Hello everyone and welcome back to Simplified Speech, the QLIPP series, where we help you learn English through easy to understand natural conversations between native speakers.
I'm your host Andrew, and today I'll be joined by my longtime friend Luke, to talk about the upcoming Winter Olympics and some of our favorite memories from the Games.
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Now for this episode we're doing something a little bit different, a correction challenge, because as I was preparing this episode, I realized that we got a few dates and facts wrong during our conversation.
So we decided just to leave them in and see if you can spot the errors as you listen.
And then, once you're finished the episode, you can check the fact check section that we'll put in the description to see how many you were able to notice.
And with that being said, it's time to get started.
Let's welcome Luke and we'll begin.
Here we go.
Luke, welcome back to the Q-Lips English podcast.
Thanks for having me.
How many times have you been on?
This is the third time, fourth time?
I think maybe the third time.
Third time.
And you're in town and I thought it would be great to get you on the podcast here.
So we're doing kind of an impromptu recording session and we're going to talk all about the Winter Olympics, because the Olympics are coming up soon.
And there's been a lot of chatter in Canada about the Olympics.
What is some of that chatter that you've heard recently?
Some of the chatter would be about the Canadian men's hockey team.
Yeah, who's going to be playing?
Who makes it?
Who doesn't?
Right.
The lineup.
Yeah.
And why is this a big deal for Canadians?
Why is there so much chatter around the men's Olympic roster and the lineup and ice hockey in general for this Olympic Games?
I think they haven't played in the Olympics for a number of years, the professional players.
And so now we did kind of have an unofficial competition earlier last year, and the Canadians beat the Americans in the final round.
And now, yeah, it's going to be a much bigger stage, I think.
Yeah.
So there was this tournament last year called the Four Nations Faceoff.
And for whatever reason, the National Hockey League, which is the American or the North American Professional League, hasn't allowed the players to go to the Olympics for the last 10 years or so, maybe longer.
So a lot of hockey fans and of course, many Canadians are hockey fans.
They have been deprived of best on best hockey because the pro athletes aren't going to the Olympics.
So that means like when Canada sent an Olympic hockey team in previous years, it was just the amateur athletes, right?
All of our best players were playing in the pro leagues.
They couldn't go to the Olympics.
And so we were deprived of seeing this best on best hockey.
And so because of this, the NHL, the North American Professional League, they put together this little tournament last year called the Four Nations Faceoff.
But it was just Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland.
Who is the fourth country?
I don't remember.
Yeah, it could have been.
I think it was finland right, and people were like where's russia?
Because russia is a really powerful hockey country as well.
So there were, yeah.
Just, a lot of people were dissatisfied with this, and so the nhl said okay players, you can go to the olympics.
And now we're having olympic hockey for the first time in many, many years, and so canadians are stoked And there's been talk for months about which players are going to make the teams.
So a lot of chatter about this and also some controversy around the ice rink.
Have you heard about that?
Is it that it's slightly shorter?
Yeah.
So I don't know how this happened, but they're building the ice rink right now in Italy, because this next Olympic Games will be in Italy, right.
And for whatever reason, somehow the architecture firm has made the ice rink too short.
So first of all, people are stressed out because the rink isn't finished yet.
It's supposed to be finished like two or three days before the puck is supposed to drop for the first game.
So that's stressful.
And then secondly, it's too short.
So yeah, there's a lot of controversy about the Olympics and a lot of chatter about that.
But maybe we'll talk just more about the Winter Olympics in general.
What are some of your favorite winter Olympic sports?
One of the most exciting is, um, speeds, uh, short track speed skating, short track speed skating.
Yeah.
And, uh, usually Canada, Korea.
Um, what are some of the other countries that are up there?
China's pretty good.
China's good.
America's always strong.
Yeah.
Um, so usually there's a Dutch Dutch are good skaters, yeah so there's always a lot of fierce competition um, a lot of passing and um falling behind and things like that.
So it's kind of uh keeps it exciting.
I'm just trying to think of another one curling, curling.
No um, i was gonna, i was gonna say same with skiing, but there's i don't know if they have this anymore, but they used to have like um, almost like a like four people going down kind of like a set track, like on snowboards or skis or something like that.
Yeah, they had that with snowboarding, for sure.
It was like an obstacle course almost that they would have to go down.
Yeah.
Recently the Olympics have been doing these one-off events, right?
Like the last summer Olympics, they had break dancing and that was just like a one-time showcase.
I think they had surfing as a one-time showcase in some summer games.
So I'm not sure if that event was just a one-off showcase or if it's a permanent.
I feel like it was just a one-off perhaps.
I think that one's pretty good.
And I don't know.
I like a lot of the skiing or something like that.
I used to always have to watch it at home because we only had two channels.
So my mom liked to watch ice skating.
Right.
So we know about the triple lutz and the triple sow cow.
Right.
We know all the names of the figure skating maneuvers because of watching it when we were kids.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess in Canada, the Winter Olympics is a pretty big deal.
Would you say it's a pretty big deal and people are interested in it and tune in and support the Canadian athletes.
How would you say the games are viewed in Canada or regarded in Canada?
Yeah, I don't know the numbers on it, but it's definitely more, I would assume, more popular than summer.
Usually we do the best as far as meddling in golds in the Winter Olympics.
So most people tune in because that's kind of our strength.
Yeah.
And I'd love to hear from listeners out there as well to hear how popular the games are in different countries around the world, because I have a feeling that the winter Olympics are not as popular as the summer Olympics are globally.
Of course, there are so many countries where it's just never really winter, right?
So it doesn't really make sense to have athletes that would participate in the winter games, or they don't have the facilities to participate.
So I think there are like a smaller pool of countries who can participate.
And so maybe some countries in you know around the equator or the south or hot places not so interested, right?
Like I don't know if you were listening in India right now, if you'd be excited for the upcoming Winter Games.
But maybe I'm wrong.
And if you're listening in India and actually it's a big deal then let me know on our Discord server.
I'd like to hear about that.
But Yeah, I feel globally, maybe it's not as popular, but it is a big deal in Canada.
And yeah, I'm wondering Luke, if you could participate in the Winter Olympics, if you could be an athlete in one of the sports, which one would you choose to participate in?
Probably go with the one that's the most feasible, which would be curling.
Curling, i mean, it's not gonna obviously the most exciting one, but um yeah, i think if you're a kind of just a regular athlete or you trained enough, maybe you could do curling.
Still have to do it for many years, but i couldn't necessarily be a downhill skier or ski a little bit, but i couldn't be that level.
So you're just thinking more realistically.
Could I get in?
If I practice for 10 years, could I make the team?
Yeah, you don't have to be in great physical shape to be a curler, I think.
You need to have a steady hand.
You need to be calm under pressure.
You have to have great accuracy.
But you don't necessarily need to be super strong or super ripped or anything like that.
Mm-hmm.
I think for me, I'd go for cross country skiing.
Again, I'm kind of thinking realistically here.
I've never actually tried cross country skiing, but I think probably it's closest to running.
So because I enjoy running, I think I'd enjoy cross country skiing as well.
A lot of stamina needed.
Yeah.
Yeah, the endurance.
I think I could be good with the endurance.
I tried it once or twice, maybe.
And yeah, it was a little bit difficult.
I thought I was in decent shape because that was around the time when I was riding my bike a lot.
But yeah, my uncle was still much better than me.
Or I like that sport, the biathlon, where you have to cross-country ski and then you have a rifle on your back and you actually have to shoot a target with a rifle and then cross-country ski and then shoot a target, which is just this weird sport.
It's crazy that that's a sport combining these two things weird different skills.
I guess it probably goes like way back.
Seems like that's how we would be when we are hunter gatherers maybe not on skis but on like some kind of snowshoes or something very ancient sport.
Yeah, gotta have a steady hand for that one too.
What are some of the other weird Olympic sports?
Well, back in the day, one of those one-off ones was like ski dancing.
Do you remember that?
Ski dancing was hilarious when we were kids and it was essentially just people on skis who would do a dance routine.
Yeah, they had poles.
It was like once you finished the ski run, you're just like on the flat area at the bottom of the ski hill.
And then you just have your poles and you do some twirls and spins.
It was kind of like combining rhythmic gymnastics with skis.
So you're like dancing on skis.
That was a sport that probably doesn't need to exist.
Didn't make it to the next year.
I also think that ski jump is pretty wild.
Like, think about that.
Why do people need to do the ski jump?
It seems so dangerous and... Like the flying one?
Yeah, where you're at the top of the mountain and you just tuck and go as fast as you can and then just get launched off a massive jump and then fly through the air to see who can go the farthest.
I mean, it's cool, but it seems super dangerous and like...
Not like we really need to do it.
I don't know.
Do you know the landing style?
The landing style?
They usually have their skis in a V, don't they?
I think it's a telemark landing.
Ah, telemark landing.
Yeah.
Kind of like one foot's kind of forward and the other one's back.
Right.
Like kind of, yeah.
Front leg's like 90 degree angle kind of landing.
Like a lunge almost.
A lunge.
Yeah, it looks like you're in a lunge.
I also wanted to ask you about some skill testing trivia here.
I thought it could be fun if we can try and go back in time and name all the Winter Olympics until we just can't anymore.
I'm kind of cheating because I didn't look online.
I'm going to do this from memory.
However, I was thinking about this today, so I have a little bit of an advantage.
I'm I couldn't even remember the last winter Olympics where it was.
I can go back in time and name them.
But so we're in 20, I guess the Olympics will be in 2026, right?
Because they're happening, I believe, like late January, early February of 2026.
So that would mean four years ago was 2022.
Where were the 2022 Olympics?
Do you remember?
I don't know if this is 2022, but was it China?
I kind of think it was China.
Yeah.
Well, you're living in China, so you might know better than I do.
I know, obviously, there was a Chinese one recently, but I just couldn't remember the year exactly.
Yeah, I think it was in China.
But it was a little confusing because that was like around the whole COVID thing kind of screwed everything up.
Like it may have even been delayed or was that the summer Olympics that was delayed?
Maybe summer.
There were some COVID related stuff going on.
So I think that Olympics wasn't even that popular.
Like I felt like I didn't hear about it too much, didn't follow it as much.
Yeah, I think because I live in China, it was promoted there more so.
But yeah, it did have that kind of lockdown, you're stuck in the village type of thing.
So it wasn't as fun atmosphere maybe.
But I heard people still liked it.
And there may not have been as many people who went to go watch, right?
Maybe not as many international spectators who went.
Yeah, if any.
Right.
Yeah.
So I think, okay, China for 2022 and then four years from that would be 2018.
2018 was here in South Korea.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I was here as well.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I didn't go to the Olympics, but I got a toque.
Okay.
Yeah.
So 2018 was Pyeongchang here in Gangwon province.
And I was here living in Korea as well.
And in retrospect, I'm kind of kicking myself.
Why didn't I go up there and check anything out?
I know.
Yeah, I was not living too far away.
And I know people who went and I had some friends who actually got to party with the Canadian athletes.
Like they saw them just walking through the city and they're like, Hey, nice job.
Like what sport do you play?
They didn't even know who they were.
Right.
They just started talking with them and they got invited to the athletes village and they Apparently the Athletes Village.
This is a little behind the scenes insider info.
It's a pretty wild place.
After the athletes are finished with their event, they like to party and they like to spend time with the other athletes.
And it's just a real festive kind of celebration.
So I heard that was pretty fun.
And yeah, kicking myself, like I said, for not checking out any of those events or anything.
Yeah.
I know some people, cause I came with some and they went to the Olympics and then we me and my friend went to um Malaysia, afterwards.
Okay.
So we both missed out.
So then 2018 minus four would put us in 2014.
Where was it?
2014.
2014.
2014.
Is it... Maybe give me the area.
It's not Europe, is it?
Kind of spanning Europe and Asia.
Oh, Russia.
Yeah, Sochi.
Sochi, Russia.
And then... This one you gotta get.
2010.
Vancouver.
Vancouver, 2010.
Also there...
Or at least arrived there.
And again, we should have probably went over there because you were in Victoria at the time.
Yeah, I was living in Victoria, just a stone's throw away from Vancouver.
And I remember this was a huge hockey game for Canada, winning the 2010 Olympics.
A lot of Canadians will still remember this fondly winning the gold medal in the men's hockey for the 2020-10 Olympics.
It was a big deal because it was at home, right?
A home victory winning in front of Canadian fans and against the Americans.
You know, we have a pretty strong rivalry in hockey between Canada and the USA.
And whenever we can beat the Americans, we love it.
And whenever we lose, we hate it.
I was on the airplane when the game happened.
You were on the airplane?
I was going back.
That was 2010, so I must have been going back to Korea.
Okay.
I was hoping to watch the game or see the highlights or something later.
But yeah, the pilot was like oh, we scored.
It's ruining the game.
I was living in an apartment.
Actually, we never lived in that apartment together, but we both lived in that apartment.
You moved out and your roommate at the time, I think, was looking for a new roommate.
And I was like, I'll take it.
And so I moved in.
So that old apartment where we both lived at different times.
I was in that apartment and i didn't have cable tv or anything but streaming video technology was like a new thing and it was just being introduced and the cbc website was streaming the hockey game.
So i set up my computer and i remember i had to download the software to get the live hockey game but i could watch it online and so that was cool.
I had some friends over and we were watching the hockey game And the technology was working perfectly until like the very end of the game.
Suddenly, like just like 30 seconds before they scored, it froze.
And I was like, oh my God, what's happening?
Like, I gotta get the game back on.
And then all of a sudden we hear just from the whole neighborhood, everybody like, yeah.
And they scored the goal, the winning goal, and the game was over.
And I missed the winning goal because of the buffering from that early streaming technology.
So that was too bad.
But I have a good memory of everybody cheering in the streets and being really stoked that we beat the Americans in 2010.
So then let's go back another four years, 2006.
2006.
Would that be, I thought it might be Italy, but no.
I think it was Italy.
Wasn't it Turin, Italy?
They have them pretty close together.
Yeah.
20 years apart.
What's up with Italy getting two games in 20 years?
Interesting.
You know the IOC, the International Olympic Committee.
They have a reputation for being a little corrupt.
And you just sort of need to put some money in the right hands and you can get the game.
Or at least that's the rumors that I hear.
So I don't know.
Allegedly.
Allegedly.
Maybe there's a little, yeah, wink and a nudge.
Yeah.
Okay, so 2006.
And then let's see if we can keep going back.
2002.
Where were the games in 2002?
2002.
That's not Utah, is it?
Yeah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Very nice, I remember these, but I'm not sure if the like I thought Utah might have been a little bit earlier than that.
But okay Yeah 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah.
And there's some lore about the Canadian ice hockey victory in that game as well.
Is that the center ice?
Yeah, the guy, the Zamboni driver, or the guy who made the ice for the ice rink for that olympics.
He took a canadian coin, which is called the loonie, and he put it in the ice as a good luck symbol and it paid off and we won.
So that was like his little action that he did for good luck and yeah, canada was able to win at that olympics.
Okay, so 2002, salt lake city.
What about going farther back 1998?
Do you remember 98?
This is when we are like yeah, it's 13 years old or so.
Just i'm.
I don't know if this is wrong too, but was this japan?
Yeah japan nagano yeah nagano japan, Okay.
Very good.
We're getting sketchier here.
94.
94.
Oh, uh, Lillehammer.
Yeah.
Norway, Lillehammer, Norway.
Well done.
Okay.
And then 1992.
92.
We were only, how old were we?
Grade two.
Yeah.
Grade two, maybe seven or eight.
Um, I want to say that's like in Eastern Europe or something, but I don't know.
Maybe that's what I'm thinking Lillehammer was.
I believe it was in France.
Albertville?
Albertville.
Maybe something like Albertville.
Sorry to our French listeners.
You guys can fill us in later.
Albertville.
Yeah.
But it was, I believe it was in France.
Yeah, could have been.
Okay.
That could have also been the Summer Olympics.
Maybe I'm getting it confused with the Summer Olympics.
Don't you like kind of remember some of the announcers talking about Albertville or something?
Yeah.
The CBC announcers.
Yeah.
I think it's Albertville.
I think you nailed it.
Okay, now 1988.
No, that was Calgary, I think.
Calgary.
And this was an interesting year in Olympic history because we had the Winter Olympics in 88 and also the Summer Olympics in 88 here in Seoul.
Hmm.
So I don't know why.
I guess maybe they changed after the Olympics.
Maybe they're falling on the same year.
Too many sports, guys.
We need to cut it back.
Yeah.
I think every two years, not a bad idea. yeah yeah probably end up making more money somehow by doing it that way yeah staggering them i don't know if we can go back any farther we can go to now see i don't even know past this like 84 we were born in 84 so that's you know we're zero years old and that was also must have been summer winter same because 84 was in that la summer Yeah, see, I don't even know when they changed the Olympics year.
I think 1980 might have been Lake Placid, but I don't know where 84 was.
Let's just check it.
Let's wrap up the game here, and we'll turn to Google, and I will ask Google.
I'm using my voice typing for everything these days, so I'm just going to talk into my phone.
List of Winter Olympic Locations by Year.
So while you're bringing that up, on the topic of the whatever that big ski jumping is, I think that started in Calgary in 88.
Really?
I think, with Eddie the Eagle.
Remember that guy?
Yeah, I do.
Maybe I'm wrong, but Eddie the Eagle was in Calgary.
So yeah, Italy in 26 Beijing 22 Pyeongchang Sochi Vancouver Turin, Salt Lake City Nagano Lillehammer Albertville Calgary, Sarajevo in 84.
Maybe that's where I was thinking.
Yugoslavia, Sarajevo.
And then 1980 was Lake Placid and also Moscow, but it doesn't tell me which one was summer.
Ah, okay.
Summer was Moscow.
Winter was Lake Placid.
Yeah, they always had them up until 88.
They always happened the same year.
That's very interesting.
So you'd have two games every four years and that's it.
You have summer and winter in the same year.
Yeah.
And I highly doubt people would go to the winter and then go to the summer one.
Yeah, I kind of like that they staggered it.
I think that's better.
It's more exciting.
Okay, so we'll wrap up this episode here in a second, Luke.
However, before I do, I wanna ask you, what do you think about this?
One thing that I've found very interesting about living abroad is how differently the Olympics are perceived Viewed in Canada and in South Korea.
But also watching them on TV is a very different experience, because I feel like maybe every country is like this, but I only have experience with Korea and Canada.
But we only show the sports that we're good at.
So, for example, in the Summer Olympics, Koreans rack up the medals.
They kick butt in, like archery and shooting and those kinds of sports that require, like a steady hand and good accuracy.
Very, very good at those sports.
And so they're on the TV all the time.
And to me...
I'm kind of like, I want to watch the soccer.
I want to watch the volleyball.
I want to watch these more exciting sports because to me, they're not super, super exciting.
Don't get me wrong.
I still respect those athletes a bunch, but they're not my favorite sports.
However, in Canada we never see those sports on TV because I think Canadians aren't very good at them, right.
So if we have some runners or some sprinters or the women's Canadian soccer team who are very good, They're on TV all the time, but we don't see those other sports.
And so I think that's a little bit unfortunate for everybody because, like for Canadian kids, maybe some kids would be interested in watching archery or shooting or even knowing that they exist as Olympic sports and we don't get to see them.
And then same goes here in Korea.
Like maybe Korean kids would love to watch like the women's soccer games, and they don't get played on TV or whatever.
So I think that's a little bit unfortunate.
You've been living in China for a while now.
Have you ever watched the Olympics in China?
And have you noticed, do they play the sports on TV that Chinese are really good at?
I mean, Chinese kind of dominate in all sports, right?
They're usually pretty good at a lot of different sports.
But have you noticed that at all?
Um, i think, because i don't have cable tv, that's it's harder to say, but i'm sure they do probably focus on those key sports or the like the premier sports um, but i've been, i think, recently i just kind of go with the streaming, just like you did, um early on, and then i can pick and choose the different events so that way you can get a different uh, variety of sports.
But yeah, I would say they focus on I don't know what's big for them for the winters.
Probably, I'd say the short track, like the skating, figure skating, things like that.
I don't know if they're big in the other ones.
My perspective as an outsider is that China seems to put a pretty uh high value on winning a lot of olympic medals, and they send a lot of athletes for every kind of sport.
So yeah, you see, like i think, especially in the summer right gymnastics diving, those kinds of sports they're always very good at, and yeah, i think there's, there's always some chinese athlete that's participating in a lot of sports mm-hmm yeah, probably the ones that you mentioned though, like figure skating, speed skating.
They always seem to be pretty competitive in those events.
Yeah, ours might be well for canada, that is um, some of the other ones we might be good at is like luge or uh bobsled, so it's always a fun one.
I don't know if we're that good anymore, but we did have some competitive teams before.
Yeah yeah, for sure.
All right Luke, we'll wrap things up here.
Last question before I let you go.
Can you make a medal prediction for Canada?
How many gold medals are we going to win at this Olympics?
Well, you don't really get too many medals for gold, really.
So in 2010, I think we won like 10 medals.
And that was it.
And that was the top.
Really?
Yeah.
It was quite like 10 to 13 gold medals.
And that was like the top world total for golds.
So i would assume it would be somewhere around there.
I'm gonna say, our rivals probably us um, might do pretty well this year and uh, maybe they'll get uh 15 gold medals.
Usa is gonna get 15.
But what about for canada?
What's your prediction for canada?
Uh Well, they'll probably get about nine.
Nine medals.
Nine golds.
I'm going to be slightly more optimistic than you.
And I'm going to say we're going to have an even 10 gold medals.
I won't list the sports.
Anyways, guys, that's going to bring us to the end of this conversation.
Thanks, Luke, for joining me.
We'll be tuning into the Olympics and I always enjoy it.
Guys, I want to hear from you, though.
Are the Olympics a big deal in your country?
Will you be tuning in?
What sports does your country do well?
And do you agree with my take that countries should broadcast all the sports, not just the ones that they're good at?
Let me know what you think. contact me and our entire Q-Lips community.
Get in touch with us on our Discord server.
That is the place where Q-Lips listeners gather and we hang out and we chat with each other, spend time together and just build our English skills together.
You can find the link to join in the description for this episode.
Of course, it's free for everyone and we'd love to have you there.
So guys, that'll bring us to the end.
Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.
Bye-bye.
