How are you using it? And we had so many recordings.
So many of you are using it to check your grammar and to help you with ideas.
Excellent job. That's what I do too. For example, Jenny from China said, AI is very important in my life.
It helps me find important information. Let's listen to Jenny. is important for my daily life.
Then I meet difficulties. I will find the answers from AI.
For instance, deep seek. I think AI solve my most of problems Thanks a lot, Jenny.
And then we had Jian from South Korea. And what she said is so important.
Let's listen. I call Roa while riding Dora bike in the morning.
She is the only one who replies in English when I speak in English.
She is a good listener even when my English is broken.
But when I practice perf, I can rely on her.
She surely gives me lots of compliments. thank you so much for that jian i i really appreciate it and what you said is so important So Jian, to be honest I didn't understand what you said at the very beginning.
But I do understand that you speak with some AI every morning when you exercise.
Is that right? And the AI is a woman voice and she replies to you in English and she gives you compliments.
But then you also said she's no good for Perf.
That's absolutely true. you guys for speaking and listening skills AI is your worst friend And let me explain why.
AI is a pattern recognition thing. It recognizes patterns.
So if AI learns your style, meaning learns your style of pronunciation, learns your style of grammar, learns your style of vocabulary, it will understand you, even if your pronunciation is bad. or your grammar is bad. or your structure, your vocabulary is bad.
AI, that's the job of AI, it's to It's a language acquisition model.
It learns language. So it will learn your style.
And that's not going to help you when you talk to humans.
When you talk to AI, AI can figure it out.
But when you talk to a human, it's not going to help you So I'm not joking.
So for example, let's say you take AI to learn pronunciation, right?
And you want to learn the R pronunciation.
So you say, I really like rainbows. But your pronunciation is, I lily like lambo's.
AI will say, oh, you have an R problem. And it will try to show you how to make the R.
And then you say, oh, okay, let me try again.
I lily like lame bows. And the AI will probably say, oh, that was better, but let's try again.
More R sound. I really like rainbows. And then you try again.
Okay, I'll try again. I really like rainbows.
Eventually, AI will say, good job, nice job.
AI might even say, perfect. And it's not, it's not perfect at all.
But this is what these language models do.
They're pattern recognition models. You have to be very careful.
When you prompt AI, you need to be very careful all the time.
Always refresh it. Always use new prompts.
And once again, when it comes to speaking and listening, actual communication skills, I absolutely do not recommend AI.
When it comes to reading and writing and dictionary work and comparing expressions and vocabulary and grammar and translating, use AI.
Absolutely use AI. We used to have a writing course.
We got rid of it because ChatGPT was better and faster.
It's not better than a human when we changed, but it was more flexible and it would go deeper and it was more patient.
And now, that was a couple years ago. Now, absolutely.
Use AI for that stuff. If you're writing something in English, your grammar needs to be good?
No. Your grammar needs to be perfect. But when you're speaking and listening, grammar is not that important.
It's important. Don't misunderstand. But it's not your priority. communication skills require humans interacting with each other, not AI.
So Jian, I'm so glad you told us your story because it's so important.
Great job, Jian. And I'm glad you're in Perth, okay?
Really concentrate. For everybody in Perth, If you're in whatever, Perf Fresh, Perf VIP, Perf Standard, eight weeks speaking, I don't care which one you're in, My recommendation to all of you, slow down.
Be perfect in those classes. Your goal is to sound perfect.
Perfect. Okay? That is your goal. In real life, you can be natural.
But in perf, be perfect. Got it? All right.
This week's theme. A day at the beach. Oh, yeah.
Do you like the beach? I have... I have a perf assignment that I was going to do in August, but now it's September.
That's too late to do it. It's about a guy going to the beach.
It's so funny. So all my perf students, just wait.
Next year, July, June, July or August, one of those months, I have a perf assignment. about going to the beach and it's so funny.
You're gonna really, I think it's funny, anyway.
So anyway, this week's theme, A Day at the Beach, it's inspired from our story about the Los Angeles beach story.
The question's to answer, where was the beach at?
You went to. What did you do there? And why was it fun?
That's it. Okay? So my example answer is...
I took my boys to Constitution Beach in Boston.
My boys built sandcastles. collected shells, and watched jets land and take off.
It was fun, but the water was cold. Let me read it again.
Listen carefully. I took my boys to Constitution Beach in Boston.
My boys built sandcastles, collected shells, and watched jets land and take off.
It was fun, but the water was cold Yeah, near the beach, there's an airport, Boston Logan Airport.
You can see it. It's pretty cool. Keep your answers under 20 seconds.
Be fun, be clear, be concise. Record your voice and send it to us.
I always recommend... Eva, are you listening?
Eva, I'm talking to you too. Eva. I always recommend you use a smartphone to record because the microphone for the smartphone.
Those microphones tend to be much better than your PC or laptop microphones, even your tablet microphones.
Smartphone microphones tend to be much better.
So use that. All right. When you talk about the beach, you might be thinking, I think anyway, barbecue.
Beach barbecue goes together. And when an American has a barbecue, it's hamburgers and hot dogs.
And when you have hamburgers and hot dogs, you need, you need, you need...
Catch up. It is September 1st, 2025, the 244th day of the year.
There are 122 days left in 2025. Today, September 1st is National Acne Positivity Day.
Acne. A-C-N-E. Acne. A zit. Like on your skin, on your face.
You get a little bump that's white and you can... pop it and that white like teenagers right I had a zit like two days ago I don't have it anymore.
Like two days ago, I had a zit. Yeah. So embarrassing to have a zit.
Z-I-T. Acne. A-C-N-E. Anyway, it's acne positivity day.
You know, I'm 57 years old, and I had a zit on my chin.
And my first thought was... What am I, 17?
I felt like a 17-year-old. And then I was happy.
It's also ginger cat appreciation day. Ginger cat, that means red cats.
Do you have a cat? Do you have a red cat?
Orange? An orange cat? Orange fur? Well, it's Orange Cat Appreciation Day.
September 2nd is World Coconut Day. Do you like coconut water?
You know, they sell coconut water to drink.
I don't like the taste. But a real coconut and real coconut water?
Delicious. September 3rd is National Skyscraper Day.
Skyscrapers are those really really really tall buildings.
Do you work in a skyscraper? Do you live in a skyscraper?
If you do, okay, here's a challenge, everybody.
If you work in a skyscraper or if you live in a skyscraper, please take a picture out your window. and share it in our community, okay?
Please do that. I would love to see the view from your window.
If you live or work in a skyscraper. September 4th is eat an extra dessert day.
What would you like for dessert? I would like some chocolate cake.
Here you go. One more, please. Yeah, extra dessert.
I love it. September 5th is National Cheese Pizza Day.
If I'm gonna have pizza, I want pepperoni pizza.
Yeah, if I'm going to have pizza. Okay, here's another question.
You can answer on our school, okay? Answer on school.
The best pizza is what? And if you ask me, the best pizza is pepperoni pizza.
That's it. Forget it. Nothing else. Pepperoni pizza.
That's it. Pepperoni pizza. September 6th is National Coffee Ice Cream Day.
It's also National Read a Book Day. Ooh, I got a new book.
You see that if you're watching the live stream, you can see it.
Maybe I'll take a picture and share it with you.
One hundred million dollar money models.
It's a business book. Yeah, it's really cool.
I have the audio book. I'm actually listening to it.
It's also September 6th, Fight Procrastination Day.
Do you know what procrastination is? Procrastination.
P-R-O C-R-A S-T-I N-A-T-I-O-N, procrastination, procrastination.
Procrastination is, I'll tell you later.
Oh, I need to clean my desk. I'll clean it later.
Oh, I need to shave. I'll shave tomorrow.
Oh I need to cut my hair. I'll cut my hair tomorrow.
Oh I need to say I love you to my wife. I'll say I love you to my wife later Don't procrastinate Fight procrastination, especially if it's about saying hi.
Okay, so... You know what? Let's do this.
As soon as I'm done with this podcast, I'm going to send a text to my dad.
Because I've been saying to myself, I need to call my dad.
I need to call my dad. I need to call my dad.
And I haven't been. I've been procrastinating.
So as soon as I'm done with this, it's late, so I don't want to wake him up.
So I'm going to send a text to my dad. All right?
You too. You too, okay? If you can do it right now, do it right now.
All right. And September 7th is National Beer Lovers Day.
Ooh, that's me. I love beer. What's your favorite beer?
These days, I'm drinking Grolsch. G-R-O-L-S-C-H.
Oh, it's a good beer. Grolsch. I really like that beer.
What about you? Do you like beer? What are you drinking?
It's back to school. If you're going back to school, you better not be drinking beer.
You're too young. And Serge recommended this song, We're Gonna Be Friends by The White Stripes.
Yeah. It's not exactly fall, but it is September.
Oh, you know what? Wake me when September ends just came to mind.
We got to play that too. Not today. So this is a beautiful song.
Perfect for today. It's absolutely perfect, especially if you're going back to school.
The White Stripes, we're going to be friends.
All right, time for birthdays. None of you, according to my messages, it's nobody's birthday.
So none of you are celebrating a birthday.
None of you are celebrating an anniversary.
None of you are celebrating anything, really.
Really, none of you are celebrating anything.
I see the numbers of listeners that I have to this podcast.
We have thousands of listeners. and none of you are celebrating anything?
Really? Hmm. School.com slash LME. If you're celebrating something, tell me.
Tell me what and tell me when so I can announce it.
It makes me sad. I want to announce you.
Anyway, today, some famous people having a birthday.
September 1st, Zendaya, 29 years old. Actor, actress, singer.
Gloria Estefan. Wow. And the Miami Sound Machine.
Is that what it was? Oh, she was great. 68 years old today.
Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. Yeah, his two brothers already passed away.
He's 79 years old today. Tomorrow, September 2nd, Keanu Reeves is 61.
The Matrix. And, of course, the movie I mentioned earlier.
Oh, my God. It's slipping my mind. John Wick.
Yeah, I love that series too. And also Salma Hayek.
Salma Hayek is 59. I thought she would be older than Keanu.
But no, Keanu's older than her. September 3rd, Charlie Sheen is 60 years old.
Charlie Sheen, Trouble Machine. September 4th is Beyonce's 44th birthday.
And Damon Wayans, he's 65. He's a comedian.
He's so funny. September 5th is Michael Keaton's 74th birthday.
He was Batman a long time ago. September 6th is Pippa Middleton.
That is Kate Middleton's Pippa is 42. She's famous because her sister married Prince William.
And September 7th, Gloria Gaynor is 82 years old.
Gloria Gaynor, she's the singer, I Will Survive.
Oh, what a powerful song. Another great singer.
Chrissy Hind, lead singer for The Pretenders.
She is 74 years old. I've played her songs quite a bit in these podcasts, but I'm not going to today.
I should. Don't get me wrong. Brass and pocket.
Oh, God. So many great songs. Chrissy Hines, a fantastic singer.
But we do have some songs. We're going to take a song break.
And once again, these are high school, kind of high school themed songs.
And we got two different generations. If you were born in the 1980s, the first song is kind of like for you.
And if you were born in like 2000, that era, the next song is for you.
We got Savage Gardens, Truly, Madly, Deeply, followed by Selena Gomez and The Scene with Love You, Love You, Love You Like a Love Song.
That's it, everybody. Thank you very much for listening to the Let's Master English podcast number 136.
I hope you enjoyed it. I hope there was something useful in there, something to learn, maybe laugh a little bit.
If you listen to the full version with the songs, I hope you enjoyed at least one of the songs.
You can request a song. I love playing your songs.
I don't think you would want to listen to my songs.
Yeah. Sometimes I sneak my songs in here, but my songs, these days I'm listening to so many weird songs.
That are so good. But should I play them next week?
Do you want to hear my weird songs? One song that I'm really into is called Boss. yeah anyway uh i love your request songs so i want to hear from you There's two easy ways to say hi and to leave a message.
Number one, obviously in our community, school.com slash LME.
Like I said, as of today, it is free. There will be a paywall up and it is probably only going to be a dollar.
So please don't let that scare you. There's lots of stuff in our community. s k o o l dot c o m slash l m e school.com slash lme And the other way is if you're listening to this podcast on not Sprite.
What is it? Not score. What is it? Spotify, Spotify, not Sprite or Score.
If you're listening to this podcast on Spotify.
You can leave a message there. I see all those messages, okay?
And yeah, so you can leave a message there.
I would love to see... Score. I would love to see your message on Spotify.
I would prefer to see your message in school, everybody.
Check it out. It's so much. We got live classes. where you can join and ask questions and stuff.
All right, guys, that is it. Thank you so much.
Taking me out and you into your new week is our city and Adam Levine.
It's a song called Locked Away. It's a sad song.
It's a happy song. Yeah, if you're watching the music video, you can see kind of the struggles that people deal with and I hope that's not you.
But it's a great song. It's kind of a love song.
I hope you enjoy it. And together, let's master English.
